Race Face sponsors Whistler’s ‘Crank It Up’ trail and wastes no time marking their territory

Jun 19, 2008 at 12:38

Jun 19, 2008

by Jordan Holmes

Race Face Components and the Whistler Mountain Bike Park announced today the completion of their first ever trail branding collaboration. Race Face is in its seventh year as the official components and armour sponsor for the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, and a new two year deal was inked in April of this year. As part of the new contract, Race Face chose to sponsor and brand the appropriately named trail Crank It Up, a great all round blue trail for all riding levels.

All the artwork was done freehand with no stenciling whatsoever. The concept behind the wall ride murals was to create something very flowy and organic while making a serious departure from the traditional branded stunt fare. In addition, the artwork was designed to ‘wear’ well over the riding season, incorporating the inevitable wall ride arcing tire marks.

“Race Face has a long history of bringing new and innovative ideas to the bike world and this is no exception,” said Craig Pollack, Race Face CEO. “We wanted to break out of the ‘stenciled logo on wooden stunts’ look and try something fresh and vibrant.”

BC artist Scott Tobin was the man with the vision and the paint skills for this unique project. With the help of the Whistler Bike Park trail crew, Tobin set to work over 3 days to bring his art to the mountain. Each wall ride was painted flat black first and then the crew roped them off allowing Tobin to work his magic.

Rippers who normally light up that section of the trail were grabbing handfuls of brake to check out the action as it happened. Look for the time elapsed video of all the wall ride artwork in the videos section on the Race Face website around the last week of June.

Tobin has an extensive portfolio within the adrenaline sports realm, including Burton, Bell, Telus and Red Bull. Tobin’s passion is "to paint visual-antidepressants, to create beautiful work that has a positive impact on people and a positive contribution to the world.” Tobin's work includes large-scale interior/exterior wall murals; fine art, and live painting performances. Eighteen years experience with spray paint has led him to be one of Canada's top character graffiti artists. You can see more of his work on his website – www.tobinism.com.

[PI=2165682 size=m align=c]www.tobinism.com[/PI]

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49 Comments

Score Time

rory-hackett (Jun 19, 2008 at 14:43)

Such a fun warm up trail and i guarantee that some talented photographer will find a way to use the art for an incredible pic. I think they look sick.

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konad (Jun 19, 2008 at 15:47)

its so lame cuz its such an amzing trail but because its an easier trail it gets too much trafic,alot of that trafic is unexperinced riders,and they brake TOO much and TOO hard,so its realy realy hard on the trails/trails,so evryone try to be smooth and let the trails be smooth for evryone else.crank it up is probaly one of the top trails,that looks sick cant wait to ride it. thanks evryone.

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mrandt (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:56)

some of you guys should just cool it. its just paintings, calm down and enjoy it. that trail is really fun, can't wait till i heal up and rie it.

radam (Jun 19, 2008 at 16:57)

Your right, I was just mad that they were closed on my first weekend riding Whistler this year. It does look good though and I can't wait to see it up close and personal. Hope ya heal up soon and get back to ripping.

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jayrider (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:57)

sweet paint job

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makechanges (Jun 19, 2008 at 19:35)

k u guys the paint on the walls thing it wont make them any slippryer reason being they already had green paint on them but sure for the first 2 weeks it mite be a lil bit slippy

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mtbrider27 (Jun 19, 2008 at 19:16)

I have to say, the eagle and the skull one is pretty sick. Idk about the trigger fish but its still impressive!

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bcmillertime (Jun 19, 2008 at 18:25)

the wall rides had paint on them to start with and rode fine ... these look great, the more money going into our trails the better.

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martin-kennedy (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:27)

Sick designs and freehand too!! Salute

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Teejay05 (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:21)

sick stuff man

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Trocadero (Jun 19, 2008 at 20:10)

They said they were designed to incorporate the tire tread wear into the artwork, but I don't see how. Anyone care to fill me in?

zudukai (Jun 19, 2008 at 23:27)

i just think we'll have to wait and see...

mick989 (Jun 20, 2008 at 2:22)

what I got from that was that the design would be in the shape of where tires would be. thats why they put the yellow/black chequered design by the scull. And on the eagle one, the wave with raceface written in it would be about right, the writing looks like it might last where it is. thats what i think it might be, prob wrong though.

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suicidedownhiller (Jun 20, 2008 at 18:51)

THATS SICK!!!!!! props to artist. The rest of you need to shut up, its one trail, whistler has at least 50, it looks grear too.

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krypto (Jun 22, 2008 at 20:19)

Yeah, ink looks dope.... Butt wish they were more vertical and about 10" higher

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stephbowcycle (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:06)

Naw dude, those wallrides aren't crazy steep so they're actually easy & super fun. It's definitely one of the funnest trails on whistler hands down!

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dee666 (Jun 22, 2008 at 2:45)

nice, nice, cant wait to ride them this august

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griffinrides (Jun 20, 2008 at 8:53)

if theyre still closed today (again!) im going to loose it! paint was dry yesterday,, let me ride my line dammit!

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djbruno (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:41)

sick paint!!!! I'll be there soon! heheheheh

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stevenmorrow (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:45)

It looks pretty sick - keen to get some photos up there now

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ziegele (Jun 19, 2008 at 18:17)

the fish is a little random, but totally gnar

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wesley-fraser (Jun 19, 2008 at 21:19)

i've rode those wallrides and now its gonna 2 times as sick

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zachnunes (Jun 19, 2008 at 18:37)

first time going for me. i cant wait.

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Vied (Jun 21, 2008 at 2:26)

yeahh nice designs i like it

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dillonchamberlain (Jun 21, 2008 at 10:31)

rad, i hope to get up there this weekend!

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nato (Jun 19, 2008 at 16:43)

Very nice work on the grafics. Can't wait to ride that.

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gnarbar (Jun 19, 2008 at 18:34)

I like them. I like fish, and eagles, and uh, skulls.

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soggydog (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:45)

I guess well find out.

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nfiorito (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:45)

those are mint.

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cervo (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:03)

dono... it was leaking last year at the end...

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dray (Jun 19, 2008 at 17:21)

i just hope by july 13th they wont be worn down to bad:P

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ilkestonriders (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:50)

good graffics i ppl how get to ride them must be gd

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uaitela (Jun 22, 2008 at 5:56)

Nice paint!

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rauldh (Jun 19, 2008 at 14:44)

impresionantee

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cervo (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:56)

A tropical gold fish???? what the hell is that for???? graph artist shouldn't smoke that much by the end of the day...

p3riderforlife (Jun 19, 2008 at 19:21)

lmao i no!!! but its still dope

zudukai (Jun 19, 2008 at 23:25)

why did he paint the dirt?

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bolinho (Jun 20, 2008 at 4:10)

***

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Below threshold threads are hidden

- 37

cdavis (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:44)

Wouldn't the paint make the walls more slippery?

+ 17

adove Plus (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:47)

They're slippery anyways. The paintings are awesome too bad they'll get all worn out by the end of the season. Crank It Up gets ALOT of traffic!

- 20

dustingilding (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:33) (Below Threshold) show comment

However not too many peeps do the walls

- 18

dingus (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:37) (Below Threshold) show comment

"Wouldn't the paint make the walls more slippery?" No, it drys...

giant0rider (Jun 19, 2008 at 14:14)

and im gonna say they put a little bit of sand on the paint ias it was drying

bikeflf (Jun 19, 2008 at 15:11)

if anything it will get kinda sticky

westislandbiker (Jun 19, 2008 at 20:16)

who doesnt do the walls? theyre at like 45 degrees

corsair711 (Jun 20, 2008 at 12:44)

Yes, Paint makes shit slippery, but they were painted in the first place. This is just more interesting than plain green.

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ilkestonriders (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:54)

ppl who get to ride that must be gd

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radam (Jun 19, 2008 at 12:58)

Wow, this is why I couldn't ride these last weekend? What a bunch of crap! It looks cool but come on! Why could't they just hang banners or sighns? And yes they will be even more slippery then before but I guess that will up the game.

Do any of you know why they got rid of the water tap at the lift? I like the drinking fountain but the tap was nice to fill my camel back with.

brule Mod Plus (Jun 19, 2008 at 13:06)

I believe it was getting repaired as I was there on MOnday and it was working great.

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