Motomotion & CGP: an Award Winning Team

Sizzle! Hot off the press – Ron Golden of Motomotion, in collaboration with KTM Canada, have chosen my photo of XC number one plate holder Josh Long as a background picture to this uber cool award plaque. This is one sweet looking award which if I were racing I know I would work extra hard to be able to land one and proudly hang on my wall. Congrats to Motomotion and their graphic artist for the creation of the award and poster. Job well done!

A few weeks ago after the Burnt River XC race KTM and APEX backed rider Josh and myself headed out for a photoshoot session. Riding with blistered hands and broken toes Josh was a complete pro and was super easy to work with. Josh busted out some sick riding moves, and even caught me off guard a few times as he litterally flew over my head. Knowing ahead of time what the photos were going to be used for helped me in directing Josh. Forty-five minutes later, the photoshoot was a wrap and Josh hurried back to the awards ceremony for his podium finish. Not bad day for a guy riding with a few broken toes.

It was a treat to shoot a gifted rider and a bigger treat for me to see my work on this 12×15″ award plaque and promotional poster approved by KTM Canada. Shooting one on one really taps into one’s creativity and I relished at this opportunity. At the end, I was very happy with the shoot and showed my potential photos with confidence.

Mark Sunday, August 26th down on your calendars for a XC race that you won’t want to miss. Bring your family and kids as there will be a host of activities for every age group – think bouncy castles for the wee ones, peewee races and more. My husband will be bringing our two young children and I am excited to show them how family orientated the wonderful world of offroad racing is. Plus, a portion of proceeds will be donated to the Rick Hanson Foundation – another uber cool detail about this event.

I look forward to being the Chicopee official photographer. A huge title and I am honoured to be able to wear it. See you in a few weeks at the races and don’t forget to smile and style it for the camera! Thanks to Ron Golden and his hard working crew for putting this entire event and idea together.

 

SCORRA Fun Day

SCORRA knows how to put on a fun day. In fact, I decided to do just that…have fun. Early this morning I loaded both my Gas Gas TXT 200 trials bike and my KTM 200. I also grabbed my camera gear but decided to take pictures with my fun camera – my iPad. It was afterall a ‘Fun Day’.

I started the day chatting with people I had not seen in a while as I slowly geared up and unloaded my bikes. SCORRA had it all: trails, MX track, trials area, and kids MX track. Honda and MotoHeadz were also on board with demo bikes. OFTR, Mission Cycle, the boys from St. Onge, and many others were also available to help out with suspension issues, and other great answers to questions.

I decided to hit the trials area first as I had not used my trials bike yet this year. And it showed. I plowed into the logs and got my bike over but not in a trials like way. It worked but it was not pretty and it showed my lack of clutch control. Next the A Frame. Well…I got hung up at the top. Three times. I looked around and spotted a very vertical teeter-totter. I can do that I thought to myself. I’ve done these many times on both my trials and mountain bikes. Done!

By this time Dave Butler had come out to give me some pointers on double gas blips. I tried but did not conquer and than left. Typical of my short attention span I decided to move onto something else and hit the trails. So, I parked the bike and hopped on the KTM. Gotta love a day when you can do that. Went out with my friend Gary Shackleton and rode the trails at RJ’s. Fun, fun and fun. But also, hard, hard and hard! Lots of deep ruts, exposed roots, rocks, braking and suspension bumps. After the trail session Gary and I hit the MX track. Loads of fun riding on a track and a completely different beast over woods riding. There used to be a double by the grandstand a few years ago. That was a fun one to jump but now they all seemed huge. Probably me shrinking. In any case, I decided to be mature and save myself from potential injury by keeping the wheels on the ground.

After lunch I decided to tackle the Williams track and I fell in love. Who ever designed these trails had woods bike in mind. Flow, flow and flow. That’s how I like my trails! Thanks to Jaime for hanging out with me for that ride.

Here are a few pictures from today. Again, my focus was on riding today. Not camera work. Sorry people but I have not ridden much this year and my bikes were calling for me. It felt to good to be back in the saddle and I know my legs will be sore tomorrow!

Huge thanks to SCORRA and there volunteers for a great event!

Waiting to ride. Pre-riders meetings.
Tracy from OFTR with the Zero bike. Never did get a chance to try it but those who did came back with huge smiles. Take-off is rocket like. Super fast!
It was good to catch up with The Jervais Family from MotorHeadz. Had not seen them since the purchase of my 2008 Gas Gas TXT200.
A collection of people images.
The teeter-totter. One of the few trials obstacles I actually did with some degree of trials control.
Crowds filling in.
Always fun to hang around with and a damn good rider…except during water crossings 🙂

 

Tags

Ok…so I’ve had a few issues with my tags not working. I’m hoping everything is fixed now and that my blogs and pictures are easier to find in the land of the triple W. If you’ve missed the news on the following off-road events or want to check out some pics please see the following and click where it says tells you to:

– To see photo report and get link to Offroad Ontario Burnt River XC 2012 click HERE.

– To see photo report and get link to Honda Canada ‘Rock the Red’ MotoGymKhana 2012 click HERE.

– To see photo report and get link to Algonquin 2 Day Ride2012 click HERE.

– To see photo report and get link to Offroad Ontario RJ’s XC 2012 click HERE.

– To see photo report and get link to SCORRA Ladies Training Day 2012 click HERE.

– To see photo report and get link to CMX & VMX Grand Bend MX 2012 click HERE.

Burnt River XC Photo Report

With respect to the Burnt River XC race this past Sunday a few adjectives come to mind to describe Offroad Ontario’s seventh stop: fast, slow, technical, abusive, relentless, tiring, bumpy and rocky.

Riders were treated once again to a very sunny, hot and humid day making the almost 15 km loop exhausting. Add in copius amounts of baby heads and many finished the race with blistered hands and battered bodies.

Thanks to Offroad Ontario and the gang at the Burnt River Offroad Facility for a great event and of course, kudos to all the competitors and their families getting all crispy under the scorching sun, cheering for the riders.

Click HERE to see pictures of both the AM and PM races. Side note: I have not posted all pictures of the PM riders. Please email me with your plate number and I’ll upload the picture for you. Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Knackered and dirty and showing off the new ‘stache and beard tatoo.
Kids raced early in the morning before the heat set in. What am I talking about…it was already 28C!
The start of a very bumpy and rocky and hot and tiring AM race.
The Shack on his way to a first place finish. Congrats!
Dry dusty conditions were not only tough on the riders but equally tough for photographers as flash kept lighting up dust particles in air. I also cannot figure out how this guy got so dirty?
Always time for some last minute Rekluse adjustment with Bryan Marshall.
Zach Lewis riding through the daisy’s. This kid’s got style!
Scrubbing with Josh Long.
Kevin Cockayne on the rocks.
Wojo bringing it to the finish line.
Checkered flag for Wojo.
Getting sideways with KTM’s Josh Long.
Not only was I treated to great riding all day by the racers I also had some cool one on one time with KTM’s Josh Long after the race. This is one of my favourite shots – unconventional angle and it shows the talent this rider has. Pretty low scrub!
Roosting the berm with Josh Long.

 

RJ’s – Offroad Ontario XC #3 2012

Offroad Ontario’s cross-country #3 is officially in the bag and it will be remembered either as a nightmare or a dream. For myself and for a select few others it was a dream. But for many, the mud proved relentless and challenging and even created a ‘horror’ show for a few.

The morning began with the mini-class winding their way through trails, MX track and wide open roads with spectacular traction. After the start of the race, I immediately hit the first set of pine trees which eventually lead the riders into RJ’s intricate network of trails. I knew the riders went through this area as I remember that from having raced several times here a few years ago. Where ever I looked I found beauty created by the early morning rain as leaves, needles and forest floor glowed with saturated greens and browns.

No sooner had the mini race finished the morning class took the reigns as two-strokes buzzed and four-strokes thumped their way through the loop. Instead of walking back to the start I decided to continue my trek along the race course and settled upon a beautiful open grassy area. The riders would be tackling a steep, short uphill, bursting onto a field of green, and descend just as quickly and back into the darkness of the trail as they had come up.

Partway through the race the skies opened and rained. First a drizzle and finally a steady downpour leaving heavy droplets. As Ted Dirstein, Masters class, aptly put it ‘I wasn’t sure if someone had thrown some WD-40 on the course it was so slick’. Lucky for me, I was somewhat sheltered underneath a canopy of trees but decided to leave my flash in my camera bag. I knew my D3S would handle some rain but still I covered it under my rain jacket…just in case. My husband would really not be impressed with me ruining yet another camera (Nikon D80, D90 – poor souls they had no chance).

By the end of the morning the rain had stopped and replaced with thick gooey mud. And then, just like that the sun came out just in time for the afternoon race. The mud became tacky and did not shed from the tires easily. A deep groove had already been created in a marshy area of the course by the morning class. This is where I decided to set up for the afternoon race. I certainly did not want to miss any entertainment and action that would be provided in the first two laps of the race.

Some tackled the area with ease…ok…only Josh Long did while the others hit the tree before the mud and paddled their way through the deep rut. Some fell, some got stuck and others swerved left and right in a controlled fashion.

As always it was a pleasure being back at the races and meeting people I had not seen in a while. Thank you to the numerous volunteers, OCMC, RJ’s and Ontario Offroad for a great race. Too see more pictures of all classes please click here.

 

Toronto Supercross 2012

Villopoto on his way to another main event win.

 

This past weekend I was invited to the only International stop of the AMA Supercross series at the Rogers Centre, Toronto. The kicker…the action was so close to me I could feel the vibrations from those highly tuned thumpers.

Apart from enjoying Supercross and drooling over these high-end bikes I marevelled at the mad-skills the riders possessed. If you look smooth you are fast. I remember that from my competitive downhill mountain biking days and these guys looked super smooth as they blipped their throttle to clear an insanely high storey jump.

Kyle Regal getting stuffed into the pads by Nico Izzi

 

My man, Chad Reed was out with injuries previously sustained but my other man – the ‘experienced’ (in other words ‘wise’) Kevin Windham was right on target and podiumed at the main event.  The Toronto race fielded a smaller than usual top contenders as Stweart and Dungey were also out with injuries. But, the action was far from short. Supercross kinda reminds me of indoor soccer where the action is fast and furious as compared to playing outdoors on a bigger surface.

Weimer looking smooth.

The best part of watching supercross live vs TV is the atmosphere. Love the sound of the bikes, the energy of the crowds, the opening show and being litterally able to feel and smell the pyro show.  And, of course, watching Nash the Slash perform our national anthem ‘O Canada’. Epic.

In fact not only was the entire evening epic I was very happy with my pictures. I have spent the last year honing my skills and taking pictures of enduro races and trail events and, in my opinion, they have prepared me well. That is, in enduros – it’s one shot baby. Blow it and you’ll never see that rider again unless you can get to the finish line before they do.

We’ll see you all on the trails. Just got word today that the Ganaraska is officially opened two weeks early on April 14. Picking up my KTM 200 this weekend and see you out on the trails and don’t forget to pull a wheelie for me.

 

 

 

Off-road Women Riders are Sassy

I could bore you with the details of my recent photoshoot but I will let pictures speak for themselves this time around.

I will simply say that this past weekend I had an absolute hoot photographing my team mates and friends Melanie and Jaime. Our photos will be used to help promote our team for this years Paris to Dacre (P2D) Dual Sport Challenge by Rally Connex. To date we still do not have a team name but what we do have is spirit.

A while ago I found an abandoned warehouse and knew this would be the perfect place for the shoot. I wanted the graffii to be a focal point yet it had to be a part of us as well. Lively, fun, loud and colourful – a perfect fit to showcase our team. Melanie is feisty and sassy while Jaime is reserved but spunky.

I decided to use one flash set up on a softbox. I wanted an ‘edgy’ look. The single light casted a long, dramatic shadow which worked well as I felt it made us look stronger. The shadow also mimicked that of the written words. Too cool! Theme found and kept throughout the entire shoot.

Both Jaime and Melanie were keen on the location even when I told them we may need to hop a fence. Lucky for us, we found a hole and we walked right in motocross boots and all. It was cold, dark, damp, smelly and was littered with garbage. But what a fun place to shoot. I can not really say where it was because I am pretty sure we were trespassing. Thanks to Jaime and Melanie for being cool with this.

Our ride in P2D will hopefully be historical as we will most likely be the first all women team. Our goal is to finish and to finish strong. I believe our biggest asset is our friendship. Between the three of us we have tons of riding experience. P2D though is all about team effort and I know our friendship will go a long way to helping us achieve our goal.

Cecile – both a sinus infection and an eye infection made for a very red nose that day!

 

 

WEC Parry Sound

I am procrastinating. I was reviewing potential Georgian Bay photos in Lightroom for two upcoming art shows I have when I got side tracked by the WEC Parry Sound race pictures that took place a few years ago. David and I had primo spots along the shoreline. It helped that we were volunteers and were miracurously placed there to help the poor souls that fell in the drink. Luckily there weren’t too many and I was able to take a few pictures.

At the time I had my Nikon D70 with a wide angle lens. Knee deep in the water, unable to see the rocky bottom due to wavy conditions that day I was already taking a chance myself not falling into Georgian Bay. I have to chuckle at how long it has taken me to upgrade to a pro level camera that is more water resistant than the D70/80/90 all of which I have owned and all of which have been put through some pretty risky situations. That is, two were ok with water and the other certainly was not.

I marveled at the skill and expertise the riders had working their bike along the slippery and rocky shoreline. It was hard enough walking along it. The number one rider at the time, David Knight, mayed it look easy and schooled everybody in that section. It was also mind boggling at how small his bike looked underneath him and how much clearance between his crotch and the seat he had to work with. Made me jealous. Than again…there’s the saying ‘the taller you are the harder you fall’. Except David Knight does not fall (very much).

Our Canadian boys did us proud that day and I believe the Canadian hero was  Cory Gruffunder (sp?). David and I worked both days over the weekend proudly volunteering our services. We even got a cool Nexco jacket out of it. It was fun, met a lot of people. I wished I could have tried riding the shoreline (the endless rocks and slippery sections reminded me of a few of my downhill races I had in Quebec – most notably ‘The Flintstones’ in Bromont). I am pretty sure I could have mayed it half way before I would have fallen in.

Thanks to Parry Sound for having hosted the event. It was so well organised and the people of Parry Sound were amazingly cooperative lending their services with grace and enthusiasm. While a few of us take our Canadian Shield and fresh water for granted many realise it’s beauty and importance (we truly live in a beautiful country). I can only imagine how the Europeans felt upon seeing our rugged beauty. I believe a few went for a boat tour on the Seguin. I think they left with smiles on their faces.

My only beef that weekend was the lack of money spent in Parry Sound by our very own spectators. Perhaps it is a bit harsh and unfair of me to suggest this but if a town/city is willing to host an event they are outdoubtly also hoping that records crowds will filter through and provide business for their commerces i.e. restaurants, hotels, bars etc. Our job as spectators is to spend a bit and help out the town’s economy. Not much needs to be spent…just as long as everybody can chip in.

Well, I really should get back to painting a few pictures. My first show in this spring and I only have 2 out of the 6 ready.

4 of my pictures featured in ‘Inside MotoX & Offroad Magazine’

The November/December issue of Canada’s ‘Inside MotoX & Offroad Magazine’ is a special one for me as four of my pictures from this years ‘Corduroy Enduro’ have been printed. Including a double truck!

To say the least I am super stoked. This was my first time out in the field using my new camera – the almighty Nikon D3S. Actually, it was my first time period as I had just bought it that Thursday and was shooting The Cord on Sunday. I didn’t even have lots of play time with it as I was busy with family obligations prior to the event. Luckily, I have been shooting Nikon for the past 8 years so I am familiar with their terminology and menus. Compared to my D90 the buttons on the D3S were in different locations but I adapted quickly (I really didn’t have a choice if I wanted to pull off some keepers).

On an off-shoot – it felt different being a spectator at The Cord. I have competed in the women’s category twice in previous years and I know it is a very difficult and demanding two days for both the bike and for the rider. This time around, I could enjoy the beauty of The Cord. Jealous in areas that I would have loved to ride and understanding of the riders frustration when fatigue set in.

Thank you to Jeff Morgan at Inside MotoX & Offroad for publishing my images.

 

Riding Muskoka

Last weekend in October my husband and I had a chance to ride a very exclusive, invitation only, trail in the Muskokas. I cannot reveal it’s location as it’s private property but I will publicly send a huge thank you to the owner, Dave, for inviting us and creating 500 acres of awesomeness.

We may not have mountains in Ontario but we do have steep short hills, mixed hardwood forest and lots of Canadian Shield. Take the picture above, that’s Randy Evans a former pro-motocrosser, riding up a rather steep rock face on the aptly named trail ‘Hells Kitchen’. Ripping it in style Evans grabbed air, touched down, grabbed some more air before taking off.

I was both excited and nervous as I hadn’t ridden a technical trail in over five years. I left my camera behind and told myself my priority is to have fun and ride. And, maybe if I had the time at the end of the day I would grab my camera gear and get some shots.

Of course, as I was riding I fell in love with the terrain both as a photographer and as a rider. The 25 km loop began with single track snaking it way around hardwood trees, up and over short steep power climbs, creek crossings, and fast straight-aways. The terrain an endless variety of topsoil: loamy, hardpacked, softpacked, rock, sand and mud. Dave’s trails had it all. A 25 km loop of fun, fast flowing and technical sections to test even the most established rider.

It took us well over an hour to complete one lap. We stopped at the lookout point perched high up on a hill. To one side a deep lush canopy of green moss covered the trail and on the other a dangerous steep drop-off. It was indeed a beautiful view and I must admit in wanting to stay in one of Dave’s two small cabins on a warm summer night quietly sitting enjoying a birds-eye view of the lake and the surrounding hilly landscape.

I have painted a pretty picture of Dave’s land and it came as a surprise to find how difficult some (ok…many) sections were to ride. Previous rainfall had made many of the hills almost unrideable. They weren’t exceptionally difficult hills but the soft, greasy dirt quickly gummed up the treads creating an ice-rink of dirt, if that makes any sense. Thank you to Jeff, Jim, Dave and a few others for helping me (2x) up and out of those uphills.

Around every corner roots grabbed the front and rear tires and joked around throwing the bike side to side. Endless babyheads hidden deep beneath a layer of wet yellow leaves threatened to take you down. It was a constant battle of balance, clutch and throttle work to stay upright and maintain any type of speed and grace. More than once my feet flew off the pegs, arms and back bent in opposite directions desperately fighting the weight of the bike, and the trail pulling and pushing. It was hard work. And I admit to feeling out of shape.

My day ended up shorter than planned thanks to a broken kick starter (I must have strong legs). I was fortunate enough not to be deep in the woods and close to a hill on open land. But before bum starting the bike I managed to squeeze off a few ‘motoscape’ pictures that I am really happy with. Here’s one of my friend and fellow ‘Dirty Onion’ Shawn Richardson pulling a wheelie comfortably in style. Easily my favourite image of the day is the one of my husband riding towards me with a textured and layered backdrop of naked birch trees. This is one cool shot when viewed on a large HD screen.

After the quick photo session, Shawn, my husband and myself headed back to the car. Most riders were already back and indulging in freshly barbecued sausages, home made chili, baked beans and little chocolate and coconut dessert squares reminiscing about the day, and how hard the trail had become compared to previous trail rides. At the point, I looked at the owner Dave and coyly asked if we could be re-invited as I had an absolute blast and would love another opportunity to rip around the trail but in a faster fashion and with more style (a drier trail would help with that). Plus, I saw so many other photo ops. I really do need to come back.

Thanks to Dave for the invitation and for building and maintaining such a variety of trails. Thank you also to Ted D. for organising an amazing ride. What better way to spend a Sunday than with friends I haven’t seen in a while and new like minded riders enjoying a pristine trail on a cool late October day.