It was practice day for the riders who were in qualifiers. Everyone was over shredding one side of the mountain and I felt like I needed to work my way down my line which was a couple ridges over. I hiked my ass to the top of a line I had built this year which also incorporated some old moves from 2008. I was making my way down under the radar from the rest of the crowds aside from a couple camera men. I made my way down a couple gnarly patches and came to one of the final stepdowns in the line. I had hit this thing before and thought I had the speed all figured out.

When made my final entry into it, I gave it a couple extra pedal strokes just to be on the safe side. This ended up being my downfall. Since the tranny of this jump was short and steep, those 2 extra pedal strokes were enough to clear most of the landing. While I was rolling in I noticed that the run-in felt much faster than before and as I took off I knew instantly that I had WAY TOO MUCH SPEED. I saw the landing disappear underneath me and knew I was going to be in for a heavy landing. I can’t really remember how my leg would have snapped but I suspect it was from digging into the ground so deep that my foot caught in the dirt or a rock OR When I crashed I may have impacted on a rock somewhere at the bottom.

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Rampage is GNARLY!!

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get to Rampage. My first impression was how did they find this place??? It is seriously in the middle of nowhere. Didn’t even have cell service. ha. (continue reading…)

On of the main reasons i headed out to race the Canadian Nationals was that it was held in Panorama this year, which is just across the valley from a zone i have wanted to ride for several years now. So after racing the Nats, a crew of us headed up to explore the area, after a long shuttle, an hours worth of road clearing (with seven people, that was a lot of snow) and several long hikes we were rewarded with rides that were more like skiing then mountain biking. The wide open terrain and amazing dirt allowed you to rip turns wherever, whenever, double up anything or just open it up and keep your fingers of the brakes.

Here is Darryl”s Go Pro headcam footage of the day.


Paradise Mines

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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A few months ago I showed people how to build a large booter when there was little to NO dirt in the area but never showed the photo of when I hit it. These 2 were shot by my good friend Ryan Flett and have totaled over 70,000 views on pinkbike.com

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So, with all the coaching I have been doing this summer, Summer Gravity Camps, Sacred Rides, Silver Star Privates, etc.  It’s kinda cool that I get the 1.5 page SWEET Gap shot in “Mountain Biking, The Manual” by Chris Ball

This book looks amazing and might just be what the coaching/riding world has been waiting for.

Check out Dirt Mountain Bike Magazine’s link for more information on the Author and his in depth cast of contributors.

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/mountain-biking-manual.html

Big thanks to Sven Martin for taking the Image.

If you are in to impact sports (like snowboarding, skiing or mountain biking) and you haven’t heard about d3o (say: “dee-three-oh”), you will. It is a fairly amazing material that is soft in its normal state then hardens almost instantaneously when it encounters a sharp impact, thereby protecting whatever is underneath it. Race Face saw the potential as a protective medium for mountain biking early on and developed a line of pads and gloves that feature strategically placed bits of the stuff where riders tend to bash themselves. (continue reading…)

In one fellow swoop, my riding season has come to an end. Iwould love to be able to sit here and tell you that the crash was a mind blowing demonstration of hackiness only Geroge W. Bush could be proud of. But it wasn’t. It was so bad, and uneventfull that even the paramedic who assisted my removal from the mountain suggested that I make up a new story.
So here she goes. Cough… Cough

I was slaying the trails up in the Garbonzo zone, ripping it up, throwing the bike around, in general having a rukus good time. When out of the forest comes the largest bear that I have ever seen. This thing was massive! The size of a truck it was! And it was old, older than any bear in Whistler. Older than all cougars in Whistler combined!

I attemped to evade the bear with my ninja moves, but I failed and the bear quickly latched onto my right leg. What I soon realized when the bear went to clamp down on my leg, was that it was so old that it didn’t have any teeth. Despite this, it still continued to gum at my leg. We wrestled around in the dirt for a while. I got some good shots in! But finally my pencil thin legs were no match, and after repeated attempts the bear managed to break my tib fib in two locations.

Totally believable eh?

Okay the real story is that I was riding out the table on Upper Freight Train, just after the Tree Island, and when I was riding across the dirt to the “new” section my right foot slid forward off my pedal and lodged itself between the pedal and the ground. I rode through a pothole and when the ground came back up on the other side of the pothole, my lower right leg got stuck and snapped. I knew something was wrong, and it was confirmed when I looked down at my leg, because it was sideways. I rolled to a stop and lower myself to the ground and got a call into Patrol.

I would like to thank all the Patrol people on the mountain, the ambulance drivers who drove me to the Hospital and the staff at the hospital. You guys were super amazing and made a very bad experience great! Many Thanks!

And to my friends, I love you people, you were there in a flash, and have helped me out more that I will ever be able to repay you! A few at the GLC when I am better…. perhaps?

Apparently with the bionic attachments that are being put in my legs today I should be good to go in about 6 weeks… well at least walk again.

I have tossed around the idea of getting out of biking and picking up EXTREME KNITTING! I guess only time will tell. Anyone want an afghan? 

What an amazing winter we have been having in the Sea to Sky  !  the Olympics were the greatest ever and the Snow in Whistler just keeps on coming.   Winter is starting to slow down for me and time to start thinking bikes and shredding Dirt instead of Pow. Here is a little photo recap of  my winter cross training.

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So the good news is that I got an MRI & Arthogam on my shoulder and I won’t need surgery! I am so happy to get a definite answer. I was really beginning to worry because my injury has dragged on for ages. Seriously, it has been one of the weirdest injuries ever. Like I don’t feel that hurt and I can do most stuff but something in my joint just does not feel right…and I can’t really ride. I mean I can putt around but I can’t shred, I can’t get loose and I can’t really ride tech. In my mind, there isn’t much point in putting if I am potentially keeping myself from shredding in the near future. Can’t wait to get things rolling…

This past weekend was the last weekend of the Bike Park. The dirt looked AMAZING!!!! I didn’t ride but I borrowed my friends SLR and went out and shot some photos of the boys. I actually had a really good time…other than the fact that I froze my ass off! Winter is coming soon and I am actually pretty excited…gotta get used to the cold again though!