A Day In Squampton by bikerdude012

As riders, we’ve all spent the last four months cursing the lack of daylight and riding time. Why then, did I find myself standing beside my bike on Saturday evening cursing daylight savings and the sunny weather!?! It all started out as a normal video shoot…but the ending was anything but!A few weeks ago my good friend Daniel O'Meara called me about doing some riding for a film he was planning. Daniel had already won a film contest earlier this year, and was looking for a new challenge. Having never filmed biking before, it seemed like the perfect choice and challenge for his entry into the B.C. Student Film Festival. Any chance I can get out and shred on my bike is awesome, being able to do that AND help a friend out is a bonus!

After a few e-mails back and forth Daniel and I had gotten a few possible dates set for filming. An added degree of difficulty for the project was that I live in Squamish, and Daniel lives an hour and a half away in Coquitlam! We were both busy with work and school over the next few weeks, and before we knew it, the final weekend before the deadline was here! As the weekend approached and we checked the weather forecast it appeared we were going to get dumped on with rain (which isn’t unusual in Squamish!). If the weather forecast wasn’t bad enough, the rider list was also looking a little thin…but with only two days to film we had no choice but to gamble and go ahead with our plans anyway.

Just as it seemed everything was falling apart, things took a turn for the better…A change in schedules created another two riders in the video. First to become available was my buddy Sam McKiel. I’ve known Sam for a couple years, and knew his smooth style and skill would be an awesome element for the video. Another hot Squamish rider, Dixon Black, jumped on the chance to film with us once he heard what was going on. With a crew assembled, we nervously watched the weather and hoped for the best.

Friday afternoon soon arrived, and as I rolled out the school doors the sun was shining and it was obvious that winter was a thing of the past! The weather reports said rain, but at least Friday would be good. I headed straight for Sam’s place and we began to prep his jumps with Dixon. After an hour or so moving dirt we started riding and just straight up having fun. Sam was stomping some sick three’s, I was reeling in some flips, while Dixon was just doing all of the above! Eventually Daniel showed up, pulled out his gear and worked on finding some good angles and shots for the video. We got a little bit of filming before dark, but our main focus was going to be Saturday.

We got a 7 am start the next morning and headed up to shred some DH trails on diamond head (with the help of an early morning Timmies run of course!). We did the whole hike and film routine down a newly revamped trail called Pseudotsuga. Its a super flowy, fun trail, and definitely has a small town bike park feel to it! We finished the DH session around noon and shot down to the University for a quick bite to eat before ripping back to Sam’s place.

We switched out of DH mode and grabbed our dirt jump bikes, for what we were hoping was going to be an awesome sesh! As the afternoon progressed, and the shots began to come together, we couldn’t help but think we wanted it to last a little bit longer. I’m not sure who’s idea it was, or who first suggested it, but within a few moments we were all on the same page. How do you extend a one-day shoot? “Lights!!”

We starting making phone calls to round up lights and extension cords and soon we had all the equipment we would need to light up the jump. After we got all the lights in place I looked over at the guys and said, “I think this is honestly the first time I’ve been waiting for the sun to go DOWN so we can ride!”.
It took forever for the light to fade, and for the first time this spring we were cursing daylight savings! Once the sun finally did go down we started to really have fun! It is the best feeling in the world to look around and see darkness all around you, and then drop into a circle of light and bust out a trick! Definitely something I would recommend trying!

The whole atmosphere of the night just felt kind of surreal, a night session was something we’d always talked about doing but never really organized. I’d definitely have to say it was one of the coolest things I’ve experienced on a bike. Needless to say it was the highlight of our weekend without a doubt!