Seasonaires - Ep2 - Paul Stevens

Nov 8, 2010
by Tom Grundy  
You come for a season with a bunch of buddies and ride till you cough roost then head home once the summer ends, but what happens if you fall madly, deeply in love with the place?

Paul Stevens (or Paulo to his friends) was once the young, first timer, dirt bag like Jack Noy and co. whom we saw in the previous episode, but he made the decision to stay in Canada. This entails more work than you can imagine, and to some degree or another an amount of personal sacrifices and commitment along the way. He works as a bike mechanic all summer and a ski tech in winter.

Watch the Episode inside now!
Views: 12,735    Faves: 132    Comments: 21


As you will see in this episode Paul Stevens came to Whistler for the Bike Park, but soon discovered a whole other world of riding that is too often overlooked by people who visit or come to Whistler. It’s no secret, but you have to realize that there is a lot more to Whistler than the Bike Park. It takes time to understand the depth of mountain biking in Whistler, and so it’s no surprise that it sometimes takes people more than a season to see this.

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Paul Stevens is a quiet fellow, but is fiercely confident and loud on his bike. Comfortable riding anything at anytime, he mixes his riding up and switches from one bike to another with no slurring, and often brings a little of each to the other style of riding as is apparent in this episode. He is sponsored by www.nsmb.com and you can read more about his day to day endeavors at www.offthebrakes.wordpress.com

Paul was included in the Seasonaires project from the very beginning, but is missing from the DIRT Magazine article because he was racing and freehucking in Revelstoke when the photos were shot for it, hence the inclusion on Jenny Lilegren.

Wet roots, loam and dust. Whistler living has it all and Paul Stevens takes advantage of it.

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Seasonaires is a five part series that will be aired weekly starting the first week in November and coincides with an eight page feature of the same title in issue 105 of DIRT Magazine.

Tom Grundy, 19, is from England and is a freelance videographer. Over the past year he has been filming for Red Bull reporter and creating his own monthly webisodes, The Tom Grundy Webisodes. He spent three months living in Whistler this past summer, all the while documenting the place and its people from within. As well as riding the bike park with 8 of his best friends. He then headed home, back to the UK to edit Seasonaires into five tales of Summer. www.tomgrundy.co.uk

Seb Kemp is a freelance writer, coach, and trail builder who is based anywhere, anytime. Originally from the UK, he left four and half years ago and has since found himself on a spiraling world odyssey of some of the best riding spots in the world. He helped Tom script and story tell this story as well as finding the “talent” for this series, interviewing them, herding them, and generally putting a boot up the arse of them when it came down to shooting and filming for this project. www.2flat.wordpress.com

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45 Comments
  • 15 0
 Anyone who has ridden the trails in the first half of the vid knows how ridiculously good that was. Pretty cool to see Paul killing it harder on his XC bike than most people would down those steeper sections on a DH rig. So sick Tom.
  • 7 0
 yeah he killed it on the AM bike, nice footage
  • 5 2
 very true but i cant say i saw too much pedaling on that thing. as much as i agree with the whole diversify idea that wasnt as much of a change as i expected
  • 4 0
 you guys are so lucky to live in a nice place like that.
  • 1 0
 I dont see the point for running anything more than a 4" or even a hardtail on the XC part of the video... running a DH rig would be overkill.
  • 2 0
 @ Maksim I agree that the XC trails in the video don't need a DH bike having actually ridden most of those trails but he absolutely killed it. I would point out that many people I know who go to Whistler come away humbled by Whistler "XC" trails (quotations deliberate).

@ Colin. All those trails in the xc section require pedalling to get there. No doubt the filmer left out the video of the uphill grunting as most people (myself included) would hit fast-forward
  • 2 0
 yeah fair enough i retract my statement then
  • 2 0
 Can anyone else agree that the AM bike is a Specialized Pitch?
  • 1 0
 its a speciazlized something....
  • 1 0
 yeah AM
  • 1 0
 @maksimbike - RE the 'XC' trails, I rode both a HT and a FS out there, and at no time did I really feel I needed a FS descending, it was the traction on the super tech climbs that meant I switched pretty early on in the season. If I had been super fit I would have stuck with the HT, but I wasn't!

And the bike - Speccy Pitch.
  • 1 0
 Woah! this guys fast!
  • 1 0
 Man this sucks i was planning to something similar next year for my gap year, but now university fee's have turned from £3000 per year to £9000, i dont know if its going to be possible. so annoyed.
  • 1 0
 you have my condolence ... Frown
  • 2 0
 Tom, sick work on the newest video. It is rad to see some riding in Whistler that isn't A-line and I'll definitely have that last song stuck in my head tomorrow when I head out on the bike. Thanks for providing some stoke to the day.
  • 2 0
 i took a trip to whistler this summer and explored an amazing side id never seen before .... the ER hahaha i wish i had seen more before i flew home early with double broken arms more motivation for next year!
  • 2 0
 Great episodes, keep em coming! Gotta say, thats a pretty good life to live!
  • 3 0
 So sick! transfer onto rock at 5:31 is awesome
  • 2 0
 Great video, Tom! Its cool to see some background, not too mention some absolutely SICK riding on the little bike - love it!
  • 1 0
 hackett you stole my name! tom this is sick i had no idea you were doing these...
  • 1 0
 You douche I've had this account for years and it makes me cringe everytime I have to use the embarrasing name. I may let you keep it and make a new one.
  • 1 0
 Nice video. Films from the bike park put me off the idea of going to Whistler but the xc trails looked awesome
  • 2 0
 wow i love the no hander mid ride
  • 1 0
 you guys inspire me to move to canada an just bike all the time and work. sick video
  • 1 0
 Awesome! Loved this video. I actually think I recognize Paul from this summer, he bled a brake for us.
  • 2 0
 That natural singletrack in the second half looks like heaven
  • 2 0
 I can assure you, its pretty much like sex.
  • 3 0
 It certainly looks like a similar consistency
  • 2 0
 The XC out in Whistler is awesome. I rode more XC this year than bike park.
  • 3 0
 ^^^^ You're all connoisseurs! Come for the bikepark; stay for the trails
  • 1 0
 lol secrets out
  • 2 0
 Nice! Some of my best days are on the west side of the valley.
  • 1 0
 I wish I had the bottle to pack up and move my life somewhere like Whistler
  • 1 0
 i love whistler and i love paul stevens riding style=great video
  • 1 0
 great job man - that was awesome!!
  • 1 0
 sick video, loved the pura vida footage!
  • 1 0
 It was ridiculous to see how well he rides that AM bike - sick Paul!
  • 1 0
 Sweet VID...NSMB rider too...nice work!
  • 1 0
 Great video and out-of-the-park terrain.
  • 1 0
 yeow sick vid! keep em coming!!!
  • 1 0
 ya paul! sick to see ya rippin it up after AirPrentice
  • 1 0
 live your dreams dude! hope to do the same! congratz! you shred,too!
  • 1 0
 Ya Paul!!! Killing it on all the bikes.
  • 1 0
 Hell I miss Whistler...
  • 1 0
 amazing job







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