You are currently browsing leishner’s articles.
Remember me? Hah. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted around here and I promise, there’s good reason for it. My life has changed a lot since September. I landed a rad new job with Crankworx doing all of the PR for both the Whistler and Les 2 Alpes festivals and I managed to sign myself my first, official, contract with a bike company (Norco Bicycles) as a member of the Norco Factory Team. These changes are a couple of dreams come true (so far) and have been awesome for a lot of reasons, a big one being that I’ve been able to focus my winter energies into getting serious about shredding on my bike in photos (and at a couple of races) when I’m not at work.
Some great things, however, must come to an end. I’ve been meaning to post a massive thank you to the Canadian DH Girls, more specifically to Claire and Strand. I joined this crew a couple of years ago and since then my life on a bike and in the bike world has evolved in the best way I could have hoped for. I owe a massive debt of gratitude to these ladies for including me in this program at the beginning and giving me a chance to share my stories with our kickass fanbase. We all have our own opinions about how to be a part of positive change for women in the sport and how to avoid that tacky “rah rah girl power” thing. I think that this blog and this crew speaks exactly to that. I am proud to say I was a part of celebrating a group of athletes in mountain biking. So…thank you.
I can’t hold up my end of the bargain on the site anymore, which is my reasoning for moving on. My work obligations combined with the expectation of my sponsors are quite time consuming and I’d hate to stay on board with this program and do it poorly. If you’re gonna miss me (ha!), you can find me at my original stompin’ grounds or sharing my stories on norco.com.
The funny thing about my new job. I spend days looking for photos for athletes in the Crankworx coffers and sometimes photos of me pop up. Pat Hui took this photo, our Intern at Whistler Blackcomb posted it. I still don’t think most people know this is a girl? Story of my life. 
Thanks dudettes. You’re rad and I all I can do is be grateful.
See ya out there!
I recently landed a very cool job with Whistler Blackcomb and I took some time to reflect after I got an email from a very together woman named Emily. I wrote about that here, but I thought I’d add her awesome photo here also.
Emily Sabelhaus shredding on her Norco Range.
I’ve also stumbled across this great, short, and worth the watch video of my favorite, Henry Rollins, giving some good old fashioned advice. This couldn’t be more timely, as I believe what he is talking about is what has helped me get me to where I am today. I saw Hank speak just last spring and wrote about it here, too. This does him complete justice.
I also just saw that Strand, Gunner, Jinya, Seb and Dan Raymond and I all landed shots in the upcoming Dirt Magazine that covers Whistler. Story by Seb, photos by Reuben. Stay tuned for shots not from Instagram!
This. Katie isn’t a Canadian DH Girl and certainly needs no intro but I think this should be seen by more eyes because she is amazingly ridiculous in it. I must say that when I felt this way in Vegas, I didn’t have such a big smile on my face! I wrote a slightly more detailed summary of my Interbike trip here but you should check this out in the meantime!
Off to the big V in a few hours to hang with friends, talk to sponsors and to work on a very cool long term project! Couldn’t resist a big lap down off the peak to get set for the desert, though. I can’t believe it’s mid September and we’re seeing 30 degree temps and mega-dusty conditions still! Not complaining, though – it really is so great out here these days.
Gunner and I at the top of Khyber Pass yesterday. Amazing lap.
So, if you’re not in Vegas this week, get your shred on! Other wise see you at the movie, kids…
Phat Wednesdays ended last week with the traditional chainless ALine party (if you’re hungry for a detailed Crankworx debrief, I wrote one here). It was great to have everyone in the same place again as the days get shorter and the weather cools off. I had one of the nicest ALine laps I’ve had all year: a major contrast to my Air DH run this summer at Crankworx, for sure. Quiet, hero dirt, no pedalling…ahhh.
I ended up taking the race that evening and the overall title, which was a nice way to finish off August. What I think was even nicer was podium’ing both in the race and the over with Strando. It was pretty sweet to have a cameo from Jill Kintner, too. I think having the likes of Jill make the trip for a race like that one when she’s still recovering from a big injury, in particular, is pretty great for our sport and our little series. The icing on the cake was Nick winning the overall exactly a year after he was watching us party via skype from an isolation room in the hospital while receiving cancer treatment. These are my two favorite photos of the night.
Adam Billinghurst. Goddess. (and winner of the open men for chainless Aline).
Note the very apparent difference in thicknesses of these two envelopes. Men’s Open 1st winnings vs Women’s Open 1st Winnings. We’ve got lots of ladies these days but mountain biking NEEDS MORE!
Nick Geddes in the background. I tweeted this saying his trophy is way more kickass than mine. I still think that.
In other news, I wanted to post a link to Discovery Channel’s Nerve Centre episode that features Whistler Blackcomb. I spent a morning of avalanche control with this team this winter as they worked to tell WB’s operational story, and I think they did a great job. Check it out! I’ve got a couple of shots in the beginning as the only girl with a frozen ponytail throwing shots during AC.
http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/nerve-center/season-2/nerve-center-2-whistler-blackcomb/
Until next time, hit the hero dirt (it’s September, silly!).
This little gem by Reuben of Strand and I made POD on Pinkbike today!
3 days of shooting at all hours of the day and night this past weekend and a tough day in the Air DH yesterday. Congrats to Claire, Micayla and Casey who sent it and Strand who PB’d on Aline. I was 5th on the day, but the real win was when Reuben won the Deep Summer photo challenge later last night. Here’s a link to see what our efforts looked like (vimeo won’t let me embed!). Phew. Now to enjoy the circus!
http://www.bikemag.com/news/reuben-krabbe-wins-deep-summer-photo-challenge/
Been a whirlwind around here these days. Just came back from Fernie to party for my sister’s wedding and am back in Whistler to send it on the big bike. Here are some iPhone photo highlights to bring y’all up to speed.
Strand, Parsons, Blancher (not shown) and I get together to do a little RaceFace shoot with Sterling “Cool” (as in “and the Gang”) Lorence.
Ugly light with RF team.
My dad had a bluegrass band play his community hall the night before and the night of my sister’s wedding. Rad.
Big news also came down the pipe for August. Very excited.
Now. Shredding!
Busy weeks! Strand turned 22 yesterday and Stevie Smith pulled a 2nd and Micayla a 6th at the Windham World Cup on Canada day. Speaking of 2nd place, it’s kind of my thing now – 2nd to different folks at every race this summer. Consistency is key, you see…
Thanks for always being out taking photos, Jinya!
I was also given this very nice note from a Dirt Series participant after awards at the GLC last week. Helped me see the bigger picture of my role in the sport…and made me think more about my friend Mike Robertson, who I wrote about here. He’s decided to retire from snowboarding and I wish him the absolute best!
Good luck also to Fanny Paquette, who is out racing in the rain at the BC Bike Race as I type and to all the shredders at Mont Ste Anne this weekend for the Canada Cup.
So much fun last week. Hot laps with a bunch of my favorite people and pedal-less racing down BLine! Claire got me by a bit less than a second and Lula followed us both – she was second last year in this race (her first ever) but didn’t want to podium with a chain again so she worked her ass off, figured it out and nailed it chainless! Ya Lula. It’s stories like these that make the Whistler Bike Park and Phat Wednesdays pretty amazing.
1 Claire, 2 Sarah, 3 Lula. Shawn Beaudoin photo.
Pre “race” hot laps on Bline (I look so gnarly here – hah!). Jinya Nishiwaki photo.
claire
daniceuyesugi
STRAND
micaylag
mirdoc
vaeav
