After 3 busy days of shooting for Deep Summer with Reuben Krabbe’s winning team (here’s the link to his show – vimeo won’t embed it!), pulling a result in the Air DH was tough. I ended up 5th yesterday, but the real win was getting the news that Reuben’s show had won! The icing on the cake today was Pinkbike Photo of the Day by Reuben with Strand and I.

Reuben Krabbe's photo of Strand and Leishman for Pinkbike Photo of the Day.

Here’s a pic of my new rig just to keep things even more interesting…

My 2013 Norco Aurum LE with a full RaceFace Atlas build.

-Leishner

Summers are always super pinned in Whistler, and this season is no exception. With the recent heat and long days, our Phat Wednesday series has been all time fun and all time BUSY! If you’ve never heard of this race series, it is the best in the world (ask around town). In some cases, you’ll see World Cup athletes racing against average-Joe types on courses all around the Whistler Bike Park for a whopping entry fee of $2 per race. Last week there were 260 racers! We’ve had 5 races so far and I’ve placed 1st and 2nd consistently throughout the races – right now, I’m leading the series for overall women, but with the competition I face each week, that could easily change with 3 more races to go!

Shredding in my RaceFace kit and components before Phat #1 on Bline. Jinya Nishiwaki photo.

Jinya Nishiwaki shooting again for the 3rd Phat Wednesday - this one was a big pedal down Aline-Angry Pirate-Samurai Pizza Cat-Bline. Hard to be awesome on Angry Pirate!

This summer is about to get even busier even though coaching for the Dirt Series is on hold (at least in Whistler) until September. Crankworx is coming up and the shredding in Whistler is awesome right now!

-Leishner

Whistler Bike Park is open and my downhill rig is READY!

Thanks Race Face!

2012 Norco Aurum with full Race Face build in the house at Fanatyk Co Whistler!

Now. Time to shred!

-Leishner

If you haven’t been before, you have to go – but make sure you go in the spring or the fall. Who needs the desert in the middle of the summer or the winter? Not me, that’s who. I shipped off with a crew of absolute shredders to Utah for the past two weeks and had a fantastic time. The town of Moab is set up for mountain biking in a huge way and it’s pretty affordable to stay there for a while (and trust me, you’ll want to after your first pedal on the Slickrock trail).

There are other photos floating around but I thought it was worth it to throw in the couple of iPhone shots we gathered along the Porcupine Rim trail (a 10, 000 vertical foot descent!).

Porcupine Rim Cactus!

Best day ever.

The bike park opens tomorrow and the Whistler Strength in Numbers premiere is tomorrow night! It’s finally summer here in Whistler and you can feel the energy everywhere you go. Bring it on!

-Leishner

When all there is to do is ride your bike in the Sea to Sky! I’ve been trying to get in as many hot laps as possible in Pemberton and Squamish while we wait patiently for Whistler to melt out. Whistler Mountain is now closed for skiing (and ski patrolling) and I’m entering my favorite time of year right now. The trails in Pemberton and Squamish have been in amazing shape and I’m off to Utah this weekend to change climates and scenery for a shred trip to Moab. The Whistler Bike Park opens in only a few weeks!

Pemberton in April.

-Leishner

Ps: hopefully you’ve checked out the Canadian DH Girls “Fill in the Holes” on pinkbike.com. Between that and a couple of double pagers I’ve had with Strand in magazines like MBR and Wide Open, I’m pretty pumped for what’s coming up this season. Stay tuned!

Hey Raceface Shredders,

My name is Sarah Leishman and I am a member of Raceface’s International team for 2012. I came onto the program a bit late last season and am pumped to be a part of the program for 2012. Here’s a little bit of info about me to get y’all warmed up:

-I live in Whistler. I moved here from Alberta a few years back so I could ride my bike full time and it has proven to be the best decision of my life so far.

-In the summer I ride bikes full time – sometimes I coach at different bike camps, sometimes I work at Fanatyk Co. in the village and sometimes I work for the bike park patrol. I need to be shredding every day from April to October to stay fast, happy and sane. Any kind of shredding will do (I really love the bike park) but it’s gotta happen.

Never been to Burns Lake, BC? You should go - here's a hint why. Gunner photo.