Mikes Hard, Mic Checks, and Mike Reid...

The Gathering Day One:

Arrived at The Gathering jumps in Renton Washington a little late but was psyched at how they looked. They were great, 2 sets for 2 different categorys, a step up/down, C wall, and a dirt spine. There was a wood to dirt stepdown at the start that everyone in pro practice was going bizzerk on! I'll let the pics do the justice on that. The pro dirt results go as followed. Jaimie Goldman came in Third with a unreal run, including a backflip on the stepdown ramp. In Second was Paul B. with an almost identical run. Darren Berrecloth was deservingly the champ. His run was packed with large moves, all dialed in as usual. He threw down a clicked 360 table on the stepdown, to indian air the first jump, whip the second straight to the pedals with enuf time to 360 off the step up/down, and then with the judges likely not even noticing, an opposite 360 over the spine.

Claw Chase

After the contest:

Since Rosscofatty was the senior of the group we had him do the brew run for the Hoes 'n' Volvos team. We stopped at the 76 gas station/snack shop and got Rossco to do his thing. 60$ later we had around 20 Fourties of our favorite crunk juice, Mikes Hard Lemonade. Then we head back to our pad...The Hilton. Only the finest in accomodation for the Hoes 'n' Volvos team. We were prepared to head out for a nice meal before we started to hit the brews, but then we realized it was 12 o'clock and ordered pizza to our hotel room. Things started to get out of control fast as R Kelly and the Caveman both made appearances in room 214, we invited everyone to our hotel party and when the night got going we had ALOT of mountain bikers in the 214. We learned a few things by the end of the night. There is an abundance of weiner at MTB partys, and Fraser loves to go swimming in his boxers but doesnt love getting tripped and landing on his face! At around 4 am we hit the sack after "the po po" were called. I guess nobody told the Hilton that Canadians were showing up. The next morning we awoke to a note under our door with the title "NO party rule".



The Gathering Day 2:

Park day. Awoke nice 'n' early with the taste of Lemonade still in tack. Everyone made it to the park when they could. I was a little unsure about the park layout at first but it turned out to be a real good session. Spent a good couple hours riding this 3 foot mini off to the side of the course. Tried out a bunch of new tricks and basically got worked. The locals certainly brought their A-game as they cleaned up in their runs. Phil Sandbaum was smashing the ceiling on flips and Andy Sandbaum was whipping everything in sight! Man those brothers can rip. Chase was riding with total control and mad style as always. Some local sporting a Hockey helmet was a nutter! One of the craziest wallslaps I've ever seen. All this was great, but the main attraction of the day was certainly the ROAD GAP! Evan Holmgren took one for the team on that one. Spleens are mean! We all basically lost our voices from cheering so hard for the gnarly road gapper. I hope someone got pics of it!



Day 3:

Time to go back to Canada again! First off we stopped by an IHOP in Renton, soon realizing that it was a 8 hour wait for seating and that no one actually had any money. Next stop is the bank, and then we spot out my favourite all day breakfast...DENNYS! Eating there was a must, so after waiting 25 minutes for Danny Brody to park his ratty V Dub, we head in. Reid spotted a claw vending machine with teddy bears inside, so he pulled a Mike Reid and blew about 12$ on unsuccesful attempts at getting a bear for Danny to give to some lucky lady! Our waiter was dope and our food was perf as always.

Things I learned at The Gathering:

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  • Both Lunn bro's are half man half werewolf

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  • Cork flips are the new X ups

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  • Roadgaps can even be found in skateparks!

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  • Reid kills it at shotgunning


Photos by Mike Reid, Kyle Scully, and Shrew

P.S...Heel that tibia quick my little gull banger!

That's it, ya'll!

PEACE!