The end is nigh!...

Down to the last couple of days now and i'm not really looking forward to getting back to the soggy ol UK but al good things come to an end! First off we have some pics from the ride on Seymour the other day.

the Kiwi JT

and me!

TUESDAY//Our buddy Steve McCabe was 50 today woohoo! The ol man is still kicking strong so we went for a birthday ride up Seymour, the other Steve and Dan also came along.


steve on the gerbil cage

We did the usual ride down CBC, Corkscrew, Salvation and Pingu to Pangor. The weather was sweet but the trails are starting to resemble piles of talcum powder it's so dry! Had a good ride though, we all hit stunts that scare us a bit, so that was cool.





After the ride we head back to steve's for a BBQ and PARTY!!! This of course meant lots of drinking, but there were also some nice desserts on offer. Everyone had a good time including Steve, glad u had a good one bud!



WEDNESDAY//2 more days to go!!! oh no!!!!! So i made up for it by riding Fromme today with Paul, after a short visit to NorthShoreBillet's factory. It was smaller than i expected for a company that makes products for companies such as Chromag and Envy, but they sure do churn out some quality gear, like whole wheels made of CNC ally. Sick!


Mtn's Grouse and Fromme - view from Seabus

Back to the ride... we hiked to the top of the mountain and rode down 7th secret to Ladies only. It's a run i've done a couple of times now and i really enjoyed it, so was keen to get down it again before i leave. No pics i'm afraid - was on helmet cam duties today and all the files are too big for here.

I'm busy relaxing right now, planning my last day of riding tommorow. Hope it ends in joy and not tears.
Peace

life is nice upsidedown...

WEDNESDAY//I received a call from the Steve's saying that their buddy from NZ is in town and it's his last day of riding, so we felt it of great urgency to go up to the top of Seymour and ride down!

We only rode the usual trails; CBC, corkscrew, Salvation, Pingu and Pangor but the ride was awesome. One of the Steve's had to go to work, so it was just three of us riding, and we were going at a real fun pace. I cleaned some stunts i've not managed to before so i was really stoked. I was esp. happy with cleaning the long skinny to zig-zag teeter on Salvation, enjoy:



No pics yet i'm afraid, keep checking for an update though!

SATURDAY//It's my last weekend in Canada, so i spent it in Whistler! Me and Dave the Jew went up with the intention of camping Sat night, but ended up sleeping in the back of his van on an inflatable double mattress. Nice and cheap cos i'm skint =) We also walked down the road and *ahem* helped ourselves to the Spa and sauna facilities at a near by hotel after our ride in the evening.

Talking of the ride, we had a blast just the Jew and I. We rode some familiar stuff like A-line and Schleyer, but also some trails that we've not yet been down this season like Goats Gully. Here's the stud in action


Dave rippin on Joyride

Overall it was an awesome day of riding, and a good evening of spa and drinking action in the Village.

SUNDAY//AIR DOME BABY! Went and hit some foam in the morning at the newly opened air dome on Blackcomb. This place is SAVAGE, check out the flips and indian airs in this vid:



There were some lil kids there ripping it up too which was cool to watch. Some crazy lad was trying frontys and no-foots to no foot can to no-foot. SICK combo and loads of style. Dave tried to ride it but busted his nuts rolling in, so i got him on camera duties for a little bit.




After a couple of hours had passed we packed up and heading back to the bike park and met up with the two Steve's for a couple of runs. They had been there since early in the day and were quite baked as it was scorching hot. I was knackered from the air dome and Jew's nuts were hurting so we just hit up a couple of runs, one down Dirt Merchant and the other down crank it up. Good fun was had.

And that was my last weekend in Whistler... sucks but i've had a fekking awesome time riding there. Roll on next season.

More old news...

So yesterday i managed to update all the news and info from the Crankworx week, here's the next few weeks of fun:

TUESDAY 2nd//Went for a hike up Fromme today with Mike and Chris, and what an awesome day to do it. The weather was nice and warm, but not too hot so we weren't sweating our loads on the push up. Due to the nice conditions we went right to the top and rode Seventh Secret.. love this trail!



After Seventh we went down Ladies only, and then onto lower Ladies which was loose and sketchy but so much fun. We finished our ride with a little session on the crater gap at the bottom of the mountain.

Didn't really get many good pics today, so enjoy the bit of video i managed to grab:


SATURDAY 5th//Ah-ha, today was an awesome day.. we hiked the Stawamus Chief - the 2nd biggest granite rock in the world. It was an all day affair, but well worth it. Along for the journey was Pikey Dave, Owen, Dee and myself.


just a small part of the Chief

The rock is named so by the natives, who claim that it resembles an Idian Chief lying on his back. Whatever it looks like, hiking the old chap is no walk in the park...



It starts off with a huge rock (see pic above), then a good few hundred wooden steps, and onto the mountain. There is a trail all the way to the top of the three peaks, so we went to the 3rd, and then traversed accross to the second. The trail is so sick. It manages to stay natural using all the rocks and natural features, but is man made for hikers. Once you get to the top the view are worth the 2 hours of pulling yourself up boulders.





And i couldn't resist taking the good ol union jack with me to reprazent:

There were some nice cliff edges too which we just had to stand near =)




It was a fun ass day... the hike was fun, the scenery was breath taking, couldn't ask for more.



SATURDAY 12th//Woohoo!! today was an awesome day... last night i made myself a headcam with cardboard and duct tape, today was the first outing with it. Oh yeah, Dave's parent's are coming into town today for two weeks so that will be cool.

So, we took the new toy up Seymour to ride CBC etc. but as the camera was taped to my helmet there's no pics. Here's a little bit of the footage though, enjoy!


SUNDAY 13th//Rode Whistler, more helmet cam footage which is too big to put up here. No pics... sorry.

MONDAY 14th//Crazy day! Dave's dad (Jamie) rented a bike today as they are all staying at Whistler for the week. We took him down some of the easier trails on the mountain and he had an absolute blast! Managed to get a pic of me and my wondercam!

TUESDAY 15th//BUNGEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Today we jumped off a bridge and plummeted 160ft with a giant elastic band tied to us,WHAT A BUZZ!! i enjoyed it soooooo much, want to do it again real bad.






So yeah sick day, didn't stop buzzing!

WEDNESDAY 16th//Today we got very cold and wet, but all in the name of fun and adrenaline!! We went white water rafting along the Elaho river in Squamish, which is about an hour from Whistler. As it was all water based we couldn't take any pics, but i managed to get this one:



It was another amazing day! Dave Jamie Owen and myself were in this inflatable raft hitting some crazy big waves. The guide said we had so much power we could hit all the sick lines on the river, which made us happy to say the least =) We were mainly going through grade 3 waves which are a bit choppy, but some places there were good 4's which was more like it! The 4's knocked us of our seats and all over the raft, apparantly 5+6's can kill you, woohoo!!

At one point we were ushered off of the raft and onto a cliff where we were welcome to jump off.. i did my first backflip off something other than a trampoline, and Owen followed suit with a front flip. What a couple of gnarly b****rds we are! Dave and Jamie boosted in after us to complete the quad jump. Back in the raft and we spent the next couple of hours paddling and relaxing. Some of the views were so sick, we were going up the backside of a huge mountainous valley where we could see some amazing glaciers and waterfalls. Again no pics, but sweet sweet memories.

The day was rounded off with beer and BBQ, what better ay?!

THURSDAY 17th//Today we ruturned from the extreme week at whistler, but me an O were not finished with the sightseeing and decided to have a little stop at Shannon Falls next to the Chief. Not much to say, it was beautiful, check out the pics:






And that was that...

FRI-SUN 18-20th//Whilst Dave's parents are here we went off to Sophie's Island again for the weekend. Like last time the weather was spanking and we pretty much spent the whole time sat on our asses relaxing...




...But me and Owen are too hardcore to sit and do nothing, so went for a bit of a tube ride. Sophie's Dad thought he would shrug us off on the first set of waves, but we held on for dear life and lasted quite a while before getting dumped in the sea.





The rest of the weekend was spent in the sun =)

-----------------------

Woohoo i think that's it at last! I'm all up to date with the blog so have fun reading, and i'll try to get these last 2 weeks documented. In the meantime peace out, and enjoy this:

The Uber late Crankworx Update!

So it's nearing the end of my holiday.. i have less than two weeks remaining and my bike is broken which sucks ass, but gives me time to update this ere blog because i've been pretty lame recently. As there is so much to update i'll just try to round up the weeks

CRANKWORX WEEK//Well of course this was a kick ass week filled with bike madness...

WEDNESDAY//It all started on the wednesday when i got an invitation to the grand opening of Whistler's new training facility.. the Air Dome.

We were ushered in like honoured guests and helped ourselves to complimentary food and Kokanee whilst a few riders inc. Cam Zink and Jordy Lunn demonstrated how best to use the foam pit.

Whilst they were having a play in the 6ft high pit of fun, Rob McSkimming (VP of Business Development at Whistler Blackcomb) and Richie Schley addressed the crowd and introduced the Air Dome, as well as offereing info regarding the Crankworx slopestyle course and the new Gravity Logic group.

Here's a video of Cam and Jordy strutting their stuff:

THURSDAY//It was Biker-x training and slopestyle qualifiers pretty much all day... Which gave me a chance to test out my new fandangled media pass and wangle my way into some nice spots on the Boneyard. I dont think i did too bad with the pics, whaddya think? Was fun mingling with all the big lense snappers holding up a lil digi cam and a disposable!

Can't be arsed to put pics of the biker-x up, sorry. Although it was quite a sick course i must say. The jumps were all really high but not too long, so clearing them was really easy... to hit them with speed takes skill indeed. The Yeto boys were flying, there were loads of em too!! Mr Lopes was not looking happy, and Cedric was killing it even with a broken wrist!

Qualifying results from the slopestyle are as follows:

1. Andreu Lacondeguy - Spain - 31.6
2. Paul Basagoita - Minden, NV - 30.2
3. Darren Berrecloth - Qualicum Beach, BC - 29.9
4. Thomas Vanderham - North Van, BC - 29.4
5. Cam McCaul - Aptos, CA - 29.2
6. Cam Zink - Dayton, NV - 27.8
7. Kyle Strait - Redlands, CA - 27.5
8. Lluis Lacondeguy - Spain - 27.2

16. Lance McDermott - Manchester, UK - 23.8

The top 23 riders qualified, with the Godfather Wade Simmons finishing the pack and proving the the OG's still have it in em.

On the way down to the Village i spotted Timo on his way to the Red Bull dirt jumps, so we hung around and had a lil chat with him, and took advantage of his little private practice session.

The dude rips!:

After all the riding had finished we chilled out to the thumping tunes from a Whole Lotta Led who put on a classic performance.

FRIDAY//There was not much in the way of events running today, only training for the various disciplines. thus we decided to kit up and have a bit of a ride today. Nothing special, just a few rips here and there as half of the park is shutdown due to Garbanzo and Biker-x training. Here's what we got up to on Crank it up:

We had fun and had a little session on the wallrides as usual, check it out in this video:

After our bit of fun we started to make our way back to the van and ultimately the campsite, however the biker-x finals were on and i just managed to catch Jared Graves and Cedric Gracia battling it out for the top two spots. It wasn't really much of a race as Jared led from the start and seemed to have it in the bag, although Cedric wasn't giving up. He was riding with a carbon fibre support to help his broken wrist, this man meant business. A few corners from the end he took a crazy line and nipped in front of Jared, the crowd went sick watching this battle develop on the big screen. In the end Jared's line choices and super smooth riding led him to pass Cedric just two corners from the finish and take the lead. Sick race and one happy Yeti.

And here is the two podiums:

1. Jared Graves
2. Cedric Gracia
3. Mik Hannah

1. Jill Kintner
2. Fionn Griffiths
3. Leana Gerrard

That evening at the campsite many beers were drunk and lots of fun was had at other people's expense...bliss. The less is say the better i think, so here's some pics:

SATURDAY//As you can guess we all woke up a bit sheepish and with heavy heads, but on the bright side it was Slopestyle finals today woop woop!!

I took my place on the hill, proudly perched in the media section reprazenting it for dubriders with my trusty digi cam and disposable back up =) The riders seemed a bit nervous at the top; the course this year is by far the biggest and sickest seen at Crankworx, and there is no shortage of riders willing to sacrifice their bodies for glory on this fine day.

The finals ran all day, with the top 23 riders having 2 runs to prove their worth and get into the super final. This weened out even more of the boys from the men, and set us up for an awesome final at the end of the day.

Enjoy some of the shots i managed to get throughout the day, click on them to enlarge:

When all was said and done, after the blood and broken bikes had been swept up, there could only be one winner. Taking the 2006 Kokanee Crankworx title was Cameron Zink with an impressive run which included an indian air flip. It was a super close call, i think any of the top 4 guys could of taken it myself. If Cam McCaul had of landed his barspin to tailwhip he probably would of won, just like if Paul Bas had of landed his 720.. there were rumours he had a big trick ready to unleash for the winning run. It was not meant to be however, so here's the final top 8 results:

1. Cam Zink - 34.2
2. Cam McCaul - 33.2
3. Kyle Strait - 32.2
4. Ben Boyko - 32.1
5. Darren Berrecloth - 31.5
6. Ryder Kasprick - 29.3
7. Thomas Vanderham - 28.0
8. Lance McDermott - 24.4

SUNDAY//Crankworx is now winding down, most of the main events are over and some people have gone home. What's got into everyone?!? We're all fired up for the Kona Jump Jam finals... however we seemed to get sidetracked and got quite wasted. By the time we made it over to the Red Bull jumps the finals were well underway, so i missed a lot of good shots.

Due to the strong winds and high technicality of the jumps many riders seemed to be struggling to throw down the big tricks, and as such it was a two man race between Timo and Cam McCaul. At the end of the day Timo was crowned the Jump Jam Champion, and shortly after evryone packed up and went home.

CRAZY frikkin week, had loads of fun. So much for a rounded up week but there we go. Keep checking for me next update.. i've made a helmet cam!

Peace xx

the BIG update, inc CRANKWORX 06!

So i haven't updated in about two weeks now which is pretty lame, but i have been in Whistler for one of those weeks so it's not too bad. Got loads of riding in and have stepped my game up hitting bigger stuff and going faster down the trails. Having loads of fun! Gonna stay here for September as well now methinks, hopefully will get back home to some nice weather so i can ride dirt jumps on my hardtail again before the rain comes. See you all soon!

TUESDAY 18th//Spent most of the day chilling out in the hot weather, but went out for a bit of a street ride when it cooled down late in the afternoon. We didn't go out for a hardcore ride, just more of a cruise about. However we did stop off at the detox dirt jump for a lil play:


me


mike and pikey


pikey and me

So we playe don the dirt jump for a bit longer then went on our little journey around the coast of Vancouver. Here's what it looked like when we left, the sun was setting behind th emountains... sooo sweet.



And here's a vid of our dj session:


WEDNESDAY 19th//We rode Cypress today WOOHOO!! It's the first time i've ridden this mountain and i was stoked and nervous prior to the ride. It's known for being the steepest gnarliest mountain out of the 3, and one which gets ridden the least. What a day though! The sun was shining, something silly like 36 degrees or summat, but that didn't bother us. Only problem it did create was some seriously dusty trails, which made for loose riding =)

Steve's friend Sandy offered to be our shuttle bitch for the day and drive us up the mountain a few times so we can get a couple of runs in, which kicked ass! So the first run down was Wild Cherry to Roach Hit to Roach Clip. They were all a bit different in style of trail, but were all really tech and steep. Lots of rock sections, drops and steep steeps! Dusty conditions meant lots of sliding round and down stuff! Good fun though, good fun.

I tried to ride a really sketchy log drop on one of the trails. Pretty much had a tree in the way of the run in and a soft as foam run out. Crashed, ah well soft landing!



We sessioned this little gap on one of the trails for a bit, had nice tech run in and a dusty berm out.


pikey


Steve E


Me!

And here's another lil vid:


After the run down we jumped in the big red shuttle bus and went half way back up the hill to ride a trail called Family Guy. This trail kicked so much ass it's untrue. So fast and flowy but still steep and gnarly. You could just rip down it fly off the drops and double up the rock sections. All with a huge grin. Had to much fun here to take pics. Maybe next time.

Oh yeah, jew crashed and looked like this lol:



And that was that.

THURSDAY 20th//Another action packed day of bike riding! Rode Seymour today, CBC and accross to Neds Atomic Dustbin. I've not hit neds since my return to Canada so was keen to hit it up. We picked up a random dude in the car park as we had a spare seat and drove on up to the top.

Another awesome day of ripping, but it was over 2 weeks ago now so can't remeber the finer details. Check these pics out from the Gap on Neds:


me


random dude


mike


me off the drop

We got another lil video of the session too:

FRIDAY 21st//Did nothing but chill and sort me bike out.

SATURDAY 22nd//whistler baby!! This was the second day of Crankworx 06 but there weren't any decent events going on so we had a bit of a ride. Had a warm up on Dirt Merchant to World Cup Singletrack and Devils Club. Then we went up to the top and had a session on a few different trails, mainly No Joke, Original Sin and In Deep. We made sure to end up at the trailer drop so we could hit that up with speed and style...

After Garbonzo we rode some more lower mountain stuff, Schleyer was an awesome rip down, as was heart of Darkness. No pics today but here's a small video of Adam and Mike on the trailer, and Pikey on Schleyer gaping some woodwork.

SUNDAY 23rd//Today we had another big group ride shuttling up Seymour, again hitting the famous CBC trail and then on to Neds as well as another trail called bottletop. Sooooo fast and flowy, i want to ride these two trails everyday!!

I think there was a good 8 or so of us all ripping an shredding having a real blast! Another hot as fuck day means lots of dry dusty trails again, and drifting round loose rocky corners!

Some pics from Neds:

pikey

Steve

After another run down the mountain taking in trails such as Pingu to Pangor and Corkscrew, as well as bottletop again as its soooo fun. By now we were baked and knackered so we retreated to a nice little river at the base of Seymour and Chilled out.

It was so nice and relaxing being chilled out on the rocks with the fresh water flowing by. After a few hours of relaxing we packed up and headed off... but after such an awesome day we couldn't leave it at that!

Everyone was startving so we popped over to a Surf/Mexican place in North Van and pigged out. The highlight of the meal being desert =)

MONDAY 25th & TUESDAY 26th//Pretty much just bummed around getting the bikes fixed and bags packed for Wednesday!

EPIC WEEKEND!!

Well after spending the whole week sat on my ass doing nothing i was keen to get out and rip some trails on me bike. This last weekend has pretty much been my best one out here so far, we just did so much cool riding!

SATURDAY//Whistler baby yeah! Yet another Saturday spent at Whistler, and yet another one with some mechanicals. I got through two tubes and a chain, woohoo!! Ah well, it didn't dampen my spirits as it was an awesome day ripping.

We had a quick warm up run down dirt Merchant to A-line, and then went up to the very top and rode some Garbonzo! We had some rain at last a couple of days ago so the trails were all nice and tacky, just sweet for hooking up your tyres on round the turns. The first run down was pretty much Freight Train all the way, but finished off with Duff Man which i hadn't ridden yet. Was nice and tight n technical but still flowy, awesome fun.

No pics from today but heres a lil vid of me and Pikey riding some of Freight Train:



I think that was our only Garbonzo run of the day, we spent the rest of it doing lower mountain runs on Schleyer, A-line, dirt Merchant, Crabapple hits (BIG jumps), Angry Pirate and Whistler Downhill. Had to stop a couple of times to fix me bike too, but overall an awesome day pinning it real fast. Mmmmmmmmm whistler....

SUNDAY//Now here's where the epic really begins... today we paid a trip to a place called the Woodlot, which is on a mountain about an hours drive east of Vancouver. This place is pretty legendary, just as the North Shore is, so i was really amped to see what the place was like. But first was the hike up, which took well over an hour and involves walking up creek roads with toaster sized loose rocks on. Needless to say it was all well worth it, this place puts Whistler to Shame!





We had the luck of being shown around the trails here by one of the locals, big thanks to Brian for being patient with us! He showed us some awesome rides, like Blood donor, Heckle, Shotgun and one or two I cannot name. What we found though was that this place is very unlike the shore; instead of being really technical, rough and steep it was very smooth and not so many rock sections. It makes up for this by having huge commitment lines which you have to nail at high speed. I was in my element when i arrived at the top of these trails, it's like a huge set of dirt jumps traversing down a mountain with tight lines and high groomed berms.


me


pikey

This was one of the first big hits on the trail and i din't waste any time getting comfy and pulling some tricks. Here's me with a 1ft table:

Some of the trails has some really well constructed woodwork including long skinnies, rollercoasters and drops.

At the end of the last trail we rode was a drop which must of been 10ft easily. Was one of the scariest hits i've done so far, but felt awesome when i rode away still in one piece. Here's a couple more random pics:

me


pikey

This was the last big hit on the trail and proved a bit tricky to clear, as you can see from my first attempt! The guy who hits it first with style is our guide Brian:

After the immensly epic ride which took hours, we hit up an old BMX track that the Steves used to race at. It was a cool little spot, and the track looked awesome. Me pikey and steve grabbed our bikes and summed up enough energy for two laps of the track, after which we were breathing out of our asses! Was all good fun though, trying to pump whoops and ride doubles on a full squish.





And that rounds up one hell of a cool weekend. I'll leave you with a pic of a green field and Mount Baker (tis on the US border) in the background. Take it easy!

UMMMMM??

Well... not really been up to much to be honest. Monday and tuesday i spent doing sweet FA as i didn't have a seatpost in my bike after Whistler on Sat. Yesterday i was gonna go ride after getting a new post, but it rained all day and the whimps i was due to go out with cancelled on me. Great. So here i am, it's now Thursday and i can't find anyone to rip the hills with so will spend another day just soaking up the fine Canadian air. At least there isn't water falling from the sky today.

Might get out and ride tommorrow, will have to hope and see. The weekend is shaping up to be an amazing time, watch this space!

Here's a random pic of owen and his huge tackle for your entertainment:



Peace