Jason Lucas - Pedal, Film, Laugh, Repeat

We sit down with Jason Lucas to trace a path from flat-city dirt jumps and sketch comedy to IFHT Films, Pinkbike, and a freelance chapter powered by curiosity, craft, and a lot of pedaling. Jason reflects on the early IFHT days, handycams, MSN links, forum comments and how comedy helped make mountain biking feel accessible to riders who’ll never chase a World Cup podium. 

From there, we dive into Pinkbike’s evolution into a full-scale media engine: blending credible tech with entertainment, taking creative risks like the Grim Donut, and building formats such as Hot Lap and Field Tests that capture chaos while still delivering real conclusions. Jason shares the full behind-the-scenes story of Pinkbike Academy, from conception and casting to COVID pivots, hosting, and what it really takes to give semi-pro riders a genuine shot at the world stage. 

In the final act, Jason opens up about leaving Mahalo My Dude, navigating a tight bike market, and designing projects worth doing even without sponsors, like a Vancouver Island bikepacking series built alongside local tourism partners. If you’re a creator, marketer, or rider dreaming of a media path in cycling, this episode is packed with practical insight on pitching ideas, protecting your voice, learning the business side, and knowing when to say no.

Share it with your riding crew, hit follow, and tell us where you want to ride, the next chapter starts right now.

• Get in touch via my Instagram
• Hosted and Produced by Jarrad Connolly

Transcript

Warming Up: Zwift, E-Bikes, Winter Rides

Jarrad 0:00

Welcome back to the Dynamic Life Cycles Podcast. This week we have Jason Lucas on. Yes, if you've watched any former mountain biking content, you've probably come across his face. Between the IFHT, Mahalo My Dude, and Pink Bike, plus a bunch of other mountain bike culture projects, he's done it all. What I love about Jason is he's spent a bunch of time trying to make mountain biking fun and accessible to everybody, not just the elites. So I'm super pumped to get him on, share the story, and I hope you guys enjoy the listen too. Cheers. Alright, how are you?

Jason 0:54

Uh I'm good. Yeah. I just actually finished a uh a Zwift session. Okay. So we're in that time of year where I don't want to go outside. So I just uh uh entered the uh the metaverse essentially of bicycles and uh I pedal with all my virtual buddies.

Jarrad 1:12

Was this the first one of the year or have you done a couple for this season?

Jason 1:16

Ooh, I'm about I'm about a month into it now. Okay, there's been a few. Um so I'm just yeah, it's it's very important for me uh to have like really good entertainment like on my computer screen. I have like um on the left like a good setup of YouTube videos or a movie or something, and then on the right is like the Zwift boring stuff.

Jarrad 1:36

Yeah, I'm I always struggle with it. Like I've done a ton of racing and and training and always had like the metrics on the screen, and like I don't know if you ever remember the Suffer Fest videos and things like that from way back in the day, but now all of these virtual realities and the worlds and stuff just like blows my mind how essentially, as you say, it's like a video game to to then ride your bike inside, and it's like it's just insane. So when you say you have like other entertainment, what else are you putting on the screen? Like movies and stuff like that, or is there different things, I guess?

Jason 2:13

Yeah, I mean, I don't know, like YouTube videos for sure, mountain bike content for sure, car content, um, yeah, movies, TV shows, just something with like pace, like yeah, so I can just look at that and like briefly glance at like whatever I'm doing on Zwift. But yeah, I can't I can't just look at that 3D screen for that long because like you're there for like an hour, hour and a half, and yeah, yeah, that's crucial. But yeah, that's that's my life right now. That's the time of year we're in.

Jarrad 2:44

Are you are you doing like activities on there or are you just writing in general or like the workouts and stuff like that?

Jason 2:51

Yeah, yeah. No, I do some of the workouts. This is riveting content, I'm sure. Um, I do some of the workouts because I feel like that's just like good um like form, I guess, is that makes sense. Like it gives you a warm-up, and then there's like some ramps usually, and then you have to put out certain amounts of power that I normally wouldn't ever try to do. So I think those are good, but then I also just do routes like uh in between because sometimes I don't want to push like 250 watts for a minute. Yeah. Because that feels like garbage.

Jarrad 3:22

It's not fun being in the pain cave at all sometimes.

Jason 3:25

And you're just in your house sweating everywhere, it's disgusting. Yeah, yeah. I I also don't have a good setup, like I use like a desktop fan kind of thing. Yeah. And it's just like I don't know, it's not great, but it's only for like three months of the year.

Jarrad 3:38

Yeah. Yeah, if that. And you can sort of if you pick a good window, you can still get outside. And I've this year I've ditched the trainer for an e-bike and it I find it's working better mentally, I think. Yeah. Like, even though it's wet and disgusting, and we haven't quite hit full winter yet, but I'm hoping that even in full winter I'm gonna still be motivated to go outside.

Jason 4:06

It's it's nice. I like I like the idea. I have an e-bike as well, and like I feel like it doesn't replace my bike rides, it just like makes them different. For example, usually I leave just right from home, which um I'd never do on uh on a regular bike, and I just pedal from our door and and uh go to the mountains, and I have plenty of battery to get up and down. Yeah, and it's like what would usually be like a six to fifteen kilometer ride is now like a 35 kilometer ride. Yeah, yeah. And so, yeah. Do you find that too?

Jarrad 4:38

Yeah, exactly. Like what bike are you on now? Like what a bike are you on?

Jason 4:42

It's uh a Norco site VLT. Okay, the newer one.

Jarrad 4:46

Yeah, yeah, the new CX. Um, yeah, those things are great. But the yeah, exactly as you say, like literally put all my gear on inside in the warm house, then jump on the bike, and it just takes that like struggle out of the climb. And nobody likes like slogging it up the hill, I guess, with a wet wet gear, wet uh ground, soggy ground. Yeah, it's just not fun. So I think like the e-bike, yeah, hopefully will change what I do through the winter.

Jason 5:20

Man, there's give me two weeks though where you're like, nah, I'm not doing that. Nah, you'll destroy your bike for one.

Jarrad 5:25

Yeah, yeah, there's always whenever I talk to people back home in Australia, they're like, Oh, how do you ride all year round? I'm like, well, you ride for like 50 weeks or the 52 weeks in Vancouver. I feel like if you're a little further north, then then yeah, you wouldn't be riding as much. But I think in Vancouver, give or take two weeks, you can pretty much ride all year round.

Jason 5:46

Yeah, it's pretty we're pretty lucky for sure.

Jarrad 5:49

Yeah. And so I guess the the big reason of getting you in here, and I want to try to say this as respectful as I can because Oh god bombshell. Um because I've been battling in my head on how to say this, but I feel like you are one of the only guys that has been able to make a living out of riding your bike without being fast enough to be a professional racer. And I think you guys were obviously very early on, like um right at the beginning of YouTube, obviously right at the beginning of social media, um, you had the cameras and things like that, and obviously it it took off from there, but like it's such a crazy thing to think about like how many people out there uh are trying to do the the racing thing, and it's what 1% of cyclists or something like that that that actually make it to being a fully paid role. And then I think about like how many social media content people and and obviously with with Instagram and and TikTok and all of those, there now that there's a lot more out there than there used to be, but for you, like where did that start? Like obviously with both you and Matt teaming up and things like that at the beginning, like how did that start out?

Jason 7:11

Yeah, I mean, if we go back to like why I like I started riding bikes um uh back when I grew up in Richmond, which is a very flat city. I've told this story before, but um you know, all we had was dirt jumps in a skate park. And so back then, that was like 2008. I rode because it was a good way to hang out with my buddies who also rode bikes, but I also was like, oh, I'm watching I I watched Neural Disorder, I watched Cranked, and I watched Crank Works. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, that's you could make a career if you're like a slope-style athlete or a big free ride athlete. I didn't, I wasn't as into racing, and I don't know why. Um, but tricks were just more appealing at that time. So I was like, oh, maybe I can do that. And um years went by, learned a lot of tricks, entered some contests, didn't do well, crashed a lot, hurt a lot of bones and ligaments and and some concussions and stuff, and it was just like, okay, this is insane. And kind of like what you're saying, like you gotta really, it's not luck, like obviously, these people are putting in a lot of work to get to the top, but there is some element of like you sometimes just get through that stage and you don't get that hurt, and you do get those opportunities and you do perform well, and other times you don't. So alongside that kind of journey was um the same time I picked up a camera because I wanted to film myself and my buddies ride bikes, and then I met Matt through he also grew up in Richmond, he rode bikes. We both started playing with cameras, and um not like I think now people maybe some people you start filming themselves because they do want to do like a content creation career or they have other ideas in mind. Honestly, for us, we were just like, Oh, we just want to see what he we look like riding bikes, and also it's like I guess we're creative, and this feels like a good way to get that creativity out. There was no like career path in mind.

Jarrad 9:10

Yeah, it's almost like I think back, and and I'm not sure how old you are, but I feel like we're on a pretty similar age bracket. I'm 33. Okay, so you're a couple of years younger. I'm I'm 36. So um, but yeah, I feel like we're on that similar age bracket where cameras were good enough that you could take a small digital camera out in your back pocket, film yourself, and then it was almost like a comparison to what you were seeing in the movies. So, like I grew up with like Krusty Demons of the Dirt, and then all the Moto side of things, and then when I transitioned into the mountain bikes, exactly the same thing. Like you had all the Clay Porter films, all the New World Disorder, all of that type of stuff was happening, and I feel like it was such a cool like comparison to put yourself on the let's call it big screen of the TV, uh versus them watching the athletes do it or the professionals do it. Um did you find that? Did you find that like there was a bit of that behind it and that was more emotive than anything else?

Jason 10:12

Yeah, yeah, I think like so I think the art of like art question or quotations, um the like process, I guess, more of like going out there with your buddies, we'd go to a new spot, and yeah, we'd have like a cr like a handicam kind of set up and film each other, and then either I would go home and edit or Matt or somebody would edit the footage, and then like putting that in I'm gonna date myself, but in the MSN group chat after like putting the video in there and be like, guys, look, like this is what we did, and everyone would be like, That's so sick, like that feeling, I guess, of like your buddies are stoked, and then this was early, early days internet forums. So, like we put on NSMB or maybe pink bike forums, and like get like three or four reply, like comments, or whatever. That's like that that's sweet, like, good job. Like, yeah, oh, didn't know that spot looked like that, or whatever. And I think um there was an aspect of it being not such a pro-level that maybe it was more um approachable for some people to watch and be like, oh, they're just out there having fun riding trails. Um obviously we would have loved to be more pro-level riding, but we weren't, and so yeah, I think there was like an element of that kind of now, it's like gratification. You see the likes and the comments come in and stuff. It was like maybe the earlier days that, yeah, for sure.

Comedy Meets MTB: IFHT Origins

Jarrad 11:32

And then how did that start to transition into like YouTube and stuff? You kind of mentioned like the forums. Um when I looked it up, YouTube was around or started in 2005. How how early were you guys on board with YouTube? And was that just a natural transition into that side of things?

Jason 11:53

Or yeah, that's a good question. I mean, like I always watched YouTube and not from like a mount, like I watched it for like funny, stupid videos, right? Like cat videos and stuff in the early days. Um so I think originally like we were posting in mountain bike focused communities, and then um when IFHT started, that was around 2009, and that was built out of wintertime boredom, still having these cameras and wanting to be creative. And um Matt and I worked together on like some really early sketch comedy, no bikes at all, because back then we were like, well, bikes are like the niche, like no one really watches that type of thing. We're gonna do like just comedy, which is what we like anyway. Make a bunch of videos, and we originally just uploaded to Facebook, and that was again for our friends to see, and like um in our in our schools or whatever, and and watch there, and then I think along the way, someone was like, Oh, YouTube's doing this new, like you can be a YouTube partner and like earn money, and uh there's people doing it that like make a living, like, oh weird, crazy. We'll I guess we'll put it on YouTube then. Yeah, um, so that was like I guess kind of natural, but also like there still wasn't really a path, and mountain bikes like yeah, weren't a part of it.

Jarrad 13:14

Yeah, for sure. Do you find and I guess like this is maybe jumping ahead a couple of steps, but were you I'm trying to think how a word this question, but were you sort of in the beginning, like obviously, as you said, like watching a lot of those sort of meme videos, comedy videos, uh and then once the mountain bikes started coming into that world, would you find yourself being more of one of the original guys in that side of things, or where where did that start to set up with the mountain bikes?

Jason 13:48

Like for sure. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to claim that we were like the first to do that. And for sure. Honestly, I would give more credit to Matt because I was working um at a bike shop. I always had like another job alongside when we were making videos, because like I said, it wasn't really a career path. Um, and also just like the m money wouldn't have made sense at that time. Um so I was working bike shops and I worked at um like a bike distributor here in North Vancouver. Um, and that was kind of starting his career as a filmmaker and a director, and uh he started working with NSMB, and so he was already making mountain bike content, um, but more like you know, of like high-quality riding and great cinematography. But then it did start the worlds did start to kind of collide in terms of like comedy and bikes, and then like how to um be a mountain biker was I would say one of our first like bigger successes in that world. And it was like, oh, there is like a market for this, or there is like people who are interested in this, and I think it was just very lucky timing where there was a ton of great content coming out in terms of like high quality, sick riding, great locations, like insane. But that's all great. I love watching that, but it's not very relatable, and so when we kind of came in, we're like, Well, we we can't do that, we can't be those people, but we can write funny jokes and make fools of ourselves, and so that kind of it seemed to just hit right at that time, and yeah, like full now is definitely like the driving force behind that, which is sweet.

Jarrad 15:25

Yeah, and I feel like even when I think back, like I was still in Australia, I was just getting into mountain biking, like that type of thing, and seeing your content come out, I still remember it being like weirdly off-key to the rest of the content that was around in in exactly the same way that you mentioned. There was sort of like you had these massive budget films that would come out once a year, they'd follow all the races, and then there was like you guys and maybe one or two others out there that were doing more of that relatable content, and almost without saying poking fun, but like having that comedy edge to it, and it was so refreshing to see, and it was almost like when it would come out, how many people were talking about it over the top of the rest of the content that was out there. It was quite a quite a funny thing, and then when I was doing a lot of research earlier, I was thinking back to it, and like you would go to a race and people would be talking about hey, did you see the video and and blah blah blah? And it was like it's kind of a cool thing to think about like on the other side of the world, it was reaching that that sort of audience still.

Jason 16:34

That's cool. I did yeah, I am always I'm always blown away of like who has watched that those videos and who like retains like the quotes and just like yeah, I mean I would be lying if I said we knew the impact of like what those videos had back then. We just didn't know the the scope of things, and I remember even like being like, Would would Pinkbike like post this video? Like it's not cool in the con in like the normal sense of things, but yeah, it was like yeah, kind of a crazy time.

Jarrad 17:05

Yeah, even and I can't remember which film it was on, but I was just watching it the other day, but uh it might have been like was there one that you did that was like film and edit or something like that?

Jason 17:15

Oh, uh that was more Matt, um how to make a sick edit. Yeah, yeah, with like Reese Wallace was in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jarrad 17:23

Yeah, there was like there was like that one and then there was a few others, but that one just sticks out in my mind in the sense of like the dropping every every second word was dropping. Like and then I was like, yeah, that's exactly and I know like you weren't quite much of a part of that, but it's just like as you say, those quotes were just everywhere. Um the as you say, like the how to buy a bike and then the the full office setup and and things like that, and then go from there. So yeah, it's pretty, pretty funny, pretty cool what what you guys achieved so early on there. And then how did that sort of grow from there? Because obviously there was like the rap battles, there was all these other different bits and pieces. Um there was obviously um I'm just trying to think of the other one that was just popped into my head anyway. Um yeah, moving forward from that, like you guys started to do a bit more of the the Harlow, my dude, stuff, and obviously Matt was a a big driver in that as well, but you had quite a big part, and then where did that sort of transition from almost comedy to more um vlog style stuff, I guess?

Turning Sketches Into A Production Company

Jason 18:34

Yeah, I think um there was like a transition period where uh we're we're obviously making a lot of videos that were just videos for us and our ideas, and then brands start to see like the view numbers behind it and the type of comedy, and they're like, Well, we want that. So, you know, we did like my first time camping was like an MEC supported video, and um there's obviously a few more uh following that, but I think once that starts happening, it's like okay, we can we start becoming almost like we do become a production company, which is kind of was a weird thing, at least in my mind, because I was like, oh, this is a real thing that can happen. Um, so there was like a transitional period, I think, where um IFHT as a brand became kind of like a commercial making machine, essentially. Like we still did our own ideas from time to time, and there was a lot of stuff that was just ours, but a lot of times brands would come to us and be like, hey, we need or we want like a how-to be, and so we'd do like a how-to be a skier or something like that. Um so there was that, but I think there was still the desire, especially from Matt's side, like he was like living this life as a mountain bike filmmaker. It's like we should document this too. This is interesting stuff. And um, we had like done, we had like a second YouTube channel called it was just called IFHT2. Which is we weren't good. All right, yeah, clearly did not know how to market ourselves at that point. Um, and that was just like kind of silly little vlogs, like low production value, like just film in a day, hopefully edit in a day or two, and just put it out to kind of keep people updated on what our lives were like outside of those bigger productions. And then that honestly started growing quite a bit. And um again, like Matt was the driving force there and growing that and being like an online pre personality and having good online presence and building up this fan base, and that was kind of that, and the commercial side of things was what allowed me to kind of like I did the I quit my nine to five and I became uh uh an employee of IFHG essentially, so it was a legit business.

Jarrad 20:46

So, did you ever go to school for any of this stuff, or is this all self-taught?

Jason 20:50

No, yeah, so it's totally self-taught. Uh Matt did like a little stint in it in film school, but I think like for what we were doing, it's tough to teach, especially back then. There wasn't like the level of YouTube tutorials that there are now, um, which is awesome. Like, there's so much good information for free online. But for me, like I was like, I did not have the money to do school, and or I could send myself into like insurmountable debt, and I was like, but I don't even know what I want to do or what I'm passionate about, so I should not do that.

Jarrad 21:22

Yeah, yeah, which is fair. And I think like it's like one of those things that because it's so specific, and as you say, there wasn't a lot happening in the way of teaching around then it was probably more based around the the professional director, producer side of things, more than that comedy skit, and you almost feel like you can either write a joke or you can't. And you guys obviously had that sort of whatever it is, skill to be able to write those jokes and then be able to perform them at the same time, I guess.

Jason 21:57

Yeah, I mean that's like that is the good and honestly the bad thing about YouTube or social media in general is you get pretty much instant feedback. So, like a lot of those early videos were not good, but you do have to make them to learn, and then you post them and you see the either the views are less, or you get comments that are like, What was that? That was way too weird, that didn't make sense, and you're like, Okay, you can kind of start to figure out the the patterns. Um but that being said, it's like a moving target because things change, people change, the audience change. Yeah.

Jarrad 22:31

Yeah, definitely. And I think like yeah, it's kind of hard to explain, but one thing that I do want to ask about is uh I don't even know how to explain it, but how how did it feel like being one of those first influences within the culture, within the um community, I guess, in that sense of like as we sort of mentioned, it was like very early on that you started producing some of these videos, you started building commercials, started building some of the the comedy side of it and and also some of the serious side, like there was definitely some serious videos out there about what you guys were doing, so I don't want to take away from that, but did you find as everything started to grow you'd go to events and and start to have that following? And did you notice that throughout?

Relatability, Early Internet, And Community

Jason 23:21

Um yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Like it even doesn't even have to be a fan, can be just going to the Whistler Bike Park, and it's like pretty quick, you're in the lineup and like a lot of people are talking to you that you don't know, um, which is awesome. And it it is easy to kind of get lost if when you're just online and you see like the view numbers, and you're like, okay, 10,000 or 20,000, that's awesome. Good amount of views, but when you talk to the people in real life, you're like, oh, okay, it is making an impact. People are appreciating it, it's very, very cool. Um, and then yeah, to see that grow is is like insane. But it's it's interesting, and I don't know if Matt still gets it. I definitely I'm like very prone to imposter syndrome. Yeah. And I still am. Like I'm always like, I should not be here. Like some of the uh the events we've been to or the the pro projects we've been lucky to take a part of, I'm always like, oh my god, we gotta like perform and crush it because like this might go away. Or like also sometimes you're in a room with like people with a lot of Red Bull hats on or monster hats, and you're like, oh god, we're freaking nerds. Like we should not be here. But hey, whatever, just enjoy it while yeah.

Jarrad 24:35

If I think if people are willing to invite you to those type of things, then then you're meant to be there. So maybe.

Jason 24:43

I don't know. I'm still oh man, it's weird how um you maybe you find it too like uh you do a podcast, right? You're putting yourself out there, but the level of anxiety that I have, I'm like, this doesn't make sense. Why am I putting myself out there when I'm so anxious about what people think?

Jarrad 25:01

Yeah, I I do, I feel like a podcast is a little bit easier, and I definitely haven't haven't reached anywhere near the fame that you guys have, but I do think about it back in Australia and racing and and going to to events, and the amount of people that would come up and chat with you would almost be so much that you couldn't ride your bike enough. And I'm sure you as you say, like when you're in the the bike line park line and and things like that, I'm sure people are coming up and trying to chat to you as you're trying to ride your bike, and um but yeah, no, I I don't know, I feel like as a racer, you almost put on a bit of a front and you have to be confident. And I don't know if you found that when you were going to whatever the project was or whatever it was, and then when you come home you can just like unwind and and sort of decompress a little bit.

Jason 25:56

So yeah, I mean there's definitely like when you're doing a commercial, um, you're definitely like, okay, we gotta be professional here. Like it's the bike industry. I know it's like chill a little bit, and it is, but like you at the end of the day, you're getting paid to make a thing, you gotta make a thing. Yeah. Um, so I wouldn't say you're like putting on a front or anything, but you're like, okay, like let's you know, be here on time, execute, do that sort of stuff. Um, so that's also like where the mahalo side comes in, and you're like, Well, this is our shoot, we can do whatever we want. You know, we have a stupid idea, let's go do it. We can be a little late, who cares? Like, it's yeah, a nice little outlet for that.

Jarrad 26:34

Yeah, definitely. Do you find when you are out in public, people sort of have an idea in their head about who you are, and then when they come and meet you, there's almost a bit of a difference because you might be slightly more relaxed or whatever it may be.

Jason 26:52

Yeah, I mean, for sure, like pe I I think people maybe start are starting to realize it, but like um with like people on the internet, uh, I'm like not as heightened as I am online than I am um just right now, you know. Like the when you're being filmed and you're on camera, yeah, you're gonna be a little bit more like energetic and outgoing because that looks better to people. If you're like kind of monotone and like ho-hum, they're like, Why why do I want to watch this? And I don't know if they know that. Like, even you know, news reporters, uh, people who host game shows on TV, like they're not like that 24-7. They they have an off switch, right? And so um, I've definitely had meetings with people, or not meetings, but like um, you know, people come up and say hi or whatever at the trailhead, and I I I think I'm just myself, and they're like, Oh, you're you're a lot funnier in the videos. I was like, this has happened a couple of times. I'm like, I don't what am I supposed to tell jokes right now? Like just on a bike ride. I I I don't have I like I can't be Brett Tippy, I can't be like joke, joke, joke, joke, joke.

Jarrad 27:57

Oh yeah, he's he's next level, and there's been a lot of requests to get Brett on the podcast. I just don't know if I could sit through an hour of listening to Brett in through the headphones, and that's in as much respectful way as I can say it, but it's it's quite funny. Oh, you should get him. He's awesome, he's got so much energy, it's it's insane.

Jason 28:18

It's it's honestly yeah, astounding um having podcasted with him and just spent a ton of like a lot of time filming with him and stuff. But someone like him is like honestly, he's like I don't know if he feels this right now, um, but he's been crushing it for years. Like he's had to adapt to like different forms of media and different like career choices, and so he's like almost like a bit of a North Star in terms of how to navigate the bike world as you grow older. Yeah, yeah.

Joining Pinkbike: Vision And Teamwork

Jarrad 28:47

Yeah, he yeah, it's insane how how much he's done and um what he's what he's doing and able to accomplish and and things like that. It's it's just crazy. Talking about Brett, probably a good transition into some of your pink bike stuff. How did that come around? Obviously, like you were doing still the Mahalo my dude stuff. There's a bit of the I always get this wrong and I'm gonna have to read it. IFHT.

Jason 29:14

If you just say I fucking hate that, yeah.

Jarrad 29:16

Yeah, I I remember doing uh a podcast with uh was it Haley?

Jason 29:24

Oh Haley Elise? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jarrad 29:26

And I think I screwed it up like more times than I said it right, and all she was doing was just laughing at me.

Jason 29:32

But um you wouldn't, you're not the first and you won't be the last. And it's worse when someone comes up to you and goes, Oh, you're I HF uh what what do you call it? And you're like, ah, you didn't think about it before you got here?

Jarrad 29:44

Like Yeah, the the whole question. Um I'm gonna blame my dyslexia for that one, but not that I've been uh diagnosed for that, but that's what I'm gonna blame it on.

Jason 29:54

That's okay.

Jarrad 29:54

Um anyway, yeah. How how did that come around? Because I feel like you kind of jumped in and had some some really big sort of projects within that and and that world. How did that go?

Jason 30:07

Yeah, um, I mean that came from um I so backing up a little bit. I used to work at Rocky Mountain Bikes, and at that time, Brian Park, who is now the like head of bike, I guess, head outside in Pink Bike. Um, he was the marketing manager. Oh god, I hope I didn't get his title wrong. He's marketing someone at Rocky, and I worked under him there for a bit. Um, then he went to Pink Bike and I went full-time IFHT. And then after a couple of years, he reached out um and said, Hey, Pink Bike is putting more emphasis into video. We want to make like a team, we want to really grow the YouTube channel, really like pump some energy into it. And he was like, Do you know anyone? Or like, or would you be interested? And I was like, it was right after we had kind of made how to buy a mountain bike, and um it was a like to this day, I'm like, I don't even know if I made the right decision, but it was a really tough decision. Um, but ultimately I was like, Well, this is an opportunity to learn, and like it's pink bike, like to me, and it's still pink bike is like like my childhood dream, right? Like it's like I checked, I go on there every day still, but as a kid, I used to go in there like all day, every day. So to get an opportunity to be a part of something like that, um, I really just wanted to kind of shoot my shot and and see and learn and learn more about the industry from that side of things because I feel like at IFHT we were always on the other side of like brands approaching us, but now I could see kind of behind the scenes of the production stuff, and so yeah, I took took that opportunity and yeah, it was kind of a whirlwind, like two or three years of of pink bike after that.

Jarrad 31:48

Yeah, well, like there was some pretty big projects with that. Like you had like the academy that you did, um, which I want to dive into because I feel like there's a ton of questions that behind the scenes I'd love to ask about that. And then obviously you did a lot of the like videos on the the bike testing and and everything from the like the baller um oh budget versus baller versus baller builds.

Jason 32:14

Uh loves by everyone, nobody hated it, not a single negative comment.

Jarrad 32:19

Never, never. Um, but yeah, like I feel like there was like so many of those ideas. Was that a lot of your brainstorming? Or was there like a team behind that? How did some of those come up?

Jason 32:30

Yeah, um, I would say there's a really good team behind those ideas. Like, yes, some are mine, um, but some are the sales team, and a lot are the tech team. And um, I definitely came in like guns ablazing, like, we gotta put comedy into it and weird transitions, and like just like kind of do wackier things, and that is well and good, but it does like I think the one thing Pink Bike does really well still is like blend the tech back into it and do real testing on bikes and like do like come up pseudoscience, but you know, come up with um uh conclusions on everything. And I I was like, ah, who cares? And I'm like, no, no, the pink bike readers care. They they will tell you if you screwed up. So that was a bit of a learning curve. Um, but it was really cool to work with like a pretty big team at that point. It was like the biggest video team I had worked uh with, and I guess it still is. Um, and it was quite collaborative, and um there were no stupid ideas, and it was in a time where yeah, they were trying to grow, and it was like, okay, we can experiment a little bit. And so like the Grim Donut came around, that was um Brian and Mike Levy's idea, and then I kind of came in to help with like how do we tell that story visually, um, but a lot of that was was their writing as well, and so it was that was like what I'm kind of talking about in terms of learning and it how to work with those bigger teams um and talk about topics that I didn't really at the time know about, to be honest.

Field Tests, Grim Donut, And Hot Lap

Jarrad 34:04

Yeah, for sure. I feel like sort of diving a bit deeper here, but it's sort of like exactly as you say, you you've now been exposed to all of these so-called professionals within reason because it's the bike industry, but I feel like a lot of those people have been doing it for so long and they've got that understanding, they've also got the tech knowledge, they've got so much sort of behind them, and it's it's quite interesting how Pink Bike continues to be able to sort of just make content daily, and it just blows me away.

Jason 34:37

Dude, it's insane.

Jarrad 34:38

And so, like it's it's kind of cool to hear your side of it and how like so many people have their sort of idea put forward, and then how that's mixed together and and works together with that. With uh something like the the Academy, the Pink Bike Academy, where and how did that come up? Because I feel like that's such a unique idea, and uh you don't really see that in many sports. Like you see all these big productions of the professional level side of things and and following teams, but very rarely do you see like hey, we're gonna take a bunch of amateurs or so-called amateurs and run them through a bunch of different events and different things and training and and then go from there and then eventually give them a professional contract. So, like, where did that come from?

Jason 35:31

That was the impetus of that was um at the time uh Alan Crisp, he worked in at the sales team there or led the sales team there. Um he's now very high up at Outside, but that was his brainchild for sure. Um, but he brought that to me, and I I really like reality shows. I don't know how you feel about them. Yeah, I love them. Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah. I'm like super down for a reality show, and I um I'm really down to blend worlds together. And so, like when he came with the he was like, we wanted we should do some sort of academy thing where we bring in like almost pro racers or like semi-pro and like how get them to the next step and give them like a legit prize that's like, okay, now you're on the world stage kind of thing. And I was like, Yes, that that is sick. And like um, my vision at the time for Pink Bike was eventually to like, yeah, we should grow it to like be a production studio, like make big things and like um get on streaming platforms and and make uh like things that look like TV shows. So that was a good idea, or a good yeah, it was a great idea and a good time to do it-ish. It was around COVID, so not that great. But um, yeah, that was that was fully him and then kind of tasked me to make it happen. But again, it was a team effort for sure.

Jarrad 36:52

So yeah, like I I just remember like sitting back and almost waiting weekly for those shows to go. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. It was such a and then as you say, unfortunately with COVID, it kind of killed a little bit, but there were still a few years there. What was there, three seasons? They did three seasons, or we did three seasons.

Jason 37:13

Um yeah, originally, like before we knew what COVID was, um, I wasn't even gonna be like a on camera at all. Like I was not supposed to be the host. It was gonna be, I believe, Cam McCall. Yeah. Um, and which is great. He's a great host, but COVID kind of shut down the border, and so he couldn't come over. And then for season one, like the cast is all Canadian and um they're awesome. Local shredders, but originally the plan was to have it worldwide, of course. And so it was a really good year to like figure things out, and honestly, like probably helped us um run or walk before we ran. And then going into season two, it was like we made a lot of adjustments, um, kind of pulled some of the reality TV out of it and put more of like the racing aspect into it. Um, and I think honestly, I'm like very proud of season two, and like still proud of season one, and like I think both of those um show or seasons of whatever did what we wanted to do, which was give someone like Evan Wall or Flo an opportunity to like take their talent and just go racing for the world stage, and then we did that like with a legit prize money and a contract, yeah, and and they both did very well, yeah.

Jarrad 38:28

Like Evan still racing very well, and then Flo. Correct me if I'm wrong, but she won a bunch of the the e-bike side of things, did she not?

Jason 38:37

Mm-hmm. And yeah, just just crushed it, and like that's you know, we're talking about only one percent of racers make it as their career. It's like sometimes that's what it takes, is it a reality show?

Jarrad 38:49

That like little bit of a push to get yourself separated from everybody else, and then third season there was Max that won it.

Building Pinkbike Academy

Jason 38:57

Yeah, so that um I left PB right after kind of season two came out, um, and then they did season three without me. They did ask, but I just I couldn't make it work. It's a lot of time. Like, that's a I I mean, I would say we worked on the pre-production for like four months, yeah. Probably, and then the shoot is like three weeks, and then the editing is like another two or three months of like revisions and getting the stories right and stuff like that. So there's I just did not have the time to do it.

Jarrad 39:25

Yeah, it's almost a full year within a year, I guess. Totally, totally. That's crazy. So, yeah, moving forward from that, what were some of the other cool things you did at Pinkbite with like different projects that really stand out in your mind?

Jason 39:40

Yeah, I mean, like I look back fondly on the Academy, of course, but like there we did a ton of series, um, like Hot Lap and that like and Grim Donut, where it was like these ideas that like were we had like a framework of. But we didn't really know what was gonna happen. And that's like my favorite type of filming when you're just like whatever happens, happens. And sometimes you kind of like strike gold, and you're like, oh my God, something crazy happened here. Like when um Eddie Masters and Matt Walker decided to ride uh the Brody 8 ball down cakewalk as fast as they can. And you're like, oh my god, hope these guys like I hope we don't ruin these guys' careers riding this old bike. Um like that, or the Grim Donut when Yoan Brelli like went way faster on that than he did his commensal, and he was like, even he was like, I think you guys like created a really good bike here. We're like, what?

Jarrad 40:38

I do remember watching that and thinking like, and I was almost the video was almost set up for it not to work. Yeah, I feel like it was almost the storyline was like, Oh, we've gone and done something dumb, let's see what happens, and then all of a sudden it was better. Yeah, and that was like, yeah, that was quite a funny, quite yeah, a good one. And then to have Johan as well, like his energy on camera is like probably second to none. It's great, it's great. It's crazy, so yeah, I guess, yeah, they're awesome videos.

Jason 41:11

But yeah, even like we man, we did like in my time at Pink Bike, I'm pretty sure I was a part of like 500 videos or something crazy like that. Like it was insane. But um, we put out a lot of like field test stuff, and I was always really proud of those, like to get all those bikes and all those people in a place and film, and hopefully nothing goes wrong. But it when stuff goes wrong, it's actually kind of good because it's like more entertaining. Um, and yeah, like I'm yeah, learned so much. Like, I can't um express enough how like thankful I am to them and that team and for putting up with me and my like stupid ideas, but also like yeah, just trying to be a part of things.

Jarrad 41:50

Yeah, I heard some like super quirky things on some of those uh field tests and things like that, in the sense of like having to record voiceovers in like a I don't even know how to describe it, like if you got all the pillows from the lounge, I don't know if you were part of that one or not, but there was one where I heard it might have been Mike Levy or someone like that was like tucked into a bunch of pillows to make it almost like a sound room.

Jason 42:15

Yeah, we've done a lot of a lot of stupid stuff like that. That's like uh where you know you you just have to figure it out and just make it work, just make it work. Um, yeah, we've we've had a lot of that. We had a lot of like when a bike breaks, it's like the best and worst thing because you've captured something crazy happening. Hopefully it was on camera. Um, but now you're like, well, how we gotta go to the brand and talk to them and be like, hey, the bike broke. What do you want to say? Um, which adds a lot of time and energy. And then it's like, okay, how do we put this into the video so it's like nice to look at and make sense? And um there was times like I broke a bike doing the Huck to Flat, like the pole, I forget what that bike's called, pole. Yeah, and like the the the braces between the seat and the chainstakes folded in, and we were like, sick, shit, like ah, this is a weird way to break a bike. How do we explain this? And then so it just adds a lot of faff basically to to video production, but um I don't even know what I'm trying to say. It's just it's just yeah, there's just a lot of there's a lot of like makeshift shit that goes on, and there I think people would be surprised at the level of like last minute, like literally night before a video goes out, like you're trying to figure it out.

Jarrad 43:32

So yeah, crazy. So I guess moving forwards a little bit. Um two last things I want to really touch on is is this past year you've really gone out on your own, a lot more sort of free agent, freelance type of work. How has that gone? Because I feel like, yeah, it's a big change, a bit of a shift for yourself.

Hosting, COVID Pivots, And Outcomes

Jason 43:55

Yeah, um, honestly, yeah, terrifying. I don't really at the this time last year, I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm still a little like, I don't know what I'm doing. But um I do feel like I'm in a better place mentally for sure. Um just and like that sounds terrible. Like IFHT in Mahalo was is the best, it's still going, is the best. Um, but I was in a place where I wasn't like a hundred percent into it, and I've kind of explained like there's a whole video of like why I left. But um I basically, it's such a small team. We're trying to make things happen. The bike industry sucks. Like, not as like an industry, just like in terms of cash flow and people wanting to spend money on um the exact thing that we built our business around. So um that's not their fault, that's economics and things that are smarter. It's just the world, right? Exactly. It's not only the bike industry that's like that right now, either. Um so I was kind of like if I'm not a hundred percent into this and we're like a four-person team, five-person team, three-person team, whatever, um I should not be here. Like, that's not fair to anyone else. And so I yeah, I was like, I had a chat with Matt, and I was like, I sorry, like I can't, um I'd like to kind of just part ways the end of this year. We're still friends. We were friends way before, we'll be friends after it. It's just business. And like when you zoom out, people start and leave jobs all the time, right? It's just like how life goes. And um, yes, bikes are cool and fun, and making videos is cool and fun, but at the end of the day, it is a job, so um, either lasts forever or it doesn't. Um, so yeah, bringing back to your question. Oh, sorry, that was a huge ramble.

Jarrad 45:44

That's perfect, huge ramble.

Jason 45:46

Um, yeah, last year or this past year, just being freelance uh was good. Like honestly, um at the beginning of the year, I didn't really think too much about how to make money, which sounds privileged as fuck, but um I just wanted to do something that I really wanted to do, and then I did the um bikepacking trip down Vancouver Island. That was just like I wasn't like, oh, how can I sell this, or like how can I become a content creator and I'll just do something like that. I was like, no, I've always wanted to do something like a big bikepacking trip. That seemed like a easy-ish, easy-ish to get to, at least. Yeah. One, and it kind of made sense in my head of like, I'll bring a mountain bike and I'll go mountain biking along the way. And so people responded really well to that. And I was like, oh, okay, well, I I liked doing that. Maybe I can do that more. And um, yeah, so I kind of split my time making stuff for me, but also working as a freelancer, uh, filming other people's stuff. I still did work with Pink Bike, uh, did a couple field tests, did uh some like more commercialized pieces for them as well. Um, so it's been interesting. It's kind of like I'm just juggling right now, basically.

Jarrad 46:58

Yeah, it's sort of just like finding little yeah, exactly as you say, like opportunities and things like that to to pick up and run with, and and it's it's kind of cool to see your face popping up all over the place instead of just very concentrated in one area.

Jason 47:14

I hope people aren't tired of it. Honestly, sometimes I'm like, this is too much Jason on the pink bike homepage for today.

Jarrad 47:21

No, I think it's good though. Like, um I just watched the the video with Quarter HP, and like you were you're part of that, and then uh obviously, as you say, like some of the pink bike stuff this year, and um I'm quite good friends with uh like Jeff Livingston and Steve. Oh sick, and like obviously you're out doing some filming with those guys, and yeah.

Jason 47:43

Um always a terrifying time.

Jarrad 47:45

Yeah, Jeff Jeff says the same thing. Jeff's like, the only reason I'm not scared is because it's Steve. Yeah, he's like the amount of times I'm like, this could go one of two ways, but I'm confident in it. He's like, but yeah, like that's that's a whole nother story, and Steve is a nutter. But um, yeah, like I think going back to what you're talking about, some of those opportunities and the commercial side of things, how did you go with sort of was it sort of uh like finding these opportunities and then bringing partners on board, or was it the other way like you would come up with a bit of an idea, and I guess it depends on what it was, but like you have some really good partnerships both inside and outside of the industry. How did that happen? Because as you said, the the industry right now is I guess on the rebuilding phase. I don't want to say that it's uh a negative thing right now, because I think it is coming back to being a good position, and I've had conversations with different um, let's call them influencers for that matter, um and sort of talking about like your value in the industry is based on today's value, not on last year's value. And it's how do you find that in the sense of as I say, like bringing different partners on and people like that?

Behind The Scenes: Breaks, Fixes, Deadlines

Jason 49:04

Yeah, I mean, I think it's always very tough to sell an idea that's not the person's idea, like not the marketing manager, whoever you're talking to's idea. Um, so I have a like literally like a no in my notes app, I have so many stupid ideas that would make no one any money, but I just want to do them. And so I do try and pick a couple of those or three of those and morph them into a bit more of like, okay, how can like a brand come on and do this with me? Um, and sometimes I do I don't and I just go do them. Um, but like the Vancouver Island bikepacking one is a good example where I was like, well, I'm gonna go through all these um like uh cities or towns or whatever, and I know they have tourism associations. I'm gonna make bike content there. I'll reach out to them and see if they're interested in partnering up. And a vast majority of them were, and I was like really excited because I'm genuinely stoked to go to those places. I would love to promote them. I think people should go there and ride there and help the economy, and they will have fun in return. Those trails are all so good on the island. Um, that being said, there are times when maybe there's a product launch or uh an idea or a destination, and they'll people will come to me and be like, hey, we have this thing. Can you do something with this thing? And it's like your job or my job to make it um entertaining, fun, approachable, and uh perform to some degree. So it uh yeah, to answer your question, it's like both, basically. Yeah.

Jarrad 50:42

Yeah, exactly. It's almost like a bit of a uh what what is the goal of the the project, whether it is a uh as you say, like a bit of a fun trip versus a commercial, I guess, in that sense.

Jason 50:56

Yeah, and I've had ideas like um just fall flat. Like I've tried to sell a lot of things, and people are like, ah, it's just a tough time in the industry, hard to take risks right now, and I don't fault them for saying no. Like it either it's my idea is not good enough or I maybe I pitched it wrong, or maybe it's just the time isn't right, and that's fine. Um, but yeah, there's like for every yes, there was like 10 no's probably.

Jarrad 51:22

Of course, yeah. So I guess before we start to wrap this guy up a little bit, what have you got for people out there, especially some of the younger kids out there that are getting into this side of things? Obviously, when you started the world was a bit different, but like what are some of the the main things that you sort of suggest to the people out there?

Jason 51:42

In terms of like being a kind of career?

Jarrad 51:44

Yeah, I guess like in in the sense of like you've built your career off ideas, I guess, at the end of the day, like things that you wanted to do, things that you've wanted to achieve, and as I said in the beginning, you're sort of one of the small amount of people that have been able to succeed at that. Um what are some of the the skills that people should be focusing on if they want to go in this direction?

Jason 52:10

Yeah, I mean, it's tough, and I don't see myself as an advice giver. But if I like if I was to kind of like pinpoint the steps along the way that I think were good for me to like have, one was not making content to become famous or grow a following or get more likes or whatever, it was just go make stuff to make stuff and be creative, be weird, do something different. Uh, don't just see what you're seeing online and emulate it, like go be yourself. And it's so cliche to say that, but legitimately, like go be yourself. Because if you're I I've heard this from like non-mountain bike content creators a lot, but they're like, if you have a mask on for like 10 years, you're like you're kind of gonna lose yourself a bit, and then that those things that when people see you in real life happen, and they're gonna be like, Oh, that person was fake as hell. Like, that sucks. Um, so I think people can see through that, and they're seeing through it more and more, especially as content creation becomes more of a career path. So definitely that. Um, definitely like if you do want to make it a career, like figure out some business stuff. Like, actually, like figure out how much you know you need to make and how you're gonna make it, and are you gonna be the you're gonna do a ton of sponsorships or like whatever it is, like if how you're gonna afford camera gear, like all this stuff. I I if I was to go back in time and go to school, I'd probably like take a business course to be honest. Like, I think it would be really helpful for that type of thing. Um, and then other than that, like if it starts to suck, like stop, don't force it. Like, maybe it's just not for you. I don't know. Like, it's okay, like you can just go out and ride your bike and have fun.

Leaving Mahalo: Freelance And Bikepacking

Jarrad 53:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's there's two points there that I really love. And one of them, the last one there is like if it starts to suck, like stop doing it. And I remember a quote from Travis Pastrana and his dad. It's sort of like if somebody's willing to pay you to have fun, continue to do it and work as hard as you can at it, because as soon as they're willing, or as soon as they're not willing to pay you to have fun, then it's time to get a real job. Um, and I guess that goes hand in hand with like yourself. If you're not enjoying it, like stop doing it. Um and then I as soon as you started talking about the business aspect of it and and maybe going to school, the first person that popped into mind is Remy. And he's arguably one of the most famous mountain bike content creators. For sure. And he's got quite a bit of a business background and schooling behind him as well. So I feel like that, as you say, makes a big aspect of understanding money, understanding what's coming in, what's going out, what you need to do with business dealings, because you're not just dealing with the average person and shaking hands, you're actually creating content uh that goes along with a contract that has whatever you want to call it, like returnables and and certain KPIs and things like that on it.

Jason 55:20

Totally.

Jarrad 55:20

Which I guess makes a big thing with the business side of it.

Jason 55:23

Yeah, I think too, like um being willing to say no. Like, I think right now, especially, it seems like there's a bit of a race to the bottom in terms of like brand deals or like people will do stuff for free. And uh I'm always like, no, get paid. Like, yeah, you should you are taking time and energy out of your day to create uh essentially an advertisement for this company. Please make sure you're getting paid or just say no. Like it, you know, I don't I I feel like it uh what's the saying? Like a rising tide raises all ships. Yeah, you know, the m if we are as a whatever collective or a group of content creators, if we're all able to, you know, ask for money, it doesn't have to be a ton, um, that's gonna help everyone in the end. That's just gonna become the normal. It's like, yeah, don't do stuff for free.

Jarrad 56:16

Yeah, yeah, that's a really good point for sure.

Jason 56:19

Unless it's your own cool shit, then go do it for free.

Jarrad 56:21

Yeah, well, this is what I'm doing.

Jason 56:23

Yeah, exactly. This is cool shit.

Jarrad 56:25

Yeah. No, it's uh it's definitely rewarding to be on this side as well, for sure.

Jason 56:29

Yeah, and you get to talk to people, you don't get normally gets to that when we had we had a podcast called Feeding Off Each Other, and regardless of like the business side of it or whatever, like my favorite part was just talking to people that would never, and it's not because I don't like them or whatever, it's just like you're not in the same room one-on-one for uh ever, really. So it's like the opportunity to get to talk to someone is is pretty sweet.

Jarrad 56:51

Yeah, well, this is a perfect example, is like as I said, like I was watching your videos whatever it is 15 plus years ago on the other side of the world, and now we're sitting in the same room chatting.

Jason 57:03

So crazy life's insane, yeah.

Jarrad 57:06

It is. So yeah, thank you for coming in. Oh, was that an hour? That was that was a full hour.

Jason 57:12

Holy shit, we time travel.

Jarrad 57:14

Cool. We could we could go a lot longer. I'll just run out of points to talk about.

Jason 57:18

Oh, yeah, that would be bad. That's just yeah, not good podcasting.

Jarrad 57:22

Just full ramble.

Jason 57:23

Did you ask all your questions? I did. Oh, sick. Perfect. Okay.

Jarrad 57:27

Awesome. Well, thank you for coming in and spending the time.

Jason 57:30

Thank you for having me. Uh yeah, let me know if you want to come back. I got nothing going on.

Jarrad 57:34

Perfect. We might uh we might have to redo another one soon.

Jason 57:37

Okay, right on. Or we can go biking.

Jarrad 57:40

We could do that as well. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Sick. Cheers. Bye.

Jason 57:45

Clap.