The news was greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm by skateboard fans. The municipal council had decided to advance the project to relocate and design a new park for skateboards in theîlot sportif Erik Guay(Erik Guay sports island).

“[…] For us, relocating and designing a new skateboard park was very important. […], during budget preparation, we have to make choices […]…and the skateboard park was among the projects studied for 2018, but which we had to delay. Today, we are happy to be able to move the schedule forward and to improve, yet again, our Erik Guay sports island,” said Mayor Luc Brisebois.

A call for tenders was initiated and firms have until July 10 to file their submission. Unless the submissions are unreasonable, the contract will be awarded at the municipal council meeting on July 16. If this is the case, construction will be completed at the end of summer and in early fall 2018. The modules currently in the elementary school’s yard will then be removed in the fall. We should emphasize that the skatepark, located on the grounds of the Campus primaire(elementary school grounds), does not currently allow skateboarders, people on scooters, on BMXs or on inline skates to use these facilities during class hours. This park remains, however, the only place where practising skateboarding is allowed.

Skateboarding at the Olympics

Who would have believed it? This sport – which some consider to be an art, in the same way as dance – will be part of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Will this decision, made by the International Olympic Committee on August 3 of this year, allow skateboarding, decried for so many years, to be accepted as a legitimate sport? It could coincide with the culmination of a bold project that Simon Robitaille, a local skateboarder, has been simmering for a while: establishment of a skateboarding-study program in secondary school.

“There are about fifty skateboarders in Mont-Tremblant and the passion for it among young people is growing,” states Simon Robitaille, manager of the store called Nation. “As a result, relocation of the skatepark is excellent news,” he adds.

A sports-study program

Have you ever tried to control, with your feet, a board mounted on four wheels? To do it, the skateboarders need to double their agility and their perseverance. It’s only this latter that allows them, at the cost of many, many bruises, to achieve their real feats.

“Why not transfer this liking for effort and perseverance to a school environment,” Simon asks. “The goal is to motivate young people and keep them in school by allowing them to do what they love. All the teachers I’ve talked to really like the idea. It’s still all something that needs work,” he concedes. “But I think that it would be a good thing to supervise and manage this sport, which is currently not done at all. It would, in particular, allow for fewer injuries,” the skateboarder affirms.

The Déto-NationTour

Four events will punctuate skateboard season. Organized by Nation and supported by the industry’s major brands, such as Ethnies, DC, Vans, Dakine, Arcade and Globe, these gatherings will allow skateboarders in the Upper Laurentians to get together during the summer. The first event was at Mont-Tremblant on June 20. Labelle, the site of the new – and very popular – dome, will host skateboarders on July 14. Nominingue will follow on July 24 and Val-David on August 25. A fifth event, on a date that hasn’t been set yet, will be held in Mont-Tremblant to mark the return to school. “Every event attracts fifty or so skaters,” Simon explains. “For the past three years, the number of young people has tripled at each event,” he concludes.