2010 Video Retrospective

Everyone else is doing it, so thought we'd jump right in.

Instead of giving you a "best of Pralex edits in 2010", this will be a list of all of our edits in 2010. For one reason or another, Alex and I have been a lot more quiet on the self made video edit scene this past year. Whether that will change in 2011, only time will tell.

Personally, I really liked how 2010 went down for me in terms of my edits. While I only have a tiny handful (two videos), I feel they really represent me and my riding at the times they were produced.

The first edit I dropped was an edit I made entirely from me riding in my old parking lot the last time before I moved. I have gone back and revisited the parking lot once, and I can fully agree with Alex and Bo Wade, that it is in fact, a really really terrible riding spot haha. For years I went there multiple times a day to ride and hang out by myself though, and it truly felt like 'my spot'. To me, this marks an end of an era for me.

Prasheel Gopal: May 28, 2010 from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

About 6 weeks later, Alex finally dropped a short clip, with him almost (lol) landing a line with a new switch he had been working on for a while. It just shows Alex, and his home spot, almost successful on something he worked towards for a while. Fun tune and a shining sun really make me miss summer while watching this too.

Gruesome bike slam to fall. from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Lastly, about 2 months ago, Pralex officially welcomed Mark Kuhlmann to the team, and to do it right, Beefy and I both collected some footage over later summer and fall, and Alex did up an edit with the two of us. This video reminds me of going out and riding in cool fall nights, knowing that for every day we pass up for riding, we're one day closer to the unrideable season of winter.

Prasheel Gopal & Mark "Beefy" Kuhlmann from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

We hope everyone had a great 2010, and we wish you all the best, on and off the bike, for 2011. Cheers.

Alex's 2011 Who to Watch For List!

Now, before I get ahead of myself here, let me just say that 2010 was like a rebirth for flatland in North America. I think it would have been another lack luster year if it hadn't been for the huge efforts of Steve Lapsley and the North American Am Flat Circuit. This really revived the contest scene amoung the expert and master class. With that said, a huge thanks to all the contest organizers as well. You guys put in a ton of work only to be plagued with complaints after the contest (I know I've been guilty of this myself a couple times even). It's not that your work isn't appreciated, it's just that...I dunno what it is, we all just see a greater potential I suppose, and everyones idea of a contest is different...ANYWAYS, thanks guys.

Alright, now, riders to look out for. First off...I'm calling out Daniel Burnett. Prasheel and I loved that kids riding two years ago at Red Bull's Fight with Flight, and now he's disappeared off the map! We hope he's still riding, someone point him in our direction and let him know we think he killed it in intermediate class.

Next up for beginners we got Fat Tony, he placed well in intermediate class at three of the am circuit stops and if the Am Circuit adds a intermediate class (over if Fat decides to man up and move to expert class) you might just see him make podium!

The expert class is tough, there are a lot of guys in this class with a wide variety of styles, its hard to pick who might stand out next year. Obviously Bryan Huffman killed it in 2010, and hopefully we'll see him in the Master class for 2011 (and even there I'm sure he'll kill it and place very well). After that it's very hard to choose, the class is stacked and the odds are pretty even for almost anyone to take it next year. Alexis La Grass would be an obvious choice, along with Johnny Tamayo, and ride along side them I think we will have Mark Kuhlmann, Omari Cato, Alex Johnson, and Andrew Wickham if they make it to most of the stops. With Bryan hopefully moving up, this really opens the expert class wide open for 2011. I'm really excited to see how it plays out over the next year and to see who really puts in the time, because almost any of the guys that competed last year in expert has a chance at taking first overall at year end.

Master class is a lot less tough, I'm not going to lie. The top two guys destroyed in 2010, and obviously are Tyler Gilliard and Percy Marshall. Hailing from opposite ends of the country, these two without a doubt are guys that will be making the leap up to pro someday (I think everyone else in the master class is hoping sooner rather then later). There were even some complaints about these two competing in Master as guys want them to move up to pro, I personally love competing against these two, they have so much focus in their runs and are a ton of fun to ride with outside of the contest floor as well. It's an honour to get to ride with these two on what feels like a pretty regular basis. Going down the list you have a lot of staple North American competitors...So I'm going to skip down to Koit. Whether or not he rides well in his contest run, this guy is unreal positive. I never really know when he's going to show up to contests, but he always seems to be there, and its always a pleasure to see him ride. His consistency went through the roof in the past year and I can't wait to see what he brings to the contests in 2011. That'll do it for my choices in 2011 to watch out for, it's going to be another amazing year and hopefully we'll see some new faces on the circuit rankings...STOKED ON BEING STOKED!

Alex

Mark "Beefy" Kuhlmann Bike Check

I like Mark's bike. You probably will too. Parts list below, followed by photos. Enjoy.


Frame: 2010 Sick Child Instrumental 19.25"
Fork: Odyssey Flatware Zero Degrees
Headset: Colony Integrated
Seat: Odyssey 99er
Seat Post: Odyssey Intac
Seat Post Clamp: S&M
Crank: Odyssey 41 Thermal 165mm
Pedals: Macneil Plastic
Sprocket: Tree Splined 18t
Chain: KHE 3/32" Tanga Light
Bars: S&M Intrikat
Stem: Seasons Le Merk (35mm reach)
Grips: ODI Longneck
Lever: Odyssey Monolever
Brakes: Odyssey Evo2
Brake Cable: Odyssey Slic
Bar Ends: Macneil SS
Front Rim: Stolen Revolver
Front Spokes: Odyssey Double Butted
Front Nipples: G-Sport Hex
Front Hub: G-Sport Marmoset
Front Tire: Odyssey Freq. G
Front Pegs: Sequence Pirate Pegs
Rear Rim: Stolen Revolver
Rear Spokes: Odyssey Double Butted
Rear Nipples: G-Sport Hex
Rear Hub: KHE Geisha Lite
Rear Tire: Odyssey Freq. G
Rear Pegs: Sequence Plastic Magic Sticks

About his setup:

I run unmodified bars to keep the max width and height. I run loads of spacers to bring the bars as high as possible.

I learned the half grip tape idea from [Prasheel] for my sequence pegs. It provides the perfect amount of grip on the peg.

Although I ride regular I keep my front brake lever on the right side of the bars. I do a lot of my tricks with the bars the regular way to give me more room during jump switches, so having the brake on the right side is more accessible for me to use during more tricks. It also just feels way more comfortable.


Click photos to enlarge.

Stickers are here!

Click photos to enlarge.







Just email me at prasheelg @ yahoo.com with your address, and I'll get some out to you soon.

Prasheel's Bike Check

Click photos to enlarge.




Won't bother writing all the components, but if you're curious about anything, just leave a comment asking and I'll try to get back to you.

The frame is a crack and rewelded 19" TT Mankind, with a bad yellow paint job.

Bars are WTP Mad Max bars. 8.7" high, 29" wide, 11* backsweep, 1.5* upsweep.

Stem is Colony TLD with loads of spacers...30mm above headtube, 14mm (I think) below headtube.

Pegs are all Sequence...plastic in back, aluminum with stainless steel ends up front.

Rear wheel is garbage right now. Old Nankai that isn't running right, but I got a new Geisha axle on its way so the wheel will change soon.

Front wheel is a proper hub laced to an alienation deviant. Heard lots of problems with these rims, mainly being they're so light that they're very weak, but I haven't had any problems yet.

ABT seat, with the back being cut and modified by Matthias.

I'm on littler pedals again after my JCPC pedals drove me crazy from being loose, despite supposively not being able to become loose. No matter how tight I made the pins, the ends would rattle, plus the ends were getting chewed and ground a bunch, don't really think they're meant for flatland use lol.

Tires are Odyssey Frequency Gs. Normal P Lytes up front, sometimes K Lytes on the rear just to be lighter. If I'm at a contest with a slippery floor, you might see me with a KHE kevlar tire as they grip better for indoor surfaces.

Anything else you're interested, just ask.

Vibration Urbaines 2010 Flatland Pro Edit

Not by me, but just found this online, so thought I would share.

The atmosphere and energy at this event was amazing, so glad I was there to witness it first hand.

Vibrations Urbaines 2010 Flatland Pro. from BMX-FORCE on Vimeo.

Last day in Paris

Last day here! Just biked to the eiffel tower, got really lost (while it started to rain)...not sure how I couldn't find the giant tall building in the sky lol. Going to check out (via bike again) the Notre Dame cathedral in a little bit, and then the red light district later haha. Figured I've been to the one in Amsterdam, may as well see this one for comparison.

Trekking around solo isn't so bad, but its easy for me to get lost. Just trying to be as productive as I can be. After the sightseeing, going back to the night riding spot (Opera), by myself tonight, since Matthias and Adam both left this morning. Hoping there will be other riders there. I know Alex Jumelin is back in Paris after a week in NY, but not sure if he heads to Opera regularly during the week.

Oh yeah...packing tonight should be interesting. Not sure how I've accumulated SO much more stuff in the past week of being here as I came with, but I did. Should be interesting lugging my giant Ogio bag to the airport tomorrow morning by myself, trying to figure out where to go haha.

Well, I'm off again, more sightseeing awaits.

Alex's Life Update

Prasheel did a little yearly update on himself, so here goes mine! I've been busy busy since last Halloween to say the least. Lost girlfriends, gained girlfriends, partied harder then most people do in a lifetime, got some stupid tattoos, rode my ass off (for selective periods of time), went to as many contests as possible, lost a job and gained a job!
As for riding, the past year as been lackluster to say the least for myself. Seems like Prasheel and I trade progression years. Last year was a huge progression year for myself, not so much for Prasheel, and this year that completely turned around. Still love riding my bike though, don't get me wrong, just lacking the motivation I had last year. I think a huge cause of this was realizing I have to learn how to spin in the opposite direction I'm comfortable with for all my forwards rolling tricks to really move forward and progress. Rolling opposite hang 5's took me weeks to get under control, and to go from spinning no-handed x-footed wheelchairs, to learning Hang 5's, its really hard to sit there for hours practicing that. But nonetheless I'm still at it. My contest placings for next season will definitely be hurting though, but hopefully in a year they take a drastic jump. One step back, two step forward type deal.
Besides that I've been busy working, had a quality assurance job that I got laid off from, and took another job at a car dealership doing next to nothing. Paperwork, driving around, typing numbers into computers, easy stuff, no stress. Saving money to return to school one of these days, all the while making sure I have enough fun to occupy myself and keep my sanity.
Most of you know I moved back to Petrolia, so Prasheel and I are now 8 hours apart, but we've still managed to see a disturbing amount of each other considering the 8 hour difference. We went to Indianapolis, Whitby, Toronto, Jomopro and Ohio together, also met up in Ottawa and Toronto on several occasions to ride and party like usual.
It's already getting cold out, and I can't wait for warm weather and sunshine so I can pick my bike up where I left off (in June, lol).
Peace!

Vibration Urbaines Results

Too lazy to write much about this right now, so I`ll keep it short.

Pro
1st Matthias Dandois
2nd Adam Kun
3rd Raphael Chiquet

Master
1st Didier Genet
2nd Maxime Luchetti
3rd Prasheel Gopal



I was very surprised at my placing, but happy. It was just a good feeling to be out there, a much different vibe than a North American contest. Got a lot of applause from people when my name was announced, just for the fact that I came as far as I did. Apart from my contest run, had a lot of fun yesterday.

The pro contest was done battle style....one rider starts, and calls out another rider to battle, winner proceeds. Much different than back home, but very fun to watch. It was a great show, and fun to see Matthias, Raph, and Adam all make it to the final 3 man battle.

This weekend has been an amazing experience, to anyone that is thinking of coming out to Vibration Urbaines or any other European contest, do it.

Paris Life: Day 1

Hey all, just want to let everyone know I made it here safely. Worked until lunch on Wednesday, went to my parents` for lunch, then headed to the airport. I may have lied to the baggage guy, when he asked if my bag was holding golf clubs and I said yes (best way to avoid paying the unnecessary $50 bike fee).

Made it to Montreal quickly, could not find a poutine for the life of me, so I entertained myself by texting lots of people before having to shut off my phone for a week. 8pm flight to Paris, 5.5h in length, with a 6h time change...trying to get sleep and re-adjust my schedule was going to be tough. I made sure I stayed awake long enough for dinner (and wine), and when they came around to clean up, asked for a second dinner (Adam, you proud son?), and a double whiskey and coke (flight attendant started calling me Mr. Double after that). Passed out hard watching Prince of Persia, woke up an hour before reaching Paris with at least a couple hours of sleep.

From the airport, I eventually found the train to Paris, and took it towards downtown Paris. Matthias lives just north of the city center, so I got off at the appropriate stop, and luckily found him meeting me near by. Another short train ride, and we made it to his cozy (read: tiny) apartment....on the sixth floor (too many stairs for my liking, especially with a huge Ogio bag with a bike).

After I built my bike, and Matthias updated his blog, we went for a bike ride around Paris. It was around noon in Paris, which is 6am at home for me, so going for a bike ride around this time didn`t even feel too bad haha. Biked around, saw the Eiffel tower, lots of cool looking French architecture, saw the Opera riding spot, and lots of other neat things.

After being taken to an American cafe, with Indian cooks, for lunch with a friend of Matthias`, I stayed back while Matthias went to go meet Adam Kun at the train station. I crashed for a couple hours to help adjust and avoid jet lag, which definitely helped me since we had a long night ahead of us.

After Adam arrived and built his bike, while Matthias serenaded him with some unique and original songs, we headed off to Opera, where Raphael, Joris, Mike, and others were already riding.

It`s a really weird feeling to go ride a spot that you`ve seen lots over the past 8 years or so, but felt really good. My nankai is acting up, which frustrated me, but was able to hit most of my usual stuff.

Ended up going to a little bar after that, met some interesting friends of Matthias again, and had a few drinks. Still not 100% sure what "pastis" is, but if you ever come out here, you should try it, Adam really enjoyed it haha.

Came back and crashed, woke up and headed to the supermarket and bakery for some french breakfast, now just chilling at Matthias` place.

Really good trip so far, and its only been a day. Heading back to Opera again tonight, and probably riding another spot in the afternoon as well. Adam didn`t ride too much yesterday, so looking forward to actually riding with him today.

We`re heading to Pessac early tomorrow morning, for Vibration Urbaines, so not sure what the plans for tonight will be, if anything. I`ll try to post again from Pessac after the contest hopefully. Peace.

Old Footage

Came across this gem of a video made by Matt Holdron last week. Matt came through Ottawa on his way to Montreal for a King of Quebec contest in June, 2005, and edited some footage of Prasheel, Jean-Francois Boulianne, Simon Marsan, and Jayson Plourde. Enjoy!

Just follow the link, and you can download or just view the video from there. Crazy to see everyone's riding from 5 years back, and how their style and riding have developed immensely since then.

http://www.eengoedidee.nl/videoz/download.cgi?mem_id=31636&fil_unique=Qr9wS9TM228AAFXC88k

Prasheel's going to France

Just a quick post as I've been keeping quite busy recently.

I guess for a bit of a back story, after Alex and I met Matthias Dandois in New Orleans for the 2008 Voodoo Jam, we invited him to come to the Toronto contest the following year. He accepted, and flew to Montreal (where we picked him up), stayed in Ottawa, and went to Toronto with us. The day he flew in, he told Alex and I that if we ever wanted to come out to Paris, we had a place to stay.

Since last winter, I had in the back of my mind, that I wanted to at least try to get out to Europe for my first international contest this year. After having a really good 2010 so far (riding and otherwise, see my recap past here), and knowing the contest season was winding down, when I noticed Vibration Urbaines #13 happening on October 30th, I realized this would probably be my last chance in 2010.

With about 5.5 vacation days still to use up at work before the end of 2010, I emailed Matthias for some information, and was pretty quick to make my decision. A week later, I booked my ticket, and in two days, I am flying out to Paris.

I don't really know, or am concerned with, what the plan is once I get out there, but I basically know I'll be arriving on Thursday morning, and spending a couple days in Paris, going to Pessac on the south-west coast for the contest on Saturday, then back to Paris for another couple of days before flying home on Wednesday.

Originally, we were supposed to road trip to Pessac with Alex Jumelin, but he is now going to be in New York while I'm over there haha. I'm sure we'll figure out a way to Pessac some how. I'm just excited to get out of the office for a week, go to France for the first time, and attend my first European contest. The level of riding out there, in my opinion, is considerably higher than over here in North America, so despite doing well in the NA Am circuit, I will definitely have my work cut out for me if I want to place well.

I'll try to update the blog a bit about my trip while I'm out there, and if not, when I get back home. Wish me luck!

Welcome to the team, Mark

Two months ago, at the DK Contest in Dayton, Ohio, Alex and I decided to add Mark Kuhlmann to Team Pralex, and had the announcement made by Catfish at the beginning of Mark's run.

I've known Mark for years. I think we met back in the early days of the Ham Jams (the annual/triannual jams held in Hamilton, Ontario around the 2001-2005 era), as he lived in the Hamilton area, and I was persistent enough to make the 5-6h trip up to three times a year.

We were both little dudes back then, although Mark was a little heftier than I, and adorably went by the nickname "Beefy" back then (which has somehow managed to stick around for several years, despite him slimming down considerably this past year). Our riding had always been at a similar level, but I always found myself extra motivated to ride after getting to ride with Mark, as I felt I had to go back home and try to catch up to him.

A couple years later, Mark went on a roadtrip, driving up to Ottawa by himself, and then joining me to Montreal for a King of Quebec contest. This trip sticks out in my mind for various reasons. It wasn't necessarily about the tricks we were doing, but everything that weekend was just about fun. The contest ended up taking place in a crowded skatepark, so the riding area was where ever we could find space. During the contest, Beefy and I both started a few of our lines from the half pipe, dropping 4-6" while rolling a hitchhiker, then trying to continue on from there. I won't bother mentioning the embarrassing story about Mark chugging Molson cold shots, and then vomiting in a plastic bag as I drove to Montreal the next morning haha.

After a while, Mark faded out from flatland for a little bit. We kept in touch loosely, but with both of us busy with school, contact was scarce. Recently, Mark has come back to riding, and is as passionate as ever about it, despite being quite busy between his job, his new wife, and his even newer pet dog.

I feel really proud to introduce Mark to the team, as he continues to ride and progress himself, it inspires and motivates me to ride harder to keep up with his progress. Welcome to the team, Mark.

Prasheel Gopal & Mark "Beefy" Kuhlmann from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Prasheel in the Paper

This is from about 5-6 weeks back now, but this ran in the local paper, the Ottawa Citizen, on September 11, 2010. It was partly run to help promote the contest that I helped organize with Joe Mamma bike shop that day, and partly as just an interest piece.

Here is a terrible quality photo of the paper, click to enlarge, and there's a link below to go to the Citizen's website where you can actually read the article. Enjoy.


Link to article.

I was approached that day by a couple of people that saw this article and came out to check out the contest, which was good to hear as it helped bring a good crowd out for the contest. Also, I was recognized as "the guy from the paper" later that week...which isn't too surprising since I was on my bike at the time anyways.

Oh yeah, the photo was from this year's Toronto contest, and was shot by Dylan Leeder. You can check out more of his work at dylanleeder.com, or read his blog, www.dylanleeder.blogspot.com.

ASC So Fresh Jam

So this past weekend, I went down to Toronto to attend a jam out in Mississauga.

It was good to see so many guys come out, and to catch up and attempt to ride with them.

The event was catered. I think there was 48 sandwiches plus drinks, cookies, and snacks. I took a photo, but I'm having issues with my memory card, otherwise I would post it right here instead of just talking about it.

As usual, Lachlan has a video out, which he managed to get out the same day (dude works hard).

SO FRESH from Lachlan Cameron on Vimeo.

Don't expect to see anything good from me, as the lot, in my opinion, was one of the worst lots I've tried to ride in a loooong time. This is coming from someone that has traveled to a lot of terrible lots of forced to put on shows on grass fields and gravel running tracks.

Also, Alex was tuckered out from his night out in Ottawa and spent the afternoon napping in the grass lol. For this reason, you won't find him in the video at all.

- Prasheel

Good Luck at KOG, Cory!

So, friend and team mate Cory Fester is currently in Yokohama, Japan, attending the King of Ground #3 contest which is taking place tomorrow.

On behalf of Alex, Prasheel, and the rest of the team, we wish you the best of luck, Cory.

Updates from Prasheel

Photo by Alexander Pomnikow

Hi all,

So, apparently it has been a little while since the last entry, and as expected, there has been a lot of stuff happening, but little time/motivation to update the blog. Bear with me on this post, as it will probably be a little long, but for those/any of you interested in whats been going on with me the past 9 months, you may continue reading.

Work

So, I guess the biggest news about me, in that it has changed my lifestyle the most drastically, is I have gotten a job and started my career. I started with a small company as a Computer Aided Design (CAD) Draftsperson, on January 18, 2010. On February 17, 2010 (coincidentally, exactly three months after a fortune cookie told me that "good things are in store for you in 3 months"), I was hired by the company directly, and no longer the temp/placement agency that I was brought in with. Nine months working here, and I am still enjoying it and learning new things daily. It is nice to have consistency in my life again, and a "regular" working schedule, Monday to Friday, 7:30am-4:00pm.

While I did enjoy the past few years of my life spent traveling and touring (with the Craz-E Crew stunt team), I grew tired of the sporadic schedule, inconsistency of work, and the general lifestyle that went along with it. I am thankful for being able to be a part of the company when I was on it, and the opportunities I got to travel, but I am extremely glad to have started a new part of my life.

Riding

Riding wise, I'm pretty happy with this past year. While I cannot ride as much as I used to (considering a year ago, I was unemployed and riding was my main focus), I still am able to make time for a session or two a night, and try to make better use of the time that I do have. I have been a little bit more quiet with the videos this year, but just felt that I did not learn as much new stuff as I wanted to, but instead have progressed well with my consistency and style/flow of my riding. As much as I wanted to learn a bunch of ideas that I have had in my head for a while, I think I got caught up with practicing for the contest season, for better or worse, which is why I am more consistent with my riding than ever before I think. I did do on edit that I was/am very happy with. Made it right before I moved in June, and the footage is all from a one hour session (minus the last clip), and captures the last session that I had in that parking lot after riding there for several years. (Edit attached to end of this post)

Contests

A lot has gone down this past year. I am really glad I was able to make it out to all four stops of the North American Am Flatland Circuit, organized by Steve Lapsley, as well as two other events.

Red Bull's Fight with Flight was in Indianapolis, Indiana, and went down January 30th. I had a lot of fun at this contest, did not make the finals (only top three proceeded), but won some cash from Red Bull. It was good to see so many people make the trip out, despite the cold, wintery conditions outside. Dominik Nekolny hated the cold when he came to the Toronto contest the year before, but it was good to see him come out to Indy, and take home third place.

Next up was the Flatland Unlimited (6?) contest in Toronto, Ontario on March 6th. Being the only Canadian contest on the circuit, as well as Canada's biggest annual contest (which I've been supporting for the past 9 years), it was a really good feeling to see how well it was organized, and the amount of support the event received by the sheer number of riders that came out (largest Toronto contest in years I am pretty sure). I ended up making finals (top 5 proceeded), and taking 5th place, the highest I have ranked at the Toronto contest in all my years attending, so I was quite pleased.

After that, JoMoPro went down in Joplin, Missouri on April 10th. Last year's event was the first one they had included flatland, and they set the bar pretty high. These high expectations were not only met, but exceeded. Despite a very questionable call by the judges in pro flatland finals, the event went off amazingly well. Unfortunately, I placed pretty terribly (12th), and rode even worse than that in my opinion. All in all, I had a great time at the event though, and it was the worth the 23h drive (each way) to spend just two days in Joplin.

The last stop of the circuit was August 21st and 22nd, in Dayton/Springboro, Ohio. What made this trip especially difficult and stressful for me was that I was not able to book off the 20th or 23rd, meaning I had to make it to Dayton (12h from Ottawa) and back between Friday at 4pm and Monday at 7am (with a couple hours of sleep to function). While Alex and I were able to make it down in time for the contest to begin on Saturday morning, the weather was not too kind to us, and we were plagued with rain on and off all day. This kept the start of the event to keep getting pushed back later and later throughout the day, to the point where Masters class was supposed to occur on Sunday, when Alex and I would have had to been on the road. Luckily, Pat and Catfish re-organized the schedule for us, and let the Master class run as soon as it dried up on Saturday evening. Again, rode pretty terrible, and placed (higher than I expected) at 9th.

Somehow, across the whole circuit, I was able to acquire enough points throughout the stops to end up in third place in the Masters class for year-end, which surprised me greatly. Again, a big thank you to Steve Lapsley and all the contest organizers that helped out with the first year of the AM Flatland Circuit, which has already made a huge impact on North American flatland in my opinion.

Along with these four events, I also attended the Zero Degrees +1 contest in Whitby, Ontario on February 6th, along with the Joe Mamma contest on September 11th in Ottawa, Ontario. I was really happy to be involved with the second contest, and thankful to Mark Kuhlman, Chris Mclean, Jean-William Prevost, and Alex Poirier who all came out from Hamilton, Kitchener, Montreal, and Petrolia, to help me put on a great event for Ottawa, as well as try to take home some of the $300 cash prize.



Well, that pretty much sums up a lot of the past year in terms of riding and what I've been up to. Apart from that, I have been staying a bit more low-key recently. Traveling less these days, due to my job, but try to make the most of my trips. Partying less, due to lack of interest, but still enjoy having a few drinks with friends. Riding lots, even bought a single speed (non-fixie) bike in the Spring, riding 30km+ daily usually.

Well, that's basically it. Going to try to update the blog (a lot) more regularly, with related and random stuff. For instance, this weekend, Alex and I are meeting up at an ASC jam in Mississauga, Ontario on Sunday, so possibly some photos with a few words up after that, as well as a team edit dropping next week possibly. Stay tuned!

Prasheel Gopal: May 28, 2010 from Pralex Gorier on Vimeo.

Random Shit Yo!

So we've been up to some top secret shit yo! Alex got 3rd in Indy, Prasheel got 4th. In Whitby Prasheel got 4th also, Alex failed to qualify (we'll pretend to blame it on his bunk shoulder, but really he just sucks at bikes). Here's some photos of shit we've been up to.

Here's an excellent photo of Prasheel by Dylan Leeder, check out more by him at http://www.dylanleeder.blogspot.com He's awesome!



New jackets son!



Nightly Steez with Alex, champagne of course.



Team meeting this weekend in Guelph, hopefully get a new nightly style photo during it. Alexis flies in on Saturday, should be an epic week of Alexis bored by himself while Alex doesn't do work at work, lolol.

How To Be Awesome By Alex Poirier

First of all, I will define what I think Success is, which is pretty much just thinking you’re awesome. Fuck money, fuck a career, you don’t need a girlfriend, you don’t even need good prospects. If you think you’re awesome, I’d say that’s quite the fucking success if I do say so myself. I apologize for my language, but I’m trying to get a point across here, haha. Okay, okay, here’s my list of what will make you successful.

1. Be positive! I know this probably sounds ridiculously lame, but fo reals. Consistently tell yourself you’re having fun. Even if you’re at work, hating life so hard, you can be cursing your existence in your mind, but act like you love life. Tell your co-workers about how much you love life, when your shift ends, complain that you can’t wait to come back tomorrow. After you do this for long enough, you’ll eventually actually love your job, no matter how horrendous it is. I speak from experience here, I hated my last job for the first while, one time I even went on a huge rant about it to Prasheel. Then around November I completely turned around my attitude, I became positive! I call this pessimistic optimism. Yes, perhaps your life “sucks”, but be optimistic about it! Love it anyways! Hating life sure as hell isn’t going to change anything, so why not just be happy? Make sense?

2. Be able to have the greatest time ever alone. If you rely on others to have a blast, you’re fucked. I spend hours upon hours alone on my bike having the greatest time of my life. I come home from work and usually am by myself every weekday until I go back to work. I have a great time! I don’t really know what it is I do that’s so fun, but dear god its great times! Sure doing things with people is better probably, but if you can’t have fun by yourself, my god you are in for trouble.

3. Money. This is a touchy one. You really don’t need money to think you’re awesome, although having it wouldn’t hurt thinking you’re awesome. A key to thinking your awesome is girls (or boys if you’re a girl) thinking you’re awesome. Unfortunately (and I may be a little bias here), girls like money. Girls even more so like men with money. I’m not sure why, but money doesn’t seem to concern men as much it does women. How do you get past this obstacle and make women think you’re awesome. Simple! Just act awesome. Confidence, not arrogance, confidence! Be able to hold your own in a crowd. Make an impression, girls will love you. Want girls to love you when you go out to the bars, suspenders. Don’t ask me why, girls LOVE suspenders. Seriously, be confident, wear suspenders, you will get girls. As for girls, I don’t really know how to get men, so best of luck in that department.

4. DO NOT CARE ABOUT THINGS. Holy good god, I cannot emphasize this more. I’m not saying don’t care about your friends and family and loved ones. I’m talking about the small things here. For example, you go to a coffee shop before work/school/whatever and get a coffee. You walk out coffee in hand, you start drinking it, and its terrible, or they messed it up and put in too much cream, or whatever. What should you do? First of all, you should be over it and just drink the god forsaken coffee. But if you must get another one, DO NOT make a scene. DO NOT get angry. How will this help the situation? I worked at a Tim Hortons when in high school, trust me, we did not care, and if anything laughed and ridiculed any upset customers. Getting pissed off won’t change how your fucking coffee tastes, and it’ll just get other people laughing at you behind your back that you are THAT pissed off about a stupid god damn coffee. Fo reals. If you are getting pissed off about things like this, you’ve got bigger problems then thinking you’re successful.

5. Have something you’re passionate about. I know this seems kind of contradictory to my last point, but its not. If you’re not passionate about something, you’re probably not that interesting. There’s a lot of things you can be passionate about. Pretty much an endless list of things actually, if you’re passionate about something, it will show when you talk about it, and make you much more interesting to others. I ride bikes, its my “passion” as gay as that sounds. Its amazing how much of a conversation piece it is, the odd person thinks its weird that I’m 21 and ride little bmx bikes, but for the most part, people are genuinely interested about it and interrogate me thoroughly about it. This will make talking to the opposite sex much easier, as once you get into it, you’ll be able to talk for ages because you’re so god damn passionate about it. Bringing us back to point number three.

6. Get out and about! Stop sitting around and doing nothing. Travelling is cheaper than you think. You just have to find the right people to do it with. Find people that follow similar guidelines as the ones I’m listing. Care-free, go-with-the-flow type people. Don’t make tight knit plans, have a general guideline of the things you MUST do (which should be small) and just let the rest happen. I’ve driven to Atlanta twice now, spent more time driving, then I actually did in the damn city, but this makes a great story. It gives you something to talk about (and even gives the appearance that you have money, see point 3) and makes you more interesting to others. I’m hoping by now you already think you’re awesome, and now you’re just working on convincing everyone else, which should be pretty easy once you think you’re awesome.

7. Haters gonna hate. Yes, believe it or not, not everyone will think you’re awesome. But this is good! Look at Kanye West, no one has more haters than that dude, and yet he’s constantly talked about, dude sells millions of albums, probably has sex with tons of hot girls, and can pretty much do anything he wants at this point, and nothing will hurt his career. So be prepared to take some slack, don’t hate back, just laugh! See point 4.

8. Okay, well that’s pretty much it for now. This isn’t like the bible or anything, you don’t have to strictly do this shit. Everyones different, you can’t just change yourself, I just think these are some simple things to help you out. Number 1 is the most crucial…Once you are having fun no matter what you’re doing, and you think you’re great, you’re pretty much set, the rest will just follow. Okay, now, go be awesome and love life like Team Pralex does.

Yah, Yah, It's been awhile, I know

So, what has Pralex been up too? Well, first off, Alex and Adam Jakomait headed to Miami for Christmas Holidays in the sun. We had a few good sessions of riding and just having fun on bikes, also a lot of cruising around, which has helped Alex learn manuals quite well! Here are some photos from that trip:









Some wild photos, eh?! Awesome times down in Miami! ...Expensive...But awesome!

Next on the Pralex calender was New Years! Adam and I returned from Miami just in time to meet up with team manager Kim Dobbin, Prasheel, and some friends in London for a night on the town! Here's some pictures!







It was an amazing night, and a great gathering of the Pralex team in effect that night!

Here's a video that was shot during the filming for the trailer of the International Bicycle Film Festival, Alex was riding and spinning around then smashed into the $5000 camera, it was a frightening moment, but all was good after! Check it out!



Now, with all that out of the way, Fight with Flight is only a week away! Pralex has a huge entourage this year, so huge, we're taking two cars. Coming down with us will be Simon Marsan & Dub of Quebec, Lachlan Cameron, Adam Jakomait, the team manager Kim Dobbin, and of course, Alex and Prasheel (along with a few other friends)! Pulling out all the stops! In case you're been living under a rock, here's the trailer for the contest:



Okay, I think that's all for now! See everyone at Indy! It's going to be fantastic! Lots of International stars and a huge AM crowd this year! Get stoked!