Hey Guys,
I was up in the Whistler this past weekend and took the GoPro to try and get some footage. It was my first time using one but I had a blast trying to get angles and new ways to shoot the riding. Check out some of the clips from the weekend.
Kyle
First off I cannot spell Crankworxs right, Kokanee sponsors it so I always throw in extra K’s.
Sicklines.com is working with IXS and dirt.tv/mproa to broadcast some sick footage and huge props for using heavier music! The 80’s pop revival is wearing me down but having said that … megga props to Jack in the blog posting below for starting off heavy then cranking the lamest pop song ever. Good thing he has some skills on the bike and a sense of humor!
And what are the odds of the Sicklines crew finding the only two naked men on the mountain?
I just got back a few days ago from close to two months spent road tripping around with some awesome people! In a nutshell, it started at Camp of Champions, where I got to spend each day riding with and teaching rad kids who are super stoked to ride. Howey, Wyper, and I made the trip to Colorado for Crankworx and I ended up with 6th place! We made the journey back to Whistler for a week of shredding, and then Crankworx started. I got 9th place there, so I’m super stoked to get top 10s in both Crankworxs. I made tons of new friends and got to ride so much that I don’t think the summer could have gone any better. Anyway, I collected random GoPro clips through the trip and put them together into this video. Enjoy!
-Fogel
What is easy is watching and critiquing, huge difference when you are the one slinging your leg over the bike with all the pressure. Best web series going, no music nothing besides what it is.
Mike rightfully so stole the coveted Pinkbike POD today with a shot that captures how truly insane this years course was. Not saying that this is a good thing, most riders hated this years course and as Mike put it “The up top parts are kind of fun…” Then it just gets too gnarly but Huge congrats to Zink for the comeback, everyone did forget about him, its a shame how the industry works.
Mike ran a set of Jeff Lenosky flats on his Banshee amp.
The event organizers must hate me because we always rent the pimp pad and hang our banners, they edit the crap out of all videos to exclude us and the photographers tend to find that perfect angle that excludes our banner. But c'mon we need money for technology not fancy booths in the village!
The night before the big show down Mike had a corona in hand, hanging out near the bar at the Camp of Champions year ender party. Jack Fogelquist who also rides for Banshee was off sucking face with a girl –go jack- and the entire place was gossiping on what Mike had planned tomorrow. Few days earlier Jack had a issue and needed a repair on his Banshee Rampant so Mike just handed him his and said use it , I’ll ride my hard tail. When I heard of the story my hat was off, true sportsmanship but we all offered to get him another Rampant, it wasn’t that hard to sort out the issue but he denied the offer, shrugged his shoulders and said, I’m cool!
The dude did the entire course with His Banshee hard tail amp! If you were not there in person you have seen the videos but nothing ever shows its true height or steepness when filmed… there was zero room for error! Not only was he to ride his hard tail on a course that demanded respect, he planned to tail whip the judges box, a cool 30 out 40 down drop.
Check out Mikes gopro footage riding a set of Jeff Lenosky flats while Jeff and I sat on the roof top in awe of the run.
This run set the pace, Fogel was slaying it but unfortunately made a simple mistake on a simple stunt that took him back to 17th, but anything can happen in slopestyle, Casey snapped his chain and had to pump his way down finishing with a sick on hander fist pump for the crowd.
More to come!
This came in from Justin at Lama Cycles, one of our fine DH oriented distributors. It is all pretty much summed up for me in his email so I figured I’d just copy past and off we go. Click the links they definitely saw BC from the right angle and had a taste of what it can offer.
#########################
Good day,
We've been on the road for a whole month exploring the awesomeness of our huge country (you should see the fuel receipts!) and I have put together a quick blog post to sum everything up. The guys have been blogging all summer as well and the links are also posted in this email. Please feel free to use these blogs to post up on your web site. For photos, please contact us beforehand so we can clear it with our photographer.
We just came back from the Quebec Champs in Mont Sainte-Anne, but more on that in the next email!
http://www.lamacycles.com/en/home.htm?blgent=1280258911&r=%2Fen%2Fhome.htm
http://www.lamacycles.com/en/blog-sky-gustin.htm
http://www.lamacycles.com/en/blog-yan-gauvin.htm
http://www.lamacycles.com/en/blog-jean-philippe-simard.htm
http://www.lamacycles.com/en/blog-benoit-labelle.htm
http://www.lamacycles.com/en/blog-justin-macknish.htm
As usual, we thank you for your support and positive energy you supply our team with! You, our sponsor, make this possible.
Cheers
--
Wow, we had three riders in the finals Jack Fogelquist Casey Groves and our new comer Mike Montgomery, all of them stepped it up on a course that was not the best to date.
Mike tail whipping the judge box..
Casey right behind him with his whip, this box was very scary just to look at.
Jack took a spill in semi finals but threw down like a mad man having qualified days before in 2nd place with Montgomery 1st. Come showdown, it was the best event yet, the course was not a good one but the riders sucked it up and sent it for sure. Casey Groves took 3rd with Mike Montgomery Second and a well deserved 1st again for Cam Zink! Stoked to have 2 riders on the podium representing our gear.
It was a tough course and Casey and Mike ended up on that podium and Casey is on cloud nine, huge congrats Casey! Just watch the video and see for yourself how huge it was this year.
And of course… our legendary roof top party spot. Pinkbike did block our view a bit but we were cool with that and hugged to the right and watched it all unfold.
FULL COVERAGE IN A PHOTO COLLECTION HERE
We crammed on the roof along with friends Kali Helmets, Transition bikes, Banshee bikes, Jeff Lenosky, Dylan Korba, Andrew Mitchell and friends. in the shade out of the 32 degree sun! I’ll post more up later.
Lenosky and Korba insisting that shot gunning beer can in fact make you a better person.
You are not here so I feel sorry for you!
We are in Whistler on a roof top, beer in hand –not kokanee- and the slope style is happening as we speak. And yes these shots are from a few years ago but since I am remotely blogging and I just found the delayed post option, I made this on Weds day but we have the same rooms with the view!
Casey Groves and Jack Fogelquist, Straitlines finest are going to battle it out in front of our epic view point.
I finally figured out how to set my post dates… I am amazed at how Dumb I am at blogging sometimes…
While you reading this I am on a deck, up in Whistler, beer in hand… watching the Slopestyle quali unfold right in front of us. I’’ll be with Lenosky and friends and those ever annoying Giant guys on the balcony to our right. So excuse me for pre-writing all this out but it’s not like I would be the news breaker on who won what anyways, you can scour the hot spots for it all. I will be super stoked if Straitlines very own Casey Groves and Jack Folgelquist do well though. I’d actually shit my pants if they podium’d, so cheers to that!
Enjoy this video I carefully selected for you until I am back on Monday, it may have been VOD but it is new to me and worth a second watch!
Freshly stolen from DIRT magazines website is team MTBCUT Straitline member Joe Barnes heads off to Megga Avalanche with some stops along the way…
Team MTBcut decks their Orange bikes in full Straitline race kits… 28/50 mm boxxers/ 50 mm SSC stems and silent guides because without us… they get picked on a lot at the worldcups and it’s high school all over again!.
This is a game we decided to play to make some our day interesting. Aaron Larock came along and documented it for us. enjoy.
Alan Hepburn
We went out and scoped the course on the morning of the qualifiers. It rained hard the previous day, so we were welcomed with a slimy course. The course builders were hard at work though, and got everything running in no time!
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Soon practice was on, and with an hour and a half before qualifiers, it was time to get lines figured out. I figured out a solid run, and managed to get it on my first qualifier run! I ended up qualifying 15th, making it into finals the next day. We got a bit of rain later that day, and with thunderstorms on the forecast, nobody knew if the finals would happen. We woke up to some nice sunny weather, and practice was on again! With some gnarly looking clouds coming over the mountains, finals began and everyone headed up to the top. I started my run tailwhipping the top drop, but overcleared a bit and overshot the next jump, not making it onto the wallride. The wind started going crazy for everyone’s 2nd runs, with most people not making it through. I tried tailwhipping the drop again, but landed a little weird and slid out. The organizers let everyone redo their 2nd runs when the wind stopped. About an hour later, we were back at the top ready to drop in. I ended up getting my run, where I tailwhipped the drop, no-foot-canned the hip, foot-planted the T-Jump, 1-foot x-upped onto the whale tail, tailwhipped off, flipped the last jump, and tailwhipped the quarter. It felt great making it through, especially after the 2 previous runs. I ended up in 6th once everyone’s 2nd runs were through, so I’m super pumped on that!
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Most of my run is in a video here
I just got one of the Wildcard Invites for Kokanee Crankworx as well, so I’m psyched for that! Chillin up in Whistler right now, riding and having a good time!
-Fogel
I used to be any brands worst nightmare, practically had a team of lawyers behind me scrutinizing all warranty programs for a loop hole. All I wanted was to get riding again and hey, they posted their warranty up so I just have to watch my words when I approach them. Now that I am inside the industry, circles deep if you will, I know have to handle the odd “mini me’s” who just want to get back on the bike and ride.
We are blessed with very low warranty and respect every client and their issues but on the same hand we know what we make and back it up with reality. If you push it and abuse it things happen, frames will break it is a fact that material has calculated fatigue points. The bike brand is not a piece of crap just because it broke, half the people understand so little about the energy explosion related to a crash on the bike. No one in their right mind goes back to ford and asks for a new bumper because the one they bought is now crushed!
Then I saw this video on Dirts random Fridays post and laughed. When you have fun, things are open for damage but then again sitting at home is boring and riding a bike is not! This video is an example of what really happened and definitely not what they explain to the Maytag repair man when he asks what happened. Honesty is best and thanks a lot to all of you out there who just bluntly tell us what happened… hats are off to you!
This is a email from “Mr Smith”, a refreshing view on the realities of our sport, it was to the point so I can post it up since it relates to the above.
“For what it’s worth, I know it’s been working well for me and it is truly quiet. As far as “falling off”, “bashed” & “bent”, that sounds like Dbag mentality. Worked at a shop for 10 yrs and know that it’s hard to convince people to own their own shit & that it’s actually their fault and the product does not contain common sense as a material. You can engineer around materials and empirical data ALL day long but you will NEVER have enough to engineer around a dumbass.”
Here is your treat for putting up with my mini rant, have a great weekend.
Step one cut a hole in a box…
Step two put your bike in the box…
Step three get someone to open your box… and assemble you lake bike for some Canadian summer fun!
Check this fine example of Canadian life. All my friends are having the time of their lives every weekend while I watch, still busted up from my leg injury. Take a look at the link in slideshow mode for the videos to kick in.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertsonperfect/show/
Oh and if you are ever in town, our town of Victoria BC check out my buddies rental firm http://www.cyclebc.ca/ he enjoys it when you lake jump his bikes and if you are up for it, flip his scooters at the lake!
Matt, owner of North Shore Bikes, sent me his shop advert. Got to love just climbing up out of your backyard for a morning ride.
The new shop location is still on the shore of North Van but now it’s bigger and better, check the video and keep these promo videos coming!!
North Shore Bike Shop - Commercial from Spoked Media on Vimeo.
We went out and scoped the course on the morning of the qualifiers. It rained hard the previous day, so we were welcomed with a slimy course. The course builders were hard at work though, and got everything running in no time!
Soon practice was on, and with an hour and a half before qualifiers, it was time to get lines figured out. I figured out a solid run, and managed to get it on my first qualifier run! I ended up qualifying 15th, making it into finals the next day. We got a bit of rain later that day, and with thunderstorms on the forecast, nobody knew if the finals would happen. We woke up to some nice sunny weather, and practice was on again! With some gnarly looking clouds coming over the mountains, finals began and everyone headed up to the top. I started my run tailwhipping the top drop, but overcleared a bit and overshot the next jump, not making it onto the wallride. The wind started going crazy for everyone’s 2nd runs, with most people not making it through. I tried tailwhipping the drop again, but landed a little weird and slid out. The organizers let everyone redo their 2nd runs when the wind stopped. About an hour later, we were back at the top ready to drop in. I ended up getting my run, where I tailwhipped the drop, no-foot-canned the hip, foot-planted the T-Jump, 1-foot x-upped onto the whale tail, tailwhipped off, flipped the last jump, and tailwhipped the quarter. It felt great making it through, especially after the 2 previous runs. I ended up in 6th once everyone’s 2nd runs were through, so I’m super pumped on that!
I just got one of the Wildcard Invites for Kokanee Crankworx as well, so I’m psyched for that! Chillin up in Whistler right now, riding and having a good time!
-Fogel
Last week was the worst week to vanish but I had to take off for a week to get some stuff done. Meanwhile everything happened, Colorado Krankworks went off, I caught a bit of the live feed on Pinkbike but missed the rest.
I did watch enough of it Cam Zink take Darren Berrecloth’s top score, good to see him back because this industry tends to forget about those who get injured, Zink was solid on his runs.
Straitline Factory Rider Jack Fogelquist normally blogs on his own on here but I changed the codes by mistake, my bad. Jack Slayed it at the Slope style and took 6th with Seminuk taking the third straight win.
Visit the Banshee blog and check out his reports, super stoked he landed 6th.
http://bansheebikes.blogspot.com/2010/07/journey-to-colorado.html
http://bansheebikes.blogspot.com/2010/07/crankworx-colorado-course.html
Watch Straitline Factory rider/ Team Banshee Mythic go over the next World Cup and yes I am late posting this up as I was away last week.
But if you have not seen it yet, his course over views are pure gold!
Race day overview from Stu at MTBCUT.
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