About 24 hours after Luc LeGrand, Max Gaertig and I arrived in Kiev, the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed after being hit by a missle over eastern Ukraine. It was definitely a surreal experience being so close to the tragedy. Since all flights in and out of Ukraine were halted indefinitely, none of us were really sure how we were going to get back home, especially Max, since he was there for only five days. Being stuck in an awesome city like Kiev wouldn't have been such a bad thing though. But by the time Max’s scheduled flight day arrived, all flight schedules were surprisingly back to normal.

In Chapter I’s center spread, the quote “No journey is too great when one finds what he seeks” is attributed to Prince Akeem of Zamunda, the main character of  the 80’s classic “Coming To America”. While it’s well-known that Friedrich Nietzsche is the originator, it only felt appropriate to credit it to, like, one of the greatest movies of all time.

Long days pedaling, long nights chillin' in Harlem, NYC. That's how Joey and Ratkid roll on the regs.

The time span that Jeff Kocsis, Conall Keenan and I crossed the border of Israel into Egypt and back was actually closer to 50 or 51 hours. But “48 Hours In Egypt” sounds better, and it was the only way a priceless Nick Nolte voiceover would work.

One of my personal favorite photos in Chapter I is the Mulville no-foot can through the tree jump in Buga, Colombia. That jump disappeared not long after. Those trails were in a city park, which was renovated a few months after the photo was shot. That included demolishing the trails and relocating them to a different area of the park, which now boasts a new concrete park complete with a trails section around the perimeter.

Not Mahwah, NJ. Joby Suender letting a steep-as-fuck rail fly in between pedaling all throughout North Philly.

In Chapter I, Mahwah, NJ is the stated location for multiple photos. None of those are correct. It’s been an ongoing inside joke that spans many years, and also multiple DIG issues, for any spot where I didn’t feel I had the right to expose the location, or out of request by the photo subject to keep it anonymous. Mahwah was simply chosen as the go-to since it’s in the same county I grew up in, and the largest municipality land area in Bergen County. There might be some gems there, but none I’ve ever shot photos at.

Max has the first and last clips in I.V. Why? Because of the fact that he likes to spend most of his limited vacation time off from his full-time job finding and riding obscure spots in various parts of the globe like here in Melbourne, Australia.