Crankworx – Enduro & Garbo DH

I can’t believe Crankworx has come and gone so quickly.  It has been a few years since I have been in Whistler for this amazing mountain bike festival and it seems as though I spent all summer looking forward to it and it just blew by.  Although I was working long hours during the week, I did manage to get out and catch a couple of events.

I definitely haven’t got biking/sports photography dialed, but I suppose it’s all about getting out there and practicing.  So here are a few photos from the Canadian Open Enduro (Stage 2) & the Garbonzo DH races.

Click a thumbnail to flick through photos!

Enduro Pics:

 

Garbo DH Pics:

I’ll try to get my photos of the always epic “Joyride” and “Canadian Open DH” events up asap!

Fantastic Phat Wednesday

Last week saw the fourth Phat Wednesday of the year in the Whistler Bike Park. As always my general goal is to ‘not’ be on the last page of the results. Sometimes I achieve this goals, sometimes I do not. Here is my race run from last week. Perhaps not the most exciting course but it was a lot of fun all the same.

Cut Yer Bars

We have been blessed with some incredible weather in Whistler the past few days.  This time of year is amazing.  A great mix of people wandering through the village.  Skiers, boarders, bikers, hikers, you name it, they are all strolling about.

A mate and I ducked into this awesome trail near the village and played around.  Cut Yer Bars is a short but fun trail with some fast fun descents, a couple of cool rock rolls and a little bit of pedaling for good measure.  It was a glorious day.

 

2013 Instagrammed

2013 was an absolutely incredible year for me.

Continued my life in Whistler.

Traveled to Japan to ski for the first time.

The pow was deep in Niseko!

Started this blog.

A great start to the year saw out the winter season

Biked one heck of a lot.

Frolfed!

Explored some fantastic alpine hikes and camps around Whistler and Pemberton.

Checked out Quebec City.

Chute Montmorency

Traveled to New Zealand to ski – ended up hiking the whole time.

Sheep in NZ??

Lake Wanaka

Visited family and friends in Australia for a few weeks.

Anzac Bridge

Home Sweet Home

The old dirt road home!

Ran Sydney’s famous City2Surf.

And they’re off!

Did some more biking and camping in Whistler.

Top of the World

Semaphore Lakes

Semaphore Lakes

Locomotive

Journeyed to England and Paris to hang out with friends and family once more.

Awaited the ski season to begin which included biking right up until the resort opened and even afterwards.

Skied.

Played ice hockey…on a frozen lake!

Nita Lake

Worked.

Got Festive.

Instagrammed.

Ski & Bike – Why Not?

Instagram @jta85 – View from Blackcomb looking over Whistler village.

It seemed like we waited along time for the storm that rolled into Whistler on Sunday night. Almost the instant the rain turned to snow an excited buzz flowed through the village. As I was out working, watching the flakes fall, I became more and more pumped for the powder day to come.

Although snow was forecast throughout Monday, it turned into a stunning bluebird day. With limited lifts open I was surprised to see how well the slopes held up. We were a little late uploading, however we still managed to put in some amazing turns while admiring the stunning scenery at the same time.

Taken with my old point and shoot, it’s looking a lot more like winter around here.

Gotta love an Instagram filter! @jta85

Another point and shoot shot, downloading in the Excalibur Gondola on Blackcomb.

After I came off the hill I didn’t want to stay inside on such an incredible day. I decided it would be a great idea to go for a cross country bike mission to see if “Cut Yer Bars”, the trail closest to my house, was still ridable. As it turns out, it is, and I got fresh powder tracks from start to finish! BOOM!!!

Instagram @jta85 – Cut Yer Bars during sunset

Instagram @jta85

First tracks!

What a line!

Fresh Pow! Stoked!

Now that’s my sort of day!

Getting there….

Once again it’s been a little while between posts. I could list all of the excuses however I am pretty good at finding them so it would probably take 3-4 posts to do that, I’ll just apologize once more and get on with it.

It’s been a pretty busy week, lots of work, a bit of biking, struggling through marathon training and a fantastic camping trip. I am still working on the camping photos and I’ll get that post up tomorrow.

In the meantime I will put up a couple of photos I took last week. We had planned to do a full photo day, slowly moving through the park and trying to get some cool shots all over the place. The weather was around 30 degrees Celsius and humid. As a result none of us could really be bothered doing anything. We did struggle through one run before the heat was too much. I was testing out my new camera and was still finding my way around it.

I am hoping we get a couple more sunny days so I can take it back up and shoot properly now I know my way around the camera a little more and the weather has cooled down.

Stay tuned for my post on Semaphore Lakes. A great spot for a hike or an overnight trip.

***Marathon Training Update***

Today was the day for my weekly long run as I continue to prepare for the Seattle Marathon. There was a serious lack of motivation today for a number of reasons. The biggest deterrent was probably the torrential downpour that was occurring outside my window. The next biggest was the fact that I was looking at a 20.9 km battle. A text from my fellow marathoner pointing out that “…a marathon in Seattle, in December, is probably going to be very wet…” got me up on my feet and I when I realized that 20.9km wasn’t even half the distance I was training to run I figured I had better get myself out the door and into the elements.

In the end it wasn’t to bad, the rain kept me nice and cool. I hit a bit of a wall towards the end of the run but managed to struggle through it. I wish I could say I am looking forward to the long run next week.

Phat Wednesday – Fantastic to Afternoon Delight

About 10 days ago, for the Phat Wednesday on the 24th July, I took my camera up and tried to get some shots.  The course was a very fast and loose run down Fantastic-Lower Whistler Downhill-Afternoon Delight-Detroit Rock City.

I took some simple shots without trying to much.  It was awesome to see some of the top riders flying through the technical sections.

I also tried to take some shots using the panning technique.  It was pretty tricky to keep my hand stable and move appropriately with the subject.  A lot of my shots saw the little trash can button pretty quickly, however I was happy with a select few.

Phat Wednesday – Joyride to Canadian Open

The Phat Wednesday this week was an intense track. The difficulty saw a lot less riders take part. One friend fractured his Scaphoid practicing for the race and another mate fractured his ulna during the race.

Somehow I made it through unscathed, probably due to a serious lack of speed during my run.

Below is the video of that run. It was actually a lot of fun.

Phat Wednesday – Schleyer

The Phat Wednesday crew chose a fantastic course on July 17th.  Schleyer an all-time Whistler favourite trail, into a fairly technical final descent down lower Detroit Rock City.

I was able to get up on course to practice my mountain bike photography before I raced the track.  My skills in this field are very minimal.  It is amazing that every Wednesday there is a great opportunity to shoot racers of a very high caliber.  Hopefully I’ll figure it out eventually.  If anyone has any tips or advice please feel free to comment.

Riders of all abilities and ages show up to compete.  Some of the kids that race are tiny yet they absolutely kill it.

All of these shots were taken on a wide-angle lens.  Next week I think I’ll go back to a regular zoom lens and try a different technique.

Phat Wednesdays – Oriental & Schleyer- Detroit Rock City

I just have a quick post today.  A couple of videos from the last couple of Phat Wednesdays.  As you can tell by the videos it is my sheer technical skill and speed that helps keep me off the last page of the results!

https://vimeo.com/70822939

Over the next day or so I’ll upload some photos I took on the Schleyer section of the 17th’s race.