There has been a bit of a green theme to my week.

First off, I did some filming for a Norco Lifestyle video where I talked about riding my bike around town to do errends. It was pretty funny, at the grocery store parking lot, a fellow came up to me and asked about my Norco VFR bike, the typical questions like “ooh, is that an aluminum frame?”, then “how many gears does that have?” Anyway, as he was walking away, he looked back and said, “right on, I’ve gone green too”. I had a chuckle, I love this trend…Reminded me of this funny and somewhat truthful video:

Then I filmed a TV interview and segment showing me riding my bike to go teach yoga and to talk about project blue sky.

Alos, I’ve been grossing out Caryn by making green vegetable drinks, well experimenting with making them, I guess she was justified in her green gruesome feeling …I’m figuring it out though…

Then to cap it off, and this is the best part, I just watched my nephew’s school Christmas Play and it was titled “Santa Goes Green”, haaa! Awesome. Good positive ideas presented in a fun way. Children will be living with a whole new set of green standards and bringing their parents along with them.

Cheers Folks,

Ryan

Was up fairly early this morning, listening to the cold wind blow outside; decided I’d flow some words out on my neglected blog before I dug in to the days ‘to-do’ list.

My new demo trailer should be arriving shortly, but I don’t have anything to fill it with yet—though last week I was with my Dad and as usual, he came up with an incredibly unique demo obstacle design. See if I can describe it in words…Kind of like spokes in a wheel, I’d have a centre hub with six arms radiating outward, each about 8 feet long and at slightly different heights. Then my platforms and beams and railings would attach between each of the arms. Easy to set up, just open the arms outward and plonk platforms on top, and it would have a unique look. Whether it will work in real life and be stable, we’ll see, but  I’m pretty pumped on the possibilities.

Yoga has been a theme lately, as it has for much of the year. I am teaching three times a week. Twice at Norco’s head office during lunch, and once on Sunday morning at Trailside Physio. Teaching yoga has been more challenging than I anticipated, and I think that is part of the draw for me and why I’m having so much fun with it. I usually pratice personally three or four times a week, so the amount of personal practice seems to have gone down since teaching frequency went up; I guess partly that is because I still teach mostly from the mat while doing the practice instead of walking around just using words to teach. Starting to mix it up a bit, but I really like to connect with how it feels personally in order to express an accurate description of each posture. I recently got a little deeper in to the why’s of teaching yoga during an interview with NSMB.com, that should be posted shortly.

I got a vita-mix recently. That was exciting. The thing has a 2hp motor, same company that makes the blenders at juice and smoothie bars.

Been riding my Norco VFR a lot recently, I love the riding lifestyle. Nothing beats having to whip down to the store on a bike to get dinner ingredients while passing all the rush hour traffic. I just starting shooting a little online video with Alex Lavigne about the riding lifestyle. While the trials bike may lay idle this time of year, my commuter bike is getting loads of action.

Well, best I get to doing some work. Have an awesome Monday folks!

The days have been long (approx 20 hours of light) and full during our visit to Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

Yurts rock! Boreal Mountain Biking’s Headquarters (Yurtville).

Josh, the cinematographer/editors from The Ride Guide setting up for a shot beside a caribou antler. We’re on a mountain above Carcross, about one hour south of Whitehorse. This ride was called Mountain Hero; it is historic because it follows the path of the old miners that built a wooden tram line over century ago. Check the image below.

Our host and guide Sylvain pushing up to the top of Grey Mountain for a trail called Money Shot and Easy Money. That’s the Yukon river in the distance.

Today we’re hitting the town getting some scenic and lifestyle shots, some yoga in the park shots, farmers market shots, bike shop shots, and then we’re going to hit the trails for some evening sun.

Just wanted to share this film with you.

I met Matt a few months ago at the Toronto Bike Show. He’s a class act both on and off bike. Blind or not, the riding is incredible and I felt the inspiration flowing during the film. Hope you and enjoy!! And many thanks to Matt and his crew for sharing this with the world!

The first goal was to collect some video content to be used in promotion of the new Sea to Sky trail. The second was to shoot some photographs in Pemberton with Margus Riga for Norco and Mace.

So, part one. Picked up Margus in North Vancouver and blasted to Squamish in time to help with an interview of David Suzuki. The world renown scientist was kind enough to offer some thoughts on the environmental benefit of a good multipurpose trail through nature (in this case, from Horseshoe Bay to Lillooet). He was a real pro in front of the camera, not surprising considering his television resume; he arrived, made his on camera spiel perfectly on the first take, and was off to his next appointment in a flash. The key to his message was that humans protect and preserve what they love; so if they have increased opportunity to ‘get out in nature’ with a trail such as the Sea-to-Sky, they may be more likely to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

It was a pleasure, as always, to work with Jack Christie who was the director/personality for the shoot. He promotes the outdoor lifestyle in myriad charismatic ways, whether on TV, in print, in books, or most importantly one on one with full authenticity. Margus asked me if there was anything he didn’t know about the outdoors becauseas he was constantly sharing stories and spewing out unique facts about the area. Be sure to check out his website and perhaps purchase one of his quality books. He’s good people.

A couple youngsters, Evan and Shawn, came down from Pemberton to be in the video shoot. Photo Credit: Margus Riga

Robin Harvey, the marketing/promotional gal behind the Sea to Sky Trail has been busy coordinating this day of filming, and she was able to squeeze it all in for us by the early afternoon so Margus and I had time to blast off to Pemby to get our ride/shoot on. We rode up and then down a trail called (can’t remember right now) and took photos along the way. It was glorious, except for the onslaught of giant Pemberton Mosquitos! 

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

We got back to the truck by 9pm. Grabbed some snacks for the drive home quite content with the days efforts.

I picked my trailer up on the way home, switched my gear and bikes for the trials variety, ready to head out the next morning for some shows! Good times all around!!

A few months ago, I went to Galiano Island, BC for a little relaxing trials riding retreat. Here is a little video summery of the trip. Alex did an awesome job editing this together!

My friend Gregor just posted an article about our trip to Galiano Island a couple months ago. Some nice pictures and a good story about our visit to one of the most beautiful Gulf Islands.

Check out the story here…

Peace…

Just wanted to share the good news that Crux was honored with the People Choice Award in the mountain sport category from the Banff Mountain Film Festival. 

The Crux Team: (from left to right: the man behind the lens-Alex, the man on the bike-Ryan, and the man behind the microphone-Shawn) image courtesy of Yorick Carroux

Here’s the posting from Banff…

If you live in Vancouver, please come out for the local stop of the Banff Mountain Film Fest on either Dec. 4th or 5th. Here are the details:

Best of Banff 2008 Hosted by The Alpine Club of Canada - 

Thurs Dec 4th Kay Meek Centre 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. Doors open 6:30pm / Films 7:30pm 

Fri Dec 5th Hollywood Theatre NEW VENUE 3123 West Broadway, Vancouver. Doors open 6:30pm / Films 7:30pm 

Tickets: At the Door: $18 at Kay Meek; $15 at Hollywood (cash only) Outlets: $15 Mountain Equipment Co-op (130 West Broadway in Van, 1341 Main Street in North Van) Online: $18 For program details, see: accvancouver.ca Contact us at: bestofbanffinfo at accvancouver.ca

Hopefully see you there!

Ryan

My filmmaker friend Alex Lavigne filmed and edited together a short from one of my Trials of Life school presentations. He had some out takes from Crux that didn’t make the final film, they’re spliced in throughout the short. Have a look if you like:

Greetings from Banff, Alberta!

The Banff International Mountain Film and Book Festival is underway; my excuse to visit this incredible mountain town is to introduce CRUX on the Radical Reels evening of the festival. If you live in the vicinity, grab some tickets here and enjoy the selection of outdoor action films from around the globe.

Caryn and I are staying at The Fox Hotel during our visit, thanks to Banff Lake Louise Tourism for the hook up!…(I performed for them earlier this year at a conference). Today was a meandering day around town, soaking up the views, drinking tea, etc. I just finished John Vaillant’s book The Golden Spruce (check it out here, it’s a beautifully rich, true story of slightly misguided ex-logger turned environmentalist), and was excited to find out that he’s in town (the author John, not the Grant) to speak about his adventure to British Columbia’s Muskwa-Kechika wilderness area which is said to be the biggest well-kept wilderness secret in North America. He, along with conservationist/author/photographer Wayne Sawchuk explored the area for four weeks, and the story of their adventure, written by Vaillant, can be found in the current issue of National Geographic Magazine. I have to go home to do a school show, and Caryn has to go home to take care of our nephews, so looks like we’ll have to miss the presentation. 

Well, since Caryn is having a little apres tea power nap, I think I may do a quick apres tea power yoga. So cheers and cheerio for now…RL