Posts Tagged ‘Progression’
Ride and Reach with Ryan Leech
Thursday, December 17th, 2009My friends at Boréale Mountain Biking in the Yukon Territory of Canada have an incredible mountain bike tour and accommodation operation going on. It is a dreamland for mountain bikers, and after filming a segment for The Ride Guide TV show last year, I knew I’d be back, just didn’t know when, how, or for what.
Another glorious view while on a ride in Whitehorse
A small section of a never ending singletrack downhill
Then a vision came to me about combining mountain biking and yoga in a retreat like setting, and figured there would be no better place than Boréale’s Yurtville in Whitehorse. With Sylvain and Marsha to lead us to all the best singletrack, and myself to work in mountain bike skill development along the way, we figured we were on to something. Throw in my daily yoga sessions/workshops and gourmet catered food (by a fellow rider), and the idea just came to life! We quickly carved out the week of July 3 – 9th for the offering.
One of the many yurts in Boreale's Yurtville headquarters.
The bike blender inside the dining yurt. Breakfast of champions!
There is a certain feeling I get when out riding, it’s hard to describe; most riders know it, but describe it differently. While thinking about some of the custom built log rides and woodwork spanning from giant rock to rock that I rode in Whitehorse, I remember a feeling of my bike and body becoming one, time being suspended, my awareness expanding and becoming razor sharp, the incredible trail flowed effortlessly, I felt ease, I felt flow, the moment stretched, and a great big perma-grin grew.
Short break while taking in the view of the Yukon River.
A couple pups along for the adventure. The ride finished down at the water in the distance.
Getting in the zone often happens randomly, as if by accident, but there are certain things one can do to increase the likelihood of it happening. This is one of the often neglected topics I’d like to talk about and progress during the retreat. It is such a powerful state, and truly indescribable, my weak description above didn’t come close to what it actually felt like.
Often times that feeling is only experienced while on the trail, the only way we have access to this high is by taking off to go riding again…not a bad thing, but imagine integrating this experience in to your everyday life, having access to this kind of experience during the mundane moments, and using it to inform and grow the quality of our daily lives. Yoga is one way to help establish that connection. If you’ve signed up for this holiday, you may already know the benefits of yoga practice. There will be some form of yoga every day. Riding and playing yoga for five days, whew!
Teaching some lunchtime yoga at the Norco Office...
Sylvain from Boreale and Myself atop a great climb.
Generally, the style of yoga I teach is a vinyasa/flow/power, so it is pretty athletic, but since we’ll be going on some epic rides, I’ll modify the yoga practice as need be, some days may need to be pretty mellow, some a little more intense. We will also do a workshop style practice and get in to the details of each yoga pose, and the alignment necessary to keep your often abused joints healthy.
This is a retreat to spoil your senses and an opportunity to explore your edge…then go a little past them. We are going to dive in to the big mountain riding experience, deepen and expand it, fill it out to the max. Skills developed, fears acknowledged, pure pleasure embodied. Whatever your reason to come, it is our (Boréale & RL) common goal and intention to provide and set the stage to fulfill all your riding and reaching desires. Let’s have some fun, eat well, play yoga, and rip it up on our mountain bikes!!
Ryan
Guest Blog – Bjorn Enga
Monday, May 7th, 2007Bringing Trials to the trailsRyan Leech has a unique way of riding. He claims to be a trials rider, has made videos on how to ride trials, yet his style of trial riding has a unique appeal. Most trial riding I see does not appeal to me, riders bouncing around on their weird looking bikes, generally looking discombobulated. But Ryan captivates my interest, he always has. There’s an element of his style that lends itself to flow, to a certain purity of aescethetic. His riding is visually pleasing and astounding in nature.As a mountain bike filmmaker, there are certain qualities I’m constantly in search of. These are great locations, spectacular light, and unique riders. The first two are self explanatory, but what constitutes a unique rider? I’m looking for riders that have personality, can express themselves and first and foremost have a riding style and matching ability that separates them from other riders. This might be a little too simplistic, there is something more that only really translates when you see the footage. Some riders simply look good on film, while others don’t. It has to do with style, flow, presence and some other indescribeable qualities.I’m approaching the 10 year mark of mountain bike filmmaking. I’ve seen the sport blossom, witnessed the first 5 freeriders getting their first sponsored bikes and filmed them trashing them with their cowboy like antics back in 1997. Now there are so many sponsored riders that I know just a handful of them. But what hasn’t changed is that to make a great mountain bike film you need to pay attention to what is unique. Like making a fine dining experience, you need the great raw ingredients if you expect to make a culinary delight. Same with a mountain bike film.During the filming of Kranked 5, I really wanted Ryan to bring his trials riding out of the urban environment and into the forest. We ventured into the forest and attempted to translate Ryan’s riding onto the trails. I was stoked, it was all there, it would look fabulous, it was new, fresh and spectacular. But my mind was too far in front of reality. Ryan couldn’t hook it up. He gave it a hell of a shake though. It was apparent that he needed some time to get used to the new environment, get a bike more suitable to the terrain and I think most importantly get his mind working on the translation from urban to mountain.Three years later I showed Ryan a location I had found. A mystical, mid-elevation old growth forest ravine with a beautiful creek running through it. THe place is beautiful and inspiring. Within minutes we had found a natural flow for a trail, utilizing the natural elements that were present. Ryan’s imagination took off like Dodge Viper at a Las Vegas intersection. He started describing the indescribable. “Build this, make it this far apart, I’ll gap that, side hop this,, make some 10 foot posts, here some skinnies – 2 inches wide.” Soon he had it all sketched out. He was psyched, hell I was too. It seemed Ryan was ready to bring trials into the trails.The trail crew began building. Ryan came up and refined the build, making sure everything was perfect. I’ve noticed recently that the riders successfully pushing the boundaries all have two things in common, they are great riders and they are amazing tacticians. They know exactly what they and their bike is going to do. How big the gap needs to be, where the transitions must be placed, what will work and what will not work. Gone are the days of winging it and hoping for the best. The trail was built to fit in with the natural beauty of the forest. It is a piece of art. I’d like to think of it as a homage to the forest and how we humans can interact in a non-destructive way with this pristine ecosystem.But this trail is crazy. It does not appear to be rideable. Ryan designed it, explained what he was going to do on each section, so we built it. But now, I look at it and wonder. Is it rideable? Is Ryan able to pull this off? I have moments of angst. The trail took a lot of work to create, it would be such a drag to have it flop, to have been overzealous in our ambitions. But Ryan is a master tactician of trials riding. I have to trust it will happen.Ryan waits for a new special bike. For the first time I have filmed with him he is going to ride a full suspension bike. It’s necessary to be able to make some of the more ambitous moves. The geometry is all different from his usual bike, a bike he knows intimately. Now it’s new geometry, and rear suspension to add a twist in how the bike handles. Ryan will have to adapt his skill set to the new bike.With anything worthwhile it seems you have to go the distance, put extra effort in to realize the vision. Although we are still not finished filming the trail I ‘m feeling confident that this segment has that special uniqueness to it. An innovative, visually pleasing rider, a spectacular forest location and that indescribable element that puts the sparkle on the screen. Ryan has that special uniqueness about him that has allowed him to once again create something spectacular. In this case he has pioneered bringing trials into the trails and let me tell you, it’s damn cool.To check out what this is all about see PROGRESSION – Kranked 6. Ryan rocks it.