Alright! So, a group us have decided to start a new blog series about the way we do things here on Vancouver Island. We have decided we are going to start at the local spots and work our way out across B.C and then into Washington State. Right now we have a group of 5 people, Teresa Pollen our photographer, Andrew Taylor our videographer, and finally Connor Rix, Bowen Irvine and myself (Takoda Crawford) will be riding for every blog. We will have other riders guest appearing for different locations. This is the first time we have ever done something like this, so I hope you guys enjoy!
Last weekend we had our first film/photo shoot. We chose Hammerfest on the local DH track just because we wanted to show what the local riding is like in the Parksville area. This shoot was very fun. Everyone knew the track so we were ready to go as fast as we could, pushing ourselves on something we knew we could ride fast. We hadn't been to Hammerfest in a while so Connor, Bowen and myself went to check out the trail condition and fix anything that needed fixing. As we were walking up the logging road we came upon this.
Luckily they had only logged the bottom part of Hammerfest, so not many of the trails were destroyed.
At the bottom of the downhill course we found that someone had already fixed up the trail a little. Whoever did that, props to you! There wasn't a whole lot that needed fixing, a couple of lips on jumps, some berms and draining parts of the trail due to rivers forming.
Connor fixing up one of the berms
New lip on the first jump
Bowen walking up part of the flooded trail.
Half way up the trail, and the fog and rain started to come in.
Walking down the logging road after a good long day of building. The trail was ready to ride and we were stoked to ride it!
The next morning everyone was super excited to get started. We packed all the gear, checked all the equipment and were ready to set off. I can't say we were very organized that morning, everyone showed up at different times. Bowen got there first and waited at the bottom for 30 minutes. When Connor, Teresa and I arrived we discovered that Connor had forgotten his helmet. Another 20 minutes of waiting. But once everyone got there and made sure they had everything we started walking up the road.
(From left to right) Bowen Irvine, Connor Rix and Takoda Crawford
Bowen's matching bike and helmet.
Finally started the hike up with our camera man on the far right ,Andrew Taylor.
When we got to the top everyone was tired. We all took a little break, then suited up for riding. We had to give Andrew sometime to figure out the camera because it was his first time using it. This gave Teresa some time to set up flashes and put her camera to the right settings. Once that was all done everyone started to get really stoked to ride. The footage was looking sick and the pictures were looking just as sick.
Bowen on the first jump after the start gate
Connor Rix pulling some racer steeze.
Takoda Crawford whipping the first jump out of the start gate.
The day was going super great, everything was going good. Until my derailleur suddenly decided to explode. It wouldn't have been a normal day if something hadn't have gone wrong with one of our bikes... it was my turn. Something must have been wrong with the derailleur before hand. We were riding one of the easiest parts of the trail when the hanger snapped and mangled the derailleur cage beyond belief.
There is something wrong with this derailleur
I was kinda bummed out when that happened. I definitely thought I wasn't going to be able to ride for the rest of the day. After a bit of determination we managed to rip the derailleur off the cable. It was a chainless ride from that point on. I had to pump on everything to get enough speed for anything, but i was thankful that i could still ride that day. The day kept on going pretty well. We got some good footage and good photos after our little set back.
To end things off Andew Taylor made this short edit, which turned out really well.
We are thinking of trying to get one of these blogs out every 2 or 3 weeks, depending on how much work we need to do and other things like bike repairs and what not. I hope you guys enjoyed our little kick start to this blog series. There will be more to come in the upcoming months.
Follow us on twitter!
@RixConnor
@Takodacrawford1
@Andr3wTaylor
Thanks to all our sponsors.
Connor Rix: Mountain CIty Cycles, Spy optics
Takoda Crawford: Raceface, Arrowsmith Bikes