5 minute read
This month, Tribu celebrates its 10th anniversary. While we can’t bring you together to celebrate, we look back each week on the most epic adventures through the eyes of those who have accompanied us: festival-goers, athletes, partners or team members.
Over the past few weeks, we have been talking about stories of passion and surpassing oneself, but what puts stars in our eyes is also when we have the opportunity to make dreams come true. In 10 years, we have made many dreams come true. So we gave a call to three people to tell us their stories.
Jean-Michel Gaudreault, living off fresh water and action sports
The author of these lines has known Jean-Michel for more than a decade. Formerly a prominent skater in Quebec City, he was an occasional cameraman for his colleagues at the Exo Shop. But it was in the early 2000s that he really started his career behind the camera, when he was hired to shoot the skateboard scenes in the film À l’ouest de Pluton, directed by Henry Bernadette and Myriam Verreault.
A true enthusiast of all action sports, Jean-Michel has been working at Tribu for a little over a year now… and he earns his living filming skateboarding, among other things.
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“The dream is to carry out projects related to extreme sports, says Jean-Michel. To be able to film exploits, stunts, performances where adrenaline is at its peak, like BASE jumping, snowboarding, skateboarding, that’s what makes me the most happy because when I film, I like to feel the adrenaline of the athlete through my lens!”
Whether it was last summer during a trip in Western Canada or in September in Shawinigan, Jean-Michel lived his strongest emotions while filming BASE jump.
“I can live the thrill that the other person is experiencing, but through my camera. When you film someone jumping off a cliff or a tower, you feel like you’re jumping a little too. It doesn’t happen every day that you can take shots like that with BASE jumpers in a perfect setup.”
Bertrand Cloutier, dreaming in the moonlight
Jean-Michel says he experienced one of the most beautiful emotions in his career in September when he made Bertrand Cloutier’s dream come true. The latter has accomplished almost everything in the world of skydiving and BASE jumping, but he had given us a very complex mission.
Bertrand wanted to jump in the moonlight. Or in any case, he wanted to jump at the very moment the moon passed behind him.
” It’s a dream I had to have the moon in the background and to be in the middle of the moon,” says Bertrand. When we did it, it was more the team’s success that was a high because I couldn’t see the moon, it was a simple jump… “
The result was finally up to Bertrand’s dream.
Valérie Lalbin, propelling Shawinigan
Valérie Lalbin is General Manager of Tourisme Shawinigan and when she came to head the organization, she had a dream… to create a signature event for Shawi focused on outdoor sports.
Informed of the existence of a festival called “Natural Games” in French Occitania, Valérie did her homework and the similarity between the regions came as an electric shock.
“I was ecstatic when I saw this thing and I told myself that I absolutely had to go there, she says. We went on an exploratory mission to Millau with a few key people from Shawi and it put a dream in my head.”
Not only was the event a total success, but the panorama allowed her to draw a clear parallel between the regions of Millau and Mauricie.
“Shawinigan, she says, reminded me a lot of the Millau region where there is a huge territory with mountains, forest and a river that runs through the city. The Natural Games really marked the tourist signature of the territory. “
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This is how Tourisme Shawinigan set out to find the rare pearl capable of creating this type of event. Valérie came across JACKALOPE.
“In its essence, JACKALOPE festival counted several elements of my thinking, except that this festival was in an urban setting, whereas I was considering our event in a green and blue environment to highlight the full force of Shawinigan’s landscapes and natural relief. We called Tribu and explained our project. During my first meeting with Micah, I fell in love with the human being that he is, for his personality and for the light in his eyes as he answered my questions.”
From this meeting was born the Tribal fest, organized for the past four years by Tourisme Shawinigan and Tribu expérientiel. Paddleboard, climbing, BASE jump, mountain biking, the city of Shawinigan transforms itself for a weekend into an action sports hub.
Jeremy Aelterman-Lamontagne, the volunteer
Jeremy was 25 years old when he volunteered at the JACKALOPE festival in 2017. For him, the opportunity was too good to pass up. A little fed up of his job as a cook, he needed to experience strong emotions.
“I liked to try other things and I saw an ad for volunteers on Facebook, he explains. I was really interested because I had been skateboarding for 8 years…”
In 2017, Jeremy helped the organization with multiple tasks.
“I was all over the place, filling in for people on break, installing and taking down the ramp, says Jeremy. Seeing how you put up a vert is pretty special.”
But the big moment came on the night of the vert competition. Sitting in a privileged location, Jeremy was able to observe the prowess of Tony Hawk and the other skaters very, very closely.
“I was able to give Tony Hawk a fist pump as he came off the ramp, just that was amazing, he says. He’s been an idol since I was a little kid… it was a heartwarming moment for me.”
And that’s exactly the kind of emotions we try to share with festival goers, team members and athletes. We miss being able to come together, no matter our role, to share our passion for action sports.
In the meantime, we try to keep you waiting by telling you stories or producing content that is out of the ordinary. We invite you to take a look at our platform JACKALOPE.tv if you haven’t already done so… and we’re going back to dreaming about the next action sports festival we can put together for your pleasure and ours.