This video represents the beginning of a couple of things: the start of Spring here on the North Shore, and also my first foray into the world of video. Shot over the course of about four hours one Sunday in March, on classic ‘Shore trail, “Ladies Only”
Dan
Dan, Sporting some serious style with Darcy
Enjoy,
Ahhhh, it’s good to be home. Yesterday I got back to the island from visiting my brother in the Middle East and b-lined straight to the Comox Valley (home of Mount Washington and the infamous Cumberland trails) to visit Nana and get my recreation on. Oh my, what a greeting the dear little valley gave me!
Mine. All mine. Earned turns.
I headed up to Mount Washington first thing in the morning because my friends haven’t been shy about telling me of the amazing conditions up there while I sat on a plane, helpless. Although the resort was tracked out, I headed into the back-country and found some big powder stashes that the lazy had neglected. I like earning my turns better anyways.
On my way home from Qatar I got my smart on for a few days at Harvard.
I skied until my legs started wobbling and then decided to come home and spend some much needed quality time with my new bike: the Sight Forma. This bike is beautiful. It almost pains me to get her dirty. She is such a high performance machine that sometimes I don’t feel worthy of riding her. But today I did, so off we went.
My morning playground.
Well, wasn’t I happy to find out that Ms.Sight Forma wasn’t going to get too dirty after all…the trails were almost dry! Powder and dry trails. How does that work? I don’t know, but it sure is the most winning combination that I’ve encountered.
LOOK! They are almost clean!
I biked until my legs started wobbling and was so happy with my day that I belted out “Shoop” by Salt n’ Peppa the whole way home. You know it’s a good day when Salt n’ Peppa seems like a good idea.
This day wouldn’t have been possible though, without the fantastic rehab help of Dr.Clayton Ward. My ankle recovery seemed to be plateauing until Dr.Clay did some serious work to get the scar tissue moving again and gave me some stabilization exercises that have really worked well. Thanks, Clay!
In other bike related news, I received the greatest Twitter (tweet?) the other day from a guy whose daughter was learning to ride with one of my old bikes. He sent me this picture and it made my day! Great to see the next generation of female shredders out there! Finally, Tweeter, err, Twitter is good for something.
The next generation! SHREDDING!
Can’t wait for a March full of dry trails (yes, I’m an idealist) and more pow turns in the same day! See ya out there.
Darcy
My January has been pretty standard, so far. I got a job shooting a music video for a Georgian billionaire pop star who’s music has been outlawed in the country because his dad is running for president and the existing government is unhappy about the competition. Pretty standard, really.
MY GEORGIAN TEAM: turns out when you rent equipment in Georgia, it comes with old man PAs with serious assembly skills.
So yes, I went to Georgia and made a music video. It wasn’t easy to relax when government agents would watch me eat and listen in on my conversations, among other things, but we finished the job without being kidnapped…so that was awesome!
Georgia is an amazing country though. The food is divine. The wine is divine( r). The mountains are huge and stunning. The people are solemn but friendly. The fur hats are rad. The swap meets are unbeatable…I saw a raw bear hide being sold next to an accordion and then I bought a Russian 16mm video camera and a CCCP badge at the vendor next door. Awesome.
I ended up in Tbilisi's oldest film studio. I think this will be the next addition to my camera quiver...
After escaping Georgia with only one trip to the Canadian embassy, I touched down in snowy Victoria and immediately headed up to my favourite ski hill in the whole world: Mt.Cain. Mt.Cain is a 6 hour drive from Victoria, 3 hours of which is without cell phone reception. At the mountain there are two t-bars, glades galore, massive backcountry bowls, and snorkel-worthy powder. However, as the sticker on all the local’s trucks say: “Cain sucks. Tell your friends.” I mean, there’s no running water up there…so you probably shouldn’t go.
CAIN CUP: REPRESENT!!
It happened that the annual Cain Cup ski race was happening this weekend, so my friends and I decided to pay the $5 donation fee and race GS on our fatty powder skis (and with our beacons on transmit). Word on the street was that almost 100 other people had the same idea and there was serious competition! Racing was the least of our priorities though when 40cm had fallen over the week and we were the first people to touch it, but Mt.Cain is so relaxed that they let us use our practice runs as our race runs. So I did just that…raced two runs and spent the rest of the day skiing pow. Turns out my powder skis are good for gates too and I took home the silver medal! Ski racing is fun!
Unfortunately/fortunately I don’t have any Georgian billionaire music video shoots lined up for February, but I will be travelling to Turkey, Qatar, and Harvard (is Harvard in Boston?) so the adventures shall continue…
Until then, remember: Cain sucks. Tell your friends.
Darcy
This autumn I officially completed one of the major rights of passage in becoming a professional extreme sports athlete: I had surgery. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally went ahead and got that new ankle I’ve been meaning to get for a few years now. A few new ligaments, a few less bone fragments, a chunk less cartilage, and a few inches of fresh scar later and I (supposedly) have a stronger, healthier, more long-lasting ankle than before. (Insert “results may vary” speech in deep, fast radio voice here).
It’s been almost three months since the operation and I’m back on my feet again, trying to get my strength and balance back. Being on crutches and in a cast for two months led to a lot of muscle atrophy and balance loss, but things are getting better each day. I’ve been able to start cruising around town and running errands on my bike and I’m now an avid indoor cyclist with the help of Netflix and some good books. I can’t say it’s the ideal way to ride a bike, but hey, it’s better than the copious amounts of nothing I was doing before!
Even though I’ve had to put a lot of my active hobbies on the shelf for the past few months, before my surgery I decided to use the downtime time wisely and get some things done that I haven’t had time for while traveling so much for biking. Number one on the “to do” list was to buy a house. So I did that. Number two was to graduate from my master’s program. So I did that too…in a cast and a high-heeled shoe that I thought was going to send me flat on my face in front of a few thousand people. Luckily, I made it across the stage without incident. Number three was to edit a bunch of footage that I have collected from my travels throughout the year. I haven’t quite gotten around to that yet because decorating number one has taken up a lot more time than I thought it would. Who knew choosing paint colours could be so hard?! However, I did finish an edit for a foundation that I am a huge supporter of–Women Win–to promote the involvement of sports to prevent gender based violence in the developing world. Most exciting though, I filmed a project involving jello that will be released soon. Autumn wasn’t all about picking paint colours 
Like the recovery of every injury, there have been good days and bad days, but I have to say that slowing down and letting my body heal has been a relatively enjoyable process. It’s like getting healthy from scratch! Sure, I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you do find yourself waking up with a cast on your leg, try not to let it get you down. You’ll probably discover things about yourself that you didn’t take the time to notice before. Happy holidays!
Darcy
Photo by Nicolas Tiechrob
I’ve been very fortunate to visit some amazing places with my bike, however, all seem to pail in comparison to Bolivia. This spring I visited the Sorata area with rider Mike Hopkins and photographer Nic Teichrob with the goal of exploring the remote regions of the area via bike–and capturing it all on camera. Although a photo or video will never do the stunning landscapes justice, we did our best and recently an article we produced was run in New Zealand’s top mountain bike magazine (and one of my favourite mtb magazines produced anywhere in the world), SPOKE. The video footage is still sitting on my dusty hard drives, waiting for me to have a free week to edit it into something magnificent, however, here are a few snapshots from behind the scenes and the article for you to enjoy. Thanks to Nic and Travis from Andean Adventures for organizing the trip of a lifetime!
Darcy
The second annual See Jane Jump women’s mountain bike festival took place this past weekend at Mt Washington Resort on Vancouver Island BC. Selling out nearly instantly, the weekend festival brought together 60 women from around North America for two days of freeride mountain biking. After each day of world class mountain biking, evening festivities included food, coaching, wine, yoga and even a daily recap slideshow from photographer Dan Barham. Event organizer Darcy Turenne also used this venue to premiere her video “The Eighth Parallel” to attendees.
Norco is a proud sponsor of the See Jane Jump women’s mountain bike festival and offered free tech support to all event attendees. Norco also donated a Norco Vixa frame to be given to one lucky lady.
Thank you to Darcy Turenne for putting on the event, Mt Washington Resort for hosting, Dan Barham for photogging, and all the event sponsors for supporting this amazing event.
Norco Factory Team rider Darcy Turenne stopped by the Norco Office yesterday and dropped off a stack of magazines from the past few months. Darcy’s face has been seen around the world in many top publications and we figured that it was worth sharing. Way to go Darcy in waving that Norco flag and getting the word out about women and mountain biking.
The 2011 Norco Factory Team Sponsors
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Dirt Norco Race Team
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The Dirt Norco Race Team is back for 2011. Following the World Cup Circuit, Ben and Dan are looking to come back from a year riddled with Injury and make a push towards the podium. Armed with an arsenal of new Norco bikes, the feedback and development of the Dirt Norco Race team has made for some of the most competitive bikes on the market. Check the world cup results this summer and look for Ben and Dan in there. Better yet, if you find yourself at one of these races, stop and say hi! For full Dirt Norco Race Team updates, check out dirt.mpora.com.
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Team H&R Block Team H&R Block is bigger and better than ever in 2011 welcoming new energy and amazing talent to the already stacked roster. Joining the returning riders of 2010, Zack Garland, Dustin MacBurnie, Lachlan Holmes, Nick Friesen, Brad Clifford, Matthew O’Hagan, Jordan Cheyne, Owen Harrison, Cam MacKinnon and Kris Dahl have signed on to race the all new custom Norco CRR Sl this coming season. Watch out for the team to be a driving force on the Canadian Racing Circuit starting this spring. for more info on Team H&R Block check out teamhrblock.ca |
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The 2011 event season is about to get rolling. As a result each rider on the Norco Factory Team is getting their arsenal of bikes ready to attack for whatever may come in their way. For Norco Factory Team Rider Darcy Turenne, one such bike is the Norco Vixa. As a women’s specific freeride bike, Darcy prefers a Shimano Saint Kit, Rockshox suspension and Kenda Tires. The rest of the build completes the bike with gear from FSA/Gravity, WTB, E-13 and DT Swiss.
Here are some photos of the new ride.
It may seem like the 2010 event season just finished but we are poised to start it all over again in less than a week. Covering nearly every discipline there is an event to please anyone regardless of interest. Have a quick look through the events in the following list and see if you can come out. If you can stop by and say hi at any of these events do so, there could even be some swag in it for you… If you can’t make it out, keep an eye on the norco news feed as this is only a taste of what will be going on.
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| Ride Guide Australia | Jay Hoots, Ryan Leech | Feb. 7-20 |
| Toronto Bike Show | Ryan Leech, Norco | March 4-6 |
| Seattle Bike Show | Ryan Leech, Norco | March 12-13 |
| Taipei Bike Show | Norco | March 16-19 |
| Vancouver Bike Adventure Show | Ryan Leech | March 19-20 |
| Sea Otter Classic | Ryan L, Sam D, Nick G, Catherine V Andrew W, Norco | April 14-17 |
| World Cup DH #1 Pietermaritzburg RSA | Dirt | April 23-24 |
| Victoria International Cycling Festival, Victoria BC | H&R Block, Norco | May 28-29 |
| Mt. Hood Classic, Mt Hood OR | H&R | June 2-5 |
| Teva Mountain Games, Vale CO | Sam D | June 2-5 |
| World Cup DH #2 Fort William, GBR | Dirt | June 4-6 |
| Ride To Conquer Cancer Toronto, ON | Norco | June 11-12 |
| World Cup DH #3, Leogang AUT | Dirt | July 11-12 |
| Tour de Beauce, Beauce QC | H&R Block | June 14-19 |
| Banff National Park BikeFest, Banff AB | H&R Block | June 16-19 |
| Ride To Conquer Cancer Vancouver, BC | Norco | June 18-19 |
| CAN Road Nationals, Burlington ON | H&R Block | June 23-26 |
| Ride To Conquer Cancer Calgary, AB | Norco | June 25-26 |
| World Cup DH XC #4 Mont St Anne CAN | Dirt, Nick G, Catherine V, Andrew W | July 2-3 |
| Megavalanche Week, FR | Ludo M | July 2-10 |
| BC Superweek, Vancouver BC | H&R Block, Norco | July 8-17 |
| Ride To Conquer Cancer Montreal, QC | Norco | July 9-10 |
| World Cup DH XC #5, Windham USA | Dirt, Nick G, Catherine V, Andrew W | July 9-10 |
| 2012 Norco Product Launch, Vancouver BC | Norco | July 11-15 |
| Kokanee Crankworx, Whistler BC | Sam D, Darcy T, Jay H, Ryan L, Nick G, Norco | July 16-24 |
| Cascade Cycling Classic, Bend OR | H&R Block | July 19-24 |
| Crankworx Colorado, Winterpark CO | Sam D | July 28-31 |
| World Cup DH #6, La Bresse FRA | Dirt | Aug. 6-7 |
| World Cup DH #7, Val di Sole ITA | Dirt | Aug. 20-21 |
| Eurobike, Friedrichshafen GR | Norco | Aug. 31 – Sept. 2 |
| World Championships, Champery SUI | TBA | Aug. 31 – Sept 4 |
| BTAC Expocycle, Montreal QC | Norco | Sept. 11-13 |
| Interbike, Las Vegas NV | Norco | Sept. 12-16 |
