So... "You Like this" what? I like what? Well I’m glad you asked...it’s Mountain biking! I love dirt jumping and tricks, but really how many of us can pull off double front flips and cash rolls.
It is sweet as hell to watch some riders perform circus like tricks and push the sport into something nobody would have ever imagined. But what a lot of "Mountain" bikers want to do is ride the mountains…where this whole sport first kicked off.
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| Kevin Landry riding Goat Vind-A-Lou |
From a young age I’ve always been tinkering. The first thing I built in grade 7 wood shop was a double swivel, teeter-totter…yeah you can tell I grew up on the north shore where ladder-bridges, skinnies and teeters were the in thing. Not too far beyond that I started to ride and dig dirt jumps. I remember when I helped build the old KY and Lafarge jumps in Coquitlam. Watching these plots of unused land being transformed into use-able fun places to chill with friends pretty much got me hooked on building. Both places ended up getting plowed, but this is where I learned how to build and shape jumps. I’m sure many people will agree these places will not be forgotten. As I got older I really got into the free-ride side of things… stair gaps, roof drops and a lot of trail riding on the north shore really got me into the hucking era…you know, Dangerous Dan style…uphill trannies and such. I was inspired by what I saw in the forests and I began to build my own freeride lines anywhere I could. I would mostly try to keep my lines as natural as possible to keep them different and I still try to do that today.
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| Pat Podolski |
I was asked by Kevin Landry to help build some lines for "You Like This" and I jumped into action soon after. Moving huge rocks, building drops, shaping berms and lips, I helped wherever I could. I ended up spending a lot of my time up in Squamish. Anyone can just toss some dirt here and there and smash around a shovel, but making it all work in the end is the only thing that counts. Working on ‘You Like This’ I realized I have a lot of useful building experience from over the years, but I still have a lot to learn.
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| The Burn from across the valley |
‘You Like This’ isn’t just another biking movie, it's a MOUNTAIN bike movie…it's not a movie about a bike ether, it's about the riders. Filmmaker, Taylor Loughran has a clear vision and his own camera style and encouraged the riders to build and ride what best fit their riding style. I respect that. He went outside the box and did things no one else has and it is going to bring the mountain back to mountain biking… I bet you haven’t heard that before! I suspect that this year a lot of the direction of MTB films will show more big mountain lines and I don’t know about you, but I have no problem with that at all.
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| Alpine berm with Tantalus range in the background. |
I met a lot of awesome people this year and some really amazing friends. This isn’t just an activity or hobby… to some of us it's our way of life. I wake everyday thinking what I could build next. It seems my mind is always set on something to do with biking. Some will call it an addiction, I call it a passion and I am sticking with that. I would like to thank everyone involved for all their efforts and giving me something to do for months while recovering from a shattered ankle. So now that you have a better understanding of why “I like this” I hope in the end, “You Like This” too.
-Pat Podolski ( Trail crew )
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