The Rain Came Down

Ever since I was a little kid I've loved the rain. Playing in it, walking in it and especially riding my bike in it. The harder the rain drops are falling, the better. Bouncing off my forearms, following each other down the streams of sweat on my body. The ground rolls beneath me so fast. The air feels so different. Seemingly thickening to the point of suspending me amongst the accentuated incense of sage brush. Standing still. Gyrating in slow motion, witnesseing myself from any point of view other than my own two eyes. Studying the greens and browns, glistening, bouncing off this pseudo-canvas around me. Quietly, Following the raindrops back to the ground. Fighting the ground, so slippery, untill the end of the path. I find riding in the rain really intense. I'm not sure it's something that can be described, maybe you can only feel it? In any case, we have been treated to a half week of monsoon-esque weather patterns here in Kamloops. I spent alot of time getting soaked while shooting photos in the midst of the downpour. Some you can see, others are for secret projects, but I wish I could show them all. Its been a blast. Here's to hoping the dust doesn't make it's return too soon!

RIO RIO RIO

Although easter weekend was only one month ago it feels like a year to me. Time sure does fly when your having fun! On easter I filmed the lower half of the Rio trail with Brock Anderson, he made a short video but had a TON of other footage waiting to be used. After going to Kelowna for his May Long and filming a local K-Town shredder named Mike, Broc threw together a video of both of us mixed up to one of the sweet new metric songs. I know time is flying because watching this video feels like a walk back in time. Just realizing how fast time is moving, I am now really excited to see how the rest of the season comes along. Chairlifts, contest, more shredding... it's all just aroudn the corner and I can't wait. Here is the video!

http://vimeo.com/4748374

May long - no injuries hooray!

We had such a good time riding Kelowna a couple weeks ago, that we decided to go back again this past weekend, for round two. There is just so much good riding there, and still a few trails that I haven't ridden yet. The trails in Oliver have been on my "to do" list for a couple years now and this weekend we were finally able to line it up with the help of Johnny Smoke and Barb. Our group of 30+ made it a bit hard to keep any sort of flow on the trail, but it was still amazing. Lots of fun, fast, flowy, steep, rocky goodness to be had. We finished off the weekend by riding an area in Kelowna called Crawford - and a trail called "Vapour". I've been wanting to do that trail for a year now - I missed out on it last year due to a sprained ankle from the Powers Creek gap. That trail was so fun, we ended up doing it 4 times in a row! It was awesome!
I'm also pretty stoked that I was able to push past some mental blocks on a trail on Gillard - there were a few stunts that I haven't done because the last time I was there, May long two years ago, I ended up breaking my wrist. The stunts are small, but it's just been one of those things that have been hard to get my head around.
So, for the next while I think I will be spending a bunch of time up on the hill digging and flagging, playing on the trampoline, maybe convincing old man Dylan to teach me some tricks. Must plan my next adventure....
till next time -
marcie

Where the Mountains Have No Names

I've been recently discovering that I have a problem. I am riding my bikes so often that I don't have time to do anything else! Even such tasks as writting E mails or washing my clothes are taking a back seat. I am in no way complaining, though. I am having a blast every day. Although I haven't been working on anything new I am deffinitely getting better. My focus has been to get all of my tricks dialled to the point that I can do them on any style of jump, anytime. That way I can be super effecient on shoots and hopefully I'll be able to ride solidly in a few contests this summer! I've been spending a ton of time on the trails as well, just shredding and even riding a bit of X to the C with Jayber, our bad-ass-canmore-import-mechanic. Just this May long weekend I was invited by Marcie to go to Kelowna and shred some epic downhill trails. It turned out the trails were actually in small town called Oliver, and the trails were actually beyond Epic. Johnny Smoke showed us the way to the top of the longest shuttle drive I have ever taken part in, only to blow my mind with not 1, but 2 4500 foot descents coated with fast loamy corners and technical steep shoots. Addding to the excitement, I got to meet the legendary Brett Tippie right before we dropped in. We hit it off pretty quick and I had a blast shredding with the guy, he was super fun and probbaly the funniest dude I've met. Also, I stumbled across Dan Barham shortly before the ride started who I hadn't seen since I wrecked my shoulder last year. Somewhere between Old School Schredders and British Photographers, Hearing the loam corners explode beneath my tires and smelling the sage brush burn in the summer heat, I had, Hands down, the single most amazing bike ride of my life. Thanks so much to Marcie for inviting me along for the ride, and Smoke for letting me shred his top secret Nuggets.

Unicorn style tree hugging

This weekend the Unicorn 5000 was the season opener for me and I have to say it was a killer first race in an already unbelievable season. The conditions started out loamy and tacky but quickely progressed to good old Kamloops dust, which suited me fine. I got my order of tires in 2 days before and threw on a pair of Maxxis 2.5" 3C front Minions, which were a huge improvement and allowed me to hold corners like never before on the new bike. Much delightful drifting was had and the only thing to slow the pace was the occasional tree, which left my knuckles and my Dainese with a few additional scars. I had a few good slams in training too which left the old body achy, but overall the lungs and the legs sought the greatest recovery. What a burner! With times in the mid to high 5 minute range and a few extended sprinting sections the body was feeling it! Somehow I managed to engage a second wind near the bottom and hammer down the flat finish section, but after I came through timing I was dizzy as hell and having trouble standing. It's always good to have a burner first race to give you a picture of where you are at and what you need to work on, and this race was perfect in that way. I ended up 6th in open men which I was not all that happy with, but the race afforded me a good picture of what I did well and where improvements are due, so the season continues in a positive fashion. All things considered the weekend was an amazing time with a super fun and flawlessly run event, great weather, lots of riding and good friends coming together from all over for the first time this year. Many thanks to Cheryl, Taylor and all the volunteers for all their good planning and hard work. Much love, see you on the trail!
J

Unicorn!

such a sick weekend at harper for the Unicorn 5000! huuge thanks to cheryl and taylor and everyone else for setting it up and getting everything perfect, tons of shuttle trucks, short waits, chill vibe, raddd contitions and tons of prizes for everyone. way to good! heres a couple photos Allan McVicar took of Deon, Korb, Me, my friend from Merritt Mattias and others as well.

Fresh like Ugh, at Jordies Fresh Air event

The best comp I have ever been a part of! So much fun, the best vibes, everyone killing it hard! Soo stoked to see everyone destroy. Not suprising but Brandon came first, ahaha, he was retrded today, getting rad for sure. Then it was the claw, defenitly killing it hard, claw style! 3rd was eric lawrenuk... wow he was impressive today, and the most fun to watch the entire weekend! Kids a awesome. He stomped 2 three dwnside whips in a row in mid set! shredding!!!! I ended up in fourth, riding hard, doing some cool things, trying new things.. I had a blast! suuuper sore, but loving life right now. Rounding out top 5 was Goldman, such a rad dude, suuper unique riding style, absolute killer! There will be more stories told and adventures to hear soon on the internet near you; tonight we party hard with bros! loving life right now! ill be down here for a few more days doing some shooting, but ill be back in town asap!

talk to you soon homies, and good luck to all yall at the Unicorn 5000!!!!

Aggy

Just a video still from filming with Aaron, Sneek peak of how epic our shoot was!

Filming Wrapped Up!

For the past week and a bit I've been straining myself out super hard, working on a video segment for Aaron Larock's new movie "What's Next?" Aaron is a super cool dude and it was lots of fun to have him at my house for a while. Every day we would get up before the sun and go shred hard, then go to work, then shred more after work, then review footage and try to catch some sleep! We did a few trips to Merritt to shoot some jumps that i thought would be really fun. We ended up getting awesome shots in Merritt, but I also took one of the hardest spills I've ever had on one of Vanderham's Hips from the movie Seasons, those things are BIG! When we were finally done filming last week I felt super accomplished, as well as a bit relieved! It feels nice to have a huge project out of the way, and more time for shooting photos/ just plain fun cycling. Feeling pretty run down last week, I decided a short break from riding was in order. I'd ridden 33 days in a row and most of those days included rides before and after work, so it was starting to catch up with me. I took Friday and Saturday off and then ended up riding some new jumps in my Ryan Simmons' back yard. He is Wade Simmons' brother and happens to live down the street from me. He is pretty stoked on making awesome jumps in the yard so all the Barnhartvale neighborhood locals such as Hunter, Taylor, the Coopers and myself were hard into the help. So far the jumps are super tight and mega fun! I'm hoping May is just as exciting as April, and maybe just a little less busy! My big project for this month is to finish the jumps in my yard, but there will be lots of other stuff going on so look foward to news and photos!

trails

Matt and I went up harper the other day and did a few laps and he took some sick pictures. These are two of the better ones.