4/26/04 "Ain't seen my baby since the night
before last, I wanna get gassed yeah I wanna get loose so pour me up a triple
shot of that juice, one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer.." Yeah it's
been a while, and to paraphrase that ol blues tune I blew it at the otter,
no reason to go into details but I came up short. Nevertheless gave
me a gauge heading into the season and that's what I needed, probablyt that
I got that without inflating my head to the point that I would need a larger
helmet. Anyhow the otter definitely re motivated me, so now as long
as my knee doesn't give out I am confident that I am riding the best I have
ever been. Worked yesterday and then cruised out to Jared Delong's spot
in MacTown. He's got some jumps and we sessioned and dug and sessioned
and dug. The jumps are fun and flowy, plenty of potential and they are
pretty much private so we can make them what we want. Y'all should come
out and dig and then we will throw down the fat dirt jam. I'll be out
there again tonight working on the next hit in our single rythm so look us
up.
Peace.
4/5/04
Yawn, stretch, yawn. Back from another weekend in
never never land, and what an adventure it was. First off I want to
thank everyone who came out and supported the Winter series. We wanted
to do it, we did it, but all the loyal participants made it epic. Seven
races (funny how the paranoia of calling them races dissolved), seven trails,
a few formats, and two hundred plus points later I am stoked with the response
that this little movement received. The final was the biggest event
of the off season, with 29 racers and lots of amped up spectators electricity
was in the air. I suppose I should save some of the glowing prose
for the official write up, this is the section where I am supposed to be
a braggart and expose my secrets. Well arrived in Hoopa and all was
in order, though Patrick was yet to appear. I was very laid back because
with the absence of Sean T I knew that my overall lead was untouchable. So
in the interest of running a smooth race and keeping everyone happy I put
the racer inside on hold and hopped into my truck to help ferry the many
racers who were practicing and in need of a ride. Eventually the T.R.P.
troop did show up and I thought that my responsibilities were through, boy
was I wrong. Got a little upset when I learned that Hank and Brian's
name plates had not been received on time, and so my vision of a picture
perfect final disappeared. I tried to put that behind me and focus
on the task at hand. Got one practice run in, took it slow and just
looked over everything, noting any changes, practicing the rock section just
in case, and keying into the fresh fast lines. Then it was back to
the top where my hopes for further training would wash away as I needed to
step in and help Patrick build a practice heat, discuss rules, and lead a
brief riders meeting. Before and after I reminded myself to stay jolly
, so did a bunch of spinning and free style singing to myself on the road
to keep loose and focused. I had gone back and forth over my race day
strategy, debating whether to pin it in practice or not. Finally decided
the best plan was to go all out on the practice clock to get the jitters
out, lay down the fastest time, and psyche out the field. So come gate
time I was ready to rock, stormed out of the gate and was feelin the flow,
knew I was easily the fastest up top as I heard Andrew Morin exclaim "Yeah!
you're pinning it!". As good as this made me feel I decided I should
go a little faster yet and zoned in on a tree I had not seen before. Wham!
Straight into the mother with the bar and shoulder. Hoped off
the bike, dusted off, cooled my head as I looked down at my slain rig and
laughed. Got back on and noticed I has twisted my fork and stem pretty
badly, let it bother me for a minute and then decided I might as well just
let it roll. So I pinned to the finish and was clean the rest of the
way. Figured that I had blown it and would have to play catch up the
rest of the day until I found out that I had tied for the fastest seeding
time with Jared (who also rag dolled). This boosted my confidence and
I hiked back up the trail, after straightening out my delinquent fork, to
root on everybody else. Brian had taken zero practice and had a huge
hang-up which kept him way back, and Aaron McGregor, as I anticipated surprised
almost everybody by coming in right behind me and Jared. Lots of excitement
at the finish line as racers clipped the final tree dodging corner. I
hung out and copied down the final start list, then headed for the top. It
was then that i noticed I had not gotten away from the tree without cost,
and my spirits dropped. My left (front) brake hose fitting was broken,
it didn't appear to be leaking fluid but I had no front brake to speak of.
I got to the top and started kicking myself for not bringing and extra
bike (with back up brake), looking around for a part to rob, and all the
while not touching my lever trying to conserve what precious little brake
might have been left. But I knew it was best , no matter what, to ride
my own rig and I felt sure that I had been put in this position for a reason,
to prove something to myself and everyone there. I knew that if I made
any kind of effort to remedy the problem I would be to conscious of it in
my race run, too much pressure, and things would go wrong. Start time
rolled around and I was first out of the gate, feeling very nervous, not
knowing if I would be able to slow down. I told all the boys behind
me to pray, crossed my heart, and said an audible prayer as I peddled off.
Took it very easy up top as I saw how the brake was going to treat
me. Couldn't really open it up on any of the steeps and my rear was
swapping quite a bit but I managed to be smooth. Got past the rock
garden about halfway down and found that with some pumping I had a little
brake (10%) that would come and go, plus as the course leveled out I didn't
need it as much. So I pinned as best I could through the fast stuff
and coming into the final luge I had a good feeling about my run, I knew
it knew it could contend. So I concentrated on cleaning the last off
camber and made it across the finish. Checked my brake, caught a whiff
of my roasted rear and immediately kicked myself for not pushing it harder
(always the case when you don't crash). But it seemed that the cautious
approach did me all right as I slipped inside my seeding time by five seconds.
Then it was watch and wait. Jared was next and very close, he
looked fast coming through the last corner but it wasn't quite enough. Still
didn't have it in the bag because Brian would be coming down mid pack. Riders
came and went and my time stood, then saw Brian ripping down, hooped him
on, he looked very relaxed crossing the line. Jared and I looked at
each other thinking the body language communicated a crash, but he had simply
laid down a smooth collected run and cut into fourth. I was happy,
am happy, a little irked that I didn't lay it down like I had planned but
stoked that through adversity I was able to keep a cool head, stick to a
strategy and take the win. There are always many mitigating factors;
Jared was on an unfamiliar (though superior) borrowed bike, Brian was on
a new rig and threw a chain, Aaron was also on a borrowed bike, Rowan...
well he is just Rowan and has no reason to be discouraged whatsoever as he
is straight shredding and will be taking it to all of us in a short while,
of course I and Todd weren't there but they just pose anyway (wink). Anyhow
it was my day and not even a fouled brake was going to take it away from
me. Afterwards we had a fat ceremony, gave away some schwag, and then
headed up to the camp for a jump comp. Many sick hits were thrown down
on the Pirate Camp hip, but as the competition solidified it was only four
riders vying for superiority. Myself, Hapgood, Andrew Morin, and Dave
Richmond all dug down deep to please the stoked and very vocal crowd. Dave
pulled some sweet one handers, high fiving the clouds. Morin was impressive
in a backwards hat, flip flops, and fresh off a knee surgery just days before.
Hapgood was simply going huge, and it was his big air style and the
taunting of certified mobbers, Greg Newkirk and Rowan (Boyo) G-Wiser on
judges row, that got me pumped to go bigger then ever before. Managed
to get some one footed hits for a little style, then it was simply about
going all the way to the top and pinning it to please the crowd. Word
was we were getting 33 feet or so and so much hang time I planned a few vacations.
Anyhow lots of fun and so more schwag was handed out to Hapgood, Myself,
and Morin. Then party really kicked in and we raged it up in true Pirate
fashion. Everyone was soon well lubed, bopping to Pat's laptop tunes,
grubbing on BBQ, and having a good time. Some silliness, lots of staggering,
and even a beer drenching which somehow slipped from Rowan's fingers and
landed on Hapgood's head. As folks filed out we decided it was time
for night riding. Rigged up my little jumper helmet and opted for the
braking hard tail of my brother as Jason, Brian, Robby, and I all mobbed
out. After 801 Robby's light died so we trained down the road. Then
back up for the Red Tail. I must say that the biggest rush I got all
weekend was mobbing my bros mike that night. I had one horrible face
plant off the root jump at the top of the slippery, then forced myself to
get up and stomp it. From there down to the bottom (of the Eel) it
was sheer hard tail survival as I tried to keep Reiman off my butt and keep
my bike on the ground. I didn't think it could get any better until
we hit a little late night study session on the Library. Wow, what
can I say, I survived it and rode more then I thought I could. The
hard tail reminded me what it is like to be on the edge. After that
we called it in and headed back to camp to mellow out and party down. Unfortunately
first Brian decided to go huge on the Hip straight into an SUV. That
ended the night. Next day we simply rode all over till we couldn't
ride anymore. My brother almost got blinded, now he has a shiner that
would rival any heavyweight, and I got to test out Brian's SWD. It
was nice but I got back on mine for the last few runs, even without the brake
it was still nice to be on my rig. So that's that, pictures soon, you
all rock, next stop SEA OTTER! P.s. couldn't stop myself this morning so
now I will be late for work.
4/2/04
Welcome to april my brothers and sisters, i can
smell may flowers on the way. Got to witness a good april fools yesterday,
as Will called up Sean T and explained that our shop would soon be bringing
in Kona mountian bikes, Sean bit apparently and we all had a good chuckle
over it. The number plates are finished and, for the most part delivered,
if you are top ten and haven't got it yet check your mail box and if its
not there i will have it at the race. Which by the way is tomorrow,
much buzz around this one and anticipating many new faces so everybody better
show up and support T.R.P.'s biggest event to date, lots o' schwag and lots
of fun. Got some decent sleep last night, I was feeling pretty drained
after busting on the plates for three late nights. I almost want
to hang up my gloves and goggles this weekend and just cheer everybody
on, but I suppose one run won't kill me. Gotta jam to work, so once
again welcome to spring and i look forward to seeing all of you on the trails.