Thursday, September 8, 2011
Sun Peaks Silvia web edit
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Silvia Coaching Edit
On a chairlift ride part way through filming with Silvia on Wednesday we were discussing our goals of what we were trying to communicate through the edit and how we were going to express them. As well as discussing what I wanted to show with my riding, what kind of shots we were looking for and where this collaboration would come to fruition, we also talked about what riding is to me, the impact that the resort has had on me as a rider and how much of a role coaching plays for me in my relationship with bike riding. We concluded that coaching is such a major part of riding life for me that it would be cool to include some of my riding protégés in the edit to add some color, differentiate it from all the other edits out there and give the younger Café riders some exposure. As Karl and I had Saturday off I suggested that we bring 10 yr. old Café shredder Jackson Philips along to shoot on the weekend. Over the next two days it turned out that 14 yr. old Café slayer Tristan Klasaut was also available and stoked to shoot, so we added him to the roster. On Saturday morning upon arriving at Sun Peaks we found my longest standing riding protégé, 14 yr. old Liam Stevens, up from Rossland with his dad. After some short discussion Liam was added to the stacked Limitless Racing / Café line-up. It was really fun and refreshing to get to film with the three of them that day as they all ride savagely, have a ton of energy and truly love riding for what it is. As well, I have been coaching both the Café boys for the last 3 years and Liam for the last 5 years so it is really cool to see them progressing as riders and growing as individuals. The boys were equally stoked for the opportunity and I heard more than once that filming with Silvia was fulfilling dreams, so I was pretty happy to have them there. Unfortunately Matty was still down for the count from his crash on Wednesday, so Karl had to fly solo, manning two cameras and one extra heavy pack for the whole day. We rode in a train, for the first run hitting Gummy Bear to Sweet One and then later shredding a Steam Shovel / Route 66 / Steam Shovel to the Jump Park. It was definitely a creative challenge to capture four riders down a piece of trail but Karl was up for the challenge and the shots I caught a glimpse of were rather epic. For singletrack sections we rode with myself at the helm followed by Liam, Tristan and Jacky. Jacky stayed pretty much right on our tail despite being on 24” wheels and eating clouds of dust, and Karl made good effect of it. I felt bad but then I did hike both our bikes up most of the steep sections - such is the life of the youngest rider. The boys were all pinned and looking good, their speed keeping up with their excitement levels and their front tires just off the rear tire ahead of them. When we left the singletrack to find some air we switched up the order. It was super fun to be part of the pack and just play all over the hill. Over the wooden creek gap four-pack on Sweet One Jacky led and we sessioned for a good while before moving on. The jump looked gigantic with a ten-year old sailing across it so it made for good effect (I apologize for the poor iPhone picture quality).
We sessioned a number of other sections on the hill while constantly looking for new angles on things and then headed down to the Jump Park. We split up into two groups, with Trist and Liam sending the dirt jump to step down with style and myself training Jacky over the first jump in the Pro Line. As it was the end of the day and we were getting tired, after a couple runs through we called it and ran a massive train down the Bikercross to the bottom of the hill. With big smiles on our faces high-fives were exchanged and then we said our goodbyes, packed up and parted ways. Many thanks to Karl Heldt of Silvia Productions (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Silvia/149128011826656) for another epic day of filming. Not a bad day, considering the night previous I hosted my going away party at my house and had 2 hours sleep…
I am now off in Lyon, France for at least the rest of the year and if I get to post it won't be of the Kamloops dirt I love and miss. I wish all the best to my friends and Cafe teammates over the fall and can't wait to go for a rip when I return! All the best!
J
Matty Miles Slaying!
Sun Peaks Silvia Edit Shredfest
After my grassland shoot with Rick Hanchard I thought that I was in good enough shape to get back on my downhill bike, so that weekend I headed up to Sun Peaks to meet up with Café rippers Jackson Phillips and Keenan Kovacs amongst others for a day of fun. It was sooo good to be back on my DH bike after 3 weeks off the Glory and the boys were all shredding so I was well and truly happy. I felt good enough to try to get some more filming in so I called up the Silvia boys and set up 2 more days of shooting that week. Matty, Karl and I shot a solid day on Tuesday, filming one run of Barn Burner / Mach / Spicy Taco / Wagon Wheel and the Bikercross over 3.5 hours before I had to head to town for my last night of work.
On my bike I was fairly pinned but I felt a little off balance and lacking focus. As such I had a couple near-death moments, getting in over my head coming into sections fast and not thinking far enough ahead. On a wide-open section of mach I hit a fade away corner into a stump drop chicane on a completely new line, drifting to scrubbing the stump and landing hot on the inside of the next corner before slashing out… definitely a first, and possibly a last. I like to earn my speed by being smart and riding well, but on this day I seemed to have the throttle wide open regardless. Hopefully it resulted in some good shots but really I am happy I walked away in one piece.
That night was my last night of bartending at the Noble Pig before my trip to France, so from filming I was a little tired but I walked away from that night a free bird. We shot again on Wednesday, joined by my friend Royce Sihlis on stills, and put in a solid 5.5 hour day as I had my first completely free evening. For the first run we shot a warm up of sorts down Steam-shovel to the Bikercross before heading towards some more serious terrain on Kaboom to Honeydrop for the second run. Honeydrop is my favorite run and was amazing to ride but exhausting to film.
We shot it in 5 sections, shooting each section 5-6 times, so needless to say it involved a lot of hiking. The s-berms on the face we shot to death until we decided that it wasn’t possible to ride any faster. On my last run down the section I powered a berm, got hot in the next corner and then couldn’t make the following turn. Unfortunately Royce was entrenched right in the spill out zone so I hit the tree beside him and had to bear-hug it to avoid sailing into oblivion. On one of the lower sections Karl caught a moment where I slashed off the side of a rock face to get direction into a following corner and in the process sent a rock flying, illuminated directly by the sun... Definitely a shot I am looking forwards to seeing in the edit. By the bottom of Honeydrop I was so spent I could barely stay on my bike so we called it a day and headed down to the jump park so Matty could get some shots in the low light. My god that boy can lay it out, to the point that he has coined his own style… done right they are no longer Fairclough whips, they are Matty Miles whips. New appreciation for that style of whips for sure. Unfortunately Matty threw it so far sideways on his last jump that he took it to the ground on landing, and though he was ok, his day way done. I got to ride from there down with his full pack and I have new appreciation for the weight the boys cart around while riding from shot to shot during a day of filming.
Many thanks to Matt Miles and Karl Heldt of Silvia Productions (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Silvia/149128011826656) and Royce Sihlis of Royce Sihlis Photography (www.roycesihlis.ca) for their creative collaboration, hard work and mad skills behind the lense. Keep your eyes peeled for the Silvia edit, coming soon.
