Two Brothers are Riding From Cancun to Whistler With a Portable Kicker - Part 2
This article is the following part of the first article
What an amazing feeling to ride on the sea to sky Highway, we felt so excited because Whistler is finally only few pedal laps away... we've never been so close to our dream!
5 km before the village, we found a cap on the road. A black one, with an inscription "CANCUN" on it, the start of our trip, 9 month and 9000 km from there. Once in the village, looking for a wifi network, one of them is called "Into The Ride". And to make sure we are at the right place at the right time, this same day, near the bike park lift, we met a French MTB guide, Marie, who offered us 2 lifts ticket for the bike park!
Thanks life for being so amazing!!!
This week we rode the bike park few days, enjoying a lot the A-Line, Dirt Merchant and Freight Train principally....Those tracks deserved their reputation, the jumps are very big but very safe at the same time, it's like a roller coaster, on a bike!!! Finally, OUR DREAM COMES TRUE!!!!
In Bellingham, we met Jack and Colin, well known as "The bike Dads". Then, while travelling to Whistler, Jack passed us with his car. He stopped and offered us some stickers and mud guard "The bike dads". So when we met them in Whistler, near the gondola entrance, it was the third time that we met them "by chance". That time, they were with Travis, the boss of this very new (April this year) MTB clothes brand, NEEDS Factory. After a quick look at us, and our few years used MTB jerseys, he told us "You guys need new jerseys, right?". We just spoke 5 minutes with him, but 2 days later, cheking his website, we saw a picture of us and a quick presentation of our project. Officially we became "Ambassadors" for NEEDS Factory, so COOL!!!!!!
We get to meet William Robert. A French skilled Freerider, riding for Commencal, who is well known to send it big! We asked him to help us making a nice picture with him, for our movie cover.
So we went to Crabapple hits with him. First time he hit the fourth one, the "whip-off" jump, he made a stylish whip, On the second attempt, he did a crazy big and extented superman, we were amazed!!!!
Here is the picture we'll use as the movie cover.... Merci William!!!
So we went to Crabapple hits with him. First time he hit the fourth one, the "whip-off" jump, he made a stylish whip, On the second attempt, he did a crazy big and extented superman, we were amazed!!!!
Here is the picture we'll use as the movie cover.... Merci William!!!
Thanks to a friend from La Paz in Baja California, we get the contact of Leah, who host us in Squamish, and gave us the contact of her parents, John and Grace who hosted us in Whistler. Quite lucky guys to found those amazing people, when you know how hard or expensive it could be to stay in Whistler...
John and Leah organized an enduro ride with some friends to make the famous trail Lord of the squirrels, a nice climb in the forest, an amazing view from the top, surrounded by little lakes, before a funny and techy singletrack down....Definitetly a MUST if you go to Whistler!
After a crazy week in Whistler, it's time to go to the Sunshine Coast, where a friend of Tibo, Julien, is living since 10 years. After 2 km, a pick-up stops in front of us. Two Quebecois asked us if we are the guys the saw on the previous Pinkbike article and they offered us a lift to Squamish. The final goal is already reached, so we accepted the offer and loaded the bikes in the pick-up. After the ferry we get a wonderful sunset, welcome to the well named "SUNSHINE Coast"!!
Julien offered us to meet Bjorn Enga. This guy is a legend, because he is the producer of the epic serie of movies "Kranked", 8 movies who documented the beginning of what we call today, the FREERIDE.
When he arrived at Tapworks in Gibsons, we were quite surprised to see his "electrified" Santa Cruz V10. Bjorn have designed those very powerful bikes, who allowed you to have so much fun, even going up hill.
He offered us to try them, and this was pretty amazing!
When he arrived at Tapworks in Gibsons, we were quite surprised to see his "electrified" Santa Cruz V10. Bjorn have designed those very powerful bikes, who allowed you to have so much fun, even going up hill.
He offered us to try them, and this was pretty amazing!
 | Perhaps it's not MTB, call it like you want, what we experienced was so much fun!!!! |
The day after, with Julien and some friends of him, we went up the Elphinstone Mountain. What a nice surprise to see Kyle Norbraten, a freeriding legend, joining us on his crazy bike: a brand new Evil enduro frame, tunned by Norby with a Boxxer fork!!
The trail's name is Elphititis (not Healthy Tities...), the way up is quite challenging, with some part of "almost climbing", with the bike on your back. The way down was even more challenging, so much fun to stop every 100 m to watch every body trying to go through the stiffest sections. Lots of crashs, lot of walking down, lot of fun!! Kyle was the only one riding everything...probably not too crazy for a guy who rode the Red Bull Rampage! 
Few days later, while telling stories to Bjorn, he was surprised that we didn't used our ramp so much (3 times only during the whole trip...perhaps we should have bring a picknic table instead!!). In his neighbourhood, their is a little deck. Let's set the ramp at the end of it, and send it on a brakeless kid's bike!!!
After this amazing week, let's go back to Whistler for the Crankworks! We started by bike, to the Ferry, then 10 km after we decided to hitchhike with the 2 bikes and the trailer. After less than one minute, a van stopped. Jasper and Luke, with their bikes offered us to join them riding in Squamish and to bring us to Whistler after. This is perfect because we really wanted to shred in Squamish but we thought we would not have time...
Cherry on the cake, Luke is a sender who could show us the way to hit the biggest jumps, while Jasper is a professional photographer and took us those beautiful pics! This connexion is unbelievable, because Jasper is one of the 6 competitors for the "Dirt Diairies", the Crankworks movie competition. And the rider he followed in his film is also sponsored by NEEDS...
This week it 's the Crankworks. Usually we watch the live from France, but this year, here we are...So stoked !! We spend two days volunteering. One day for the "Air DH", the race on the A-Line, we are posted at the biggest table of the track, looking all the good riders passing on...The second day we are still on the track for the trainings of the Canadian Open. That's a pretty good job, and we get a day pass for the bike park...Not too bad after 10 months living on our own...
Of course we get to watch "The Whip OFF", the best freeriders sending their best style on the biggest jump of Whistler....What else ?? The crowd was impressive, perhaps one of the best moment of the week!!
Saturday, day of the "RED BULL Joyride". Should have been one of the highlight of the trip, the event we didn't want to miss. But, life is different when Bjorn Enga is your friend!
Helping Kelly, a paraplegic guy (former Paralympic champion of marathon wheelchair, a real warrior!!!) going up to "into the mystic" on an electric bike, a 8 hours adventure, was definetly a "JOY RIDE" too! It deserve a dedicated article. Soon!
Helping Kelly, a paraplegic guy (former Paralympic champion of marathon wheelchair, a real warrior!!!) going up to "into the mystic" on an electric bike, a 8 hours adventure, was definetly a "JOY RIDE" too! It deserve a dedicated article. Soon!
Monday is our last day in Whistler, our bikes are tired and we really want to try the Crabapple Hits before to leave... Let's rent some downhill bikes! Pierre get a Norco, Tibo a Scott Gambler... No excuses! Few laps for the warm up and let's go to hit the jumps we always dreamed about.
When we arrived there, Thibaut quickly passes the 3rd. It's super impressive, but such a nice sensation. After three runs on it, it is Pierre's turn. He hit it, maybe a little fast. He's going really well, but seeing that he's going to be long, he gets scared and catch the brakes. This action has the effect of quickly tilting the bike on the front, and Pierre touches the ground with the bike almost vertically. It's the crash. The bike stops 20 m away, and Pierre manages to slip on the edge of the track, moaning in pain. We can say that Pierre is super lucky. And even if these scratches in the back will inconvenience for a few days, it has nothing broken and that is really cool!
Tibo is still super motivated to try to pass the last jump. After another one or two "speed check", he follows a Lithuanian who knew the jump. A few meters from the eject, launched at full speed, I lightly touch the brakes as if to reassure me, and takes me to the unknown .... A flight, a real flight that takes you more than 15 m away, at a height of 3 / 4m at the peak, another dimension !!!! On the first try, I'm "short", I get to the top of the reception, the rear wheel on the flat, the bike compresses, it slams hard but, it passes! Thank you DH bike !! I was not really satisfied, so I still re-tried the jump, then a third time to have it perfectly.
That's it, it's done, I get my adrenaline shot ... this is happiness!
That's it, it's done, I get my adrenaline shot ... this is happiness!
It is time to return the bikes and clean the Pierre's back.... Job's done, we have the epic end of our trip and we can go home without regret!
As you see, our month in Canada was an amazing end for our 10 months trip. We tried a big Rope swing near Whistler.... First time for both of us, so we get to crash quiet hard in the lake!!That was insane, we never saw something that big in France....You Canadian guys are crazy!!
We also get the chance to go to the Backwoods Jam at the coast gravity park... Some of the best riders riding some of the best jumps in the world... That was so beautiful to watch,and the ambience was very chill,
that's definitely something to see if you are around!
We are back in France now, with a lot of memories, of new friends, the desire to come back and 1To of videos in our hard drive... Next goal is to make an adventure movie about our trip to share it in festivals and schools.
You can follow us on our Facebook Page Into The Ride to get the infos about our movie.
You can follow us on our Facebook Page Into The Ride to get the infos about our movie.
Special thanks to Leah, Grace and John, Julien, Bjorn, Kelly, Travis, Matt from North Shore Bikeshop Vancouver, Sarah, William, and all of you for reading this story!
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