Crazy Canucks stop in Whitefish for friendly competition

If you happened to see a group of eight men causing shenanigans in their mud-covered yellow and red polo shirts last Tuesday, it was probably the Crazy Canucks.

Fifteen years ago, Peter Grose and a few of his buddies from Winnipeg, Manitoba, decided to celebrate the longest day of the year with some outdoor activities, such as volleyball, classic lawn games and golf. What resulted was a yearly set of friendly competitive games during the summer solstice.

“We decided that it was best to go ahead and celebrate the sun, so we stayed outside the entire day and just did a multitude of events,” Grose said. “And we just said ‘hey, let’s make this an annual.’”

Each year involves about six games and a complementary costume idea. There was the Scottish year, when Grose and his friends went skydiving in kilts, and the 1920s golfer year, which featured thick fake mustaches and period-correct attire. One year each member of the group even dressed as Elvis Presley and made every event Elvis-themed.

While usually only four friends participate, the Canucks decided to make things competitive this year, dividing into teams of four, Manitoba against Alberta. The teams dressed as 1970s curling clubs from their respective provinces, complete with custom-ordered shirts, hats and pants.

The Canucks’ time in Whitefish consisted of a breakfast cook-off early in the morning, four-on-four baseball, mountain biking at Whitefish Mountain Resort, various lawn games and an evening round of golf, before tallying up the winners and losers during the closing ceremony. The winner of the day gets to hoist the trophy, a silver cup on a wooden base with “L-DOTY, The Longest Day of the Year” engraved. The day’s worst performer is responsible for planning the next year’s events.

Despite the weather, Grose said Whitefish was a great choice for the Canucks this year.

“It’s been a great place,” he said. “The weather started out a little bit rainy but we persevered through it. [Biking down Big Mountain] was terrifying, but it was good.”

While this year was more competitive than usual, Grose said the whole thing is just about a group of friends picking one day of the year to be together and actually sticking to it as the years go by. The fun part, he said, is seeing locals who want to join in on the fun.

“It’s always just good times overall, and people receive it well, too. The number of guys that want to drink out of our cup when we’re rolling around having a celebration drink out of the cup — there’s a lot,” he said. “It’s just a guy day, we just get together and be guys from sun up to sun down.”