2009.06.17
Credit Card Roulette
This a fun game, especially for road trips when you have a bunch of your friends, and no one has cash with them. Instead of plopping down four cards and asking your extremely patient waitress to split the bill four or five ways, there is a better (and more fun) solution: Credit Card Roulette.
Here's how it goes: everyone throws their credit card (or debit card) in a hat, you mix them up a bit, and then when the waitress comes back to collect the bill, she is kindly asked to pick out one card at a time from the hat. The last card in the hat has to pay the entire bill!
Not only is this an entertaining way to end your meal, but it adds excitement to the day (especially if your card isn't the last one). All the waitresses we've encountered so far have had a good laugh from it, too.
So far over the past two days, I've gotten two free breakfasts in a row (AT lost both times)...I know that eventually it will even out, I guess the trick is to lose at a really cheap restaurant. My buddy Tim said that he lost it once over a $400 dinner...but I'm sure that he got at least $400 worth of free meals before losing that one, so it evens out.
2009.06.14
SOS How-To Vid
Next week is the first week of production on the Summer Of Shred How-To DVD. We've recruited Andy Sundbaum (Phil's brother) to help build some of the obstacles for the DVD. It's going to cover a lot of tricks from freeriding (dirt jumping, step-ups, step-downs, etc) as well as trail building and riding etiquette. It should be super rad and the goal is to have it out by Crankworx.
Stay tuned for updates on our progress, and also don't forget to check out our weekly video posts up on BikeMag.com! This past week was a two-parter with our buddy Wilson. Check it out!
Here are two vids that I shot while we were over in France for the FISE event with Lance McDermott and Pierre-Eduoard Ferry. Special thanks to Adidas for making it happen, and to Jonathan Brandt (my new intern) for a hand with the edits!
Pierre-Eduoard Ferry:
Lance McDermott:
2009.06.06
Billy Lewis Vid
Here is a video that Billy Lewis put together with Cory Tepper. Enjoy!
Here are the qualifying results for the slopestyle. AT and Phil both had mechanical issues with their bikes before qualifying started, otherwise they would most definitely have qualified for this event:
1 Sam Pilgrim
1 (tie) Lance McDermott
2 Mike Montgomery
3 David Denoes
4 Pierre Edouard Ferry
5 Yannick Granier
6 Thomas Bibiloni
7 Kelly McGarry
8 Niki Leitner
9 Tom Cauquil
10 Loris Reboul
11 Danny Pace
11 Klauz Ladislav
12 Simon Kirchmann
14 Valentin Acarie
15 Damien Plane
The rest of the event info can be found at the FISE website. Last night was the dirt finals and it was MENTAL!! TJ Ellis landed a front flip tailwhip, Rob Darden stuck a 720 barspin and Ryan Guettler was SO close to stomping a 1080 on dirt! We were losing our minds watching everything go down...so sick!
2009.05.22
FISE update
Well...today was practice, I'm waiting for my Freecaster course walk to go live so we can show you all what it looks like on video. Pretty much everyone hit the drop today and it was super easy from the sound of it. No tricks other than a few half-tables, but the following step-up got SESSIONED!
I shot video for most of the day, so I don't have any sweet snapshots of the riding, but I do have a few non-riding photos to share:
1. French dessert is pretty much the best thing ever!
2. We had a Pulp Fiction moment
3. The dirt jumps (where you saw the Sam Pilgrim clip) had pretty flowers
4. After four days of French food, we had our first non-baguette meal
5. Brian Miller is awesome
2009.05.21
Sam Pilgrim dirt jump clip..
Here is a clip that I threw together...just a couple clips that we shot with Sam Pilgrim today in France:
2009.05.20
SOS meets the Mediterranean
Today was an interesting one...we were trying to sort out our hotel situation, but we got sidetracked by some sweet jumps and a few other bits along the way. We hooked up with Yannick Granieri and Sam Pilgrim and went to a bikepark. It was ridiculously hot, so we grabbed lunch at an obviously named cafe and then checked out another dirt jump spot before heading to our campground to get settled in.
The campground is based right on the Mediterranean Sea, so that was sweet. We spent a bit of time chilling out and cooling off at the sea today after a day of running around Montpellier. Tomorrow we should have a chance to watch the amateurs ride the course. No one has hit the big highway drop, and to be honest, I think a lot of people are sweating it...it's a gap out to a steep landing, so one extra pedal and it could be GAME OVER. Keep your fingers crossed...
We also caught up with Sha and Kelly McGarry today, super stoked to see our New Zealand family over here in Europe...they have been over here for a while, and it was great to see (and ride with) them.
Here is a sweet photo of a photo of a photo....Brian Miller putting in work for Nico!
2009.05.19
Marseille/FISE Preview
Today was our first full day of riding, and we kicked it off at the famous skatepark in Marseille. It was a bit of a mission to get there, we had to drive through downtown with our less-than-ideal rental van (with no windows or seats for two people), but we eventually made it.
The weather and the view from the skatepark (which is located on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea) is awesome. There were tons of really talented skaters and bmxers throwing down, so we had a great session. Someone also instigated a game of OPC ("Other People's Clothing"), but my fingers are crossed that it ends soon. Brian already had these nasty boxers held over his face in the back of the van...ewww..
After the skatepark session was over, we made a quick stop at the grocery store for water and, most importantly, tartlettes. I got hooked on tartlettes on my first trip to France, and Nico has been supplying me with them ever since. Today I had the luxury of buying them firsthand, and it was awesome!
We popped back in the van and started driving towards Montpellier, which is where the FISE event will be held. Here is a little photographic course walk for all of you who can't be here to ride this event:
The course starts on top of the scaffolding in the background of this photo, then you drop into this super steep landing. After keeping your speed on the flat bottom, you hit this massive step-up jump (Phil is about 6'5" for reference) and then drop into a little street course. After the street course, you pin it towards a road gap step-down, hit a curved wallride, and then another smaller step-up. The last section is a super-booter trick jump, with a little wallride at the end.
A couple people were hitting some of the features today on hardtails, so although it looks crazy, it seems totally do-able. It should be interesting to see how the big guns dissect this course, I'll be curious if anyone tricks the big highway drop off the start ramp...
2009.05.18
France Roadtrip
Our Summer Of Shred French roadtrip has begun! The crew flew over today to Marseille, France, where we'll start our roadtrip at the famous skatepark in town. Then, we'll make our way towards Montpellier, where the FISE contest is going to be held. We've got about a week to play around and ride a bunch of super fun dirt jump spots with the French locals, so it should be awesome.
Phil and I flew over together from Portland, AT came from SF and he brought our buddy (and new Haro teammate) Brian Miller with him. We are stoked to have Brian in the mix, and he's fired up to be over here. The internet situation looks good at the moment, I'm hoping to do daily updates (internet permitting), so stay tuned!
This trip is extra cool for me, because we are hitting up a lot of the spots that I went to on my first trip to Europe. On that trip (Match 7 with McCaul, DeChamp, Carter Holland, Smutok and Ian Hylands) we explored a bunch of stuff around Barcelona and south France...but it was five years ago, and a lot has changed since then. I haven't been in this area since that trip, so it should be interesting. I am super excited to announce that Nico LeCarre will be joining us as our French tourguide. I met Nico on that first trip over here, and we've been friends since!
We are anxious to get Nico in the mix, particularly so we don't run into this issue again....we asked for a "double" room and this is what we got. I think Phil was either asking me where I was going to sleep or where he was supposed to build his bike when I snapped this pic! It's tight quarters for sure, but just for tonight (hopefully).
So far so good, though. Food is tasty, weather is good, everyone is stoked, and the spots are looking super dialed! Stay tuned...
2009.05.13
As seen on BikeMag
Here is a link to a video clip of Randy Spangler from our visit to his dirt compound during our first SOS trip of the year. Stay tuned for a bunch of edits from the past few months of traveling. I've been in hibernation trying to get these edits done...there is A LOT of footage from the year so far!
This Sunday we are flying over to France for the FISE contest. We're going to do an SOS segment with the French crew and we'll be hitting up a bunch of dirt and park spots around Marseille and Montpellier. If you want to follow our Euro-escapades, you can subscribe to my Twitter account, I'll be trying to keep it updated daily during our trip. Stay tuned!
2009.04.24
NW School Of Freeride Camp Info
Here is the latest info on the Northwest School Of Freeride, at Windells Camp in Welches, OR. I was out there two days ago and watched the camp director (Jaymo) stomp Boyko's 16' x 16' drop (video below). They are building up a storm, and they have some well-known jump builders out there constructing all the dirt jumps as I type this. By the time camps start, this place is going to be in full swing! Check out Boyko's part in the new movie "Barred For Life" to see NWSOF terrain in action!
First off......We just gotta' throw out some big high fives to all of our partners, sponsors and believers. It has been a long haul filled with logistics and hard work. So many of you have supported our mission with editorial support, viral mayhem and team rider love. It is difficult for us to explain how much it has all helped. The dream is officially alive.
Thank You Diamondback, Haro, Marin and Atomlab. Dakine! You have been wonderful. Republik, GoPro and Crankbrothers.......could not have done it without you. Protec has protected us from head to toe. Yakima Racks and SkullCandy have kept us racking and rolling! Bern and Gravity have
delivered the goods! Thanks to all of you! The summer is going to be filled with the highest quality of shred.
We are now accepting full registration and online sign ups for all of our clinics. Everything is dialed in and 100% a GO. We have also added a heap of single day jams. These jams are open to anyone who rides a bike. They will start at 9am and go till dusk. There will be product give-a-ways and random contests for the funkiest paint job. We might even have some bike tug-a-war! Basically, we are going to get super duper silly on our bikes! All of our terrain will be available on these jam days! The foam pit, the dirt jumps, the freeride trails and even the cement urban gnar! Everything is a go! We will have our shop open with spare parts, mechanical support, as well medical and
supervision for those under the age of 18. It is pretty much the raddest private venue EVER. (so yes mom's and dad's, its cool for you to drop your teenager off for the day, we are very safe).
Anyway.......here are the dates and the registration links.
Open Jams: All Jams are $20 for the day!
May 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31
June 14, 15, 24, 25
July 4, 5, 14, 15, 24, 25
Aug 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 15
BMX and Freeride Camps:
Session 1: June 6-13 ($980)
Session 5: July 16-23 ($980)
Session 6: July 26 - Aug 2 ($980)
Session 7: Aug 5 - 11 ($840)
Session 8: Aug 17-21 ($560)
Session 9: Aug 24-28 ($560)
Our friend Danny Macaskill from Scotland...what!! This clip gets ridiculous around 3 minutes, and then it doesn't stop. I was seriously jumping up and down for about five minutes straight after this video. Seriously...whoa:
2009.04.18
T-Mobile Extreme Playgrounds LIVE
2009.04.11
World Cup DH #1, RSA
Freecaster is the only place where you can watch the World Cups live online! If you live in the USA, you're going to have to wake up SUPER early to catch it, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. Hit the button in the lower right and you can watch it full screen on your computer in HD!
2009.04.09
Back on the road.. AT and Phil are back on the road, this time they were headed to Woodward West to get a little bit more practice in before the contest season officially kicks off. They met up with our good friend and esteemed photographer Rob Rebholz, and he's shooting an article about the boys (and SOS) for an upcoming issue of MBUK Magazine.
Also, our good friend Vincent has been updating and building up a new website called LowFiBicycleClub.com. It's super cool, they have a lot of original content and he has been updating it a ton. Here is the Vienna Air King video that he put together...go check it out and bookmark the site!!
2009.04.09
Queenstown Lokes!
The Queenstown newspaper did a story about the SOS crew staying at the Red Bull house last month. We're not "Team Red Bull" by any means, but I guess it just goes to show that you can't always believe what you read! Here's the link...
Big thanks to everyone who supported us in New Zealand, it was awesome to go back again!! Hopefully we'll get another chance to visit soon...
2009.04.08
FISE Event
Check this out, this is the course for the FISE event that is coming up in May. It's held in South France, which is located around some really awesome dirt jump and skatepark zones. We went to this part of France for Match 7 and it was incredible. The SOS crew is headed back for this event, and with the handful of big event cancellations lately, I have a feeling that the pro lineup for this event is going to be packed!
I've known Ross McMaster for almost a decade now (if not longer), I remember him when he was this tiny little kid from Arkansas riding trials contests on his mom's xc bike. A lot has changed since then, he's grown up and moved out to Whistler...I think he still rides trials, but it's also obvious that his talent has expanded well beyond that. He just sent me this video about his trip back home to Arkanas, check it out!
2009.04.03
Contest Schedule 2009
Everyone has been asking around lately about contests and all that. With Qashqai being cancelled, there was a huge shake-up with everyone's schedules for the year. Here is what I have compiled from my contacts as to the contest schedule for 2009. If you have anything to add, please e-mail it to me!
April 16-19: Sea Otter - Dual Stunt
April 16-19: T-Mobile Extreme Playgrounds (Germany)
April 23-26: Ranchstyle Slopestyle Colorado
May 20-24: Nokia FISE Slopestyle (South France)
June 4-6: TEVA Speed Trials + Slopestyle (Vail, CO)
July 10-12: Goatstyle Slopestyle (BC, Canada)
July 16-19: Highland MTB Claymore Challenge
July 23-26: Big in Bavaria (Rasoulution bmx/mtb dirt jump event)
July 27-Aug 1: Crankworx Colorado
August 8-15: Crankworx BC
I know that there are more events brewing, but this is what I have on the radar right now. Stay tuned for updates to the calendar...
2009.04.03
AT's School Demo
From AT:
During our Adiridas trip to South Africa, we did a school demo and donated some bikes through the Big Tree Foundation to some less fortunate kids. My Mom's friend is a school teacher at Binkly school, so once she heard what we did in SA she threw out the idea of coming to her school and doing a demo for the students. It was a cool experience in SA so I figured it could be just as good at one of my local schools. After a few phone calls and getting things lined up we had it all set up. Ramp Rats (a nearby skate park) let me use their portable box jump so the kids could see some riding. Three of my friends even came to help out. Steve took some photos and Shelby and Theo rode in the demo with me. We ended up doing two shows, one for the kids kindergarten-3 and then one for 4th-6th grade. In the demo we used some of the kids to bunnyhop over and we had the principle lay down on jump and we did some backflips over him. From the look on the kids faces I'd say both shows went really well. It was cool how easy it is to please a crowd of young kids.
2009.04.03
Post-NZ
Just getting back on track after our extended trip through New Zealand. Looking back, it was an amazing trip filled with plenty of adventures on both the North and South Islands. We started down south, then jetted up north for a contest, then back down south for the last two weeks. Ivan from Red Bull was kind enough to hook us up with the keys to the Red Bull house in Queenstown, where we enjoyed as much Red Bull as we could possibly drink (among other things). It was an amazing place to stay, and even more awesome was just being "locals" in Q-town. We threw some bar-be-ques at the dirt jumps, got to know everyone, and got plenty of filming done. I am really happy with what we accomplished during our time down there, and I think it'll be reflected in the segment (which should be online shortly).
Here are a few highlights from our trip (in no specific order). It's been a few weeks since we got back, so I've had some time to think about it...we were lucky to have a bunch of extra riders fly in for the trip as well. Blake Robinson, Billy Lewis and Niki Leitner joined us on the trip at various points, and we enjoyed mixing in some fresh faces to our ongoing world tour. The NZ locals killed it as well, and it was super fun to hang out and ride with them (again).
Billy Lewis showed up for our last full week in Queenstown and went immediately to work as soon as he hit the ground. He brought out his trademark style and smoothness, and everyone was eating it up. It's always fun watching Billy ride new spots, because he looks so comfortable right away. Take this treeride for example--this treeride was on the cover of a magazine, and Billy went about three feet higher than anyone else. Ridiculous:
I had my 29th birthday while we were in New Zealand (which was way better than being in Taipei for my 28th). We had a big pow-wow with the riders from the Frew Farm Jam, and about halfway through the dinner/party, Blake appears with a "cake" made from whipped cream, with a candle on it. AT suddenly also appears with my camera, and I realize what's about to go down. Then Phil rolls up behind me and I realize that there is no turning back. I think I took it like a champ! haha
As part of my birthday celebration, we did a bungy jumping mission. Everyone got on board, and we did the Kawarau bungy. It's one of the more popular bungy destinations, but still pretty scary! Here are the videos of me and Phil doing our jumps. There is more footage for the segment, AT did a great job of holding the GoPro camera steady on the way down, while some other people rolled down the windows and made the footage a bit undecipherable.
Phil's Bungy Jump - Kawarau Bridge, NZ from Aaron Lutze on Vimeo.
Caleb Smith is our NZ photographer du jour, and one of our favorite people to travel with throughout New Zealand. We give him the worst time and at any given time, someone is stressing him out, but it's all in good fun--he knows that we love him. I'm not so sure if he was loving us back when we changed the "Spoke" t-shirt to suggest a new title for his magazine, but it sure was funny when AT pulled it off! On a side note, the Spoke website just got a little facelift, go check it out: www.spokemagazine.com
Blake Robinson...what can I say? We travel with him whenever we can, he's on the Haro program and is now getting some flow from Gravity. He's an amazing and fun person to be around, and has really great style on the bike. He can ride everything and flows through trails with uber-style and tons of boost. We were glad that he could join us for a few weeks in NZ, and I know that he had a blast checking out NZ for the first time as well. He would always roll down to Gorge Road in the morning while the rest of us were enjoing leisurely breakfasts and getting computer stuff done, just so he could squeeze the most possible riding time out of the trip. You have to respect that!
Niki Leitner, "The Austrian", flew halfway around the world to shred with us on the trip, and it was awesome to hang out with him. Normally we throw high-fives at contests to Niki (AT stayed with him for a bit last summer, actually), so this was our first time actually traveling with him. He was stoked to get out of the Austrian winter, and it was obvious by how hard he was throwing down! Niki tied with Phil at the NZ Open in Auckland and was stomping superflips and everything else you could possibly imagine for the duration of the trip. We also got him addicted to Facebook, so if you're on there, track down Niki and be friends!
There were so many highlights from this trip...including a massive super-banger from Kelly McGarry at Dreamtrack! Stay tuned for the first batch of SOS segments to flow online, from our California, Africa and New Zealand trips! It's been a busy year, and now that our first batch of trips are under our belt, it's time to finalize the edits and post it all online! Stay tuned!
HUGE THANKS to everyone that made our NZ trip such a success. It wouldn't have been as rad without the help of all of our local friends and support: Caleb Smith, Brett & Dan Frew, Niki, Mike, Sonja, Axel, Kelly McGarry, Ivan from Red Bull, Dogboy @ YD Open, the NZ Open organizers, Tim from Auckland, the extended Frew Family, Tom, Luke, Karl, Emily, Bella, Seb, Nathan and everyone else that was super rad to us over the past month!! I guarantee that I probably forgot some super important people, but much thanks to everyone that helped us out!!
2009.03.19
We are never leaving...
I have plenty of content for a sick update, we've just been too busy creating it to post anything. This video pretty much sums up the past three weeks...an average breakfast at our home in Queenstown:
2009.03.08
NZ Dirt Open
I'm just going to save myself a heap of time and repost the press release that I wrote about our NZ Dirt Jump Open experience. Enjoy! Oh, and check out the spot we're riding tomorrow...
The New Zealand Dirt Jump Open was treated to a spectacular show by the Summer Of Shred crew: Phil Sundbaum and Andrew Taylor, with their special guest and Adiridas teammate, Niki Leitner. The national event was held at the Woodhill Mountain Bike Park, just outside of Auckland, NZ. Riders from all over New Zealand were in attendance and there was a buzz in the air with the international additions from the USA and Austria.
The contest was also attended by riders like Kelly McGarry, a New Zealand rider who has been storming the international contest scene over the past three years, with appearances in Crankworx and the Red Bull Rampage. McGarry picked up the top Kiwi spot, fourth place, behind the Summer Of Shred crew.
Third place went to Marin/adidas rider Andrew Taylor, who was putting on a show during the practice and qualifying rounds, with superflips, huge no-foot cans, and tuck no-hander flips. AT rode strong all the way through the qualifying rounds to the final round, keeping the crowd on their toes for hours on end while he stomped trick after trick on the dirt jump course.
First and second place was split between Haro/adidas rider Phil Sundbaum and Kona/adidas' Niki Leitner. In the final round, both riders were battling it out for first and second spots. The head-to-head format during the semi-finals and final rounds kept things interesting, but on their third run (after taking one run each) they decided to do the same tricks through the course and split the prize money! Sundbaum was riding super consistent, throwing huge tailwhips in his runs, along with stretched out seatgrab indian airs. Niki was riding extremely well, continually pushing the level of the riders in the contest with a flurry of tucks, super seatgrabs and backflip variations. Niki has been trapped under feet of snow in Austria for the past few months, but it obviously didn't deter his progress, as he brought out his best tricks to qualify first as well as make his first podium appearance of 2009.
The presence of these international riders brought the best of out of everyone in the contest, and the local riders definitely rose to the challenge. Riders like Chris Beverland, Luke McCombie, Karl Bennseman and Lewis Jones were all cheered on by about a thousand locals surrounding the dirt jump course.
The best trick contest followed the finals, and all the riders pulled themselves back to the start of the course for a few more runs down the course. Niki and AT both landed a pair of superflips, and Phil was on a mission with 360 variations: 360 no footer, 360 tailwhip, and a newly minted trick, the "Drunk Driver", which is three X-ups back-to-back in a 360.
The Summer Of Shred tour of New Zealand continues through the North island of New Zealand with special guests Niki Leitner and Phil's Haro teammate Blake Robinson. A dirt jump tour of the North island is planned, and then the riders will travel down to Queenstown, NZ on the South island for two weeks. They'll meet up with Gravity teammate Billy Lewis, and session the surrounding area (and the Frew Farm Jam) until the end of March. Queenstown, NZ is home to some of the best dirt jump and freeride zones in the world, and the riders will be filming and shooting photos at every spot to create video content which should be available online in early April.
A big thanks is due to Caleb Smith of Spoke Magazine, Tim Hunter and the Bike Barn crew, Chris Beverland, Kelly McGarry, Brett and Dan Frew, Mike Hamel and the rest of the NZ mountain bike scene. The Summer Of Shred crew would also like to send out a big thank you to our sponsors for all of their support: adidas, Haro Bikes, Marin Bikes, Gravity Components, X-Fusion Shox, Camelbak, Kenda Tires, X-Pedo Pedals, Formula and The Hive.
Also, on a totally different note, the NW School Of Freeride is open for registration! Go to their website and check it out! This is the mountain bike version of Windells snowboard camp, and it is going to be sweet!
2009.03.04
You are going to hate us...
We're in New Zealand again and it's so rad right now. It's summer here, so it stays light past 9pm and the dirt is super dialed everywhere we go! We landed in Queenstown yesterday, checked out the most perfect public dirt jump park in the world--Gorge Road--and then rolled down to the world famous Frew Farm.
The Frew Farm has been great so far, and we are looking forward to another session here tomorrow with the NZ crew. Then it's up to Queenstown for a Gorge Road session before blasting back up to Auckland for the NZ Dirt Jump Open. After that, we'll be back down here and spending basically the rest of the month at Gorge Road and the Frew Farm clocking footage for the next SOS clip. My birthday is on the 14th, so we are going to do it up large with some bungee and jetboat action! Stoked...
Internet is sweet over here, stay tuned for the updates!
2009.02.25
Africa!
Just got back from nearly a month in Africa, thanks for staying tuned to the site. I have a ton of pics and stuff to share from our journey...just need to charge up some batteries (computers, cameras, phones, and personal!) and then I'll have a full update. Countries visited: Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana. Awesome, all around.
Until then, here's Phil's vid from the Odd Couple contest at RaysMTB:
2009.01.30
Haro/HB Caleb
We ended our Cali trip with a stop at the Haro office to sit down with the crew down there and just kind of prepare for the upcoming season. This roadtrip was a big prep for the year, logistically as well as with regard to training for the season. We had a blast at Woodward West, and all the driving between places didn't seem so bad.
The Haro office was pretty cool, we got to check out some old school bmx bikes, and it seemed like there were posters of Phil all over the place! We checked out some new stuff that is coming out from Haro, which eventually turned into a failblog session.
While we were there, Wilson was stoked to show off his video clip to Jill, who would make the final call on whether or not he could keep his bike. The story goes like this: Phil has an old beat-up spare bike that he was letting Wilson borrow for the trip. Phil made a list of 15 tricks that Wilson had to do, and if he did all of the tricks on the list, he could keep Phil's spare bike. Wilson stomped all but two of the tricks on the list, so Phil took the bike back and said that the only way Wilson could keep the bike was if Jill overturned his decision. So, I quickly edited the clip, and we showed it to Jill. I'm putting the finishing touches on this clip now (with Jill's answer), so stay tuned...
I'd also like to send out a massive HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Caleb Smith, our friend and photographer from New Zealand. You may recognize his name from earlier posts in this blog, because we dragged him to Africa with us a few months ago. Happy birthday Caleb!!
Speaking of Africa, I'm headed back to Tanzania with Hans Rey (to the same area where we filmed SOS) on Tuesday, and I'll be joining Phil and AT down in Botswana on the 13th of February. In the meantime, there is a contest at RaysMTB where Phil will be teaming up with bmxer (and Haro teammate) Dennis Enarson to take on five other teams in a huge video contest. It should be rad!
2009.01.25
Woodward West Update
Our trip to Woodward is slowly winding down, today is our last day here before we head down south to the Haro office. We had a really good session last night, everyone was super motivated and I got a bunch of great clips. The benefit of shooting with this new Sony EX-1 camera is that I don't have to haul my digi cam all over the place, I can just do screengrabs of the action. Here's a quick peek at some of the action from last night:
Andrew Taylor annihilating the big quarter (I can hear Harookz yelling "Park Rat!" at his computer right now!!)
Blake Robinson tucking over the box
Phil found a fun transfer line into the bowl, and he was playing with some 360 double x-ups over the box
Wilson has learned about 80 new tricks since he got here, and taken them all to the box. Barspins, for example..
One more fun session and then it's back to the road! Hopefully our GPS malfunctions again and takes us directly to every In-N-Out on the way to San Diego!
2009.01.24
SOS Cali Roadtrip
We are in Cali for our first Summer Of Shred trip in 2009! We started our trip in Seattle at Andy Sundbaum's 25th birthday party, which was a pink and purple themed party, then we hopped in the van and pinned it down to AT's place in Santa Rosa, CA. The roadtrip from Seattle to Santa Rosa started at 11am and ended at 4:30am. Needless to say the majority of the next day was a total write off. We did manage to do a little bit of riding, though, so it wasn't a complete waste.
The next day we rolled over to Terry Cox's land, which is the location of Spangler's new dirt project. They have a covered pumptrack with a million lines, and some really fun outdoor jumps. We played there until the sun went down, and then kept playing for a few more hours under the lights! Haro teammate and Utah madman Blake Robinson joined the trip for Spanglers, and we were stoked to have him along! Spangler was absolutely murdering his own jumps, and Kyle Jameson was dropping some crazy style all over the place. Harookz and I were bagging so many banger shots that we decided to switch jobs for a little bit, just to mix it up! Big thanks to Terry and Allison Cox for letting us ride their spot. If you're ever in Sacramento, you should track this spot down!!
After riding with Spangler, we packed up the van and headed down to Woodward West. I don't have any pics yet, mostly because we've all been riding non-stop since we've got here. My favorite thing to do at the moment is sitting up on the roll-in and making up ridiculous tricks for Phil to try on the resi. Porter just joined the trip as well, and tomorrow afternoon we'll be rolling down to the Haro office.
We brought our buddy Wilson on the roadtrip, and he's been keeping us in stitches the whole time. He still has pink and purple hair from Andy's birthday party, and had to do some odd jobs in order to raise money to go on this trip (youtube "wilson tazer" if you really want to know). Aside from being a clown, he's been slaying it at every spot and making good use of his time on the road.
I'll leave you with a few random pics from our trip so far, stay tuned for another update...whenever I get solid internet again. That's the worst part about being on the road and trying to keep this thing updated. Even now, I'm sitting outside the Woodward cabins waving my laptop around like a lightening rod in order to find a halfway decent connection!
2009.01.12
Uppers and downers
It's official, AT and Phil are members of the Adiridas team. I guess it was technically official with my last post, but now the press release is out. Check out some of the pics that Markus Greber shot while we were in Germany. I still need to do a post with some of the other random stories that came through while we were over there. It was such a great trip...if you want to read the full press release, click here or go to the Adiridas website to check out their new profiles.
I got a few new things to show off over the past few days. First, the latest prototypes for the mountain bike Grenade Gloves. Things are coming together, and they are starting to look for sales reps (internationally and domestically). If anyone is interested, please contact me: aaron@matchvideozine.com and I'll put you in touch with the right people.
I also got my hands on the next street/dirt/park tire to land in the USA. I've shown the Kenda NPJ tires to a few people, and surprisingly not that many people over here know who NPJ is. So, for the uneducated, allow me to share. There are two dirt jump legends in Germany. You've undoubtedly heard of Timo Pritzel...obviously a worldwide dirt jump legend. Niels-Peter Jensen (NPJ) is the other dirt jump legend to come out of Germany, and he is absolutely huge overseas. He has a bike company (NPJ Dirtbikes) which is similar to Black Market. I think he was a host on MTV Europe for a while, and he's done a lot for mountain biking over in Europe. Both he and Timo are huge over there, and on occasion I've heard that they get mistaken for each other in public. Anyways, now that you're educated, check out NPJ's signature tire from Kenda. This tire has been selling pretty well overseas, and now Kenda brought it over to the states. Phil and AT are going to be riding it this year, and we're going to shoot a little intro video about the tire next week.
Oh yeah, speaking of next week, we have a massive roadtrip planned. We're starting in Seattle at Andy Sundbaum's birthday party, then rolling through Portland to pick up a few things. After that we're pinning it to NorCal and we are going to ride some "hella-legit" jumps at Spangler's. The roadtrip crew is as follows: Ben Boyko, Andrew Taylor, Phil Sundbaum, Harookz, and yours truly. We'll be meeting up with a bunch of people along the way (I think Alex Reveles might jump in the van at some point) and then after NorCal we're headed to Woodward for a bunch of riding. Phil and I are going to take a little detour down to San Diego for a day or two to check out the Haro office, and then we're going to wrap it all up and get back to the Northwest just in time for me to fly over to Africa. It should be dialed!
Here's the downer to go along with all the good news, we lost a shredder. I got a message from Carter the other day: Ed Bonnin R.I.P. 01~07~09 It's 6:40 am on Friday morning and I wish I would have slept a lot longer. First thing I did was check my e mail only to read the tragic news that Ed Bonnin pasted away Wednesday night. Sadly and apparently, Ed took his own life although the details are unclear. Ed was a driving force in the Aussie 26" scene with talent and style for days. WTF!!!???!!! I'm gonna go ride and remember my friend....
What a bummer...our thoughts go out to Ed's family, both immediate and his riding family.
Just so we don't have to end on an entirely down note, I want to share a few links that I've been enjoying lately: 1. The Sensus: Zink, Strait, T-Sage and a few others. I think this is eventually going to contain some product info for the grips that Zink was rumored to be working on? Either way, some fun content on here.
2. Mr. Diggles: Imagine T-Sage with a doctorate. Diggles is an acquaintance of mine and even more rad in person.
3. Ok, I found this one through Diggles' site. How many five year olds could you take in a fight? I took the three page quiz and it says that I could take out 25...haha. Make sure that if you take the quiz that you go to the lower right corner and click "send me to the results" so that you don't get spammed by some lame dating website.
2009.01.07
Adiridas Video from Germany
Remember when I said we were going to Germany and that it was going to be super awesome? It was, although since we were waiting on this video segment to release any info, I had to sit on all of my photos. I'll do an update later this week with some behind the scenes stuff and some pics from our trip.
The official press release is coming out tomorrow about all this stuff, but in the meantime, here's a video to tide you over:
2009.01.05
Happy New Year, See This Movie..
Happy new year everyone, I hope you're all doing well after your first few days into 2009. Here I am, making good on my resolution to update my site a bit more. We are gearing up for a big trip down to Cali this month, which will kick off the '09 Summer Of Shred program. We've added Andrew Taylor to the mix, so that should definitely kick things up a notch.
Speaking of kicking things up a notch, if you want to watch a super rad movie that doesn't rely on any special effects, I would recommend "Man On Wire". I just saw it tonight and it blew me away! It's a documentary about a guy who broke into both World Trade Center towers, strung up a tightrope, and then walked between the buildings for 45 minutes before finally coming down (and promptly getting arrested).
2008.12.31
Year Of Shred
I don't want to get too sappy here, but I am actually really bummed to see 2008 go. Naturally I'm looking forward to 2009--along with the rest of the world--but 2008 was a good year. 2007 really beat me down hard, so 2008 was a breath of fresh air--and then some. We got Summer Of Shred off to a great start, saw friends in every part of the world, went to new parts of the world that we'd never imagined, and then made a movie to remember it by. By all accounts, 2008 was not a bad one.
In honor of the year (and at the request of a few of my Facebook friends), I decided to pick out my top 10 favorite snapshots from my digi cam throughout the year and post them up here. Not a lot of crazy action shots, just some good pics that bring back great memories. Without further ado, here's my top ten from the "year of shred":
10. Wellington Landing: This was our first international stop of 2008, Wellington, NZ. We were meeting Caleb Smith in person for the first time, and this was the start of our trip "down under". It was an amazing trip in every way, and we're headed back in March '09.
9. Damjan + Me in Saalbach: Sometimes when you travel the world, you make friends and click instantly with people. Damjan Siriski turned out to be one of those people for me, and despite the fact that he lives in Czech, I feel like I see him more than my neighbors in Portland.
8. Aosta Coffee Break: Aside from SOS, I did an awful lot of shooting for Freecaster at the World Cup races this year. Here's me with Fraser Britton and Simon Cittati in the Aosta Valley (Italy) just taking it at the Italian pace.
7. Kobe Trials: Aside from shooting video, I actually ride bikes too (although not as much as I'd like). This was in Kobe, Japan...I borrowed a bike from my friend Kenichi and we got to ride trials together.
6. Yuu's first BBQ: I invited Kenichi's friend Yuu to visit me in the USA (he had never been there) after I hung out with him in Japan. He was anxious to visit, and this pic was taken on his first day in the USA. We made him a huge bbq, complete with PBR and fireworks (he came in July). Kenichi told me that Yuu practiced his English by watching Jackass and Viva La Bam for four hours every day before he came to America.
5. Nelson Sunset: Another shot from New Zealand. This was an absolute nugget, I just had the right settings at the right time and it came out perfect! The next morning we came back here and it was covered in clouds, which is actually in the intro to the NZ segment in SOS.
4. Indian Ocean: We spent a few days in Australia at this beach getting beat up by the waves. I never thought I would have the opportunity to swim in the ocean in February and I remember telling Phil afterwards that if I had to go home and be a garbage man or something for the rest of my life, I'd still be a happy camper after that experience.
3. Phil w/ Kangaroos: This was such a weird moment...we were less than a mile from downtown Perth, Australia, and we found these kangaroos just chilling at a park. We walked over to them and fed them a bunch of grass, and they just ate it right out of our hands!
2. Tanzania Computer Session: Ok, this wasn't from my digital camera...Caleb Smith shot this photo. I just love the way this came out, I was importing footage at 6am in Jipe (overlooking Lake Jipe and Kenya) waiting for everyone to wake up...Caleb snuck up and snapped this shot. I'm in the process of framing this one for my wall...it's also kind of funny since there isn't internet (or electricity) for hours in every direction!
1. First copy of SOS: This was a proud moment right here (and also another pic that wasn't shot on my camera, I think AT shot this on his iPhone). Over a year's worth of work went into this moment...from organizing sponsorships, planning trip itineraries, and everything else. SOS took a ton of work to organize and this first copy was the absolute culmination of it all.
I honestly don't know where to begin with all of the thank yous, because everyone who has helped us along the way definitely deserves heaps of credit. This year wouldn't have been possible without the mulitudes of people who guided us around, rode with us, gave us encouragement, fed us, let us sleep on their couches (or the floors of their mud huts), and drove on the opposite side of the road for us. Thank you all so much, and I also owe a huge thank you to Phil for putting up with me on all of the trips and listening (and cooperating) with my ideas. He put just as much (if not more) into the Summer Of Shred project in 2008, and I don't know if we would've even gotten this far if he hadn't been there pushing me just as hard as I was pushing him. It was a great collaboration and I am looking forward to spending 2009 on the road with both Phil and now our latest addition, Andrew Taylor.
I had thirty three photos narrowed down from over 10,000 digi photos this year, so if you want to see all 33, click here for the index and feel free to browse through. It's a lot of candid and scenic stuff, mostly. The action is best captured in the video footage, so I've more or less stopped trying to capture it on my $200 digital camera when I have an $8000 videocamera in the other hand.
My new years resolution is to get back to updating this site a bit more. If anyone wants to help with contributing to the site, let me know--I'd be more than happy to include a few of my trusted friends if anyone's into it. I think I might get back to more random bike news as well, instead of keeping it restricted to just SOS news. Stay tuned and welcome to 2009!
2008.12.12
Germany!
Phil, Andrew and I all made it safely to Munich, Germany today--where we met up with Mike and Sonja from Adidas. We are doing a bunch of really fun stuff over here this week and it should be an awesome trip. There is snow on the ground, so it's a good thing we brought our studded tires!
We got a new GoPro camera before we left for Europe, so we tested it out on the flight over. I just threw a few clips from our flight together...check it out!
Phil, Andrew Taylor and I are on our way to Germany later this week, so expect a barrage of updates! We are doing a press tour over there with a new sponsor for the Summer Of Shred, and we'll be announcing a handful of new sponsors for 2009.
Darcy Turenne put together a really cool "Christmas card" for her friends. Since I'm one of them, and I enjoyed it, I'm going to share it with everyone. Here goes:
I was going to check out this movie before I left the country, but it looks like I'll have to wait until I get back. If this is playing in your city, check out the trailer--it looks like it'll be a good one. It's about a guy who walked on a tightrope between the World Trade Center buildings...totally illegal, but how awesome is that?!
2008.11.29
Update time
Here's an update...not out of necessity in many respects, but just for fun. The season is wrapped up, everyone is finalizing and announcing their 2009 deals, so I've been buried in paperwork with everything. I have, however, been riding my bike a bit more than usual (mostly thanks to my current houseguest, Harookz), so that's a good thing.
We got out to Post Canyon with Jaymo, which is one of the more popular zones in Oregon. A lot of Kirt Vories footage that you've seen over the past few years has been shot here, and it is an absolute dream to ride, even when you are covered in mud and riding in pitch black. Nothing a little outdoor laundry session couldn't fix, though. Oh, and thanks to Harookz for writing off my old front wheel by using it as a tree stump bumper...looks like I'm going to have to give Gravity a call!
I also celebrated Thanksgiving with three Canadians (and one fellow American). Harookz and I decided to go for it with the turkey and had my mom on speed dial for any emergencies. Believe it or not, it came out absolutely perfect and we stuffed ourselves until we couldn't see straight! Thanks Mom for the turkey info...here's a severely overproduced video that Harookz and I made of the preparation. Enjoy:
Next on the agenda is a trip to Germany in December for a big press tour to announce a new sponsor as well as bringing Andrew Taylor on to the Summer Of Shred program. We are psyched to add him to the mix and you'll be hearing a lot more about him soon..
Tomorrow we're headed up to Windells to watch Bjorn Aunet shoot with Ben Boyko for the new Rockstar video. We got a sneak peak this past week when they stopped in for turkey, and it looks pretty good. Greg Watts drops some serious heat!
