A sport the British are actually decent at? It’s only a matter of time.

The racing season begins with the usual suspects and a few new faces. We were all surprised not to see Mark Horacek making an appearance after good pre-season form utilizing his shuttle taxi.

There’s a Chocolatefoot league on Dirt’s Dirt Fantasy League – a URL that sounds much more exciting than it is – http://dirtfantasyleague.com if you’ve not joined already.

Password is “Kraken” for entry.

It’s good to see the footage getting another step up in the quality stakes this season, judging by the various websites covering the events alongside Freecaster. Rob “Murray Walker with Swearing” Warner is still in the booth, with Alex Rankin cutting together a few clips.

Good combo I reckon.

Any predictions? I think there will be some racing and some crashes.

Watch the video. Note he gets blitzed by the rider in front he’s supposed to be head camming, who’s probably not Greg Minaar. Then look at how many places you’d grab a fistful of those 200mm rotors, or flip yourself into the trees.

Then add a metre of rain.

Then race it.

You lose.

Craig Bullen 2009 edit from Taylor Loughran on Vimeo.

Here’s a video of a friend of mine Craig Bullen – another ex-pat Brit lining up for residency handouts here in Canada. He’s living the dream in Squamish, and recently had his 15 minutes of fame. Slick moves, Captain.

Fun in the woods from NSXSKI on Vimeo.

Those things are FUCKING SHINY and no mistake – in some ways better than daylight as you never hit the shadows.

Here’s Jon, looking pretty happy with himself with his solar flare hat:

It was a good feeling to open up the winter nights to riding potential, and we weren’t the only folks on the mountain who’d figured this out.

We could see lights of the Grouse ski resort at the end of our 5k or so of climbing, but I doubt many snowclowns were up there – Last year this would’ve been 2m deep in snow at this point but El Nino seems to have put paid to any thoughts of snowy bliss for the Winter Olympics which looms large – it looks pretty brown right now which means: A longer riding season.

I was converted instantly – head mounted lights are a way better option than the bar mounts I used to run, and with the Hopes you’re basically contained in a bubble of daylight. This is one of the trails I know well though, and it’s still disorientating to ride without the usual reference points of giant stumps or big slabs lining the side of the trail and we had a few double takes to find our way down.

I’m considering whether I’d man up for a solo night ride out here. It’s pretty gnarly, even the easier trails can spank you to the ground, not to mention the fact you’re invading the forest’s peaceful time and there’s a whole lot of dark to swallow you up…