Wednesday, October 3, 2007

It's good to be home, but better in BC!

An update from Alan ... (with photos of both Alan and Chris)
'Hey everyone, here's a little write up on what I’ve been up to for the past few months. Back in July I found myself ripping countless runs in the Whistler bike park riding everything I could from Joyride (best trail ever) to the Redbull elevation jumps (best jumps ever) to the foam pit. Then crankworx came around and the crowds got larger and the hype got louder, it’s pretty intense when all your used to, is riding with a group of 3 or 4 other riders back at home and then going to Canada and seeing thousands of riders everywhere. For myself crankworx’s was a mixed bag I wasn’t liking the slopestyle course that much but was happy to just jam some sections that I did like, and doing runs on the mountain. My friend Chris (who also rides for Banshee) rode solid as and made it to the semi finals getting 17th overall so that was cool. Once crankworx was over the village went back to normal and the runs on the mountain got more fun.
The weekend after crankworx Chris and I found ourselves on a ferry heading to the Bearclaw invitational, This whole trip to Mt Washington was so un planned we didn’t even know where or what we were going to do for food, accommodation or even a way back to whistler. The only thing semi organised was how we were getting to the ferry, Thanks Kelly and Sha for the lift. In the end the whole trip turned out perfect, we stayed in the riders lodge for free had these awesome BC burgers for dinner and ended riding the Mountain which was better then we expected. Oh and the slopestyle course was mad fun to ride, we weren’t allowed to compete (because we weren’t on the list) which sucked but Bearclaw was kind enough to let us ride the course in practice, and we became the course guineapigs.
2 weeks later and I was back home in Australia looking at my local jumps that looked mighty small compared to the jumps I had been riding for the previous 8 weeks. So I decided to do a major digging mission moving around 200tonnes all up to make 2 bigger sized jumps, was pretty stoked when they were finished and dialled. So now all I’m doing is riding when I can and learning new things. Had an interesting experience the last couple of days when I took a hard slam and smacked the side of my head on the ground (Full Face helmets are awesome). Anyway I woke up the next morning and the whole room was spinning like crazy, got myself checked out and it seems I bruised my inner ear and had some swelling. Wasn’t that bad but in your ear is where the Cochlea is and that controls your balance and tells your brain which way is up and down, lets just say its like being very drunk when you have swelling in that area. Anyway the dizziness subsided pretty quick and 24hours later and its all good, and I can ride again yay.
Anyway summers rolling in here and there’s lots more riding to be had. Catcha later!'

and now some photos of chris doing crazy stuff to add to alans story and photos...




If you ever get the chance to ride with these guys you will join me by saying that they have great attitudes, and are just down to earth guys who share a passion for riding (oh and they are a bit crazy too!)