Airprenti lay it out here

We had a stellar day on the trails at Silverstar today. The Star crew of Cam, Mike,Jason,Ian and the boys had the trails dialled in, the truck available to transport gear and all the details taken care of for the smoothest Airprentice yet. After a full-on feed at the Saloon in the SS village the 9 riders had to grab a photographer, find some spots to shoot, post the photos and write about it: all stuff they would have to do if they were members of Nsmb's team.

This is the thread where the boys lay their lines down. Let 'er rip boys.

Such a sick day!!!….Good roast on Eamonn..lol

I first heard about the NSMB AIRPrentice when I was younger from another rider. He talked about all the good times he had during the weekend and how prestigious it was to take part in. I never thought that one day I would be given the same opportunity to try to prove myself worthy of riding on the NSMB.com freeride team. Coming into the contest I was anxious; I spent quite a bit of time studying the videos submitted by the other eight riders it became clear that the competition was going to be very tight, and that every rider excelled in their own unique area of riding. I met the other riders as well as most of the NSMB team on Friday night, and I can say that all of them are amazing guys on and off their bikes.

I started the day at 8:30 when I met my fellow AIRprentie for some breakfast. From there we were given two warm up laps before we headed off to the Oakley Vault dirt jumps and Pro Star. I rode with Brad Mills as well as Paul Stevens and Mason Mashon from the NSMB team for my warm up runs. After the laps, we headed off to the Oakley Vault. Most of the riders were riding very conservatively and just warming up for the Pro Star session to follow. Pro Star was where everyone really started to shine. A lot of the contestants as well as myself brought two bikes to the Airprentice; one longer travelled bike to handle the more technical trails on the mountain, and a smaller travel bike for the more slopestyle-esque parts of Silverstar. Doug Sharpe, a fellow Airprentice contestant, arranged for the trailcrew at Silver Star to bring the riders' shorter travel bikes up to the top of the Oakley Vault, which was a very big help and allowed us to easily switch between bikes. The session at Pro Star was definitely one of the best sessions I've taken part in. Everyone was throwing down right away. The Slopestyle riders were throwing down tricks like No Foot Cans, 360's and tailwhips while the downhill guys were whipping and scrubbing every jump in the section. I myself added a new variation to my lineup of different tricks. Coming into the Airprentice, I had only ever tailwhipped a straight jump, never a hip. The upper section of Pro Star has a hip with a gap around fifteen feet. Not many riders were tricking it, and I thought it would really set myself apart from everyone else to throw down a tailwhip on a jump that almost nobody was tricking. My first attempt went a lot better than I expected, I caught both pedals but landed off balance and slid out. The second went a little better, I landed the tailwhip to seat, but I still wasn't happy claiming a half landed trick. The third time was the charm, I kicked the bike around, caught it, dropped to pedals and rode away. I was very impressed with myself, and I was greeted with a big cheer as I rode away. Here's a photo of downside tailwhip taken by Toby Cowley.

After the Pro Star session, we stopped for lunch at The Saloon. The food was amazing, and it was a good time hanging out with the other riders off of our bikes. After lunch, I teamed up with Ollie Jones, Toby Cowley and Jason Lucas to go shoot some photos as well as video for the Airprentice Photo Contest and coverage video. Shooting with Ollie was great! We both had many ideas that we put together and shot some of the best photos and video I have ever been included in. It was really cool to mesh Ollie's downhill riding style with my dirtjump/slopestyle riding style into single photos. We started off at the "Anthill Step Up" on Pipe Dream and got some great shots. Check them out!

From there we headed to Rockstar. We found a really cool section of the trail where it was split in two. On the right side was a very loamy tight section filled with roots, and on the left was a fresh berm. The two sections of trail were divided by some trees, making the photo look like it was an edited collaboration of two different trails, when it was actually the same section of the mountain. I liked this picture because it showed the diversity of Silver Star Mountain Resort, and the different types of terrain really contrasted our different riding styles. Ollie and I rode side by side; him pinning down the tight loamy section while I railed the berm. I think the shot turned out great! Check it out!

We got to the bottom, and rode the chair up for our last lap. We chose to ride Dag's Downhill, one of the gnarliest trails on the mountain. Riding the trail with Ollie was a good experience. He chose really original lines which made me see the trail in a completely different light. We took a couple shots, me riding down the easy routes on my four inch travel Slopestyle bike, and Ollie pinning down and/or airing over the steep rock sections. The photos turned out really well, and again the photos really contrasted our different riding styles.

After all the riding was said and done, I headed back to my room to check out the photos we had taken and to start on my blog post. At eight, we headed over to The Saloon for dinner. Unfortunately, I'm the only under aged Airprentice contestant, so I got the boot at around 9:30.

Overall, the first day at the AIRprentice was a success in my books. Thankfully, I managed not to hurt myself, while still getting almost all the tricks I wanted to do on the first day. I only wish that I hadn't been kicked out of The Saloon so I could have spent more time hanging out with everyone, as well as take part in the tire changing contest.

The Journey to Silverstar and day one of Airprentice

The trip started off a little behind schedule Friday evening at Mason’s house. Stephen Matthews met us there and we loaded up the truck. We were hoping to get up during the day as there was a meeting at 7pm but work prevented all 3 of us from that happening. We left Whistler around 6pm and maintained a steady speed with a few pit stops for snacks and made it to Silverstar at 12:30am. Even after living in BC for so long I can never get over how beautiful and diverse this province is and the back way from Whistler to Cache Creek is of the best drives for scenic views. After showing up to Silverstar we quickly unloaded our bikes and gear and hit the bed as we had to be at breakfast at 8.

Day one started off with breakfast at the hotel and meeting the riders since we missed out on the night before. After breakfast we suited up made sure everyone’s bikes were riding good and got the lift tickets sorted out. After a quick group photo and some face shots we hit Blast Off down to the lift and the day of shredding was on. To start the day off we did 2 warm up laps with team members, first lap was Stephen Matthews, Jerry Willows and I and we cruised some awesome natural tech trails. Second lap was Matt Montadon, Kyle Quesnel and I and we hit some jump runs so we were warmed up for whatever we were riding for the day.

Next up was some sessioning of the Oakley Vault and Pro Star before lunch. We had a quick session at the Oakley Vault we moved on to Pro Star. This was the first time I have ever ridden Pro Star and I am very impressed, I wish Whistler had something like that in their bike park for sure. We sessioned Pro Star for about an hour and everyone was throwing down super hard. It was awesome to see the more dirt jump oriented riders shred with the big bike riders and feed off each other. We hit the Saloon for an amazing lunch, chicken wraps, waffle fries and all the drinks we needed to continue on with our day.

After our delicious lunch the plan for the rest of the day was to break off in groups of 2 riders and 1 photographer to put together a slideshow for dinner. Stephen Matthews and I teamed up with Dan Barham to get some nugz. We decided to mix up some shots on the excavated jump trails with some on the more natural tech trails and Dan ended up getting some banger shot of us. Super stoked on how today turned out and am looking forward to dinner and the slideshow tonight.

Tommorow we are in for a “special activity” and then a DH race down Dag’s Downhill before we wrap it all up and decide on a winner!

As with most mountain bikers, there are certain emotions from the summer that stay with me all year long. For example, certain sounds entice my mind to recreate a mental image of what I would consider, some of the finer moments in my life. Whether it be sliding your tires off a lip, or the heavy breathing you exert coming out of a technical descent, bikes, their riders, and the trails create various rhythms that can’t really be captured, but can certainly be remembered.\\

We had a great session on Prostar this afternoon!

Every park has a different flow, and in my opinion this is the best way things could be. My experience with AirPrentice at Silverstar is much different than the laps with friends in the Whistler Bike Park. The trails here are youthful and new, and are incredibly playful. Silverstar is developing the build style of incredible flow, both on their machine trails and natural descents.

Me and John Rempel on some classic "Flow"

Our first day of competition came with an inviting breakfast, and a few more familiar faces than I was expecting. Today was my second time shooting with Dan Barham, and it was a completely different dynamic than our first encounter. Our first time shooting was on an exploratory trip on the Italian Riviera coastline, a trip where we were on an uncertain adventure and capturing unique travel experiences. In the park, Dan’s photo techniques captured the best lift access trail riding Silverstar has to offer, and reinforced the fun we had on what I would consider to be, a unique bike park day.

Airing the shredder rocks

The amount of descending lift access parks have brought into mountain biking is
astounding. I’ve been living in Whistler for the last four summer seasons, and I’ve been mentally consumed by the possibility to log thousands of vertical feet a year. The lift lines are full of the excited vocal tone of my friends and fellow riders, and the rumbling chairlift pulley wheels have become music to my ears. I love that you’re always in motion in a bike park. From the ascending vibrations of the lift
over the pulley wheels to the inventive moves you make on your descent.

Roosting Dan Barham in the face

NSMB has been hosting their airprentice competition for 8 years now and I am so stoked to be a part of the event this season at my hometown mountain, Silver Star Bike Park. We all arrived at the Bulldog Friday evening where we had some drinks and food and met everyone who we were getting to ride with for he weekend. It was awesome meeting a bunch of other new riders who were all pumped on being here and antsy to get on the hill to start riding. After getting introduced to the NSMB team and meeting all of the other competitors it was back to hotel to get some sleep before riding started the next day.

Saturday morning came quickly and we were all pumped to get out riding right after a group breakfast. We all met in the village at 9:30, took some group pictures and got a quick rundown on the plans for the day. Everyone was put into groups of two or three and paired up with an NSMB team member for two warm up runs down the trails of their choice to start off the day. After that we all headed to the Oakley vault where we hung out and sessioned for an hour. The vibe was great and everyone quickly started having fun doing some tricks and getting creative on the jumps. Next we hit up the Pro star jumps, which were in awesome shape thanks to the Silver star trail crew and it didn't take long until everyone started getting rowdy and throwing down some bigger tricks. The rest of the day was then spent in groups of two or three again, and sent off with their own photographers from the NSMB team to go hunt out spots to shoot some photos. Spencer Graf and myself got paired up with photographers Mason Mashon and Jason Martin and spent several hours shooting a variety of trails from jumps to rocky steep sections. It was a lot of work to choose good lines and try to get just the right shots, but at the end of the day I was really happy with what we got.

Once all the riding was done everyone met back at the Saloon for Dinner and got to watch the freshly created slideshow of the best pictures and footage from the day. After Dinner and some hanging out and talking with everyone Cam and Trevor decided to have a tube changing contest between all of the airprentice competitors. I went into the competition expecting to have some laughs and see if I was able to change a tube with any speed at all. To my surprise and with a bit of coaching from friends I ended up winning and was stoked on the unexpected victory. At the very first meeting of the airprentice group we were told that this would be the funnest weekend of our summer, after today I am positive that it definitely will be!

First day of Airprentice just wrapped up at Silver Star Bike Park, and I couldn’t think of a better location to be hosting the 8th installment of this prestigious event. Being from Kelowna I am fortunate enough to have the ability to come visit my idea of paradise frequently.

This morning was the first time I was actually excited to hear my ear agonizing phone alarm. Waking up to the warmth of the sun peaking through the drapes just added to my overall stoke for the day to come. The whole group of Airprentice hopefuls met at 8:30 for breakfast courtesy of Silver Star. After some socializing you could feel how much everyone wanted to get out and hit up the trails. However, we would have to withhold our excitement while we got some group shots of this years contenders.

As soon as they said that we could go, everyone took off charging like a pack of 14 yr old girls chasing Justin Beiber. After having a few fun laps, we headed over to explore what the Oakley vault and Pro star had to offer. With the combination of stoked riders and dialed terrain things quickly progressed and the group started showcasing there top moves. Without a doubt there will be some great footage emerging from this portion of the day.

One of my favorite parts of today was when Brad Mills and I teamed up with Mason Mashon and Jason Martin to go and get some unique shots. We went and scoured the mountain in search of creative lines. Having good chemistry while shooting is a must, Mason and Jason were nothing but friendly and very professional. Considering mosquitos continuously bombarded us, they killed it and got some wicked shots even with swarms of pesky bugs attacking them. We found some banger sections to shoot and the photos turned out great.

After returning from shooting, beat from a hard days work. All I could think about was how my idea of paradise just got so much sweeter thanks to a great group of riders and an outstanding bike park. I want to thank NSMB for giving me this opportunity to be apart of this amazing event!

-Spencer Graf

Ollie Jones' Blog

The whole lead up to this Airprentice has been pretty hectic. I have been trying to sort my bike out and a million other things, but now im here.

Im so stoked i got picked for the contest and its amazing being part of somthing unique. Riding with a bunch of shredders is somthing you cant beat, especially when everyone bring somthing different to the table.

When we first got here it was pouring rain, but i couldnt wait to get on the steed. I have never ridden Silverstar before so i was super happy to get out the Whistler bubble and shred some new trails. The trails in Silverstar are so different to what i usually ride. There are some sweet corners and massive berms, the jumps are really cool too, and that dirt, oh my god i guess you can call it hero dirt! I cant belive how good this weekend has been and its not over yet.

The Footage that was produced by all the photographers today was incredible. I feel that all the hiking and sessioning definatly paid off, and the end product is mind blowing.

After a busy day of riding, shooting and filming we had dinner in the village, and this got even more rowdy. 3 people and 3 tyres that needed changing, fastest person wins $100. Im sure you can imagine how that turned out after a few beers and 9 people getting crazy.

I cant wait to see what happens tomorrow. The race will be awsome and hopfully this sun keeps shining. It will be interesting to see who takes the spot this weekend. Everyone has a good chance, but what ever the outcome when Airprentice is over im sure i will get together with some of the guys and ride those bikes.

Thats all for now but i hope to keep you guys informed on my next activitys shortly.
Thanks NSMB

Ollie Jones

I began my trip Thursday afternoon on my way to NSMB's AIRprentice at Silverstar resort. I deiced to make a little bit more of a trip out of it by stopping by to say hi to the grandparents. I arrived at their place around 10:30 Thursday night to a nice big bed. Friday morning I woke up well rested and ready to get to Silverstar. I said goodbye to the grandparents and finished off the rest of the drive to silvertsar. I arrived at silverstar around 4 o'clock supper stoked and ready to just get out and start riding. After getting settled into my room I met up with some of the guys and went and got some dinner. After dinner we got to meet all the NSMB guys and got the run down on whats happening this weekend. Once I saw those prize bikes I got even more pumped and couldn't wait to ride Saturday.

Saturday morning we woke up at 8 o'clock jumped into the shower then went to breakfast. After breakfast we all met up and got are lift tickets and started are day off by doing a couple of warm up laps. I have never been to silvestar so I had know clue what to expect. After a couple of laps I got the feel of the mountain and do I ever like silverstar its got so many berms and jumps its now one of my favourite bike park and I have rode every bike park in BC. After the couple warm up laps we met up at the Oakley volt were we spent some time seshing the jumps. The jumps weren't the greatest for any big tricks but tricks still got throw down. From the volt we headed over to the Prostar step up were everyone started throwing down a lot more tricks which was sweet. From Prostare we went for a quick lunch at the saloon were we had some supper good wraps and waffle fries. After lunch we were sent off with two photographers and sent to get some banger photos. We were all pretty stoked to get out and try to get some different shots and we only had a couple hours to get them. Once we finished up with all of the riding for the day we got back to are rooms and had a little bit of time to start are blogs, edit and upload photos. Then we went to dinner and watched a slide show of some of the photos we got today their were so many good photos everyone was pushing for some good photos. After dinner and hanging out with everyone for a while I deiced to head back and get some good sleep since I was planning on getting up at 530 on sunday morning.

Sunday morning me and a couple of rider's got motivated enough to get up at 5:30 and go get some early morning shots. The lighting was amazing and any extra time out riding is always awesome. We were able to pump out a couple good photos. I was able to pull out a three on the Prostar step up which was a lot harder then yesterday because the sun was right in are eyes this morning. I was supper pumped to be able to do some threes at six in the morning. After getting some photos we headed back down to wake everyone and get some breakfast and finish up are blogs and upload the photos. I cant wait to race today and shred with everyone for the last day of the AIRprentice. This weekend has been one of my favorite weekends of riding ever. Their is so many cool people, riders, photographers, and videographers I will differently be back ever soon!