Last Fall I travelled to Edmonton for the United Cycle bike show; while waiting for my flight in Vancouver, I met a fellow named Mike Spinner. If you’re not sure who he is, watch the video below, and you won’t forget. I didn’t, I was just looking for videos that showed resi-ramps, and thought I’d youtube him, and the vid below is his latest. Apparently he just pulled one at a contest last weekend too. 

I got to hang out with him a bit in Edmonton out of all places, because he was there for MirraCo. He is a world class, groundbreaking BMX’er, but what is more important is that he is a humble, down to earth, nice guy. He’s clean cut, doesn’t drink or party hard, and is just out to have fun, meet cool people, and push his sport. Simple ideals that are taking him all over the world. Keep spreading the good vibe Mike!

One year ago at the Norco 2008 product launch, I remember seeing deep foundations being laid for the new Peak 2 Peak gondola that will span the 4.4km between Whistler and Blackcomb mountain. This year, the cable is in place, and it looks as crazy as ever, amusement park like, and it will be ready for opening in December of this year.

Two world records will be broken:

1. longest span between two towers (straight line) at 3.02 km.

2. 1427 feet high above the Fitzsimmons Creek

Still haven’t decided if I’ll be brave enough to ride it?

Watch some of the constructions videos here, some pretty impressive human engineering going on! As Norco guru Pete Stace-Smith would say, “They’ve got guys with glasses this thick (finger gesture) working on that”.

Dorothy had it right by saying “there’s no place like home”; just arrived back with Caryn last night from a long trip from MUC to YVR via YYV. Our flight was delayed leaving Munich and they said it was because of some bikes they were loading, and since they missed their push off, the delay for a spot over the ocean(600 to 800 at any one time)  was now 90 minutes; terrible they actually blamed it on that because it was obvious to many passengers who the family of six, who had been on a bike tour through Europe, were. Luckily they snuck us off without the full delay. 

So it was great to hang out with Thomas again, here’s a picture of us beside his new demo trailer. He was rocking it on the bike, he was doing a high jump thing with a small kicker and made it up 16 pallets, so smooth!

I met up with Mark from Singletrack magazine while in Kaprun, and he was with my buddy Sanny from Scotland who hosted me in Glasgow for a film festival a few years back. We were hanging out for dinner and Mark was brainstorming ideas for a top ten list of things Austria has contributed to the world for his blog; I think they did a pretty good job!

By the way, I think the fact that per capita, Austrians emit only 2.34 tonnes of Co2 compared to Canada’s 5.46 should make the list….although they have much work to do, their footprint still requires more than two earths to sustain if everyone adopted their lifestyle.

Caryn and I met some pretty amazing people during the last couple weeks, we truly are fortunate to experience the culture and see the sights of such an amazing part of the world.

While traveling in Germany and Austria during the last couple weeks, it became obvious that the culture has a lower level of stress than we do in North America, this is a generalization, but I think it holds strong. Rarely have I seen an obese European on this trip, the number of cyclist commuting and out for recreation is extraordinary, and the general pace of work and life seems to be one notch slower and thus intrinsically more satisfying. There is time to go out for a run and still spend quality time with the family; in Europe you can have your cake and eat it too! My observations seem to be supported by a recent article I read from WorldChanging on working habits. Read through and you’ll see the stats listed about European work habits and the results from that.

“I argued that the long hours we in the United States work — some 300 more per year than western Europeans — mean we are more likely to rely on “convenience” and disposable items, such as heavily-packaged fast foods and single-use goods. I told my audience that many people had told me they were “too pressed for time even to recycle.” Moreover, our long work hours allow us to produce and buy more and more “stuff,” resulting in a greater pressure on resources and an inevitably stream of more waste.” MORE

Caryn and I are hanging out in Kaprun, Austria, a village in the Austrian Alps that is big on mountain biking. The event we’re here for is called Bike Infection, and I’ll be performing with Thomas Oehler and Petr Kruas this afternoon.

The first day in Kaprun, Thursday,  I did a show for the local school, got to ride on gymnastic equipment.

The students seemed to have enjoyed it, and now many of them have signed up for the bike race during Bike Infection this weekend. Nice!

Then later on I had a hair cut, my hair is now the shortest is has been in about 15 years, but to make up for it my facial hair is the longest it has ever been.

Here is another link to my friend Mark’s photos, these are from our visit to the Krimml Waterfall a few days ago.

Ciao….

Hello everyone!

I thought perhaps it was time for another email/photo update. I’ve been meaning to email for a while, but I seem to always get into bed at night and fall asleep instead of staying up to type. That and the fact we’ve been staying in the tiniest of Austrian towns and when you ask about internet they just laugh at you and shake their heads. Oh the bother of all this traveling…

Anyway this first picture is of probably the absolute best hotel buffet breakfast that ever exsisted. It was while we were staying in Kirchberg and this was only one small corner of the breakfast display, but probably my favorite. Any grain, nut, seed it was there in a cute little glass bowl waiting to be scooped up and eaten, right there along side Cocoa pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch…my personal fav. This table is a nightmare for those who potentially suffer from anaphylactic reaction due to nuts, but for me, a dream.

Beside it was an equally impressive arrangements of meats, cheeses (approx. 7-10 different kinds of each) pickled anything, and an assortment of misc. spreads, all of which were labeled in German, creating too many “unknown factors” for my comfort level, therefore I ingested not one “spread”. Then we had the bread table, who knew they made that many breads, and then the egg, veggie, fruit and jam table. It was great. I LOVED it!!!

This is yet another photo of the Schwartzsee (Black Lake), and me doing my intensive training for the upcoming triathlon. I really feel like my technique here will definitely give me an edge over the other competitors. Yes, yes I do.

Yesterday brought us to Krimml, Austria a little town somewhere in Austria. I wouldn’t be able to point it on a map if you asked me too. It is small and Austrian, this is what I know of it. 

 Thankfully it was warm and got sunny so not only did we not completely freeze due to soaking, but it made many many rainbows appear all over.

Here we have our latest “Gasthaus” (guesthouse) where we are staying, which is almost directly across the street from the falls and is very sweet. Our bedroom is on the very top level, and I have been happily deadheading the petunias along my balcony this evening. Hans, the owner of the house, collects crystals that he finds and herds sheep. If only I spoke just a touch more german, or he spoke just a hair more english, I would have approximately 1000 more questions for him. As it stands he directed us to a fantastic pizzeria. It truly is amazing though how much communicating one can do without a common language. Ask Ryan, he is getting fantastic at charades. I also got to see my first firefly here tonight and perhaps the largest frog in existence. The frog was cute but the fireflies were amazing. I LOVE those little guys, so unassuming in their non-glowing state…

These last two pictures are from the GrossglocknerStrasse. The Grossglockner is a very very high peak in Austria, I do not want to mislead by saying the highest, but I’m leaning that direction. And the GrossglocknerStrasse is the CRAZY road leading up to it. The view points were amazing and the road was ridiculous. Motorcycles loved it and there were so many crazy cyclists going up, I can’t imagine how hard it would have been. There were road bikes with no granny gears, and mtn. bikes loaded down with panniers. I’ll have to find the stats on how far and how high, but it was very very far, and very very high and steep (some of the signs suggested a 10% grade). Of course with all of my fantastic-o training I have been doing for my triathlon, it would have been a breeze for me. Obviously.

Here is just a small sampling of the road. It zigged and zagged and wiggled all through the Alps and was nutty. I loved it and was terrified all at once. Watching the cyclists whiz down at ridiculous speeds right into the tightest of all switchback corners, made me highly anxious. Ryan at one point had to turn his head and he refused to watch.

So there we have it a little update in the going-ons of Austria. They aren’t the best of pictures, but they tell the story I suppose. Tomorrow we are off to find internet and Salzberg. I am now going to spend the rest of my night determining a way to convince two young men (Ryan and Mark) on why they should spend their afternoon at the Sound of Music sights.

I hope you are all doing wonderfully. Enjoy your summer!

Lots of love to you all!

Caryn

It’s okay to have apple studel with cream and a cafe latte for second breakfast, isn’t it?

Just sitting here at a cafe in Krimml, getting some e-mails and web posts done. Check out Caryn’s guest blog (she’s such a great blogger, so much more entertaining than my serious blog posts); and also check out my buddy Mark’s photographs, he’s been with us the last couple days, our own personal photographer!

The riding will pick up again after a few down days, I’ll be doing a school show, clinic, and some demos.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Ryan

So I have just finished up a fantastic weekend at the KitzAlp Bike Festival in Austria. I performed in downtown Kitzbuhel on Thursday evening, taught a youth skills clinic on Friday, then another performance on Saturday at the Race. It was so much fun to ride a variety of obstacles for a change; I basically built a demo course out of spools, pallets, and beams and had a blast.

The Marathon race was 55 and 88km long, with over 1000 competitors, wow! The youth races on Sunday consisted of a technical trials style challenge in the morning, which determined their starting position. Check out the images for a taste of the challenges they had to negotiate. Love it!

Picked up my buddy Mark Bakker, former Norco web guru, in Kitzbuhel today, he’s busy back-packing around Europe and our paths crossed. We’ll travel for the next couple day with him.

Well, I’m going to Buggerhof until the next post….

Caryn and I quickly overcame jetlag, and have settled in to our home for the next five nights in Kirchberg, Austria. By the way, the trick for dealing with jetlag is as follows: Lets say you arrive at 10am in the morning, in Munich, after traveling for about 16 hours, and dealing with an 8 hour time change. The trick is to keep your eyes open during the remaining first day and refrain from taking a nap (which surely would last a number of hours). Once it’s evening time, say 9pm, then go to sleep, and you’ll sleep beautifully for at least 8 or 9 hours and be good to go the next day….on with the story….

So we spent our first two nights in downtown Munich, exploring the city, drinking tea, eating ice-cream (the temperature was about 26 Celsius), and randomly meandered the walking only streets in the city center (much like Whistler Village only way bigger).

The first thing that struck me about Munich (much like many European cities) was the huge number of cyclists. It’s an official stat that 25% of the residents of Munich commute to work by bicycle, incredible!! My question is whether the positive effects of riding so much counter-balance the negative effects of all the heavy drinking and smoking going on?! I was psyched that there is no smoking allowed inside restaurants anymore, and that goes for all public indoor spaces, including Backstage Werk, the venue for the Xavier Rudd concert we went to last night; it was AWESOME! Perhaps this uber talented Australian is not as famous in Germany as back home in BC (where his wife is from) judging by the size of venue, but the fans attending sure were genuine and psyched. The real beauty this intimate venue was to see up close details and facial expressions during the performance. I love Xavier, what can I say.

I’ll be setting up for my first show tomorrow in Kitzbuhel for the KitzAlp Bike Festival, and look forward to riding with Thomas Ohler again. We explored this adorable mountain village today, and are excited to spend the next four days in the area.  Hopefully the weather holds strong, it was over 30 degrees Celsius today, and the heat was beat by swimming in a lake surrounded by views of the Alps, NICE!!

The dinnertime show was a thunderstorm where the rumble didn’t stop for over ten minutes, not even a breather, much like Xaviers didgeridoo skills; perhaps the amphitheater of mountains surrounding us was the reason.

Here’s an amusing photo that Caryn took today in Kitzbhuel, no disrespect, just a bit of a language thing I guess! (look to the writing on the wheelbarrow)

Hope you’re all well, peace…

Ryan Leech

As seen in Mountain Biking Magazine…

By the time this article goes to print, the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will have shown the special edit of my segment from Kranked 6, “Trial and Error”, to over 100,000 people. In this film I share my instinctual feelings of concern when seeing or thinking about clear cutting a forest.

I often show this video at my school presentations, and while on tour up in Northern BC where forestry supports a large chunk of the population, I began feeling a little sheepish about showing it, as I certainly am no expert on the topic. In the film I reference the particular zone of forest where my trail is built, “this is one of the last remaining sections of mid elevation old growth on the BC coast, and it’s slated for clear cut.” Then one of the analogies I make in the film is that “it seems to me that clear cutting is exactly like a crash, and they’ve done it time and time again, and perhaps haven’t learned from their mistakes.” I didn’t want to insult those in BC that base their livelihood on the industry and give them a bad reputation from my generalizing statements. Perhaps they have learned, and perhaps there are some ecologically sound logging practices in effect.

I needed to find out some more information, so while up in Northern BC I had the opportunity to chat with Dawn Stronstad R.P.F. who is a Planning Forester in Burns Lake, also an avid mountain biker with the BLMBA. She shared her own personal feelings on the topic of clear cutting. She gave me a brief history of logging in Canada, and acknowledges that there have been many mistakes along the way. But long gone are the days of the cut & run without looking back (this is happening in South America right now), and she believes that BC has learned from their mistakes. British Columbia has some of the most stringent logging laws in the world, and if a logging company hadn’t morally been doing the right thing in the past, they are now contractually and lawfully obligated to.

It is hard to complain about clear cutting when we as the consumer hold so much power. When we’re out at the store and buy something with a big cardboard box, we are really saying “please, please cut down that tree so I can have this nice packaging again”, then we grab a newspaper with a ‘coffee to go’ on the way home and what we are really saying to the logging companies is “oh and while you’re at it, cut down that tree beside the first one”.

Dawn told me that there are some areas that should not have been clear cut in the past, and portions of these areas are slow to recover or have reduced potential for re-growth, she thinks for the most part, these sites have recovered, but some areas not as quickly; but if done properly, clear cutting can be a reasonable forest management system. In fact, many foresters are amazed at the recovery capacity of Nature to bounce back; old growth is of course another story. The ironic thing about our disgust with clear cuts in BC is that it is along the coast where the most incredible old growth occurs, so the act of clear cutting is the most damaging and yet most of  us live on the largest and most permanent clear cut in BC, Vancouver.

I was fortunate enough to hear a speech by the young Simon Jackson, who has lobbied for the protection of the endangered Spirit Bear in BC. Great steps have been taken to secure 2/3 of this creatures habitat as protected, but another 1/3 is still open for potential logging; the government is aware and lobbyists are hopeful for full protection. I also heard Bill Clinton speak recently, and his Clinton Climate Initiative is anxious about the rapid deforestation of rainforests, especially in South America, this is where some unprecedented devastation is happening, far greater than anything we have ever seen in BC (the Amazon loses about 60,000 square kilometers a year), and being global citizens, these acts effect us just as much as if it was our own backyard, so perhaps this is where our lobbying efforts and expertise need to be focused now? It’s a complicated topic with so many different views, opinions, and motivations.

All I know is that the trees we do have deserve some respect, so next time you’re out shredding the trails, make sure you do some tree hugging!

Ryan