A day shooting with The Postal Crew in Squamish taught me about the stoke of bike riding.
The postal crew is a group of friends who love to ride bikes; it's that simple. Oh and they are all postmen. They are in their thirties, they are husbands, fathers, and homeowners. They are sponsored by their pay cheques and go big, not for crowds or contracts, but because they like to. I spent the day shooting with them for photos that will go on their walls and their moms' fridges and it was one of the most rewarding shoots I've done.
We met at 9am to start riding and shooting. 8 hours, two flat tires (truck, not bike), one explosive crash, some 4x4'ing and a lunch break later we set up camp chairs and had some beers while we took in the view of the inlet and mountains. We were waiting for the 'magic hour', when the light would be just right for the boys to hit the last jump of the day. They were still grinning ear to ear and talking about how great it was to spend the whole day being the subjects of a photo shoot.
I'd been impressed throughout the day by Billy and Darryl's skills, they hit gap jump after gap jump at my request, not even pausing at the top of a push up before going again. Now that we were set up, waiting on that right light for them to hit an even bigger gap jump in a clear cut, I was even more impressed at how much these boys were willing to push themselves with their riding.
After spending the day with them I found myself wondering 'why do we continue to push ourselves to places of high consequence when it's not our job?'. There's no financial reward, there's no fame or notoriety to go along with it, so what is our motivation?
I once had a friend tell me that he was upset when he woke up one day in his late 20's and realized he was never going to be drafted for the NHL, but he kept playing hockey anyway. So what drives us to keep riding our bikes, pushing ourselves to go bigger, go faster and ride more technical trails, when we know that we aren't going to be invited to Crankworx or win the next World Cup?
It's the stoke. It's the feeling we get when we ride a section of trail a little bit faster, land a drop a little bit smoother or stay in the air a little bit longer. Our motivation comes from those 'best day ever' experiences when all you did was ride with your friends. Spending the day with The Postal Crew was all about the stoke and I think that even when you ride for stoke instead of a paycheck, you deserve some recognition. Way to go boys!
