AIRprentice Wrap

The 5th Edition presents some challenges

Words by Cam McRae. Photos by David Ferguson and Malcolm McLaws.

Five years of running AIRprentice have yielded some bountiful harvests. Our first selection was Ryan Schnepf whose accomplishments on Drop In and in front of the camera matched his enthusiastic response to taking the AIRprentice title. Our second winner, Neil Meier, was a great addition who stayed with the team for a long stint ending with his retirement due to injury this past spring. Benton Hennig started out great guns but then seemed to lose interest in being a sponsored rider – which was a real shame because we enjoyed having him on the team.


Nine who made up the ragtag AIRprentice 08 crew. Left to right; Tyler Leblanc, Cody Heinrichs, Mark Matthews, Luke Fulton, Justin Wyper, Nick Meyer, Greg Allen (below), Luke Beers and Andrew Lee. Missing; Evan McCurrie. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

After selecting Benton we decided to poach a second competitor and we were stoked to add Ian Nelson to the team. Ian continues to ride for team nsmb.com and his 10th place finish at last year’s Crankworx proved what a strong and consistent rider he is.


Cast and crew. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

Year four we really hit our stride, selecting Mitch Chubey as our man. Mitch killed it on Drop In last year and his progression as a rider has kept us all gobsmacked. This past weekend he surprised everyone with his speed (well me at least) and beat all comers at the Red Bull Round Up. Mitch along with Ian will be competing in the Crankworx Slopestyle in August. Again last year we wanted to cherry pick another rider and just like Micayla Gatto, we became smitten with Curtis Robinson. Curtis is one of the smoothest riders around and he peanut buttered his way to a third place finish at the Châtel Mountain Style contest in France early in July and another third this past weekend at the Red Bull Round Up. Because of AIRprentice we’ve managed to assemble a fantastic group of riders and while it hasn’t been easy it’s been worth all the effort.


Celebrity sightings in Whistler. Wade Simmons dropped by to say hi to the lads and Cam McCaul brought his Summer Gravity Camp Groms along to watch some of the festivities as well. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

This year recruiting riders was more of a challenge. It seems that many young riders had one hook-up or another that prevented them from entering AIRprentice in good faith. Many of them wanted to come along but their sponsors said no – for obvious reasons. So it was left to Jay Sinclair to assemble the ragtag class of 2008. Last year, and every year before that, the quality of riders was so high we really had a difficult time making a decision. This time around we weren’t sure how it would all go down.



The prizes. This year Specialized stepped up with a P3 frame and an SX frame. The SX has a little less travel than the SX Trail and on top of being lighter, new school riders find it more versatile and easier to jump. Each bike comes equipped with Fox Forx (and a fox Shock on the SX), Syncros wheels, tires, post, stem, saddle, bar headset, chain device, pedals and grips, AVID brakes, SRAM drivetrain and Race Face cranks. The AIRprentice will also be riding with Dakine gloves and packs, Fox shorts and he'll be fuelling up at Denny's. Shortly Mitch Chubey will be picking up Justin in the team truck on the way to Crankworx Colorado. Thanks to John Henry Bikes for the sick builds! Photos ~ David Ferguson.

By 8:45 on Saturday morning we had 9 riders but Evan McCurrie was nowhere to be found. By the time he rolled in about 90 minutes late we had all heard stories of his partying the night before, but his official line was that his new cell phone didn’t rouse him in time. If you’re going to be a man at night, make sure you’re a man in the morning. We gave him a lift ticket and told him he was in, but just barely, and set the riders loose to get warmed up.


Mark Matthews leads the train down A Line. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

We run much of AIRprentice like a photo or video shoot and our first location was the A Line 8 pack – a great place to see who’s got their smooth on. This was our first sign that this group had some challenges. There were four or five close calls in the first five minutes or so and Luke Beers almost left a Maxxis imprint in my forehead.


Luke Fulton impressed us early and often. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

Things started to go better after that so we headed over to Crabapple. Last year Leroy Chase and Curtis Robinson destroyed the hits with Superman Seatgrabs and Indian Airs and the whole group was charging. Again the class of 08 was slow to get a feel for the jumps but soon they were boosting.


Andrew Lee from Newfoundland arrived scraped and bruised but he didn't hold anything back. Photo ~ Malcolm McLaws.

After we broke for lunch it was time to get serious; bring on the Boneyard. Last year’s edition of the course was great because it was something you could work into. There were a couple of dirt jump lines, the Giro trailer was a cool move and the ‘staff housing’ box was good for some tricks as well. Then those who were feeling zesty moved on to the big step down step up line and started linking things together.


First there was some digging to get done - and some water sports. Left to right - Nick Meyer, Justin Wyper and Cody Heinrichs. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

This year there aren’t many low consequence moves so riders pretty much had to go relatively big right from the start. It wasn’t long before Mitch Chubey voiced what we were all thinking, “I know who the finalists are – the ones who are riding.” For whatever reason only about half the riders were working the course; Justin Wyper, Luke Fulton, Mark Matthews, Tyler Leblanc, Andrew Lee and Cody Heinrichs were doing their best to put some moves together and get comfortable with the course. A few of the others did as well and a few just sat down and became spectators.


My guess is that this is Luke Fulton. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

By the end of the day we had no idea who would be our guy but it was time for the judges and the team to do some riding so we did some hiking and rode one of the old school lines as a group, finishing up on Creekside.


What's better than spectators? Celebrity spectators! L to R - Alan Muldoon from MBR mag in the UK, Doddy from MBUK, Ryan Meyer, Andrew Cho, Hoots Jay and more riding celebutantes. Photo ~ Malcolm McLaws.

The good folks at Ticket 2 Ride put together a sweet barbeque for all of us and then it was time for everyone to prepare for Sunday with a Saturday night on the town in Whistler.

It’s tough to squeeze everything in over two days and we really wanted to take a lap down Garbanzo but since it doesn’t open until 11:00 it would have put too much squeeze on the day. Instead we split into groups and asked the riders to roll down something a little more tech. We are North Shore Mountain Biking after all and it’s a given that you have to be a very solid trail rider on top of everything else to join team nsmb. Because of the slow start in the Boneyard the day before we needed more time there and some of the other riders started to session – but it was still mostly the group mentioned above.


Last year's Whipprentice champ was Curtis Robinson. This year it was Mark Matthews. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

At this point Wyper, Matthews, Fulton, Leblanc and Heinrichs began to distance themselves further from the rest of the group by putting together complete lines, boosting hard and trying some world class moves. Mark had more boost than anyone and his huge whips and massive airs above the quarter had the crowd stoked. To get things ramped some we decided to lay down one of the Nokia phones for best trick. This brought out an Indian Air tailwhip from Wyper that took the prize in a walk. He also survived some moves that looked like hospital airs from our vantage point.


I had never even seen a Tailwhip Indian Air before Wyper pulled this out. Or is it an Indian Air Whip? Insane is what it is. Photo ~ Malcolm McLaws.

After lunch we decided we had seen enough of the yard and asked the riders to roll through the 4X course in pairs. After the first run we told them to walk to the top and drop in again. This was a test of course. Being a sponsored rider isn’t all Patron and 5 star hotels; sometimes you have to work your ass off when you are bone tired and the sun is beating down on you like a laser. The whiners took themselves out of contention then and there. It’s always better to learn that stuff sooner than later.

Tyler Leblanc getting serious about a tuck no-hander. Photo ~ Malcolm McLaws.

After the 4X it was time to choose the finalists. The first three weren’t difficult. Luke Fulton, Mark Matthews and Justin Wyper killed it all weekend long. For the final spot on the barstools it was between Tyler Leblanc and Cody Heinrichs. Both were hungry and keen and obviously talented but Tyler narrowly won out in a show of hands.

The finalists; L to R - Luke Fulton, Tyler Lelbanc, Mark Matthews and Justin Wyper - and Cory Leclerc. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

Once we announced the finalists it was time to hand the mic to Cory Leclerc to grill each rider with our penetrating line of questioning. The highlight was having each rider describe how they would impress Curtis Robinson (since Darcy Turenne couldn’t make it this year) on a ‘dream date.’ They were all great sports but Luke and Justin proved to be the most comfortable in the spotlight.

We returned to our chambers for some serious deliberations. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

When it came time to deliberate we were in two camps – one for Justin and one for Mark. They had an edge on the other two in our eyes. Once we flushed out what we are looking for in the rider who will be the AIRprentice the decision was made. While both were clearly great riders who would fit in perfectly with our team, Justin’s plan to hit as many Slopestyle comps as possible this summer gave him an edge over Mark. The last time we saw Justin was two years ago in the AIRprentice and it was great to see that his riding and his jovial personality have both gotten sweeter with age. Luke and Tyler have great potential as well and both showed the sort of grit and perseverance top riders need. I look forward to seeing some of the younger riders in this year's comp progress and learn. Luke Beers is only 14 and Tyler Leblanc is just 16 while Cody Heinrichs, Luke Fulton and Greg Allen are 17 years old. Justin and Nick Meyer were the old men of the comp at 20 this year. Best of luck to all of you.

After we announced our winner Justin grabbed the Specialized SX and headed straight for the Boneyard. It's been a while since Justin has owned a functioning duallie. Photo ~ David Ferguson.

My guess is that some of you might have some opinions about this article. If you do, we'd like to hear them on our bulletin boards...

It was great to see Justin so stoked to win AIRprentice. Photo ~ Malcolm McLaws.

Thank you, thankyouverymuch...
As I write this Mitch Chubey is on his way to Winter Park for Crankworx Colorado. He's picking up Justin at the Denver Airport (I think it's Denver) on his way back from the Claymore Challenge in New Hampshire. Good luck boys!

AIRprentice is a big undertaking. We get a lot of help from a lot of great people and I'd like to single out a bunch.

Brandon Sloan, Joe Buckley and Nic Sims from Specialized are big supporters of AIRprentice. We couldn't do it without you.

Marshall Cant and Pete Roggeman from Syncros keep the nsmb.com team bikes running smoothly on sweet parts. Thanks boys!

Up at Whistler Jeremy Roche, Rob McSkimming, Bea Searle, Brian Finestone and especially Seb Fremont make sure everything is going to work smoothly in the bike park. It's tough to imagine being able to do this anywhere else in the world. Thanks Whistler!

Brent Armstrong from Denny's will pretty much do anything for us. You are the man Brent! Without Elayna Caldwell and Mark Fitzsimmons from Fox Racing Shox we'd be all rigid. It's great to have our riders are on the finest forx and shox around.

Having SRAM and Avid on your bike puts an end to headaches. Their parts work amazingly well with unheard of reliability and toughness. Thanks to John Dawson, Paul Kantor and Tyler Morland for making it so.

Jeremy Schaab from Toyota Canada and Dean Butler from Elevator Strategy are responsible for getting us around in style. We just took the team Tacoma over the Hurley pass into Gun Lake for a float plane drop - and the truck was a pleasure to drive on that shitty road.

David Wiesenhofer of Adidas Eyewear keeps us supplied with wicked goggles and sunglasses.

Graham Archer of Kintec Footlabs has been responsible for getting our riders in ankle and knee braces, orthotics and Sole footbeds. I am definitely riding better because of it.

Dakine is one of our longest standing sponsors and thanks to Chico Bukovansky and Dave Bisset they are fantastic to deal with. Dakine gets it - plain and simple.

This year during AIRprentice the nsmb.com team and staff stayed at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. When an opportunity to stay there presents itself jump at it - it's a rare and enjoyable experience. Thanks to Katherine Stuart for setting it all up for us.

Once again this year the AIRprentice bikes were powered by Race Face cranks. That gives me peace of mind when I see Mitch or Curtis and now Justin toss something huge. Merci beaucoup to Julian Coffey.

This year for the first time we had a prize for every rider in AIRprentice - and a sick prize at that. Everyone got a sweet new Nokia phone. Justin walked away with an N95 8GB. It's a 3G phone with GPS, games and wide screen videos. Dan Scott arranged the whole thing. Always great working with you Dan.

The riders who competed in AIRprentice this year were lucky enough to stay at the sweet Ticket 2 Ride Lodge. Dan runs the place and spends most of his days off building trail as well. It's nice to hear about a company giving back to the trails. Thanks to Dan and his staff for the great barbeque on Saturday night as well.

Willie Cromack at John Henry Bikes managed to get his staff to build these bikes at one of the busiest times of the year. Of course the mechanics at JH did a fantastic job. Most appreciated!

Inside the operation this year Pete Roggeman, Trevor Hansen and Jay Sinclair took care of many of the details and tackled issues with energy and creativity. I don't care what anybody says - I think you guys are great. Malcolm McLaws and David Ferguson recorded the event with their still cameras with back up from the hard working Stuart 'Doc' Kernaghan. Dylan Dunkerton shot a bunch of video without anyone noticing. Geoff Livingstone made an unforgettable entrance and then got his vid cam rolling as well. Injured Eamonn Diugnan was our man on the ground in Whistler. It's hard to know how we'd ever get on without you Eamo. Last but not least I'd like to thank all 10 competitors for coming out and riding hard for a chance to be on team nsmb.com. Obviously there would be no AIRprentice without riders willing to step up. Props to the riders on our team and everyone else who helped make this happen again this year.

AIRprentice 2008 is presented by:

2008 nsmb Team Sponsors

AIRprentice 2008 Sponsors: