The Real Team Pralex
Everything you ever wondered about Team Pralex answered here, in our 30 question either/or quiz!


Partying

1.Beer or Whiskey
Alex: Beer!
Prasheel:Whiskey!
2.Upscale Bar or Dive Bar
Alex: Always ballin’
Prasheel: Always divin’
3.Dance Club or Sit Down Pub
Alex: Dance or die!
Prasheel: Pub life!
4.Hangover or Less to Drink
Alex: MTV Hangover Parties for sure
Prasheel: Haha, gonna be the responsible one and say ‘less to drink’
5.Go out with: a lot of people or a small group
Alex: More the merrier!
Prasheel: Big group…although we don’t have many friends, so its usually small group.
6.Making out on the Dance Floor or Taking Pictures of it happening
Alex: Definitely taking pictures of it happening, so gruesome
Prasheel: Who takes photos of make outs? That’s weird.
7.Shots or Drinks
Alex: Whiskey sours ftw!
Prasheel: Drizzinks.
8.Stage Dancing or Stay on the Dance Floor
Alex: All about that stage dancing son
Prasheel: Stage dancing, because more people can see the dance skills Allah blessed me with.
9.Buy Drinks for Girls or Buying them for Yourself
Alex: Girls buying drinks for me!
Prasheel:Why would I buy a girl a drink?
10.House Party or Bar
Alex: Nightclubbin!
Prasheel: Bizzar.

Fashion

1.Suspenders or Belts
Alex: Shoelace or Suspenders, fuck a belt.
Prasheel: Really skinny belts that can also lace up my shoes.
2.High Heels or Flats
Alex: Definitely not mad at heels
Prasheel: High heels give me blisters, so flats.
3.Fashion or Function
Alex: fashion Fashion FASHION
Prasheel: Fashion.
4.Skinny Jeans or Wide Legged
Alex: Death before super baggies
Prasheel: Skinnies.
5.Collared Shirt or V Neck
Alex: v-neck
Prasheel: V neck.
6.Winter Outfits or Summer Outfits
Alex: Fall/Spring
Prasheel: Tough call. I look good in layers, so Winter?

Relationships

1.Younger or Older
Alex: Not picky, haha
Prasheel: Age is just a number lol
2.Emotional or Physical
Alex: What are these emotions you speak of?
Prasheel: Physics!
3.Blonde or Brunette
Alex: BOTH!
Prasheel: Hair dye can do wonders…but I prefer brunettes.
4.Riding or Girls
Alex: *see inside of my arm*
Prasheel: Riding
5.One Night Stands or Relationships
Alex: In between?
Prasheel: Neither.
6.Movie Date or Shopping Date
Alex: Shopping!
Prasheel: I fall asleep watching movies, so shopping.
7.Pay for Everything or Split the Check
Alex: Depends on the bill, and the girl, haha.
Prasheel: Split the check…I support women in their search for equality!
8.Texting or Phone Calls
Alex: BOTH!
Prasheel: Text-life.

Other

1.Coke or Pepsi
Alex: Pepsi ONLY
Prasheel: Rum and Pepsi just sounds funny. Coke.
2.Day or Night
Alex: Ride all day, party all night, repeat
Prasheel: Day.
3.Hot or Cold
Alex: Red Bull girls in Atlanta, lolol
Prasheel: Singing hot hot hot!
4.TV or Movies
Alex: Movies
Prasheel: I fall asleep to both easily…I suck at life.
5.Road Trip or Take a Plane
Alex: BOTH!
Prasheel: Both have their advantages and disadvantages…but road trip for cost-effectiveness and countless good times.
6.Dogs or Cats
Alex: Cats
Prasheel: Cats!

Pralex Nightly Style and Ground Tactics Video

Nightly Style with Alex and Adam!



Ground Tactics Video:

Ground Tactics - Alex Poirier from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Pralex Back From Atlanta!

We're back! A great time with great people! It was awesome to see Alexis again, as its been awhile since we got to ride with him, and he's been having some knee problems recently, but seems to be doing better now! The trip started over a week ago for Prasheel when he decided to come down to Petrolia early and party and ride with Alex.

After an initial weekend of partying in London with our new manager Kim, we came back to Petrolia and started a week of riding. Alex hadn't rode in ages due to illness and injuries, and was still getting over some rib problems, but rode anyways! Getting warmed up for the Atlanta jam so we could be in best form for our ATL counterpart Alexis.

Adam Jakomait (unofficial team member) and Steve Lapsley (organizer of this years North American AM Circuit) met up with us in Petrolia on Thursday night so we could leave bright and early on Friday morning. Alex worked Thursday night at 11pm and finished Friday morning at 7am. So as soon as he got done work, we hit the rode, van full of riders, driver, and team manager, we got underway. Alex quickly fell asleep as he had been up all night, and missed the majority of the drive.

After what seemed like endless hours of open highway, we made it to Atlanta around 9pm. We thought about heading to some clubs, but didn't really know where we were, and we were tuckered out from the long drive, so we shared some alcoholic beverages, until Alexis and Billy (ATL crew) showed up and we chatted about this and that and got caught up. We then all passed out pretty quickly.

The next day we got up surprisingly early, and headed to the Waffle House! After a delicious breakfast, we headed straight to the jam spot...And being the amazing Team Pralex, you can sure as hell bet we were the first riders there! We were all SHOCKED at how warm it was, and began riding as soon as we got our bikes assembled.
Not long after rider after rider showed up, along with Prasheel's new frame and a bunch of new clothes for Alex! Thanks Rick and Alexis for the help with that! The jam quickly became pretty big, and riders from all over were killing it.

After getting a ridiculous amount of free stuff, and a nice session with Isaiah Jordan and Alexis, we headed back to our hotel to shower up and start slamming drinks. We quickly started getting intoxicated then headed to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner (which was ridiculously delicious!!). We then went back to the hotel and called for a cab. The cabbie showed up, and DIDN'T KNOW WHERE THE CLUB WAS! He didn't even know where the bar district was!!! He picks us up at a hotel, and was asking us for directions?!? After the most frustrating cab ride ever, we got out and just started trying to find the club ourselves, which was pretty easy surprisingly.

We get into the club, and immediately run to the bar for drinks. Now I'm usually pretty impressed with the strong drinks I recieve at Jack's, the bar that has become our regular stomping ground in London. But MJQ seriously mixes some heavy drinks. I couldn't believe it, a few drinks later and the rest of the night is a big haze. Dancing to some awesome tunes provided by AC Slater and the DJs that opened for him were great as well. Definitely wasn't complaining about the gorgeous girls on stage either.

After all this we get back to the hotel and hit the hay. Waking up the next morning, which turns into all of us nursing hangovers and hating our lives for most of the drive. All in all, an awesome trip...30 hours in a car for 40 hours in the city...WORTH IT! Thanks ATL crew for an amazing jam and an amazing time!

Newest Pralex Product

Welcome to the Pralex Underwear line! One pair will be auctioned off in Atlanta this weekend! EXCITEMENT!

Pralex Gets Managed! And Goes to Atlanta!

Team Pralex has been looking for someone to represent them and add some legitimacy behind our team for quite some time. After continually partying, travelling, and relying on Kimberly Dobbin, we have officially made her our team manager. What does this mean for you? Well first off, it means for consistent updates on our blog! It means we have a website ready to go, but we are still waiting for the right moment to launch it, so stay tuned for that!

Kimberly joined us on our trip to Texas in February, and has mad the trip to several Toronto contests, she constantly sets us up with places to sleep, calls us cabs, makes sure we don't get in fights or die while out at the bar. Essentially she is like our team Mother, and will be joining us in Atlanta to ensure our survival and that we don't forget our passports!

And yes! We are going to Atlanta this coming weekend! It'll be nice to escape the harsh Canadian winter (that hasn't seemed to arrive yet) and ride with team rider Alexis who has dearly missed his Canadian counterparts, although struggling with some injuries currently, we hope he can ride for the jam.

In other news Prasheel will be riding a new frame soon, stay tuned for pictures, lolol.

Also, here is a ridiculous video of Pralex partying in London during Flatsgiving weekend...Don't ask why half the screen is green, we were too lazy to fix it, so here it is along with Prasheel's 2nd place Global-Flat Online Contest Video!

Pralex presents...The Brownprint (Updated) from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Pralex Parties On Flatsgiving from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Pralex Is Not Dead...

Okay, no posts forever, I know. So here we go. First of all, Prasheel has been making videos like its his job. So you might ask, "Well why then is he not updating the blog with them considering he has no job, no girlfriend, and literally does nothing everyday?" Well folks, you'd have to ask him, haha.

Pralex is heavily involved in drama on Global-Flat right now because some people are morons, it's pretty hilarious actually.

Alex was named "rider of the month" on global, hurray! Interview should be up soon, hopefully after all this drama blows over, so my interview can start a whole new wave of drama.

Pralex is slowly but surely planning their trip to Atlanta. Alex and Andy are both 21, and super excited to get hammered as hell for the first time in America.

Alex is visiting Ottawa this coming weekend for Halloween, whether or not any bike riding will take place is anyones guess as weather has sucked a bit lately and Alex has pnuemonia, haha.

Alex (I) would like to apologize for switching between first and third person multiple times on this blog post, now here are a bunch of videos from the past couple weeks:

OMG Prasheel does jumplashes! from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel is good at biking! from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Alex Learns Whiplash Variations! from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel's Going In from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

"This is a segment from a documentary about our BMX contest, the JoMoPro. This Documentary features the action of JoMoPro 2009 an event that took place at Autumn Ramp Park in Joplin, MO. Thanks to FuelTV for putting this documentary together for us."


This is from JoMoPro in April, footage that aired on FuelTV (like espn but only in the States unfortunately)...See if you can spot Prasheel and Alex tearing it up!

JoMoPro 2009 Documentary (6 of 7) from JoMoPro BMX Contest on Vimeo.

Alex Learns Prasheels Tricks Part Two!

The second installment of Alex learning Prasheel's tricks. This time Alex ups the ante and starts combining tricks from the first video and improving upon what was done in the first video! Ahh...The hilarious smell of progression.

Alex Learns Prasheels Tricks Part Two from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Alex Learns Prasheels Tricks

So over the past while, Alex has dearly missed riding with Prasheel, so he decided to take Prasheel's place, and learn his tricks! Haha, fun times ensue!

Alex Learns Prasheel's Tricks! from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Pralex Vimeo!

The Pralex Vimeo page now has over 12,000 views! Holy cow thats a lot of video watching! Just thought I'd say thanks for checking out our videos and blog and all the other crap we do in the lovely world that is the internet...

Also, Alex will be attending a skatepark opening this weekend which is also holding a skate/bmx contest, so he'll be doing some filming there and maybe throw a little edit of his weekend together from that. The contest is taking place in Oakville and should be a good time. Story/Video/Photos to come after this weekend!

It's been awhile!

Heyo! It's been awhile since we posted anything, so here goes! First off! I (Alex) visited Ottawa to film for upcoming video, and celebrate a year of Pralex fun! Unfortunately it rained the entire time I was in Ottawa...Literally! So instead of filming, we went and got matching tattoos! That's right folks...The 'ROB ROE' movement is official! See here:



So after that we partied ridiculously hard, and I forget a lot, but that's what we do! Also, the second part of the Pralex Web Video was finished, with a big juicy part by Cory Fester! Check it out!

Pralex Spring/Summer Web Edit Part Two from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Pralex Web Video Part One

Pralex Spring/Summer Web Edit Part One from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

A crappy video I posted for an online contest:

Global flat battle video 2 from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel is now in PEI, so watch out for some updates from him along with a video for his online battle as well.

Prasheel in Oman: The Home Stretch/Final Chapter

So I finally made it to the 29th and final day of shows. While it has been a long month, it's also passed by rather quickly. Overall, it's been another really interesting experience, but I also could have lived without not being out here for so long. As it would occur with any group of people, some tension has developed between some people. Some of the guys I get along with great, and if I had to, could spend another month with them doing shows, but others, I don't necessarily feel the same about.

The past few days have been a LOT better, as we've been waking up early (well, I've always been getting up around 9am, while others sleep in till 3-4pm), and going sight seeing around noon. A few days ago, we went to Maghsail Rocky Beach, which is a super epic spot, with a huge rock, and lots of blow holes. Yesterday, wasn't as epic, but we went to Ayn Garziz I believe. We wanted to go to a spot with water where fish swim around your ankles, but our driver, Mohammed, took us to the top of a mountain and said the water was a 2h walk down. We also went to another cool spot with caves after that. Today, we went to Kattak, and then Khor Rori. Kattak had some water, and a cave up top, and Khor Rori is the remains of this super old palace from like 6000 years ago.


Now, I will list random facts about Oman and my stay here:

My neighbour has a rooster, so if I'm awake around 4am, its hard for me to sleep.

Neighbour also has goats in his backyard, which like to shit whenever I go out to ride flatland in front of the house, which smells terrible.

We have two bathrooms in our house, but one toilet consists of a hole in the floor and a hose for cleaning up.

Six men living in one house for 30 days results in a messy house.

Omani people are very rude, and aggressive when it comes to wanting to see me ride ramps.

Parents let their children do whatever they want, including allowing them to run up and down ramps and kicking my bike.

When we do shows, we usually have a fenced off area. Here, we have lengths of string around waist height to keep people out of our area. Children and parents alike do not understand the meaning of such, and walk through the area whenever they feel like it, opposed to walking a couple extra feet to go around.

Just like in Canada, I'm apparently a ghost when I'm riding and people try to walk through me.

Men are not allowed to show any public displays of affection to women, including their wife, but it is perfectly normal to kiss another dude as a greeting, or walk around holding his hand, lol.

You can find shawarma making places everywhere, same with people grilling kebabs.

When people are sick, it is common belief that they have a ghost in them.



So, tomorrow, I get to start my journey home. It consists of 1.5h flight to Muscat, a 3h layover, a 1h flight to Abu Dhabi, 1h wait on the plane there, a 6h flight to Amsterdam, a 10.5h layover to explore the city, a 7h flight to Montreal, a 1.5h wait, a 2h busride home to Ottawa, a 10h layover there, then head to Charlottetown, PEI on the east coast via a short layover in Montreal.

Basically, 20h of flights over a 3 day span or something, with a bunch of time zone changes involved as well. I'll be out in PEI for a week though, and start shows the day I arrive (actually miss out on 2 days). Should be a great weekend all over the world, haha.

Prasheel in Oman: Great Times!

A while since my last update, and a bit of a change of pace since then. While the regular routine now is pretty much the same as before, I just stopped giving a fuck about everything other than riding. I usually get a couple hours in on the terribly crowned and sloped road outside of my house in the afternoon, and then once arriving at the show site, it is rare for me to stop riding for the couple hours we are there, only really slowing down when the team comes out to warm up 10 minutes before show.

A couple highlights over the past week include the fact that I finally got to go to the Crown Plaza Hotel/Resort. After our 14th day of shows, about the half way point, we headed there one night to celebrate. While drinks aren't cheap there, I didn't mind spending over half of my per diem for the week to get some whiskey in me. We first had a couple drinks in the bar there, while three asian singers, all dressed the same, sang some pop hits including Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and various other types of music...it was pretty terrible.

After that, we got some more drinks and headed down to the beach. After taking off my shoes and socks, and emptying my pockets and rolling up my shorts, I ventured in to the Indian Ocean with some rye and coke in hand. Definitely the highlight of the trip so far, as we finally took advantage of where we are in the world and what it has to offer. After that, headed back in to the bar, chatted with some locals, had some more drinks, yay yay yay.

Our sketchy driver Mohammed, six days after we gave him money for some whiskey, and one attempt to give us brandy instead, he finally came through with it. He immediately came inside and started drinking with us, despite the fact that his 'loving' was upset and calling him, lolol.

Uhmmm, we got our weekly allowance for food the other night, 35 rials (which is about $100+ CAN, and can easily feed two people for the week), and I managed to blow through 21 rials of it in one day, hahaha. We went to the mall that day before shows, and the market tent at the fair was open to us that day (its only open to us two days a week...the day before we get our allowance, and the day after), and we got Pizza Hut Delivery which was delicious. Oh yeah, I got some whiskey for myself from Mohammed, as Julien managed to score a hook up for beer through his pseudo Omani girlfriend.

Speaking of girls, the team and I made friends with three interesting sisters that work at a perfume/cologne/incense booth right next to us. Really sweet Muslim girls, they enjoy our shows and stuff, and like to give us good deals and even free gifts. Ben got a flower, Ben, Devin, and Matt got cologne, as a group, we got some incense and charcoals, and I got a flower, some candy, icecream, and a pseudo-awkward waffle date (lolol), all from the middle sister. Their english isn't great, and neither is my arabic, but we usually go over to talk to them once a day just to say hello.

But, for the most part, I just ride my bike. I've adapted quite well to the heat I guess, as I can ride for over an hour now without feeling like I'm going to pass out (compared to the 20 minutes on the first day). I pretty much shaved my head and found that to help a lot too. Ridings lots, but not necessarily too well, but hoping to get some footage before I leave. Possibly look for a collaboration effort between Alex and I as he'll be editing up the riding and random footage from my trip.

Oh yeah, more photos!


Me rockin my new glasses while repping Joe Mamma while enjoying some drinks at the Crown Plaza with the team.


Jumplash to inside steam on our street. Photo by Heinz Kauffman.


Whiplash to halfpacker, next to the dirt lane to our street. Photo by Will Fisher.


Halfpacker flip to inside steam. Photo by Will Fisher.

Pralex Goes to Voodoo!

Myself (Alex) and Alexis have left Voodoo, more stoked then ever. Alexis got 4th, and I got 5th! Awesome job by team Pralex! But lets be honest, who wants to hear about the contest? Let's hear about the other adventures!

So its Wednesday night, and I'm packing before I have to leave for work (I work 11pm to 7am). I go to work, move boxes, what have you, then I return home for an hour, get cleaned up, and head out to the airport! Unbelievably tired I drive to the Detroit airport (2 hours from Petrolia). I wait to board my plane, then I fly out to Charlotte, North Carolina. Not knowing much about Charlotte, I was pretty shocked to find out how huge the airport is. I eat some food, and then board my plane to New Orleans.

I arrive and grab a cab to the hotel, texting some riders to find out who is already at the hotel. I get in touch with Tyler Gilliard and his girl, and we start putting our bikes together. I then get a text from Jim McKay (whom I'm supposed to stay with) that they broke down and won't be making it that night. So I have to find a new room to stay in (please god don't make me stay with Tyler and his girl, hahaha), so I get in touch with some of the other Austin, Texas guys, and they have some floor space for me! Sick!

Tyler and I along with several others try to ride, but who cares about bikes, lolol. The next day, I awake and the Austin guys want to go ride already (are you serious?!). I tag along not really wanting to ride at all then it starts pouring rain. We head back to the hotel, and I meet up with Jim and Josh and we go get some delicious Po' boys at a nearby place. We meet up with some more riders then head out to the pre-jam where everyone was killing it.

After the pre-jam we head out to eat on Bourbon St. with Aaron Frost, Matthias, Raph, Viki and some other guys. I ate the spiciest Shrimp Creole I've ever experienced, Aaron and I were both dying from eating it. After we start grabbing some drinks I head back to the hotel with Matthias, Raph and a girly. I go find Alexis and he's in bed (wtf?!?). So I wake his ass up and make him slam some beers with me while we catch up and get stoked on the next day. Finally I decide to go to bed around 2 or 3am or so.

Wake up the next day at 9am to find out I've been placed in the first qualifying group...Ughh...Too early to ride bikes. Oh well, anyways...

In between pro qualifying and finals, Matthias, Raph, girly and I go out shopping at Urban Outfitters and grab some food and beers.

The contest ends, and we immediately go to the bar and Matthias buys us a round of beers. We head back to his room so he can shower, and meet up with Raph, then head out to Bourbon St. This is where things get sketchy...I don't really remember getting to Bourbon Street...I dunno who I was with even, I believe it was japanese guys, french guys, Viki...Maybe some others I'm forgetting. Bourbon Street is insane as always, bead throwing everywhere, some females taking off shirts to get said beads...Silly silly! I end up wandering back to the hotel, by myself I think, then I run into Josh outside the hotel, and both of us are in pretty rough shape, haha, I remember running arouond yelling Jim's name trying to find him, then next thing I remember waking up completely delirious!

Freaked out! I gather my crap and book it to the airport to get back to Ontario! Next year will be even more epic.

Alex hates his job

So Alex just got home from work, and seemed to be in a not so great mood. Here's a copy of our conversation. Be warned, this is not censored, and Alex has a mouth of a sailor.


Prasheel is in Al Saadah, Oman says:
So whats th edeal with teh retarded people at work?
WORK WORK WORK!!! WOOO WORK WORK WORK WOOOOOOO UNTIL 7AM, THEN I AM DRINKING MY FACE OFF says:
theres just no communication in that place
so theres these fucking filters
and they are making them for like four horus
and they pack them in this box
then they switch to slightly different filters
but they pack them in the same boxes
but theres a sticker on them with a small different serial number
and after a couple hours i realize
and i'm like "oh fuck, they started using the wrong stickers"
so i fuckin cut some boxes open
nope, right stickers
they fuckin started making different filters and didn't fucking tell me
so tons of fucking paperwork is completely fucked
and i have to spend a ton of time sorting out when the fuck they switched filters so i can redo all this fucked up paperwork
meanwhile i'm fucking being bomobarded with tons of boxes and can't even keep up
usually for three lines
Prasheel is in Al Saadah, Oman says:
Hahha, bombarded by boxes.
WORK WORK WORK!!! WOOO WORK WORK WORK WOOOOOOO UNTIL 7AM, THEN I AM DRINKING MY FACE OFF says:
they have three people moving boxes
there was three line
s
and i was the only person
there was one point where i was insanely backed up
and the boxes they send down, if they don't fucking put the filters in the bag properly, theres to much air in the bags, and then the boxes are like slightly fucked up because they aren't big enough, so they are like...angled sort of
so they don't fucking sit
properly
so i fucking am stacking away
i got like 30 stacked
Prasheel is in Al Saadah, Oman says:
Hahhaha, you sound mad stressed over these boxes.
WORK WORK WORK!!! WOOO WORK WORK WORK WOOOOOOO UNTIL 7AM, THEN I AM DRINKING MY FACE OFF says:
i put a fucked up box down because i'm in a mad fucking rush
not paying any attention to shit
and it fuckin leans on the other ones enough that it knocks down like 30 boxes
so i fuckin flipped
i was so fucking pisses
i just started grabbin boxes and whipping them
i probably ruined like 100 filters
Prasheel is in Al Saadah, Oman says:
Hahahha
WORK WORK WORK!!! WOOO WORK WORK WORK WOOOOOOO UNTIL 7AM, THEN I AM DRINKING MY FACE OFF says:
you knwo how i get super pissed when riding and huck my bike?
it was like that
but wayyyy fucking worse
i was prepared to get fired i was so pissed
i fuckin tell the dude
theres no fucking room
to put shit
i have fuckin fire exits blocked off completely
because theres just no fucking room
i'm like "man there is no fucking room"
and he comes down, he's like "look at all this room"
dude has no fucking clue
Prasheel is in Al Saadah, Oman says:
Hahahhaha
WORK WORK WORK!!! WOOO WORK WORK WORK WOOOOOOO UNTIL 7AM, THEN I AM DRINKING MY FACE OFF says:
theres a super narrow path for a fork lift
and he tells me to block it off
and fill it with boxes
blocking off two more fire exits of sex, of which 4 are already fuckin blocked
not to mention there is like four stories of boxes/skids fuckin stacked high, almost falling over
like i could push it with my pinky
and knock them over
shit would fuckin kill you if it fell on you
if that place caught fire (which it has burned down completely before) i would be a goner
like, not a chance in hell i would get out alive
fuck that
on a plus side
our like main supervisor
i think she really digs me
i don't think shes aware that i'm 20
everyone there thinks i'm like 25
Prasheel is in Al Saadah, Oman says:
Its probably your beard that's doing it.
WORK WORK WORK!!! WOOO WORK WORK WORK WOOOOOOO UNTIL 7AM, THEN I AM DRINKING MY FACE OFF says:
probably, shit is gettin gruesome
but everyone else complains about how she is like a bitch and mean
and she is beyond nice to me
so now i fuckin bitch to her about everything
like, every shift i've had
i've always been super positive, and just havin a ball
but tonight was so fuckin retarded
everyone was shocked at my anger
Prasheel is in Al Saadah, Oman says:
That's what beer is for.
WORK WORK WORK!!! WOOO WORK WORK WORK WOOOOOOO UNTIL 7AM, THEN I AM DRINKING MY FACE OFF says:
because i'm usually the happiest person in that place
oh beer is my jesus rightn ow

Prasheel in Oman: Photo Edition

The first full day I was here, which was the day before we started shows, I had a little session on our balcony while Heinz Kaufmann shot some photos. Enjoy.

Prasheel in Oman: I'm Over It

So a few days have past since the last update, but most those days had nothing interesting occur...Nothing!

A few things worth mentioning though, are we got a tent! We show up one day, and the six hollow short pipes they concreted in now had large, solid poles up, with lots of wires going across, and a big ass orange tarp going across it. While we were performing the first show, they were still tying one side of the tarp to the wires on the top. On one side, pressumably to block off the mist which comes from an angle, the tarp reaches about 3/4 of the way to the ground, at an angle. While I guess it does block out some mist, it also blocks sight from the rest of the fair, so not only is there decreased standing room, people walking by don't really know whats going on. Oh, and this giant ass tarp is only big enough to cover two of our three ramps, lol.

So, as we're warming up before the first show, which it actually isn't even raining for, I ponder out loud with Ben about what happens when it actually does rain. As it is, Ben and Will are getting really close to hitting the ceiling when they air the big quarter or jump the box, especially with their backflips. The top of the tent sags a bit, and is flat, opposed to being sloped for drainage. Whatever, not my problem though.

First show goes fine, and in between shows again, without fail, it rains! The top of the tent is now sagging a lot. Oh, and the scaffolding they use to build the tent, has wheels on it. So, they roll around, trying to push up the ceiling to get the rain off. In the process, they tear a couple holes, and also start pushing the scaffold up the box jump. At one point, two wheels were on the ground, one wheel was up the ramp, and one wheel was a foot off the ground. There's two guys on top untaggling the wires they get messed up in and pushing the ceiling up. Anyways, we do the second show, but it continues to rain as we leave. Before departing, I just look at the water spewing down from the ceiling in between the two ramps its covering from the holes that are there.

So, we got this big ass tent, and we go back the next day for shows again, and the tent is gone! Half the poles are actually ripped out of the ground, pulling a 2 to 3 ft square out of the ground. Yay for my flat spots! And sure enough, the first day without the tent, it rains again.

The only other interesting news is most of us have internet at home now. We have to buy usb sticks and sim cards and recharge cards, which costs about $100US to get setup. Ben and Will were the first to make the purchase, then Devin, and most recently, Matt. Matt doesn't have his own computer though, so I share my computer with him in exchange for him sharing his internet with me; hurray for the barter system!

I am now on skype, and am usually on in the morning/early afternoon here, which is overnight back home. But, if you're bored and want to keep me company, feel free to skype me, prasheel.gopal is my skype name thingy.

Oh yeah, at this point, everything feels sooo insanely routine. I'm over this place and this trip, and am just on my own shit now. While the rest of the team is skyping their girlfriends 24/7, I'm actually riding, despite the shitty spots I got to work with. Oh well, when I get back home and get to my own lot, which is immensely more flat than what I'm working with here, I'll be that much better off for it I guess.

Prasheel in Oman; Still Doin' It

First off, I found out Devin's father somehow found this site and follows his son's trip through here, so I'd like to say hello Mr. Szmata!

Secondly, almost everything at this point has already become very routine. I can pretty much sum up each day with: sleep all day, wake up, go to show site, go straight to the internet, go try to do a show despite the rain, go back to internet, attempt another show, go back to internet, go to the market, come home, stay up watching movies.

On day 5 of shows, luckily, we took a small break from the norm by taking a drive up the mountain before heading to the show site. It's a pretty steep drive, but that didn't stop Mohammed from never shifting down past 3rd gear, which didn't sound or smell too good for the clutch. Near the top, the road got interesting, but Mohammed managed to not kill us yet. At the top, there was a flower garden, mosq, and a bunch of random vendors; I bought some sweet corn.

Apart from that, everything else was as per usual at the site. We were allowed back in the marketplace tent again (only allowed in on Mondays and Saturdays), so we made use of that. Matt tried to haggle for a watch, but still wasn't happy with the price and declined. Devin bought a fitted cap from my friend, who also gave us a good price on knock off D&G, Adidas, Calvin Klein, and Louis Vutton underwear. Our first show was just a flatground show due to the mist, but our second one went as per normal.

The 6th day was even worse in terms of shows. The rain was too much for us to even do anything for the first one, but Fahad made us sit out there, which we think is pretty embarrasing. We get little children standing along the 'fence' (string), and asking us when we're performing (in Arabic), and we have to try to explain to them how its too wet and therefore dangerous. They don't really understand and continue to stand around waiting for a show sometimes. It was a little drier for the second show, and we all did some half-assed flatland tricks.

At home, we celebrated and went through almost a full bottle of vodka that we picked up at the Muscat airport on the way in. I think we still have 2 bottles left, but I'm skeptical we can make it last for the rest of our duration in Salalah. I think we also gave our driver Mohammed some money to pick up more whiskey for us this day, but he's an interesting character with lots of stories. For instance, Mohammed was with the police this evening after getting in to a bit of an accident in one of the roundabouts (they don't have major intersections, just roundabouts that Mohammed never slows down for, despite the signs stating to do so).

The 7th day, again, we just slept through the whole day, and arrived to a moist show site. The ramps were quite slick, so we did two half assed flatground shows again, yay. Since Fahad is getting frustrated with the lack of shows being performed, they reconsidered the option of putting up a large tent over us, and have begun setting that up. They have dug up a few holes and put it in short hollow poles for now. Plus, in my flat spots, they have dug up holes for said poles, changed their mind, and cemented them full again, but leaving a mess of dirt and concrete around the spots that I ride in.

We are now told that when we want to use our driver, we have to call Fahad who will then call Mohammed. Apparently us calling Mohammed wasn't working out too well, because Mo has been working for other people on the side, and when Fahad calls him, he lies and says that he's busy taking us around somewhere, despite us rarely using him because he rushes us when we're out, and very often takes off when he is supposed to wait for us. The next day, we call Fahad who in turn calls Mo, and we head to the mall. While I'm upstairs ordering some glasses, everyone else has finished shopping and is outside. There's apparently a bunch of British people looking to go grab some KFC before heading back to the Hilton, where they are staying, but the local cab drivers are trying to charge them a very excessive rate (5 riyals/person). Mohammed and Julien then chat them up, and they started piling in to our van for a rate of just 1 riyal/person, but the local cabbies aren't impressed, and blocked our van from leaving while exchanging words with our driver. The Brits eventually give up and start walking, all before I even return to the van.

In other Mohammed news, he was apparently in the hospital the previous night, for 'stomach problems'. We ask him questions, and it appears as if he has neglected to eat or drink water for the past 3 days, claiming he has no money, as he's been spending it all on prostitutes. As he drops us off at home, we tell him to come in to eat some of our food. Instead, he seems captivated by the vodka, as whiskey is the only alcohol he knows. We have to tell him multiple times the alcohol is ours, and that he even still owes us whiskey. He doesn't even eat and leaves.

Finally, on the 8th day, we are able to perform shows again. I can't even remember the last time we were able to perform both shows in one day properly. They go off well, and we head home. While having intentions to go to bed early such that we can get Mohammed to take us to the Crown Royal plaza in the morning, we all stay up till about 4am, then sleep most of the next day away as well, lolol.

Oh yeah, during the past few days, I've been trying to ride more and more at home, even though I'm riding on the road which is very crowned. What's probably even worse than this, is that within 5 minutes of me being out there, dozens of kids come over to watch, converse, and harass me. This one fat kid always seems to gravitate towards my bike when I'm in the middle of a line. Part of me thinks he actually wants to get hit for some reason. Same fat kid somehow knows how to say 'fuck you', and likes to repeat it over and over. I've started to ride with my headphones again (which I avoided to the cars coming down the road and such), and the kids still try to harass me. Ignoring them does do the trick eventually, but they still sit there and try to converse and harass me for the first half hour. Sigh.

Canada Day In The Life of Prasheel

Prasheel On Canada Day! from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel in Oman: Let the Shows Begin

So, apparently Fahad (one of the dudes that's basically around to take care of us and make sure we're good) knows some girl that MCs, and she's supposed to announce our shows. On the first day, for our first show, she neglects to show up. Also, our show becomes very delayed as we have to wait around on a sound system to show up. The stuff arrives eventually, but they don't set it up correctly, so we just get one speaker going, and only playing one side of the music...so it basically sounds like garbage. As well, half of us haven't done shows with each other, and all of this combined, makes for one terrible show.

After this, we head back to our change room for a little bit to cool off, as its still insanely hot out, despite the fact that it starts raining. We head back to the little internet booth in the fair, and try to lurk the internet from outside of it, but head in to the glass building to protect ourselves from the heavy misting. It's good to finally check emails and facebook and catch up with what's going on back home, as this place truly feels like a different world.

The misting continues, and our second show gets rained out. The brand new ramps (two quarter pipes and a jump box) are getting soaked, but we eventually tarp up the jump box. We wander around the festival a little bit, try to get in to the market place tent (which is insanely huge), but get turned away, as Thursday is a 'family day'...even though Devin and I lied and claimed we were brothers, oh well. What does suck a bit though is that throughout the week, there are four 'family days', one 'womens days', and only two 'general public days'. What this means, is that even though we were brought over to perform for them, we're only allowed in to the market place 8 times over the course of the next month.

We get home, eat, celebrate (drink), and watch The Hangover, and eventually get some rest.

The next day, Pat and Andrew, two of our managers, head to the airport to start their long journey home. Mohamad shows up unexpectedly at 4 o clock, even though we only have to be at the show site at 5pm. We try to go to the bank to exchange money, but because Fridays are their religious days, the bank is not open. Instead, we head to Lulu shopping center again, which is a mall that sells a variety of pretty much every thing. Devin buys himself a notebook similar to mine, and Matt contemplates the same, but forgot to bring the money for it. I take another look at some glasses I'm thinking about getting, but since I don't know my perscription (my mom emailed it to me, but I forgot to write it down and have a lack of internet to check again), I can't get them yet, sigh.

We head to the show site, I manage to sneak in to the market tent from the back, and quickly take a look around, noticing lots of blingin' watches for not very many riyal...so I'll probably acquire one of these soon. I head out of the tent and to the change room, then we all head out to warm up.

The rain plus our warm up really do a number to our ramps, as the bottom portions are all getting torn up after being soggy, we get both shows done regardless, and they're much better than the day before, even with us still missing our announcer. Like usual, we leached internet in between as well.

We start heading back to the house and grab some snacks and drinks (I bought a Snickers Cruncher, and a non-alcoholic pineapple flavoured Barbican premium malt beverage), and Haithym (another one of the organizers that looks after us) shows up with pizza for us. Despite us apparently getting a per diem for food, they still deliver food to us twice a day, but its usually the same thing over on a regular basis.

The next day (day 3), Ben and Will headed to the show site early to do some repairs on the ramp, while the rest of us over slept and missed our driver Mohammed showing up to take us out for some shopping. He ended up returning a couple hours later, rather unexpectedly, and took us out. Along the way, he told us, in way too much detail, his escapades the previous night, which revolved around him picking up a prostitute and getting a hotel room. I managed to get some of it on video, so hopefully I can get that in to an edit and put it up. As well, despite liquor usually being hard to obtain, he claimied he could get us 2L of whiskey for 7 riyals, so we agreed, just to see what he would bring us.

Went to the show site, got to do some shopping, as the market was finally open for everyone that day. Over there, people haggle like its a sport. I ended up haggling for a watch pretty early, and even though I still wanted to look around at the other booths (lots of which were selling watches), I got a really hilarious watch for half the asking price, so took it. Also found a really funny 'New Era' fitted cap, also for really cheap. Together, I think I spent under $25.

Shows went well, went to the market plaza afterwards, Mohammed got our whiskey, ditched us for a while, then eventually returned with bags of shawarma for us. Got home, ate, and ended up going through the whiskey rather quickly. Ben and Will retired pretty early, but Matt, Julian, Devin, and I stayed up drinking most of the night. The usual hijinx I suppose; we drank, converesed about a ton of topics, destroyed Matt's new RC car, cut Julian's hair, etc. Of the four of us, I called it quits the earliest, at 6am, when they were heading out to the convenience store to find something to eat.

The next day, most of us slept through pretty much the whole day. Went to the show site, despite it misting out. Sundays, at the fair, are women only days, and we are confined to just our show site and our change room (which is located next to the worst smelling bathroom in Oman I'm pretty sure). Basically, Sundays suck, as it feels like we're prisoners, with the worst part being that we can't even go leach internet. The misting continues to get worse, and after waiting in our room for an hour and a half, we our told to come out and ride. Ben tries to explain how we cannot ride in the rain, and how its even in our contract, but they try hard nonetheless. They untarp the ramps, squeegee the ramps, and wipe down the tops. They even try to get me to do a show on a covered carpeted stage near by, which does not occur.

We head back to our change room for another hour or more, and they come in and ask us again to perform. The misting stopped, and the ramps and ground are steadily drying up slowly. Our inliner has no traction on the ground, and the guys don't do any big jumps, but we get a show done anyways, just to please the few women that are around to watch. Head home, wait for food, then I ended up passing out early. But, I atleast wake up to find an envelope on the ground with my name written (and lots of penises drawn on it), with my per diem for the week, finally, which is a good start to day 5 of shows.

Another interesting fact is that the sky is always grey here. My white comrades have found out they can still get a sun burn, but its just depressing to never see a clear sky. Plus, most evenings, it is misting out, as it is the monsoon season here, which does not do well with us performing outdoors.

Final Teaser & Petrolia Street! Street! Street!

Pralex Web Video Teaser #5 (Andy Sessions) from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Street! Street! Street! from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel goes to Salalah, Oman

The Journey


Left my place around 1pm on Sunday afternoon, headed to the Ottawa train station to catch a bus to the Montreal airport. 2h bus ride, followed by a couple hour wait, then a 6.5h flight to Amsterdam. Once there, met up with Will Fisher, one of our BMX ramp riders, who introduced me to our inliner, Julian Deschamps, who happened to be on the same flight as me. After that, the three of us wandered around the airport for a while as we had a couple hours to kill for our layover. As well, Will was trying to find out other BMX ramp rider, Devin Szmata. We eventually found him after we did some shopping and checked in to our gate.

We arrived in Muscat, Oman on Monday night, after another 6.5h flight, which went by really quick in comparison to the 9h layover we had there. We started off by going through customs and getting our visa paper work sorted, then picking up our luggage (which we were told was going to go straight to Salalah for us), and then checking in to our next flight, which was early Tuesday morning. We made use of the 24h Dairy Queen and the terrible internet connection in the cafeteria for a while, then wandered around outdoors for a while.

Despite it being really late out, the heat in Oman hits you extremely hard as soon as you walk out the doors. Even at 3am, I think it was about 27C (probably 35C with humidity). Will shot some photos, and then we sat on some benches and conversed for a while. My favourite part of Muscat was when this old dude that was sleeping on the bench next to us woke up and proceeded to yell at us for talking to each other next to his bed.

We headed back indoors, enjoyed some Papa John's pizza for breakfast (I got a chicken shawarma pizza, it had potatoes on it!), and finally got to check in for our 1h flight shortly after. Having heard that it was difficult to obtain alcohol in Salalah, we all stocked up at the duty free, with both hands full either with a 1L bottle of vodka, or a case of beer.

It was about 6am when we arrived in Salalah, and we were all greeted by two men as we were waiting for our luggage to arrive on the carousel. We threw all our stuff in the cars belonging to these men and they drove us to our new home for the next month. They made a phone call, and our managers, Pat, Andrew, and Ben (who is also one of our riders), greeted us. They and our skateboarder, Mat, were in Salalah for almost a week at that point, as they came early to build the ramps for the shows. We were shown around the house, and then I promptly took a shower and headed to bed, as I only got about 3h of sleep the past two nights.

Tuesday night, we headed to the show site to check it out and test out the ramps. Despite the fair only opening the next day, there was no shortage of young children there to cheer us on or heckle us. It didn't help that the festival they brought us over to perform in (khareef festival), is on to celebrate the monsoon season. So, likely, we had to deal with a small amount of rain, which dries up quick, with it still being so hot out, even at night.. After our 'show', which ended with kids demanding to see backflips over and over (after they were shown several times), we headed back to the house, showered, ate, and proceeded to get liquored up.

On Wednesday, the fair is only open to government workers, who were coming to see a giant production show that was to be performed only one time and called for two weeks of rehearsal. With that being said, we were not only not performing that night, but we were not even allowed in to the fair, so we filled our time with various other tasks.

Some of the guys headed to the Crown Royal plaza hotel, which is apparently like a resort over here; pools with swim up bars, beaches, ocean view restaurants, etc. I was too tired in the morning to go for that, but stayed productive, and did a photo shoot with Ben on our balcony in the afternoon. I quickly realized how great it is that we're only doing our shows in the evening after the sun goes down, because even after just a 20 minute session, I felt like I was going to pass out from the heat. We got a few good shots though, hopefully get some on here soon, as well as take more throughout the month.

After that, most of us headed out for some shopping in various markets. Hit up a couple malls, looked at random shit, then to a couple outdoor markets, and looked at more random shit. Went out for dinner, then came back to the house and had a team meeting, going over stuff about shows and such, since Julian and Devin haven't performed with us before, as well as details about payments.

Other interesting details include the fact that we have a driver, who may or may not get us in to an accident very soon. This dude is crazy, just drives however he wants. He also tends to rush us when we're gone out to drop us home quicker, but then also occasionally just drive incredibly slow around town, and has already picked up random people while we're out with him so he can make some extra money.

As of last night, we are now getting a per diem for food, instead of the twice a day deliveries we were getting until now. This will allow us a bit more freedom over what we eat, as they tend to just pick up what they think we'd like to eat, oppose to taking our orders. The per diem is a decent size, and we're supposed to get it at the end of every week, so I might end up making a little bit more than I was originally told.

As of now, our house is still internet-less. We stopped at an internet cafe last night, but it was a bit of a sketchy operation, as half of the computers were not functioning, or functioning really slow. As well, they demanded our labour numbers, which posed a problem as we are not from here and don't have such; so Ben gave them '546777', which seemed to make them happy.

Oh yeah, our breaker went off last night sometime around 4am, meaning the air conditioner and fan in our room stopped working. Furthermore, it also meant that despite having my laptop plugged in, my batter died, prohibiting me from finishing watching my Jessica Alba movie for the evening, sigh. Our room got insanely hot, and I only managed to get about 2h of sleep before I heard the power come back on around 8am.

We start shows today, so I'll make another post soon. I wrote this post in notepad, and am now using the wireless internet at the fair to inform you all.

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Pralex News!

Prasheel is currently in Oman (east of Saudi Arabia) doing shows for four weeks. He'll try and get some cool footage with his new camera while he is there to keep our addiction to Prasheel fulfilled.

Alex is working on getting to New Orleans for Voodoo Jam in a couple weeks. He will be going with a photographer friend Andrew Cottingham (check out his site here). Although he doesn't want to take photos while on the trip, haha.

Also, Pralex is in the beginning stages of adding another member to head up the street division of out team...More news to follow with that.

Rock n roll!

Cory In Pink (Video), Alex Kickflips for KGB!

Cory rocking pink jeans in this video!

Cory in pink from JKyllo on Vimeo.

This is a kickflip by Alex, you may have seen it before, but Martti asked for people to post some kickflips, so here it is:

Kickflip for KGB from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Cory In Tight Jeans...Pralex Fan Page...

Cory in some beautifully super tight jeans...Pralex standard issue.

Also look for Pralex now on facebook!

Pralex Web Video Teaser #4 (Bike-Check with Alex)

Pralex Web Video Teaser #4 (Alex Bike-Check) from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Pralex Videos Galore!

We continue to film, as I'm sure you guys are sick of hearing about, for the Pralex Web Video...Here's some more videos to keep you entertained until we're done the web video! ENJOY!

Pralex Teaser 3 from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel: New Cam Test 1 from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Classic Prasheel from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel getting high from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

BMX Plus: JoMoPro Coverage

You can find mention of Prasheel (or Parsheel, haha) and Alex in the most recent issue of BMX Plus! Also you can find a photo with Alex's father in it! AWESOME! Stay tuned for Pralex Web Video Teaser #3 up tonight probably! OoooooOOOOo AhhhhHHHHhhh!

Pralex Web Video Teaser #2

With the new Pralex Web Video coming closer and closer we will now be releasing a series of teasers to go along with the video...Sort of like "bonus footage" if it were to be a DVD...So here's the second teaser! Enjoy!

Pralex Web Video Teaser #2 (Packing & Bum Appreciation) from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Bicycle Film Festival Trailer

See if you can spot Prasheel, myself, or Dylan! Wooo!

Sorry for the awkward size...Silly html and youtube and me not knowing how to fix it.

Prasheel in Winnipeg

Day 4:

Wake up, free breakfast in the hotel, head to the show site to set up the ramps. We show up and I realize that this is probably the worst show site I've had to deal with in a long time. Super bumpy, not flat, but whatever. I ride a little bit to get used to it, but its pointless to actually session this spot. Blah blah blah, we do 4 shows, lots of gaps in between, I hate my life. Wander around the fair, but it sucks.

We finish and go back to the hotel. Manager feels bad about our bed situation, so offers to buy us dinner and liquor. Dave and I go out to get lots of whiskey, get back to the conference room, and pizza shows up shortly after. We drink and eat, and drink more. Dave grew up in Winnipeg, and apparently some Edmonton riders are in town, so we head out to a bar to meet them. I don't exactly remember, but I think we all had a fun time. Dave is ridiculous, and was drunk dialing at the end of the night, while dipping his pizza in to chewing gum, and yelling at us. He's a bit of a aggressive drunk.


Day 5:

Same old. Still doing 4 shows a day, still way too much time just sitting around and waiting. We did groceries between some shows, so now we can make sandwhiches at the fair opposed to buying over priced food (budget-life). Shows are getting better, our announcer, who's with us for the first time, is getting progressively better, and the crowds are getting larger and more in to it.

Finish shows, back to the hotel, then hot tub for a bit before it closes. Another meeting held in the conference room, as some of the guys debate going out again, as it is Saturday night. 2am rolls around, then they decide to head out to a Denny's for food, I stay back and pass out quickly.


Day 6:

I'm slowly becoming a carnie, but Rich and I embrace it. Living in the trailer in between shows, walking around topless in and around our show site. Out of boredom, Rich and I decide to make tuna sandwhiches, and use a butter knife and hammer as our can opener. I eat and enjoy my sandwhich, then later pass out on a bench outside.

I made friends with some girl selling some as seen on tv type products, and visit her a couple times today. We've realized that Winnipeg is full of ugly and weird people, but this girl being from California is actually normal, so its good to have someone to make fun of Winnipeg with. Whenever I get bored and I go visit her and help her sell her silly products...I'm no good and haven't made a sale yet.

Finish shows, and head back to the hotel. By the time we get back and shower, it's already past 11pm, and we have very limited options for food. I settle with a Timmies bagel for dinner, then later wonder why I seem quite intoxicated off of 3 drinks. Meeting with some of the guys, then pass out. Looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of the week as our show schedule changes, and we only do 3 shows which are all in the evening. We'll have lots of time off during the day, and much shorter gaps between shows.

Note: I've uploaded photos of the trip so far on facebook. I don't like posting them on here as its problematic for me, so check them out on facebook if you feel so inclined.

Prasheel Goes to Winnipeg

Background: I'm on a touring stunt team called 'Craz-E Crew'. I travel and do shows. We have shows at the Red River Ex in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Day 1:

Wake up at 5:30am, as I was told I's being picked up at 6. It was a little rough getting up at that time, as I went out the night before, and only went to bed at 2:30. Sure enough, I had a little extra time in the morning as the tour van was expectedly late in picking me up. Ben Kauffman finally calls and shows up, and we hit the road at 7.

In the van already is Will Fisher and Paul Hoerdt, both of whom I haven't met or done shows with before, but quickly learn that they're both rad dudes. I've been on the road with Ben a few times previous, which is always a good time. He pretty much runs the ship. I find out that our other two guys (Dave Osato and Richard Sarrazin) are flying in to winnipeg on Thursday night and Saturday morning, respectively.

In the van, I am pretty much useless. For the most part, I just eat, piss, and pass out, filling the time in between by chatting with the guys, listening to music, or watching some cartoons I downloaded previous for this purpose of passing time.

Around 9pm, I wake up when Ben pulls over to the side of the road. We've apparently lost a tire on the trailer on the side of the highway. The four of us wander around in and around the bushes for half an hour, but turn up empty handed.

The closest town to us is Longlac, Ontario, which is still an 80km trek from where we were. With a lack of options available, we slowly make our way there, with only three wheels on the trailer. I pass out again along the way.

Around 11:30pm, I wake up again when Ben pulls over to the side of the road. The tire next to the one we've lost has apparently gone flat, right as we were pulling in to town. It's a quick fix, and we check in to a hotel for the night, and proceed to drink whiskey Ben has packed.


Day 2:

I wake up, and within 10 minutes, Ben says we're heading back to the spot from last night, and are not returning without our tire. He's already dropped the trailer at a garage, and they are apparently quite helpful, but without the tire, they can't really do much for us today. So, we now make the much shorter drive out there (finally going at appropriate speeds), and after a half hour of lurking through bushes, Ben emerges with our tire. We head back to Longlac.

We're still apparently out of luck, as our bearings are blown and we need a new hub, which they need to order from Thunderbay (4h east of our location), so we're stuck in Longlac for another night.

We make our way over to the LCBO (liquor store) and acquire beverages for the evening, and get that started at 6pm. We later make our way over to the local pizzeria and steakhouse for a drunken dinner, which was taken care of courtesy of our manager. We head back to the hotel, drink more, and pass out.


Day 3:

Wake up, do breakfast, and chill for a bit. Around 10am, a couple hours earlier than expected, Ben comes in and tells us to pack up as the trailer is ready to go. We pick up the trailer, and head to get some gas and food before hitting the road. As we're waiting for Paul to finish paying for his Subway at the cornerstore, a Native man jumps in the van with us and makes conversation for about 5 minutes. We're not really sure what he was saying, but he kept opening the door to say goodbye to his friends, remarking that he's going to Winnipeg and will be back in a month. Paul finally gets back, and we convince our friend 'Dan' (which was the name on his jacket) to give Paul his seat back. We finally hit the road around 11:30, and proceed to drive for a long ass time.

Along the way, Ben made us watch a terribly gruesome movie called 'Dirty Sanchez' I believe. For the most part, it was a Jackass style film, but much much worse. It involved lady-boys, dismemberment, cannabalism, snorting lines of wasabi, and much worse.

We stopped in Ben's hometown, Kenora, for a little bit. We grabbed some food and headed to the skatepark, where the guys rode some bikes, did some tricks, and shot some photos. We headed back on the road again for another couple hours.

We finally reached Winnipeg at 1am (their time...which is an hour behind my normal time). The city seems nice, the people seem nice, the hotel seems nice, but...they gave us three rooms with one king sized bed in each. We normally have rooms with two queens, as there is six adult males on our trip. That aside, I lucked out and got a room twice the size of the others. I walked in to see a conference room, with a nice big table and chairs, sink, fridge, coffee maker, and a bathroom. Another door opens to reveal the master bedroom and master bathroom, with dual sinks and a nice large shower and two robes, hahaha.

Random News Again #2

Heyo!

Some random news for your Pralex cravings...

Prasheel news:
-He is heading to Winnipeg tomorrow to do shows at the Red River Exhibition with Craz-E-Crew
-He has a few new tricks up his sleeve & already dialed so watch out at the next contest he's at

Alex news:
-He has been riding so hard that his freecoaster has exploded but he keeps riding anyways
-He has LOTS of new tricks and is hitting new lines he can't even believe he is hitting
-He is leaving the Ottawa scene soon to go back to Petrolia to save money, and ride more

Andy news:
-He is still working away at his "job" and riding as much as he can, getting new tricks and smoothening out old ones

Cory news:
-He hit is first line for the Pralex video the other day on film, and is still working on getting more stuff for the video as we gave him a two week deadline
-He will be wearing tight jeans at the Saskatoon Berry Jam from losing a bet, hahahaha, photos to come later

Alexis news:
-He is done school in approximately 24 hours and will start riding a lot more and filming more for his part in the Pralex video, so be excited to see what he comes up with!

Pralex video is still trucking away, all riders are pushing hard to get their best and new stuff on film to make this an awesome banger of a video that all can enjoy!

Frustrations While Filming...

Frustrations While Filming from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

One Year Ago Today...Happy Pralex Anniversary!

Hey all. I just wanted to use this space to reminisce on some memories, and wish my buddy Alex a happy anniversary. One year ago today, he and I traveled together to Cleveland for the Northcoast Flatland Battle, which was our first road trip together. It wasn't until this trip (which also included flying down to New Orleans for the infamous Flatland Voodoo Jam) that Alex and I became friends, and not just riding buddies. It was also the first time Alex won first place at a contest, and also the first time he and I both had spots on the podium (I managed to take third).



To commemorate this, we took a trip up to North Bay for a few days, which also marks the end of an era in our current tour bus, as we are getting a new vehicle next weekend. The North Bay police disagreed slightly with the charm of our current ride, which makes me even more grateful to the Poirier family for donating our next vehicle to us. I should have it in about a week and will try to get photos up soon there after.

Upon returning to Ottawa, Al and I sessioned downtown yesterday. A group of street riders from Oshawa noticed us and came over and watched for a couple minutes, but got booted by bicycle police. Something that was rather unusual, though, was that although they kicked the street riders out, they commented that we were allowed to stay, and stay we did. Al and I worked on some new tricks on a not so good spot, and here are a couple quick photos.

Pralex Visits North Bay!

Just got back from a two day trip to North Bay to visit some girlies and take in the wilderness. It's ridiculously gorgeous up there (not mad at the girls either). It was about a 4 hour drive, and we didn't get much riding in, but we met up with a ton of young street riders (like fifteen/sixteen) and showed them some flatland moves and they were all really digging it. So hopefully when we go back there will be a booming flatland scene there, haha. Might post some photos up later that the girls took, but I didn't bother taking any since the girls were snapping shots left, right and centre.

Pralex is back up on the grind in Ottawa, riding hard and prepping for the video. Prasheel is leaving next month for two weeks to do shows in Winnipeg, so Alex will hold down the HQ with Andrew and Dylan. Stay tuned...

Toronto Recap, Dylan Leeder a hero?, New Edits, New Byke Project Sponsorship, Business Cards are in

So a little delayed, but I'm finally gotten around to updating the blog. First off, Alex and I went to Toronto to help out for the trailer and poster shoot for the International Bicycle Film Festival. The shoots were being done by Marco Mucig from Italy, and Benny Zenga from Toronto. It took place over a 3 day span, which ended up being pretty long days. The organization left a little to be desired, as we didn't really know our schedule in advance, and ended up shooting to about midnight each day. All in all, it was a really fun and interesting experience to take part in, and I'm excited to see how it all comes together. It should apparently be up in a week or two, and will be seen in 39 countries! Oh yeah, you won't actually be able to recognize Alex or I, as we were dressed in giant cardboard letters...you'll understand more when you see it.



When shooting in Toronto, Alex and our photographer (and newest rider) Dylan Leeder witnessed a fight mid-day. Like the nice guy he is, Dylan jumped in to help break it up. Here's a message he sent me about the incident.

"Prasheeeeel! So the story goes,,,

Me and Alex were biking down the street carrying large letters. I believe I had a C.

So we were riding and this 60 year old dude pulled into the bike lane and cut off a 25 year old bike courier (without signaling) and the 25 year old started yelling at the guy... so they fought verbally for a bit with the 25 year old taking the old mans picture.

Than the 60 year old dude climbed over the passenger seat with his wife screaming and crying "Why are you doing this!? STOP! Your mom's here!"... so infront of his wife and mother (on mothers day) the old man went and swung at the 25 year old.

So i dropped my bike/letter and continued to grab the young guy back from the 60 year old. While the 60 year old kept trying to get punches... so the 25 year old swung at him and pushed him down... and then it continued a bit longer...

Uhmm... so they just kept trying to fight while more and more people crowded around and stuff...

so finally the 60 year old, the wife, and the mother got in the car and drove away... with the 60 year olds pride ruined hahah what a maniac.

And I hurt my finger somehow in it all.

Also, we found out that the 60 year old got pulled over because the other guy took pictures of his face/license plate. And he got charged with assault/reckless driving/and maybe something else"


As you may know, Alex and I have been filming in hopes of trying to release a half decent web-edit. This past weekend, we witnessed the epicness of the footage Dylan's new camera is going to be able to take, so we're scrapping our old footage/tricks, and are hoping to get new stuff in muuuch better quality. Alex and I both edited the footage up, and you can find the edits below. Alex's is first, then mine, and I suggest you watch them in that order, as to not be disappointed in Alex's version.

Pralex "Cutting Room Floor" Footage from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Pralex "Cutting Room Floor" Footage (Prasheels Version) from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

As of recent, Alex and I have both been picked up by Byke Project and are very excited to help represent them/Hector Garcia. Byke Project is a non-profit organization that donates and fixes bikes in low-income areas. We should be shooting a little commercial/promo next weekend to test out the new camera we're working with. www.bykeproject.com



Pralex business cards are now in. Please feel free to contact us for any flatland entertainment needs.



Lastly, we are off to Brockville tomorrow, as we are doing a small show at a stag and doe. Maybe expect some photos or videos, not sure yet. Hopefully there's a decent spot!