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