Letters From a Tour Manager - Seasons tour.

Posted: Nov 14, 2008

Source: The Collective

Being stuck in an office with two guys staring at computers for 12 hours a day for 4 months can really start to wear on you. Jamie Houssian and Darren McCullough had certainly not been ideal co-workers. When I first talked to Donny about running his premiere tour for The Collective’s new film “Seasons”, I thought to myself, this is going to be great - working with a couple of bros, going for coffee and lunch, beers after work - I was stoked. Man was I wrong. Maybe I didn’t realize what goes into editing a mountain bike film, but I ended up working with the likes of a couple of suits downtown trying to “make it”. Crazy hours, limited convo, heated film debates, and a general lack of mountain cycling.

Everything that was happening around me from Feb 1st on was with one date in mind: April 11th, the World Premiere of Seasons on the opening night of the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler. At noon on the day of the show, I think Darren got all the final touches on the film done, only to find out that there were some technical issues with the playback on a PC based system…..but we don’t call Dizzog the best IT department in the business for nothing, and he soon had it dialed. At the same time the line up was out the door for tickets being sold at Evolution www.evolutionwhistler.com , and soon the conference centre with its 1500 person capacity was officially sold out. Jenine from Evolution was a huge help, and it no doubt pumps up sales when your tickets are being sold at the coolest bike shop in Whistler. With some creative work by the doorman, (yours truly) we managed to top the venue out at 1600 people . The vibe inside was unreal. Snow riding on the mountain had begun to slow down, and people were ready for a fill of dirt riding. You could feel the energy. With the crowd rowdy and ready, Latch Key Kid settled everyone’s nerves with a solo acoustic set before the show, which included “Coming Home Soon” www.myspace.com/latchkeykid1



If the crowd’s reaction to the film was any indication, the show was a huge success and everyone was stoked on the film. The vibe continued on to the after party at The Longhorn, which was capped off like most mountain bike parties, with wrestling and forced underwear removal.


After a successful world premiere, we had another big show to get ready for at Sea Otter in Monterey the following week. The entire crew flew down to Monterey together, and the anticipation and excitement was apparent amongst our crew. At Sea Otter we were sure to find our harshest critics- the bike industry. After the success of The Collective and Roam, Jamie, Darren, Darcy, Schramm, Sterling, and CJ were all anxious to see for themselves just what their industry peers thought of their latest work. After two shows at the Portola Plaza theatre, the response was more than they could have ever asked for. As the crew was on stage applause and cheers rang out, including Bender letting it be known that he wanted to have Sterling’s baby. A night of high fives and congratulatory drinks ensued, and if not for the Monterey Popo’s lack of appreciation for our buddy Mitch’s interpretation of “the worm”, and an unfortunate late night hotel “shower” incident, our Monterey premiere could not have gone any better.

The following week we kept it going on our home turf with a 1000 people at a sold out show at The Commodore in Vancouver. We were also lucky enough to have The Sessions, whose music is featured in Seasons, play a set for the pumped crowd.

A couple of days later, Jamie, Darren, and I, decided that we should hit the road and check out some screenings of Seasons down the West Coast, and if we had time, ride our bikes in some of these spots. Ahh, riding bikes, finally, I thought; the reasons I had signed up for this job in the first place!

After a 2-hour line up and border services concluding that three mountain bikers were no threat to homeland security, we were in. A six hour drive later, and in typical Collective fashion we rolled into Portland and found the Bagdad Theater with about 2 minutes to spare. Park from The Fat Tire Farm www.fattirefarm.com was our gracious host, and showed us how to properly have a good time at a theater that is owned and run by a brewery.

[PI=2693488 size=m align=c]Jamie, Darren, and JB sampling the Bagdad’s replacement for pop and popcorn. Yes that is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T Darren is wearing.[/PI]

We were lucky enough to have the crew from Dakine www.dakine.com come down from Hood River and check out the film on the big screen. They invited us out to Hood River the next day for some riding, and we were stoked. Chico from Dakine was nice enough to have us at his place for a couple of nights, and show us around the trails. We ended up riding all day, with some highlights including a jump line built by pack designer Dave from Dakine, and the endless single track of Post Canyon. Have you ever wondered how Dakine has managed to produce some of the best riding accessories on the market? It’s because their employees are out there riding, discussing, and designing their ideal gear.


After a quick Monday morning stop in to check out the Dakine Headquarters, we headed south on the I-5 down to Salem for a show being put on by the guys at Santiam Cycles www.santiambicycle.com The show went well with a packed house at the Northern Lights theater, but it called for an early night as we knew we had a big day of riding the next morning out at Black Rock.

I had heard how good Black Rock was from more than one qualified rider, so I was anxious to get out there. The trails at Black Rock didn’t disappointment with tacky, flowing single track that was littered with well built, fun stunts. We were lucky enough to get shuttled by the local group who looks after the trails- The Black Rock Mountain Bike Association www.brmba.org Apparently shuttling is not that common at Black Rock, so we felt honored to get the red carpet treatment from such a core group of dedicated riders.



After an après ride cold one, and some general mountain bike banter, we needed to get back on the road. Next stop - San Francisco. We rolled into the city on Wednesday afternoon, after a long drive from Salem. The first thing we wanted to do was check out the theater where the premiere was being held. As we made our way into the Mission district we realized we were in the heart of a big city, and about to have our film shown on the big screen of the oldest operating theater in San Francisco, The Victoria.



We met up with Mitch and Matt from SFdirtlab www.sfdirtlab.com who were hosting our premiere. Mitch and Matt did a great job getting 400 city dwelling riders out to see Seasons. It was really cool being in a city where bike riding plays such a big role in so many people’s lives. There were freeriders, roadies, cross-country riders, cruisers, commuters and hipsters all in attendance. The diverse scene continued on to the after party at one of the local bars, which happened to cater to the bike scene. Check out this pic.


After some celebratory cold ones and more bike banter we decided to hit the road late night to beat the legendary Bay Area traffic.

The next day we rolled down to Santa Barbara for an intimate relaxed show at a local bar on Thursday night. Jamie went to school at UCSB, so we hooked up with two of his bros at the local sushi spot for dinner and sake before the premiere. If you haven’t been to Santa Barbara, you are missing out. The scenery from a curbside patio on State Street is second to none. Our mellow premiere soon turned into a night of flowing drinks catching up with old friends and a few other vague memories.

When Friday morning rolled around, we hit another patio for coffee and a little more scenery before we needed to get on the road to San Diego. A Jamba Juice later we were all feeling a lot better and hit the road for our next stop, San Diego.


The guys down at Adams Ave Bikes had set up a Midnight premiere at the Ken Theatre, and we had no idea what to expect. Scott Armstrong was the brain behind this party, and had managed to secure a couple of kegs for the event. What really surprised me was while Scott was pouring me a beer, he told me his full time job is as a police officer for the San Diego Police Department! I can’t tell you the last time I went to a premiere with kegs organized by a cop, but Scott’s recipe for a mountain bike party was right on. There were even some rowdy females in the audience yelling show us your *%$@, and a guy that started screaming about how much he loved his mom when Steve Smith’s section came on. No doubt one of the more entertaining premieres.

The next day we needed to drop Darren off at LAX so he could fly home for some business; apparently there was a fresh shipment of transformers T’s that had just come in. Jamie and I continued on to visit Brett, a friend who had opened a shop in Venice Beach called Mollusk Surf Shop. We decided to take our Specialized Enduros for a cruise down the Venice strip. I had never been to Venice beach before, and I was utterly amazed with the huge beach scene and diversity of people. It was a great place to visit and people watch, but I was happy to get out of there. While we were chatting with our buddy, we told him we were going to Laguna Beach for a show, and he mentioned we should crash at his family’s vacation home in the Laguna Hills. He said it was still under construction but was good to sleep in.

We hit the road to Laguna that afternoon. We didn’t know what to expect with a house in the Laguna Hills that was still under construction, but when we arrived we were pumped to say the least.


That evening we cruised the Laguna strip, taking in the constant flow of Porsches, Lambos, Ferraris, and Priuses. If you have ever seen the show Laguna Beach, then you pretty much know what we were checking out- it really is just like that. That night we were thoroughly entertained by the Saturday night restaurant and bar scenes of Laguna.

Back to business. We were in Laguna to show our film on Sunday night at the local theater. We had all day to do some riding so we hooked up with Tani and the guys from The Path Bike Shop www.thepathbikeshop.com to do some riding in the Telonix shuttle zone. Tani and his boys like to charge on their big bikes. Jamie and I felt a little under-gunned having left our Demos at home, but it was fun trying to keep up with those guys. We ended up getting 6 laps of hauling, steep, SoCal shredding that I won’t soon forget.



That night we premiered Seasons to a packed house, and it was a great way to finish off our Cali premiere tour. The next day we loaded up, said goodbye to our Laguna Hills pad and hit the road for home. That first day we made it all the way to Eugene, only to find perhaps the most roach infested motel room in Oregon. I awoke to one of the larger roaches I have even seen in my bag of clothes. It was a long way from Laguna…….

We hit the border at around 6 pm on Tuesday night, and unfortunately we were not in for the same treatment the US guys gave us. It seems that the border guard could not figure out why two guys would have gone mountain biking for ten days in the US in a borrowed Escalade, especially when one of the guys had the last name Houssian. Red flag. After we were pulled over, the truck was torn up, and everything seemed to be cool so they let us through.

After 4000 miles of driving and 16 Mexican Meals, we were finally back home. It was great to show off the work that The Collective crew had put their heart and soul into over the last 15 months, and to see it bring bike riders of all backgrounds together.

Thanks to all that made it to a premiere of Seasons around the globe.

For more information on The Collective, and to get your copy of the film visit www.thecollectivefilm.com or Pinkbike's Online Store.

By JB