I think in every BMX riders lifetime, they think about doing one massive trip all around the world where they bounce from country to country checking out the spots and really experiencing what the world has to offer. The opportunity only comes for a few lucky ones, while the rest of us are stuck dreaming about how we can make it a reality.
Recently, JC Pieri and Arthur Dietrich worked out a way to make their dream of traveling and experiencing the world a reality. With their bikes, a bunch of cameras and the support of some awesome sponsors, they’re on a 50 day trip around the world experiencing a handful of locations that any BMX rider would love to go to!
We were super interested in what they had going on, so we decided to catch up with JC Pieri and find out just what this project is all about. This is what he had to say!
Alright, so you have had two episodes from your “Catch Me If You Can” series drop… What exactly is this video project about? Is it just an excuse for you to travel to all the places you have wanted to go?
Haha, of course this project is a way for us to travel around the world and do what we love. Arthur Dietrich, my friend and pro rider, helped make this dream come true. Arthur asked a few companies to sponsor the trip showing them what we are able to do on a BMX and behind the camera. Pull-in Underwear, Harley Davidson, G-Shock & Alien Cable came through as sponsors for the trip and XtremeVideo, the Youtube channel, is producing the web episodes.
We will travel around the world in 50 days for this project. We started out in Shanghai and Tokyo and Hawaii then we’ll head to Mexico and New York before we come back to Paris. The goal in our videos is to show some of our riding along with the locals riders and also some lifestyle of the cities we vista, the cultures and the best moments and everything.
Some people won’t like the video because they expect more crazy riding and less lifestyle. But the aim of this video was to show exactly what we did and it’s not only BMX. I wanted it to feel like you’re traveling with us when you watch the videos.
Of course the video could be better if you have better riders, I can understand and it’s local, but this was OUR project and maybe for the next one we can get more of a budget to invite more famous riders. That could be awesome.
We both graduated with a masters degrees after 5 years from different business schools and we really wanted to do this project to celebrate it.
I know some people will love this project and maybe some won’t like it, but I have my own style of filming and I won’t change it because I wanna do something different.
Now days everything looks the same, videos, style of riding and BMX parts. I can understand people like it but everyone has their own favorite tastes and colors.
We are having fun doing this trip, our sponsors are happy about it and some people are too. For peoples who don’t like it, please don’t press play at the next episode! If you like BMX, and most importantly, if you have the proper spirit in BMX, I’m sure you’ll appreciate what’s coming from our trip!
You started out in Shanghai then headed up to Tokyo. What’s next for you? I think I saw some pictures from Hawaii on Facebook?
Yeah, as I said above, the next stops are Hawaii, Mexico and New York. We are actually in Hawaii as I write this and it’s amazing. So many beautiful things to see, like turtles on the beach. This is awesome. I don’t want to talk to much about this stop, you have to watch the next edit to know more about it!
If you want to see more pictures you can check our FB : www.facebook.com/doersbmx
So I’d assume you’re almost making a full rotation around the world back to France? Do you have all of the locations planned out or is it something you kind of plan fairly lightly? What kind of a time frame are you working with to complete the series?
The trip is about 50 days, so 10 days per destination. During our stop in Mexico, we would like to go to Guatemala, but that’s not for sure yet. All the flights have been booked for a bit now. It’s just the hotels that we book a few days before the next stop. We don’t have plan when we go to a next stop we just decide when we are there. We ask the local people and they give us advice on where the nice places and the nice skateparks are.
Approximately how many videos do you think will come from this trip in total?
We have to make one edit per destination, so we will have 5 different videos from the 5 destinations.
So far the videos have featured you and Arthur Dietrich. Will he be along for the whole trip or will other people be joining in as time goes on?
The trip is only Arthur and myself, but in Hawaii one friend of Arthurs from his hometown in France came to meet us during this stop. His name is Pierre and he’s spending his time with us here and it’s pretty cool.
We will meet our friend Justin Servant in Mexico who is the guy that organized the crazy Red Bull contest Dirt Conquers in Mexico a few weeks ago.
In New York we will meet all the Pull-In team and Matthias Dandois in order to make a video advertising for Pull-in.
We have been meeting new friends along the way and that’s the best thing.
The videos have been appearing on the XTreme Video Youtube channel. How do they fit into the picture? Did they come to you with this idea?
I already work with them in France, and Arthur asked them if they would be interested in this project. They liked the concept and they decided to produce 5 episodes of “Catch Us If You Can” to see how it goes. This is pretty cool for us, because it’s a way to get more views and more important to share with people our adventure.
How does somebody pack for an adventure like this? How much stuff are you trying to keep track of on this trip?
It’s kind of hard. because the plane allow us to bring only one bag of 23kg.
My DK golf bag is already 3 or 4kg, I put my bike (10kg), my pads & helmets and tools (2kg), my tripod (2,5kg) and my glide track (5kg) in and I’m already over the weight, haha. Since we didn’t have any clothes, we needed to pay for an extra bag just for clothes. I have only one pair of pants to ride in and one to hang out, a couple of socks and underwear from pull-in, one pair of board shorts and maybe 10 t-shirts. It’s difficult to buy souvenirs for family and friends but we sent a box full of souvenirs from Tokyo to Paris in order to save some room in the bags.
What camera gear did you bring for this one? Was there anything you couldn’t bring along that you wanted to?
Seriously, I really love filming and this trip was the best way for me to bring back a lot of footage from beautiful places. I almost took everything.
My bag backpack is over 25kg, it’s CRAZY !!! I have a bad pain in my shoulder because of this, but I really wanted all of these clips we have, so I don’t care. I will keep carrying this crazy backpack.
I took two cameras, my new Canon 1DC to film and my Canon 5d mark 3 for time lapses.
I got some lenses like:
– Canon 70-200 f2,8
– Canon 50mm f1,4
– Canon fisheye 15mm f2,8
– Canon 24mm F2,8
– Canon 75-300 F,3,5
– Canon 100mm macro f2,8
– Canon MP-e 60mm macro
– Glidetrack hybrid (so heavy, haha)
– Steady Cam dslr
– micro rode / torche light / microphone for interviews / 2 GoPro Hero 3’s / 2 remote controls for time-lapses /
and a bunch of other stuff, haha.
That’s why my bag is crazy heavy.
How are you going about editing the videos? Are you putting it all together during the wait at the airport and during the flight or are you slowly piecing things together at each location?
It depends. I don’t need a lot of time to put everything together because when I’m filming I know before how I will use each of the clips. I maybe need something like 7 hours to put all together.
The worst is to find some music. I got a contract with Xtreme video and Universal Music to get some free music, so that’s perfect for this.
Have you had any crazy situations come up yet? Care to share a story or two from the adventure so far?
When I do something I really think about everything in order to avoid a bad situation during a trip far to my home. Nothing crazy or bad happened.
Just in Tokyo we were supposed to meet friends on the East of Tokyo, which is about one hour from us, but the name of the stations all sound similar and we ended up in a station at the very far west side of Tokyo…. 2 hours later and after 57 train station stops, we made it to the East side of Tokyo! This is what you expect on a road trip!
I’d imagine you have ate some pretty crazy food already. What’s the weirdest thing you have eaten on this trip?
I really wanted to try some stuff but nothing too crazy, especially in China. I didn’t want to get all “touristy” and ask for a flight to come back to Paris, haha.
We just tried some different stuff. The typical food and it’s was really good. Kane Wang brought us to the street version of Vapiano, haha.The girl was cooking in a wok on the curb in the middle of the street and it was so good. I bought a full plate of rice with a ton of chicken for maybe less than 50 cents!
I know you have done a fair amount of traveling the past few years and I’m sure you have things with the travel life pretty figured out. Have you learned anything you didn’t know on this trip?
Every time I travel, I learn new things about life. Traveling is the best way to see new civilizations and understand who we are. The best thing is to meet people. I’ve met so many peoples from around the world and it’s best thing ever. I have a ton a memories with everyone and I miss them everyday.
That’s why I love the social network stuff because it’s so easy to keep contact with them until I visit them again. Sometimes I’m sad when I think about some people and I’m just waiting to see them again.
These trips aren’t all about riding, right? What are some of the other things you’re trying to do when you get to each location? I saw some nigh club action in the first video…
Haha, yeah, the night club. People who know me, know that I don’t drink alcohol or smoke or take any drugs. But I’m still the king of crazy during parties!
In the videos we just want to show all the good moments we spend during the trip. I want to show to people who don’t know the city or the country how it is in the country and the people that live there. I want you to feel like you’re traveling with us when you’re watching the video. That’s all.
How can people keep up with this trip other than the videos? Do you have Instagram, Twitter, and all that other stuff where you’re posting photos and what not from the trip?
Of course we have everything.
We did a page on Facebook “Doers – Travel the World“. We are posting one picture everyday about our trip.
This is all our stuff about social network:
Facebook: JC Pieri
Facebook page: JC Pieri Visual
Instagram & twitter: @jcpieri
website: www.jcpierivisual.com
About Arthur
Facebook: Arthur Dietrich
Instagram: @arthurdietrich
Do you have some plans for after this trip?
I just finished business school after 5 years spent there. Now my job is now to film and edit some videos.I have a bunch of projects like filming a hotel and a short movie. Before this, I will be going back to California for one month in August. I will stay at my buddy’s house, Ben Snowden. Always a good time with him.
But if you know somebody who needs a video done, don’t hesitate to hit up my website jcpierivisual.com or my email address to contact me jcpierivisual@gmail.com
Always a pleasure for me to film something new! Also, Ride for Fun!
