During Crankworx in Whistler this year, I shot photos of the events for a series of slideshows for the Awesomeland.com podcast. I recently finished the first one and today I uploaded a full-size version. Watch it in full screen with HD here.

Here's a few of my best shots from Air DH (the race down A-line).

The Garbanzo DH race, a race that starts at the top of the Garbanzo chair and finishes at the village was on Tuesday. I took the lower chair lift up, then hiked up Duffman where I shot the race. When I got to my first spot and set up my flashes, the race didn't start for half an hour and I got bitten by mosquitos all over. Fortunately, my shots came out good, so the bites were worth it. Later, up by Renegade, I was setting up a shot, and saw Sven Martin and Rachel Atherton come through (last two shots). I then realized the race was over. Sven hiked up a few times to get a better shot before they went down. I didn't have a bike with me... so the long downhill walk to the village was pretty rough.

Claire Buchair took first in the Women's class, followed by Manon Carpenter (photo 2), Miranda Miller, Casey Brown and Katherine Short (photo 1). In the Men's class, Sam Blenkinsop won, with Marcel Gutierrez Villegas in second, Jack Reading in third, Chris Kovarik in fourth and Eli Krahenbuhl in fifth. Full results: http://www.crankworx.com/images/results/GarbanzoDh_Results_All.pdf

I'm finally getting some shots up from the Canadian Open 3 days ago up. Here's a few of the best shots I got. I started out at the chute before the road gap (the jump line into that was cut from the course because it was too wet) and went upward. The chute was pretty messy. Last year, the course was dry and dusty... this year, it was wet and slippery. For the full results, check out the pdf on Crankworx.com

Photos from the Garbanzo race and today's Air dh to come! I'm off to the Deep Summer Photo Challenge to check out some amazing slideshows. My own slideshow of Crankworx events will be on the Awesomeland.com podcast next week.

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!

I got back home to Santa Barbara two weeks ago and still have PWDS -post whistler depression syndrome and probably will until I go back.

I rode almost every day, shot most days and partied every night. I covered WomenzWorx, the Zero Ceiling Slideshow and the Saint Deep Summer Photo Challenge slideshow for Ridemonkey.com. Halfway through the week, David and I met up with Jeff Schmuck from Ridemonkey for the first of a series of nights going out 'Schmuck style' and then somehow making my way up the ski slope to my hotel way up on Blackcomb at 3am. I shot other events for myself, getting creative and in hopes of getting other shots from the week used. The slideshows inspired me to get creative and try different things. After I rode with some friends for two hours monday, I met David at his truck in the parking lot... It was time to leave whistler. I threw my bike in the bed and we were off, back to Bellingham. I had two days in Bellingham before I would take the train home out of Seattle. We did XC rides both days. It was probably my 4th ride on my finally built up trailbike. On the last day, we rode at Chuckanut where we rode to Cedar lake (left).

I got home Friday and had a local race that weekend at the SG Dirt Club. I wanted to race slalom Saturday, but there was no way I could with the pile of photos to go through, video to capture, etc. I made it to the race Sunday morning with 2 hours of sleep, a cup of coffee and a 5 Hour Energy for the downhill race. My cat 2 class actually had 7 people. My 3 runs were all clean except for when my rear wheel swapped left before a corner on run 2. I was surprised when I heard I got first because I wasn't feeling really fast. Maybe a week at whistler did that? Maybe it was knowing the course so well? Probably both. Class started the next day. Unfortunately, I started feeling a cold coming on at 4am, before the race... so I didn't go to the first class.

Currently, i'm in Spreckles, CA. I'm finally getting over the cold. I'm up here at Brian and Kelly's new house to get some photos of them, ride, work on the pump track and hang out. Next week, i'm shooting their wedding.

my crankworx articles

• WomenzWorx
• Saint Deep Summer Photo Challenge Slideshow
• Zero Ceiling Slideshow

galleries

• 09.07.22-19 - Bellingham
• 09.08 - Pacific Northwest - natural
• 09.08 - Pacific Northwest - unnatural

Two weeks ago, I took the 35 hour train ride from Santa Barbara to Seattle. David Waugh picked me up in Seattle and we went back to his house where I would be staying for a few weeks. The first week was so hot and humid. Many days, it would get up to 80 or 90 degrees with humidity as high as 90%. I wasn't used to having sweat drip from my head at the start of the push up the hill. We rode trails on Galbraith most days and some other trails around Bellingham. We took photos of each other on trails some days. I think I actually did more video than photos. I can't wait to get back and edit it.

Yesterday, we crossed the border. The northern one... I'm in whistler for a week to shoot crankworx and ride. Today I shot slalom and tomorrow i'm shooting the Garbanzo DH. Check out the photos from Bellingham in the Bellingham Gallery.