Summer Gravity Camps is one of Whistler’s Premier camps for mountain bikers. Run by Andrew Shandro and a hand full of professional riders, Summer Gravity Camp allows you to get close and personal with some of the best riders in the world, and get some exclusive time in the Whistler Bike Park and the Whistler area in general. One of the riders you may come across this year in the bike park is Cam McCaul, so here’s a little glimpse of what he could be teaching you to do.
Click here for Cam McCaul’s Superman How-To…
Cam McCaul is known for pushing the envelope with his trick-tionary. He has been on the leading edge of Slopestyle for the past couple seasons and now you can get a chance to ride with Cam at one of the most unique and well designed parks in the world, Whistler Bike Park. How you ask? Through a Summer Gravity Camp.
Cam McCaul is going to be there helping, coaching, and training at SGC this year along side many other professional coaches helping you dial in the tricks you want to. We’re talking about exclusive AirDome time, riding outside of the bike park with him, and possibly even sitting down to dinner with Cam!
Here is a quick glimpse of what you could learn while at Summer Gravity Camps this summer.
Cam McCaul is hands down one of the most famous mountain bike riders around and catching up with him is no easy feat. Our forum boards compiled a bunch of questions for him and when he wasn’t jet setting around the world this year, he was able to take the time to answer them all. Thanks for taking the time to answer all of these Cam!
Enjoy the words and pictures by Sterling Lorence inside,
You inspire so many riders of all ages and all abilities , BUT who inspires you?
When I first started riding, there wasn’t really a freeride scene like there is now and I was really into racing. There were two riders that inspired me big time and those guys were Aaron Chase and Kirt Voreis. When I’d watch those guys ride, it was obvious that there was so much more going on with them than the pursuit of the finish line. Every move their bikes made was interesting to me because there was creativity to their approach. You’d never take your eyes off Kirt during a race-run cuz he could chuck a 360 at any time without warning, and if there was any down-time in the pits, Chase would be riding backwards down some stairs or fuf’ing a fence. They were obviously more concerned with having fun on their bikes than anything else, so I started following them in videos and I haven’t stopped since.
One bike, one location, one day. What, where and when?
I’d probably hit up Highland mountain bike park on a day that Smutok just finished buttering up a huge set of dirt jumps to be abused on a slopestyle bike.
Who’s your favorite rider(s) to ride with?
My normal crew to ride with when I’m home is my brother, Ryan Howard, Alex Reveles, Greg Watts, and Jamie Goldman (but Jamie just moved to Bend-over Oregon). That’s the usual crew along with a ton of others who are getting better by the day.
If you had to do anything other than mountain biking for a living, what would it be?
I’d be a Lion Whisperer, a weather man, or a fire truck.
What was your first trick that you landed that really stoked you out and what trick stokes you out now?
Believe it or not, when I did my first no-footer, I was pretty damn amazed. It was crazy to look down at my pedals and not see any feet on them. I’ve come a long way since then, so it’s tougher to get that same feeling. Now it’s all about Frontflips, double-whips, and superflips… basically anything that ends in “ip.”
Those pics above can really resume well Trond Hansen. Sick riding, smooth passion for music, great guitar player and singer, and good MX rider. I remember the first time i saw the Viking around. Saalbach, Adidas Slopestyle 2005, He was there with Niels Windfeldt and they were really killing it. Such a different style. Exactly what i wanted to see at the time on a mountainbike, snowboard inspiration. Sending huge tailwhips on a sketchy hip on their heavy Kona fullys….This was Trond and he’s still like that. You can count on him when it’s about sending big tricks on big jumps. Doing well on contest, i can assure you that Trond is all about freeriding. Having the chance to film during both Days of Thunder, i was really stocked to see that he found the perfect balance, a nice overall rider, technical dirtjumper (still remember his 720° in Peynier), stylish as a motocross rider on big jumps, and fast as hell when it’s about DH. Watch out for him this year, and get a DOT DVD soon to come to enjoy some great riding from the north ! Find after the drop his interview with sick pics from Joakim Andreassen. As a musician, i asked him what he wanted to put under spotlights for his interview, his answer was Serge Gainsbourg. Sorry, couldn’t find a nice clip of “Requiem pour un twister” but i’m sure he gonna be pleased with one of the most famous beat and song that Gainsbourg made with Brigitte Bardot, “Bonnie & Clyde”…Enjoy !
- Name ? Trond Gjedrem Hansen
- Age ? 27
- Who you’re riding for ? Specialized, Rockstar, Oakley, Camelbak, and Hafjell
How and when did you start riding a bike ? I started riding when i was 14. I got a proper MTB and just started riding around my hometown looking for places to ride. We went to the mountains and streets looking for trails, stairs, and basically anything we could find to ride our bike on.
- When did you become a “pro” ? in January 2006 I got a deal with Specialized, wich made me able to not work on the side of riding. I startted riding pro contests like Crankworks and Adidas Slopestyle in 2005.
- What were the biggest changes in life turning pro ? It made me able to travel anywhere anytime I wanted to to ride my bike. I guess the biggest change was that i started going away for a few months every winter so I could ride.
How do you train ? I do all kinds of different stuff. Of course I ride my bike, i snowboard, ride my MX, climbing now and then, and i started kickboxing a little bit lately, and I go to the gym. Don´t get me wrong, i don´t do all these things every week, but I like to do different stuff to keep it fun.
- Can you describe a normal day of your life ? That all depends of the time of year. Right now there´s no possibilities to ride where I live, so now it is going to school for a few hours, either snowboard, climb, or work out, and then playing some music with my band. In the summertime it´s quite different. If I´m at home I´ll start off with a good breakfast (breakfast is my favourite meal of the day), and then go ride either the mountains or the dirtjumps, and then whatever afterwards.
