AIRPrentice Wrap for 2007

Words by Cam McRae. Photos by Dan Barham (unless noted).

Date: 2007-07-11

It's one of the few downsides to running AIRprentice. Finding yourself in the world's best mountain bike playground, dressed in your riding gear, without an opportunity to rip off some laps is kind of a bummer. This year Eamonn, TBone and I arrived early enough Friday to take advantage of extended play and managed a top to bottom, a Garbanzo lap down Freight Train to Original Sin and Goat's Gully followed by Captain Safety, In Deep and Fatcrobat. Oh - and then we hit Too Tight before rolling back to the Garbanzo lift. I love Garbanzo. We iced the afternoon with a couple of A Line laps of course. On Saturday we did a two 'research' laps while the young punks were in the Airdome and even managed to get down what I'll call Ozzy's trail - one of my favourite old school lines outside of the bike park. It was only a maintenance dose - just enough to keep us from going into withdrawal - but it felt good all the same.

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Saturday at 9 am it was game on. Most of the prospective AIRprentices were there already when we rolled up in the team Toyota - and last minute addition Leroy Chase had been there since 7:30 hoping to get a t-shirt that fit. The mountain was just waking up but it was pretty clear this group was jonesin' to ride. Dylan Dunkerton - or Stubz to everyone on our bulletin boards - one of the finalists of our Money Shot comp, tagged along with his buddy Curtis Robinson. Since we only had 11 riders - and because Stubz rules - we tossed him the number 11 jersey. He was on fire all weekend and very easy to be around. Inviting him in was probably the smartest thing we did.

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This was the first year without much pre-AIRprentice stress. Jay Sinclair and Trevor Hansen on our side, and Seb Fremont from Whistler have AIRprentice pretty much down to a science. We also had our strongest rider list ever and the mood was upbeat and chill. Jay Sinclair gets much of the credit for this as well since he selects the twelve riders to join us for the weekend.

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I gave a little speech to the riders, asked them to fill in some little questionnaires and it was time to take a warm up lap. I didn't join them but I'm pretty sure they just did an A-Line session as a big group, going big and stylish all the way down. That must be fun. In the middle of lap two we set up our still photographers, video and film people and our team riders on the section of A-Line that has four tables. I've only hit these a few times thus far but I can't even come close to nailing the whole set. These lads and Britnee had less trouble. In fact they were tabling, whipping and Andrew Sherry spun perfect threes off the third one every time I saw him come through. At this point it was looking like we had a solid group. Now that they had a bit of a sweat on we rolled over to the Crabapple Hits. This was a good separator last year. A way to see who was really comfortable and who felt less rowdy in the air. This year the playing field was pretty level. We took particular notice of a few riders but the overall sensation was - wow, this group can ride.

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We changed things up in the afternoon of day one this year, and didn't go to the Muni dirt jumps. Since there are some nice sets in the Boneyard now we asked the riders to swap bikes at the Whistler Bike Valet (thanks to Mike Budgen!) and rode right under the chair. We decided to do some awards for this session as well. Kyle Hansen scored some Syncros Mental Mag Pedals for best line with a 360/X up/ backflip combo. Shrew was awarded some Dakine Defender Gloves for best dirt sandwich after a three gone wrong. Ben Glassen scored the best style award along with some Adidas Burna Goggles. Curtis Robinson was assessed to have performed the finest trick with a large Super Seater and was accordingly awarded $50 in Denny's bucks to spend as he pleases.

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Ian Nelson won best poser for the performance you see to your right and was awarded a Shirley Temple from the folks at the Dubh Linh Gate pub. He promptly chugged it and will be known from this day forward as Shirley the Pukeprentice. I saw riders climb up onto the box formerly known as Giro for the first time and that is a scary move. You have to pedal full speed into a jump that tosses you onto a vertical wall spiralling up on to the box. By the time you get to the top your speed is gone and you need a couple of pedal strokes for the drop off the other side. Benton Hennig was the first rider I saw and he did a nice job. Ian Nelson made it look possible and then Curtis Robinson decided to give it a try. He was doing okay but he stalled before the top and had to dab to the scary side. It looked like he was going over. The next time through he sorted it out nicely. It's a great addition to the yard.

Ian Nelson earning himself a Shirley Temple

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AIRprentice is cool. It's a privilege having a chance to see a group of amazing athletes in such an intimate setting. It's sort of like being in the movie, like that dude from Virgin said in Ride to the Hills. The cool thing is you get the impression they are riding hard because they love it - not to impress each other or us. They'd be tossing huge back at home with their bros and it felt like that kind of session. Each year I'm impressed by the apparent absence of ego and even that got better this year.

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At 18 I was a bit of a jerk - even more than I am now. I wasn't always thrilled when someone was better than me at something I thought I was good at. These twelve riders seemed to relish the successes of their peers as much as their own. They are just really nice, genuine human beings who are pretty stoked to be able to hang out together. How cool is that? They even stuck as a group in the evening when the event was done. They said please and thank you for god's sake. Where are the badasses this sport is supposed to be full of? What is freeride becoming!

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But I digress. on Sunday morning We asked the riders to do one warm-up lap and then head straight into the Boneyard. It was time to kick it down a few cogs. There was a chance of rain so we wanted to make sure we got as much time on the larger features as we could. All hell broke loose at a steady pace. I couldn't quite believe it when I saw riders back flipping on to both the low and high sides of the box. Sheldon Fitzsimmons learned back flips into foam the day before and then tried one onto the box. He went down pretty hard on the first one but number two was a slow rotating beaut' with lots of height and a solid landing. Am I remembering this correctly? Did Andrew Sherry, Kyle Hansen and Mitch Chubey all do a flip on three off on the small side of the box? I didn't see any of them fall either.

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The step-down step-up move from Crankworx last year was the next challenge. It's large but it's a finesse move because the tranny isn't too far out from the take-off. Leroy was just crawling off it and hitting the top of the tranny every time. After getting the step down handled riders started to test the step up. Benton Hennig often likes to guinea pig things and he tossed his hat in. Benton seemed to go in a little hot and he got bucked. There was something of a running man move, with a bit of rodeo flair, when he ejected from his bike and then he came down from a sickening height. His first hit was heels and left cheek and then he bounced.

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I tried to get Ben to stay down and relax for a second but he was determined to walk it off. Patrol checked him out and after a few minutes we realized that Benton wasn't entirely sure what day it was. We sent him to the clinic to get checked out but thankfully he was released a few hours later. Benton's fall would have broken many riders. The kid is tough as an iron league defenceman. I'm not sure why we hurt the previous year's AIRprentice (last year it was Neil Meier's spleen) but I intend to reverse the trend for AIRprentice 08.

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Seeing Ben up and walking around got the riders back on track and things began to get further off the hook. I almost have to look away sometimes. I missed Curtis Robinson's monumental Super Seater but I caught all of his massive silky whips. Leroy Chase had been off for six weeks with some broken ribs and he'd only been back in the saddle for about ten days before AIRprentice. I figured he'd sit back and be the elder statesman in his third kick at the can. Instead he was throwing gas on the fire with moto-sized Nac nacs. Fifteen year-old Brendan Howey, who speaks fluent chickita, was stomping the step-down with a big smile on his face. Cuurtis Robinson and Dylan Dunkerton started adding several degrees of difficulty to the step down by throwing their hands behind them.

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Sessions ebb and flow and just when it seemed like a good time to shut things down it would spark up again. Eventually it was time to roll over to the GLC to select the finalists and then the winner.

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I wonder how things would change if we had four days? Some riders show their best stuff earlier than others. We had some glimpses of brilliance from riders like Ben Glassen, Dylan Sherrard and Britnee Boychuk but not enough information to go on. One thing we were sure of this year - we were looking for a Slopestyle rider. I think Slopestyle has a future if it continues to be well managed. It's a tough balance to have large enough features and manageable risk but Crankworx seems to nail it every year. Neil Meier is a promising Slopestyle rider who managed fifth in Berrecloth's comp last year, Ian Nelson was second junior in the Harvest Huckfest and Benton Hennig was 26th in last year's Crankworx qualifier against the best in the world. It's great having them on the team and one more rider to help their progression seemed like a good idea.

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Our finalists were Andrew Sherry, Kyle Hansen, Curtis Robinson and Mitch Chubey. As usual I asked Cory Leclerc to help out with some questions and Darcy Turenne took a guest pull on the mic as well - asking the boys where they'd take her on a dream date. Cory made us laugh pretty much the whole time. After the questions were done we put a twenty minute time limit on our decision making and went to work. Last year our discussion was too lubricated by Kokanee Gold and things got out of hand. They also went long - about half an hour long. By the time we emerged from our deliberations whole tables had left to ride the park. This time we stayed focused and emerged on schedule.

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Shrew, Curtis and Kyle kept us laughing but Mitch was focused and serious. He seemed to have a desire and intensity that we liked the sound of. We already have a number of comedians so a straight man made sense. On top of that Mitch has been getting himself to events like the Wham Bam Thank You Jam and Crankworx Colorado (where he finished seventh right behind Kyle Strait) without the help of any sponsors. Things started to come into focus.

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Mitch Chubey - nsmb.com's AIRprentice for 2007-2008. Welcome to the team Mitch! Next stop Kokanee Crankworx!

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Thanks!
And now I'd like to say thank you to a few people. First of all to Jay Sinclair who makes this contest work so well every year and to Trevor Hansen who tied up all the loose ends. Thanks lads. Specialized steps up huge as title sponsor of AIRprentice and we have Brandon Sloan, Nic Sims and Joe Buck to thank there. We wouldn't be able to attract such great riders without such wicked bikes.To Seb Fremont, Jeremy Roche, Rob McSkimming, Kira Cailes (and all the patrollers), Bea Searle, Mike Budgen and Tom Pro at the Whistler Bike Park. Not to mention everyone who works on designing and building the amazing trails. The Whistler Bike Park rules. Julian Coffey from Race Face stepped up and put Diabolus cranks on both bikes. This year the team stayed at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Thanks to the staff there for a fantastic stay. Thanks to Willie Cromack who arranged for the bikes to be built to perfection by Tom at John Henry Bikes in North Van. Big props to Ken Jones for the logo and t-shirt design. You make us look good buddy.

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I also need to send some props to all of our team sponsors. Without them there would be no team. Thanks to Brent Armstrong at Denny's for keeping us fuelled up and ready to charge. Mark Fitzsimmons and Elayna Caldwell-Grim at Fox Shox keep our team bikes suspended front and rear and we wouldn't have it any other way. This is our second season on Magura brakes and they seem to get better every year. Thanks to Lonnie Schultz, Jude Monica, Sergio Brava and Jeff Enlow for the first rate stoppers. You'll find Syncros parts on every part of our team bikes - from, wheels, tires and tubes to grips, bars, stems, pedals, posts and saddles. Thanks to Mark Deterline and especially to Marshall Cant at Syncros. We couldn't get anywhere without our SRAM drivetrains and Tyler Morland and John Dawson keep us on the best in the business. Chico Bukovansky and Dave Bissett hook us up with fantastic Dakine gloves, hydration systems and luggage. Whistler gives the team an amazing place to ride. Thanks to Rob McSkimming, Jeremy Roche and Bea Searle for help on the team side of things. David Wiesenhofer and Ron Muehlboeck keep our eyes on the trail with Adidas Eyewear goggles and glasses. They also help us look cooler than we actually are. The Toyota dealers of B.C. get us to events like AIRprentice in style in our Toyota Tacoma. Thanks to Jeremy Schaab for his hard work on our behalf. I'd also like to thank Marlon Maclain and Sean Lind at Rack Attack for the wicked racks from Yakima and Thule.

Thanks also to our solid team of riders who were essential to the judging process and to all twelve AIRprentice riders for coming out for a ride. Dan Barham did an amazing job capturing the essence of this year's comp with his camera and I hope to follow up with more of his shots. You da man Dan!

There's more to come. I didn't even scratch the surface of this year's photos thanks to Dan Barham's great lens work so I hope to bring you so more galleries. Award winning filmmaker Charles Wilkinson and his son Fabio shot last year's AIRprentice documentary and they came out to capture it again this year. I can't wait to see what they come up with. Greg Tubbs of Grubworks and Northwest Dirt Culture had his lens on us as well so that should mean a segment in Northwest Dirt Culture III. Having The Ride Guide along is a real treat. It's nice to know AIRprentice will be on TV screens the world over. Thanks to Kevin Pennock for arranging things and for Mike Benedek doing a great job shooting the event. Robert Grant brought along a crew of three and shot both digital and film. When you work with professional crews they just seem to blend into the scene and even with four crews we hardly knew they were there. Thanks for coming out and for all your hard work.

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The NSMB Airprentice is presented by:

 

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