Yamafest 2011

Well it was that time of year again. Time to make the road trip to Revelstoke, BC to take part in a Yamaha tradition. For the last ten years Yamaha Canada has been putting on this event to to showcase their next seasons products for the snowmobile industry.

HillCrest Hotel Coast Resort  was Yamaha`s headquarters this year.

 But it is so much more than that.Usually on the Saturday up on Boulder Mtn near the "Sugar Bowl" they set up shop with all the next years models for you to test drive. The biggest attraction was getting to try Chris Brown`s Nytro with MCX 240 turbo installed.

Yamafest demo rides Sugar Bowl , Boulder Mtn

Here is the list of what they were demoing.
2012 Nytro MTX with all new Camo "Ascent" 2.25 track. New Drivers, Skis and Seat.
Chris Browns Nytro with MCX 240 kit
Apex EPS with MCX 290 kit
Apex XTX EPS 144
Nytro 153 SE
Venture GT
Grizzly with Tric Track kit(photo by PowderPuff)

Chris Brown`s 2012 Nytro with MCX 240 kit

 This year was a little different in that Yamaha and their partners were teamed up and offered up a mini passport porker run kinda thing. When you signed up to take part in the test rides you were given a passport. So starting in the parking lot and on the trail up there were check points for you to stop and check out what the partners have to offer. At each stop you get your pass punched.

Passport Partners were:
509  ( First stop)
BCA (Second stop)
Canadian Avalanche Center  (Second stop)
GYPA, Klim, FXR,  (Third Stop)
Yamalube, (Final Stop)
SRS and Revelstoke Snowmobile club supported as well

Randy Swenson assisting a demo rider

Due to some circumstances

BigDawg Shootout 2011 "Invite Only" did not pan out!

Paul tried to organize a low key ``invite only`` competition with a select few of some of the best riders in the Pacific Northwest. Supposedly a lot of big names in the sport were coming. But in the end not a lot of riders showed up. The weather was not encouraging for Saturday so that must have kept people from making the long trip.

It was snowing in  Whistler Village Saturday morning and visibility was  poor with  very low cloud cover. It did not look very promising at all. With a lot of the riders not showing up, the BDSO revival was pretty much dead. But for some of the riders that did show up the bad weather was not going to stop them from riding. This was a good thing for me.

I met up with Paul Gibbs, Cory Micku and some of  his buddies from Vancouver Island who made the trip. We all went up Brandywine to play in the trees. Well lets just say it was my lucky day. Weather was crappy in the beginning but just like it always seems to happen in Whistler the clouds gave way in the afternoon and the sun came out and with everybody else playing tourist in the village I was the only one out there with  camera gear to capture the action.

It was a blast hanging with these guys. All these guys can ride and they never stop. Just like the energizer bunny they just keep going and going. It was fun to watch and shoot.

The snow was great at the beginning of the day but got heavier as the day wore on and the sun came out and warmed things up. It was deep but heavy.

My first Roller Derby

 Well the other night I shot my first Roller Derby, it was my first bout. It was between the host team/league, Reign Valley Vixens and the visiting Armstrong/Okanagan Raggedy Rollers. It was the opening bout to kick off the season. It was held at the Abbotsford AG Rec Centre.

 

This being my first roller derby I was not sure what to expect when I showed up. When I walked in what I did see was all the sisters, friends and family  setting up the event. From laying out the track, to lighting , to putting chairs out for the spectators. They also had concessions, a beer garden and merchandising booths. These girls did it all and this was before they got ready for their season opener. It was  impressive to say the least.

Partial proceeds from the event went to  support the local  food bank and they raised 760 bucks Way to go girls!

If you have never been to a roller derby

Deep Fresh POW

More helmet cam testing

 It was dumping all last week and had the opportunity to go out Sunday. Hmmm what can I say, IT WAS FREAKING DEEP that`s what it was. We ended going up to Mt. Henning( Coquihalla Lakes Area) and good god it was insane. Everywhere you looked guys were stuck, on the trail, off the trail, it did not matter. Hell I got stuck going downhill it was so deep.

 

It could have been an epic day for me but unfortunately I had to ride a backup sled. What can I say it was and is a complete turd. It was so deep that the exhaust would clog up and it would drop a cylinder and well in that deep of snow leave me to the stuck gods. It was frustrating to say the least.  So finally giving up on riding I pulled out the cameras and let Paul play as I took some images.We also did some more testing with the Contour HD 1080P Helmet Cam.

So it could have been epic but in the end it was a fail for me. Guess I am a turbo snob. It is true though once you go turbo you will never go back. I have no intention of riding that 2005 900 King Cat ever again.

You Arctic Cat guru`s  have any insight on what can be done to make that sled run better feel free to comment below.

Thanks

Contour HD 1080p Helmet Camera

Well as you all know a while back I received my GoBandit HD GPS helmet cam. I was all excited for that camera because of the gps and skinning options for the gps info. In the end though the lack of options and more inportantly the poor video quality made me return it. Hopefully some software/firmware upgrades will fix it because I think this camera has potential.

I had to move on so I exchanged it for the Contour HD 1080p helmet cam. Now it does not have the options of the GoPro Hero HD and I think the hero footage is marginally better but not by much. I just preferred the design and ease of use of the Countour.

Here is a very boring video showing samples of the camera in action. It shows how it handles the brightness,transitioning from shade to bright  and at the end low light when the heli is dropping off the sled. The footage is straight from camera with no color grading etc. It was shot with the default out of the box settings in 1080p @30fps. I just wish the viewing angle would be a bit wider than 111degrees as compared to the 135 degrees when in 720p mode.

Youtube compression has degraded the footage a bit and some of the artifacts you see is not in the original footage.

Whistler +Bluebird Day+ Fresh Snow = Epic

Rider: Paul Gibbs          Sled: 2010 HCR800 Arctic Cat

Well it has been awhile since my last blog. I have been busy and that is a good thing. Had a chance to get up to Whistler this weekend, what can I say, it was a bluebird day with fresh snow. What more could you ask for............

Vancouver Motorcycle Show

Hey guys just a quick reminder that the Bike show is on this weekend the 20th to the 23rd  of Jan at the Abbotsford tradex. If you have not been then you are missing out on a great show. All kinds of stuff going on for the whole family.

                                          Click logo for more info

Here are the show times