Last weekend, I went to the San Francisco Bicycle Expo and shot photos of Andrew Taylor's Showdown and the Ladies Jump Jam. Check out the rest of the shots in the gallery: Andrew Taylor's Showdown at the SF Bicycle Expo

Wednesday, I went to the Deep Summer Photo Challenge. If you haven't heard about it, it's a competition between teams consisting of a photographer and riders plus an editor and/or assistant. They have three days to shoot in the Whistler bike park and edit a slideshow before they are played at the Fairmont hotel in front a huge crowd and judges.

It really must have sucked to be a judge. I seriously can't narrow one down to being my favorite. I liked certain things about each one: the banana peels slipping shot and the primary plus remote camera manualing shots in Tim's slideshow, the straight down arial angle of a big boulder with a rider coming down singletrack to the left of it in Margus's, the way the Glitch Mob song fit the editing in either John or Justin's slideshow (I forget who's it was), the close up splash/spray shots in Robin's, etc. On the creative side of things, Dan and Tim's slideshows had some really funny themes that make me laugh each time I see them. Events like this and the Deep Winter Challenge (which this event came out of) are really pushing the progression of sports photography, technically and creatively.

You can watch most of the slideshow's here: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Deep-Summer-Contest-Top-3-Slideshows-2011.h... . Check out their sites as well.

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!

Golden State is finally done after 4 months of shooting for it. I got it up at the last minute before leaving for fontana Saturday morning. After waiting an hour, the rendering came out like crap. When I got back last night, I tried it again and got the rendering settings right. Check it out at http://goldenstateslideshow.us

Today,

You may have heard about a project i've been working on over the last month. It's a slideshow on mountain biking in California; the riders and the riding, titled Golden State.

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.