A few videos ago I met Brian in Seattle and rode all over the metro area with Diamondback.
One video later we were in Canada, riding the bike park at Whistler.
To some of you this may seem like the real timeline, but we actually went somewhere else
between those locations; Whole foods.
Brian and I were fueling up for what would be a big day—actually the longest day of
the year.
So we grabbed some eggs, fulfilled our Instagram responsibilities and headed out to meet some
very special guests.
Most of you already know who Matt and Jason are, and probably all of you have have seen
one of their videos.
They’re the duo behind IFHT, and the wildly popular “how to be” series, in which they
break down how to be a mountain biker, how to be a road biker, and how to be a Canadian,
just to name a few.
Despite the lighthearted nature of their videos, Matt and Jason are serious filmmakers.
This meant Brian and I would be spending some time behind a very revealing lens.
They say the camera adds ten pounds, but that’s a pretty conservative figure when you’re
carrying around
a Red.
Recently I actually reduced my technological overhead and got a high quality point and
shoot for $1000.
This wouldn’t even buy you a memory card for a Red.
It probably wouldn’t even get you a charger.
The Red Raven is a full fledged cinema camera, which Matt and Jason lug around everywhere.
But that’s not the half of it, because using a Red requires a stockpile of other crap.
First of all you have the camera, huge lenses, proprietary memory cards, audio equipment,
cables, straps, connectors, and like three car batteries to power it.
Then you need a tripod fit for a telescope.
Just in case, Matt and Jason also carry a Canon 5D, which is still bigger (and more
costly) than all my cameras combined.
Add lenses for that, food, water, a GoPro and tools, and you’ve got some serious monkeys
on your back.
By my calculations this comes to approximately 1 million pounds of gear, which is 453,592
kilograms if you live anywhere besides the US.
For guys who only only ride park, Matt and Jason sure do a lot a climbing with all that
gear.
Our climb was a beautiful, gradual ascent up Galbraith mountain full of opportunities
for shots.
Each time, they had to unpack, set up, boot up, and hit that big red record button.
At the top, we sessioned a few rock features off the fire road.
Matt and Jason have their tables dialed, and it makes me want to work on my tricks again.
Maybe I’ll do that in a future video.
We headed to the first downhill trail, and I got a taste of what Bellingham is all about.
Truth be told, I would have been happy riding this first section all day, but we had—important
things
to do.
It’s pretty common to have a post ride beer, but at the summit?
I wouldn’t want to do that before riding down this.
Bellingham is only an hour or so from Vancouver, so Galbraith has a lot of authentic North
Shore features.
These wooden obstacles are built entirely from trees cleared while building the trails,
so the planks, joists, and pillars are all milled with chainsaws.
To me it looks like art, created by Ewoks.
Since we were all riding these trails blind, we stopped a lot to re-ride features and get
shots.
There are so many line choices at Galbraith that it’s easy to miss the good stuff.
We also stopped by this vista to film interviews.
That’s when I got
to play around
with
the Red.
Bellingham totally blew our minds, and we didn’t even scratch the surface of one trail
system.
Maybe it was luck, or maybe everything there is as good as what we rode that day.
Bellingham is also a cool town with good stuff to eat.
That night, Brian and I would cross the Canadian border and make our way towards Whistler,
but some of the best parts of the trip were already behind us.
If you’re new to Matt and Jason, get up to speed with the links below, and don’t
forget to subscribe to both of their channels to see this collaboration from their side.
We also rode with our friend Kristina that day who’s a professional mountain bike artist,
so blow up her Instagram if you like that kind of stuff.
As always, thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.