(...okay, not his WHOLE life story)
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Interview by Patrick Branch
What are two crazy stories from riding trips?
Oh god... One crazy story I had was shooting with Scott Markewitz and Richie Schley in Southern France, in Apps. We did about a 20' cliff and then we finished up and went out to dinner. Our van got broken into and they robbed everything that we had. They stole our passports, our plane tickets, all our bags, and left our bikes. We went down to Niece to fly out and we couldn't fly out without passports, so we had to wait for a day and fly out to London, and go to the Canadian Consulate and prove our ID's and such and such to get back to Canada. While we were waiting for that, we went to the beach...and had been up all night. We fell asleep at the beach. I had had my hands across my chest and I had my thumbs up...and so I woke up with a perfect bikini tan line. Richie fell asleep on his left side, laying in the sand, so his right side was totally burnt, he was red on half of him...and I had a bikini white tan line of my hand prints on my chest. We had almost no money and we were in Niece. Then we went to Monte Carlo and they wouldn't let us into the casino, so we had a beer on the side. Some hot chick walked by, millionaire chick...and then sat down beside us. She started having beers with us. She was a millionaire sculptor, who was exhibiting at the Monte Carlo casino. She was from Montreal and she took us around and gave us a tour. We met Diana Ross and got drunk with her. We met Jacques Cousteau. She ended up giving us a free, fancy ass room. We ended up meeting her for dinner and then went partying on the town for the night and didn't sleep again, didn't even go to the room. Eventually, we went to fly out, and they found all our stuff in the woods, scattered. We went back and got our stuff, plane tickets and passports. Richie had $400 cash in the side pocket of a bag. It was still there, but they had taken his electric tooth brush.
(laughs) That's ridiculous!
Then, on the way home, we jumped on the 747 and I went to the can. On my way back, I noticed there was a spiral staircase going to a floor upstairs. I went up there and saw a bunch of bunk beds. Richie came out of the can and I said, hey what's going on? There's bunkbeds up here! So we both grabbed a bunk bed each and passed out for something like four hours on the way home. The stewardess were shaking him, waking him up and I heard, "sir, sir you can't be here!" He got kicked out, but she didn't find me, so I got to sleep for another hour or something. Eventually, she found me and woke me up, "wake up, wake up!" I pretended like, "no, I don't want to go to school mom!." She sent me down to my seat. We got home and I hit the ground when I got home, because I was glad to be home.
Wait, there was bunk beds on the plane??
Yeah, yeah...little weird room upstairs with like eight bunk beds. There I was, sleeping away with burnt skin and my bikini tan line. (laughs)
You have another one?
Ummm...gee... There was a time that we were mountain biking in northern Italy and (laughs)... Bender was there and we hiked up this giant rock with dinosaur footprints in it. It was a long ways up... like 3/4 a kilometer or something straight up. The cliff was too small for Bender, so he didn't want to waste his time pushing up it. So, me and Tarek Rasouli jumped the cliff and then we rode down to the bottom and went to the big party at the bottom. There was like 6,000 people in a big circus tent. Me, Tarek Rasouli, Richie Schley and Cedric Gracia all dressed up as women and I had like high heels, leotard, and so did everyone else. We had big balloons for tits and we went on stage as an air band. I was Tina Tippie Turner. We ended up doing stage dives and jumping into the crowd and getting carried all over the crowd, like 100 feet back. They popped my balloon tits. It was pretty funny.
So what else do you do? Snowmobiling?
Yeah, Im a sledneck. I'm an addicted snowmobiler. It's my favorite thing to do other than mountain biking. I love deep powder! My old roommate is the record holder for jumping the world biggest cliff on a sled... a 150' cliff and landed it. I also have a dirtbike, a KTM 200mxc and I play a lot of frisbee.
What music do you listen to?
I like old stuff like Led Zeppelin, Metallica, um, you know, Rage Against The Machine,Tool... Im more into old school stuff, but Ill listen to new school stuff, like Tech N9ne or something. I'm influenced by my brother who's 27 years old who leaves the odd thing in my truck, which I play.
What's the color of your front door?
Color of my front door...(laughs)...I don't know. I only use the back door because that's where the bikes come in and out. It's a sliding door. (laughs)
(laughs)
You better write that... "I don't know." (laughs)
Dirt Merchant or In Deep?
Dirt Merchant!
Chinese or Italian food?
Italian. Actually I went into a Chinese restaurant and I ordered in Chinese for everybody and surprised everyone because it was an Italian restaurant. (laughs)
(laughs) ...Rocks or Roots?
Rocks.
Mac or PC?
I have a PC, but I want a Mac.
Slayer or The Rolling Stones?
hmm...The Stones.
Morning or Night?
night
Pepsi or Coke?
Umm...I don't do Coke anymore, so Pepsi. (laughs)
Well, that's all I have...
You didn't ask about my bike!
Oh yeah. What bike do you ride?
(laughs) I ride a 2010 Rocky Mountain prototype WC, with a Marzocchi 888 and all RaceFace parts.
How do you like it?
I love it! I also ride a 2009 Rocky Mountain Flatline, which I had to shoot on most of the year, because the prototype was so secret until up until recently. Sabrina Jonnier's been winning World Cups on it.
Shout-out's and thank-you's?
I'd like to thanks my sponsors: Rocky Mountain, RaceFace, Marzocchi, Hayes, Giro, RRP mud guards, Oakley, Sun Ringle and Cycle Components Network. Stoked to be riding my ass off. Also, for sponsors: Wade Simmon's garage.
Is that your shop?
Well... It's where I get free ****. Stoked to meet new people, see new trails, and ride with my girlfriend, Sarah, who I call green eyes. Can't wait to ride with my baby girl, one day. And Hi Mom!
