Move over, skiing, snowboarding and skating on frozen lakes.

A Thunder Bay, Ont., film student has discovered a new winter sport for northwestern Ontarians: natural ice-cross.

A new video from local film-maker Damien Gilbert shows Michael McKenzie zipping along a frozen ditch-turned-ice obstacle course, weaving around rocks and shrubs and leaping off small jumps.

The video is titled "Crashed Ice — Tbay Style," a reference to Red Bull Crashed Ice, the brand name of the annual world ice-cross tour.

The sport sees competitors race down steep courses of hills and jumps on skates.

"It's definitely less steep than what they're doing," McKenzie said of his course, "but I think it's cool that it was all natural made instead of man-made, so it's definitely not as smooth, and the ice is unpredictable. There was a few slushy spots and a few spots where my skate would just go into the ice and kind of chuck me forward a bit."

McKenzie discovered the course while driving out to McKenzie Point to do some photography, he said.

"With the recent rain we've had, I saw that awesome patch of ice in the ditch, and I've been watching a lot of Red Bull Crashed Ice and thought, 'There it is,'" he said. "I've been wanting to try it, and nature made it for me, so I might as well give it a try."

He called up Gilbert to capture the moment on video.

McKenzie is relatively new to skating, he said, having grown up in Charles City, Iowa.

He credits his balance on skates to his background skateboarding, snowboarding and mountain biking.

He chose to go to school in Thunder Bay precisely because of its outdoor recreation opportunities, he said, adding he stumbled upon promotional material for the city's trail system while looking at schools in Duluth.

"I saw all the mountain biking trails and all the cool hikes and stuff, and that was definitely a big factor in picking my school even though I should probably focus on picking the best program," he said.

Since arriving, he's relished the opportunity to skate as often as possible.

"I would love to be invited to go do Red Bull Crashed Ice," McKenzie said. "When it comes up to Minneapolis I've always wanted to go down and try to get on the track."