What’s not to like about this place? Once again the crew at Decline rolled out the red carpet for us industry types for a 3 day symposium. We got to mingle, ride, eat and play.

Josh and I arrived with our Highline and Socom fitted with some test worthy Double Barrels ready to hit the mountain. We had 3 days to wear ourselves out. After a great breakfast and industry meeting each morning we would hit the mountain. This was the first time Josh had been to Whistler, so he was a kid in a candy store for sure.

I wanted to keep Josh in one piece and work him up to the top of the mountain as the days went by. Well by day two he had snuck up top with the Marin boys and was crazy hooked. Me I was working Dirt Merchant and A Line over and over again. It’s an old racer thing for me to keep dialing in the same trails and hitting lines, not to mention getting some shock testing done. By the second day Josh was hitting backside on all of the jumps he could find and getting really smooth. I was proud of my engineer bringing his desert racing style to the show.
Then it hit me, on my way up to Freight train. For some reason the chair lift up really started bugging me, my fear of heights kicked in, I guess I’m getting old. I’ve been a little tweaked on heights all of my life but this hit me hard dangling up there on that lift. I would make sure Josh would talk to me the whole way up to keep my mind off the subject. Weird stuff, I will jump a bike but freak on a high chair lift. I wasn’t going to let it ruin my trip though.

I could stand riding up on the lower lift with not much drama, so I kept riding Dirt Merchant, Schleyer, Lower A line etc. There’s a lot to ride and dial in or get in trouble on depending on your mood. Later on the second day Josh and I met up with Paul from Intense and set off on a photo spree. I suck at taking pictures, so what you see is what you get. In the evening after dinner while others were hanging at their desired haunts, Josh and I went to the dirt jumps for a little fun and watch the skaters at the skate park. Good stuff.

By the third day I was tired but was riding well, so I was pushing it a little more than usual. I stopped for lunch met up with our Decline gang, Josh kept ridding. I went to the bike shop to look around for a bit came back out and I see my boy Josh all bent over at a table with a crowd around him. You know what that means: man down. Josh had overcooked a turn on A line and down he went. After some x rays at the clinic it was confirmed, Josh had chipped a bone in his wrist and elbow. Not all bad, it just made for a lame ending to the trip. Many thanks to all who helped that afternoon!

All in all it was a great time and a good chance to test some new shock ideas…wink.