First times in Canada

SEPTEMBER 3: TRAVEL DAY (PARIS-MONTREAL-VANCOUVER)

I left my native France, with my 55kg of luggage, from the Roissy Airport in Paris. I had a comfortable and safe flight between Paris and Montreal. The Quebec staff was very friendly with the passengers: first contact with the Canadian beer and Canadian food, different, but well. I felt very excited about the idea of crossing oceans straight to new horizons. Canadian outdoors, Pacific Ocean, Rockies, I would soon discover everything from the sky! 

 

At my conexion in Montreal, something was wrong, the immigrations service was very busy, and the Quebec staff didn’t seem worried about that. So I lost my flight for Vancouver.  After negotiating with AIR CANADA staff, they found me a new plane later in the day. Speaking with Quebec was interesting and funny the French accent is really different! After 20h of travelling, I arrived in Vancouver around 8:00pm, the sunset view of the city from the sky surrounded by mountains and sea was absolutely beautiful. I was going to live in this beautiful natural paradise during 5 months.

Danielle Baker, the racer relationship of BC Bike Race was waiting for me at the airport. Danielle in their thirties is a cool girl, born in Vancouver Island, who mix photography studies and work for BCBR. She is a great photographer. We left the airport with a big pickup truck. We crossed all Vancouver straight to North Vancouver. My first feeling was like an actor in an American movie. Everything was new and bigger! We attended a Barbecue Party with Endless Biking Crew. 

Endless Biking, managed by the famous rider Darren Butler and his wife Kelli Sherbinin is a full service company of mountain bike coaching and travelling around the north shore. Danielle used to work with all this sweet family. We ate a delicious dinner with fresh salmon, salads, grilled corn and potatoes. I felt tired after my long travel, but so happy to be here with Canadian riders of the North Shore. After a few beers and funny times, I had a night at Danielle’s place. 

SEPTEMBER 4: FIRST STEPS (NORTH VANCOUVER)

After assembling my bike, we had a walk in the streets of North Vancouver with Danielle and her roommate Sarah. They are both mountain bikers, and have 4 bikes each; here in the North Shore mountain bike is a way of life. I really enjoyed the awesome view of Downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park from Lonsdale quay. I tried my first brunch in a cowboy style pub! The ambiance is pretty cool in North Vancouver, streets look like San Francisco’s with the downhill view on the bay.

I had an incredible night with Danielle and her friends in the local Pub named Rusty Gull: Bluegrass Country music,harmonica, local beer, funny dancing! "cowboy vibes inside" welcome to the west coast of Canada!

SEPTEMBER 5 (WHISTLER)

I was in Canada from 24 hours, and that was time for my first riding! Danielle borrow the evil style pick up of her friend Matt, she drove me on the beautiful highway “sea to sky” straight to the Olympic resort: Whistler, located 1:30h at the North of Vancouver. The Whistler Bike Park is one of the most famous places of the world for freeride, slopestyle, downhill Mountain Biking... Every year famous events happened like the Crankworx festival. You can also find Whistler in every famous freeride movies like New World Disorder films, Roam The Collective…

This day was an absolute experience of riding with my Specialized Demo II, I had a warm up with Danielle and her friends and a couple of rides with local people. I tried lots of famous trails, such as the A-Line “the most riding trail of the world”. Wall rides, perfect shaping jumps, drops, step up, huge corners...what a great moment! The only thing you want at the end of the trail is to do it again. I have already ridden several Bike Parks in France, nothing can be compared to Whistler.  For my first riding in Canada that was an awesome experience.

Thanks to Danielle, I began my canadian trip walking on the red carpet.

That was the beginning of my mountain bike way of life

Julien