I’m off on a camping trip this morning with the family. I’ll be back to my blog in a week!

Ryan

While cycling in some brilliant sun shining weather, I started to ponder our cultures material lifestyle. The relationship between the amount of money one makes and the amount one thus consumes materially seem to be almost inescapably linked; and in a day and age where so many are financially prolific (and soon to be in China and India), it is no wonder that consumption seems to be growing despite dire warning signs from scientists that this has to change. For those capable now of entering a fabulous material lifestyle, the excuses to justify these personal standards are completely owned and justified. What is it going to take for affluent individuals to voluntarily alter their decadent desires?

This thought process started with the awareness of a shift in my own consuming habits and patterns; now by no means am I part of the growing league of elite rich, but I can draw a parallel in my own consumption desires and what my salary is capable of consuming, they are no longer par with one another; so the question comes, what has changed for me? I still have much work to do, but the needing and wanting of things like a big fancy house, fast car, and the best weekend toys money can buy have lost their grip on my mind, same with having the latest electronic gadget and fancy camera. I believe that the more citizens that can curb this material yearning voluntarily, before they are forced to by mother nature (which is inevitable), the smoother and less violent this transition to a sustainable culture will be.

Now perhaps you might think I’m idealizing things, because after all, it’s just wise for me to reduce my material aspirations to below my income level, at least that is what all financial planners preach; they say you have to plan ahead, invest and save your money, live below your means and you’ll have a happy future. That’s all good and true, and I have always been decent at following that plan; but on average, the stats clearly show North Americans live well beyond their financial capacity due to this craving for material status. Financial planners may also warn of job stability, and not to over spend if your job isn’t secure. Personally my income is tied heavily to my physical well-being, so it’s also wise not to go overboard, but unfortunately, most jobs these days are dependant on all sorts of variables; but still those blind, deep, material desires has now lead to, for example in America, the worst mortgage and lender crash since the depression. Most of these ‘victims’ are smart people, and hold good jobs, so how could things go so wrong, how could we be so disillusioned with our spending, and how might we reframe our conditioning to gain some perspective?

One suggestion would be to think back to when you were a young teenager, before you had a license (or in the case of some readers, think ahead to this point). For me, if there was a particular place that I wanted to ride my bike, I would ride for as long as needed to get there. My bikes were often quite Frankenstein like (especially my rear derailleurs); but did these material limitations affect the level of enjoyment and happiness I experienced? No. Now that I have unlimited fancy smancy bikes, do I enjoy my riding experience more than I did back then. No. So will the house on the hill provide you with more happiness than the apartment in the city, absolutely not! Sure there may be a temporary high, but it’s not lasting; if anything the journey to acquire and maintain this material landmark postpones the crucial realization of our inter-connectedness to the earth. It seems human nature to continually want more and more (thanks to the western white man anyway), and no matter what level of finance you reach, the greatest lie our culture maintains is that more will be even better. We tend to unconsciously propagate this materialistic story to our young, and then wonder why there is so much dis-ease in our society.

Let us say I am just being smart about my financial future, and I haven’t had some magical shift in my ‘consumeronciousness’, the theoretical question still remains, how would my consumption change if I won the lottery today and my financial future was secured? Please ask yourself this, what would you buy!? Or what if you became a successful businessperson that makes more money in a year than most in their life? How would you change your lifestyle? Where would you travel? I just glanced through a magazine article showing the indulgences of the owner of Tommy Hilfiger, the cars, mansions, and helicopters…at one point, I would have thought it was pretty cool to have all that, but with the knowledge of the world I now possess, I see it as a gross sin for one human to be responsible for so much consumption of the worlds resources. Watching a show like cribs for instance makes me sick to my stomach most of the time. But then again, so does my consumption, the same gap between me and Tommy is similar to the third-world and me; I consume way more than my ‘one world’ limit.

Typical third world neighborhood vs typical suburban mansion.

As the first-world population slowly (too slowly) comes to terms with the fact that our lifestyles are killing the planet, and hence our children’s future, a powerful emotion will set in and wreck havoc on our minds, guilt. Once we are able to stare this guilt in the face, we can do a few things:

1. Quickly look the other way before it notices us.

2. Give up, decide you can’t make a difference, and return to business as usual.

3. Turn this powerful emotion in to a positive signal to wake up and take action!

At this point the discussion can get pretty complicated, so I won’t sink too deep. If we ignore the emotion, it will just keep re-surfacing more forcefully, and scarily. Giving up may work temporarily, but what about your children? My own incubation period between reading the scientific stats and studies (an upcoming article will focus on this specifically), and actually doing something about it is shockingly slow and lame, and I consider myself above average in this regard!

Modern scientific revelation (or Gods word if you like) has made it immanently clear we are not merely humans living on the earth as was once thought back in the flat earth epoch, but are humans grown from the earth, just like a fox or a tree; the key difference is that we have developed the unique capacity to not just know, but to know we know. This is consciousness. It is through us that the earth is now able to consciously see herself. When you look at the moon, the moon is literally seeing itself through your eyes! It’s a mind trip that makes me want to sing Hallelujah! Coming to terms with this sacred truth was what brought about the shift in my material desires, and of course, much more. It would take an infinite number of pages to describe this realization fully, precisely because it is indescribable. Point is, that inherent within this emerging worldview comes the inability of harming the earth for personal gain. Ignorance was once material bliss, but true bliss, it turns out, is immaterial.

This morning I met up with pro-photographer Stephen Wilde  to shoot some photos for a story that Mountain Bike Magazine is doing about me. Their journalist David Howard has gone in to some depth about my career and lifestyle, so today we went to work on capturing that. A bit of trials, a bit of mountain biking, some yoga poses, and, oh wait, shoot, I forgot to get him to shoot me drinking tea!

I have never shot with Stephen before, so I browsed his website, and could immediate tell that he’s got an eclectic taste and style, and the images struck me as very film like. Sure enough, he used 3 or 4 different film camera’s today, in a variety of formats, and like a ‘ol film pro, didn’t use the flash once. Here are a couple images from his website.

I have been a hobby photographer for a good part of my life. Watching my Grandpa patiently take nature photos, then seeing my dad run around the mountain taking photos of me cross country racing, photography has been bred in to me. I remember my Dad teaching me about shutter speed and aperture; and then going out to experiment on plants, bugs and trees. It was such an enjoyable learning curve, and so exciting to see the results after development.

It has been a long time since I was on a film photoshoot, as opposed to digital. It’s almost weird not to be able to preview the image right after the shot has been taken. I think there is a rare confident patience that is inherent in a film photographers style, it’s almost romantic.

I have been a snobbish digital SLR user for the last few years, and was adamant that people could not tell the difference between a good digital image and a film image when put side by side. My ego was wrapped up in that argument because I had spent so much money on a nice digital camera set up. Over the last year or so I have been able to observe that digital ego, and of course, that allowed it to subside and me to see things from a different perspective. Caryn has always been drawn to film photos more than digital, part of it may be noticeable, and part may be just in the patient artistic touch that comes through in a film image.

Thanks for the shoot today Stephen!

Check out this list of interesting reasons to ride your bike. A few unique ideas are listed. The bottom line formula with all this pro bike stuff is: Bikes + Environment = Good News.

Whistler is situated among some of the most spectacular scenery, but it can still be a fairly toxic place to spend five days, especially during a gravity and testosterone fed festival like Crankworx. Participants and spectators are recovering from Crankworx in many different ways right now. The hype, buzz and adrenaline can be a bit overwhelming, and it’s sometimes hard to shake it off and bring things back to reality.

I felt nicely grounded after listening to this song today by Xavier Rudd today….

energy-song

Anyone else stuck in the traffic back to Vancouver last night? It took me over four hours to get home! I had some good podcasts to listen to though (check the side panel to the right). I think most drivers remained positive though, one guy even got out of his car while we were stopped, knocked on my window, and gave me a beer….no I didn’t drink it Thanks buddy!

We’re spending mega bucks on a new highway from Vancouver to Whistler, and they’re making great progress. There was no construction last night, but yet the delays were enormous. My former team mate and mentor Robin Coope was stuck in the same traffic jam, and suggested that the new highway may be safer, but could result in huge delays in Squamish because of the cities traffic light situation, which has grown to seven along the highway. Once the highway is complete, we could still be in store for some huge delays during busy times, such as, oh, say for example, the Olympics. Good prediction Robin, I hope you’re wrong, but I fear you may not be.

Just found some time to get online this morning (Sunday) before another 3 shows today - which will make my five day total 15.

The Crankworx slopestyle contest was last night, and it certainly was a show. Watching these guys launch their bikes and bodies through the air is scary, beautiful, stylish, crazy, and elegant all at the same time; it’s hard to know what to think!

I’m actually riding with a sprained finger today, first injury I’ve had from a trials show in a long time.

The trials contest called trialsworx was a huge success, the Baia Family poured their heart into organizing another great competition. It was great to so many kids out for the kids version as well which attracted 78 kids to compete!

So I don’t have much time to chat here, just thought I’d share a few thoughts while I was online. 

Seeya,

Ryan

This simple and stylish link talks about the emergence of supercities; where 19 cities will reach a population of 20 million in the 21st century. Good pondering material.

www.192021.org

The Internet, we have already begun to take it for granted, but it has really only just begun. The implications of this technology are beyond our imaginations. One futurist I often listen to is quite certain that actually having to type in a browser what you’re looking for will be old school soon; instead a microchip in your head will automatically search the internet for whatever bit of information and knowledge you’re looking for. Scary thought - no wait, think good thoughts, hmm, complicated! Anyway, filtering all the crap that is online may be the big ticket; because on the internet,  things that are false can be made to look true, and true facts can be made to look false. We live in interesting times!

Here is a link (this one thanks again to the great magazine EnlighteNext) to a website called The Space Collective that explores the future through blogs and videos, taking the opinions of students, artists, and futurists alike. Interesting and sometimes scary; anyone have a grain of salt handy?

On a totally different note, I’m off to Whistler tomorrow morning for Crankworx, and will be quite busy with shows, photo shoots, etc. I’m not sure how often I’ll get online to post over the next 5 days. So I wish you all a fantastic week!

Traffic in Vancouver, like most growing cities, is getting pretty intense. Combine that with rising fuel prices, and extreme suburb commuting, and you get some nasty driving attitudes and road rage. Serving humanity and the greater whole is a key element to finding purpose in ones life. I know an old man whose apparent purpose is to help reduce the stress of the car commuter. He’s the old man at the corner of the Hwy 1 on-ramp at Hastings St. in Vancouver.

You can choose to let the old man put a smile on your face, or choose to look down upon him, and ignore him, like many do with homeless people and beggers. When passing him one direction there is no light so I just whiz by, but he always makes eye contact while waving the peace sign; coming the other way, there’s a light, at that point I see him with his broom and dustpan sweeping the curb trash and debris, I see him smiling and waving, and only when signaled by a driver does he come to the window to accept tips. The times I have signaled him, he comes along with his reflective vest on, and shares a joke that always brings a smile to my face; job done.

I started thinking about street people, and that they probably have one of the smallest carbon footprints in western societies. In a culture that values material wealth more than anything, it might be hard for them to be content with the few, if any, possessions they have. However many world travelers often remark that the happiest people they see are the ones in cultures where there is little material wealth. When I was in Peru filming for Kranked 3, we came across a small village, everyone was gathered around the fire, and they invited us over to join. They lived in little huts, no electricity or plumbing, but they weren’t embarrassed, they gave us nothing but welcoming smiles and great hospitality, and there was this unforgettable feeling of calm contentment and connectiveness. In a documentary I just watched called “Ten Questions with the Dalai Lama”, he suggested that the more you have materially, the more you have to worry about; I can certainly see the truth in that.

Back to commuting, a more sustainable method with enormous benefits on so many levels is by way of bike. Now for someone who does more riding at work than to work, I can’t be too preachy, but the times I do choose to take the bike for errands and meetings around town, everything seems better. Hopefully you don’t live too far off in the suburbs, but if the distance is within riding reach, give it a go! Careful though with your bike commuting ego, as Eckhart Tolle said in an interview I recently read, “A cyclist might have a bigger ego than the man in the SUV, especially if he hates the man in the SUV for polluting the planet and thinks he’s superior.”

Cycling is indeed an important part of the solution to climate change, especially as our savings account of oil dwindles. There is still some debate regarding climate change, but it’s hard to argue with the consensus of 2500 scientists on the intergovernmental panel on climate change, chances are they may know better than your neighbor Joe. In an audio interview I heard with author Karen Armstrong, she said “and I don’t think we’ll save the planet if we don’t’ dismantle these habits of selfishness, even with the environment, not just jumping in to a car every time we feel like it, realizing that we can’t just drive anywhere, we can’t go on poisoning the atmosphere like this, our grandchildren are going to curse us.”

The One Planet Two Wheels campaign tells us that 60% of the pollution created by automobile emissions happens in the first few minutes of operation, before pollution control devices can work effectively. 24% of all trips are made within a mile of the home, 40% of all trips are made within two miles of the home, and 50% of the working population commutes five miles or less to work.

Carpooling has been an important initiative in many big cities, but increasing the number of multi passenger trips has proved difficult. A recent study illuminated the reason why; turns out that because of the fast paced modern lifestyle, the car commute is the only time individuals have to themselves! If you go by way of the bicycle you still get that personal reflective time, you save the planet, and always get to the top of the climb first on the weekend mountain bike ride. Sounds like an extraordinary deal to me! Ride ON!! 

I never really have to worry about sleeping in too late at home, because I’ve got an alarm clock. My alarm clock is very similar to the one in this video. Happy Monday everyone!

Just had this heads up from Kris Holm about the first unicycle front flip; he said that this kid had been practicing with a gymnastics couch in private for three months to pull it off. Looks pretty bizarre, and impressive no doubt. 

I guess perhaps on the same note, I’ll add one of my favorite juggling sequences, it’s simple (not in the moves and tricks, but the fact that it’s only three balls), elegant, and stylish. It’s set to music, so be sure you have the volume up. Enjoy!!! (Thanks Joan Jones for showing this video to me years ago while in Moab).