Kinda kool

thought this was pretty tweet

http://www.lifecyclesfilm.com/blog/loops-getting-aggy

Techy Goodness

At one point I rode fast onto a green rock slab and realized too late that green means stop in rainforest, not go. Another lesson for the desert invader, green means not only beware but be very, very slippery. After we made it back down to Ned’s we decided to ride out to Bryson’s instead of back to the car. Another mistake. By that point in the evening it was getting very cold, and over the long trek back up through the slush from the bottom of Seymour to the other side of Fromme all our heat was given away to the damp night and my back decided that it was going to start rejecting all the punishment. We made it back in varying stages of hypothermia yet holding high spirits, and when we got back to the coffee shop after retrieving it was love once again. No hard feelings, all in the spirit of adventure.

Thursday the trio of myself, Jen and Bryson met up again for some Cypress laps and I was excited. So far in my North Shore adventures Cypress had offered up the steepest, gnarliest and most tech runs, and Mother Cypress was not keen to disappoint. I was also in for a surprise. The first run we hit Chery Bomb to Pilsener. They were right what I was looking for, serving up Cypress’ grittiest offerings. I was hot on Bryson’s tail and despite some trail diversions the wrong way around trees and scary blind root complications I remained in tact. Our fearless leader again had to pioneer some lines for me to understand how to they were possible to ride, but this time I was up to the challenge. I had a ton of fun and learned a lot by watching and pushing my limits. My body began to protest again, especially when we hit a lower trail with lots of NS style roll drops to short flattish landings. Further down I came off one a bit awkwardly, jarring my already stiff back, and it was the beginning of the end for me. For the second run we hit Mystery DH, and it was bloody good. The first half was like a sped up version of what we had been riding earlier in the morning and the bottom part was, dare I say, Kamloops-esque? The trail became super high speed with constantly flowing drifty turns, but by that point I had to take in the reigns as my seizing back decided enough was enough.

My trip was a ton of fun. I got to explore a bunch of new trails, dial in my riding, increase my confidence, learn a lot and get to see a ton of friends. I most likely won’t get to go back for a good while, but whenever that happens I am sure it will be good. All the best.

J

Budget Stretchin' Love

So lately we have been making the absolute most of the skinny piggy bank, stretching every last half-penny to the max and loving every section of trail I can find. Last week I had a couple shreds down Rio that were mindblowing. With all the rain the dirt was moist but had dried up just enough to be superman tacky. That trail puts a grin on your face in the moon dust, but on tacky soil it is euphoric. Gets a little scary how fast you can go actually.
Last weekend I spent down in Van and got to ride a bunch of Mt. Seymour, which was muddy and delightful. Coming from the desert, it is hard to fathom how much the trails are shaped by water, and just how gnarly they can get once the majority of the dirt is gone leaving just rock and crazy roots. My speed arrived with me before my full focus did, and being that I was on new trails the results involved three pretty heavy crashes. On one I was leading, putting down a solid pace, and just after I thought to myself that I was pushing pretty hard I came around a corner and there was a downed tree sticking off the side of the trail on my line at ankle height. I cut hard to avoid the tree but my pedal caught it and I was sent over hard. These sorts of things just don’t seem to happen in Kamloops where you can look further ahead and be fairly confident that there aren’t going to be rogue dead heads unheeded around the next bend. Or maybe I should just slow the pace until my I have my full focus on new trails…

Seymour Gnardeath

Did a few lesser known trails that seriously pushed my idea of what was rideable on a bike. Like trying corner on wet offcamber rock with cliffs below you to wallride across steep waterfalls around trees and over their wet roots to hip drop into a gnarly creekbed runout. Unreal. When your mind isn't used to percieving something as rideable, even in the absense of fear it is interesting trying to figure out what to do. And riding everything blind at speed doesn't help either. A few lines I had to stop to try and comprehend how I was going to proceed, and luckily on one of them that I actually thought wasn't rideable I was out with Mr. Bryson who showed me how they do it in North Van. There is so much rock and so many roots down there, everything is at some stage of creekbed, and there are no off-trail runout options anywhere if you screw up. Despite how un-Kamloops it may sound the trails were super fun. I love challenge, variety and having the opportunity to learn, so with those things in mind North Van served up the perfect new kind of meal. I am back now and trying to let the poor body recover, but for next week I am planning another trip down, so hopefully there will be plenty more trails and a bit less carnage, coming soon.
Much love.
J

DEBO!!

Deon Gibson from Matt Miles on Vimeo.

Good Day

So we are counting inventory at the store this week. Its lots and lots of counting, definitely not the most exciting task. Just when we were feeling blue, local movie star and shred rat Matt Hunter came in looking for a bike box so that he could mail a frame away to a friend. We had just the right size box Matty was looking for and he was stoked! He even stopped to talk for a minute and tell us about the progress he has been making on building his very own cabin! Pretty cool!

What's Next? Seggy

Aaron Larock's movie "What's Next?" is now available on the internet for free at www.pinkbike.com. Watch the full film or check out my segment below.

shortie

matt and ian came down today and me and matt got in a little less than an hour of shooting..hopefully a follow up with some shock biking will happen before the snow comes..here it is

lukebeers from Matt Miles on Vimeo.

Sun Peaks Promotional Shooting

You can probably guess that Sun Peaks Resort is my favourite place to ride since my blog posts are always talking about the place. I have been scrounging the west coast for a few years and still haven't found another place where I can get in so many different styles of riding in one day, so easily, and it's so damn close to home! Not to mention the killer scene around the resort. It gets me filled up but I always want more. As a result of how much time I spend there I get the oppourtunity to participate in a lot of cool media projects. One of the more fun projects this summer was spending a day shooting with Adam Stein. Adam runs a photo bizz with the resort, pumping out images for the resort to use for various promotional purposes such as their website, posters, billboards etc. I was stoked to bag a few solid color-filled summertime shred photos with Adam back in early August. Take a gander at some of the photos they have been kind enough to pass along to me!

All photos Adam Stien, Sun Peaks Resort, B.C. Canada.

Vancouver Shredtastic

Last weekend was a delicious feast for the soul. I have been trying for a while to get down to the coast to do some riding but last weekend I was finally able to coerce the schedule into allowing for such a trip, and I dragged the empty bank account along for the ride. This meant an absolutely survivalist budget, but I managed to get a fair bit of riding in and had a blast in the process.
I got down there on Saturday and the weather was decidedly fair, being about 15 degrees and sunny when I arrived which was a bit of a surprise, coming from -2 and cloudy in Kamloops. Once I dropped my bags we proceeded directly to Seymour to sample the local goods. The first trail we hit was CBC, and it was an intriguing little monster indeed. For those who haven't ridden it, it is like riding a raised bridge made completely of rocks... like a mini roman cobblestone road, only for bikes. Strange indeed, but it was nice to have my wheels rolling under me anyways. I was a little tentative about the flat drops on the wrist, but after a little testing I concluded it was good to pin it, so pin it I did. From CBC we headed to Ned's, and it was a blast. I had some pent up not riding aggression to get out, and despite not having ridden the trail before hit it at pretty much full speed. Such fun. Ned’s was fast and pretty tech so I was in my element, and a smile didn’t leave my face. When we got to the bottom we decided to go sample some dirt jumps just up the mountain and they were equally delicious. After a few partial runs through the slightly uneven main 10 pack I felt pretty good and happy to be in the air, finding my dj flow again on my dh. I love dirt jumping.
Sunday we decided to go hit the Woodlot and it was even better than Seymour. The push up was a bit interesting over pretty much a rocky creek bed but it was definitely worth the effort for the long ride down. We met up with a random crew of locals once we got to the top and decided to use their local knowledge to find the best lines. I can’t remember the names of all the trails we hit but they were so much fun it was ridiculous. The trails were tacky, super flowing and tech with tons of corners, so I was pretty much in heaven and got a little rowdy in my excitement. I had a bunch of close calls diving blind into corners with random stumps hiding behind ferns until finally punched a tree hard enough to mangle my knuckles on one side. Ah well. One of the bottom trails had a sweet little line with two opposing hips before a pump turn and a big gap over a fallen tree, with a nice tight corner just after the landing. The first time I overshot by a fair bit and had to pull out a nice slash save into the corner, but after that we sessioned it for a while, getting it super dialed and it was quite amusing. When we got to the bottom we all had perma-grins on our faces and the reggae beat helped us keep the vibe all the way home.
For bang for the buck, my trip last weekend takes it hands down. Despite riding 2 days in a row, eating like a king and going out 1 night, I managed to spend less than 20 bucks the whole weekend and got to spend a lot of quality time with friends and family. Tomorrow I am heading back with 14 bucks to my name, but luckily have a pay cheque on direct deposit for Friday so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Pack up the cooler, another excellent adventure awaits.
Peace, love and respect.
J