Sideways

Yesterday I saw something I have never seen happen in the Whistler Bike Park. Crabapples Hits is a legendary trail—if you can call it a trail, as it’s simply a series of five large tabletop jumps—that the Whistler trail crew recently overhauled and super sized, turning 25-foot tables into big, fat, 40 footers. Yesterday an impromptu jam went down on the line with big, jumping whip masters like Brendan Fairclough, Tyler McCaul, Andrew Neethling, Kyle Strait, Cam Zink, Mick Hannah, Troy Brosnan and Duncan Riffle throwing down some very serious style and air miles. In one train I witnessed Fairclough at the front pull a huge nac that almost kicked Cam Zink in the head as he was doing a giant superman and Neethling throwing a lofty whip right behind them. All on the same jump at the same time. It’s a memory that won’t leave my head for a long time. But the thing I had never seen before was riders pushing back up. In the Bike Park no one bothers stopping and sessioning sections as you can just lap it just as fast. However, this line is special and the riders (there weren’t just pros but amateurs in the mix) did lap after lap for hours while a large crew of onlookers turned up and a gaggle of media geese captured the scenes.

Here is a little Contour head cam that Duncan Riffle took of the mega train.