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Dylan
goes to Woodward |
When the opportunity arose to head down to California for the weekend to ride Woodward West with some of the best mountain bikers around, it wasn’t a very hard decision. I quickly decided to skip my last day classes at university and jump on a plane to escape our crazy deep freeze in trade for the California sun. I jumped on a plane with Evan Holmgren to embark on some of the sweetest riding of my life at the Atom Lab California Super Sessions.
Atomlab World headquarters. Aka our hotel.
First stop was Seattle where we saw some crazy rider walking through the airport with his helmet on. Low and behold it was Joe Perizzo getting ready to flip, cork or flair his way down to Cali. Evan and I harassed him for while and then we all got on the plane and left behind the frigid West Coast. Pulling into Burbank Airport at around 6 pm we found Nick and Ryan Meyer with four big bike boxes basically stranded after some flight delays. With five riders and seven bikes our transportation options were very few. With so much baggage we decided to rent a pickup truck that would eventually receive a chocolate milk car wash. We rolled on to the Atom Lab World Headquarters in Santa Clarita, a few minutes away on the I-5, and soon our bikes were assembled ready to ride.
Joe Prizel joined our crew and we went riding. I was excited because the skate parks at home have been either wet or snowy over the last couple of weeks. We dropped in on this little park where it was deathly slippery from dust yet still super fun. Evan was killing it on a sick 180-fence tap and I was trying to abubaca some rail and get some kinks worked out with my gears. Everyone was having a great time until the lights went off right as Joe Prizel was going for a three tap on the mini street spine. Only his cat-like reflexes saved him from certain death. So we grabbed some good ol’ American 24 hour Denny’s and then headed back to Atom lab where Mike Flaherty, owner-operator, graciously let us crash on the office floors until we all left the next morning for Woodward.
Empty enterprise skatepark with just Walker and Joe. Click
to enlarge.
Friday morning we packed up the truck again with bikes, bags and people, grabbed a Starbucks and breakfast burrito and hit the road. I pinned it trying to keep with Mike on the highway but I lost him. It was time to play catch up and we found out that the pickup truck had a speed limiter at 100 miles an hour. Driving less like a grandma and more like the 22 year old I am, we caught Mike and made it to Woodward.
I was giddy like a little kid on Christmas. I was finally at Woodward. The first place I hit was Enterprise Skate Park, a massive wood park that just baffled me. I felt very privileged to ride the vert-ramps, wall-rides, quarters and hips. Walker Wilkerson was there throwing down some madness and carving up the park like he owned it. Then there was a rider there I wasn’t familiar with riding a bright pink dual 24 Tonic with no brakes and bars wide enough to span the Grand Canyon. He was throwing turndowns off all sorts off stuff and rode very fast and smooth. Guy Marsh continued to amaze everyone tearing up Woodward all weekend and rightly earned himself the most creative rider award with his crazy turndowns, huge one-handed airouts, and big floating 360’s. Still riding Enterprise another young rider caught my eye. JD Swanguen was also riding brakeless and was picking out the smoothest, strangest and coolest transfer lines. He ended up nabbing himself the most Best Overall Performance award.
Panoramic view of Enterprise skate park to make everyone Jealous.
Click to enlarge
I rode the cement park until dark and then headed to Tehachapi for a pizza party. It started to get rowdy and there was almost a pizza fight between Americans and Canadians. This rivalry continued for most of the evening with all sorts of banter and arguments that were usually in some way instigated by Taylor Sage. Tsage was definitely the life of the party but I also saw him throwing down the big set of dirt Jumps like Mr. Clean himself and with enough trail style to make anyone Jealous.
Potential slopestyle podium dominators conspiring to take over
the world. Click
to enlarge.
We headed back to the Hangar where the indoor park at Woodward resides. From foam pits to resi-ramps, street riding to bowl riding, and big vert-ramp - the Hangar has it all. Every night it rains in Vancouver I will remember this place and wish for an indoor one-tenth as good. Some more riding went down including a lot of foam pit practice on flip whips and front flip variations from Andreu Lacondeguy and Cam McCaul respectively. Greg Watts was throwing down pretty hard too… on a pink little girls razor scooter. Greg was having so much fun that Lluis Lacondeguy joined in and started flipping the scooter on the resi-ramp. The moves ranged from Andrew Taylor and Joe Perrizo flipping the box until it was worn out to Guy riding a14 foot vert ramp. Peanut Severt rode the park until it was expired throwing turndown transfers, wall rides and clicked 360’s. Amazing riding continued until we were kicked out.
Greg Watts wiped out huge straight to head riding his little pink razor scooter out of the Hangar and sheet of ice. Thankfully he was wearing a helmet and he did not get hurt but the image of him sprawled across the ground next to a pink little girls razor scooter is unforgettable! I headed back to my cabin and after getting shot by airsoft trigger man Evan Holmgren I passed out in my clothes to end day one.
Andreu Lacondeguy pulling an textbook tuck no-hander. Click
to enlarge.
Saturday started with a bunch of Canadians at the smaller wooden street course. There was a nice hip that was tons of fun to boost. After our boxed lunch, where I scored huge and got two max five chocolate bars, I decided to try and get some photos. I shot the handful of riders brave enough to hit 25-foot dirt jumps with quite a bit of wind gusting. Even with the wind Andreu and Cam were still throwing huge stylish moto-whips and tuck no-handers. Andrew Taylor even threw down the odd Superman over big ones. Andrew, who won the smoothest rider award, goes big and has a great attitude that will take him far. Other notable riders braving the big jumps in the wind were Peanut, Tyler McCaul and Ryan Meyer.
The wind kept up and evening was coming so I retired to the hangar to stay warm and have another indoor session. Evan Holmgren crashed pretty hard doing a 360 over the box jump and put a big bump on his head. Some people went bowling and I heard that it was America versus Canada but another group of us wanted more Hangar so we skipped out. After some savage wipeouts I finally pulled a good move and did an Abubaca to the top of a big wall from a very little quarter. There was also some top-secret slopestyle practice from Andreu and McCaul. Front flips on the resi-ramp from Cam and flips whips on the resi-ramp from Andreu. Their tricks seem to be ready for the dirt and the season is still far off so I’m pretty sure you will see these guys dominate the slopestyle podium. We rode the Hangar until we could ride no more. Walker Wilkerson got some sick crooked transfer flips that I am sure he will showcase at The Gathering. The foam pit rope took out Tyler McCaul when it got tangled in his spokes riding away form the foam pit. He went down face first to the cement but took it like a pro and looked up and just asked “what happened?” with a big smile on his face. Holmgren and I rode the place until we were the last two people there at about one in the morning and after about 17 hours of riding I threw on the Ipod and on drifted off to dream land.
Evan Holmgren Boosting out of the Jersey Barricade in Enterprise
Skate Park. Click
to enlarge.
Day three started late and ended early. It was a bit cold and most people were pretty tired so we rode the hangar until lunch. After lunch three awards were given to the fore mentioned riders Andrew Taylor, JD Swanguen and Guy Marsh. Everyone was sad to depart but we all had a good time. The pickup, loaded with a bunch of bikes and people got us safely back to the Atom Lab headquarters where we crashed once more.
Not only did Joe Perizzo flip the biggest jump in the set, he also got a waitress’s phone number at a somewhat classy joint by saying nothing more than “I think you are hot” under his breath. Aside form being an amazingly smooth rider that can spin and text book truck driver like it is going out of style, has really bad gas…all the time. After driving two hours with him I have earned the right to publicly announce this.
Joe Perrizo pulls a gas-powered corked flip over a hip.
Holmgren the Meyers and myself tore down our bikes, grabbed some authentic Mexican food, got to the airport and headed home. I think the whole flight we talked about how we need an Indoor in Vancouver. I would just like to thank Mike Flaherty from Atom Lab for letting me come to his event and stay at his place. I also would like to thank all the riders and staff at Woodward for making my first Woodward experiences everything I wished they would be.
Dylan Korba, Norco Bikes
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