 The things we do. |
My Perspective Adam Beashel |
My first images of the Shore came from watching Kranked 1 or 2. I saw footage of guys riding narrow man-made obstacles and then dropping off the end. I had gotten into mountain biking in 1996, after I narrowly missed being selected to sail for Australia in the Atlanta Summer Olympics. I enjoyed cross country riding for about three years, but the technical lines those guys were doing in the video interested me more.
When sailing as a professional became an
option I pursued it as a living and traveled the world. In June 2000 I raced
from San Francisco to Hawaii and one of the crew was a guy from B.C. named Curtis
Blewett. We got talking about riding during the eight days at sea and decided
to plan a two month mountain biking trip based out of Whistler.
After the trip I drove up from California with a new Psycle Werks Wild Hare. I had been reading up in the mags about the Shore and had seen a few more videos. My first ride was alone on Fromme and I rode Ladies Only. Yep this was what I was looking for. The riding and the scene was everything I had hoped for, there just seemed to be a certain vibe on the mountain that you don't get anywhere else - maybe it's something to do with the dense cedar forest. I probably only rode a few ladder bridges and a couple of rocky technical sections, but I was so excited about what I had seen. It was a great first ride.
A few days later Curtis arrived from Switzerland where he had signed up with the Swiss Team for the 2003 America's Cup. During the same time I had also signed up with the America's Cup defenders, Team New Zealand. We had organized things so that neither of us had to start work with our new teams for another 3 months, so we had a free pass for recreational hobbies till then. We, along with Curtis's girlfriend Caroline, rented an apartment in Whistler.
We spent many hours riding A River runs Through
It and then I finally ventured back to the Shore. Curtis showed me a few trails
on Seymour including Boogeyman. It was by far, the most technical trail I had
seen and took some time learning. It was then and still is, my all-time favourite
trail..
During the weeks in Whistler and on the Shore, we pushed each other further and further and were soon able to ride a fair share of the more technical trails. On one great day we rode Upper Oil Can, Expresso and took a little look (walk) down Circus. Together we cleaned everything top to bottom and had the energy to go back up and finish with Ladies. We celebrated our amazing day with a few ales back in Whistler.
Once we returned to the apartment's car park we were too fried to retrieve the bikes from the car and decided to leave them in the underground, locked car park till morning. Waking up the next day was hard enough, but walking down to an empty car really f**ked us over. We had become the victims of bike theft. My bike, along with Curtis's tricked out Stinky Dee Lux, were gone and not insured.
We were planning to leave in a few days
but I decided I would not leave B.C. without a new rig. I was hooked on the
riding in B.C. and knew I would be back so I bought a second hand VPS 2 and
took it with me to New Zealand, where Curtis and I would be based from 2000
to 2003 with our America's Cup teams.
New Zealand has some amazing outdoor recreational activities and, fortunately for us there's a bike park in the Woodhill forest near Auckland. We also discovered that the Shore's influence had already reached here; one trail, Body Bag has some small built up stuff.
Soon sailing had started and we were both too busy with work to do much riding. In the America's Cup the sailing teams work six, 12-14 hour days a week, so there is not much time for anything else. Luckily, in February this year we found out we would both have down time in July (winter in NZ is not good for sailing) and this meant we could take a trip back to B.C. As well, Curtis and Caroline decided they would be getting married at this time in Kelowna.
To get ready for the Shore we spent our free
time building stunts out at Woodhill, (www.woodhillonline.com).
We decided we needed skinny planks with teeter-totters and a couple good size
drops to prepare us for another dose of the Shore. Unfortunately, because we
couldn't use the live trees in the forest to support stunts and there was no
dead-fall, we had to purchase wood from the timber yard. Each day off we would
build in the morning and hope to ride the new, relatively small stunts in the
afternoon. We did this for about 6 weeks until we finally had a network of stunts
on a few of the trails to keep us satisfied until we went to the B.C. in July.
Whistler, the Shore, Kelowna - in July Curtis bought a new RM7 and I got the Specialized Big Hit so we would have no problems with old gear for our two weeks in B.C.. Also joining us for this trip was a mate from Sydney, Anthony, who had just finished competing in the Volvo Ocean Race around the world.
This time the trip took a new turn. We again stayed in Whistler but this time we spent a lot of time in the Bike Park. The park was great fun and fast downhill with large jumps was a new experience for us. We still drove down to the Shore as much as we could, since that was what we were really here for. Our best ride came on the day I met Cam at the top of Mountain highway. That day we rode Grouse looking for GMG but came up short and opted for Upper Oil Can, Pink Starfish and Groovula. This was a great combo which was followed by Curtis cleaning Big Rock, down from Lower Ladies.
After that we moved on to Kelowna for Curtis's wedding. I got to experience a little more of B.C. and based on what I saw (Powers Creek trail) another trip to B.C. is in order after the America's Cup is finished next year, so I can continue discovering the most amazing freeride trails in B.C.
