It’s a gray, rainy day here in Ontario, Canada and I’m sitting in a very comfortable broken-down Lazy Boy at my girl’s parent’s place typing these words and admiring the view of the lake. When we got up this morning the rain was horizontal and Jada and I were stoked – although the riding in this part of Ontario is far from epic (in fact, it’s the opposite of epic!) we have been riding every day for the past three days and now we’re both tired and happy to have a break from the bikes.
So today is to be a lazy, coffee-drinking, movie-watching, contemplative blog-writing kind of a day and there’s no place I’d rather be than right here in my Lazy Boy!
I’ve just finished my second breakfast - delicious French Toast courtesy of The Cheese Monster (a.k.a. Jada) with locally produced maple syrup that is unlike anything you’ve ever tried (unless you’re Canadian I guess) - and I thought I would take this opportunity to do my twice-yearly Blog update!
(To my one loyal reader I will endeavour to update this blog more regularly - sorry!).
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I have been in Canada now since the 5th of August, so nearly 7 weeks – and what a full-on 7 weeks it has been.
WHISTLER
I kicked my trip off by heading straight to Whistler as soon as I arrived. I ended up having a pretty full-on time in Whistler, shooting Crankworx all week, shooting for Specialized US and getting to meet Matt Hunter and Darren Berrecloth, crashing my brains out and spending all of my money within the first three days…
CRANKWORX
Crankworx was full-on. Despite having seen footage from this event numerous times over the years to see it with your own two eyes is mind-boggling.
No doubt about it, the stand-out events for me were the Slopestyle - you simply can’t comprehend how gnarly the Slopestyle course is until you see it with your own two eyes! The only thing that was more impressive than the gnarliness of the course and the skill of the dudes throwing down on it was how the very same dudes would pick themselves up and brush themselves off after an equally massive stack. Like when Brandon Semenuk under-rotated a super slow back-flip on the final 40 foot step-down and landed pretty much on his head.
Brandon was actually unconscious for a while I think and there were some very concerned moments, but then this hard-as-nails kid pulled himself together and managed to walk his bike off the course. And Semenuk was just one of many to eat shit on a massive scale and walk away from it during qualifications and finals.
Berrecloth broke a bone in his hand when he got nose-heavy during a 360 off the same feature and apparently got it re-set on site without anaesthetic because he had a fishing trip he didn’t want to miss out on!
If you ever get a chance to be in Whistler for Crankworx, don’t miss out on watching the Slopestyle – it really is mountain biking on a level you have never seen before!
MISTAKE #1
On the first night I arrived in Whistler I made the mistake of building my bike up while drinking beer and only did my pedals up finger tight.
By the time I realized, a couple of days later, I had totally stripped out the pedal thread on my drive side crank and ended up forking out $300 Canadian for a pair of super heavy Race Face Ride DH cranks. These cranks are 170mm long but are so cheap that they use the same cast moulding as the 175mm version, which means that you get an extra 5mm of un-needed metal sticking out below your pedals to catch rocks etc.
But they are solid and they do the job – and more importantly, they were the cheapest cranks I could find in Whistler. Unfortunately I couldn't afford any more excess baggage charges so the original XT crankset that came with my 2010 Enduro went into the nearest rubbish bin.
MISTAKE #2
So, after spending a very frustrating morning using the free tools outside the Garbanzo Bike & Bean (the bike shop at the bottom of the Gondola in Whistler Village) I finally got the cranks on my bike and I was ready to ride…
The Garbanzo Chair was closed for practice for the Garbanzo DH and so I rode the lower mountain and ended up riding a blue intermediate trail I had never ridden before. First run of the day and I was anxious to make up for lost time…I was pushing a bit hard on a trail I didn’t know and washed out the front wheel on a big sweeping left hander.
It wasn’t a gnarly crash but it was sudden and the ground was rock-hard. I took big chunks out of both my knees (my 661 pads had stretched a huge amount since I bought them the previous summer and didn’t do much of a job of staying on, or protecting my knees) and also tweaked my left wrist.
I did another 3 or 4 runs after that but my knees were killing me and it wasn’t much fun – especially pedaling. So I packed it in for the day.
I shot the Garbanzo DH race later that day and by this time my wrist was so sore I had trouble supporting the weight of my telephoto lens. After a couple of hours spent crouching in the same position taking photos I could barely walk down the hill at the end of the day (riding was out of the question). By this time my left knee was hot and had swollen to the size of a small rock melon. I knew it was probably infected and had also begun to suspect that my left wrist was fractured (the dreaded word “Scaphoid” kept popping into my head).
After a late night visit to the Whistler Medical Centre and forking out NZ$2000 I emerged with my left wrist splinted and suspected of having a fracture, and my left knee heavily bandaged.
Luckily my wrist improved rapidly and as far as anybody could tell wasn’t fractured. The swelling in my knee also went down quickly, although I had taken a sizable chunk out of my right knee and it would be a while before I could wear knee-pads without bandages and a fair bit of pain.
So, within a few days I was back on the bike, although I wasn’t exactly charging round like a madman. Even now, 7 weeks later, my left wrist still isn’t 100% yet, although it seems to be slowly getting stronger and is fine for riding.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE…
Anyway, the day after I crashed I shot the launch of the new 2011 Specialized gravity bikes for Specialized US. I was stoked to be asked to shoot for one of the biggest (and arguably the best) mountain biking manufacturers in the world. The 2011 Specialzied Gravity range looks amazing – if you haven’t seen them yet check them out online!
In particular the new Demo 8, the Enduro Evo and the new SX caught my eye…I haven’t uploaded photos yet but as soon as I get the ok from Specialized I will post low res pix.
I was also stoked to be able to check out some riding outside the Bike Park during my time in Whistler – the all mountain riding in Squamish, and the “No Flow Zone” near Alpine Meadows were just two of the highlights. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ride as much as I would have liked in Whistler because I was injured some of the time, but I will be back…there is just so much awesome riding in this area!
Right, Jada just got back and it’s time to chill out on the couch and watch a movie. But when I get back I will continue with Mont Sainte Anne and the World Champs and finally get this blog kind of up to date. I’ll be back…
