NSMB.com Team
Another Day in Whistler
Posted by Eamonn Duignan on 2008-09-29
When I received a phone call from Darryl Leniuk, photographer extraordinaire, and he suggested that we go and shoot some scenic Whistler Peak action, on what was meant to be a blue bird day, what else could I say, but I’m in? However, when we arrived in Whistler, our perfect day for shooting kinda fell apart. What was meant to be an epic sunny day quickly became overcast, and what was meant to be a leisurely guided trip to the peak, quickly turned into a grunt of a hiking trek, as our guide was a no show. As they say, shit happens, and as such we tried to make the best of a rapidly deteriorating situation. So we jumped on the Gondola, tied up our laces nice and tight, and gave'er the boots. In the end, and after all our hardships, we got some pretty cool shots, and a few blisters to boot...get it, to boot? Lame jokes, aside, and I mean lame, here are some of the shots we got on that fateful day, enjoy.
Some upper Whistler action. Photo: Darryl Leniuk
Just another day at the office. Photo: Darryl Leniuk
Whistler goodness...it's worth the hike. Photo: Darryl Leniuk
Just one of the perks of shooting in Whistler. Photo: Darryl Leniuk
Thankfully Darryl didn't want to hike any further! Photo: Darryl Leniuk
Bowen Island - Land of Steeps and Loam
Posted by on 2008-09-23
Last Saturday we got the call from Dangerous Dan to come over as he finished building some new loamy trails. Our group is always game for something new and especially when there is loam involved.
Danger with his heft steed and star wars wheels.
The drive up to top of Mt. Gardner involves having a key for the gate and a 4x4. I think we got 10 bikes on the Ford with room to spare.
The shuttle only takes you half ways up and then its a 30 minute or so hike a bike along a hiking trail to the top. This is a view point almost half the hike up. The temperature was nice and cool so it wasn't so bad of an up.
Once at the top, it was time to suite up for the knar knar.
I didn't manage to snag many photos on the descent as I had my mind in survival mode. It was pretty loose and steeper than I remembered. I had traction issues on the way down. I did let some air out and it did help but the rear was still not grabbing as much I would have liked but the tire was pretty worn. If you ever decide to ride on Bowen, make sure you have fresh tires and good brakes as your going to need them. Bowen probably has the steepest, knarliest natural trails I've ever rode. Thumbs up for sure !
Below is some the craftsmanship you'll find at Bowen. Absolutely top notch. This bridge was actually bolted into the rock.
The Bowen builders have stepped away from the skinnies and have added more air. This series is similiar to Air Supply on Fromme
This wall ride kicked ass !
Part of crew chilling waiting for the shuttle return and for beer. Fred cranked case on the last gaps and broke his guide and chain ring.
Mandatory pint while waiting for the ferry.
Dave doing his imitiation of Chris Holm.
Here's a video of some Bowen riding:
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/25349/
Shout to Cam Calder for the photos....
JW
2008 nsmb.com Team Wrap
Posted by Trevor Hansen on 2008-09-16
When the NSMB.COM Freeride Team was formed in 2001 it was little more than three guys getting out on their bikes and trying to get shot in videos or photos. The riding was strictly gnarly North Shore big drops, skinnies and slow technical stuff from that era. The Shore style still exists but with more speed and a lot more style. Taking the riding to greater heights are the new school team riders making a mark in the mountain biking world busting giant tricks off big stunts, getting photos in magazines all over the world and appearing in a variety of bike videos.
Mitch Chubey flip whipping for dollars at the VW Best Trick Contest during Crankworx
For the past five years we have used our nsmb.com AirPrentice contest to choose a new team rider. Last year's winner, Mitch Chubey, took his DropIn Season 5 starring role to a new level this season starting in the frigid city of Cleveland. Mitch's commitment to competing is outstanding and his involvement in the sport has been a full time focus. Rather than summarize his season I wanted to list it in its entirety in order to exemplify the breadth and complexity of a season in the life of a young bike gun trying to make his mark on the worldwide mountain bike scene:
Feb 9 - 9th place Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park's BIKE Game, Cleveland OH
Feb 15-17 - Vancouver Outdoor Show
April 19 - 3rd place Sea Otter Classic Dual Salom
April 26 - 11th place Qashqai, Milan
April 27 - 1st place Top Hill Best Trick, Top Hill, Italy
May 3 - 6th place Qashqai, Madrid
May 10 - 17th place Qashqai, Munich
June 1 - 12th place Qashqai, London
June 1 - 15th Overall Nissan Qashqai Challenge - Prequalified for next year
June 7 - Qualified for finals at Creston B.C. Goat Style - Finals canceled due to rain
June 14 - 9th Teva Mountain Games - Vail Colorado
June 22 - 2nd Place Whistler Air Affair
June 22 - Fracture to Scapula plus 60% tear to rotator cuff and separated shoulder
July 5-8 - Filmed with Tamas Forde of New Wave Cinema for Stripped 2 in Kamloops
July 11-13 - NSMB.com team trip to Silverstar and Sun Peaks- shot with Dan Barham
July 19-20 - NSMB.com Airprentice
July 26-26 - 1st place Red Bull Round up - 2nd Dirt/Street - Section Day1 -1st Race Section -Day 2 July 31-Aug 3 - Colorado Crankworx - 13th Slopestyle - 2nd Best Trick Section #1 - 2nd Red Bull Best Line - 2nd Dual Slalom
Aug 9-17 - Crankworx - 2nd VW Best Trick Section #1 - 24th Slopestyle (separated shoulder)- 5th Giant Salom
Aug 23 - BearClaw Invitational Slopestyle - 11th
Sept 1 - Shot with Brock Anderson For Promo Video
Sept 4-Present - Building new jump set with Ben Boyko
Sept 9/08 - Shoot with stock photographer Darryl Leniuk
October - Film with Tamas Forde of New Wave Cinema for Stripped 2
- Film with Ambrose of Pist-n-Broke for CKD 3
Plus - 24 Days in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park since opening to present
- Helped Build and Design the Langley Penzer Bike park
- 2 separate trails built to film this fall
- 6 new tricks
- 23,000 km's driven
- 12 flights totalling 39,958 kms, 49 hours 35 mins in the air, 132 hours in airports.
- Rode in both Moab, Utah and Green River, Utah twice and filmed at both locations
- Presently editing new promo video. Here is 2007's Chube Promo vid.
- For some more footage of Mitch click here.
Mitch rocking it out at Qashqai in Milan.
The man has got talent and this portrayal of his commitment shows how he developed that talent. We look forward to seeing a whole lot more from Mitch as he pursues his career as a professional mountain biker.
Mitch Chubey atop the podium at the Red Bull Round Up with teammate Curtis Robinson on the left and Graham Agassiz on the right.
One of the benefits of the AirPrentice contest is our exposure to young up and coming talent. Usually we are stuck having to choose only one new team member. Last season we had a roster spot open up when our talented team member Ryan Newman retired from the team to pursue his career in education. We knew AirPrentice runner-up Curtis Robinson would be the perfect fit for this spot. Curtis has many of the same characteristics of Newman: a love for big air, a bag full of tricks, sick racing skills and a friendly and fun disposition.
We welcomed Curtis, or Cutties for his styling cutty turns, to the team in August of last summer and he has been representing NSMB brilliantly. Curtis starred in a section he built for Kranked 7 with NSMB team videographer Dylan Dunkerton. He is currently following up with Bjorn Enga building and filming for Kranked 8 as well as building Jamie Goldman's Kranked 8 segment.
Curtis teamed up with Dylan and Kyle Jameson to make this most excellent instructional video. In addition, Curt raced up a storm placing 1st in Sr. Men with a first overall time at the Canada Cup DH final (beating all the pros) at Sun Peaks, two fourths at the Super D and 7th Secret Rippers, 6th with a dislocated shoulder at the Rat Race and a big 3rd place at the Châtel Mountain Slopestyle in France.
Curtis spent much of 2008 in low orbit. Scroll down for more on his season.
The 2006 AIRprentice runner-up, Ian Nelson, signed on with NSMB in 2007 in similar circumstances to Curtis's signing. Ian had a fantastic year as a rookie culminating in an awesome 10th place finish in the Crankworx Slopestyle.
Ian Nelson storming to a tenth place finish at Crankworx 2007.
At this year's Crankworx Slopestyle Ian put together two solid runs gaining a 20th place finish against the best pros in the world.
Ian has had another great season riding for NSMB, its sponsors and Transition Bikes, shooting stills and video, building new lines, learning new tricks, going to his girlfriend's high school parties, racing and riding every chance he got.
Our cagey veteran Jerry Willows has been doing his usual routine of building, filming, shooting stills, riding big gnarly lines as well as being one of Specialized's prestigious bike testers.
Jerry gets new frames from Specialized before everyone else because he's on their R & D team. Here's his new SX Trail.
And here is Jerry's secret rock face that has been shot and filmed on numerous occasions
We were all quite impressed with Justin Wyper at this year's AIRprentice.
Wyper goes big with a whole lot of style, he's an outgoing personable guy who we look forward to working with. He had a great start to his NSMB season finishing 9th at the Claymore Challenge at Highland Mountain Bike Park.
Justin then headed to Crankworx Colorado where he impressed the judges and the crowd and came in 9th place.
Moving on to Whistler for Crankworx Justin was on fire during the VW Best Trick Contest winning $500 and pumping the crowd up with his super flips off the Kokanee drop.
He was riding hot during his warmup and first run. Unfortunately he crashed hard, overshooting a 360 off the Giro box on his second run. He broke his tibia and fibula so badly the bone poked out of his pad and jeans. His first run was good enough to get 17th place. After surgery and a bunch of hardware in his bones he is recovering at home, planning a winter trip to Cam McCaul's place.
Justin Wyper down and out at Crankworx. He'll be back better than ever. With a new pair of white girl jeans.
Our resident party boy, the shirtless wonder Eamonn Duignan spent a lot of the year finishing his teaching degree, hitting tropical vacation spots with his student loans, writing articles for NSMB and throwing himself down super steep high speed trails. He's also spent some time coaching the Sutherland High School Mountain Bike Team - hopefully with his shirt on.
Here's Eamonn on a shoot with stock photographer Daryl Leniuk. Look for him on the box of some sugary cereal soon.
Here's Insanemon's Dennys card shot - riding down the infamous gutter box on GMG.
This year marked the retirement of our star Vancouver Island ripper Neil Meier. Neil won the AIRprentice 3 years ago and has been representing NSMB in videos, magazines, TV shows, coaching and riding. Unfortunately Neil has had four major injuries (two ruptured spleens, both knees and back). Because of this he knew it was time to step back a notch and he retired from the team. Neil will be missed and we wish him the best of luck as he continues his electrical apprenticeship.
Neil styling the skatepark after his knee surgery healed.
I have had a fun year being team captain: helping manage the team, riding in Rippers, doing catalogue shoots, teaching biking to groms, building trail and riding a ton. In my opinion this has been the best year for the NSMB team ever.
nsmb.com team captain Trevor Hansen in his happy place.
Shooting with Jerry Willows for the 2009 Syncros Catalogue
It is an exceptional experience to be involved with such a fun and talented group of guys. Thanks for a great season boys. We could not have done it without the support of our team sponsors: Pete Roggeman and Marshall Cant at Syncros, Brent Armstrong at Dennys, Jeremy Schaab and Dean Butler at Toyota, Mark Fitzsimmons and Elayna Caldwell at Fox racing, Tyler Morland and John Dawson at Sram/Avid, Chico Bukovansky and Dave Bisset at Dakine, Rob McSkimming, Brian Finestone and Jeremy Roche at the Whistler Bike Park, David Weisenhoffer at Adidas, Graham Archer at Kintec Footlabs, Kevin Menard and Kyle Young at Transition and Nic Riddle, Brandon Sloan and Jason Chamberlain at Specialized.
My 08 Season
Posted by Curtis Robinson on 2008-09-07
2007 was a pretty good year for me. I capped the season off by being invited to nsmb.com's AIRprentice which was about the best weekend ever, and then I won the Junior dual slalom at Crankworx. Just as Crankworx was wrapping up Cam and the guys at nsmb invited me to join their team. Yep - I'm in! All of a sudden I was riding a Fox Shox equipped Specialized Demo 7 with brand new gear on it from Syncros, SRAM, Avid along with a set of Race Face Cranks. The team is also sponsored by Dakine, Denny's, Toyota and the Whistler Park so I was pretty stoked. That means gloves, packs, a bike park pass, the team truck and grand slam breakfasts as well.
With the support of nsmb and the team sponsors 2008 has been a breakthrough year for me. I did some great travelling and riding and filming and I nailed down some results I was stoked on as well. Here's a run down of my year.
This shot is from the Mountain Style Comp in Châtel France. It was my first comp ever and I was stoked to get third.
In June I had my local DH race (Rat Race) and was confident on doing well. I ended up popping my shoulder out twice in my race run, not a good way to start off the season. So that put me on the physio program for 3.5 weeks before heading overseas.
On June 30 I was off to Europe for a week with 3 friends; Dylan Dunkerton, Kyle Norbraten and Kyle Jameson. We were invited to a contest called "Mountain Style" in Châtel France. This is the second year they have held this event there, and its not like your average slopestyle. The top half of the course was filled with jumps and drops, But the second half had what would really take some skill to get down the course in style. Gnarly steep shale rock and wet chutes,with some ladders thrown in. I ended up landing 3rd place for my first contest ever, I was super stoked about this.
My big ass check from Mountain Style.
Now that July was here, I had 3 days before We had our Team trip to the Interior. We hit Kamloops, Sunpeaks, and SilverStar. It was an awesome time, I also found out why Eammon gets ripped on so hard for never wearing a shirt......Because he honestly NEVER WEARS A SHIRT! haha. This trip was awesome being able to ride with everyone for once, seeing as we all don't live on the same side of the water trap. Here's Dan Gronross' story about the trip.
Riding Pipedream at Silver Star. Photo ~ Dan Barham
The following weekend the Team hosted its 5th Annual AIRprentice Competition at the Whistler Bike park. There were 11 riders chosen to ride for the weekend with a chance to win a spot on the NSMB.com Roster. The winning rider is given 2 bikes from Specialized, decked with all the fresh Syncros product, Avid/Sram to back you up when in a jam. Topped with Fox suspension and RaceFace cranks. Congrats to Justin Wyper for earning his way into that spot. And heal up !
This part of the Red Bull Round Up was in a North Van movie set that was supposed to look like Chicago. Ian Hylands Photo.
The next weekend was a new event called the Red Bull Round Up. Held over two days, day 1 was held in Vancouver under the Second narrows Bridge with a few jumps and drops as well as a quarter pipe. These features were built into an old style movie set that was used for the X Files. This day was judged on tricks and fluidity. Day 2 we were taken too Whistler, where we now were judged on time and a little bit of style. We raced the Giant slalom around the Boneyard, into a nice sized drop into the village. After the rain and wind it was all over with , Mitch Chubey 1st, Graham Aggy 2nd , Me 3rd. I was pumped for this 3rd because man was there a lot of amazing riders that weekend.
All the riders from the Red Bull Round Up. That's me in yellow.
Crankworx was next on the list. First race of the 9 days of events was dual slalom. The rain was fun, it kept coming and going through out the whole day . The course went from being perfect and tacky in practice to wet and wild in qualifiers. The track was built so well that the rain didnt really do much damage to it. I qualified 1st in senior men 19-29 and ended up winning all the way to the end. I was happy with the finish and NOW that I know I can enter elite I will do so next year . Thanks to the builders, you guys did an amazing job on that masterpiece.
My last and final race/ event of 2008 was Canada Cup finals DH at Sun Peaks resort. The course was like nothing Ive ever ridden before, Basically straight down the mountain. It was fresh and fast. The key to this course was to basically stay off the brakes as much as possible. This wasn't to hard since the Demo handles well when on the gas. By race day the course was badly rutted with huge holes in the berms as well as lots of brake bumps. I wasn't able to race Elite due to having no points on my race licence so I was put in senior men 19-29. I ended up playing it smart I guess, slowing down in some sections where I thought it was easy to make a mistake in or crash and came down with the fastest time of the day. That time held up even to all the Pro men. So I surprised myself as well a few others. Just goes to show, those funny looking Troy Lee kits DON'T actually make you go fast.
On top of the podium at the Canada Cup Finals at Sun Peaks.
Fall is on the way, where myself along with Dylan Dunkerton , Kyle Norbraten and Kyle Jameson will be filming with Radical Films for our new segment in the up coming Kranked 8. We have come up with a very creative and exciting story line for our part, thus making you the viewer stoked the whole way through. Since we filmed for out K7 part we've been busy putting that sweet Dakine builders Bag to work. Look for our fresh part in Kranked 8 coming out spring 09.
Id like to thank all the guys on the team and Sponsors for all the support and help I got this season. I couldn't have done all this without the bikes or gear I was using.
Specialized Bikes
Syncros
Fox Suspension
Avid/Sram
Race Face
Dakine
Adidas eye wear
Denny's
Whistler bike park
Toyota
See you next year.
Curtis
Curtis Robinson is all about BroCations and man crushes. And he rides smoother and harder than most. Got a story about 'Cutties'? A question about team nsmb.com? A confession to make? Spill it here.
Memoirs of a Broken Man
Posted by Eamonn Duignan on 2008-08-02
For those of you not in the know, I sustained, with little doubt, the worst crash of my mountain bike career, and that’s saying a lot. The carnage occurred at Sun Peaks Resorts (just outside of Kamloops), a few weeks back now. My spill happened on one of our annual team trips, and like things of this nature, it took place on the last run near the end of a long day. I basically miss calculated what I thought was an insignificant gap jump and I ended up flying from my bike and completed what would have been a perfect belly flop. Unfortunately for me however, there was no pool full of water to break my fall, just a flat, hard as hell, dirt landing. I rang my bell pretty good, and was out for about half a minute. To make a long story short, I ended up with a combo of broken, fractured and bruised ribs, a bruised lung, and a sub-luxed shoulder. But as they say, if you play the game...
Stretcher time…Mike Wallace loosening the straps so I can make a little adjustment! Photo: Cam ‘The Man’ McRae.
The day after. Post crash Perecet blues! Photo: Cam 'The Man' McRae.
I would like to thank all of the patrol staff at Sun Peaks for all of their help, you guys were awesome! I would also like to give a shout out to the NSMB crew, especially Cam McRae, Pete Roggeman, Jerry Willows, Mike Wallace, and Trevor Hanson for making me stay at the hospital overnight while they all partied! Thanks guys, I love you all...bastards!
