Crushed Ice Race Extreme Skating
“WOW” is all I can say about the new extreme sport called “Crashed Ice skating”. This sport is not for the faint of heart. If you’ve got the guts to put on your ice skates and enter this race your are a brave person! This is essentially down hill ice skating with lots of twists and turns. The Red Bull energy drink company sponsors various races around the world. The next one at the writing of this article is in March 2010 and will attract a record crowd of well over 40,000 people in Quebec City Canada. The first official race was held in Stockholm Sweden and won by a fellow named Jasper Felder.
The next race is set up in urban Quebec City with a length approximately 565 meters and it’s a downhill nightmare on a five meter wide track, with vertical drops of 60 meters with the steepest drop of 40 degrees, it’s very precarious, with eight curves and six jump hills, as skaters reach mind boggling speeds. The building of this course took 34 days and 250 workers to complete it. Competitors slap on their ice skates and line up four to each heat, like race horses in the gates. They take off when the gates open and battle it out to see who can win their heat. Usually the competitors are outfitted with hockey skates and gear for protection as they bang into each other the bodies pile up, and chaos ensues in the crowd. As the heats progress the competition gets fiercer and fiercer with even more body contact. The top two guys from each heat move on. This is an awesome competition, like something you’ve never seen before! The intensity is just unbelievable as the crowd goes crazy! Each year this sport is growing by leaps and bounds literally! There are both a men’s and women’s division where one person will be crowned “The Crushed Ice Champion of the World”!
Competitors from around the world are vying for the chance to participate, with over 12,000 Canadians applying for a chance to race. Red Bull had to hold a lottery there we so many people applying, as well as hold 11 qualifying races. The number was whittled down to 76 Canadians representing Canada from cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Montreal, Quebec City, and Halifax in the mix
Do a quick search on YouTube and you’ll see some of the previous years races and you’ll be hooked!
Tags: Tags: Crashed Ice skating, extreme sport, hockey skates, ice skates, Red Bull
