My flu was in full swing the day of the contest in austria and I got barely any sleep due to the fact that it seemed my nose had a tap running on full all night.

I got up and had a shower then proceeded to the first ever FMBA word tour meeting, thats right folks us freeriders and industry staff are getting organized and are going to have a world ranking. The meeting lasted forever and when done we took to the slopes with our bikes and

proceeded to shred the slopestyle course on our bikes, for those that do not know about mtbing in the snow, well I will tell you, its actually pretty easy to ride in the snow as long as it is groomed and then set up such as left overnight.

Practice went well and it seemed that all the boys have been hard at work all winter, honing their biking skills, cuz everyone was riding good. The course was on a decent slope and started off with a small drop which led 2 doubles around 30 feet long in size then to a fruit

bowl with a drop out, which led into a step up step down into a big arse double around 35 40 feet long.

qualifying went well and I ended up qualifying in 4th and my finals run went like this.

360 off the drop backflip over the first double tailwhip over the 2nd, 360 xup out of the fruit bowl, tuck no hander up the step up, super indian air down the drop and 360 the big jump on the bottom.

I ended up with 5th place behind sam pilgrim in first and leahhy in 2nd and amir in 3rd and yannick in 4th.

I was super stoked with the result since I have barely ridden at all this winter due to crap weather.

keep it rubber side down till next time.

I am here in austria for the white style event and today was supposed to be the first day of practice but due to snow we couldn't really ride, go figure eh!

My week here started out good with a night in munich which was very sleep deprived, we then jumped in a car and went to the famous bike town saalbach-hinterglemm which is also very awesome for snowboarding. So when I woke up I felt awesome after a good night sleep, so we

strapped on our boards and went snowboarding in the alps and man was it fun.

I have been here in the alps many times in the summer but never in the winter, the weather was awesome and we had a great day followed by some beers which is pretty much how they do it here, they sleep, ski then drink beer and sleep again and do it all the next day. My day was cut short since by midday I started to feel sick and by dinner time I was feeling aweful.

then today I dragged me arse up and drove to the red bull headquarters in austria which was pretty amazing to go check out the global headquarters and meet all the people that work there.

So that was fun even though that I'm deathly sick with the flu and now

im sitting in my room trying to save strength for tomorrow.

peace out and wish me luck eh!

Well it has been a while since my last blog and a happy new year to you too!

I have had a good few months of off season doing all sorts of things from snowmobiing in the mountains to surfing the rugged coastline of vancouver Island and it has been good to catch up with the family as well.

At the moment I am sitting in munich working on some good old jet lag with 2 hours of sleep last night I fear that today will be a struggle. All i want to do is go for a xc ride but since it is snowing here I guess I will just have to settle for the gym! baa I dont know about you but I hate the gym I would much rather be outside digging holes or side cutting single track with a pick.

So ya may wonder why I am in munich in the snow? well I will tell you, I am here for the white style slopestyle contest in leogang austria.It is a slopestyle course built out of wood and snow, and it has been a few years since I've rode my bike in the snow so I am quite anxious to go and play.

anywho im gonna hit the gym and wash down my jet lag with some fine german beer

L8

So its kinda warm here down in indonesia where myself and kyle are on the specialized indonesia tour, where we will be doing some demos and signing a whole bunch of autographs and a few thousand photos with fans. Myself and kyle have been here a few days now and just now are getting over the jet lag which is never fun.

The first stop on the tour was a demo at the indonesian national downhill championships, We showed up to see what they had built for us and were quite amazed at how big of a road gap they constructed for me and Kyle to jump a few times for the crowd at the race. The gap was around 30 feet long with around 26 feet of drop with a super flat landing and sketchy runout, I was quick to suggest that we should modify it so that I could hit it.

With that being said 15 indonesian workers with nothing but picks and sandbags built up the landing a little bit meanwhile digging it out to steepen the tranny.

With the landing being fixed I got up there and was quite amazed at how excited the local fans were to see something like this be done. With 2 practice runs finished I hit the road gap and I overshot it quite a bit. I was fairly impressed with the amount the crowd swarmed

me and insisted on photos and autographs.

I then hit it up a second time and threw a good table in for the crowd and once again was bombarded with the fans with all sorts of requests like give me your helmet to give me your bike which made me laugh. myself and kyle trew out some product for the crowd and what a sight seeing these people scrap over goggles and gloves and such.

Day 2 of the nissan x trail shoot was quite a interesting one, we woke up in the utah desert and quickly realized the weather was not in our favor. It was blowing 30 mph and a deadly thunderstorm was headed our way, so the camera crew got stuck in a rain storm in the sand dunes. Good times I tell ya when the rain comes and the wind is blowing in a sand dune.

The freeride crew pulled it together to get some sick shots of the car catching air 5 feet off the deck and plowing into the sand upon landing, then after the car stuff was done the helicopter landed in our front yard of where we were staying and the pan was to go ride the

big mountain line that I had scoped and built a few days earlier but the problem was that it rained all day and we were not quite sure if it was too wet to ride the line.

So me and Cameron mccaul jumped in the heli for a quick recon and quickly decided that the dirt was too wet to ride so the big line got pushed back.

Day 3 starts at the break of dawn with a little breaky at our favorite spot, shortly after we roll into the desert to get a some shots of me flipping my dh bike which i had never done before and to make it even harder on myself it was on a hip.

That went real well and we got some amazing slow motion flip shots. which led us up to doing some ground camera angles of my big mountain line which was rad cause I was super excited to ride this big mountain line.

So me and mccaul hiked up and rode the middle section together since he was helmet camming me. We got some good shots with the helmet cam and then it was time for me to ride the whole line top to bottom, It was a little bit windy but i dropped in none the less and rode the line exactly how I wanted to.

The line started at the very top of a mesa with a techy drop with a short landing which ran onto a exposed knife ridge that had a few small steps then it rolled out to a diving board that i sent it off and screamed down the rest of the ridge into 2 bigger drops at the bottom.

end of day 3 shoot.

Day 4 we rolled up out of bed and got into the heli and Tom our pilot let me hang out the side of the heli while being strapped in while I held onto my bike while he shuttled me up to the top.

The first shot with the heli was the hero shot where they circled around the top of the mountain with me standing on top of it with my bike, After that was done big d waved his hand out the side of the heli and it was on.

With the chopper blades spinning at my back and thousands of dollars worth of film being used the pressure was on and I shredded the crap out of that line 4 times meanwhile using the heli for a shuttle, pretty cool i thought.

And that wraps up a killer shoot for my first tv commercial stay tuned for the 10 minute web edit coming soon from freeride entertainment also dont forget to check out my blogs on I-amspecialized.com

Im here in utah after the first day of shooting for the nissan tv commercial and man what a day.

I originally heard about this tv commercial that nissan wanted to film and I never thought I would actually get the job but here I am on the set of a official tv shoot.

The basic story line of the shoot is, I am flying around in a helicopter looking for a epic line in the utah desert then we decide I cant land on the top of the Line so I get out of the heli and jump into the nissan xtrail and drive to it and then I shred the line then jump back into the xtrail and drive away.

Pretty cool heh?

Freeride entertainment has paired up with some of hollywoods best in order to pull this off and I have brought my bud cam mccaul out to do some pov riding and he is my backup guy in case I get hurt.

We shot all day yesterday which was pretty crazy watching how much of a cluster it is filming a shoot like this, there are over 30 crew on this shoot. Thats alot more than what I am used to when I make bike movies its usually 2 filmers and 1 photographer so its pretty overwhelming but the shoot went well we filmed me landing in the heli then jumping out of it and getting me into the nissan xtrail. After that the professional driver took over and did all of the ralying

shots through the desert with the heli chasing it.

So that brings us to day 2 so stay tuned

well one more trade show is in the books. The show was good and I was stoked on how my segment turned out, I must say that this segment is my best to date. Not very many people understand how much hard work goes into a segment like this so with that being said I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and it gets the stoke going in your fire to ride bikes.

I got the opener in the movie which was rad not to mention how sick the intro was, dramatic music accompanied with the athletes and the crew to put the series to rest.

Today I awoke to the epic sunrise in zion national park, after having a epic xc ride ride late last night that ended up a little longer than I expected.

You know when its getting ate in the day and you want to go on a long ride even though you know there is a good chance u might not have enough light left.

lets just say i would have been fine if my front tire didnt go flat with 4 miles to go, lol! I rode out in the dark with a flat.

Now I am going to go to moab and do some more xc rides before i come back to virgin to shoot the nissan commercial with freeride entertainment.

stay tuned

so the past few days I have been busy gearing up to head to vegas for interbike and shortly afterwards film a tv commercial for nissan. The commercial shoot is a pretty huge deal so im fired up about it, I will be filming it in southern utah and will have cam mccaul for a pov

rider

well then things have been good up here in the northwest. I finished filming with cameron mcaul for the film follow me. I built some jumps in the forest at mount washington on vancouver island which myself and cam shredded for a day then shredded a bunch of the mountains killer terrain while training each other it was pretty sick especially the sick angles darcy and the film crew got while filming me and cam.

been shredding my dirt jumps a bunch too. and I rode in courtenay the other day with some of my bmx buds which was pretty fun.

bought a new bed too which is always nice. keep posted on the details of this car commercial im doing ill be bloggin lots soon

This will be the kits I will be wearing for my tv commercial shoot for nissan being filmed in early september.

Back on the good old bc ferry heading back home after some good times had by all in whistler.

I was super pumped on the throw down session from all the boys on saturday. everyone was riding really well and the course was good as well a little small for my liking but good none the less.

My runs went like this, I rolled in for my first run and stomped the switch 360 on the first drop then stomped my superman tailwhip on the first jump and when I landed I must have done something to the chain cuz my chain wouldn't roll through my guide. So I had to stop and kinda try and figure it out and man was I bummed here I was about to stomp my whole first run and my chain twists baaaaaaa.

So I run back up on the landing and manage to get one crank in which was enough speed for the wall then I finished my run and to my surprise I got a decent score I was sitting in 4th or 5th place i believe.

2nd run my plan was to stomp my run clean which wasnt going to get me first place but it would have got me top 5 and then I would have been able to take my 3rd and final run and throw out all of my tricks.

So I roll in with my switch 3 to the superwhip and then into my wallride, nothing onto the giro trailer superman seat grab indian air off the giro trailer, boost the kona wall to one foot table out of the wall.

Then regular 360 off the sram thing to a no footed can off the skinny bonar log and i landed flat off the bonar log so I barely was able to steer my way to the takeoff which sucks cuz i was panning on doing a switch 360 lookback. I couldnt gain enough control to get the switch 3

but i did get a nothing to no footed can off the jump then onto cracking a big 360 table off the last drop.

I am now in 6th place which gets me into the finals and chubey rolls down with a good run and bumps me into 7th place by .2 of a lead.

All in all I had a great time and I will be looking forward to next year in whistler.

its finally sunny here at crankwerx and we just finished the practice for the morning. 1 hour we had today which was a joke since someone designed the race course in amongst the slopestyle so the race is on and we cant practice. and no we have not ridden the last drop yet and the contest is tomorrow, yikes.

But I did find out today that I am pre-qualified for the finals on saturday due to a few riders dropped out due to injuries.

anywho wish me luck tomorrow

I went up to the foam pit here in whistler to brush up on a few tricks the other day. One of the new tricks that i have been able to add to my repertoire is turndowns, due to the frame design of the sx. I am pretty stoked on the possibilities it opens up for my contest runs such as 360 turn downs and switch 360 look backs which never have been done on a mountain bike let alone on a slopestyle course , so stay tuned and wish me luck this week.

It is now raining in whistler here at crankwerx and that sucks since we have had nothing but epic weather here in the northwest. had a good xc ride yesterday with the specialized crew, we rode up the valley here in whistler to a trail called comfortably numb. other than that we had a good meeting with the freeride crew here at specialized. We were strategizing how to use all the athletes a little more.

Its been a warm few days here in whistler, I had to come up here a few days early to do the big bike launch for the media. Thats ended now and yesterday I went up the hill with yorrick carroux

to shoot some photos for the shimano photo contest. The weather yesterday was epic forshooting, up on top of the mountain there was clear skies with a fog ayer below which made for some epic scenery shots up top. Then when you rode down further it was foggy and misty,

which was perfect for shooting in the trees.

Now I am gonna go ride the air dome and practice some trix on my

slopestyle bike

On my way back from crankwerx colorado beaten down. On my first run I went a little slow on a 360 drop and came up way short and broke my bike. I decided to take a 2nd run even though my bike was not in any shape to be shredded on and I landed the 360 drop perfect but my rear tire popped and that was it for my crankwerx colorado comp. It sucked because the run that I had panned and practiced all day would have took the win.

anyways off to whistler wish me luck

My new world disorder 10 segment is finally finished.

The last shoot was at my pace where I built some jumps in the forest and a couple of one hit wonder hits.

The shoot was good other than getting a concussion the first day. We cable cammed the dirt jump line and a few other shots as well.

and now I am getting ready to go back to germany for the big in bavaria dirt jump contest.

It was the 4th annual 26 trix contest here and it went awesome especially considering the amount of rain that fell during the day. It all started on thursday afternoon when I first arrived and saw all the boys throwing down on the downhill dirt jumps, mosty the euro shredders like Amir Kabanni and sam pilgrim to name a few. The jumps were good and fun, one big line and one smaller line which linked up at the bottom. I ended up with a fourth place and was content since I was up against all the youngens.

Now I am back in canada filming for new world disorder at my place filming my trails, spook woods.

But why is it when all u want is clouds its blue bird and visa versa geez we waited around most of the day waiting for clouds then i got knocked out with my awesome helmet end of story for today .

I am in chatel france for the big mountain slope style and man what a treat it is to ride a big mountain contest where it makes a difference if you can actually ride mountains and not be foam pit trick based. The course was high in the alpine on the side of a mountain, it was

around 1000 feet of vertical drop and it started out with a couple options that most were drops then into some berms and turns straight into the big mountain jump section where a big bike was favored then into a couple of lines that sent you off a drop that ended up into a

steep straight rocky section that had a big turn at the bottom. After that there was a section that was steep and had dozens of different choices which lasted for about 300 vertical feet which spit you out to a big road gap that had a big berm at the bottom which compressed your suspension like a sardine. It all ended with a big booter about 45 feet in size which was good for big bikes as well.

On saturday it was beauty weather and the boys were throwing their lines together and it seemed that everybody was pretty much set to go for qualification. I was late and was hurrying to get on the lift to reach the top for the start of qualification and as soon as I got on the lift the rain started to come down in sheets or so I thought, good thing for my sombrio rain jacket.

So I am huddling on the lift, waiting to reach the top I suddenly rolled over the crest and the heavens opened up and said im angry, The lightning was everywhere and thunder roled through the alps like a freight train. once I reached the start everyone was huddling around

the red bull tent and of course since the course was made of clay it was cancelled for the day.

Its sunday and the sun is shining so up we go to do 2 runs of which the best one counts.

I roll in for my first run and clean the top section with a good flip and spin off the drop that ended in a steep chute and came in a little fast and double flatted on some rocks so my first run is a bust. Being that I am a all or nothing type dude I decide to throw it all on the line and send it for my last run, I spin the top drop that was a good 20 foot with 5 feet of distance and a real steep landing it was complicate to get my head wrapped around how I was going to spin so slow while barely moving except falling vertically. I pull it off and roll into the next jump where I have been flipping it all weekend without a problem and i spin way to slow so I pul the ejection cord and roll out of it. I quickly got back up and was super pissed off I

crashed on a flip so I charge the rest of the course with a ton of speed and throw down some good tricks along the way meanwhile taking some lines that have not been ridden yet and end up in 2nd. pumped on the day and now its off to leogang for 26 trix.

It was a quick flight to salt lake city and a swift shuttle up to the specialized press launch for the 2010 bikes.

The weather was epic and the crew from specialized put on a great show, showing off there 2010 lineup in style. I just want to say that this lineup of bikes is the nicest and sexiest you will see this year, possibly even a few years. My favorite out of the lineup was the enduro series, this bike will climb up anything with ease and descend with a prowess that would make alot of 7 inch bikes envious. Coming in at 30 pounds you cant just beat it for a all mountain. The sx trail is still my go to bike and the new 8 is a treat to corner with hills specific geometry.

I must say that i have ridden alot of trais in my day and this trail that we did near park city was and is in my top 3 of all time, it started with a nice 1200 foot climb puker hill to be exact, then once at the top we were delighted with the views a along the gently rolling ridgetop which rolled on for about 4 miles then descended through the alpen trees about 10 miles of the buffest smoothest singletrack ive ridden. It was so fun my mouth hurt from smiling for so long, me and

matt hunter agree that it was one of the sickest trails we ever rode.

Its a beauty monday morning here in snowbird utah, where me and matt hunter are hanging out at the specialized press launch where we get to unveil all of the 2010 bikes.

yesterday was rad we presented all the new line of bikes which I can tell you is the best line of bikes on the market, all the way to the price point bikes to the high end bikes.

My favorite addition to the lineup would have to be the carbon enduro, it climbs like a xc bike then descends like a sx trail best of both worlds my friends.

After the presentation we got suited on whatever bike we wanted and went for a xc ride. Me and Matt hunter both rode the stumpjumper 26'' and the stumpjumper 29" it was the first time I tried the 29" inch bike and me and matt both agree that its a must try, the climbing ability of this bike is amazing I loved the way this bike rode.

We ended the day with a long dh trail that meandered down a valley with a creek rolling beside the whole way, it was a combination of techy rock sections and buff singetrack. The day ended with a rad dinner in this garden like estate restaurant.

thats all folks till the next time.

Back to mountains once again I go but this time its the bc interior. I set off in my truck with all my bikes and my quad our destination was cache creek, a little bc town with a fair amount of freeride friendly terrain. I filmed in this area years ago and I always wanted to come back since that was the area I was first introduced to big mountain riding. With the intent of hitting some similar stuff but riding it completely different and utilizing new filming techniques.

The first line we filmed was a narrow chute that opened up to a wide face then ended with a booter. The new world disorder crew rigged up their cable cam in a few hours, stringing it in front of a cliff face all the way across the valley. I was super pumped with the shot we got

since the shot starts with the camera panning across this cliff face and reveals me charging through the narrow chute then making big wide ski turns down the slope and ending with a rad hip at the bottom. The shot totally feels like it was filmed from a heli.

The next day we headed out of our hotel and headed to a new zone where I had previously scoped this crazy chute that had 2 turns in it and ended in a small lake. My idea was to rail through the chute top to bottom and charge into the lake?

So being that my brother Ryan came up to get some big mountain riding experience, he and I got shuttled to the top with my quad and hiked half way down the chute (which was more of a crash half way down) and started half way down since I was skeptical of making the last turn

and I didnt want to pinball through the skinny chute. I dropped in and just made the turn and just stopped before the lake. Next up was my brother so he took the same line as I did and rode it out perfectly and came rolling out with a huge grin saying I think I really like big

mountain riding.

So now its time to film the entire line from top to bottom and I am still wondering if I am going to make the turn at the bottom of the chute so I drop in with the cameras rolling and I get half way with a ton of speed as if i was on a freight train I pulled the brakes as hard as I could and it was so steep I was still gaining speed at a chilling rate. I started to set up for the corner at the bottom while brakes on full and there it was, the exit. I fly out of the chute at a

speed around 70 km/h and it all happened so fast it was hard to know what i was thinking but i didnt brake before the lake and I plowed into it at around 80 km/h.I hit so fast that my legs smacked the bars as I got thrown over them like a circus monkey then my face hit the

water and I scorpioned for a half second before i got tomahawked 2 times across the water (sky-water-sky-water)then rested a good 50 feet into the lake.

Thats pretty much the end of that shoot due to some whip lash and gnarly bruises.

So for my rehab I went fishing and caught so much fish it wasnt even funny.

back to the real world again well my world that is. I spent the last 2 and a half weeks backpacking in ecuador and peru with 2 hometown buds. Good times I tell ya, we started in ecuador and went to the jungle fora few days, we saw all sorts of weird and crazy animals on our jungle trek. I caught some piranha's which I thought was pretty cool. I even swam in piranha infested waters, pretty creepy I tell ya.

After our jungle tour we headed to the coast and got a little r&r in this crazy little surf town called Montanita. When we were one with the coast we headed south to Lima Peru, the town

is pretty unsafe for the most part so we only stayed a night before heading to Cuzco.

Once we were in Cuzco we booked our machu picchu hike and set off on a four day trek, which started with a 2 hour descent on a mountain bike down a scenic valley.

Then we hiked for 3 more days on and off the Inca trail until we reached Machu picchu where we lucked out and had clear sunny skies. The ancient town itself was amazing and I really was amazed at how people could live to become comfortable living on the edge of a cliff yikes.

Now I am in the BC interior filming my segment for new world disorder 10. The weather is supposed to be nice so we should get some good stuff done. My plan here is to ride some big mountain lines and add a little flare to the lines by jumping into the chutes and shredding back and forth down the line.

Wish me luck and stay tuned

Good times had by all at Jordie lunns fresh air jam this past weekend in victoria b.c.

I myself had a wonderful time the weather was great and tons of rad riders showed up to shred the course jordie built. Some of the shredders were brandon semenuk, jamie goldman, geoff gullevich, erick lawrenuck to name a few.

The track was fun and we turned it into a 2 hour jam and at the end all the riders voted on the standings, some of the highlights were brandons truck driver off the up box, lawrenucks aliwhips, and goldmans solid runs were some of the visual treats.

brandon ended up in first and I ended up in 2nd and erick lawrenuck ended up in third.

so it is tuesday now and I had a good weekend. I did my first downhill race and got 3rd, under 2 seconds behind the winner, I rode my sx trail since it was a fairy smooth course and i love the quick response from that bike. Other than that I am listening to dragon force at the moment, good song.

getting ready for jordies jump competition this weekend in victoria. thats gonna be fun my first comp of the year woop woop. Also I am redoing my backyard with my new excavator and man what a big project dont really have the time but oh well little bit at a time

Well ive been home from my trip to utah for over a week now and life is good taking care of some bills and taxes ya know all the things that life throws at you when you decide to take off for 6 weeks. I have been building near my house, in preperation for filming here for the new world disorder 10, to hopefully finish off my segment for that movie which would be rad to get it out of the way early in the year, especially considering I have tons of obligations with traveling for various reasons like contests and film shoots. I even think I am going to the dominican republic for a film shoot for life cycles which is another film I will be in this year. The idea behind the shoot is I go there to park vida which is a bike park I am involved with and build a coupe rad and progressive stunts with stunning backdrops. It should be good pretty pumped on the trip but I wont lie in saying that the weather here on vancouver island is awesome at the moment.

I also want to tell you folks about something I just purchased..... I know you will be almost as excited as I am about it.... stay tuned for my next entry for now I will leave you some pictures of my trails called spook which will be featured in new world disorder 10

buyaka

Back at home at last, I just returned home from a 5 week film trip in southern Utah. The film I was filming for was new world disorder 10. Yes I said 10, I know what your thinking but yes time does fly by and this is my 7th appearance in the new world disorder films. The process is quite simple, I drive my truck south with all my bikes and my moto of course, Then we rented a house for 2 months which we found to be quite perfect since the house was very close to our filming zones. Once I arrived I use my moto to scour the desert to find unique features such as big boulders that can be used as wall rides or a takeoff. But mainly searching for things that just stand out. Once I decide the jumps and or features that I am going build we get to work with shovels and rakes buffing out my lines. Then when its done we wait until the light is good and there is no wind.

This trip I was very successful in finding what I wanted, which was rad features that stood out. It definitely took way longer than I expected to get all the shots I wanted due to weather conditions, which included lots of wind. There were times where I sat on top of a jump and waited for a break in the wind for 45 minutes. Now that is nerve racking. Some of the highlights are, Switch 360 off a drop followed by a regular 360 off a second drop right away. Big gap to rock manual, turndowns and lookbacks on the raddest quarter pipe i've ever built it was 14 feet tall and super scary. Those are just a few of the highlights from the trip so stay tuned for other epic tales from ME

Back once again in the Utah desert. The weather is fair and the dirt moist, perfect building and filming conditions. I will be here in Utah for the entire month filming for new world disorder 10. So far I have been lucky in finding super unique stunts to build and since there is moisture in the ground building is a dream. Perfect lips get shaped in no time at all and it packs super hard. John Gibson will be the photographer for most of the time I am here and Brad Mcgregor will be the cinematographer. Stay tuned as the madness unfolds.