Racing report
Amazing Race Canada Season 5, Episode 1, "Who wants to be the python?"
Film date: 2017-04-26 - 2017-04-27
This season start at the Queens battery overlooking St Johns, Newfoundland. The 10 teams are traveling there by boat. They are:
- Korey & Ivana, personal trainers from Toronto
- Kenneth & Ryan, best friends from Collingwood, ON
- Dan & Riya, YouTube creators from Toronto
- Adam & Andrea, Brother and sister from Montreal
- Aaron & Deb, mother and son from Grand Forks, BC
- Karen & Bert, married couple from Edmonton, AB
- Andrea & Ebonie, business partners from Montreal
- Zed & Shabbir, father and son from Vancouver
- Megan & Courtney, cousins from Corner Brook, NL
- Sam & Paul, dating couple from Toronto
At the starting line Jon tells teams that the grand prize will be two cars (one each), an around the world trip for two, $250,000 and the title.
At the starting line teams run to their backpacks and their first clue. This reads: "Make your way to Cabot tower at the signal hill national historic site."
Teams must now run to the tower, which is only a few hundred meters away. Here teams will find a loudspeaker broadcasting a message in Morse code. The producers have also provided boards showing the key to deciphering Morse signals. Teams must use these to decipher the message from the speaker. The message reads "Vancouver Capilano Bridge". Once teams have cracked the code and told the judge the message they will receive their next clue.
Some teams make some spectacularly wrong guesses. Andrea & Ebonie makes an even bigger mistake and assume, after barely trying, that they can't finish this task and decide to take the penalty. This means they will have a two hour penalty waiting for them at the finish line.
Teams leave this task in the following order:
1. Andrea & Ebonie, took the penalty
2. Zed & Shabbir
3. Sam & Paul
4. Adam & Andrea
5. Kenneth & Ryan
?. Korey & Ivana
?. Dan & Riya
?. Aaron & Deb
?. Karen & Bert
?. Megan & Courtney
"No one is going to get it, it's gonna take them hours", Andrea & Ebonie think they know
Route info: "Fly to Vancouver B.C.". Teams must now jump into one of the provided cars and drive themselves to the airport and get tickets on one of two flights to Vancouver. There is only room for five teams on the first flight.
Teams get $600 on their Bemo cards for this leg of the race.
At the airport Andrea & Ebonie regret their decision to quit the first task.
Flight #1 carries:
Andrea & Ebonie
Zed & Shabbir
Adam & Andrea
Sam & Paul
Kenneth & Ryan
Flight #2 carries:
Korey & Ivana
Megan & Courtney
Karen & Bert
Dan & Riya
Aaron & Deb
Once teams land in Vancouver they must make their way to Capilano suspension bridge park (23km 30-60min). There they must find a falconer who has their next clue.
We are not told how much time separates the flights. But it can not be much since the second flight lands while the first batch of teams are still in their taxis on their way to the park.
Teams find the falconer in the following order:
1. Andrea & Ebonie
2. Sam & Paul
3. Zed & Shabbir
4. Kenneth & Ryan
5. Adam & Andrea
6. Megan & Courtney
?. Korey & Ivana
?. Dan & Riya
?. Aaron & Deb
10. Karen & Bert
The next clue tells teams to find Gassy Jack. This is a statue in Gastown.
Teams find the clue by Gassy Jack in the following order:
1(+0) Andrea & Ebonie
2(+0) Sam & Paul
3(+1) Kenneth & Ryan, less than a minute after #2
4(-1) Zed & Shabbir
5(+1) Megan & Courtney
6(+?) Aaron & Deb
7(+?) Korey & Ivana
8(-3) Adam & Andrea
9(+?) Dan & Riya
10(+0) Karen & Bert
Road block: "Who's feeling uptight?"
Teams must now find the Fairmont hotel Vancouver (1.6km) and there the players doing the road block must walk a tightrope between two towers 40m apart 12 stories above the street. They have a safety rope hanging from above which they can hold on to and if they fall there is a short bungee cord stopping their fall. If they fall they must go to the back of the line and try again.
"I want to get across on the first try so that the penalty doesn't weigh that much", Ebonie
"What's a tightrope?", Dan reads the task info
"I'm so happy I'm not doing this", Andrea
There are two tightropes available for walking so there is a lot of time spent waiting in line. Also it seems nobody but Ivana and Bert manages to complete the walk on their first attempt. Adam almost falls down but land sitting on the tightrope. He then manages to slide all the way to the end.
Karen & Bert initially went to the wrong Fairmont hotel. Then Bert has a unique strategy he slides out onto the tightrope and then swings around so he hangs under it. He then proceeds to slide all the way to the other end hanging under the wire.
Deb turns out to be the wrong person to do this task. She gets dizzy and Aaron have to come up and comfort her. But she recovers and manages to complete the task.
Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0) Andrea & Ebonie* (0-1) 2(+1) Kenneth & Ryan* (0-1) 3(+2) Megan* & Courtney (1-0) 4(+3) Korey & Ivana* (0-1) 5(+3) Adam* & Andrea (1-0) 6(-4) Sam & Paul* (0-1) 7(-3) Zed & Shabbir* (0-1) 8(+2) Karen & Bert* (0-1) 9(+0) Dan* & Riya (1-0) 10(-4) Aaron & Deb* (0-1)
The next clue is a detour:QuoteDETOUR
Detour: "Pedal" or
"Paddle"
Pedal: Join the East Van
Bike Polo club and
successfully complete a
series of drills to receive
your next clue.
Paddle: Take control of a
dragon boat and
navigate the race course
under the time limit to
receive your next clue.
NOTE: There are limited
????? both detours.
In pedal teams must make their way to Sunset beach and complete a set of bike polo drills.
In paddle teams must make their way to Falls Creek and join a dragon boat crew. One team member must help paddle the boat while the other will steer the boat by using a set of specific commands.
Steering the boat turns out to be the difficult part. But not too difficult since nobody seems to fail more than once.
Teams complete the detour in the following order:
1(+1) Kenneth & Ryan, paddle
2(-1) Andrea & Ebonie, pedal
3(+1) Korey & Ivana, pedal
4(+1) Adam & Andrea, paddle
5(+1) Sam & Paul, paddle
6(+1) Zed & Shabbir, pedal
7(+1) Karen & Bert, pedal
8(+1) Dan & Riya, pedal
9(-6) Megan & Courtney, started paddle but switched to pedal
10(+0) Aaron & Deb, pedal
Teams must now make their way to the Vandusen Botanical Garden here they can find Jon and the pit stop in the middle of the maze.
Teams reach Jon in the following order:
1(+0) Kenneth & Ryan, win a trip to Barcelona, Spain
- Andrea & Ebonie, have to wait out their 2h penalty
2(+1) Korey & Ivana
3(+1) Adam & Andrea
4(+1) Sam & Paul
5(+1) Zed & Shabbir
6(+1) Karen & Bert
7(-5) Andrea & Ebonie
8(+0) Dan & Riya
9(+0) Megan & Courtney
10(+0) Aaron & Deb, are eliminated
"There's no words to describe how excited to actually be a part of this with my mom", Aaron