I was going to try and do this next post with some video from Whistler in it, but my netbook just isnt powerfull enough to edit 720p video without taking ages to process everything, so all of the video will probably have to wait till we get back :(.
The blog is a couple of weeks behind now so heres an update from Milwaukee onwards.

We flew from Milwaukee to Denver to catch our connecting flight to Seattle on Tuesday (2nd) evening. After taking the literail into the center of Seattle we caught our bus to Vancover to meet the connecting bus to Whistler. The journey from Vancover to Whistler has absolutly stunning scenery (which we recoded on GoPro and will have as time lapse in the video).
After reaching the lodge in Whistler we descovered we were in the room next to Toff (Dan) and Ed from Bath, bit random as I didnt even know they were out there at the time.
For Thursday and Friday we rented DH bikes to ride the mountain, with Rob (friend of Lex's) guiding us for the first day. Those 2 days were some of the best I have ever spent on a bike, with ski lifts up all day so you spend more time riding than traveling back up the mountain!
Friday night was Ed's birthday so everyone went out for a heavy nights drinking.
Saturday we just hung about the lodge most of the day (as we were in so much pain from hanging onto the bars over the breaking bumps) and went to ride the Whistler jumps in the evening, only for it to start raining after my 3rd run through them :(.

Sunday we caught the bus early for the journey back to Seattle where we checked into a hostel and I went off to find Tim at a bar whilst Lex took the literail back the the airport to collect the car.
That night we went out into Seattle to some bar with people from the hostel. was bit random with the back room full of oldskool pinball machines. everyone else seemed to get quite drunk off about 2 beers leaving us as the only sober ones, and all the bars close at about 1:3o and nowhere even clubs are aloud to sell alcohol after 2 :S

next day we rode Colanade bike park, under the freeway in seattle. It's quite freeridey with north shore ladders etc, but was still fun. heres a pic from there

Tuesday we headed to the other side of the water to get the usual postcard picture of seattle.
We then drove down to Portland and met up with a friend of Tims and went out to a few bars with them. The local specialty at a shop called Voodoo dounughts is a Maple Bacon donught with Maple icing and bits of bacon ontop. It sounds wrong but was actualy really nice.
Wednesday morning we got up early to go and ride Burnside Skatepark (from Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 & 3) and got in about an hours riding before the skaters turned up and told us to leave. It's an amazing park with so many different lines and nothing like anything i'v riden before. the next stop was Peir Park skatepark also in Portland. This is a Dreamands skatepark, its well set out and has a 22foot full pipe! we had a mess about in the pipe as it started raining and the rest of the park became slipery. got some good pics, the best being this one.

That night we drove down to a university town, Eugene, and went to a couple of bars there before carrying on our journey through the night to San Francisco. We stopped to sleep in the car for 3 hours as we were all too tired to drive for a bit, but made it to Lex's relatives house just outside San Francisco by 2pm on Thursday. Stuart (not sure what relation to lex, but the father of the family) took us on a bit of a sightseeing tour that afternoon to get good views of the Golden Gate Bridge and into town to Lombard street.
After a good nights sleep having driven all the night before, we woke up at 6:15 ready to go and race down lombard street. We got there for 7:30am and managed to get 5 races in before there were too many tourists and cars in the way. Heres a photo of the action.
We got some good helmet cam footage of the racing and I have done a rough dual view edit of 1 of the races (will do a proper 1 when im home and on the more powerful desktop) which I will upload when we are next on a good internet connection

Next morning we got some pictures with the bikes at the golden gate bridge before continuing on to Post Office trails at Aptos (which unfortunatly wern't really riding very well as all the locals have been away at other comps recently) and then onto Santa Barbra.

Next update coming from Lex...

Florida and new Rays Bike Park

Been a bit slack on updating this, didnt have any internet in Whistler so heres an update!

On monday we went to Wet 'n' Wild warterpark in Orlando. its ment to be the best one but tbh it was a bit small with only a few good slides.
We went to have a look at Vans skatepark in Orlando but bike night was Tuesday night so we decided to hang about for another day to ride it. spent a boring day doing laundary, then watced The Expendables to kill time till bike night. Vans skatepark is fairly sick, fully air conditioned in an indoor shopping mall so amazing to ride compaired to the 95degrees F outside! Rode for about 4 hours, left at 10 and drove halfway to Miami before finding a hotel.














Wendsday morning and we got to Miami Beach for about mid day. Such a nice beach and the water is as warm as being in a bath! Most people there seemed to be English or european, as the American holiday season is over. Checked into a Hostel on Miami beach and signed up for the club night they were heading too. Lex didn't get into the club, and after finding it was $20 (£14) for 2 beers I left to go to some other bars with Marta, a Polish girl who was also staying at the hostel.

Thursday we drove all the way down to Key West. Was a boring long drive and theres not much there, but we can now say we ahve been to the southern most point of the US. We drove all the way up therough the Everglades to Naples before checking into a hotel. unfortunatly we didnt see any Aligators, although I was sleeping for most of the drive.

We wanted to ride Naples skate park on Friday, but as with all the parks in Florida they are not just open access like public parks in the UK. Naples park was fenced off with access to the park through the community center and when we tryed to go in we were told that it was a Skate day an no bikes till Sunday, even though there was only one kid in there on a skateboard. So frustrating as it looks like the most amazing park ever!

We headed on up to Tampa to stay with Kate (former PHd student of my dads) who had just moved into an amazing new appartment overlooking the sea in a gated community.
We headed down to 4F Bike park in Bradenton, FL, on Saturday. It's a fun indoor park with some cool features that is about 6 months old. All the locals there are really cool meaning that the atmosphere makes it a really enjoyable place to ride. no pics of this but got some good gopro footage which will go in the video when i eventually finish editing it!
That evening we headed out in Tampa n had quite a good night although I got a bit too drunk towards the end :S.

Sunday was the flight to Milwaukee to meet up with Joe again. We spent Monday and Tuesday getting a sneak preview and ride of the new Rays Bike Park which opens there in November. Trek are keeping it all under wraps until opening and so we couldn't take any photos or video. Although it's not finished it is looking absolutly amazing and the stuff we did ride was the best wooden features I have ever riden. I'v already had a look at plane tickts to maybe go and spend a few days riding it in January after my exams if anyone wants to come?

Timmy says word!

hey. iv just joined up with these slackers in Seattle.

they havnt updated this blog much of recently mainly because they havnt taken many photos. well other than the ones of lex in the gay bars.

heres a pretty photo of a building in Seattle.........






thats the last boring photo i will post i promise............LOADS of riding shots to follow in the coming days. if im ever sober enough to hold my camerea!


peace n love

Tim xx