Kelowna freestyle motocross riders Kris Garwasiuk and Bruce Cook are the best at what they do in Canada and amongst the highest flyers in all of North America.
They travel the world putting on their high flying freestyle show at festivals, rodeos and monster truck shows, flying through the air performing stunts on their motocross bikes.
This weekend the pair—owners of Global FMX—will be doing their thing in front of friends and family at Prospera Place in Kelowna in a self-produced, freestyle motocross show the likes of which Kelowna has likely never seen before.
Eight freestyle motocross riders, four mountain bikers, two BMX riders and two sport bike riders will perform tricks and high-flying stunts on Saturday night at Prospera Place in what’s billed as Freestyle Madness, a two-and-a-half hour show complete with rock music, pyrotechnics and a light show.
“I’ve been doing these shows for 16 years and this is definitely one of the coolest productions we’ve done,” said Garwasiuk, who at 31 is considered one of the top freestyle motocross riders in the world and a pioneer of the sport. “We’ve got freestyle motocross, BMX, mountain bikes and sports bikes all choreographed to music and pyro with a crazy laser-light show. It’s like a mix of a rock concert with action motor-sports, cued up with pyro and lighting. It’s going to be a spectacular show.”
Most of the riders in the show are the tops at what they do in their sport in Canada, said Garwasiuk. Three of the eight freestyle motocross riders are from Kelowna while all four mountain bikers hail from the area as does one of the BMX riders. It’s the culture of adventure sports in Kelowna and the Okanagan that had Garwasiuk yearning to pull off a massive arena show in his home town.
“Kelowna is known as a hot bed for action sports,” he said. “That’s one of the main reasons why we chose Kelowna. We could have gone to Penticton or Vernon or Vancouver or Abbotsford but we thought ‘let’s do it in Kelowna’ because there is such a strong following with action sports. The local guys in Kelowna truly are the best in North America.”
Garwasiuk and Cook have also gone the extra mile to make sure the event is family oriented. A Kelowna Secondary School graduate, Garwasiuk and his wife are expecting their first child and he says they want to introduce the sport to families. There is a free event in the Prospera Place parking lot Saturday at 2 p.m. with monster trucks, hot rods as well as other demonstrations kicking off the event.
“It’s going to be much more than just a freestyle motocross show,” he said. “We’re having a tail gate party before the show where families can come down and see monster trucks and watch different demonstrations. We tried to keep it as cheap as possible in the first year and create a yearly event.”
Tickets are $25 but kids under 10 are free with a paying adult. A ticket also gets you into a pit party before the show between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. before the event begins at 7 p.m.
Tickets are available through www.selectyourtickets.com
