Submitted by Chew
My ride-a-long with Ryan Leech
Well it all started last monday with an email from Bania.
'hey ryan is down in california competing and filming Kranked 3.' so he drops me
ryan's email addy and i drop him a line, telling him the Berkeley campus is one
incredible trials course and if he's up this way i'd love to show him around. I
get a return email from Ryan whom I had been fortunate enough to ride with while
on vacation in Vancouver earlier this year, saying he'd see what his schedule
allowed.
I don't hear back for a few days and drop him my phone number at
home just in case. I go ahead and plan a trials ride on campus with some buddies
and thats what i think is going to happen until about 9.30am sunday. ring ring.
'hey Bryan this is Ryan Leech..." so the guys are going to film him and some
freeriders on campus doing some stunts. they had allready been to campus
saturday to scope it out. so we plan to meet up at noon. i call all my buddies
and they don't beleive me! One cool note is one of my new trialsin buddies just
moved out from arkansas and is going to school at the art institute in san fran.
his roomate is a film/video major and was going to tag along on the ride to take
some pics...nows he's got the hook up with some professionals! and they treated
him well and let him hang out and watch them work... too cool.
anyway so ryan
and caryn(girlfriend) show up and we scope out some spots on campus for him to
ride/film. We meet up with the film crew and they start working. the next few
hours were spent taking footage of some sick moves and freeride stunts. Ryan is
one of the best riders out there right now and a down right nice guy too. He's
super easy to talk to...like someone you've been hanging with for awhile.
Anyway...here's some ncie footage to offset my rambling...
railride
(3" wide) to column top and drop!
concrete
bleachers to rail to tennis court.
the guys playing tennis actually stopped
playing to watch!
Ryan then went on to thank them for letting him interupt!
too cool.
bleachers
to wall to wall to dirt transition drop.
hey that's stevorama's bike back
there!
i missed pics of one of the sickest thing i've seen done on a bike. he
shimmied up this tree leaning at about 45 degrees, stood up, got his bike
underneath him and set it up on the bashring and rear wheel. then proceeded to
hop up on his bike, get up to rear wheel and drop off! it was a good 10' drop!
crazy!
I got to borrow my office's digital camera for the weekend to get more
familiar with it's options and usage. boy did it come in handy. it has an option
for a 'motor drive' like on a real 35mm. 3 frames a second. so i peiced them
together to show you what big moves he pulled...i thought it came out pretty
cool!
All is all it was a good day. My shoulder is getting back to normal, i got to
ride trials again with a pro and a bunch of great guys, hang out watching a
video being shot, yack with the freeriders on their borrowed tricked out santa
cruz bullets with monster t's, magura gustav'm brakes.... and show them some
nice spots to ride in my own backyard! my turf is going to be in kranked 3!!!
Well i've taken up enough of your time...thank you for playing!
chew
