Killing it - the Re-up

After Benny posted that photo from the Oak Street Dirt Jumps, it inspired me to look through the archives and find some old school footage. This gem is from one of our first days ever riding Whistler. Prepare for head-banging, casing and good times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuYzjNNAfXs&context=C3915ed6ADOEgsToPDskIonuBsNLmefYJjb__q5bCn

Road Riding???

Well... I signed up for RBC Gran Fondo Whistler. A 120km bike ride from Vancouver to Whistler. Why??? Well, I trained for and planned to do the BMO Half Marathon back in early May but Ben, Cam and I went to California so I missed it. Then I was offered an entry for the Fondo from my work so I thought it would suffice. I want to be the best at exercise! Better start training...

On Thursday, Benny gave me a call and brought up the idea to ride to the Lions Bay cliff jumps and back. It has been on the Summer to-do list since May. Robby Venables has been nice enough to lend me his Devinci Monocoque Carbon road bike which made it a lot easier. Ben on the other hand, was on his Dad's MOUNTAIN BIKE, the Brodie Spark.

The ride to Lions Bay was awesome along Marine Drive and then onto the old Sea-t0-Sky Hwy. I led most of the way and broke the wind for Ben. He was right there with me on all of the hills. He has so much grit and desire to be on the top step of the Senior Men's podium! That was all he was thinking about as he cranked up those hills.

We made it to Lions Bay, jumped off the cliffs into the ocean and then we were on our way back. 79km/80km were successful until Ben's quadriceps seized on the hill at 16th and Blenheim. He walked it off and we made our way home...

No photos...

-Dobie

P.S. Group road rides happen every Wednesday @ 6pm leaving from Dunbar Cycles. All abilities welcome. Call the shop and ask for Tony (or T-bone) for more info.

My experience at the Pro GRT in Port Angeles

After a big party to wrap up the UBC school year on Thursday night, Ben, Ross, David and I jumped in the truck and headed down to Port Angeles for the first race of the season. I was fairly intimidated in the beginning as I was racing Pro against a bunch of factory riders like Danny Hart, Andrew Neethling and Duncan Riffle. Also, most people had been training on the course since Thursday and I only got to practice Saturday and race Sunday. I didn't quite know how I would contend so it was hard to set a goal for myself...

Saturday: The Pro category didn't have practice until noon so Ross and myself got the chance to walk the course and discuss lines. Then we geared up and punched out about 5-6 laps. In the evening I had my seeding run. I took it fairly conservative and didn't pedal much as I was very tired from riding all day. I was happy as I hit all my lines and I wasn't exhausted at the bottom.

Sunday morning began with a unnecessary 6am wake up call from Ross Roseingrave. He started barking orders to ensure that we checked out of our hotel, ate, went to Safeway and got changed well before practice started. I got 1 practice run in and then it was time to chill out in the pits until my race run at 3:09pm (the worst part of racing). While I was waiting around, a much anticipated storm rolled in and soaked the coarse. Things were about to get interesting...

My plan for my race run was to do everything that I did in my seeding run except pedal all the transition sections. I decided to be a bit cautious because of the conditions. My run went pretty well except for a few bobbles but I couldn't expect to be perfect in the wet. I ended up improving from my seeding run by 13 spots to 56th (out of 91). I was satisfied considering it was an international event with some pretty tough competition.

Cheers,

Aaron

So-Cal for Spring Break

I'm back in Vancouver after an amazing week of riding bikes in Southern Cali with Dakota and Evan, two friends from UBC. Dakota is from San Diego and his parents were nice enough to let us stay at his place. We had our own bedrooms, his mom making dinners and there was even a mini-moto track in the back yard!!! This was nothing like previous ghetto Cali trips that I have done before.

The week was packed with riding. We were up at 8am every morning and on the road by at least 930am to our destination of choice. Unfortunately, we didn't have any proper camera equipment so we weren't able to capture much. The week looked like this...

Day 1: Ted William, Mt. Lemon and Mt. Lime

We were gung-hoe as ever to get on our bikes. We met up with a big crew of Dakota's friends and a couple of Evan's buddies from the Sol Vista bike park and went to Ted Willams. We punched out 3 laps and got our huck on at the bottom where there are some road-gaps and jumps. Next, we went over to Mt. Lemon which a secret trail that Dakota and crew have built. Super steep, wide-open, some big jumps and a lot of rocks. Evan had a big crash and was definitely rattled. Check out this helmet cam http://www.pinkbike.com/video/177102/?trk=vlogo . Mt. Lime is another trail that Dakota has built in San Diego which is similar to Lemon but not quite as crazy. We got one lap in before it was dark.

Day 2: Laguna Beach

Right where the MTV show was filmed. Imagine doing shuttles through the nicest neighbourhood in Cali and then at the top of the hill are amazing single track downhill trails which I bet the residents have no idea about. There are 3 main trails in Laguna beach - Telonics, PG and Silver Surfer (links are videos). Another full day of riding with the Sol Vista guys. Highlight: Matty nearly running me over after I stacked on a rock face.

The view from the top

It was very necessary that we ended the day at the beach...

Day 3: Lake Elsinore

We rode in the morning at Elsinore and then hit the beach to go surfing in the afternoon (link to video). I got punished by a wave, 30minutes in, which broke the leash on by board so my surfing day was done. Evan got pretty pitted as well.

Day 4: Pine Valley

Evan, Dakota and I had to wait for the young guns to get out of school so we went over to a step-down jump that Dakota built a couple blocks from his house. We then met the boys at noon and went to live the Pine Life. There ended up being two truck loads of us.

We started by riding a 35 minute all-mountain trail called Nobble Canyon. Pretty fun with some rad corners and intense rock sections but a lot of pedalling. There were at least 10 of us riding which made it really fun.

Next we went to the infamous Pine Valley jumps and got a pretty good session in. I hit a new hip that I have never done before. I got pretty squirelly on my first run but brought it in for the landing. It started to downpour after that which ended our day. I really wanted to hit a few more of the jumps and drops but couldn't. We went to the Alpine Taco Shop and then home...

Day 5: Iddylwild

Iddylwild is a little mountain town, 1.5 hrs away from San Diego with a population of 700 and one amazing downhill trail. Most of the riders that we talked to in San Diego knew about it but had never ridden there. They are missing out! It is a 20 minutes shuttle on a paved road that drops you off 8000ft feet about sea level which begins a 30 minute downhill trail to 2000ft. The upper trail is full of jumps and berms, the middle is flowy single track and the end is in this little valley with amazing corners and more jumps. You don't need to pedal at all on this trail except for a short fire-road that connects two sections of trail; My type of trail.

We each did 3 runs and we were gassed. Finished the day of with an In-n-Out burger and a chocolate shake. Here is a short video of a few smaller jumps that I found on pinkbike. http://www.pinkbike.com/video/180640/

Day 6: "Picking up the scraps" - Ted Williams, Lemon and Lime

We were still tired and sore after Iddylwild so we did a half day of riding, packed the bikes up, went to Phil's BBQ for some ribs and then checked out the scene at San Diego State University. I was in bed by midnight as my flight to Vancouver was at 6:40am.

An awesome trip!

Another Afternoon DJ

The other afternoon, Benny and I went out to the UBC DJ's... Usually at around 2pm, the sun is right in your eyes when you jump but Brendan Leong was taking some pretty rad photos using the lighting to his advantage.

Dobie - Whip it good!

Dobie - SHLEY-ble

Dobie - Axx-up

Ben - Nac!

Ben - 1 foot X?!?!

It's almost spring! DJ Season is in full effect!

-Dobie