Since there has been a little history going on here I figured I would share a story that I told Aaron I would write about.

In around 2002 (around the same time pegs went out), Sam and I had some speed line at the Summerland Skatepark. However there was a grind rail that was right in the way. No one rode it anymore, and some skaters had actually brought a shorter rail a few times, so we figured it was time for it to go.

Late one night we rolled up with his truck and pulled out a scissor type car jack. Popped it under one side and pulled it out of the ground. The other side we just forced out with leverage. We chucked it in his truck and from there it went under his house.

I guess a few years later he brought it to a bush party where some people tried to snowboard on it.

Starting in about 2006 I got on the lookout for it. After about a year (July 7, 2007) I was in Summerland and randomly asked a kid that worked at the Mac’s if he knew where it was. He said, “yep its in my front yard”. And it was on.

I had a friend pick it up and store it at his house. Then had Nathan and Ryan from Osoyoos get it to Vancouver, then my Dad drove it from Vancouver to Portland. Since then it has sat in my driveway and been seshend here and there.

Last week I left for 2 hours, when I got home, the rail was gone. I drove around for a while to see if I could find it, but no luck. Plus I didn’t take a picture of it, which is the only reason I had not written the story yet.

The sad thing, is that I was going to drive it back to Summerland some time and put it back in the same spot it once lived.

As a note, the rail was not original for the park, some kids just put it there, so it was not city property.

Continuing with the theme of classic photos, here are a bunch of Jordan Hango. I met Jordan the same day I met Andrew, so that would have made him about 12 as well. He rode a gold Specialized and could do nothings over the old box at the park in Nelson. Jordan was always really good for his age, and never cared much about contests or sponsors (I think the only sponsor he’s had at this point was a Rob Sigaty Etnies hookup). Jordan won amateur at Metro Jam in ‘05, his big trick being an overgrind to second stage ice on the big kinked rail, which I don’t think I had ever seen anyone do at that point. Now he lives in Vancouver and hangs out with the Blazeguard guys, still shreds as hard as ever, and should hopefully have a part in John Thompson’s next video.

This trick always seemed impossible to me. I think Phil Wasson was the first one to do it, and I haven’t seen anyone do it in five years or so. This is also the only double exposure shot I ever took that worked out.

This was from a Winfield jam, either ‘02 or ‘03. Jordan always had great tables, and the fact that kids learned tables before tailwhips back then makes that time period really awesome. Actually, the last time I saw Jordan, which was admittedly about five years ago now, he couldn’t do tailwhips at all.

The bottom photo is from Grand Forks park, on our first trip out there. This clip ended up in Romance, and it was awesome. One thing I remember about Jordan from that time period is that even though he was way better than most of us, he would always be stoked when someone pulled something that was hard for them. Even though he was downside icepicking this extension, he was really stoked for Desson when he double pegged it. The top photo is from the old Nelson arena.

This will always be one of my favorite photos. It’s just the best looking invert of all time.

Jordan’s bike got stolen at the Summerland jam in ‘03, and for years after that he rode tanks. He started on a Macneil Miron and then rode this Volume Destroyer that was a hand me down from either Rob Sigaty or Jason Enns. Both those frames were in the 8 pound range – this is the Destroyer, in 2005.

This jam was the most people I’ve ever seen riding together in the Okanagan. It was awesome thinking back to the times when there were half a dozen of us riding in the valley, and enjoying how much the scene had grown. I remember this jam being bitterly cold, as all Cayford jams used to be. Why they scheduled it on spring break I’ll never know, but now it seems to take place in much warmer April weather these days. Brett Craig and some other guys drove all the way from Saskatchewan that year, rode the jam, and then turned around and drove home (it’s probably a 20 hour drive). That was awesome. Cayford Jams have seen a lot of action over the years, and in a way it marks the beginnig of the riding season. I bet Chris would have been stoked to hear about people driving half way across the country to come to his jam, or that Dom Mach made a brief comeback at one.

I bet that title looks awesome in an RSS feed. When we first got to Asia we played booty in every town, occasionally attracting some locals. This is probably the best thing left over from elementary school that I still did at that point, and if Chris and Matt were to call me up for a game I would theoretically still play. The beauty of the game is that you can play in any city, as long as they have buildings.

George just posted this on facebook and it’s pretty rad. I met George when I was in New Zealand in ‘04, but I don’t remember meeting him because he was probably like 15. It was funny trying to recap events from five years ago. George was on two of our trips this summer and we filmed a lot of stuff for the dvd. I got to know him a bit and I definitely know two things about him – he’s awesome, and he has a brother that looks exactly like him.

These photos were in Chase, along with an article that I wrote. Well, the one of Travis was, and I’m pretty sure that’s the photo of Jay that ended up in the mag. We learned a lot of things about roadtrips that year, mainly that leaving for a week with no plans is not necessarily a good idea, and that it rains a lot in Vancouver in March. I wish I could find the photo of Jay’s jeep with all of our bikes on it – mine was tied to the roof most of the time. We used to go on a spring trip every year and this was probably the longest one. The original plan was to ride Vancouver, which just ended up being us riding Leeside a lot (never a bad thing in those days!). At some point the weather reports said it was going to be nice in Victoria so we took the ferry across. We got one nice day over there and ended up at Matt Beyers’ barn ramp at some point. I think that trip may have actually been the last time I rode with Jay – he disappeared for a long time and by the time he got back into riding I was gone. The last time I talked to him he was riding snowmobiles and had a kid on the way. Matt Lindsay was on that trip too but I can’t find any photos of him for some reason. That shot of Travis was the first time any of us had done a wallride out of a quarter, which we thought was the greates trick in the world at the time.

This probably looks like I’m awesome at composing photos, but I actually just copied the angle from a photo that Ken Paul shot of Chris Cayford. Danny was always an amazing skater, and he’s a pretty awesome dude. His part in the bmc video is still one of my favorite things to watch skateboarding wise, and someday I plan to post that whole video on here.

Sam found this ditch by mistake one day after a bush party if I remember the story correctly. It may look easy and accessible, but it took some serious offroading to get there. Immediately upon finding it Travis and Jay laid down some quickcrete to make a hip, and various obstacles were transported up there. The spot was short lived, as someone vandalized a city water building nearby and “the local bikers” were blamed. Somebody, I think Shawn, had to go explain everything to the police and we were told to never go back there. I bet you could ride it now though, and the hip probably still works.

We’ll be showing the roadtrip video at the Okanagane premiere of Stay Fit, which is going to be on the 28th in Vernon. More info to come on that. I’ve been working hard on the video and overcame some significant obstacles this weekend. Who would have thought that converting HD to SD would take this long to figure out. Anyways, everything is looking good and if all goes well it will be out in time for Christmas.

If you’ve been lucky enough to see the roadtrip video, there are a couple of songs on there from our friends in Treelines . Their album has finally made it on to itunes, and they were featured on Friday’s CBC Radio 3 podcast. Check them out in either place.

Jeremy from Presence has an interview over on Capital BMX. It looks like the new Presence vid is premiering December 28th in Montreal. Make sure you buy this one, it will be awesome.