Footage of two snowboarders riding down the Olympic Stadium has been circulating online since Sunday, and the stadium’s spokesperson is urging people to realize how dangerous the stunt was.
Paul Hugo Baptiste, a 24-year-old from France, was walking through the Olympic Stadium park in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve area on Sunday afternoon when he saw the two men pulling the stunt.
“It was very Montreal, so I captured it,” Baptiste told Global News on Tuesday.
Baptiste sent the video to popular Montreal Instagram and Twitter account @fucknomtl, which posted the video that then got over 35,000 views.
“The two guys told me, ‘We had a crazy idea, so we did it’,” Baptiste said.
“It is a strictly forbidden act, and I cannot stress how dangerous it was,” said Cedric Essiminy, spokesperson for the Olympic Stadium park.
The two men seen in the video are Jérôme Arbour, 35, and Jean-François Blais, 37. Arbour told Global News they knew of the potential risks and danger that the stunt entailed, but “we know the sport, we know our abilities, we felt safe.”
Arbour added that they told kids who were there and saw them doing it to not try and do it themselves. He said he told them that it’s for experts, not amateurs.
“(The stunt) definitely gave us adrenaline. It’s very steep and narrow and you can’t exactly break. It’s a sick stunt,” Arbour said.
Essiminy said there was no risk of the two men falling through the stadium’s roof, as the two snowboarders were on “total solid concrete.”
Essiminy however stressed that that area is incredibly slippery and steep, and should they have hurt themselves it would have been difficult for emergency crews to get up there to help.
He added that in his seven years working for the stadium he has never seen a similar stunt. “The park has plenty of other places and slopes. Please do not use our structure for that use.”
Comments