Father’s Day

Posted on June 16, 2013June 19, 2013 by Smoke

Where else would I be but on Kobau trying to catch butterflies?

OK, maybe I could have been at the Super D in Kelowna, but Kobau needed my attention more.

If you’ve been wondering why your hayfever has been acting up this spring, check the pollen count on my helmet here…

Lap one of the year on TKO. There’s definitely some trees down, but not as bad as the other side of the mountain.

Kootnikoff is just realizing in this shot how gnarly the south Okanagan can be.

We went back up to clear some more of mess on Cawston Creek. That’s Matt the Rat Fitzjames from the ‘Old Cove’ with the big smile there. I worked in the original Deep Cove Bike Shop with that guy in the early 90’s. He’s still a major force on a bike, that’s for sure.

We killed another tank of gas clearing the Cawston side, and still there’s some big trees in the way. At least the sun doesn’t set until late at this time of year.

Some great dust sessions with Mike:

French Jonny:

And Matt:

No Kobau ride is complete without some epic shots on the spine at the end, either.

Super dramatic one of Mike, which is probably my favourite today.

The Mariposa Lilies are out now too. Still bazillions of flowers out there, but it’s starting to taper down. Big heat is coming soon…

Oh, and Happy Anniversary to my parents! 51 years. Hope they’re having fun in Denmark or Sweden or wherever they are today.

Daddy Day – 2012

Posted on June 17, 2012July 7, 2012 by Smoke

LOTS of pics and stuff to get through today. Father’s Day around here means we ditch the kids for the most part, and shred some big vert in the South Okanagan. We did manage to freak out mom here, by treeing her and her two cubs.

Quite a few dads came out for this one. It’s always fun to open a beer, say “Here ya go Dad”, and see how many hands reach for it. Oh, and our pal Chris from Merritt came along too. He’s not a dad…yet… That’s him on the left, and Jason is on the right riding one of my bikes.

He looks pretty good on that rig.

Halfway down, and much hilarity has ensued. We wrecked a chainsaw (watch for an upcoming vid with a chainsaw in manual mode), I had a wicked wreck, and conditions really could NOT be better.

I want you to note that strange material hanging in the air behind the riders. Yes, in spite of the wettest June ever recorded, and overnight rain, there is dust on the trail.

Gotta love the desert in the springtime.

Oh, almost forgot… Darcy finally brought Jordan up, and as he’s not a little kid anymore we thought we’d try him out on Cawston Creek. He had a couple of small crashes, but overall he killed it.

Beer break with Dad…s.

Darcy and Jordan. Probably the raddest Father/Son day ever.

Yeah dude. I’d be smiling too.

Foote of course never stops smiling. Just about the most stoked guy I’ve ever met.

A couple of heavily edited shots on the hoodoos. Just playing with some camera settings. I’ve taken so many pics here, I’m almost (but not quite) bored with it.

OK, that was just the warmup. Time for round 2. DING!

As is the usual when shredding with the crew, the pace has picked up as some riders dropped out for TKO. Therefore I got relatively few shots. We smashed off the first half of the trail, with no breaks until the big log ride.

Even at that, I barely had time to run back to get these few shots.

Hang it out, buddy! You’ll make it!

Halfway down, time to reset the brain. The second half is way steep, so you gotta take it a lot less aggro than the 1st half. Plus, it’s a nice view.

Not that it looks very steep here, but the colours are sure nice.

Whoa! Who’s that handsome devil?

This next shot is special. Not so much because it’s of me, or that Jason took it, but because it’s shot #10 000! Yes that’s right. There is now over 10k images on this site. That should keep ya busy for a while.