Kade Edwards Did the Coolest Thing at Crankworx Since Anthony Messere's Quarter Pipe Air 22

Crankworx in Whistler is basically a real-life version of Groundhog's Day. It's mid-August, the alarm goes off to that Sonny and Cher song and everyone heads to the Canadian promised land to pay for over-priced food, beverage and shelter while fighting for elbow room on blown-out trails. (Pro Tip: Go to Whistler in mid-to-late-September if riding is your real, actual goal).

With the exception of some shuffled, re-named events or new sponsors clogging the webcast with pseudo-inspirational commercials, for those not in the 43-minute queue for the Fitzsimmons lift under the shadow of the over-compensating Pinkbike booth, Crankworx is generally pretty redundant. Keep in mind, this is being written from an office in Idaho as the Whip-Off World Champs are taking place in Whistler. I'm bitter, not on the side of the mountain with 783 other average Joes yelling "YEAH BUHHDDY!" in a Canadian accent. I'm wishing I could be there earning blisters during the long walk of bikeless shame down the mountain after Whip-Off with a backpack full of photo or video gear I didn't even use because my point-and-shoot was enough.

If I was actually at Crankworx this year, I'd wish I was back here in Idaho as I cursed the crowds and the dust and the size of the Pinkbike tent and the I-can't-tell-what-year-it-is feeling deep inside as another over-priced dinner at Sushi Village approaches. The Vital staff has done the Sushi Village dinner thing for the last few years (like every other brand, outlet and industry group). I'm not super social. I take a while to warm up and the Sushi Village dinners always stress me out beforehand. By the end of each dinner, however, I'm stoked they go down. We usually meet with Race Face. I love sitting with Rob from Race Face at those dinners. One year I didn't get to sit by him and it wasn't as fun. Rob and I have our annual discussion about Chixdiggit, other obscure music I know little about and I soak up his salty vibe graciously. I learn interesting things about folks I see once a year at these dinners and I'm generally happy because of the experience.

Oh, Kade Edwards, that's what all of this was about. OK, so the whole Groundhog's Day thing was to say that each year of Crankworx is almost indistinguishable from the previous year. This is not to say the competitive events aren't exciting. Joyride is the pinnacle of slopestyle, the Canadian Open is a legit Elite-level DH race, as is Garbanzo. Regardless, photos from 2012 look just like 2017 aside from some bike graphics or wheel sizes.

The only move from Crankworx that eternally stands out to me is Anthony Messere hitting the quarterpipe (it was technically a hip, but more quarterpipe-like than most MTBers tend to f*ck with) back in 2011. Nothing, absolutely nothing, to this day, sticks out in my head like Messere's astronomical punt. Partly it's because no other slopestyler that year went even half as high as he did on that feature. Back in the really early days of Crankworx when there was a real 10-foot quarterpipe made out of wood, only Claw could get head-high out of the thing and most riders avoided the half-u-flume. There's just something about mountain bikers and quarterpipes that generally doesn't click. Sorry, another tangent. IIRC, in 2012, they tried to repeat the Messere moonlanding stunt and it didn't go down like 2011. I could be making that up to give the legend of his 2011 air more credibility. I don't remember.

Finally, some 7 years later, Kade Edwards did something to disrupt that Xanax-like stream funneling down the Crankworx content drip line. We've seen enough whips. We've seen enough manuals. We've seen enough "crazy" Whistler lines to last us 10 lifetimes. Kade at least gave us a little something to makes us look twice.

The massive hip boost in the video below by the current UnOfficial World Champion of Freeracing (TM) can't quite usurp the lunar effort of Anthony Messere in 2011, but the clip casually spat out to his Instagram feed gives us something to store away in the memory banks for years to come. Ironic when you think about how forgetful nearly all social media content is these days. The tie-dyed shirt and the fake Bob Marley soundtrack provide some insight into Kade's true passions which help us understand the reasoning (or lack thereof) for propelling himself into the stratosphere.

Hip blasting like this is not new. We've seen it before care of Mike Hopkins (edited thanks to cloudy's comment - it used to say Vanderham, but I was totally thinking of the Hopkins hip) and probably someone else I've forgotten, but the "Hipkins" was a controlled environment with big-budget film people lurking about. I thought Kade's effort was just some bros and a phone, which made me feel really warm inside, but Sven, broken ribs and all, ruined that fuzzy feeling by informing me that the Insta clip is leaked footage from a Red Bull shoot with the Parkins. Still, Kade is chucking his bike at Whistler during Crankworx, just like Messere. Thank goodness Crankworx Groundhog's Day is over...until tomorrow.

Too bad Kade didn't win Whip-Off World Champs (I only heard he didn't, I wasn't there, maybe he didn't deserve it, so I don't know for sure, but I can edit this later to make it look prophetic if necessary. Edited with video from Whip-Offs yesterday. #impossibletojudge).

And to the Vital and Race Face homies at Sushi Village tonight, have a Sake Bomb in my honor. (I always got super embarrassed when our table got loud with those things).