Paramount Bike Shop

Greetings again from Alaska!  Yesterday I stopped by a Haro dealer in Anchorage to introduce myself and see how they are doing.  Turns out it was a pretty cool shop that carries the full line of bikes from BMX to Steel Reserves and Threads.  Got the local info on the dirt jump and street scene from Kevin, one of the mechanics, and even helped briefly with a bmx bike sale!  I think a lucky kid ended up with a Haro X4.  Anyway it was a great visit and I look forward to coming back next year, hopefully I'll have a bike and some time for a ride.

Phil's FISE Interviews..

Here's a clip of Phil Sundbaum interviewing the riders at FISE this year...

Alaska

So I'm up in Alaska now for a quick family visit, and it just happens to be the same time as the World Beard and Mustache competition.  I think we actually met the guy that's on the poster!!  He's from Germany, obviously!  Actually when I started seeing all the contestants with their weird facial hair I thought I was in Portland!. 

One of the cool things about being up here in the summer is how long it stays light out.  I took this sunset shot at 11:00pm last night from my wife's parent house, pretty cool!  It never really gets totally dark here in the summer, just like dusk all night long.  It's great for riding and outdoor activities, but it definitely throws of my sleep schedule a little bit, I keep wondering why I'm tired and ready for bed but the sun is still up!!  Anyway it's awesome up here, I'll let you know if anything else cool happens while I'm here!

FISE Coursewalk Video

Here is the coursewalk video that we put together for Freecaster. There are some good riding clips from Phil in here!

Brian Miller clips

Here are some clips of Brian Miller from the last two days of riding. One is a digi cam video of him doing a weird tire ride at a bike park, and the other video was featured on BikeMag.com!

Brian Miller - Tire Ride from Haro Bikes MTB on Vimeo.

French Roadtrip

I don't know if I would call it "hazing", but we are definitely breaking in Brian Miller as a member of the Haro team. He's been over here in Europe with us for a few days now, and we are having a blast! He got some great shots today with Nico, our French photographer, and then we headed to our bungalow on the Mediterranean to relax for the evening. We have some sweet dirt jump spots lined up for tomorrow, so that should be rad!

We'll be posting additional photos on www.summerofshred.com if you want to play along from the comfort of your own home!

Haro in France

Summer Of Shred has landed in France! Phil and I are over here, and we've dragged the newest member of the Haro team with us, Brian Miller.

Today is just a rest day, we're building bikes at the hotel and getting all set for a week of solid dirt jumping, park riding, and a big contest (FISE) to cap it all over. Everyone is stoked...the weather is good and all of the spots are dialed! Stay tuned for more updates over the week..


This is our tourguide for the week....wish us luck!

Haro MTB is now on Vimeo and Flickr!

Want to see more Haro action, photos, and behind-the-scenes stuff? We are now on Vimeo and Flickr!

I just uploaded a collection of small video clips I took up in Oregon on our catalog photo shoot. These are really short and they aren't studio-quality since I took them with the video setting on my little digital camera. Good stuff though...lots of skatepark and jump clips of Porter, Phil, Blake, and Wilson. Check it out here!

We also have a Flickr page that we plan to fill with tons of photos. For now, I uploaded all the images I took of our photo shoot in Oregon. We'll be adding more images very soon! Check it out here!

And don't forget that you can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace to get all the lastest news!

Oregon MTB Photoshoot, Day Six

Today we made the short drive out to St Helen's skatepark; one of Phil Sundbaum's favorite parks to ride when he comes to Portland. It's a small concrete park right off the main highway with a lot of cool features the guys could do some tricks off of.

When we arrived, there were a couple of kids riding around. The guys got their bikes ready to ride while Pete and Aaron got their camera stuff dialed in. By the time everyone started riding, a couple more kids showed up on bikes...one was on a Haro BMX bike. Pretty soon, more kids rode up...on Haro bikes. The word must have gotten out because pretty soon, we had quite the audience watching us with many of the kids on Haro BMX bikes.

Phil, Porter, Wilson, and Haro BMXer Ben Hucke put on quite a show for everyone with their big airs off of the hips of the bowls. Phil got the party started by throwing down some nice tables...Porter answered by tailwhipping the same hip. Wilson was going big with tire grabs and tucked no-handers off of the opposite hip. All of the kids were pretty impressed by it all...you shoold have heard all the "whoas!" and "sicks!" that came out of their mouths every time the Haro guys would throw down a trick.

By the time Pete changed camera angles, our little audience had grown quite a bit. I'd say there were 20 kids there watching the action go down. While Pete was getting his flashes set up for a new angle, the guys chatted with all the kids and handed out stickers. Stickers are always a big hit and this was no exception!



After Pete and Aaron decided they got all the shots and footage they needed, it was time to wrap up the shoot. A couple of the kids asked Phil and Porter to sign their bikes, shirts, and hats, which set off a wave of autograph requests. I dug out some MTB catalogs from the trailer so the guys could sign those for the kids as well. Even Wilson, Pete, Aaron, and I were asked to sign the catalogs. I'm pretty sure every kid left the skatepark with a signed Haro MTB catalog and/or a signed bike or shirt. I heard a couple of kids say, "This is going up on my wall!"

Before we left, Ben Hucke decided to have a little race to give away his Rockstar hoody...not a race on bikes, but a race on foot. He lined up all the kids and made them race down the street to a certain point and race back. The winner would get the hoody. I attached some video...it was classic.

Once the race was done, we packed up all the bikes, said goodbye to the kids, and drove a couple blocks down the street to visit one of our dealers called The Bike Shop. It was really great to meet owners Paul and Cheri Lynn; they have done a great job supporting the Haro brand despite being a relatively small store. They had several Flightlines, Heartlands, and Haro BMX bikes on their floor. Cheri Lynn talked about one of the reasons they are there is to support the kids in their community. How cool is that? And it was easy to see that the kids support them...when I asked all the kids on Haro BMX bikes at the park where they got their bikes, every one of them said "The Bike Shop".

Tomorrow morning, we're shooting some dirt jumping at a local spot called the Grotto not far from our hotel. After we're done shooting there, we'll head back over to the Scappoose Trail to get a few more cross-country trail shots in the done pile.

Be sure to follow our shoot on Twitter! Our username is HaroBikesMTB.

Below is a collection of short video clips of the guys riding at St Helen's. Enjoy!

Oregon MTB Photoshoot, Day Five

Today's shoot started REALLY early...we were all up at about 5:30am and left Bend at 6am to try to catch the good morning light out at Smith Rock State Park, which is about 45 minutes outside of Bend. Since we were going to be heading back to Portland, we had to get our bags packed and say good-bye to Bend.

We drove to Smith Rock in...you guessed it...the rain. While it wasn't raining all that heavy, the sky was angry and cloudy which meant there probably wouldn't be any chance at all for golden morning light to shoot in. By the time we arrived at Smith Rock and unpacked all the bikes, the rain had stopped, but the clouds persisted. Not to worry...that's what flashes are for. Pete has enough flashes in his camera bag to light up Las Vegas.

We hiked down into the bottom of the canyon with 6 bikes to shoot. From the top of the canyon, we identified a trail on the side of a hill that looked like it would be good to shoot on, but Pete, Aaron, and I hiked up to scout the trail just to make sure. We ended up hiking about a mile up from the canyon floor up a fairly technical trail with many switchbacks, but were rewarded for our efforts by finding two awesome locations to shoot on. One was a tight switchback going down the west side of the slope and the other spot was high above the floor with a great view looking east. The downside to this great spot is it was quite a push with the bikes and all of the camera gear.




were nearly done with the shoot when we hear a voice screaming at us from across the canyon. "MOUNTAIN BIKERS!!! PLEASE COME DOWN TO THE FOOT BRIDGE!!!" It looked like a ranger. We quickly packed up all the gear and hiked back down the trail to meet the ranger at the foot bridge that crossed the river. It wasn't till we got all the way to the bottom that we noticed a small sign on a post indicating that bikes weren't allowed on the trail we were just on. Uh oh...busted. Sheepishly, we walked up to the ranger and he was actually very cool to us. He asked if we were aware that bikes weren't allowed on the trail and wanted to know what we were doing. When we told him that we were shooting some photos for our catalog, he said we had to obtain a permit to shoot on trails that aren't techincally open to bikes. He was kind enough to point out some other trails that we were free to shoot on if we called the park manager and just let him know we were there. Whew! No citations were issued. We rode down to one of the lower trails by the river, finished our shoot, and headed back up to the trailer to make some lunch.

Our next stop was one we were all pretty excited about...we were invited to go ride the indoor skatepark at the world-famous Windell's Camp up near Mount Hood. And since there aren't campers there this time of year, we were getting a private session since it's not open to the public on a regular basis. We were stoked!

When we arrived at Windell's, there was a crew working on installing some railing, but they finished up and then the place was ours. This park is really nice...it's set up more for skateboards and BMX bikes, but everyone had a killer time on the MTB's for sure. Porter did a cool footplant on the faux brick wall...Pete and Aaron both got good shots of him. Wilson, our new flow rider, was so stoked to be back in his element, so he just killed it. He was pulling some big tire grabs and bar spins over the hip for Pete and Aaron to shoot. Blake, who doesn't ride park all that much, was looking smooth and fast.

After riding for 2 or 3 hours, it was time to pack up all the bikes and head back into Portland. The weather is supposed to be clearing up, so our goal is to shoot some of the stuff we didn't get to shoot over the weekend because the weather was bad. Keep your fingers crossed that Mother Nature will be kind to us.

Ciao for now!

Oregon MTB Photoshoot: Day Four

This is going to be a short post because I have zero wireless tonight in Bend so I am posting from my iPhone.

The rainy, miserable weather finally broke this morning and gave way to blue skies. However, just because the sun was out doesn't mean it was warm! It was still pretty chilly out.

We started out shooting along the Deschutes River Trail which was just gorgeous. We got some really great shots of the Mary, Beasley, Sonix, Flightline, Xeon, and Shift bikes here.

After we were done on the Deschutes River Trail, we moved over to a trail area known as the COD trails. This spot ended up yielding some surprisingly good photos in the spot we shot in. It was a downhill descent with a chicane turn on the side of a hill which overlooked a sea of pine trees. From what Pete showed me, these images turned out really good.

Then we headed to the famed Whoops Trail to get some video footage with our Go-Pro helmet cameras. Awesome trail! We got some great footage that we'll post soon.

That's all for now...iPhone battery is dying!

Oregon MTB Photoshoot, Day Three

I haven't spent a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest, but the one thing I've heard about this area is all the rain it gets. Well, it's TRUE! We're here in Bend and were hoping for better weather based on what the weather reports told us, and we were foiled yet again!

This morning we met up with our friend Jaymo who knows Bend and the trails here like the back of his hand. He also knows some out-of-the-way secret trails that don't get ridden all that often. He recommended that we head out to this canyon east of town since it doesn't get the same rainfall as Bend gets in town. It was dry and not raining when we arrived at the trail head, but it was cold (about 40 degrees), windy, and the sky looked like rain was certainly on the way again.

We got all the bikes together and headed into the canyon which turned out to be as pretty as Jaymo promised it would be. Lots on gnarly, twisted pinon pines with great rock formations. Just as we found the first place to shoot, it started to drizzle a little bit. Pete quickly got his camera gear set up while Aaron Lutze filmed Porter and Blake a little bit on the bikes. Once Pete got his flashes set up, he banged out some shots of the guys and we moved on to the next spot.

By the time we stopped at the next shooting location, it was starting to rain a little harder and the wind was blowing a little more. It wasn't pouring down, but it was just enough to get the camera lenses all spotty and useless. Porter and Blake changed clothes and changed bikes and we managed to get a few more shots as well as a little more video before deciding that it wasn't worth continuing with camera lenses that were shooting images spotted up like leopards.

I have to apologize for the lack of colorful photos today...I have a really crappy wireless connection here doesn't seem to have enough juice for me to upload any images.

Oregon MTB Photoshoot, Day Two

After getting rained out yesterday, today we were finally blessed with some sunny weather. Since it did rain again overnight, we decided going back to try to shoot on the Scappoose Trail probably would not be worth it so we opted to go try to shoot some park/DJ stuff at some local spots as well as shoot the Metro bikes by the Waterfront.

Our first stop was the Pier Park skatepark which is a small park but has a really killer full pipe. The guys all rode for a little bit, but really weren't feeling it for photos or video.

We moved on to the Waterfront area to shoot the Metro bike we brought. Since the bike we brought was too small for any of our guys, we recruited our videographer Aaron Lutze to be our lovely model. We got some great shots. The Waterfront is really pretty...it has a bike path that tons of people were out riding, walking, and running on.


After we were done with the Metro shot, Haro BMX rider Ben Hucke took us over to the Grotto trails so we could get some dirt jump footage. When we arrived, it was clear it was jump maintenance and building day, so it wouldn't have been right to set up all the camera gear and ride while the locals were building. Shut down again! Nice jump area...it was clear the local riders put a ton of time in on the place.

We all decided it was time to get packed up and head over to Bend in hopes of getting better weather, so we loaded the trailer and headed out of Portland. We made it to Bend just in time to have a good dinner and some brews at the Cascade Lakes Brewing Company.

Tomorrow, weather permitting of course, the shoot continues.

Rain delays

Day One of the MTB catalog photoshoot up here in Oregon started with all the best intentions. Despite a little rain last night, the morning greeted us with fairly clear conditions. After grabbing some coffee and sinfully good baked goods at Stumptown Roasters, we headed over to Aaron Lutze's house to pick up the trailer and head over to the Scappoose Trail to begin our day of shooting.

Aaron has been gracious enough to allow his house to be our trailer and bike storage area. The inside of his house literally looks like it's been taken over by bikes. They are everywhere...in his living room, in his basement...I'm really surprised I didn't find one in his bathroom.

Aaron's living room

After a brief meeting about our itinerary for the upcoming week, we got the trailer loaded and headed over to the trail head. Before we started shooting, we decided to take a scouting run down the trail so we could identify some areas on the trail we wanted to shoot on. New Haro flow rider Wilson shuttled us up to the top of Scappoose and dropped us off.

The shooting schedule

The top of the Scappoose Trail has the most unreal view of almost the entire city of Portland. From there, we dropped into some really beautiful singletrack. The trees were so dense, it made it as dark as dusk. Everything is so green and lush...so many pine trees, ferns, and moss everywhere. The trail itself was just as sweet as the scenery around it...despite the rain we had the night before, the trail wasn't too muddy. We identified a few areas we wanted to shoot as we headed down the trail, eager to get the camera equipment and come back up.

A little more than about halfway down the trail, the conditions changed. The flowy, tacky singletrack turned into a mucky mess that was slicker than snot. You know the conditions I'm talking about...the kind where your bike just seems to have a mind of its own. Needless to say, this really gummed up the bikes were were on (not to mention our bodies). We were thankful that the bikes we rode down on weren't the bikes we were shooting with; the bikes we were on were a complete disaster.

Pete's bike. I'm pretty sure we could have made an adobe brick out of the stuff clinging to our bikes!

After slipping and sliding down the rest of the trail, we finally reached the bottom. The weather was starting to turn ugly again. We rushed to gather the bikes we were going to shoot with, hoping we'd have a break in the weather. Then the rain started. And continued. Eric Porter grabbed his iPhone and showed us the satellite image of the storm. It sure didn't look good. The rain continued to fall.

We made the decision as a group to call off the shoot for the day since we didn't want to risk frying any of the camera equipment this early in the trip. We packed up all the muddy bikes and muddy bodies into the truck and headed back to Aaron's house to re-group.

Over dinner tonight, we decided that we're going to leave Portland in the morning and head over to Bend early in hopes of finding dryer trails. If it doesn't rain more tonight, we may go to a skatepark on the way out to shoot there for a little while.

That's a wrap on today's action. Somebody please make the rain gods go away...or at least go pick on somebody else for a little while!

The End. This is why we see so many people with fenders up here!

Team Haro in Portland

20 hours of driving with the trailer in tow, creative director Pete and I finally made it up to Portland where we'll be shooting photos and video for our 2010 MTB catalog/line launch. The drive was fairly uneventful, which is usually a really good thing when you are on a road trip!

While the drive lacked in any sort of exciting events or crazy stories, the spectacular scenery was nothing short of amazing. We were both so amazed at how green everything is. It's a far cry from the brownish-greenish tones of the more arid region of Southern CA.

When we rolled up to our videographer and guide Aaron Lutze's house, there was a little pump track session happening on his backyard pump track. Pete and I both took a few turns on it, but Haro rider Blake Robinson made it look so easy. Here's a video clip of him getting some business done:




It's probably hard to see in this clip, but in the corner nearest me, he's leaning the bike so far over that his shoulder is almost touching the ground. Unreal!

Tomorrow we're off to the Scappoose Trail where we'll start our first full day of shooting. We'll also be visiting some local Portland area dealers.


More pics and video to come!