- Words and Photos by Owen Woytowich

 

This summer the Darkstar team rolled through the humble city of Saskatoon to skate a demo at the much raved about Saskatoon Lions Park. Needless to say, the park was completely destroyed within a few minutes. I had the luck of being the local tour guide for the crew. The posse consisted of Chet Thomas, Paul Machnau, Mike Hastie, Galiea Momolu, Adam Dyet, Paul Trep, and Nick Fidrini. 

 

 

With a line up like that, there was no way the park wasn’t getting terrorized…or the city. The first night in town was chill, typical get rid of your jet legs and relax day. After supper, the night was more or less done. Next day consisted of about 13 trips to Starbucks before 10:00 am. Finally after being drugged up on expensive coffee and fed up with food court delicacies we skated from the hotel to the park. Seemed like a good idea, minus the fact that we skated through the ghetto. 

 

 

Regardless the crew got their first look at the park and their eyes lit up with stokeness. Despite the plus 30-degree weather, they went off. Like beyond off. Notable things were Paul’s unreal steeze on the pyramid and many pad. So much style. Should you ever venture to the Saskatoon Park, you’ll take one look at the “Big Blue” bar, and say, “No, I WON’T be hitting that rail today.” Well, most people would say that. Not Mike Hastie or Paul Machnau. But seriously, is there a rail Machnau won’t hit? Regardless, ya, they shut that rail down in like 15 minutes with every slide/grind in the book. It was disgusting actually for all the locals who previously were saying “what if?” and now had to say “oh, Paul and Mike did that.” 

 

 

More carnage went down by Paul on the hips. Honestly, when I think of Paul Machnau, I always thought rail killer. Now it’s Paul the rail killer that mercilessly rapes tranny too. Damn he can boot off those things! Which brings me to Adam Dyet. A fairly new am to the team, but if you ever see him skate in person, you’ll be quick to agree, he has a bright future ahead of himself. Then we had Nick just slaughtering everything else. The big orange rail in the park was slayed with about a dozen tricks in as many minutes. Quite spectacular I must say. 

 

 

Unfortunately, Thomas and Momolu were at a radio station doing an on air interview, so they missed the warm up day. Anyways, after the pre-demo demo, we went back to chill it at the hotel before their shop signing. Nighttime proved to be a gong show. Long story short, demo next day but Adam is missing. Apparently we were too loud for the hotel and after some exchanged words to an over zealous officer, Adam was lost for the night. Next day of the demo, my cell is going off by the crew wondering if I had Adam and Trep with me. Trep ended up half an hour outta town on an acreage and Adam was who knows where? Then twenty minutes later, I look up from the park and who do I see? Adam walking shirtless looking like crap by himself. Turns out that he spent the night in out fair city’s jail on a mat. He walked to the park 20 minutes from jail. Seriously, after waking up a bit, he was reunited with his board and clothes and did the biggest kickflip melon I’ve ever seen over a hip. Way to start the demo! 

 

 

Needless to say, the demo was ridiculous. If the day before was any indication, it was going to be a gong show…and it was. Just picture all that and throw in Galiea and Chet and booyakasha! Amazing demo. Chet did so many flip trick variations that everyone was left asking “what was that???”. Galiea came through with his usual amazing effortless style. It was likely the best demo Saskatoon has seen. Crappy weather didn’t prevent these guys from destroying everything. Big shout-out to the Darkstar guys for the best demo ever. The best way to see for yourself how crazy it really was is to venture down to Saskatoon yourself. Guaranteed you won’t be disappointed.

- Words and Photos by Owen Woytowich