Stephane Pelletier
Intro
Bad days don’t exist with Stephane, just good times. He’s a refreshingly humble guy, his love for riding is a pleasure to see and the manner in which he throws a bike around is one of pure ease.
He’s now marketing and sales co ordinator at Forbidden bikes, it’s been a pleasure to document his story of how he unwittingly paved his way to where he is today.
Photos by Duncan Hague
‘Growing up’
My name is Stephane Pelletier. I’m 26 years old, from Calgary AB originally but now based in Cumberland BC. I got into biking at the age of 11, mostly just due the fact that I idolized my older brother (6 years older) and wanted to tag along with him and his buds. I was totally the annoying younger brother and was like my brother's shadow, I’m sure it was annoying as heck for him. Riding with older kids led to pretty rapid progression, but a side effect of that was tons of injuries, I was a local at the hospital with regular stitches, sprains and the occasional broken bones. My primary focus as a kid was jumping and tricks, idolizing riders like Cam Mccaul, the claw, and reading decline magazines religiously.
Later, following in my older brother's footsteps, I started working at Bowcycle at the age of 14 (I got hired before I was old enough to work and had to wait till I turned 14) to start work. Bow cycle is one of the biggest single location bike shops in north america, if not the biggest. I started as a bike washer and worked my way up over 12 years working there to eventually be a senior mechanic. My focus while working there was always to be able to afford riding and later competing as I got into competing in slopestyle events across north america. I started university in 2011, studying geology, mostly since my brother and dad we’re geologists, it was kind of the thing to do growing up in alberta, guaranteed high paying job they said.. More on that later. I did a year and a half of uni and decided to take some time off to pursue a professional biking career. By then I had a few small sponsorships that mostly just offered me product, no budget, and though, if it was something I really wanted, i should give it a full try and not half ass it with school.
Slopestyle endeavours
I had my “peak” slopestyle competing through 2011 and 2013. 2012 was my biggest year by far (after taking time away from uni), where I basically took the summer off and competed all across north america almost every weekend for two months. There used to be a lot more slopestyle contests in North America. During that time I did ok… I was decent in smaller, more local events, with a handful of podiums in bronze level FMB events. At the bigger gold level events, I was usually a few spots out of qualifying for finals so like upper mid pack.
After those two bigger seasons of competing, I broke my collarbone pretty bad filming a video and was out for quite a while. During that time I realized I had pretty limited support, and maybe being a pro mountain biker wasn’t a very wise career choice for me. I was at that age where it started having bills and it definitely made me question that goal.I re-enrolled in school to finish off my geology degree. During that time, I kept riding tons, making videos, and transitioned to mostly competing in crankworx events (whip off, dual speed and style, pumptrack). I took school seriously between Sept to april but summers were still spent road tripping, shooting videos and I transitioned into doing some coaching (first through my local bike park in Calgary, and eventually I split off and ran my own private coaching program for 2 seasons) as well as a bit of bike park building. During that time I filmed a handful of videos, enjoyed competing in crankworx events, and created a full length movie segment with my buddy Andrew young that I was stoked about. For kind of 2015-2019 I would say I was a somewhat supported rider, mostly just supported for being involved in the community. I was big into working with local trail organizations and parts of the community to grow the sport locally, all while having as much fun as possible without putting any pressure on myself for any sort of results driven goals.
‘Real job’
After I finished uni, I started working for a lithium exploration start up based in calgary. It was my first foray into a “real job” as my dad would call it. It was pretty cool, it was funded by a pretty quirky oil tycoon, and I was working alongside my brother who was the chief geologist. Definitely some nepotism there. It was a great learning experience, and I genuinely liked the environmentally friendly side of the business, we were working to become a lithium producer in canada and trying to get ahead of the EV wave that will surely need rare earth metals for precious batteries. I spent about a year and a half there working as a geologist in training. After about a year, it became apparent that the extraction technology would need a bit more work and research before extraction would be economically viable. In order to keep the company afloat, the entire resource side of the company was dissolved leaving me relatively fresh out of school with no job. Kind a bummer. Also, I’m not sure how privy you are to the current economic situation in Alberta, but it’s heavily reliant on a dying oil industry and slow to adapt. I spent months applying for countless geology jobs only to never get more than a computer generated auto reply stating they had received my application. I was pretty discouraged, I had spent 5 years of my life getting a degree that I was moderately stoked about but not crazy excited and now I was back working part time at a bike shop and coaching, which was okay, but I always kind of aspired to have been a bit more ahead after years of uni.
Falling on my feet thanks to a ‘wasted youth’
It was at that point that I took a good look at myself, and sort of reevaluated my skills and value. It was at that point that I realised that maybe those 15ish years of being in and out of various biking related industries maybe amounted to a little more than just a wasted youth, haha. I started reaching out to connections I had made through my years of riding, and low and behold I ended up working for rocky mountain bikes as a summer contract position doing consumer communications. My old family friend Stephen Mathews was the brand manager there and they needed help through the summer months. I ditched everything, packed my bags and moved to North Van, really flying by the seam of my pants. It was awesome, my boss was the man, work was bike related, so I was fired up, and on my first day of work I went for lunch with Wade Simmons. Wade frickin Simmons, the MTB legend. Rocky and North van were great, I worked a 6 month contract stint with them, but started finding it very difficult to afford living in North Van at bike wages. It’s no secret that bike jobs aren’t the highest paying, but that’s not why we do them. I had to make the difficult decision to not renew my contract, I just couldn't commit to losing money for a year, and didn’t feel that at my age that was a wise decision. Back to the drawing board.
That was a pretty uncertain time, I was back in Calgary for the holidays which was great, but after the holiday break I was searching for work, and desperately wanted to get back in the bike biz. I had caught the bike bug, and was pretty worried that by saying no to a contract extension, I had maybe blown my shot of working in biking. On top of that, all of a sudden there was this little thing called covid starting to go around, and then people were really uncertain about hiring people. I had a few prospective jobs in the works, one where I even got fully on boarded, only to find out 2 days before moving that they were cancelling the position due to covid. It was wild. I made the best of it, biked a ton during that summer, way more than in previous years, and kept hasseling potential employers, just hoping for a bit of normalcy. One of those prospects, and the one I was most interested in was Forbidden bikes. I had been drawn to them ever since I first saw a prototype article during crankworx 2 years prior, and thought the bikes looked cool as fuck. My good friend Quinn had one back home and he loved it. I liked the idea of working for a smaller company, having already done that in the lithium startup, it was natural to me and liked the idea of being able to really add value. I think my interview process lasted close to 7 months, there was a lot of uncertainty with whether or not hiring during a pandemic made sense, and what the future would hold for the industry.
Finally, literally months later and after a brief visit to meet the gang and see the town, it was on. I packed my bags and moved to Cumberland, starting a new gig as marketing and sales coordinator. Since then I've loved the change in lifestyle. I think this whole story (which is longer than I anticipated, sorry) is really just about me being hopelessly obsessed with biking and forcing or willing it to be my life, haha. I’m now biking more than ever, and love what the Island and Comox Valley have to offer. I do a bit of everything for Forbidden, from working with our canadian dealers, being a rider for content if we need, coordinating with athletes, ambassadors, photographers, videographers, brainstorming marketing initiatives, navigating partnerships, sometimes even wrenching on a bike. It’s cool working for such a small team, it helps you feel like you make a difference and it’s fun having so many different tasks to do. Especially now too, the bike industry has just been mental since midway through the global pandemic.
Daily bike influenced lifestyle
Nowadays, I feel very fortunate that most of my days include some form of biking or something bike related. There’s a fair bit of more phone or computer work, but I still manage to get out riding for content a fair bit. Everyone I work with is equally obsessed with bikes, and it’s really allowed everyone to get really close as we go on multiple office rides a week. There’s a pretty rad scene of shredders and builders in the Comox Valley that I’ve met. On evenings and weekends we shred together lots, and have pretty huge dig days, sometimes with 10 plus people slanging dirt. It’s pretty amazing how much work can get done when you have that many people involved. We’ve got some sweet trails in the works and we’re trying to turn up the gnar and big jumps factor in the valley. That’s ultimately what I like riding the most, so it’s nice to have a crew of like minded individuals.
The thing I've been most stoked on being a part of in the bike industry in all my days has to be the dreadnought launch video. That was my first big project I worked on with Forbidden from start to finish, and I was tasked with the production of the launch video. I hired my two long time Calgary friends that have been making names for themselves in the industry, Calvin huth (filmer) and Liam wallace (photos) and we headed off to nelson, BC for a week of shooting. I had initially been asked to do a 2 min shreddit, but felt we could do more of a story line to associate the bike with badass battle ships from which its name comes from, but also keep it a bit light. As soon as I heard the bike name I imagined old school navy footage juxtaposed with a goofy tin boat with a bike in it, followed by some pretty rowdy riding that really showed the bike in the environment it was designed for. I ended up sort of running with the idea without getting confirmation from my bosses. It was a bit of a risk , but in the end they ended up really liking the vision, and Calvin and Liam did an amazing job with the creatives for that launch. The launch as a whole was really well received which was the cherry on top for me. That was by far one of the most fulfilling and satisfying projects I’ve ever been a part of and I’m really proud of how we all worked together to bring that to fruition. Not an easy task in this supply chain climate to launch a bike, let me tell ya! There’s also an exciting part 2 to that Nelson Trip coming, that I’m extra excited to share.
Follow up questioning
You spent many years involved in the bike industry, what's your take on living on bike industry wages? They obviously forced your hand to reevaluate your situation in North Van.
I think it's a Tippie line, the saying goes something like "You can literally make hundreds of dollars working in the bike industry." Nobody got into biking to become a millionaire. I don't think it's any secret that Mountain biking isn't the highest paying industry, but I think it pays off in other, less tangible ways. I'm happy to make a little less money than maybe I would have in a geology career (although maybe not these days), and trade-off with having sweet bikes, riding multiple times a week, and living riding distance to the trails. I'm doing something I love and I'm passionate about every day, I feel pretty lucky to be in that situation. Also, it's worth mentioning that Vancouver is a pretty hard place to afford at most salaries, I don't necessarily blame it on the bike industry job, but more so that it was hard to get ahead in a city like that. I made that decision to leave as I didn't think it was responsible or wise to commit to a budget deficit for a year.
You say you never put pressure on yourself to achieve any results, just how much did that help you mentally as well as helping you to maintain just simply enjoying riding? I guess you likely bore witness to others around you who may have not had so much luck dealing with the pressure?
I'm not sure I never put pressure on myself, I think as a young kid, I wanted to be a pro rider one day and would go to contests and try my hardest to do well. It would for sure get a little stressful. I'd spend all my free time trying to learn new tricks to bring to the contest scene. The training aspect was what started to make it less fun for me, I'd want to try these tricks, but they were the kind of tricks that could really hurt if you didn't stomp. I didn't quite have the luxury of mulch jumps and airbags growing up, so I'd get maybe one airdrome trip in Whistler in summer, and the rest was to dirt. I had a few injuries like that, and it was a bit of a transition to go from that to just riding for fun. I still like to push myself, but now I don't feel the need to, it's more of a personal thing. It's definitely made riding way more fun for me. I think I also came to the realization that riding at 70-80% and not being injured is way more fun than riding at 110% and then exploding and being out for 6 weeks. Maybe that's just me though, I'm getting older. Now in my professional life, I can see it around me, there's definitely a lot of prodigy children with hockey parents. It's great to see young kids of that caliber, but I've also seen the flip side of that through insanely talented friends that just get burnt out after a while and fully move on from biking. I think ultimately it's about finding that balance that works for you and your lifestyle, but really trying to hone in on what goals you have and what makes you happy, it's different for everyone, and it changes over time.
How did you find the decision-making process of stepping in or out of pursuing the professional bike career?
I think it came naturally, although I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a bit disappointing, it's every kid's dream! But yeah, I had always been brought up with the idea that biking wasn't a legitimate career from my folks, and that University was the way to go... Funny how it's gone full circle in a way. After my bigger injury in my "big go at being a pro rider", it left me unable to work for 6 weeks and with no money coming in the door, and little to no support from my sponsors that basically just flowed me some product at the time. I was still pretty young and free the time with little big commitments looming, but it still was enough for me to rethink things. I decided it was worth trying to do both at once, go back to school and maybe pursue other parts of biking rather than just contests. I guess that's about when biking got more fun for me, I started doing more community involvement, working on video projects and coaching. I diversified and it led me to where I am now.
You moved to Cumberland permanently, what's your take on the riding culture and community there?
Oh man, I feel like I've really drunk the kool-aid around here... I won't lie, I was slightly apprehensive when I first got here, I knew the riding would be great, but i was worried it would be a little too trail/XC for my liking, It's definitely turning out to be not the case at all, there are so many amazing riding spots so close to town, and it seems like a lot of the right people are coming over and adding to the whole building/rider community this place has going. Between Cook Creek, Cumberland forest, Mount Washington, Forbidden Plateau, and a few Dirt jump spots all within a 20-minute drive of town, there's no shortage of stuff to ride.
It's such a bike-centric town, everybody is obsessed. There's a fair bit of rogue building, and guys are building some properly rowdy trails. There's also mt Washington bike park 25 minutes away, and the trails are pretty rad up there all things considered, and they're putting some money into them it's only going to keep getting better around here. There's also a super rad municipal dirt jump park right in town, with a super fun skatepark, plus a few more private BMX trails around the valley, so I'm getting more dirt jump biking in than I have in years. I'm still riding brand new (to me) trails on the regular, even a year into living here, it's endless. I'm sold on the spot and think it's only going to go up from here... I could write you a full article about all the different zones in town.
With your varied position at Forbidden what's your view of where the industry sits now after the boom we've had and where it is going?
I think it's such an exciting time for the bike industry. More people than ever are getting into mountain biking, the trails and bikes are better than ever, and there's more money being injected into the sport in every possible category. The sort of obscure sport a lot of us grew up doing is now pretty mainstream, and for good reason, I think. It's good for your health and it's a ton of fun. There are definitely challenges for brands coming up, especially smaller ones that don't have the same purchasing power as the big guys, but overall it's great. I hope that MTB can retain a lot of these new mountain bikers that have gotten into the sport due to the Pandemic, and I'm confident we will. With that being said, It's always in the back of our minds of when this boom may start to slow, and what could happen as the market gets flooded with bikes. We'll see I guess! We'll just keep doing the best we can and making products that get us riders excited, and hopefully, people out there will see the same. As for where it's going, I think we'll see communities start to embrace mountain biking into their fabric, more grassroots development, more getting new people into the sport and making it accessible, more community trail building, more events, and who knows maybe more super rad and progressive trails. I guess we'll see!
Is there any other companies or brands that you're really stoked about what they do or how they go about doing things?
Totally, I really like a lot of brands, but I think one that really stands out for me is Patagonia. It's really cool to see a brand that is less concerned about profits, but rather making the best products, doing the right thing, and using their company to educate people around them on better business practices and drive social change. It's really cool to see how many consumers resonate with Patagonia's values and how many brands are following suit, I think it's great to have that mindset for a sustainable future. They've really revolutionized what consumers think of as quality and customer experience. They commit themselves to own their products for their lifetime. It's a simple notion but it goes such a long way, from designing products that last longer, have a smaller environmental footprint, to using repairable and sustainable materials and supporting customers after they purchase. Customers can feel good about buying from Patagonia and they should. I think you see these kinds of ideas trickling into the bike industry (and other industries) with greener initiatives and more and more lifetime warranties. I definitely take a lot of inspiration from brands like Patagonia when thinking about ways we could grow Forbidden in the future or just day to day through my personal life. If anyone cares to learn more about the Patagonia story and their business practices, I highly recommend reading the book "Let my people go surfing", It's rad.
Do you have any goals you'd like to achieve involving riding for the future?
I'd love to build a trail around here and film a full video project! I've always loved the process of filming edits on custom features and trails, and I still get so much satisfaction in pushing myself for things like that. It's fun to push it on my own terms. I've got some ideas for some spots to build this winter. Aside from that, I'd actually really like to do a bit of local enduro and DH racing for fun. I never really raced as a kid and think it would just be a really fun time riding with everyone and pushing the limits a bit while getting to ride some new spots along the way. I"m going to see if I can make some racing happen in the fall!
Is there anything you'd like to achieve by utilizing your position at Forbidden?
Oh man, I have more ideas every day. I'm sure if you asked my boss he'd tell you just how great all my ideas are as well, haha! (sarcasm, they're definitely not all good). Wide-eyed and bushy-tailed is probably a good way to put it... But yeah, I'm working on lots of ideas in the background when I have time between day-to-day stuff. Everything from greener initiatives for Forbidden as a whole, getting more people on bikes, community and grassroots development, rad video ideas with our athletes and ambassadors, custom "Forbidden" trails. Oh god, the list goes on... I know that's a bit vague but I think you'll see some of the ideas come to fruition sooner than later! I don't want to Jinx anything. That's one of the coolest things about Forbidden right now, I definitely feel empowered to explore new ideas, it's a lot of work sometimes, but if my ideas have merit, my bosses are really awesome for supporting me and running with it. Short answer, I want to use my position at Forbidden to do some bike things that will get people super stoked on bikes.
Words of wisdom:
haha, This was my brother's line whenever I was scared of hitting a jump or trying a new trick as a kid, "Just F*ck it and go". I've kind of lived by those words anytime I'm unsure of myself. It usually works out haha!
