THE NORTHERN EMBASSY

22 Feb

Posted at 18:37h in archive by

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At the beginning of January, Dan Irwin, Mike Carroll and myself decided to get out of the shit storm that is a Canadian winter and head for a ten day road trip through Cali. It’s always been a dream on mine to be able to go to there and it couldn’t of been any better. From sleeping in the ghetto, to staying in BMX sanctuary’s out in the mountains the trip had it all. I brought along four disposables with me but I lost one in Portland and the other had to be sent away. The photo’s below are from one Black and white disposable and a colo disposable from Sacramento to Santa Cruz. We got off to a great start for 2014 and now I just want to get back back out there.
– Kerr Bilsland


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21 Feb

Posted at 17:37h in archive by

Ryan Antle sent over the latest section from his Newfoundland video, Stranded, that he’s been uploading, and it’s of his 16 year old brother Corey. Usually when people use the age of the rider as a descriptor for a video I have a bit of apprehension about it, but I was really impressed with this. His manual pad game is on point, and there’s lots of technical ledge lines. This is Corey’s first full video part he’s filmed, and it’s definitely a sign of good things.

21 Feb

Posted at 11:36h in archive by

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Our friend and regular contributor Brad Hill is set to have a solo photography show next month on March 8th starting at 8:00pm. It’ll be at the Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catharines, ON so if you are anywhere in the Southern Ontario area we recommend you come out. He has been living in BC for the majority of the last year and will be showing a variety of photographs of his west coast life, which will be available for purchase, as well as a photobook and some other items. Come out and support this event.

19 Feb

Posted at 20:50h in archive by

Jesse Hildebrandt By Mike Zinger

It looks like Mike Zinger and Jesse Hildebrandt have been hunting for the perfect image. This little gem of a DIY mini was found in the rainforest of Vancouver Island. Throw in a stunt, scenic backdrop, and a few spices you have the recipe to a Ridebmx Focus feature. Go pick up a printed copy at your local news stand or check out the new digital versions Ride is offering.

17 Feb

Posted at 11:25h in archive by

After long last the DWOK Mixtape is finally out. This whole thing clocks in at just over 30 minutes but it felt like it flew by when I watched it. A number of full parts, split parts, and mix parts from Eli Taylor, Jack Leonard, Mason Gray, and a bunch more of London, ON’s finest. Creative editing, so many instances of great spot usage, great soundtrack, and the VX filming looked crispy. It’s great to see a crew investing so much time to create a unique end result that really stands out and shines against a sea of rushed web edits. Nothing felt fake or forced, DWOK is the real deal. This is a must watch.

15 Feb

Posted at 00:20h in archive by

The Hinterland from Least Most on Vimeo.

It’s February, and most of us have been buried by snow or have battled grey skies and rain for months. At this point, with spring just around the corner, I wanted to share this video that a few friends and I made years ago in Alaska.

In Alaska, snow hits in late September and melts in April leaving only a short period for riding and other summer activities. In a way, the winter defines the entire year. I’ve never seen a group of people live life as aggressively as Alaskans do in June and July. Walking around a neighborhood at 10 pm is different there. There is often a surprising number of kids out playing, there might be people out doing yardwork and if you want to, you can ride all night in semi-daylight.

I hope that some of you will watch this and be able to relate to it. Alaska is an extreme example, but there are lots of places in Canada with the same long winters and the same necessity to get out there and make things happen in the summer.

13 Feb

Posted at 17:27h in archive by

Saskatoon’s Peter Olsen may arguably be one of the tallest flatlanders out there, and he’s also one of few flatlanders supported by S&M Bikes. He has been talking about filming for a new web edit for them for some time now, so it’s great to finally see all his hard work come to fruition. For the unexperienced viewer (namely, people that haven’t ridden much flatland before), Pete’s riding pushes the realms of technical and complicated cross-handed and cross-footed rolling tricks. The link at 1:12 with a cross-footed turbined hang 5 to a backwards cross footed whiplash is unbelievable, and the death-truck ender may be short but I had to watch it a few times to wrap my head around it. A solid video through and through.

13 Feb

Posted at 14:56h in archive by

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California is typically known as the sunshine mecca of palm trees and warm sandy beaches all year round. Well my friend Cubby from San Francisco, who’s always on the hunt for abandoned pools and fullpipes, just posted this picture of this forgotten pool he recently tried to drain. Sadly the water in the deep end had frozen solid. A scene we here at the Embassy empathize with.

This photo was a good excuse to mention Full Frame Collective. It’s one of my favourite riding photo sites. With contributions from a small crew of talented guys who are shooting almost exclusively medium format. Going back with a couple years of archives, there’s some real beauts in there.