Over the summer here in Whistler we where blessed with a lot of sun and very little rain which is great for the out door sports that I enjoy.

Dave getting stylish - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

One nice day in August we had a big session at the Whistler skate park and for the most part we had it all to our selves. Luke showed up and he started doing his usual tricks on the butterfly hip, he sent some nice 270′s over it.

Luke 270's up 28 shots - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

Once Luke saw the photo I took of his 270 he was stoked to do a foot jam out of the steep 9ft bowl. There’s little room for error when your doing stalls on the coping of these banks, but Luke pulls it off with little effort.

Luke Foot jam the 9ft section of the snake run - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

As the session was going on I managed to grab a frame of Ryan gaping the butterfly hip quickly followed by Luke airing huge over butterfly throwing an un-turn-down.

Luke doing an un-turn down over butterfly - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

After the rider’s where done hitting butterfly hip Luke decided to pull some 360′s over the middle hip in the snake run, so I grabbed my gear and set up in that section of the bowl. Quickly as I was setting up Dave jumped the section that Luke wanted to 360′s so I was able to grab a test shot of Dave to check my settings.

Dave 360's out of Slayer - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

When I saw the shot of Dave I gave Luke the go ahead on the 360 and in no time he came soaring into the bowl hitting butterfly to get enough speed to throw his step-up 360 in the snake run. Pretty stoked when I get to shoot new angles on different parts of the skate park that don’t get ridden as much i.e butterfly hip.

Bruno doing a Turn down on Butterfly hip - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

By the time I showed Luke the snap of his 360 Bruno showed up and I was able to rotate my flashes around and grab a shot of him doing a Turn-down on butterfly while Dave was prepping a 360 out of slayer over a construction pylon that he’d found.

Luke 360's out of slayer - Whistler Snake Run

Once Dave started doing some air’s over the pylon I knew I had to get in there and set up some flashes to get the right amount of light into that one area of the skate park. I didn’t take long to get some fill light set up on the area where the pylon was and in no time everyone started to jump higher over the cone than everyone else.

Ryan 180's out of Slayer - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

All in all it was one of the best day’s shooting at the skate park all summer, and I’m glad I was able to get out there and capture some photos.

Dave doing a turn down over butterfly - Whistler Skate Park Snake Run

Whistler Snake Run is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

There’s a lot to do in Whistler in the summer on your bikes. The Mountain offers Mountain bikers a while variety of downhill and freeride trails, not to mention several smaller parts for beginners to try riding the ladder bridges and teeter totters that you see the pros riding in the movies.

Nick 180 one handed bar turn - Whistler Street BMX

If you don’t Mountain bike you can also enjoy the skate park on your BMX or Skate board. But when you feel like a change you can always hit the streets and doing some BMX riding or skate boarding on some more challenging features.

Dave 180 over a hand rail - Whistler Street BMX

One day last summer, Dave, Nick, Devon and I hit the streets of the Upper Village for an afternoon of riding and having fun.

Devon grinding down the hand rail - Whistler Street BMX

Nick doing an Up grind on a yellow barricade - Whistler Street BMX

Dave manualing the long ledge to tuck no hander out - Whistler Street BMX

Nick doing a wall ride over smokers ash tray - Whistler Street BMX

Nick doing a wall ride at the fairmont - Whistler Street BMX

Dave gapping onto the tennis court - Whistler Street BMX

Dave rail dancing - Whistler Street BMX

Devon Ice picking down a rail - Whistler Street BMX

Whistler Street BMX is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

Several years ago a local bmx shop in Halifax, Noble BMX put on the Noble BMX Not too Bad Jam at the Halifax Commons skate park. The event was sponsored by Noble BMX (rip), Session Bikes (rip), Macneil bikes, Ten Pack Distribution, Duo Brand, Animal Bikes and Unified BMX.

Josh Richards, Tail Whip out of the small pool - Halifax Not too bad jam

We had a lot of the local bmxers show up to the skate park to ride with a big bag of tricks. Josh Richards was pulling tail whips out of the tub in our little pool.

Lee Hatt 360's a drop at the skate park - Halifax Not too bad Jam

Then Lee Hatt started doing some 360′s over a small drop to concrete bank

Smokey foot jams the small quarter - Halifax Not too bad Jam

Then John Smokey Campbell finally got his foot jams on lock on the 4ft quarter in the newly built bowl.

Later I shot some photos of Greg Flag doing a foot jam whip on top of an extremely steep bank, with no problems.

Greg Flag doing a foot jam whip on a steep bank - Halifax Not too bad Jam

And once the jam was coming to an end Kean Fougere was doing an up grind on one of the rails to a tail whip out.

It was a pretty amazing day to have a bowl jam and all the riders pulled out all the stops to win some schwag and have a time.

Kean stepping it up with an up grind to tail whip out - Halifax Not too bad Jam

All these photos where taken with a Canon 30D which I borrowed from work. This was my first time using a DSLR and I was very happy with the photos I was able to capture.

Here’s a video filmed of the Jam at the Halifax Commons.

Noble BMX -not too bad Jam- Volume 2 video from bigb on Vimeo.

Halifax Not to Bad Jam is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

The past week here in Whistler has been very busy with the excitement of 2010 Kokanee Crankworx bike show. I finally had a chance to get out and shoot one of the events in between working.

Backflip Superman

Backflip no footed can can

I was able to get up into the Whistler Bike Park Bone yard and shoot the 2010 Crankworx VW Trick Showdown.

360 suicide no hander

Cliff Hanger

The riders where dropping in half way down the slope-style course, hitting a step up to flat box with a drop at the end, into a quarter pipe with 2 flat banks on each side. After the second feature they where back into another step up jump into a flat bridge with a pretty big drop off at the end.

360 Tabletop

Backflip double tail whip

All of this was a warm up for the trick jump at the end where everyone was throwing down all their best tricks to please the crowd and win cash.

Back flip

Back flip table top

The VW Trick showdown announcers had a wad  of cash ($1000 in 50 dollar bills) to hand to the riders who landed a trick that got the crowd excited.

Back flip tuck no hander

Bailing

Greg Watts won the first round with a Back flip double whip bringing home $3000 in cash and he probably won some cash from the announcers when he was pulling tricks throwout the half hour session on the first half of the course.

Flip whip

Clif Hanger

The second round was at the base of Whistler and it was a much larger jump compared to the first one that the riders where hitting. The gap was about 35 feet from lip to landing, but most riders would land about 5-10 feet down the transition. Making the gap even bigger.

Back flip no footed can can

Back flip down side

A lot of the riders didn’t seem to be riding on the second session (not as many as the first session) mostly due to the fact that most of them didn’t want to hurt themselves before the grand finale on Saturday.

The crowd watching the first session

Back flip no hander

The Monster Energy Slope Style is one of the bigger events at the Kokanee Crankworx event every year, so we only saw the top dogs it the jump once or twice.

Brandon Seminuk 360 table

Back flip no footed can can

On the other hand Darren Berrecloth was out there riding harder than most doing several different tricks on the jump. But his last trick was the game winning jump.

Bike flip

Bailing with bike colliding with chair lift

Berrecloth brought a new trick to the last jump, one that he doesn’t pull out of his bag of tricks too often. He his the jump doing a switch 360, and it got the crowd on their toes. Since he was spinning switch it wasn’t as easy as you would see him do it regular on the jump during the first session.

360 Can can

First trick showdown session is over, everyone is moving down to session number 2 spot

Hi first switch 360 was a big scary to watch and didn’t look like he was going to land it, but some how he stuck the landing and rode to the bottom with the crowd in applause. Once he landed the switch 360 he ran up to his photographer Sterling Lawrence and told him to get to the top of the jump cause he was going to do it again.

Brandon Seminuk and othe riders waiting for the session to start

Seminuk trainging with another rider before the comp starts

No one knew what he was going to do, but you could tell from Darren’s excitement when he was running back to the top of the jump that it was going to be a good jump.

Back flip

Tail whip

Once Darren got to the top of the slope, he took a quick minute to collect himself and then dropped into the jump. Darren hit the 35 foot jump doing a Switch 360 lookback which was amazing to watch and took home First place in the Feature 2 category.

Darrens Switch 360 look back

Off axis flip

The crowd was huge and the excitement was amazing. If you can ever make it to Whistler, make sure you check out the Crankworx event which happens every August on Whistler Mountain.

Back flip

Indian Air

Rider crashes hard on the Indian air

Whistler 2010 Crankworx VW Trick Showdown is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

Living in Whistler British Columbia is a great place for an active life style with all of the beautiful terrain. We have everything from various lakes joined by pleasant trails that you can walk or bike between. Living in Whistler’s creekside I’m practicably next door to Alfa lake, and I can hop on the valley trail for a 10 minute bike ride to Alta Lake before I even reach Whistler Village. Not to mention Lost lake in the Village for some relaxing beach action or Green lake if your into wake boarding.

Alta Lake Whistler British Columbia

Besides the fact that we have a good selection of lakes, we also have lots of terrain for all sorts of cycling. Everything from casual train riding to the intense down hill trails on Whistler Mountain to the BMX riding at the skate park and the snake run or various dirt jumps all over Whistler.

Lost Lake Whistler British Columbia

Living in a place like this is a dream come true, but some times you just need a change of scenery. So today Devon, Ryan, JP, Dave, Bruno and I decided to drive south to ride some different terrain than we do every day. So as usual our first stop was at the nice concrete Squamish skate park because Devon and JP haven’t ridden there before.

JP’s ridden the skate park before on his skate board, but it was his first time bringing the BMX to the park. He was having a blast riding the bowl on two wheels.

Now Devon’s more of a street style rider with the banks and rails they have back home in Ontario. So he was pretty stoked to find some of this at the Squamish skate park, and it didn’t take him long to put together some nice lines.

As the session’s started Dave was doing the usual valley gap while throwing down a decent super man, but the best part is Bruno was jumping threw the back ground like a running  deer.

Not long after Dave and Bruno’s shenanigan’s Devon had his eye’s set on a pretty decent line. He found the biggest down ledge in the park and decided he wanted to Feeble grind down it to 180 out. Props to Devon cause in my books any trick with a 180 out is pretty sick.

Click to Enlarge

After we finished up with the Squamish Skate Park we kept heading south down to Britannia Beach to check out another set of ghetto ramp’s they have set up down there.

Devon Britannia Beach

The ramp’s aren’t exactly a legitimate skate park because you basically have to scale a fence to get to it, but the amazing views make up for the shitty ramps. We rode this park for a little while and I got a few nice snap’s of Devon doing some tire grabs and a nice air on the small 4ft ramp.

Devon Tire Grab Britannia Beach

Britannia Beach has some amazing views and a non-traditional shore line to it. I can’t wait till I can make another trip back.

If you enjoyed this Blog post you should check out my other BMX blog post’s here

Squamish Skate park to Britannia Beach is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

Back in July Dave, Ryan and I hopped in my truck to go shred the Squamish Skate Park.

I had already shot with Dave there a few times and scored some serious pictures of Dave, but this was Ryans first time riding the park so I knew he was going to be putting together some good tricks.

The first thing on Ryan’s agenda today was to do a double peg down the largest rail in the park. So he put on his dreads and everyone watched him conquer a decent sized down rail. Let’s just say you’d never see me offering to hit that rail on my bike.

After Ryan checked the down rail off his list he found a new smaller down rail that he decided to double tire ride down. A double tire on this rail (or any rail) is pretty ballsy because if you hop onto the rail at the speed your going and your front tire doesn’t meet the rail in the right spot your instantly eating concrete.

Ryan did it first try before I had my camera out and went back and did it again when I had the camera ready.

Before the end of the day Ryan had one more thing he had to cross off his list. On the same down rail that he did a double peg grind down earlier in the day he decided to do something a little different on it.

This trick Ryan wanted to pull was a trick I’ve seen him do in Whistler on a wooden box but I’ve never seen him do it on a rail. Ryan wants to ride up the bank beside the rail side hop and stall double peg’s on the rail then 180 off the rail back onto the concrete bank.

It took him a few tries to get a feel for the whole set up but after a few tries he had it dialed in and was pulling it with ease.

All in all it was another great day riding at the Squamish Skate park with a few friends.

If you enjoyed this post you can check out my other post’s at the Squamish Skate Park:

Squamish Skate park to Britannia Beach - Squamish Skate Park

Or you can check out the rest of my BMX blog posts here

Squamish Skate Park is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

Back in August I was able to get out there and enjoy the Whistler Crankworx Slope Style event. I picked up a pass earlier in the week of the event but my summer’s been very busy and I only had the chance to take photo’s during the biggest event during the 2009 Crankworx the Monster energy slope style.

When I got off work the day of the slope style I headed right up to the event. At the time the first qualifiers had already started so I had to climb the mountain to find the best spot to catch some action and scramble to set up my gear before the next rider dropped in.

Once I met up with my friend Jussi Grznar at the top jump of the event I pulled out all my flashes so I could start catching some action with my camera.

As soon as my gear was set up I just started snapping away with all the riders sailing down the mountain pulling insanely technical tricks with style and finesse.

I spent most of my time during the event shooting the top jump which provided a lot of action and some huge tricks, but when it came time for the Super Finals I helped Jussi carry his huge Elinchrom Ranger strobes down to the base of the mountain to where the last just was the Kokanee Whale Tale.

When we got to the bottom it was just in time to catch the last runs of the night and to see Greg Watts pull of the win with home town boy Brandon Semenuk in second and Martin Soederstrom in 3rd. It was a great event and I can’t wait to see the action next year!

If you enjoyed this post you might enjoy reading Whistler Crankworx 2008

Whistler Crankworx 2009 is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

I’ve rode the nice Squamish concrete skate park a couple times this year. The last time I rode the bowl it was fun riding the spines and the vert walls.

Dave 360 over roaches

As usual Dave was taking the show with his 360′s, superman’s and tail whips over the channel gap while some bum was searching the sound for roaches; and where not talking the ones that you’d find on CSI.

Dave Superman Channel gap

After was captured some shot’s on the double channel Dave was eyeing out some flat bank’s and started flying high’

Dave Flying High’

It was a great day for riding. It wasn’t too hot out that day even with the concrete skate park reflecting the heat back at us.

Even though I left the park with a several bruises from the curved vert wall I was pumped on capturing some fun pictures out in Squamish.

If you enjoyed this post you can check out my other post’s at the Squamish Skate Park:

Squamish Skate park to Britannia Beach

Squamish Skate Park

Or you can check out the rest of my BMX blog posts here

Squamish Skate Park is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

Yesterday Coady, Mike and I headed into Squamish to pick up some grocery’s and ride the Squamish concrete park for a few hours in the blazing sun. Before we hit the highway into Squamish we stopped in Function to grab a tube and bottom bracket for Mike at Fineline Bike Shop. He managed to get set up with a tube, but there was no luck on new bearings for his bottom bracket.

As we were leaving the bike shop I saw Bruno leaning off his balcony so I went up to say hi and bruno hooked me up with some new grips and invited us to ride the trails later that day when It cooled down.

Later that day after I was burnt from riding Squamish park all day I met up with the crew at the skate park to plan a night at the trails. Everyone showed up with rev’s in hand ready to ride the new wall ride that Bruno and Timbo installed a few weeks prior.

Good times where had it was sweet to see Brad throwing down like he does and Luke givener on the foot jams at the top of the huge! wall. Not to mention Timbo and Ryan riding high on the walls. Overall stoked and can’t wait to ride the rails again!

First Big Seshin at the trails is a post from: Nick Vail Photography

A few days ago like most days at the skate park some sick riding was thrown down. After riding hard for the past week I decided to take it easy and bring out the camera for my first bmx photos of the year.

John did a sick channel gap into the deep end of the bowl, which was insane from the video that I saw, wish I was there when it happened to snap a photo. But Dave and Luke where throwing down on the butterfly step up and step down styles.

Luke got the sickest inverted table over the butterfly along with some can can’s, euro tables and a dialed 360 to name a few.

Then Dave steps it up with a clicked turn down and then does the same on his massive step down’s into the deep end of the snake run.

Got some sick photos and finished the day off with some cold beers. Good times.

Snake Run is a post from: Nick Vail Photography