Whitehorse’s Max Melvin-McNutt had to wait an extra day to regain his skateboarding crown over the weekend.
The annual Canada Day Skate Comp was delayed a day because of rain and instead took place July 2 at the Second Haven Skate Park in Riverdale.
Melvin-McNutt, who placed third last year, captured his sixth advanced division title.
“It feels good. I wasn’t going to enter because I haven’t been skateboarding much, but I got here and I was feeling good, and I was skating good, so I decided I should enter,” said Melvin-McNutt. “I’ve won it a lot and a lot of people want me to keep doing it, so I decided to do it.”
The 23-year-old claimed first place with a crocked grind down the handrail, a blunt fakie on the quarter pipe, and a frontside boardslide down the handrail for his bigger tricks.
Over 20 boarders took part in the skate comp — the de facto Yukon skateboard championships — hosted by the Skate for Life Alliance and BYTE (Bringing Youth Towards Equality).
This year’s event had two special guests with pro skaters Chad Dickson and Mitch Barrette up from Vancouver. The two pros, who ride for LRG clothing brand, judged the competition.
“(We had) huge help from Air North, they sponsored last-minute to get these pros up,” said Skate for Life Alliance president Emerald Gillespie. “Yukon government, with a huge with a youth investment fund, made this all happen.
“The last couple of years skateboarding has seemed to have slowed down a little bit because we’ve been using the same park for the last 20 years and it’s getting pretty run down.
“We want to get skateboarding back up and get it to where it used to be. Everyone used to have a skateboard and it was way more popular. Hopefully with this event, our petition and fundraising, we hope to have a new skate park and keep skateboarding alive.”
The Skate for Life Alliance was founded in 2013 with the mandate of improving the Second Haven park. The alliance hopes to persuade the city of Whitehorse to lease or buy the park that sits on Yukon Government Department of Education land.
The 18th annual Canada Day Skate Comp also included performances by three bands and four hip hop artists, all from Whitehorse.
“It’s too bad it got rained out yesterday because more people might have come out, but overall the event was great,” said Melvin-McNutt. “It was awesome to have the pros come up and have the presence and skate.”
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
