Part 4 in Ryan’s series features more Whistler action at the Camp of Champions & with Eric Lawrenuk in the Bike Park…



Don’t forget to enter to win great prizes over at Pinkbike

Since time began it seems like Specialized has always had one of the most insane bikes in the DH world. Ever since one of our snowboard coaches, Shaun Palmer rode them and did pretty well on them, we’ve wanted one. Sam Hill is fast, on Specialized he’s even faster. One thing we always wanted at COC, and I’m sure our campers wanted as well, was to have Demo 8′s available to ride in our demo fleet. For 2011 we will now have Specialized Demo 8′s and Gord Calder our Ops Manager is losing his mind due to being over stoked, his screen saver changed the second we got the “we’re in” from Specialized. We will be building the Demo 8 frames up with our usual COC World Cup caliber build with the help of our sponsors like RaceFace, Straitline, Spank, Maxxis, Chromag, Formula, X-Fusion, Elka and others.

Specialized Demo 8 II

Two Years
Gord Calder worked for two years to bring the Demo 8′s into the COC fold, and as he puts it, “This is my dream bike. I figured if it’s my dream bike, I’m pretty certain I’m not the only one that dreams of ripping the Demo 8 through the Whistler Bike Park all summer”. We couldn’t be happier to have Specialized on board for 2011. Usually I would add something about how stoked we are etc, but I think Gord has pretty much covered that. It’s going to be an amazing summer, our bike fleet just keeps getting sicker, and the reasons you have for not being out here just keep getting fewer.

Demo 8 Frame

There once was a day when the Kamloops Bike Ranch was home to massive mounds of finely crafted dirt and riders galore. Over the years those mounds have dealt with the violence of the sun and much more riding than care. Early last week Taylor Hollstedt realized something was missing these days. He Figured it would be a good idea to let local rampaging redneck and jump building extraordinaire, Brad Stuart, have his way with this precious zone. He missed riding dirt jumps and having a place to gather with friends so much that he filled up a bob cat full of diesel and let Brad loose for the remainder of that week. Excitement was in the air when the word got out. Those massive mounds of dirt were quickly taking shape again. Coming back to life, taller, wider and steeper than ever.

It is getting cold in the Loops and the riding season is quickly falling behind us. Taylor Hollstedt wanted to celebrate the return of the bike park in a big way. In only a few short days he managed to bring together over 30 riders to help pack, shape and ride the new jumps. Everyone from the big dogs to the little guys and the little guys’ parents were in attendance. Weiners were eaten, bikes were jumped and smiles were passed from face to face. When the already clouded over sky turned black
the temperature dropped dramatically and everyone packed it in for the year, taking comfort with the new dirt piles. Already anxious for spring. Thanks for the “Weiner Jam,” Taylor.

 Well it’s been a supremely busy summer at Casa Chaos (otherwise known as the Tippie/Fenton household). Brett was busy announcing a bunch of MTB events, such as some BC Cup races, the Redbull 5000 down, doing daily webisodes for Crankworx, doing over 50 (!) interviews at the World Championships at Mt. St. Anne. Not to mention other events such as Rocky Mountain days at Mt. Washington etc etc. The best on a professional and personal level was his induction into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame during Interbike this year, along with his fellow Fro-riders, Wade Simmons and Richie Schley. It was a funny, emotional, and very proud moment for us.

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So the final weekend of the Whistler Bike park has become my way of celebrating Thanksgiving. It makes sense to me to do this as I am so “thankful” for both my bikes and the bike park! the closing weekend of the 2010 season was much like the past few, wet cold and slippery! I love fall riding! This year I spent 1 of the final 3 days taking photos with CCN’s own Matt Mallory and good buddy/teammate/recent MTB hall of fame inductee Brett Tippie. We covered the mountain top to bottom and took over 500 shots! Matt has put some of these shots into a slideshow along with shots from a few other riders he worked with over the weekend. So a big thanks to Matt for doing this and to Wendy the awesome clothing designer at Raceface for keeping me dry and warm in the new Fall/Winter 2010 rain gear!


More Mountain Biking Videos

It was eleven weeks ago Sunday that I broke my leg riding in the bike park. A complete fluke of an accident and I was sidelined for the remainder of the season. Dealing with physical side of not being able to move around, was nothing compared to the emotional side of things.  Factor in a few other notable occurrences for 2010, and it adds up to a very hard year.

Before I broke my leg I swear there were these things called chairlifts. Photo Todd Hellinga

Here’s a bunch of links to the Whistler Bike Park trails that I filmed for Ken over at Camp of Champions.  It was a big day of riding, lots of laps! In fact, Tippie and I set a record for the most trails shot in one day!  Check out a few or all of the GoPro movies here…

1-Lower A-Line

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Silver Star Bike Park with Noah Brousseau from caton j garvie on Vimeo.

Silverstar bike park had two bonus weekends after the summer ended. Here is a quick video from the second weekend!

It must have been a pleasant scene to view for anyone riding the hill that day. The dirt stained a slightly darker brown from the previous nights rain. Thin clouds passing over the sky, not so much as to block the sun but to allow everything a fine gold tint. Small pink flowers brushed the green hillside and three young men wore yellow boots. It was fall at Sun Peaks.

Beyond the orange flags and black signs urging riders to wear helmets and gauge there speed accordingly lie a particularly exciting addition to the adventures Sun Peaks has to offer. Freshly sculpted mounds of dirt shaped carefully to ensure a flowing succession of big airs. No brakes, no pedals. Just shredding. This area was designed as part of the ride down the mountain but we found ourselves stuck in this section for hours and hours , riding the jumps over and over. Rushing to get the shots as if we were addled enough in our thinking that we might forget whats important to us if we don’t show others.

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Garbo DH

I know that it’s a bit late, but the past few weeks have been pretty busy with getting the bike all tuned up again after a long 2 weeks of abuse from the bike park. As well as unpacking and packing to head back up to whistler for some end of season training and riding time in the bike park before school starts again. Crankworx 2010 was an awesome time lots of friends lots of amazing riding and even better racing. But definitely taxing on the body, with countless laps in 30 degree plus heat you feel like your done riding even after just a few days. First up was the Garbanzo DH I had raced it in the previous year so I knew what I was in for, this is the toughest race I have yet to do as it in from the very top of the Garbanzo lift all the way down to the village. I came into this race hoping to do fairly well and top 20 was my goal for the event, on the Friday before the event I worked on the course with my coach Mark Bunyan from Mad March Racing. After that I was stoked on the race and couldn’t wait until race day, and was just hoping the weather would hold up for the event. Race day came and the course was running good but very slick due to rain from the previous night, I ended up having a decent race run which I myself was happy with. In the top section I nailed all my lines and pedaled every where I could, even ended up having to throw my goggles due to the rain and mud. Everything was going as planned until I entered Duffman, the wooden bridges on that trail were so slippery and I should have entered there slower I ended up losing my bike off the side of the bridges multiple times. With that behind me I was able to sprint my hardest to the finish and ended up with 20th out of 66 riders.

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