One Pine Day...
When my Dad mentioned last fall that he was driving from Vancouver Island up to Northern BC to see my younger brother and fish a little, I did what any good and very annoying human would do - offered to break up a pleasant, silent, relaxing drive by inserting myself into the trip… And boy am I happy that I did.
When my Dad (Pops) mentioned last fall that he was driving from Vancouver Island up to Northern BC to see my younger brother and fish a little; I did what any good and very annoying human would do. I offered to break up what would be a pleasant, silent, relaxing drive by inserting myself into the trip… And boy oh boy am I happy I did.
Fall is without a doubt the absolute best time to road trip through British Columbia. The temperature has shifted away from the super hot summers, the leaves have started to change to their warm autumn colours and the highways are significantly less busy, which, if you’ve ever lived through a tourist season in BC, and the fall that follows you know of what I speak.
For the sake of keeping this post under a million words I’ll start the story as we leave Quesnel, on Day 3 of the trip, starting the last leg, a six hour jaunt into Fort St John. The weather had been a bit touch and go so far and day 3 was no exception. Rain and clouds were the story of the morning which was fine since the first 3-4 hours of the drive is getting to, and over the significant Pine pass.
As we settled into the early afternoon and began to descend the northern side of the Pine pass, some of the cloud cover started to break and patches of sun were moving in more and more. Pops had fished this area pretty extensively while living in Northern BC himself and had a spot picked for us to stop and check out, a good spot to stretch our legs and see if there was any activity.
As we pulled off the highway and crawled over the clunky wooden bridge, scoping the Pine river below, it was clear that by some kind of miracle the conditions were all coming together just right. The river was absolutely crystal clear, the sun was backlighting the run we had picked and the water was running at a perfect pace. We suited up, tied on a few lucky flies and started towards the river.
Because Pops is the way he is and he’d much rather watch me catch fish all day then land any himself, he pointed me in the direction of a spot he’d had good results fishing before and I got my first cast laid beautifully into a group of pillars from an old dock structure. I was fishing a Tom Thumb and it took its place perfectly, drifting right through a rippling seam in the river. It hadn’t been drifting more than a few seconds when BAM! A massive hit from an Arctic Grayling! We celebrated and laughed at a first cast fish and chalked it up to fluke but, man were we wrong…
That first fish gave way to what could easily be described as the single most productive and hilarious session of my life. Between the two of us we caught well over 30 Arctic Grayling, a dozen or so Rainbow Trout and a handful of beautifully healthy Bull Trout. It, was, insane! At one point we switched to my all time favourite fly, The Royal Coachman, because the Grayling were engulfing the Tom Thumbs and we were having to use the hemostats to dig them out of the fish. The sun continued to grace our spot on the river for a couple of hours before moving on and with it went a lot of the fish, but for that little slice of time, it was fish, after fish, after fish. The kind of day that happens to some anglers only very few times in their entire fishing lifetimes.
We rolled into Fort St John that evening greeted by absolutely torrential rain but with a fish tale for the ages. Probably a hard one for others to grasp in that moment since sunshine seemed so long away, but the buzz was infectious.
The next day we took my brother and his girlfriend, both avid anglers, back to the same spot on the pine but the rain had nearly blown the river out and had all but eliminated any visibility in the water at all. We fished every available run, with let’s say… limited success, but we did all land at least one small rainbow and a bunch of good jokes so although it wasn’t a repeat of the benchmark day before, it was still a great day on the river with our favourite fishing crew.
I’m well aware of how rare days like this one on the Pine River was and to be able to share it with Pops means everything, in fact, we’ll still text each other out of there blue with ‘Remember that one day, THAT one day’ followed by electronic chuckles and virtual recollections of a bite that has yet to be a rivalled. It’ll live there I guess, and here, until the elements line up just right again, and all hell breaks loose once more.
Thoughts, comments?
Reverence Movie Pt.2 : The Claw
The general way it goes when Darren and I work together is: I use my expertise to compose a photo I know will be great, Claw (Darren) then comes over to my angle, holds his hands up in front of himself as to make a makeshift photo frame, ponders for a second and then tells me to move. I then tell Claw to get lost, we argue back and forth, and sometimes I move, sometimes I stay, it’s a crap shoot! (See what I did there?)
The second segment the Clever Bear guys had me out to shoot was none other than Parksville/Qualicum local, and 20-some odd-year friend of mine Darren Berrecloth’s. When you’ve been friends with someone that long there is a certain familiarity that comes with the territory, or in this case, bossiness.
The general way it goes when Darren and I work together is: I use my expertise to compose a photo I know will be great, Claw (Darren) then comes over to my angle, holds his hands up in front of himself as to make a makeshift photo frame, ponders for a second and then tells me to move. I then tell Claw to get lost, we argue back and forth, and sometimes I move, sometimes I stay, it’s a crap shoot! Hahaha, but as frustrating as that sounds it really isn’t and there is benefits to working with a life long friend as well and it’s that same familiarity that allows us to collaborate so closely on things and know what the other is going to be stoked on without needing to wade through pleasantries.
For the Darrens segment of the Reverence movie he had a few stunts specifically selected for us to film/shoot. They were both fairly rowdy so nothing was a guarantee. The first line was a multi stunt trail Darren had built in a clear cut on the side of a mountain. There was a big drop up top, then a few medium sized gaps along the trail and it culminated in a HUGE rock to rock transfer near the bottom. The trouble with this stunt in particular was that as the trial makes its way out further and further into the clear cut, the whole thing becomes more and more susceptible to wind, which, when you’re dealing with a 45’ rock to rock transfer, is not ideal. More on that later.
I absolutely love shooting stills for movies. If there was one gig that could pull me away from my current situation it would be a very high paying, very low stress, very diverse photo job shooting behind the scenes on movies. Action sports, comedies, HORROR! All of it would be a dream come true. I love collaborating on angles, and chatting with the cinematographers, working with a team for a common goal, I love it…
More on that wind. We tried three different days, three different times of day, three different weather days. Wind. Wind. And more wind. Claw rode well and there were a few run ins I thought he was going to send the bottom gap but alas it just wasn’t meant to be. I mean, that’s the thing with these shoots, is that there is a lot on the line. For me it’s easy, I show up, hike a bit, set up, and wait. For the riders though it’s life and limb, and as much as I’m ready to capture some sick images I’m just as ready for everyone to make it home in one piece. At the end of our timeline for Reverence we didn’t get this trail top to bottom and that’s just the underwhelming way these things go sometimes.
After our exercise in frustration with the clear cut trail we moved back into the dank rainforests that Vancouver Island is known for. Claw had carved out a massive drop in one of his other super secret zones and so we made our way out to it to make sure we had some footage rather than none at all. The drop is in a really dark part of the woods so photographically it wasn't going to be easy. Introducing higher ISO speeds would help me get some more light but it also introduces more grain which reduces the sharpness of the image overall. Luckily we managed to time our shoot with a nice bit of high overcast which reduced the hot sun spots on the trees, allowing me to at least have some level of even light throughout the frame.
Once we all got our angles dialled, drones in the air, landings visualized, there was nothing left to do but for Claw to tee up the drop. He must have hit it three or four times, every time reminding us - and to a degree I’m sure to himself - that the circumstances of the clearcut were just a minor set back. He nailed it, clean, every time, because that’s what legends do.
All frustrations aside it was a great week traipsing around the woods with good friends creating some magic and sharing some laughs.
Reverence Movie features some of Freeride mountain bikinis best athletes and chronicles their journey into fear. It’is out on all of the major outlets so check out the website below for the trailer and track down the movie.
Thoughts, comments?
Reverence Movie Pt.1 : Matt MacDuff
I had met Matt before but only once; we crossed paths at Woodward West in Tehachapi, California a number of years ago. I was there on a winter respite photo trip with some friends and he was there living off of ramen noodle and sweeping floors to earn his riding time.
It’s always great to get the call to work with video production companies. It’s something that I really enjoy doing. So when I got the call to shoot stills for two segments of the upcoming Clever Bears production Reverence: A Journey Into Fear I was really stoked.
The first segment they had me out to shoot was Matt MacDuff’s segment which was being filmed in Errington, one of four small towns that make up the area where I live. I had met Matt before but only once; we crossed paths at Woodward West in Tehachapi, California a number of years ago. I was there on a winter respite photo trip with some friends and he was there living off of ramen noodle and sweeping floors to earn his riding time. At that point I think most people in the Mountain Bike world has heard of Matt but his celebrity certainly hadn’t risen to the post-pure-darkness level that we all know him as now.
One of the major challenges on film shoots (movies) is timing the weather. There’s always a lot of moving parts; filmers, athletes, equipment, are all arriving and available at different times. So when you get all of those elements aligned often times the weather is the last factor to connect the pieces. On this particular shoot we had a lofty goal, to help Matt get his vengeance on a double back flip out of an open loop; a trick that Matt had broken hi back trying just two years earlier. The trouble was, the weather was not part of the team. Was not helping. Was not doing its part. In fact it was doing everything it could to hold us up.
Claw had built a massive open loop takeoff ramp and an equally massive landing at his property, only, it had rained so much that there was no way it could be ridden. So we packed up the ramp, rented an air bag and Claw called in a favour to a local business who lent us their yard so Matt could practice. Once we got down there and got set up we managed to sneak in a short window when the rain wasn’t torrential and a serious practice session was had.
Because time is always tight on these shoots and deadlines are always looming after we managed a whole 24 hrs without rain it was time to get back to Darrens, set up the loop, dry out the run up and try our best to get the jump running well enough for Matt to carry enough speed to actually be able to get two rotations out of the ramp.
An amazing crew worked their tails off to get this thing going and once Matt was happy it was finally time to get some tires to dirt. Even Claw jumped in and learned flip no handers out of the loop, because, you know, that’s what 36 year old retired free riders do…
Eleven tries. Eleven crashes. Eleven landing fix ups. Countless yells of frustration…And then this;
Success! The worlds first double backflip out of an open loop and Matt had his revenge on a trick that broke his back. All of the hard work, all of the frustration, location changes, weather delays, run in issues, all fade away. Definitely a day of ‘work’ that I won’t soon forget. Being on hand, to help share this moment with Matt and the team was just an amazing honour. And to top it all off Matt got back up there, on the roof roll in from hell and stomped a huge flip-whip out of the ramp so that I could create what has become one of my all time favourite action sports images.
An incredible experience working on the film with these guys. I can’t say enough about how dedicated the whole team was to seeing this thing through with Matt. If you’re interested in seeing the movie have a click through the link below.