The Collective Blog

Adidas Slopestyle in Austria

What's up blog,

I'm currently taking a trip around Europe and was lucky enough to be in Saalbach in Austria this weekend for the Adidas Slopestyle. The event went off and Bearclaw threw down once again. The organizers did a really good job of hosting the event and the course designers built an insane run with a good mix of dirt jumps and built stunts. The level of riding was ridiculous - some new faces turning heads and some of the regulars riding well. There was a bit of physical carnage which is always tough to witness, but nothing too serious.

Here's a shot I got of Bearclaw - nice style off the side of one of the big airs. He's known so well for doing tricks in these types of competitions, but I like this shot because it shows the more subtle side of his riding that separates him from the pack. You should check out nsmb.com if you want to read the full report on the event. Cam is sitting beside me right now and updating the site with some good pics.

Hood River

Hood River is definitely one of my favourite towns in the world. There is so much going on there for such a small town, and most notably, so many people there are super friendly, down to earth, and stoked on the outdoors. The Dakine guys had lined us up to stay at Pat from Dakine’s BandB and our friend Dax’s place. Dax is one of the Product Designers at Dakine – he’s responsible for a lot of the packs and is doing an insane job with their product.

He’s also a sick rider, and before we knew it on Saturday, we were loading the bikes up and heading out for an epic shuttle. Shane from Discovery (local shop) made the generous gesture of throwing all of us and our bikes into his van and took us to the top of their main area, called Post Canyon. I won’t get into all the details of our ride, but it was a fun afternoon – the riders there rip, the builders are always working and improving their trails, and the community that ride there both from Hood and Portland in a lot of ways generally have their act together. It was a pleasure to ride those trails with those guys.

The show on Saturday night in Hood was cool – it was a good turnout and the crowd response from a lot of different parts of the film was enthusiastic. The general stoke level seemed high, and we were enjoying ourselves thoroughly. We hit some latenight food and drinks at a chill little spot called Brian’s and then called it a night. On Sunday, we rode again – a similar shuttle but near the bottom we went to another part of the mountain to ride some fast singletrack. The conditions were perfect – the winter moisture had dried up, but not so much that things were getting too dusty or loose. The spring is such a good time to ride.

ROAM Tour - Vancouver

Here's a couple photos from our hometown show in Vancouver. It was at The Commodore, which is one of the best venues in the city. The sound quality was amazing, and the vibe in the room was really cool. A bunch of people in the front sat down, and people in the back were standing up. There were about 800 people there, but if felt really intimate.

After the movie, our friends Slackstring played a set. If you've seen The Collective or ROAM, you probably know about Slackstring. They have a new album coming out sometime this summer. It's going to be sweet. Check out their website at www.slackstring.com

ROAM Tour - Monterey

My initial idea was to be blogging from the road but the combination of work and play didn't leave much extra time. Nonetheless, we had a blast travelling down the West Coast of North America from Vancouver to San Diego, so hopefully it's not too late to share some stories and pics from the road. This photo is from Monterey, where he held the first screening during the Sea Otter Classic. The show was over capacity, with people sitting in the aisles of the theater. It was a good way to kick off the tour.

The bike in the background of the photo is the Demo 8 ROAM Edition. Our friends at Specialized made this custom frame for us and all the parts on it are from our sponsors (Specialized, Manitou, Shimano, and Bontrager). We're going to give this bike away sometime next year. You can enter to win when you buy the ROAM DVD.