Lastest Canyons Sessions

A little eye candy from last weekends Canyons Session

Winner winner chicken dinner....

unofficial

 whipoff winner

Brad Pastir......... fall style

Brad doing B-Rad stuff

Posse headed back up during the afternoon jump sesh

Parker Degray re-entry

Scrubbin

Sending the bottom feature on Alley Cat

9/11 sk8 park and Canyons Bike Park

Things got a little wild today.  The day started out mellow enough.  The plan was to meet Guru Dave at Guthrie Skate Park for a photo shoot and some short edits.

Guthrie is a local park with skating allowed sometimes and biking allowed the other times.  We decided to mix it up with a little of both so we arrived around a half hour before skaters were allowed and the park was empty.  Perfect for a photo shoot.  This also gave us some time to figure things out before Dave arrived.



Dave is a long time Snowbird skier who blogs about the snow conditions in Little Cottonwood and specifically Snowbird.  In the summer he likes to ride carve lines in the skate park so we decided last ski season to meet and do a photo/video shoot.

Luck was on our side as we had the park pretty much to ourselves for about a half hour.  We put the empty space to good use and got some good footage.  We are going to go back later this fall and do a more hardcore shoot.  Hopefully Dave will be there as we had fun.

 In the afternoon we headed up to Canyons bike park.  A couple of new surprises down the first run on Alley Cat almost put me over the bars.  Almost immediately we met up with Mike and Cody and started doing some steezy runs.  Before long Dave Beeson and Mitch showed up and things started getting rowdy.  Needless to say there are some new lines on upper Alley Cat.  The evolution of Canyons Bike Park is going to be something to behold the next few years.

cheers 

Canyons

squashing some tables

The Canyons is in the process of building a new bike park and today we went up there to check it out.  We met Tanner and Bill Hart who we often hook up with on gravity rides.

We knew going into this they only had one or two trails with plans to build more.  The flow trail they have completed is called Alley Cat.  Alley Cat is similar to the Giant Slalom in the Whistler Bone Yard.

Drifting the first corner on Alley Cat

The entrance to Alley Cat has a small double filter feature followed by a drifty corner (see above photo).  Further down, after some small features,  the trail cranks into some high speed berms with some larger tables and a floaty step down.
 

The Canyons has a plan to expand the bike park over several years and if they keep building trails like Alley Cat, I am in for a while. 

Brad (The Honey Badger) steezing a hip

 

Brianhead 2011-Feeling Bad for Parker

      After a four hour drive down to Brianhead, Utah, my dad and I got our camp sight, met up with some friends, and got our gear on to start practice.  After four or five runs, we had the course figured out pretty well.  I had a good time talking to Sam Casper about a future project that will take place during the ski season.  A lot of people were not too happy with the course that we were running, but it was a fun, proper downhill race, with a gnarly sprint near the end.

    

     That night along with some of our friends we decided to get a pool poach in at the hotel that some of our friends were staying at, The Grand Lodge.  The Grand Lodge is a pretty awesome place if you ever get a chance to stay there.  They have an indoor pool with waterfall, two hot tubs, an outdoor covered patio with dual fire pits, a bar, and a band.  Pretty outstanding amenities in the middle of the Utah desert.  

   

     It took a while to find the correct hotel but we eventually got there.  The pool was amazing with two hot tubs and a large waterfall.  We got a little crazy and almost got kicked out of the pool.  Actually, two adults that were with us did get the boot (Wilson's dad and Bill).  It was pretty fun and funny.  

     The next day was race day, and I got 3 or 4 practice runs in before the race.  I ran into Parker Degray.  Parker is an 18 year old pinner who was trying to make it to worlds, but despite having very solid results all year, he was not picked.  He seemed kind of disappointed when we hooked up, and for good reason.  Looking back on it he would have benefited from having a deeper history in the previous year as well as more focus on a couple of important races this year.  Note for the future. 

     I crashed in the race and got last, but on the brighter side Parker won, like he should have.  In spite of the crash I crushed tons of kids who all mysteriously seemed to have amazing crashes and clean kits after learning that I had taken a beater.  Unlike the other kids who had "crashed" my kit, hair, and even teeth were full of dirt.   I had broken my hand and still managed a reasonable time.  This has been the year of the crash.  If I can stay on the bike I can win races.  The best is yet to come.        

Logan enroute to the pro win

Final 2011 Crankworx Slideshow

Here is the final Crankworx 2011 post.  Enjoy!!!!!!!!


2011 Crankworx Final Edit from Shawn Carter on Vimeo.

Crankworx 2011/In the books

The strangest things happen at Crankworx.
 
People are connected in unusual ways.
 
Last year my dad jumps on Fitz with three total strangers.  He really doesn't pay attention to the whose who of the biking world like I do.  He ends up riding the chair with none other than Brian Lopes.

Being clueless seems to put him into contact with the superstars of the biking world.  The funny thing is......... he relates to them and actually makes friends with them without any concept of who they are.  Perhaps his vibe is different because he actually relates to them about issues that really have nothing to do with biking.

Yesterday my dad and uncle were waiting in an obvious spot on the enduro course in order to re-supply me with pb+j sandwiches as well as give me unwanted advice.  They had waited quite a while when another dude who had also been waiting, with full face helmet and goggles in hand, approached them.  He seemed concerned that he was perhaps waiting in the wrong spot as his girlfriend had entered the enduro and he was to swap helmets.

My father assured him he was in the correct spot and that was that.  Unknown to all of them, the race was behind schedule due to logistical issues.  After some time passed my dad decided to walk over to the end of the fourth stage on Blackcomb Mountain and asked the chap if he would like to join both he and my uncle.  The stranger thought that was a good idea and joined them for both the walk over to Blackcomb and then a conversation at the end of stage four.  They spent around 30 to 40 minutes talking about whatever it is that adults talk about.

My father learned many things about the stranger.

He was from the Isle of Skye

The surfing isn't good there because its an inner island but the outer islands have epic surf. 

He had been jumping earlier in the week over at Crabapple Hits and had injured his back and felt fortunate to not be hurt worse.

He was shooting a movie for the next month in Vancouver.

He mostly road "street".

In fact my dad learned so much about this guy that he is certain that at some point he will move to Vancouver.  Without directly saying it the stranger had told him so with his description of the perfect place to live.  My father feels fortunate to have gotten to know him the way he did.

What he did not learn is his name.  Just like when he road the chair with Lopes he did not put two and two together until after the fact.  After finishing the fourth stage of the Enduro I even asked my dad who he was and he just said "some guy into biking from the British Isles".

My dad had just spent the better part of an hour with Danny MacAskill.  Danny might be one of the most talented bike riders on the planet.  If you don't know who Danny is, here are a couple videos to help you understand what Danny is about.

 







Whistler's energy is something else.

Cheers

Kokanee Crankworx 2011/Day 9 Canadian Open Enduro

The Canadian Open Enduro finish-GLC drops on a trailbike 

     The course for the Enduro is long and pretty challenging.  The first three stages are very cross country/xc in nature.  The race starts in the Whistler Bike Park using some of the easier gravity trails , then goes over around Lost Lake.  The Lost Lake area has some outstanding xc trails and the course is designed to take advantage of this  under utilized area.  Anyone visiting Whistler who is into mountain biking should spend some time exploring this trail network.

    The transition to the fourth stage has a big steep climb using a logging road to access Blackcomb Mountain.   Blackcomb has its own trail network.  Because of its proximity to the Whistler Bike Park the trail network on Blackcomb sees very little traffic outside of local use.  The fourth stage of the Enduro is a technical and rocky descent.  One of the kids I was racing was running light XC type tires, and he got a flat on this stage.

     The last transition involved riding two lifts up the Whistler Bike Park and a short ride down to the "Containers" where the last and fifth stage started.  At this point I was comfortably in second place and well out of first so I just tried to keep my run smooth.  That strategy worked and I ended up back on the podium in second.   Not a bad day.  

Second Place in the Canadian Open Enduro