The Cross Canada Project (2005 / 2009)

I always wanted to do a long bicycle tour, and I figured if you're going to do one, it may as well be epic. I started reading blogs about people riding across Canada and it defintely seemed epic. At the time I had barely left Ontario and always wanted to see the entire country and I also wanted to document the trip so others could experience the trip.

Gopro cameras didn't exist at this time, so I had to build my own waterproof camera system that could be controlled while riding a bicycle. To get different shots while riding, I also designed an adjustable camera arm that mounted to the bicycle. The camcorder was mounted inside of a crash proof custom made lexan enclosure inside a rear pannier along with a 7AH 12V sealed lead-acid battery to power everything.

The trip took over 4 months and covered 7257 km. Editing the 18 hours of footage took nearly a year. When it was finished, I put the entire movie on vimeo where it has been viewed over 29,000 times. It was also screened at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival and other festivals in Toronto, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The DVD included extra scenes, audio commentary and was available in over a dozen libraries across Canada.

I still can't believe the amount of emails and comments I received about this film. People told me this trip was a dream of theirs, others told me about their own trip across Canada and some people even decided to try it themselves after watching! A lot of people ask me if I would do this trip again, and the answer is definitely no. In the years after, I did a few more bike tours including riding down the coast of California and circumnavigating the island of Sava'ii in Samoa. While this trip was definitely the hardest, I think the task of filming and my stubbornness of wanting to complete this project was what kept me going.