When I was in Whistler during Crankworx, I met Katherine Short at a picnic table in front of the lift. She took most of the bench up and I sat on the edge to eat my pizza. She said she didn't see me. Right. I ended up taking the lift up with her and her dad. Later, I showed her my shots of her from the Garbanzo race that day and she invited me to come shoot on the Sunshine Coast with Kristen Smart. I had to make it happen.

One morning, I left Whistler on a Greyhound bus for a two hour ride to Horseshoe Bay. Then, I took a ferry across the water to the peninsula where I'd get on a public transit bus. I got off the ferry and asked where the bus to Sechelt arrives. Two different people laughed at me before I realized it's pronounced Sea-chelt, not Se-chelt. I got on the right bus and about an hour later, asked the driver if we were at the main terminal in town (it looked more like a regular bus stop) . He said it was and that it was the last stop. I was in the right place. I looked around for Katherine without knowing what car to look for and I soon saw some girl waving at me. It was Katherine with another random photographer that she had met on the ferry a few days before. He was James Looker, a photographer with a background in shooting mostly portraits that had recently started shooting more sports.

We got in her red Ranger and were off to her house. During the drive, I learned that we were camping on an island that night. Good thing I brought two backpacks of camera stuff and a few clothes. Luckily, her mom was really nice and let me borrow a blanket to sleep on. Kristen Smart, Jamie Biluk and Nick Dent were going meet us at the house. Two other random new friends of Katherine's came along, Ben Shaw and Adam Gambell.

I brought my camera with my do-it-all 30mm Sigma lens, my really wide Sigma 10-20mm lens, beer, board shorts, a towel, a blanket and a change of clothes in my small backpack down to a dock where we waited for a water taxi to pick us up. After a short ride, we got out on the shore of Thormanby island. I was shocked at how warm the water was. I thought being so far north, it would be freezing, but it seemed warmer than Santa Barbara. Is it the currents? That evening, we went swimming and had a camp fire with hot dogs. It was such fun night after traveling all day and shooting most days in Whistler prior.

When I woke up in a blanket, in the sand, I was kind of hungover, but I was on the Sunshine Coast. There's worse ways to start a trip at a new place. We went for a morning swim, then took the water taxi back and had an awesome breakfast at her house before we went shooting the rest of the day. My new business cards have a shot of Kristen from that day. We shot a bunch the next few days as well, before I went back to whistler for 2 days ...well, attempted to (but that's another story). It was probably the best time I've had in BC, especially with new, random friends. Huge thanks to Katherine's parents, Jill and Laurie for everything!

Check out the rest of the shots in the gallery -
11.08.19 - Thormanby Island

Here's a little preview of my photos from the past few weeks which have been crazy. I stayed in whistler for two and half weeks after Crankworx to shoot and then went to the sunshine coast for a few days to shoot there with Katherine Short and Kristen Smart. Ever since I got home, I've been trying to finish some design projects and a photo project that's taken way too long to edit. I've been trying to go through my shots from Canada, but a computer with hard drives that over 95 percent full barely works.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Interbike, so I'll to have to get caught up after that. If you see some kid with a camera and small backpack that is hopping around or attempting to walk in the showroom, it's probably me. Say hi. This afternoon, I did a little gap over a planter while riding my bmx bike. I heard a not-so-good sound as I landed. Then, my foot hit the ground and I fell over. photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_pat/6141107373/in/photostream

For the past week, I was in Mammoth getting some more snowboard shots before the season ends. Though, I'm not sure when the season will actually end because we had a multi day snow storm while I was there and it's May. I heard another storm is expected. This trip, I met a bunch of people, did some fun riding while it dumped, sweated with friends from spicy wings & Chuck Norris sauce at Grumpy's, took some banger photos, got a ridiculous looking sunburn under my chin from shooting the step up in the park for 6 hours and have some spots we didn't have time for, that we're going to shoot next season.

Saturday afternoon, I made it to the Mammoth Yosemite airport way ahead of time (unlike last time...). Instead of using a machine to print a boarding pass or printing one before I got there, I showed the person at the counter the pdf boarding pass on my phone. They accepted it and printed me one with checked baggage stickers on the backside. When I got to LAX, I showed them my second boarding pass in the pdf when I had to take a terminal transfer bus to another terminal and then when I boarded the second plane, to San Jose. It seems to work.

On every plane I've been on, I've been able to stuff my F-Stop Satori photo backpack into the overhead compartment as long as I had no tripods in it (on smaller compartments) and no shovel blade or anything in the outer-most two pockets, except the little plane out of Mammoth. In the rotary plane from Mammoth to LAX, it didn't fit in the overheard compartment, but it fit under the seat in front of mine (third photo). The second plane I took, was about the same size, but had jet engines. It fit in that overhead compartment, but barely.

Photos from the trip to come!

Here's a few shots from the afternoon that I flew from Mammoth / Yosemite airport to San Francisco. It's the smallest airport I've ever been to, but they spent more time going through my camera bag and x-raying it more than any other airport I've been to. Though, it definitely has the nicest view.

After SIA, my plan was to go to Salt Lake City with some friends on their way back to shoot snowboarding and do some riding. That was my whole plan ...I wasn't really sure how long I would be there, the places I would stay, who exactly I would shoot with, and where. I ended up staying in Salt Lake and Park City for about a week and a half. I shot natural powder stuff, street stuff and even rode for someone else testing a camera for photographyreview.com .

Here's a few shots of the older part of downtown where my hotel was the last few days. Check out the gallery here: Salt Lake City photos. Snowboard photos will be up soon!

Today, I rode my snowboard for the first time this season, at Heavenly. It was raining, then snowing and pretty windy the whole time, but I didn't care because I was snowboarding. The mountain ended up closing at 2 when it started dumping, but I got some good runs in. Hopefully I can shoot some snowboarding while I'm up here.

Two weeks ago, I was in Santa Cruz to do some shoots. I shot with Josh Maurer (took photo 2: me shooting in a tree), Andrew Taylor, John Hauer, Josh Toland and Jack Fogelquist. I left covered in poison oak as usual... but it was worth it. My friend, Jon, said I should put "willing to stand in poison oak for the shot" on my resume.

I'll have some new galleries up soon!

After Crankworx, things slowed down a bit, but I still found myself running around to ride and shoot constantly. I did a bunch of shoots with riders and came home with so many bangers. A few days after Crankworx, my downhill bike started to get pretty clapped out. The pivots had 4mm of play and the seam on my borrowed rear wheel was splitting. My dh bike lasted until the day before I left. I was riding really fast and having so much fun on my first run. On my second run, the rear wheel died at the top of A-Line, making my tube flat and I had a frustrating ride to the bottom... I was meeting people for a photo shoot at noon, so I just got my hardtail (with the 75mm fork and street tires). We did some runs and then shot photos later in the afternoon when there was better light. Needless to say, it was pretty rough on that bike up top.

The day I was leaving, I met up with Ryan De La Rue for a shoot at 10am, right when the lift opened. We didn't have much time because my bus to Vancouver was leaving at 1:30, but we got awesome shots. By the time we finished the shoot and I got back to my place, I had half an hour to finish packing and pack up the hardtail. I got it all packed, brought it all down from the third level and into the suburban taxi to bus stop. I made it there with about three minutes to spare.

Once, I got to the Vancouver Amtrak station, I brought everything inside and got in the customs line.... I waited in line for 15 minutes with my two bike boxes, pelican case and bags up by the front of the line, ready to go. Once I got to the second spot from first in the line, I realized I was missing my bike check ticket. No problem, right? I just had to walk 10 feet and pull it out of my backpack. I got back in line and some old guy accused me of cutting the line. The security guard believed him and told me to have some respect. ...So I had to stand in line a second time. "Thanks asshole!" After the whole ordeal, I made it on the train with everything ...well except my two mangos because they were imported from Mexico (...that's where the US imports them from). Once on the train, I went up to the lounge car to get a few beers to chill out after all that bullshit. The train's liquor license was through Washington, so I couldn't buy beer even though we had at least 2 hours until we'd arrive at the border.

I spent the night in Seattle and would take the 8:45 train back to Santa Barbara. I guess I was tired because after going back to sleep after two separate wake up calls, I woke up at 8:12... I checked out and got a taxi to the train station. I had a few minutes to spare. The one problem was that there wasn't enough time to get my two bike boxes that I had checked at the station overnight onto the train. They'd be put on the same train the next day, which was fine. I made it onto the train with everything else which was good.

Thirty-seven'ish hours later, I arrived in Santa Barbara. My friend Adrian picked me up and we went to get some Chinese food at a really good hole-in-the-wall place. He waited in the truck while I was waiting for the food. Then, he come over to me and said he found my bmx bike that had been stolen right before I left for Whistler. It was across the street, under the stairs at a small apartment/triplex. He said a sketchy gangster kid rode up on it. I didn't want to get my ass kicked by some 15 year old gangsters, so I ended up calling the cops. One car came, then another (3 or 4 cops). They went to the house and found the kid after hearing a description. Then two more police cars and then an undercover car showed up. It was nuts. After like half an hour, they brought me my bike. The paint had been partially sanded and it rusted, the bars Chicago-ed out and it had a foot tall seatpost! They upgraded the valve caps to 8-ball caps... Despite it's condition, I was really happy to get it back. I'll have it re-powder coated and make it nice again!

The next day, I starting packing and unpacking at my new place at the downtown side of Santa Barbara (from Goleta). It took about 4 days to get all my stuff organized at the new place. After dealing with some things and finishing some projects, I've finally gotten back into the flow and to processing the photos from the shoots in Whistler. Updates on each shoot will come soon.

Check out my Crankworx update on Awesomeland.com: http://awesomeland.com/?cat=73

I've been in Whistler for the past week for Crankworx. The trip started last, last Sunday when I got on a train to Seattle right after 'nearly' building up two bikes. Yes, you can actually get to Whistler without a car or flying. About 37 hours later, I arrived in Seattle where a lady asked me if I was "one of those x-games people". From there, I took an Amtrak bus to Vancouver, British Columbia. The Canada/USA border is simple driving through in a car. In a bus, not so much. We had to take our carry-ons and checked bags into a building where we were asked the usual questions: "how long are you staying ?", "have you had any trouble with the law ?", etc. and then some ridiculous questions such as "do you any have money ?" which I replyed with "like five bucks". He then asked what my credit card limit was and then why I had so much stuff. He also asked if I was going to Crankworx. I said yes and he said, "...wasn't that like a week ago?"

After all that, we got back on the bus and soon arrived in Vancouver where I stayed in a hotel for the night. It was 2am, so the only place open for food was Mcdonalds or 7-11... I went to 7-11 thinking i'd come back with some snacks and a few beers. I left the store with beef jerky, an ice cream bar and a banana. Apparently you can only get beer or liquor at liquor stores in Canada.

The next morning, I took a bus from Vancouver to Whistler. Since my reservations were all through amtrak and the first bus was an amtrak bus, I thought the second one would be too. After waiting in front of the station for a while wondering where the bus was, I asked someone where it was. The bus to whistler is actually a greyhound bus, which boarded behind the train station. It was interesting getting my two bike boxes and all my bags through the station and to the bus in less than five minutes. It took several trips 40 feet at a time. Once I got to the bus, I was told it was full. After all that, I thought i'd have to wait for another... Fortunately, they had a second backup bus. A few others and I had the second bus to ourselves.

By Tuesday afternoon, I was in Whistler. Since the downhill bike was missing a few parts, I put the hardtail together and took some runs in the bike park. A-line and Crank It Up were a bit rough on street tires and a 75mm fork, with all the brake bumps Crankworx brings, though fun. Ninja Cougar is the best trail on the mountain for a hardtail. It's a tight, twisty, smooth, almost pump track like trail.

Through out the week, I caught up with lots of friends while shooting the races (& slopestyle competition) and riding the mountain as much as I could. Friday morning, I was off to the dirtbike shop 'in town' to get some fork oil and brake fluid. My left fork seal on the DHR was leaking all over so I had to replace it before it got on my brake pads. Little did I know... it would be quite the journey. I rode north probably 3km, following the map on my phone. I ended up at an animal shelter which looked nothing like a dirtbike shop. After riding in circles around the Sea To Sky highway for an hour, asking several people, someone told me where it was. It was actually in Function Junction, which was 10km away, the opposite direction. I rode along the highway for a while until I got to Function Junction. The shop was really there, so I got what I needed, and picked up some stuff at the hardware store, then got a sandwich. Then the bus came... while I was eating my sandwich. I tried to catch it, but I couldn't... I didn't want to ride back since it was so hot and mostly uphill, so I tried hitchhiking at the intersection. I had no luck. Do I really look that sketchy? 30 minutes later, another bus came and I was finally on my way back to whistler. By the time I got the bike together and got down to the village, the lift closed just as I was going to up for one run. The next day, I got to ride the new bike for the first time. I was surprised how quickly I got used to it and how fast I was going the first day on it.

Whistler has had Souther California conditions the last 2 months. I heard it did rain one day before I came up. It's dry, dusty and loose. Just how I like it! I would love for it to cool down though. This morning, I did three runs and was dripping sweat on my phone... and had to lay down in the shade for a bit. I'm up here for another week, so some cool, foggy weather would make for some nicer riding and photos (since so much of what I usually shoot in California are the sunny and dusty shots).

Riding photos to come soon!