Preview redesigned Red Bull Joyride Whistler course
Carson Storch details build and massive features for Saturday's slopestyle showdown
Red Bull Joyride is back, but this year the grand finale of the slopestyle season looks a little different.
The outsized Joyride course has been redesigned for 2019. Organizers and course builders are hoping to challenge competitors with a new design, and line options, that will shake them out of their slopestyle routines.
The results will be a more exciting show for fans, and a more complete challenge for competitors.
Carson Storch gets behind the scenes on the details, and motivation behind the build. Then the young Oregon rider takes a preview run down the new-look Red Bull Joyride course in Whistler.
“I think it’s going to be a cool show. It’s going to be a lot more unpredictable than the year’s past,” says Storch. “I think it’s good to have a full change up in the course design. It’s good for slopestyle. I’m stoked I got to ride it and I can’t wait to watch all the boys throw down on it.”
That unpredictability is exactly what course designers are aiming for. It’s also how Red Bull Joyride first built its reputation as the highlight of slopestyle competition.
“There is definitely more of a format now than there used to be when slopestyle first started. It used to be whatever you could dream up as a builder according to the track and then the riders would show up and have to figure out how to ride it,” says Paddy Kaye, lead Joyride builder. “Working with Red Bull and guys like the Claw, who have been around forever, that was what they were looking for. They wanted the riders to show up and scratch their head and wonder ‘how are we going to do this?’”
Watch Carson Storch preview the Red Bull Joyride course at Crankworx Whistler. Then watch live on Crankworx.com and RedBull.tv Saturday, Aug. 17 at 4 PM (Pacific) / 7 PM EST:
