The van loaded with bikes and all our crap Sha and I headed on the road. We saw parts of Washington and went via the Sasquatch music festival back to B.C. where we stumbled upon Rossland – there were some cool dirt jumps that the locals let me ride and a sick launch into mulch pit to get gnarly on.
company and were hosted by Charles from Gericks who made sure we didn’t get lost. We rode Highballer, Placenta, Wake’n’Bake and Skiiers right and immediately knew that Nelson is almost as cool as our hometown Nelson in New Zealand. The next day we rode Shitaker – an amazing off the map new trail made by the locals featuring burly drops, hips and my favourite – riding down a burnt tree. Then it was off to Creston. We pulled up in the carpark next to 
the recreation centre where the event was being held and I was very much looking foward to riding the sick course that they built especially for the event. We camped out by a river just out of town and rolled in the next day to get some practice in. The comp itself was split into two days – the first was the qualifier. There were lots of local riders and also shredders like Geoff Gulevich, Phil Sundbaum, Casey Groves, Dustin Greenall and my man Gareth Dyer.
There were four different categories depending on age and level of riding so it was cool to give some new up and comers as well as younger dudes a chance to ride a wicked course. The qualifiers drew a big crowd who were wowed by the talent. Fifteen of us made it to the 
finals and I was stoked to be able to ride on. Unfortunately for us all, the weather was not in our favour and the day of the comp was rained off. We split the prize money and headed back to Whistler in one hit – a long 12 hour drive.
--Kelly McGarry
