Hundreds of curious people braved the cold this weekend to watch freestyle snowmobilers perform gravity-defying stunts in the heart of Ottawa’s ByWard Market.
Barbegazi is a nail-biting freestyle snowmobiling exhibition — and part of this year’s Winterlude festival — where expert riders launched up to 12 meters in the air, clearing a 21-meter jump.
The free event transformed the downtown core into a high-energy winter arena.
Micah Desforges, Barbegazi’s executive producer, said the goal is to surprise audiences with something unexpected and get them outside during the winter months.
“The folks from Ottawa Tourism were looking for something different, so we showed them what we did for Montreal’s 375th anniversary, and they loved it,” Desforges said.
“They were like, ‘We need that energy.’”
Despite a yellow cold warning from Environment Canada with temperatures plunging to -34 with wind chill, crowds bundled up to watch the first-of-its-kind show for the city.
The event grounds closed off York Street westbound, leaving more room for wandering spectators to stop and view the show.
“We have something that screams young, active, dynamic and brings the spirit of the mountain to Ottawa,” Desforges said.
“I’m from a small town in Nova Scotia where people love to go out on their snowmobiles,” Henderson said.
“But, seeing this, in the centre of the city, is pretty cool.”
Grace Skinner, an employee at the Aulde Dubliner, said she was happy to see the liveliness Barbegazi brought to ByWard.
“I only started working at the Dubliner two summers ago, but you hear stories from people who’ve been there for a while about how crazy the market used to be,” she said. “I love that they’re trying to bring back that energy of what it was.”
Ottawa Tourism CEO, Michael Crockatt, opened the festivities on Friday with a brief speech, thanking attendees and organizers.
“This is such an incredible new thing to add to the vibrant scene of our downtown here,” he told the crowd.
Too cold to ride
Barbegazi was set to make its debut Friday evening, but the extreme cold forced organizers to postpone the show.
Stunt rider and X Games competitor Chris Coosemans said safety concerns eventually drove the decision.
“We lay out that green turf for traction because normally it acts like a sponge, so our tracks can dig into it,” Coosemans explained. “But once it freezes, it just turns into a block of ice, and we can’t reach our proper speed coming up to the ramp.”
The athletes took turns testing the surface Friday night, but ultimately decided to delay the event until Saturday.
“According to them, it is very sketchy, but they really want to give you a show tonight. They want to show you what they can do,” he added.
‘You have to see it to believe it.’
After a successful 2 p.m. show on Saturday, riders and organizers turned their focus to an even bigger evening spectacle.
Drolet told the Charlatan he expected everyone to be completely shocked by the performances.
“Once you see what these guys can do on a snowmobile, it’ll just blow your mind,” Drolet said. “Expect to throw your head back and say, ‘Oh my goodness.’”
Two additional X Games stunt riders, hand-selected by Coosemans, were brought in to elevate the show: American Daniel Shaffer and Sweden’s Rasmus Johansson.
After a close call with his second practice jump — landing on the edge of the air bag — Coosemans took to the ramp for a third trick.
This time, his sled failed to accelerate properly off the lip of the ramp after overheating, leaving him short of the landing.
Realizing he couldn’t clear the jump, Coosemans bailed out mid-trick, narrowly landing on the airbag as his sled crashed down next to him.
The crash froze the crowd into silence, and on-site medical crew rushed to attend the fallen rider’s aid.
After lying on the airbag for nearly two minutes, Coosemans was able to stagger to his feet and make his way off the track.
As the crowd cheered him off, Coosemans turned back to wave — flashing a smile and a bloodied nose.
“I ended up fracturing my ankle and possibly something in my back, I still need X-rays for my back,” Coosemans later confirmed. “Could have been much worse.”
With Coosemans sidelined, Johansson and Shaffer kept the adrenaline high in the market.
“It sucks to see Chris go down like that. It’s always tough, I had a close call too,” Johansson said. “I came up short on the first jump and almost bounced off.”
The pair showed off a variety of tricks, including handstands, and ‘rock solids’ — where the rider lets go of the sled and floats in the air hands-free.
“I’ve done a lot of backflips in my life, but this crowd was awesome, I could hear them screaming while I was upside down,” Johansson said.
Barbegazi is expected to return to Ottawa in 2027.
Featured image supplied by Ottawa Tourism
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