After 10,000 crazy kilometres of driving (sometimes straight, but mostly in circles) and 3 weeks of camping, the Western Pro Team returned home! The trip was a lot of fun and some amazing exposure for the sport of inline boarding was achieved! A complete breakdown of the trip is being written as you read and will be added below as it is completed. You can find a slideshow of the best pics taken during the tour HERE.

THE TOUR BEGINS / EDMONTON TO WASAGA (June 10-13)

It was early Friday morning when Rob Fagan arrived in Edmonton after driving from Calgary. Mike Hachkowski had made his way from Sherwood Park and the three of us tried to fit all of our equipment in the Xterra quickly and efficiently as we still had Scott Schneider to pick up before commencing the trip. The goal was to have an empty backseat, while still cramming in four Dirtsurfer boards, enough protective gear and helmets for all of us and at least a dozen newbies, two sets of slick tires, extra decks and replacement parts, camping gear and clothes for three weeks as well as two Kitewings and two traction kites! It seemed impossible, but thanks to Mike's "Pit" there was room. That's not to say the SUV's shocks didn't take a beating! Even after installing an extra leaf spring in the rear to add two inches lift, the Xterra pushed water the whole trip so driving at night meant putting up with constant flashes of brights from oncoming cars. Oh well, there were more important things to think of - namely getting to Wasaga Beach within three days!

DAY ONE: Edmonton to somewhere near Russel, Manitoba - 958.5km
Not much to say other than it was a long drive with nothing to see except for the odd Saskatchewan skyscraper! Scott managed to get in a good sleep - you have to respect his focus on ensuring his energy level is at its peak for the riding ahead! We didn't stop until just inside Manitoba and after searching fruitlessly for Gopher World (a childhood memory of Mike's), we gave up and camped in a clearing off the highway somewhere near Russel.

DAY TWO: Russel to Thunder Bay - 1070km Another LOOOONNNNNG drive! Had a nice breakfast in Minnedosa, Manitoba though and met the local "Entertainment Manager." Everyone in Minnedosa has a Dirtsurfer brochure now so we promised to come back someday to ride the crazy number of hills during one of their annual festivals. For the first time, Rob saw the extent of Scott's diet as he asked the waitress to swap his eggs for ham, ordering a bacon, ham, sausage and toast platter! The "Welcome to Ontario" sign was a sight for sore eyes, and we all stopped to celebrate. Scott went a step further and crissoned the pullout around the corner with the pizza he had for lunch. You have to eat your vegetables man! We camped off an old logging road somewhere outside Thunder Bay.

DAY THREE: Thunder Bay to... Wasaga? - 1493km We took ridiculousness to a new level, driving all the way to Wasaga on Sunday. Thanks to the friendly hospitality at Fanny's for keeping our spirits up, we drove through the night and our first taste of rain until we got to Wasaga at about 7am on Monday!


WASAGA BEACH / BARRIE (June 13-16)

$50/person per night to tent in Wasaga!!!!??? We managed to find a more realistic site and bartered for $50/night for us as a group, but what the hell was the other site thinking? Once cleaned up and settled in, we headed out for our first taste of Ontario riding! There was no wind in Wasaga, so we checked out all the ski hills in the area and did some riding on Scenic Caves Road. Scott, Mike and Rob got three nice runs in before the ranger called in the cops to kick us off before "someone gets "fricken" killed!" Well, we got some nice pics! (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) If future riders stay in the right lane and use a follow car, we should be able to smooth things over.

We drove back to Wasaga and did a wind dance on the beach. It didn't work, but we got the attention of a NewVR reporter. We made plans to shoot some Kitewing action with him as soon as the wind picked up. A little more wind-dancing and a Toronto Sun photographer stopped by and organized a spontaneous photo shoot! A nice crowd gathered and were stoked on the sport, even when yours truly did a belly flop in a large puddle while attempting a powerslide through it... it was a sign of things to come (see Toronto). It rained the rest of the day and through the night.

On Tuesday, the rain continued and the wind was dead again, so we headed into Barrie where atleast we could find some hills to ride. We met up with Brent Johnson, our Ontario Sales Rep at his favorite hangout to organize the Barrie experience. We contacted the NewVR and managed to get them out that afternoon for a session at Sunnidale Park. Brent Johnson joined us for a shoot that went very well. We met up with Peter DaSilva afterwards and bombed some local paved hills in the afternoon. Letitia was a blast! Some nice, long winding runs down a main drag! The injury streak continued though as two riders fell during road runs. First, Peter, smiling for the camera, took an errant line too wide on a corner and had to bail onto someone's lawn. His Road Racer continued the run however, bouncing off two curbs and six feet into the air, taking a 90-degree turn and rolling straight across the road to take out Rob! Both Rob and Peter escaped with minor scrapes, but it made for some nice video (coming soon)!

After watching that night's episode of the NewVR News, we were dissappointed to learn that our segment was not aired! We consoled ourselves with some night riding. Taking us back to the Letitia area, Brent and Peter showed us some even better winding runs through residential! Another great time, but Mike took his turn on the injury list hitting some broken glass while skitching and nailing a garbage can! So after two days in Ontario, three out of four of us Westerners had taken a good fall and the rain hadn't stopped significantly since Sunday night! We were getting a little worn out and more than a little annoyed with the whole camping plan!

Wednesday. Will the rain ever stop!!! What could we do. We spent the day trying to hit a beer can with a frisbee, swimming and hoping it would clear up before our trip was over! Later that night there were severe tornado warnings in both Barrie and Wasaga so the day was shot. We had received news from the NewVR though - the reason they hadn't run our story Tuesday was because they wanted to do a more extensive story on Dirtsurfer! It seems the footage they got yesterday was enough to get them excited, but they wanted more footage to do a proper story. Good news! ...and even better news when we hit the beach in the morning - the wind was blowin!!!

The rain had not stopped, but Mike set up the Skimbat 5.5 and I got some beautiful pics before heading back to let the rest of the crew know. We all got a piece of the action and the wind held up for a good four hours, enough time for us to contact the NewVR and them to drive in from Barrie for an amazing shoot! Finally a Kitewing destination that paid off! We headed into town to round out the footage with another shoot at Sunnidale before calling it a day and beginning the next leg to T.O.!


TORONTO (June 16-20)

Arriving in Toronto late Thursday night, we were exhausted and crashed immediatley upon reaching our destination. Pro Team rider and Toronto Sales Rep, Matt Middleton had graciously offered up his home for our first, and much needed, indoor sleep!!!

Friday morning we were up early and began touring Toronto; checking out, riding and promoting the destinations planned for this weekend's demos. Riverdale Park was first on the list and proved to be a perfect demo location. A nice steep section, with plenty of rollers would provide numerous lines for those seeking a challenge. A second side offered softer grass and smoother runs, perfect for teaching newbies. We enjoyed a few runs and then headed off in search of High Park.

After a few J-turns (highly-skilled U-turn named after myself), we managed to find the right access point to High Park and the appropriate hill for demos near the Maple Leaf FLOWER garden (Not to be mistaken for Maple Leaf Gardens). This hill offered a shorter grass section than Riverdale, but when coupled with adjacent areas and walking/biking paths, would prove to be a lot of fun as well!

Next up, find the hill visible across the freeway from Riverdale Park. This took less effort than expected and was a nice riding area, but much smaller than the High and Riverdale. Don't ask us for directions. Matt is your guy at mmiddleton@dirtsurfer.ca.

Last task for Friday before Matt got out of work - place signs for demos at local skateparks. This one proved too difficult for our team as downtown Toronto and its crazy series of one-way streets got the best of us. The rest of the afternoon was wasted in traffic, however you could say it was well-planned "mobile billboard advertising."

Ahh Friday night - my favorite night of the trip! During a team meeting on Matt's deck that night, it was agreed that Riverdale Park was the best location for the Much Music shoot scheduled for Monday night. Problem was there were no natural kickers big enough to pull off any airs exciting enough for a national broadcast and no one had ramps. Solution: wait until dark and "solve the problem."

Saturday morning we arrived at Riverdale Park for our demo session and discovered a beautifully constructed dirt jump at the top of a natural kicker over a manhole! Nice!!! The rain had gone and our luck was changing... except for mine. Matt hit the jump, cleared the manhole and landed on the slope with ease. He did it a second time and then Scott hit it as well before I was ready to ride. Whether I was a little too over-confident, didn't check the jump well enough first, or was just late popping over it, I don't know, but I didn't quite land it "with ease" and was out of action for the day. From the pics taken and what I've heard it was an excellent turnout and a lot of Torontonians had a great time at the first official Toronto demo session!

Sunday morning, back in action and destined for another wipe-out, I joined the team for the demo at High Park! It was another beautiful day and we had another excellent turnout! There is a lot of skill in T.O.! Check out the pics starting here.

Sunday night marked the first annual Dirtsurfer Pro Team Yonge St. skate! Starting at Matt's place, we skated to the bus stop, rode the bus downtown where we took the subway to Yonge St. The MMVAs (Much Music Video Awards) were held that night in downtown Toronto, so the streets were full of people - not too crowded to skate though and perfect for exposure! Being hill addicts, none of us from the West were used to skating, so this was a very new experience for us in more ways than one! We rode with traffic on the road and on the sidewalks when the roads were too busy. Everywhere we went we heard the crowds yelling with excitement and when red lights stopped us or the crowds were excited enough we stopped and gave spontaneous riding lessons. It was incredble exposure and we went through stacks of brochures! Thanks must be sent out to the Toronto Police for being good sports - they were out in full force, but not one of them gave us any flack for riding anywhere downtown! We plan to duplicate these rides in more cities and hope the police will be as cooperative elsewhere!

Monday was time to relax and ensure we were all healthy for he Much Music shoot that night.

More coming soon...