THUNDER BAY - Brody Vesa, just six-years-old, knows when something is exciting, and he didn’t need the cheers of the crowd to tell him that seeing a snowmobile upside down in the air is something worth seeing again.
“It was the first time Brody saw it,” said Brody’s dad, Kyle. “He really enjoyed it, screaming for the backflips like everybody else.”
Huge crowds cheered on Brody Wilson and Josh Penner, professional X-Games competitors who performed during the snowmobile stunt show, one of the highlights at this year’s Winter Carnival hosted by Fort William Historical Park.
“It’s awesome,” Kyle said of the carnival. “We’ve come a couple years now. Brody is excited for the snow maze and the snow forts and some of the other stuff.”
There was no shortage of activities, from tubing, skating, traditional games, sleigh rides, to just being outside on a nice, sunny winter day.
But what drew large crowds to the wharf was seeing Wilson and Penner perform gravity defying stunts on their snowmobiles.
“It gets your adrenaline going, it’s addicting, it’s exciting,” said Penner, who has been competing in the X-Games for the last three years. “You like to see the smile on kid’s faces. It’s a rewarding feeling at the end of the show.”
Wilson has only been competing in the Winter X-Games for the last couple of years. While he has more than 15 years experience jumping dirt bikes, handling the sled in the air still takes some getting used to.
“I have lot of experience jumping stuff, but this is all still new,” he said. “So it’s really exciting for me to figure it out and learn new stuff compared to the bikes.”
Wilson continued that the way a snowmobile hits the ramp and travels through the air is very different from the smaller and lighter dirt bikes.
“It doesn’t quite fly the same,” he said. “A lot of the tricks do feel the same. A lot of it is similar, some is different, but it’s not too hard to go back and forth once you get used to it.”
On Saturday, the temperature wasn’t very cold, but the wind still picked up at times, which caused some trouble for Wilson and Penner.
“The sleds are pretty big, so it acts more like a kite compared to a dirt bike, so you feel it when it pushes you or when it’s a headwind it really stops you,” Penner said. “The sleds grab the wind a lot.”
But despite the wind, the crowd still got to see three shows on Saturday, which included stunts, jumps, and backflips
“It was pretty wicked,” Kyle said of the show. “You could tell the wind was bothering them. I think they did good considering the conditions. Hopefully they get that fixed up and do an even better show for tomorrow.”
But that’s not all the Winter Carnival has to offer. Logan Hanninen, 8, tried firing an authentic musket on Saturday.
“It felt really good,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be that loud.”
Logan already had a busy day, playing the snake game, making his way through the snow maze, and tubing, but he was eager to check out the X-Games down at the river.
“We are heading our way there now,” he said. “I’m really looking forward do it.”
“People like to see big jumps and flying through the air and flipping stuff that’s not supposed to be flipped,” Wilson said. “They get excited and we get excited.”
The Winter Carnival continues on Sunday and Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information visit the Fort William Historical Park website.
