Thursday, December 5, 2013

Pinkbike: Characters 7: Tara Llanes - The Warrior




I had the opportunity to photograph one of my favourite and most inspiring athletes, Tara Llanes, at home in her daily life for a project with Riley Macintosh.

You can find my photos and his words on pinkbike.com 

Thursday, October 31, 2013

The Bakery: My Road to Rampage



My road to Rampage started in Moab when I drunkenly arranged to become a stowaway in the Fox van. For more than six hours on the Monday before the event I stared out the window as the terrain changed like channels with scenes from “Indiana Jones” to the sand people from “Star Wars.” Each time the van braked, I expected to see a cartoon roadrunner being chased down by a coyote. I focused on being a good passenger, tried not to think about how much I had to pee and giggled quietly as we passed through Beaver, Utah.

Read more at bikemag.com 

Friday, October 25, 2013

Pinkbike: Scars



Scars and tattoos are often compared, however while tattoos are used to purposely decorate, commemorate or remind us why we don't drink tequila, scars are usually forced upon us. I got my first scar when I was eight, I went over the handle bars of my bike and landed on the jagged end of a stump. Your first scar in life gives you much freedom, like the first time you scratch the paint on a new bike or drop your $600 helmet, it's game on after that. Years later a friend's mom looked at me and exclaimed "Look at your legs! If you were my daughter you would be grounded!" If I had worried about preserving my legs my whole life, I would be boring as hell!

See more on pinkbike.com 

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: THE DRAFT



This morning was reminiscent of Apocalypse Now as we drove along the rutted and beat down dirt road that winds into the canyon, the filming heli rose up from behind the ridge and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ rattled in the back of our minds. The basecamp was quiet as racer awaited news about whether or not they would be heading into battle this morning; winds threatened to ruin the show as decisions that balanced risk and investment were made. 

Read more on pinkbike.com 

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: The Oakley Sender



The Oakely Sender has a life of its own at Red Bull Rampage, it is more than just a slopestyle-esque feature in a big mountain world, it is a labor of love for all of the many hands that have touched it since its inception. Born in 2010, the structure was originally the brainchild of Steve Blick and Todd Barber, the idea was sparked in an attempt to help Cedric Gracia with his run after his return to the event from an injury. On the way to the original construction Steve’s son, Tyler, went in the hospital, they would later find out that he had leukemia, and in an attempt to keep his spirits high, the original design took shape after his favourite movie, Indiana Jones. As Tylers’s illness continued, the Oakley Sender would become a project of solace for Steve, and a personal creative endeavor for many more. 

Read more on pinkbike.com 

Friday, October 11, 2013

Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Vanderham



Thomas is a quiet and humble soul, the type of guy who makes you feel like you are yelling because he is so soft spoken. He is also the only rider to have placed in the top ten in every Rampage, but who is counting? He certainly isn’t. This will be his eighth Rampage, he will be running plate number eight and you will never guess what his lucky number is. The stars are aligning for Thomas this year. With practice cancelled, I found him doing nearly nothing on a rainy day in Utah. 

Read more on pinkbike.com

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Norbraten



Red Bull Rampage is one of those opportunities you want to take advantage of and want to be a part of. For Kyle it has always been the style of riding that he enjoys the most, and a style that you do not get a lot of opportunities to do; flowing big lines and linking together things like big step-downs on this kind of terrain. The feeling of putting down a run and the excitement of just being around the event are what draws some of the athletes in. There are not a lot of riders in the big mountain scene, but it is a challenging area to grow with the venues being hard to access. 

Read more on pinkbike.com 

Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Berrecloth

Photo: Margus Riga


Darren Berrecloth has had a rough year. He rode the finals at the X-Games with a torn muscle in his arm that kept him off his bike until Crankworx, where he was injured again. Off his bike and out of the gym, his hips and joints began slipping and getting ‘out of whack’. He competed in his own event, The Berrecloth Invitational, back in August and post event he actively ignored his back pain until he simply couldn’t ride anymore. On his way to Rampage with Doerfling and Aggasiz, he stopped in Californaia for an MRI to find out that a blown disc, the same injury he had seven years ago, would keep him out of Rampage this year. Prognosis is a 100% recovery and Darren is focused on giving himself everyone opportunity to speed it up, including a healthy diet and quality time in a hyperbaric chamber. But regardless he is a spectator this weekend. 

Read more on pinkbike.com 

Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Gulevich




Gully loves the internet and it took some heavy negotiating to have him give up his phone long enough to chat with me, but after some pensive glares he submitted and settled into his regular character; a quirky individual who ironically uses YOLO more than a drunk high school girl. The ensuing banter covered everything from his preference of giraffes over goats to his childhood spelling bee trauma that has lead to his refusal to spell the word pterodactyl.

Read more on pinkbike.com 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Bakery: Chasing Waterfalls with Team Gong-Show



Everyone has a friend like Jessica; whenever you are together chaos and adventure ensue. One minute you are meeting up for a drink and the next thing you know you are passed out on an inflatable dolphin in Mexico. There is a reason why Jessica and I do not hang out all that often: self-preservation. We ran into each other at a barbeque last week and today we crossed the finish line at the Tour de Victoria in the little-known-because-it-does-not-exist category of “Fixed Fifty.” Our victory came with Chuck Taylors so full of water that fish could have lived in them and two fixed gear bikes that didn’t quite fit in. Saying that we were unprepared for this epic event would be an understatement.

Read more on bikemag.com

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Pinkbike: Project Freeride



If you ride bikes then you have had a bike stolen or know someone who has. This is a fact. Bike theft is rampant. This summer we have seen an elevated profile of bike theft in the local media both with police work and vigilantism. August alone saw Dunbar Cycles team up with police on an undercover operation that recovered their stolen property, police recovered seven bikes through their bate bike program, and a local Vancouver woman steal her bike back from a thief when she found it for sale on Craig’s List. And these are only the stories that have been publicized.

Read more on pinkbike.com 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Bakery: Season of Change



When the last downhill race of the season happened this past weekend, as a community, we were saddened. We felt the immediate void of anticipation for the next event. Practice and training suddenly took on much longer-term goals and the memories of the good times shared would have to suffice for the long winter months. Especially lost and forlorn were the racers’ parents, while they too look forward to the next season, they also feel the time slipping away. After another season spent driving their kids from race to race, investing time, money and moral support, it was over. And it might never be the same again.

Read more on bikemag.com 

Monday, September 2, 2013

Pinkbike: The Final BC Cup - Fernie



The BC Cup season ended on Sunday with the best race course of the summer at Fernie Alpine Resort; loose steep sections, wide open road gaps, tight trees and flat grassy corners. We spent Saturday evening at the 16" World Champ Dual Slalom which, post a major mechanical, became a big bike race, hanging out while the sun set and cheering for everyone who went by. Race day saw carnage on the steep sections with racers surfing their way down, many not only without their bikes, but on their faces. Well placed volunteers kept the section lively and spectators in the game with proper cowbell etiquette and well timed encouragement. After surviving that section the course alternated between wide open and tight in the trees, but the steeps were done until a fade-away wooded drop at the finish line. 

Check out more on pinkbike.com

Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Bakery: Evictions and Heli Drops…Turning 40 as a Mountain Biker



Kelli was 23 when she started mountain biking, 26 when she started racing and 40 when we hit the road to celebrate her milestone birthday with a few days of riding that included a heli-drop and an unplanned campsite eviction. A lot can change in seventeen years and as someone who works in the bike industry (Kelli and her husband run a mountain bike tour and instruction company) her identity is strongly tied to riding. Priorities change throughout our lives and, at points, bikes often end up collecting dust in the garage, waiting for years when work isn’t so busy or the kids are ‘old enough.’ But when it is as entwined in our lives as it is in Kelli’s, giving it up is not an option. Changing our perspectives is.

Read more on bikemag.com 

Friday, August 23, 2013

The Bakery: My Date with Rob Warner

Photo: Paris Gore

Rob Warner is a legend whose World Cup commentary is as worthy of your attention as the racing itself, Seriously, when was the last time you heard an announcer state, “He’s all over the place like a monkey dry-humping a football!”? When I found out that Warner was in Whistler for Crankworx, I had to get an interview with him.
Naturally, I followed the standard journalistic protocol for such matters, which is to say I propositioned him in the line-up for a bar. Like a creepy groupie violating a restraining order, I blurted out, “You’re Rob Warner! Will you go on a date with me?”
Surprisingly, that approach didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Two nights later, with some solid work from two wingmen (apparently I can’t even pick-up for a fake date on my own), I got Rob to agree to an interview over dinner with me.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Pinkbike: Ten Commandments of Heckle Rock... Crankworx 2013


Crankworx used to end with a bang, and then a fizzle. After the big event on Saturday, the Canadian Open always felt like a bit of an after thought; something to watch from the GLC patio while sipping Caesars and nursing a vicious hangover. That was until a shirtless and half-cut Moses descended on the racecourse and a new sport was born; Heckling. Yesterday morning a mob of nearly-nude-never-nudes showed up to Heckle Rock early for the best vantage points like they were getting in line for T Swift concert tickets. Beer bongs, booze and boobs were unloaded as the crew settled in and prepared to enlighten the world of downhill racing. With them they brought a new set of rules, new wisdom and the ten commandments of Heckle Rock. 

Check out more on pinkbike.com

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Pinkbike: Nine Days Later...Crankworx 2013



A post apocalyptic scene unfolded on the barren land of the slopestyle course yesterday. The rain was relentless for most of the morning leaving all of Whistler village, riders and fans in limbo, wondering if the show would go on. When the call was finally made spectators began a slow purposeful march up the hill. The weather had let up to a drizzle, the clouds were ominous and a chopper hovered overhead looking for signs of life amongst the zombies. They found it.

Check out more at pinkbike.com 

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Pinkbike: The Eighth Day...Crankworx 2013



And on the eighth day Noah hosted the Whip Off Worlds. Undeterred by the rain, fans could be spotted walking towards the village with deteriorating “whips for tits” cardboard signs in tow. Hungover and slow moving, they were soggy hitchhiking zombies wanting to see your rack. No amount of rain or cold was going to keep their shirts on or stoke down as they hiked the mountain and converged on Crabapple Hits. 

Check out more at pinkbike.com 

Friday, August 16, 2013

Pinkbike: And on the Seventh Day...Crankworx 2013


Photo: Margus Riga
Crankworx is a departure from our usual tranquil and nature filled trail rides. It highlights the excess of our sport, like a spandex clad Axel Rose grinding up on Jack Johnson. The Whistler Village feels like a sardine can packed with shiny new bikes and flashy kits; there are people, tents, music, signs, flags, banners, free shit and tight shirts. It is hard not cringe as you watch groups of tourist hanging out at the bottom of the hill angling for selfies that catch the action as riders skid back into the lift line behind them. It is all fun and games until someone loses an iPad. 

Read more on pinkbike.com 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Pinkbike: 2013 Western Open - BC Cup



The Western Open has become a bit of an institution, it’s not the easiest race to get to but it’s one of the most loved tracks on the BC Cup circuit and worth the hours of travel from Vancouver, Calgary, and Florida. 

Check out more of my photos and Connor Macloed's video on pinkbike.com 

Thursday, August 1, 2013

The Bakery: Meat Pies and Meatheads… A DH Race Weekend



A DH race weekend is a magical world, the kind of place you find if you stumble through the back of a wardrobe or fall down a rabbit hole. Only the Cheshire cat would be wearing a pajama suit and Alice would be manically adjusting her tire pressure. Men run around in women’s clothing, scale buildings naked and drop their pants on course like baboons in heat. The scene is a bit like a redneck uncle; there is a lot of drinking, swearing, and punch lines that make you cringe. Regular life is game-off and conversation alternates from hot girls, to meat pies, to race lines – women, food and going fast.

Read more on bikemag.com 

Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Bakery: Community



Bamfield is not a city. It is more of a small town or village. You can not pass through it to go anywhere and you are lucky to arrive there, over the logging road, with your car intact. This is where I grew up. It is where I learned the value of being a part of a community. Our commonality was our location and, as a result, we also shared the desire to survive the winters of isolation, power outages and harsh west coast storms. Some of us are drawn to Bamfield, some driven to it. Some long for a simpler existence, some are social outcasts, others are retired, or entrepreneurs, and still others have been there for many generations; the reasons that their families originally called it home, long since forgotten.
We form a motley and mismatched extended family. All ages, ethnicities, denominations, opinions (of which there are many), and abilities exist within our community and because of that we function and we have identity. I grew up learning from people I may never otherwise have had the opportunity to meet and I enjoyed a sense of safety that came from many caring eyes, which was great unless you were trying to get into the community hall dance underage.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Bakery: Hangry



Hypoglycemia goes by a few different names; ‘hitting the wall’ conjures up images of men running marathons in headbands and short shorts circa 1982 and ‘bonking’ makes me think of people in spandex slumped over their handlebars trying to remember where they went wrong with their carb intake from the night before. Neither of these two descriptions are what I experience. I get ‘hangry’.
Hangry is described on the Internet as ‘a state of anger caused by lack of food; hunger causing a negative change in emotional state.’ Well ‘a negative change in emotional state’ may be an understatement. I have shredded my share of purple pants while attempting to throw my bike in a hulk-like rage. At best, when my blood sugar drops, I sever all communication and focus the energy I have left, drawn from the depths of my glycogen stores, to find food. I communicate only in grunts, head nods and spontaneous tears until I am fed. I, all but, foam at the mouth.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

The Bakery: Can You Keep a Secret?



Secret trails are something of a currency in the bike world and about the only thing that makes our sport remotely punk rock. We trade them for cool points or hold on to them, dropping subtle hints in conversations to elevate our perceived social status. “If you don’t know about it, you shouldn’t ride it.” Mountain biking is not sexy, so secret trails cascading down our mountains like the phantom octopi tentacles is about all we’ve got. People go hunting for them like treasure. And develop feelings of ownership, much like Gollum and his precious. Joeys shouldn’t ride them, but they always do. So who tells them where they are and why shouldn’t they? Who actually owns a secret trail? With hands raised, there is the trail builder who doesn’t own the land, the landowner who didn’t build the trail, the inner circle of the first riders to know about it (who didn’t build the trail nor do they own the land) and the community as a whole.

Read more on bikemag.com 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Bakery: Next Generation Tippie



This week I had the opportunity to sit down with Jessamy Carmen Tippie, the heiress to the Brett Tippie legacy and 4-year-old mountain biker. She was the Lance to my Oprah, but unlike Mr. Armstrong she wasn’t afraid to answer the hard questions as we tackled everything from wheel size to unicorns.

Read more on bikemag.com 

Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Bakery: Be the Change



I recently had the opportunity to sit on a panel about the future of women in mountain biking at the MTB Tourism Symposium in Sooke, British Columbia. The answer to many of the questions posed was simply that we need more women to ride. So how to do get more women involved? Some of us are fortunate to live in areas where women’s riding clubs, groups and lessons are readily available, where it feels like you see just as many women out for a ride as men, but to affect change we need to close the gap on the percentage split between male and female riders. To do this we need to encourage grassroots action, each of us needs to participate. While more women are joining the sport, the number of people mountain biking is also growing in general, and so we are only maintaining our percentages.

Read more on bikemag.com 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Bakery: Chasing the Dragon



When it comes to sports I’m not a natural. My first few months of mountain biking were filled with frustration, crashes and temper tantrums. If my bike hadn’t been so heavy I probably would have thrown it at least 10 times. And I definitely tried to sell it once. I never thought much of the learning process. I was either good at something or I didn’t do it; this is the reason I barely passed math in high school. Leave the ‘jocking’ for the jocks, I’ll be over here writing art history papers, thanks. Not until I tried mountain biking did I realize how addicting it can be to conquer the things that challenge you the most.

Read more on bikemag.com

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Bakery: Why Do You Hate My Vagina?



Dear Mr. Motorist,
Our paths crossed yesterday, almost literally, as I was biking home. You were driving a big old truck with an oversized, tarped load in the back. I was riding my road bike. I shoulder-checked for traffic, signaled, and moved out into the lane to ride about twenty feet and avoid a grate through a narrow section before yielding the road back to motorists. You sped up beside me and passed me. In doing so, with your big truck and overhanging load, you squeezed me to the side, forcing me to hit the grate. In all fairness, it was my choice; I chose to hit it over being hit by you.
I wasn’t prepared to hit the grate and when I did I was pitched forward onto my top tube, causing an unfortunate collision between my vagina and my bike. I can only imagine that causing me to box myself was your sole intention; clearly you could not have been so absent-minded or ignorant while driving that you would accidentally cause bodily harm to a cyclist.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Bakery: Child’s Play



“We were not the valedictorians of the school; we were the guys that would have been chosen ‘last to succeed.’ And for some reason by doing something everyone said was just a waste of time, we ended up influencing kids all around the world.”
~Stacy Peralta
Last winter, when the snow hit the trails, I tried to love winter and accept the void of biking by learning how to snowboard. I went through a lot of Fireball Whisky, some tears, and one boyfriend. This year I looked for a different approach to the snowy months and stumbled upon a new ‘sport’.
And more Fireball.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The Bakery: Soul Sucker



As a kid out at a local race how excited were you when your hero showed up to compete? USA Cycling CEO, Steve Johnson, doesn’t appear to think you should have that experience. In fact USA Cycling, while claiming that their mission “is to achieve sustained success in international cycling competition and grow competitive cycling in America”, is essentially grinding out their cigarette butt on the very grassroots events that actually contribute to growing cycling.
Their strong arm tactics of threatening emails, leveraging fines and suspensions, and cock blocking local races from having pros in attendance is more reminiscent of Carlo Gambino shaking down shops for protection money, than it is of an organization meant to be looking out for our sport.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Bakery: The Three Universal Truths of Trail Building



Spending some time in the forest with a man named Digger, a radio playing classic rock, and some hand tools taught me more about Buddhism that my Eastern Religion class ever did. Whether he knows it or not, Digger has achieved a spiritual understanding that the rest of the world is throwing money at yoga retreats to try and find.

Read more on bikemag.com

Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Bakery: Must Love Bikes



Until recently, unless you were an entrepreneur or a retired athlete, finding a sustainable career in the mountain bike industry was like finding a unicorn; a unicorn that paid minimum wage, but let you crack a beer at noon at your desk.
Slowly opportunities have materialized and with them there is a growing need to hire experienced personnel from other industries. We are starting to see more and more outsiders with the necessary skills, but lack of passion for our culture. So, how important is it that our help-wanted ads include “must love bikes”?

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Bakery: Wear a F*cking Helmet, You F*cktard!



I am not one to tell other people how to live their lives. I am usually the supportive friend, the one you go to when you know your life decision is terrible but you want someone to agree with you. Recently, however, I have had to restrain myself from opening my living room window, leaning out in my pajamas with mascara under my eyes and shaking my fist like an old person while yelling at the douchebag riding by without a helmet on. He rides by every morning and I have actually thought about lying in wait and jumping out from behind a parked car to push him off his bike just to prove my point. What’s my point?
Riding without a helmet is a total douche move.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

The Bakery: Don’t Call it A Comeback



Tara Llanes is the Queen of Comebacks. When you hear her name most people will think of the 4-Cross crash that left her with a complete spinal cord injury, but there is a lot more to what Tara has overcome and what she has done to stay connected to an industry that she calls family.
Tara fell in love with bikes when she was eleven, the year she started racing BMX. Eight years later she made the switch to mountain biking and shortly thereafter won gold at the X-Games. In her first year of racing professionally Tara crashed and broke her collarbone at Nationals in Washington. In an interview in 2000 Tara expressed that she thought no one would want to sponsor her after that, little did she know that the support of her bike family would see her though a lot more than a broken collarbone, or three.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Bakery: The Dangers of Riding in TIght Pants



I like men who ride in tight jeans. I enjoy watching them struggle to pull their jeans up over their kneepads, I think because it looks roughly as awkward and exposed as I feel when I’m peeing in the woods.
I am not really one to worry much about what other people ride in, aside from a slight jealousy when I see 16-year-old boys looking better in tight pants than I do, but a simple Google search reveals scads of people with strong opinions about this particular fashion choice in our riding community.
There is nothing that ages you more than criticizing the fashion choices of a new generation, and yet there are pages and pages of references to “girl jeans”, emo kids, and the superiority of riding in tights. Among these opinionated folk there also seems to be some debate about the appropriate age for tight pants. Forum experts weigh-in with everything from no appropriate age, to you have to be pre-pubescent, or pre-thirty. This is something I probably should be taking into account.
Are fashion trends really all that dangerous to our health? We still see girls in stilettos regardless of all the public safety announcements about the damage they can do to our feet, legs, and backs. I decided to spend some time researching the dangers of riding in tight pants. The Internet will have you believe that there are some real disadvantages to making yourself into a mountain biking sausage, and some of them are kind of gross.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Bakery: I’ve Found Religion



I’m not what you would consider a religious person. In fact the last time I was in church the priest interrupted the marriage ceremony to tell me not to stand on God’s furniture to take photos. I think God would want you to have nice wedding photos, don’t you? There’s also the small matter of religion rejecting me before I could reject it. My parents tried to have me baptized because it seemed like the right thing to do, unfortunately the minister in our small town refused because I was a bastard; my parents weren’t married. The little old ladies were up in arms over it and protested, but the minister held his ground. Good for him for believing in something. For me it took a little longer to find somewhere I wanted to be every Sunday.

Read more on bikemag.com