(...okay, not his WHOLE life story)

---

Interview by Patrick Branch

Where did you grow up and where did you live the longest?

I was born in Vancouver, BC, but I was raised in Kamloops, BC... lived there the longest, but I lived a lot in Whistler as well. But, now I live in North Vancouver with my girlfriend and my baby girl...11 months old. And I live with my girlfriend who rides. She was riding Northshore 20 years ago.

Who is your girlfriend?

Sarah Fenton. She's a good solid shore rider!

Awesome. What was your first mountain bike?

My first mountain bike was a Kuwahara. It would have been 1983.


Bikes in the early years of freeriding weren't exactly meant for such abuse. What do you think is the most parts you went through in a week?

Whole Bikes. I've gone through probably three complete bikes in a week. Frames, wheels, two bars, two sets of cranks, and pedals...and seats.

How old were you when you became a 'professional' freerider?

Hmmm... Well, the first movie I did was in 1995, called Traction by Greg Stump. He used to make really cool ski movies. He made like the original cool ski movie, kind of like, you know, how Crusty Demons of Dirt was to motocross or like Kranked 1 was to mountain biking. He made a movie called Blizzard of Ahhhs. He was one of the good ski movie makers. He made this film for Specialized called Traction. I got a free bike out of that and they payed for dinner every night of filming, so that was cool. That was my first, not literally pro, but that was my first shot in getting a few spots and riding in a movie. Richie Schley was in that as well. Then in '96 we made Tao of Riding by Christian Begin. Also riding in Traction was Craig Olsson. He was an early unknown freeride pioneer. In '97 was Kranked 1.

Were you involved at all in organizing the first Redbull Rampage or were you just competing?

I was just competing. I wasn't in the first one; I missed it. I was in the second one. They had me as a judge the year after.

With all the differences between the first and last Rampage that just happened, what's the same?

Something that's the same?...just the electricity in the air, the vibe, you know and the excitement of boundaries being pushed and new envelopes...and people sending it.

You had kind of a drug addiction for a few years? How long did that last and what did it take to quit?

It was alcohol and drugs. I just got bored of it. I missed riding...I missed riding my bike. I missed snowboarding. I missed riding my snowmobile. I missed riding my dirtbike. I missed all my riding friends in the mountains - the mountain tribe. Plus, you know, my grandma died and then my dad died. My dad dying was the hardest thing that ever happened. I was already sober, but it just made it unbelievably easy to quit from then on. It made it totally easy to stay sober. Plus, now I have a baby and a beautiful fiancé. And riding again and the mountain bike world has taken me back. and...I'm back! (laughs) It was all like a bad dream. Now, I don't drink or do anything. But I do a lot of energy drinks...and I'm always wired anyway, just on life. (laughs)

What do you do now, since you aren't being paid to ride?

I work for a company called Finished Guaranteed, for a fellow named Neil Sinclair, as an apprentice finishing carpenter. It's super rad because my boss is a mountain biker, and a Northshore mountain biker at that.

Does he do a lot of trail building as a carpenter?

He doesn't build a lot, but he rides a lot. You can be late for work, but you can't be late for a ride. He sends it. He goes big and does tricks off cliffs...super good at skinnies and rides gnarly steeps. It's crazy to have a boss who's a charger.


Did you ride the Canadian Open Course this year at Crankworx?

Yep.

I rode it last year and did fine on it, but this year, it was so much more technical in the bottom.

I didn't race in it. I just went and rode it.

Yeah, I rode it the day after the race. The steep section at the end, I ended up walking down 10' before hitting it because I was such a bitch. (laughs) It was way sketchier than last year.

Actually, the first time I rode it, I bitched out. I rode it, but I went way out to the left.. and then after I rode it, I was like, oh **** that! Then I did the regular way, down the right. Pretty scary though...like woohaa!!

That bottom section?

I think it's called the Poop Chute.

Yeah, I almost pooped myself looking at it.

Yeah..yeah..yeah. Man, they were flyin' down that.

Do you have a favorite photographer you've shot with?

Oh god. Um... I really like shooting with John Gibson, and Blake Jorgenson.

They do awesome stuff.

Yeah. Also, Eric Berger in the early days. Scott Markewitz from the States is super badass...sometimes he's got two cameras at once. A wide angle and a telephoto.

Like one on remote?

One on each eye.

(laughs) That's crazy!

Yeah yeah yeah. And you know, Sterling Lawrence, always, of course. Who else was there that I enjoyed shooting with?? Those were the big guns that I shot with. I like shooting with buddy, Layne Marett, because he's a bro and all. He's not a pro, but he takes some good shots and he's fun.

What are two crazy stories from riding trips?

Oh god... One crazy story I had was shooting with Scott Markewitz and Richie Schley in Southern France, in Apps. We did about a 20' cliff and then we finished up and went out to dinner. Our van got broken into and they robbed everything that we had. They stole our passports, our plane tickets, all our bags, and left our bikes. We went down to Niece to fly out and we couldn't fly out without passports, so we had to wait for a day and fly out to London, and go to the Canadian Consulate and prove our ID's and such and such to get back to Canada. While we were waiting for that, we went to the beach...and had been up all night. We fell asleep at the beach. I had had my hands across my chest and I had my thumbs up...and so I woke up with a perfect bikini tan line. Richie fell asleep on his left side, laying in the sand, so his right side was totally burnt, he was red on half of him...and I had a bikini white tan line of my hand prints on my chest. We had almost no money and we were in Niece. Then we went to Monte Carlo and they wouldn't let us into the casino, so we had a beer on the side. Some hot chick walked by, millionaire chick...and then sat down beside us. She started having beers with us. She was a millionaire sculptor, who was exhibiting at the Monte Carlo casino. She was from Montreal and she took us around and gave us a tour. We met Diana Ross and got drunk with her. We met Jacques Cousteau. She ended up giving us a free, fancy ass room. We ended up meeting her for dinner and then went partying on the town for the night and didn't sleep again, didn't even go to the room. Eventually, we went to fly out, and they found all our stuff in the woods, scattered. We went back and got our stuff, plane tickets and passports. Richie had $400 cash in the side pocket of a bag. It was still there, but they had taken his electric tooth brush.

(laughs) That's ridiculous!

Then, on the way home, we jumped on the 747 and I went to the can. On my way back, I noticed there was a spiral staircase going to a floor upstairs. I went up there and saw a bunch of bunk beds. Richie came out of the can and I said, hey what's going on? There's bunkbeds up here! So we both grabbed a bunk bed each and passed out for something like four hours on the way home. The stewardess were shaking him, waking him up and I heard, "sir, sir you can't be here!" He got kicked out, but she didn't find me, so I got to sleep for another hour or something. Eventually, she found me and woke me up, "wake up, wake up!" I pretended like, "no, I don't want to go to school mom!." She sent me down to my seat. We got home and I hit the ground when I got home, because I was glad to be home.

Wait, there was bunk beds on the plane??

Yeah, yeah...little weird room upstairs with like eight bunk beds. There I was, sleeping away with burnt skin and my bikini tan line. (laughs)

You have another one?

Ummm...gee... There was a time that we were mountain biking in northern Italy and (laughs)... Bender was there and we hiked up this giant rock with dinosaur footprints in it. It was a long ways up... like 3/4 a kilometer or something straight up. The cliff was too small for Bender, so he didn't want to waste his time pushing up it. So, me and Tarek Rasouli jumped the cliff and then we rode down to the bottom and went to the big party at the bottom. There was like 6,000 people in a big circus tent. Me, Tarek Rasouli, Richie Schley and Cedric Gracia all dressed up as women and I had like high heels, leotard, and so did everyone else. We had big balloons for tits and we went on stage as an air band. I was Tina Tippie Turner. We ended up doing stage dives and jumping into the crowd and getting carried all over the crowd, like 100 feet back. They popped my balloon tits. It was pretty funny.


So what else do you do? Snowmobiling?

Yeah, I’m a sledneck. I'm an addicted snowmobiler. It's my favorite thing to do other than mountain biking. I love deep powder! My old roommate is the record holder for jumping the world biggest cliff on a sled... a 150' cliff and landed it. I also have a dirtbike, a KTM 200mxc and I play a lot of frisbee.

What music do you listen to?

I like old stuff like Led Zeppelin, Metallica, um, you know, Rage Against The Machine,Tool... I’m more into old school stuff, but I’ll listen to new school stuff, like Tech N9ne or something. I'm influenced by my brother who's 27 years old who leaves the odd thing in my truck, which I play.

What's the color of your front door?

Color of my front door...(laughs)...I don't know. I only use the back door because that's where the bikes come in and out. It's a sliding door. (laughs)

(laughs)

You better write that... "I don't know." (laughs)

Dirt Merchant or In Deep?

Dirt Merchant!

Chinese or Italian food?

Italian. Actually I went into a Chinese restaurant and I ordered in Chinese for everybody and surprised everyone because it was an Italian restaurant. (laughs)

(laughs) ...Rocks or Roots?

Rocks.

Mac or PC?

I have a PC, but I want a Mac.

Slayer or The Rolling Stones?

hmm...The Stones.

Morning or Night?

night

Pepsi or Coke?

Umm...I don't do Coke anymore, so Pepsi. (laughs)

Well, that's all I have...

You didn't ask about my bike!

Oh yeah. What bike do you ride?

(laughs) I ride a 2010 Rocky Mountain prototype WC, with a Marzocchi 888 and all RaceFace parts.

How do you like it?

I love it! I also ride a 2009 Rocky Mountain Flatline, which I had to shoot on most of the year, because the prototype was so secret until up until recently. Sabrina Jonnier's been winning World Cups on it.

Shout-out's and thank-you's?

I'd like to thanks my sponsors: Rocky Mountain, RaceFace, Marzocchi, Hayes, Giro, RRP mud guards, Oakley, Sun Ringle and Cycle Components Network. Stoked to be riding my ass off. Also, for sponsors: Wade Simmon's garage.

Is that your shop?

Well... It's where I get free ****. Stoked to meet new people, see new trails, and ride with my girlfriend, Sarah, who I call green eyes. Can't wait to ride with my baby girl, one day. And Hi Mom!