Month: December 2010

Quick pics from Detroit

 

Team dinner at Panera Bread
Team dinner at Panera Bread

 

True Color rocking at the Apple Store
True Color rocking at the Apple Store

 

Blais with the new Ambition iMac.
Blais with the new Ambition iMac.

 

Breakfast at Denny's
Breakfast at Denny's

 

Setting up a down rail in the slush
Setting up a down rail in the slush

Heres some quick pictures for now…throwaway edit coming soon!

Smagical SOTW

Max Factor Gets Down, and Dirty.
Max Factor Gets Down, and Dirty.

 This SOTW brings us back to the AMA/NATC Trials Nationals held in Calcutta, NY.  The point of focus, Max The Factor.  On this muddy day in New York he minded for new Sherco Pro Andrew Oldar.  The duo made a valiant effort in the New York slop.  They battled around the top five for the majority of the event.  Unfortunately, Max’s brand new One Industries gear didn’t fair as well.

Detroit Filming Trip

The Ambition and Icon Snowskate teams merged together in Northville, Michigan at the home of new Ambition Rider David Engerer for the first filming trip of the new winter.  Heres a few snapshots from day one.

Phil arrives in MI to the joy of Alex and Geeeyoooom Blais
Phil arrives in MI to the joy of Alex and Geeeyoooom Blais
About half the snowskates in the basement
Chance shows off half the snowskates in the basement
After the first spot, Subway was the place to be.
After the first spot, Subway was the place to be.

 

Phil throwing down a Front Blunt in downtown Detroit
Phil mid-Front Blunt in downtown Detroit
Importing the footage...Alex repping the Icon sticker?!?
Importing the footage...Alex repping the Icon sticker?!?

Smagical Acres EX and Trials, Pictorally speaking.

 

Phil Splatters onto Sherco MTN.
Phil Splatters onto Sherco MTN.

 

Splatter view number twooo
Splatter view number twooo

 

Phil in section 1
Phil in section 1

 

Pat hugs a tree with his sherco
Pat hugs a tree with his sherco

 

View two of pats tire made of glue
View two of pats tire made of glue

 

Phil back-tire hops through section 4
Phil back-tire hops through section 4

 

Phil squats the rear tire in section 4
Phil squats the rear tire in section 4

 

 

Phil holds the front wheel up over section 4 chunks
Phil holds the front wheel up over section 4 chunks

 

Papa Smage grabs some traction on the same slab
Papa Smage grabs some traction on the same slab

 

Max checks out Phil's "air wheelie"
Max checks out Phil's "air wheelie"

 

The TrialX class on the line
The TrialX class on the line

 

Max comes out with the first lap lead
Max comes out with the first lap lead

 

Trials X through the "Matrix"
Trials X through the "Matrix"

 

Pat passes Max Factor for the lead
Pat passes Max Factor for the lead

 

Once in the lead, Pat gapped the field, and the tube double
Once in the lead, Pat gapped the field, and the tube double

 

Max factor tries to hold on as fatigue sets in
Max factor tries to hold on as fatigue sets in

 

Pat chases the checkers as the dust settles
Pat chases the checkers as the dust settles

 

Papa Smage railing to a top 4 finish
Papa Smage railing to a top 4 finish
The big bike class in the early laps
The big bike class in the early laps
Phil wheelies the Matrix
Phil wheelies the Matrix
Philby exits the wood pit
Philby exits the wood pit

 

"The Moose" is on the loose!
"The Moose" is on the loose!

 

Phil leads past the EVS banner
Phil leads past the EVS banner

 

Phil gets loose over the EVS log
Phil gets loose over the EVS log

 

The moose at full gallop
Phil chases the Moose

 

Phil up the wall
Phil up the wall

 

The pitbike class off the line
The pitbike class off the line

 

Jake B through the firewood section
Jake B through the firewood section

 

Phil gets a front row seat to the battle
Phil gets a front row seat to the battle

 

Phil congratulates winner Jake Brellenthin
Phil congratulates winner Jake Brellenthin

 

Phil gives the moose a ride.  Props to the owners skills!
Phil gives the moose a ride. Props to the owners skills!

Las Vegas Endurocross Finale’

Packing papas van to the max (factor)
Packing papas van to the max (factor)

Ahhh, the Vegas Endurocross.  Vegas, in general, is a place where your either steaming hot, or cold as blue moon ice cream.  Luckier than a horseshoe-shaped, four leaf clover flavored lolipop, or feeling like a ditch-digger with a four leaf clover shaped shovel.   For the Smagical.com travelers, it was the latter.

  

 The trip started in a familiar manner, with a string of setbacks before leaving Smagical Acres.  Phil had lined up a Chevy cargo van from Norman at Al’s Auto Salvage to buy for the trip.  Unfortunately, the transmission (transmissions suck) guy wasn’t able to get the new transmission installed in time, so it was time for backup plan number one.  That began as the trusty Al’s Auto box van used to get to the Vegas Endurocross opener, but quickly changed to Papas conversion van with the purchase of his new truck.That lasted a long time…

 

   Backup plan number two.  Papa ended up trading the van in for the truck, and it sold the same day so he had to take it to the dealer for them to clean up and send out.  That set it back to Al’s Box Van, and yet another set back.  Norman was on vacation until the day after we left, leaving us van-less once again.  Enter Pitbike Paulie Harding.  He offered his van up for rental, and that put the crew with one final problem, a trailer.   After some awesome offers from some nice local shredders, the answer landed at Joe T.  The future Smagical Adventurer loaned out his double bike hitch trailer and all was set, for a few minutes at least.  Upon arrival back at Smagical Acres to load up, plans changed again.  Papa decided to cruise back to the dealership and snag his van instead of pack four people into paulie’s two seater van.   He brought it back, we loaded everything up, nearly ready to finally begin the 30 hour drive and we noticed the dealership had already removed the plates.  Feeling extra generous and noticing our sense of haste, Papa sped off to the dealership to snag em back.  And with that, the trip began.

smagical.com on the road again
smagical.com on the road again

Now a bit crunched for time, a competition sprouted.  In an effort to be sure to make the drive straight through, a prize would go out to whoever drove the most on the way there, and on the way back. Brittany took the early lead with a crazy 12 hours straight.  T Smalls and Karl Karleson battled mid pack, while Phil finished off the last stretch and brought the trip home to Pole Position Raceway just in time for a few laps of the Endurocross Pre-race party. After Karl won a sunday brunch at In-N-Out, the gang headed to pick Pat up from the Airport.  With only one loop around the terminals needed to time the arrival, things were looking good for a smooth weekend.

Wilbur, Novik, and Ambition all at Pole Position
Wilbur, Novik, Mantis, and Ambition all at Pole Position

The 6 AM sun stabbed its way through the Excalibur(wil)’s windows with as much acceptance as Lancelot had at the Round Table.  Pat and Phil had a sponsorship meeting with Bill, Tom, and Shelley from Vision Airlines.  The owner, Bill, is a Trials rider and enthusiast.  Tom runs Vision’s NASCAR racing efforts, and Shelley is the do-all-know-all-jack-of-all-trades-including-flying assistant.  The meeting went well as they were able to put some pieces of the puzzle together for the coming year.  The meeting ran a bit into practice, but the opportunity to be a part of such a forward thinking and motivated company as Vision was well worth any number of missed laps.  

Phil leading Tsmalls
Phil leads Tsmalls

   Aside from logging a few good laps in the morning qualifiers, Phil’s day was one to forget.  Just moments before the TrialX final, his Sherco decided to lock up.  This left Phil on the sidelines as he watched Pat wheelie his way to wins in both the TrialX main and the dash for cash.  His bad luck didn’t stop there, unfortunately.  In the 3rd corner of the first heat race his chain fell off…putting him a lap down in the process.

Phil during the day qualifiers
Phil during the day qualifiers
Phil on the gas for the Hot Laps
Phil on the gas for the Hot Laps

 The semi came around and the dark cloud lingered.  Just as he had worked his way into the top three, his rear wheel got wedged between two rocks in the rock garden.  A similar thing had happened in the morning qualifiers, and his chain had derailed in the process.  He whipped the bike out of the rocks and tried to get the chain back to functioning order.  

Dash for Cash start, Pat out-powered by the big bikes
Dash for Cash start, Pat out-powered by the big bikes

He hastily scrambled to figure out what was wrong, only to have GuyB (www.vitalmx.com) point out that the chain was crammed up into the chain guard and not actually off the sprocket.  Once again this delay put him a lap down and forced to play catch up.  Unfortunately time ran out and he was unable to make enough passes to get into the top five and transfer to the LCQ.  A huge congrats goes out to Smagical 2 cover boy Cody Webb for his first Endurocross podium with a third place!

Pat leads Ty Davis through the rocks
Pat leads Ty Davis through the rocks
Pat on the podium with Bryan Roper
Pat on the podium with Bryan Roper
Phil just moments before his chain derailed
Phil just moments before his chain derailed

After a quick bite at In-N-Out burger the crew headed to the airport and dropped Pat off for his flight.  Then it was off to the I-15 again to straight line it to Colorado to chase the powder, or so they thought.  Just over 2 hours into the trip the unthinkable happened, Papas luxury cruiser dropped the transmission.  Half-way asleep and fully confused on what to do, the crew backtracked 30 miles, at ten MPH, to the nearest civilization, St. Saint George, Utah.  The task: find Walmart and get some tranny slip oil.  After nearly an hour of smalls squeezing the contents of the bottle in, they found it to be a lost cause.    Next stop, Auto Zone.  They were certain it was a Fuel Pump Sensor,  but after buying one the certainty was lost.  After that, it was time to find a hotel and continue in morning.

On the road with EVS
On the road with EVS

First things first, Aamcco Transmission.  They solidified our thoughts of it being the tranny at fault.  Unfortunately, the $2,500 price tag on a new one was a bit over the budget of Phil’s winnings from the race, zero dollars.  The town of St. George has nearly every car rental place in existence…and after checking them all they came to the realization that they wouldn’t be able to rent a one-way car during holiday season.  There was nothing left to do but get some lunch.  While pirating the WiFi in the Wendy’s parking lot Smalls went in to get burger number 3.  He asked the cashier if she knew of any local cars for sale.  Just as he asked that a fellow walked in and the girl yells, “he will know of one!”  Surely enough, the guy did, and a mere two hours, and $500, later Phil was now the proud owner of a 1991 Saturn LS “Gas Saver”. 

loading up the "goat car"???
loading up the "goat car"???

Although the ride was definitely a looker with the fresh goat sticker, it had been sitting idle for 2 years, so the battery would not hold a charge. Next stop was the Shell Gas and Auto station to drop off the van and bikes.  The crew crammed everything into the four person Saturn that would fit…spare the skis and snowboards.  The only logical thing to do; strap the skis and boards to the roof with the moto tie downs.    Although it made the doors unable to close completely with the tie-downs in place, a little breeze was a nice thing after being stranded without a vehicle for a day.

Phil signs the van over
Phil signs the van over

 The Gas Saver rolled into Frisco, CO at 6 AM after driving through the night, maxing out at 25 MPH in the snow-covered mountains.  From there they hit a quick breakfast with Bryan and Erik from Novik Gloves, the coolest people ever, some say.   After breakfast they went out to jump in the Saturn and then realized that it was the one that needed a jump.  Without any jumper cables handy, Bryan lent the usage of his Novik Gloves truck for the days trip to Copper Mountain. 

Phil floats a method out of the fresh coloRADo powder
Phil floats a method out of the fresh coloRADo powder

The crew finally got what they came for, powder.  A foot of fresh snow awaited them at the Mtn.  After almost a full day of riding, it was time to hit the road again and make it back to Wisconsin in time.  It was actually pretty smooth sailing, as long as the car kept running, which it did.  A few days later and a lot of dollars fewer, and the “goat car” rolled back into Smagical Acres.

Powder slash anyone??
Powder slash anyone??

SA3 Teaser

Its finally here, the Smagical 3 Teaser.  After many, many technical difficulties, its exported and uploaded with few enough glitches to release.  Enough typing, we’ll let Trick Karl and Burwill do the talking!  Enjoy.

Smagical SOTW

 

Are there bindings on that snowskate?
Are there bindings on that snowskate?

Just a day after the Las Vegas Endurocross the crew stopped by Silverthorne, CO and hit up the skatepark to test out the Banshee Bungee.  On his second attempt on the down ledge Phil pressed out this Tailpress to the delight of Binz’s camera lens.  With winter here in almost full swing, we thought a “snowskating with bindings” picture was in order. Have a swell winter everyone!

Pat Rides the 2011 Sherco 290!

Pat headed down to RYP in Kentucky to pick up his 2011 Sherco 290.  Of course, he had to ride it around there a bit too.  Seems like the winter months are already getting to him, as he forgot that when you wheelie, your supposed to go forward.  Enjoy some crazy antics, PSF style.

Pre-season supreme!

In honor of a some recent pre-season snow sessions…here is the mother of all pre-season activities.  Dont snowboard on school busses, take school busses to school to learn things.  Lesson of the day, enjoy.

Smagical SOTW

 

Phil frontboards in Emery, Utah
Phil frontboards in Emery, Utah

This weeks SOTW brings us to last winter.  After a grand adventure at Ryan Villipotos motorcycle playland, it was off to Aspen for the Winter X Games.  It was around 1AM when the crew ran low on fuel in the middle of the Utah wasteland.  They limped the vehicle into Emery, Utah…H’Idalgo’s hometown. On the way to the gas station Phil spotted a rail at a church right downtown.  After a few minutes of shoveling away some excess snow, the cameras came out and Phil started to session it.  A few moments after snagging this front board, he changed it up to 5050’s.  Two tries later and he got one and “rolled” into the street.  Greeting him roadside was a friendly local police officer who insisted they were trying to kill themselves.  After a quick chat about Wilbur the backflipping goat, the cop simply said “have fun and dont kill yourself.”  Turns out sometimes cops are good at their jobs.