6 years ago
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Friday, 19 December 2008
Las Vegas Blowout
Well as a celebration of both Derek acknowledging he is yet another year older and Alex’s imminent departure to Alaska for work after Xmas to hang out with Palin in the frozen cold we decided to go to Vegas. The main purpose of this trip was to do one of Derek’s lifelong dreams. To fall out of a plane with a ‘professional’ strapped to his back. In the end 5 of us did this ‘silly’ activity with only Alex not doing it. His excuses was money but after watching him lose money on the Blackjack tables, well I’m not so sure :-)
The posse included myself, Derek, Alex, Scott and the tag along Canadians Jamie and Lee. We stayed in the old part of Vegas. The Fremont Experience. It was pretty cool and when the half mile long roof lights up every hour to play some rocking tunes night turns to day. It was pretty wicked. So this first night turned into a mess. I guess that’s what happens when you hang out feeding the penny slots and getting the waitresses to bring us free drinks. Especially when you ask for the strongest drinks which had a multitude of different poisons mixed together and presented itself as a toxic blue liquid. It tasted ok and by the way we were feeling the next morning it worked well too. The next morning after looking extremely hung over in McDonalds we got a call from the Skydive place. It had been cancelled. The winds were huge and there were dust storms blowing up all round Vegas in the desert. We rescheduled for Sunday and went down to the Strip. We decided to go up the Stratosphere and do the rides up there. 1 was shut but 2 were open. Anyway we get up there only to find out only one was open. We did it and it was scary and a moment after we got off the ride which shot you off the side of the tower 300m above the ground a power cut occurred. The wind-chill was nasty up there as was the speed of the wind. The whole tower was shaking. We were so lucky not to have been stuck out there.
The rest of the day was proceeded by doing the tourist thing on the strip. Like drinking beer on the streets and in the foodcourts. Mmm. Fun times. Oh and the highlight was definitely Alex procuring one of the T-Shirts that all the non English speaking Latinos wear when trying to promote the services of the many prostitutes which are available for as little as $35 straight to your room within 20mins. Mmm, yes please can I have a main of herpes and a side of the STD currently in fashion thanks. Dirty, dirty. If you have not been to Vegas you will not understand how many of them there are and how aggressive they are. They all where these T-Shirts which Alex is proudly shown wearing in my pics and literally throw these cards of girls in all sorts of positions at you. Little did I know but they were even filling up my back pockets as I walked past.
Anyway another night preceded much like the first one except it started out with a great meal and festivities at a German beer house. This included Derek, Alex and Scott attempting a competition where you hold out a 1 litre stein in front of you, with arms straight and hold it for as long as possible without spilling any beer. Alex got third overall with a great effort; suffice to say that a girl bet him. Hehe. They lasted for 7 mins which is a great effort, the world record being 12min. I wish I had tried it too but I did not volunteer because I thought it was a drinking competition and after finishing 2 of these big steins dropping another liter would not have been conducive to lasting the evening.
The next day after dragging ourselves out of our rooms at the illustrious El Cortez Hotel we filled up on yet more glorious food from El Pollo Loco. What a joke. They call this fast food. It took me 30mins to get a shitty burrito. We then drove out to Boulder City and before we knew it we were sitting in a little Cessna, 7 pairs of us climbing rapidly above the desert. The views of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead were impressive. The rest of it as you imagine is pretty stark and boring.
Anyhow my tandem fellow turned out to be this little Dutchman. And by little he is much smaller than I but in the end my worries were alleviated. Even if he did start out by saying that he had yet to lose anyone. I asked him how long he had been working here. He said 2 weeks. I thought yikes. As it turns out he is a veteran. Been doing it since tandem started and has over 13500 jumps under his belt. His record in a day is 27 jumps. Don’t ask me how.
Well what can I say? I was scared as hell. More scared than I have ever been. More so cause I was not in control of anything other than the VISA card that let me do it. After kitting up and small talk in the plane before I knew it I was crouched at the open door of the plane 5km above the earth. The rest really is a blur. It all happened so fast. I was screaming then enjoying the ride, then scared when the parachute opened up and we got tugged big time, then happy as hell at the zero gravity moments then ecstatic that he let me take the controls, then we were on the ground landing using my butt as a stopping friction pad. It was an experience I will never forget, I will not do it again for ages but don’t regret it.
I ordered a DVD of my wild ride so I will post that up when I get it. There are a few pics on here as Alex captured the before and after scenes and a few of us floating back to earth. Anyhow after the ride we all slumped back into the car in our somewhat hung-over states and spent the next 4hrs cruising back home talking about the weekend, the holes in our bank accounts and the jumping out of (well actually being pushed out of..) a plane. The traffic was very light for a Sunday so that somewhat eased the pain :-)
Overall a great trip. One I will not do again in the same capacity for a real long time.
Hotels in Vegas - $$$
Food in Vegas - $$$$
Drink in Vegas - $$$$$
Taxis in Vegas - $$$$
Activities in Vegas - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Being scared like that – Priceless!!!
The posse included myself, Derek, Alex, Scott and the tag along Canadians Jamie and Lee. We stayed in the old part of Vegas. The Fremont Experience. It was pretty cool and when the half mile long roof lights up every hour to play some rocking tunes night turns to day. It was pretty wicked. So this first night turned into a mess. I guess that’s what happens when you hang out feeding the penny slots and getting the waitresses to bring us free drinks. Especially when you ask for the strongest drinks which had a multitude of different poisons mixed together and presented itself as a toxic blue liquid. It tasted ok and by the way we were feeling the next morning it worked well too. The next morning after looking extremely hung over in McDonalds we got a call from the Skydive place. It had been cancelled. The winds were huge and there were dust storms blowing up all round Vegas in the desert. We rescheduled for Sunday and went down to the Strip. We decided to go up the Stratosphere and do the rides up there. 1 was shut but 2 were open. Anyway we get up there only to find out only one was open. We did it and it was scary and a moment after we got off the ride which shot you off the side of the tower 300m above the ground a power cut occurred. The wind-chill was nasty up there as was the speed of the wind. The whole tower was shaking. We were so lucky not to have been stuck out there.
The rest of the day was proceeded by doing the tourist thing on the strip. Like drinking beer on the streets and in the foodcourts. Mmm. Fun times. Oh and the highlight was definitely Alex procuring one of the T-Shirts that all the non English speaking Latinos wear when trying to promote the services of the many prostitutes which are available for as little as $35 straight to your room within 20mins. Mmm, yes please can I have a main of herpes and a side of the STD currently in fashion thanks. Dirty, dirty. If you have not been to Vegas you will not understand how many of them there are and how aggressive they are. They all where these T-Shirts which Alex is proudly shown wearing in my pics and literally throw these cards of girls in all sorts of positions at you. Little did I know but they were even filling up my back pockets as I walked past.
Anyway another night preceded much like the first one except it started out with a great meal and festivities at a German beer house. This included Derek, Alex and Scott attempting a competition where you hold out a 1 litre stein in front of you, with arms straight and hold it for as long as possible without spilling any beer. Alex got third overall with a great effort; suffice to say that a girl bet him. Hehe. They lasted for 7 mins which is a great effort, the world record being 12min. I wish I had tried it too but I did not volunteer because I thought it was a drinking competition and after finishing 2 of these big steins dropping another liter would not have been conducive to lasting the evening.
The next day after dragging ourselves out of our rooms at the illustrious El Cortez Hotel we filled up on yet more glorious food from El Pollo Loco. What a joke. They call this fast food. It took me 30mins to get a shitty burrito. We then drove out to Boulder City and before we knew it we were sitting in a little Cessna, 7 pairs of us climbing rapidly above the desert. The views of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead were impressive. The rest of it as you imagine is pretty stark and boring.
Anyhow my tandem fellow turned out to be this little Dutchman. And by little he is much smaller than I but in the end my worries were alleviated. Even if he did start out by saying that he had yet to lose anyone. I asked him how long he had been working here. He said 2 weeks. I thought yikes. As it turns out he is a veteran. Been doing it since tandem started and has over 13500 jumps under his belt. His record in a day is 27 jumps. Don’t ask me how.
Well what can I say? I was scared as hell. More scared than I have ever been. More so cause I was not in control of anything other than the VISA card that let me do it. After kitting up and small talk in the plane before I knew it I was crouched at the open door of the plane 5km above the earth. The rest really is a blur. It all happened so fast. I was screaming then enjoying the ride, then scared when the parachute opened up and we got tugged big time, then happy as hell at the zero gravity moments then ecstatic that he let me take the controls, then we were on the ground landing using my butt as a stopping friction pad. It was an experience I will never forget, I will not do it again for ages but don’t regret it.
I ordered a DVD of my wild ride so I will post that up when I get it. There are a few pics on here as Alex captured the before and after scenes and a few of us floating back to earth. Anyhow after the ride we all slumped back into the car in our somewhat hung-over states and spent the next 4hrs cruising back home talking about the weekend, the holes in our bank accounts and the jumping out of (well actually being pushed out of..) a plane. The traffic was very light for a Sunday so that somewhat eased the pain :-)
Overall a great trip. One I will not do again in the same capacity for a real long time.
Hotels in Vegas - $$$
Food in Vegas - $$$$
Drink in Vegas - $$$$$
Taxis in Vegas - $$$$
Activities in Vegas - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Being scared like that – Priceless!!!
Kiwi's In LA Dinner
I headed down to Myles and Ashley’s place at Manhattan Beach where I was going to crash for the night since we were all going to the Kiwi’s in LA dinner at the Consulate General’s house in Brentwood. A pretty exclusive part of town. Before we got down there I played touch rugby with Myles and some South Africans. It was good but after an hour and a half I was stuffed. I felt it for days after. I have not run for ages but at least I now know that the knee was fine. It is confirmed the only thing that brings on the chronic knee pain is walking downhill.
Anyway it was a good night with all booze and some good Kiwi tucker included (I have since learnt that Americans have no idea of the concept of the word ‘tucker’). They auctioned off some flights to NZ for charity. The highlight would have been the 2 large lambs which had been on a spit roast for 6 hours. They were real good. Flown in specially from NZ. The other highlight other than mini pavs and trifle and of course the 42 Below Vodka. :-)
After the party Myles and I checked out some of his local pubs in Manhattan beach before arising the next morning to hit up some breakfast at a great wee spot I can’t remember the name of before driving around Palos Verdes. This is a very expensive area with a huge Country club and where every car was a BMW, Merc or Porsche. We did feel the part in Ashley’s ML350. I think I would have been chased away by soccer mums in new Range Rovers and Escalades had we gone in my Camry.
Anyway it was a good night with all booze and some good Kiwi tucker included (I have since learnt that Americans have no idea of the concept of the word ‘tucker’). They auctioned off some flights to NZ for charity. The highlight would have been the 2 large lambs which had been on a spit roast for 6 hours. They were real good. Flown in specially from NZ. The other highlight other than mini pavs and trifle and of course the 42 Below Vodka. :-)
After the party Myles and I checked out some of his local pubs in Manhattan beach before arising the next morning to hit up some breakfast at a great wee spot I can’t remember the name of before driving around Palos Verdes. This is a very expensive area with a huge Country club and where every car was a BMW, Merc or Porsche. We did feel the part in Ashley’s ML350. I think I would have been chased away by soccer mums in new Range Rovers and Escalades had we gone in my Camry.
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Santa Joke - Golden
When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce Toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.
Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was Coming To visit, which stressed Santa even more.
When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were About to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.
Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the Floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys Were scattered. So, frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of Apple cider and a shot of rum.
When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all The Cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally Dropped The cider jug, and it Broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor.
He went to get the broom and found the mice Had Eaten all the straw off the end of the broom. Just then the doorbell Rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The angel said Very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'
... And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas Tree.
Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was Coming To visit, which stressed Santa even more.
When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were About to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.
Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the Floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys Were scattered. So, frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of Apple cider and a shot of rum.
When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all The Cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally Dropped The cider jug, and it Broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor.
He went to get the broom and found the mice Had Eaten all the straw off the end of the broom. Just then the doorbell Rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The angel said Very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'
... And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas Tree.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Sedona (Arizona) MTB Trip
I had been looking forward to a trip to Sedona for biking for ages. I have known of this classic Mountain Biking area for years. It was great to hear that Russell, Margaret, Colin and Karen normally head to Sedona for Thanksgiving for a Mountain Biking Trip each year. All up there were seven of us.
Anyway the riding was all that I thought it would be. The tracks are many and varied. No big climbs, just some short ones with short downhills and flowing flattish singletrack. The rocks and dirt even with 2 days of rainy weather were still so grippy. You could rail flat corners like they were banked and as for slickrock its amazing.
Submarine rock which we biked to and on, on the 4th day is awesome. You can bike up ridiculously steep grades of sheer rock. A very cool feeling and then bomb down the other side.
The number of cactus especially on one track called the "Chapel Trail" was very cool. You are literally guiding yourself and your bike between huge cacti just wanting to tear you apart on your first slip up. Though for the most part everything I found was rideable downhill wise though there are some very fun techy bits I really enjoyed the challenge of the technical climbing. Be in on single track or slick rock due to the grip you could manage to get up some pretty steep pitches. Though they took it out of your legs it was wicked fun. Especially when the at the crest of the climb you knew there was some sweet singletrack for bombing down on the otherside.
So other than the biking we has a few good meals, checked out the tourist spots while some of the others who did not ride as much did some great hikes. The area is stunning, never seen an area like it. The rock really is that red. You can even buy locally made T-Shirts stained with Sedona Red Dirt. Anything for a few bucks aye but they were unique. I give them that.
The weather was mixed. The first couple of days were overcast and rainy with some good downpours and lighting. The 3rd day saw the weather getting better and on the last day of riding it was lovely and sunny. Of course the best weather was on the day we left. Still it was wicked overall. We drove back through Flagstaff and Williams. We stopped at Williams (a classic Route 66 Outpost). Had a great lunch and then continued the mega 460 mile (740km) trip home. For the most part through Arizona it was good. 2 lanes, slamed the Camry onto cruise control at 84mph and let her roll. As soon as we crossed the border into Cali it got busy and the road worse so 84 was no longer possible. Once we got onto the I-15 at Apple Valley for 25 miles we were in a massive jam. Never seen anything like it and it was a pain in the butt. Well actually the foot :-) Still I was happy I was was not way further down the I-15 towards Vegas. It was taking people on this day 12hrs to drive the 4hr route from Vegas to LA. The smart people figured this out, turned around and went back to Vegas.
Anyhow enjoy the picture slideshow. As normal never enough riding pictures but I will also be attaching some shaky videos from my new headcam when I get round to making them.
Later,
Kurt
Sedona Mountain Biking - Lhama Trail from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Sedona MTBiking from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Anyway the riding was all that I thought it would be. The tracks are many and varied. No big climbs, just some short ones with short downhills and flowing flattish singletrack. The rocks and dirt even with 2 days of rainy weather were still so grippy. You could rail flat corners like they were banked and as for slickrock its amazing.
Submarine rock which we biked to and on, on the 4th day is awesome. You can bike up ridiculously steep grades of sheer rock. A very cool feeling and then bomb down the other side.
The number of cactus especially on one track called the "Chapel Trail" was very cool. You are literally guiding yourself and your bike between huge cacti just wanting to tear you apart on your first slip up. Though for the most part everything I found was rideable downhill wise though there are some very fun techy bits I really enjoyed the challenge of the technical climbing. Be in on single track or slick rock due to the grip you could manage to get up some pretty steep pitches. Though they took it out of your legs it was wicked fun. Especially when the at the crest of the climb you knew there was some sweet singletrack for bombing down on the otherside.
So other than the biking we has a few good meals, checked out the tourist spots while some of the others who did not ride as much did some great hikes. The area is stunning, never seen an area like it. The rock really is that red. You can even buy locally made T-Shirts stained with Sedona Red Dirt. Anything for a few bucks aye but they were unique. I give them that.
The weather was mixed. The first couple of days were overcast and rainy with some good downpours and lighting. The 3rd day saw the weather getting better and on the last day of riding it was lovely and sunny. Of course the best weather was on the day we left. Still it was wicked overall. We drove back through Flagstaff and Williams. We stopped at Williams (a classic Route 66 Outpost). Had a great lunch and then continued the mega 460 mile (740km) trip home. For the most part through Arizona it was good. 2 lanes, slamed the Camry onto cruise control at 84mph and let her roll. As soon as we crossed the border into Cali it got busy and the road worse so 84 was no longer possible. Once we got onto the I-15 at Apple Valley for 25 miles we were in a massive jam. Never seen anything like it and it was a pain in the butt. Well actually the foot :-) Still I was happy I was was not way further down the I-15 towards Vegas. It was taking people on this day 12hrs to drive the 4hr route from Vegas to LA. The smart people figured this out, turned around and went back to Vegas.
Anyhow enjoy the picture slideshow. As normal never enough riding pictures but I will also be attaching some shaky videos from my new headcam when I get round to making them.
Later,
Kurt
Sedona Mountain Biking - Lhama Trail from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Sedona MTBiking from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Some Work Stuff - An NZ Topographical Map
Well not sure what to say here. I wont say much other than I have some of my work up and viewable to anybody on the Net. I was testing or new mapping server software, specifically caching to create fast lovely maps. They liked it lots so we decided to serve it up as a demonstartion of ESRI software. Pretty cool, and also cool to get some NZ exposure at work.
The Blog post a wroteup is here with the links to the web mapping application.
Its not often that people can see what I actually get up too so I thought it would be worthwhile for people to check this out.
http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisserver/archive/2008/12/03/Map-caching-case-study_3A00_-New-Zealand-topo-maps.aspx
http://serverapps.esri.com/NZTopoMap/
For other GIS nerds here is a download to an .mxd file referencing the above service.
https://redowa.esri.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=22a1fc381bdc4bf1891f19942cdabb87&URL=http%3a%2f%2fdownloads2.esri.com%2fresources%2farcgisdesktop%2fmaps%2fNew_Zealand.mxd
The Blog post a wroteup is here with the links to the web mapping application.
Its not often that people can see what I actually get up too so I thought it would be worthwhile for people to check this out.
http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisserver/archive/2008/12/03/Map-caching-case-study_3A00_-New-Zealand-topo-maps.aspx
http://serverapps.esri.com/NZTopoMap/
For other GIS nerds here is a download to an .mxd file referencing the above service.
https://redowa.esri.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=22a1fc381bdc4bf1891f19942cdabb87&URL=http%3a%2f%2fdownloads2.esri.com%2fresources%2farcgisdesktop%2fmaps%2fNew_Zealand.mxd
Later,
Kurt
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Road Ride to Onyx Summit
Onyx summit is the highest road in Southern California. Its over 8400ft high and Derek and I decided to try and tackle it as a training ride and a challenge.
Anyway I writing this after trying to get liquids back into me and after a mean feed at Bravo Burger a feel tired but very satisfied.
I have not been this stuffed for a long time. The legs really had everything wringed out of them. Its great going with Derek cause we are very similar speeds and training together will help us try and complete 3 centuries in Southern California next April/May. Two of these centuries have 12000ft (4000m) of climbing. Man thats punishment. One of them called the "Breathless Agony" starts in redlands and heads up to Onyx Summit vie Oak Glen to add on another huge climb to bring thr total to 12000ft.
Anyway today all up we did +8500ft/2700m of climbing and 80miles/129km in a time faster than I expected so that was great. We were stuffed. This is the biggest road ride I have ever done and the most amount of climbing on a road bike I have ever done.
Anyway I writing this after trying to get liquids back into me and after a mean feed at Bravo Burger a feel tired but very satisfied.
I have not been this stuffed for a long time. The legs really had everything wringed out of them. Its great going with Derek cause we are very similar speeds and training together will help us try and complete 3 centuries in Southern California next April/May. Two of these centuries have 12000ft (4000m) of climbing. Man thats punishment. One of them called the "Breathless Agony" starts in redlands and heads up to Onyx Summit vie Oak Glen to add on another huge climb to bring thr total to 12000ft.
Anyway today all up we did +8500ft/2700m of climbing and 80miles/129km in a time faster than I expected so that was great. We were stuffed. This is the biggest road ride I have ever done and the most amount of climbing on a road bike I have ever done.
A Hike Up San Bernardino Peak
After 6 weeks of physio trying to sort out my knee which can no longer handle hiking down hills I had to go test it out. Unfortunately it was no better so its back to the drawing Board. It is never simple and has everyone rubbing their heads somewhat. I guess the only consolation is that I can still ride. Riding does not bother it luckily.
Anyway here are a bunch of pics I took in the snow on the way up to the 3400m peak.
Anyway here are a bunch of pics I took in the snow on the way up to the 3400m peak.
AirNZ Cranial Billboards
Well I imagine a few of you guys have heard of this promotion which I believe was run in NZ earlier this year. To cut a long story short I applied to have my hair shaven off on the 26th of October down in Melrose near Hollywood. I was one of the 30 people selected and on stage I had my head shaved and then a henna tattoo applied to the back of my head. I needed to have this redone after 5 days and had to wear this around work and anything I did for 10 days. For doing this I got free return flights to Auckland from LA which I can use anytime up will Oct 31 2009.
It was quite the experience and really being shaven for the first time was somewhat scary but in the end not too bad. having the tattoo on the back of my head was something else. Very odd looks and stares and going out to a concert in San Diego had 5 people that night taking a picture of the back of my head. So just over 3 weeks later the tattoo is long gone and the hair is coming back surprisingly fast.
On Stage being interviewed (How many recognise the kiwi doing the interview?)
Well I'm now half bald
All Shaved. Jeez what a weird feeling... Scalp was so soft.
On with the temporary Henna Tattoo
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Sitting down for lunch in San Diego halfway through a 60 mile ride along the coast with Derek.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Rampage Video
Finally I have put together a video of my fottage form the Redbull Rampage 2008 in Utah.
Enjoy
Redbull Rampage 2008 from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Enjoy
Redbull Rampage 2008 from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Rampaging in Southern Utah
Well the Redbull Rampage was back after being in oblivion since 2004. My understanding was since the last site was on Crown Land it was difficult to get permissions and the tree huggers (well more to the point up there, the scrub and red dirt huggers) petitioned against people riding and walking over the dirt as it created some erosion and killed plants. People who know me know that I am all for conservation within reason as long as it serves a proper function with a solid outcome. America in this sense is very strange. It seems that having an engine makes things ok. There are vast, vast tracks of land in Utah and California where there is no one living and in the Californian case some of the land is well stark to say the least. In these areas Motos rule. In Utah huge areas are set aside for Motos to tear around breaking bones and ripping up the earth but a small area which is not exactly wilderness by any means was shut down because people powered machines were doing too much damage. Well whatever. These examples are found everywhere. The local MTB riding location in Redlands can be a death trap. Motos rip around when they should not be there making a mess and quite frankly being dangerous. Spose the lesson is make sure you have a motor under your arse in these parts.
Anyhow the Rampage was back and I headed to Virgin Utah with Russell and Margaret and we met Al and Rob up there. They had not had rain up there for months. Of course I just sleep under a fly the first night on the side of the road. What happens… yep at 6am the heavens open up in Mormon country. It rains for the whole day and the Rampage is postponed. It was somewhat depressing after driving 6+ hrs. Still we went riding ourselves. We did Graften Mesa and Karate Monkey as shuttles and played around at the old Rampage site. Good times other than the mud. Thick, thick mud. Nasty stuff. So thick my rear wheel did not turn. The Enduro was so clogged even down some steep as terrain the rear wheel stayed locked up at times. I really should have cleaned the bike better because the mud set like concrete. From 33 pounds to 60 pounds. Made for a good workout up hills.
We headed up to the Rampage the next day. It was a 4 mile uphill ride to the site. It was fun ripping down after watching the world’s best shred some gnar. The area was amazing. Real Southern Utah scenery (= Mesa’s) and these dudes were to be riding down it. Just nuts. We settled down for the day and watched in the sun and clear skies. I’m not going to go into all this too much. What the guys can do on 2 wheels really is beyond belief. Huge stuff which cameras and videos just do not do justice too. The steepness was awesome and the commitment massive.
We watched the semis/qualifications on the first day. The only Kiwi Kelly McGarry I believe got robbed but there is an element of bullshit judging like all judged sports. He did crash but got up and did the only backflip on this massive hip jump with a chunked out landing. Some other ‘bigger’ names that crashed got through.
For those taht dont know basically Redbull invites the world best 'freeriders' to a location in Utah. They get plocked ontop of a mountain with 3 starting points and down in the slopes below are a number of ramps and obstacles built up by men. The rest of the terrina is natural. They then havea few days to create, choose and practise any lines they want. The goal is to get to the bototm within 4 mins. To win they need to show a combination of creativity, skill, guts, big b*lls, tricks and no brains without crashing and having a clean run down the hill. The guy that won did not do the hardest lines down the hill but manages to do a trick almost everytime he got air and held the run together without eating Utah dirt. The second place guy, Kurt Sorge did a much more technical run down the face of the Mountain and hit the 60ft canyon jump doing a superman style trick over it. Just insane... This is where the commitiment shows, once you start runnig ndown to that jump thats it, you cannot pull out. You dab the brakes you might come up short, hit the canyon face and fall 10m to the bottom. Yikes.
In the final day Gee (a favorite and world downhill champ crashed hard) and was out during practice. The course/routes were down some different runs on the mountains and were bigger and steeper than the day before. Loose rocky faces and massive drops and the 60ft canyon jump were definite highlights. Also sneaking into an area where you needed ‘passes’ allowed me to get better views an some pretty cool shots and video.
Huge crashes happened all over the show. Some like Matt Hunter who broke a collarbone were not lucky but it always amazed me what they picked themselves up from and continued like nothing happened. Tough buggers. When they were applying for a sponsored biking job I think they must have told them they were built to crash, not just built to ride.
Anyway it was a great weekend. Utah is wicked. I must go back. The amount of road tripping, hiking and biking there is limitless and we only just popped over the border. I can’t wait. Bring on a massive all American Road Trip at some stage.
I have a ton of video but will take a while to process. In the meantime look at the professional stuff on http://www.redbullrampage.com/
Anyhow the Rampage was back and I headed to Virgin Utah with Russell and Margaret and we met Al and Rob up there. They had not had rain up there for months. Of course I just sleep under a fly the first night on the side of the road. What happens… yep at 6am the heavens open up in Mormon country. It rains for the whole day and the Rampage is postponed. It was somewhat depressing after driving 6+ hrs. Still we went riding ourselves. We did Graften Mesa and Karate Monkey as shuttles and played around at the old Rampage site. Good times other than the mud. Thick, thick mud. Nasty stuff. So thick my rear wheel did not turn. The Enduro was so clogged even down some steep as terrain the rear wheel stayed locked up at times. I really should have cleaned the bike better because the mud set like concrete. From 33 pounds to 60 pounds. Made for a good workout up hills.
We headed up to the Rampage the next day. It was a 4 mile uphill ride to the site. It was fun ripping down after watching the world’s best shred some gnar. The area was amazing. Real Southern Utah scenery (= Mesa’s) and these dudes were to be riding down it. Just nuts. We settled down for the day and watched in the sun and clear skies. I’m not going to go into all this too much. What the guys can do on 2 wheels really is beyond belief. Huge stuff which cameras and videos just do not do justice too. The steepness was awesome and the commitment massive.
We watched the semis/qualifications on the first day. The only Kiwi Kelly McGarry I believe got robbed but there is an element of bullshit judging like all judged sports. He did crash but got up and did the only backflip on this massive hip jump with a chunked out landing. Some other ‘bigger’ names that crashed got through.
For those taht dont know basically Redbull invites the world best 'freeriders' to a location in Utah. They get plocked ontop of a mountain with 3 starting points and down in the slopes below are a number of ramps and obstacles built up by men. The rest of the terrina is natural. They then havea few days to create, choose and practise any lines they want. The goal is to get to the bototm within 4 mins. To win they need to show a combination of creativity, skill, guts, big b*lls, tricks and no brains without crashing and having a clean run down the hill. The guy that won did not do the hardest lines down the hill but manages to do a trick almost everytime he got air and held the run together without eating Utah dirt. The second place guy, Kurt Sorge did a much more technical run down the face of the Mountain and hit the 60ft canyon jump doing a superman style trick over it. Just insane... This is where the commitiment shows, once you start runnig ndown to that jump thats it, you cannot pull out. You dab the brakes you might come up short, hit the canyon face and fall 10m to the bottom. Yikes.
In the final day Gee (a favorite and world downhill champ crashed hard) and was out during practice. The course/routes were down some different runs on the mountains and were bigger and steeper than the day before. Loose rocky faces and massive drops and the 60ft canyon jump were definite highlights. Also sneaking into an area where you needed ‘passes’ allowed me to get better views an some pretty cool shots and video.
Huge crashes happened all over the show. Some like Matt Hunter who broke a collarbone were not lucky but it always amazed me what they picked themselves up from and continued like nothing happened. Tough buggers. When they were applying for a sponsored biking job I think they must have told them they were built to crash, not just built to ride.
Anyway it was a great weekend. Utah is wicked. I must go back. The amount of road tripping, hiking and biking there is limitless and we only just popped over the border. I can’t wait. Bring on a massive all American Road Trip at some stage.
I have a ton of video but will take a while to process. In the meantime look at the professional stuff on http://www.redbullrampage.com/
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park
Well this was a great long weekend away seeing some wicked spots with lots of driving, good weather, big mtns, hardcore hilly roads, overheating cars, massive trees and some cool camping. Also managed to see a lovely black bear in a real remote campsite.
Basically Tabetha and I headed away for 3 days camping in the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks about 260 miles north of where I live on the way up to San Fran. We detoured on the way home through the Sequoia National Monument and Kern River Gorge. All up it was 875 miles clocked up on the poor old Camry. And unfortunately it did have a mishap. I think the temp sensor is stuffed so the fan was not cutting in when it should have been and the temp gauge inside the car was jumping around and not reading the correct temp to me. A small movie is attached below after I stopped when we were driving up too yet again 7500ft. About 2300m.
Kings Canyon highlights included:
Basically Tabetha and I headed away for 3 days camping in the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks about 260 miles north of where I live on the way up to San Fran. We detoured on the way home through the Sequoia National Monument and Kern River Gorge. All up it was 875 miles clocked up on the poor old Camry. And unfortunately it did have a mishap. I think the temp sensor is stuffed so the fan was not cutting in when it should have been and the temp gauge inside the car was jumping around and not reading the correct temp to me. A small movie is attached below after I stopped when we were driving up too yet again 7500ft. About 2300m.
Kings Canyon highlights included:
- Grant Grove and the General Grant Tree. This tree is 82m tall and 33m around its base. Quite a site to behold. There are many more giants around this grove aswell.
- Kings Canyon and the Kings River. We camped here near the end of the wicked mountain road. Did a great hike up to the Cedar Grove Lookout. Prob about 500m above the valley below. It was a great place to see the sunset. Check out the pics...
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- The canyon itself is much deeper than the Grand Canyon. Up to 8000ft in the deepest spot from river to ridge
- Roaring River Falls
- Watching while driving by many many fire fighters doing a controlled burn of scrubby vegetation on the side of the highway from Kings Canyon into Sequoia Nay Park. It was like a warzone. Again see the many pics.
- Giant Forest. Here the General Sherman Stands. It is by volume the largest tree on Earth. Its so big really you cannot gather its size just looking at it. Its 2100yrs old, 84m high with a base circumference of 32m. Every year it adds enough wood to make a 60ft tall tree measuring 1ft in diameter. Nuts huh?
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The General Sherman... Well the bottom of it.
- Tharps Log. A fallen tree that the first white settler lived in over summer for 30yrs.
- Crescent Meadow
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- Tunnel Log
- Mineral King. A hardcore drive up a dirt road for much of it. Wicked remote spot. 25 mile road that takes 1.5hrs (well a little less for me...hehe) with 589 turns (felt like Possum Bourne... Mmm wish I had his Subaru) rising up to 2300m where we camped.
- Camping here was great. Very few people, I have video of a black bear hanging around our site. It was the first time I was properly cold in California so far...
Black Bear from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Drive Home....- Took the back roads home thanks to the help of the new GPS navigator. Seriously I am a massive fan. Will never do a trip to unknown areas again without one. Its amazing what $100 will get you these days.
- Lovely farmland. A California I had yet to have seen. Little pollution, few people, quiet roads and tranquil ranches.
- The Sequoia Monument was great. Another large grove of trees were here. Clinton had visited in 2001.
- The vistas were just as good as those of the parks.
Enjoy the lovely pics below.
The Getty Centre - Los Angeles
Well this is a must see sight for anyone visiting LA. A wicked building. Fantastic architecture in a wicked setting. Lovely gardens. Most of the exterior of the building is made out of a rock called 'Travertine'. You can still see imprints of leaves and fossils on the exterior walls of the building complex.
Instead of me reinventing the wheel here are some websites if you are interested.
http://www.getty.edu/museum/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Center
One of the more famous pieces of artwork is the painting by Vincent van Gogh called 'Irises'.
On the way home I had a blowout of the rear right tire on the Camry while doing 80 on the 210 Freeway at 10.30pm. Talk about freaky and as for changing it that was darn right scary when cars are ripping past at 80+mph. Quite the experience.
Instead of me reinventing the wheel here are some websites if you are interested.
http://www.getty.edu/museum/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Center
One of the more famous pieces of artwork is the painting by Vincent van Gogh called 'Irises'.
On the way home I had a blowout of the rear right tire on the Camry while doing 80 on the 210 Freeway at 10.30pm. Talk about freaky and as for changing it that was darn right scary when cars are ripping past at 80+mph. Quite the experience.
Friday, 5 September 2008
Canada, BC Mountain Biking Trip with Seattle as an added bonus
I have recently finished a short week at work. Pleased it was a short week because I find it pretty tough sitting in an office after a holiday, especially one that involved the great outdoors, especially when we are talking about Mountain Biking, even more so when that biking is in British Columbia. Anyhow it all started uneventful enough. I got away with all the excess baggage charges at Ontario Airport (my local airport) and landed in Vancouver at 10.30pm on the 15th August. It always amazes me how easy it is to wonder through customs in all countries I have been to other than New Zealand. Immigration can be a little stressful but once through geez they don't check what’s in your bags in Asia, the US or Canada. I guess NZ needs to have tough Biosecurity measures due to our vulnerable ecosystems and the potential for invasive species getting in the country.
Anyhow Vic was there to pick me up with the other Kiwis (Jabez & Gareth) who had earlier landed from Wellington that day. After a good catch-up (we worked out it was Easter 2007 we last did a trip together back home) I put my bike together and attempted to get some sleep on the floor of Vic and Didier's living room. Between the hard floor and excitement for the trip to Whistler the next day I did not get much shut eye.
After fitting 5 bikes onto Vic’s Pathfinder we headed off to Whistler early the next morning with Sebastian (Seppel). He is a 'crazy' German, one of Vic's mates who says 'sick' more than anyone I have every met :-) Anyhow he was really hung-over and provided a quality insight into Vic's life since he moved over to Vancouver over a year ago. It was tough to decipher what was actually true but it provided much humor for the 2hr drive to Whistler which other than all the road works (2010 Winter Olympics) is a very scenic drive.
Anyhow Whistler was packed due to the Crankworks Mountain Bike Festival and the lifts were super busy as so we headed up the hill to the second lift and rode the trails on the top half of the Mountain for the rest of the day. The trails were wicked and we rode blue and black diamond runs with names such as: Goat's Gully, In Deep, Freight Train, No Duff, Duffman & Fatcrobat. This worked out well and Vic being a regular here threw us into the deep end taking us down what is or is very close to the 'hardest' track on the Mountain on our second run. Goat's Gully which is steep, mega technical, narrow and filled with rocks. I cleared it on my first run down this track. Something I never achieved again. I managed to break my shifter on the track after a crash the next time we rode it. Anyhow good times were had by all. After about 8 or 9 runs I was stuffed. I held in there longer than the poor guys from home. Especially Jabez (see the pictures) who had what was close to heat stroke. It was 35 degrees and we were exerting ourselves in full armor so coming from the NZ winter it was a big ask. I was use to it living in SoCal but still ended up really dehydrated.
The next day (Sunday) it was still super busy so we chilled and did Trail riding (ended up being a run of the Black Diamond track 'River Runs Through It') within the Whistler Valley itself. Didier and Henry came up for the day. The trails were 'sick' and were a good intro to skinny’s, boardwalk, seesaws Etc. I wish I had taken armor (Vic said we were trail riding, well I know his 'new' idea of trail riding now so will be prepared next time) but other than G nose diving off a wheelie drop onto his face, Jabez falling over a meter off a big skinny and myself also toppling sideways off a pretty high skinny due to my rear wheel not making the turn it was a day without major mishap. We had a great lunch at the local Whistler Brewery and also swam in a couple of lovely lakes in the Valley to cool off and clean up. Weird to think in winter these lakes can freeze up.
On Monday the weather packed up. Anyhow we hit the bike park for the next 3 days in mixed weather. The park being closed numerous times for a while due to thunder and lightning. We focused primarily on the lower runs where there were more tracks but still a 600 odd meter decent. Good times alright. My jumping improved so much it’s not funny. Tracks such as Crank It Up, ALine and Dirt Merchant did wonders for my jumping and being comfortable at times quite high in the air. They have some pretty big jumps but being all tables so the risk is low. You start slow and progressively hit them faster until you clear them and land on the tranny. Down ALine towards the end I was managing to clear all but 3 jumps at times sailing right over the trannys and flat landing on the other side. Quite the wee adrenaline rush until I crashed off the ALine rock drop because I hesitated.
Of course being me and my luck with bikes I did of course not have any luck with my bike. To cut a long story short the wheels are rubbish and I had spokes snapping left right and centre on the rear wheel. There is now a large flatspot and I spent close to $100 bucks over the whole trip just keeping the wheels in working order. Other than all the creaks and groans, the snapped shifter and the need for 2 new wheels my rear cluster is also playing up. I have a feeling that the 'useless' bike shops left out a spacer and so it was free to somewhat float around on top of the freehub body. I was not alone with bike issues but I certainly had the most issues. Vic's forks were bleeding oil for the whole trip (A weakness of many Rockshox Totems) and Jabez also had fork issues which he got sorted at a bike shop. Yep they actually fixed the problem :-)
Whistler, Canada - Mountain Biking Video Snippits from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
On our 4th day in the Bike Park on the 2nd run down the hill (we were doing one of my favorite runs from the top - Freight Train into Dirt Merchant - Close to a 1000m decent) I heard a 'yelp' behind me after I had cleared one of the jumps at the top of Freight Train. Anyhow I stopped when I could, waited a little bit and saw no movement and heard no sounds other than the soft patter of the drizzle. I ran back and found Jabez lying at the bottom of the tranny curled up almost unconscious facing up the track. He had blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Pretty scary I gotta say. Anyway I got him out of the way of the track and other riders, G patrolled the track I sent another rider down to call the medic. Anyway long story short after a trip to the local medical centre, then an ambulance ride to Squamish for more tests, then another ambulance ride to Vancouver (Jabez said the lights were flashing the whole time) for a CAT scan and a stay overnight he had got himself a lung contusion (Bruising of the lungs). Anyhow it was not super serious after all these tests had ruled out blood clots which was wonderful. Every doctor Jabez told us when we picked him up at Lionsgate Hospital the next day in Vancouver was amazed he had managed to bruise his lungs badly (was still coughing up blood 10 days later) but had not broken any ribs. Pretty lucky aye. Sure is testament to wearing full body armor. The outcome may have been very different otherwise. Also goes to show that shit happens. We had ridden this track numerous times and Jabez had cleared the jump before. Just shows that it can still go really wrong if you screw up the landing. So all is well, Jabez is all good but his riding needed to take a backseat for a couple of weeks. He unfortunately missed out on the Freeride Tour Gareth and I did on the Friday for 8 days.
Freeride Tour
The next day we were picked up from Vic’s place by Chris. Our tour guide. We then picked up a couple of Duchies as it turned out. There were meant to be 4 of them but they had an even worse record than us. They had been in Canada for 2 weeks already and on their first day riding one guy broke his wrist and in the following days another guy broke his collarbone. Both headed home. Bugger aye. I can see how it is though. It’s very easy to get over excited at Whistler and push beyond your limits. So our trip was down to just 4 of 7 which meant we had lots more room in the vehicle to sprawl out (it would have been pretty tight otherwise, especially with all our stinking gear).
The first day we rode the North Shore of Vancouver. Both Cypress and Seymour Mountains. What wicked technical tracks. They are full on, super steep for the most part with many rock drops and steep rolls. Pretty awesome area to have so close to a main city I must say. Your riding would get so much better if this was your local playground. That evening we headed towards Vedder our riding location for the next day. Vedder was fantastic. We shuttled with locals and hit up numerous trails with many man-made features, technical steeps and wicked trail riding through the rainforest. I really wish I had more pics and video of all the riding locations. It’s difficult to stop and make the effort when you will hold others up and also when you are having so much fun riding. After a spot of lunch at the lovely Cultus Lake we headed back for some more riding.
At this point G was nursing a sore body. He had crashed in what was probably the most spectacular crash I have seen firsthand. We were sessioning this 8 foot drop off a log which then had a pretty sharp left-hander near the bottom. Anyhow he amped himself up for it, rode in, hesitated, went a bit slow, did not pull up the front of the bike and rode it like it was a curb. What ensued was G riding his bike like a clown on the front wheel with the back well up in the air for 4 or 5 meters before gravity and speed go the best of the situation. He crashed to the ground in a heap. His Specialized Demo wrapped round him like a scarf. Talk about painful looking and it proved to be just that. I managed to get the bike untangled and he managed to get up after a long while. Somehow he had not broken anything but had stuffed his shoulder up big time. This would plague him for the rest of the tour (Vitamin I or Ibuprofen) getting him through day to day. All I can say is G brought armor at Whistler and with the huge shoulder pads they have I would not have been surprised if he would have broken his shoulder without it. This video would have been absolute YouTube gold had a recorded it. I really need to get a helmet cam.
That evening we had a pretty long drive to Silverstar past Kelowna where we were to ride the next day in the Silverstar bike park. A smaller different version of Whistler. The next day dawned nice and clear. Other than Gareth's shoulder we were all feeling ok and he was drugged up determined not to miss a day riding which he did not. This mountain was more trail orientated than Whistler with a number of runs being more like a DH race track. They were really enjoyable with names such as Downtown, Rock Star, World Cup DH, and Pipeline Etc. I would have liked another day here since there was so much stuff to do and they were fun tracks with a real chilled out more laid back atmosphere than Whistler. We finished the first day just as the heavy rain hit. I do have mixed feelings though. This is where I picked up my injury from the trip. I messed up the landing off a little sideways hip jump (just meters before was a much bigger one I did fine) landed into sand and proceeded to tear my right ankle to bits. Long story short I was now joining G on the Ibuprofen for the rest of the trip and 12 days later there is little improvement. Unfortunately I have been here before with my ankle and I think this will take ages to come right. It’s still swollen and sore to walk on let alone run or hike. Luckily the biking due to its lower impact nature meant I could keep riding though I was careful for the rest of the week off drops especially not putting too much force through it. Its strange thinking as you approach a drop to spin you peddles to land on your non favored leg. So all 3 of us Kiwis now had injuries to deal with, all with effects that I think might last for quite some time. Argh… The joys of Mountain Biking aye.
Next up was Kamloops where we rode for 2 days shuttling the local trails. They have some great riders here and testament to this is that both the women and male top riders at the Olympics both come from this town of 70000 people. The tracks here were dry and very different than others we had ridden. They had some very very steep sections which I loved as well as some good structures, jumps and skinnys. Not to mention some tracks which simply had good flow. Gareth managed to catch a pedal way up high on a structure. Next thing I saw was him falling 8-10 foot to flat off the structure. I thought OMG here we go again. Anyway I got up to him and his was fine. In fact the first thing he said to me was "I thought I was going to crush my n*uts, how did I not smash them..." Hehe got me laughing again. It was amazing, he had just sat on his bike and used it as the big squish machine that it was. After a couple of good meals here in town each night we crashed in our dodgy establishment the night before heading through some very scenic areas on the 300km drive to Williams Lake, our most remote destination. The drive was wonderful with massive, massive trains snaking there way through the countryside past many lakes.
Williams Lake for the most part is natural terrain with less man-made structures than other areas, I really really liked it. I wish we had done more riding here really. They have local trails just above town which are pretty small runs but lots of fun. A bunch of skinny’s to play on too. There was one just a foot or 2 above the ground but was real narrow (~6 inches) that I managed to ride on my first shot. It was at least 40m long. I could not repeat this feat again unfortunately. Many of the tracks here had sweeping sections which swoop down a gully going from one side to the other. This is serious fun. It allows you to take corners really fast (Like a Velodrome). Add jumps and hips into this and we are talking wicked fun ‘sick’. Helmet cam vids of this would have been amazing. We also shuttled a big Mountain called DeSeus. It was well out of the way but worth it even though the turnaround was well over an hour. It was big mountain natural terrain riding with tight trees to negotiate and serious loose steep trails with super tight steep switchbacks. Being clipped in here I found it really improved my riding. Unlike others with flats who would drag a leg basically as an anchor to control speed and direction being clipped in meant you needed to be super accurate. Wicked times that’s for sure with some great natural flowy sections through trees when you weren’t busy burning your brakes out on the steeps. Sure would be a good hill for brake manufacturers to test out new products on.
Riding in Bristish Columbia, Canada from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
On the Thurs evening we did a massive 550km drive through rain and storms all the way back to Vancouver. Unfortunately we needed to do this as the Duchies needed to be at the airport not long after lunch the next day for the flight home. This meant that G and I would ride the shore again. By this stage we were pretty wore out especially after a poor sleep the night before due to us crashing in the basement of Chris's parents place. Anyway we rode at Fromme which involved an hour long push up the hill to get to the tracks as you cannot shuttle this mountain. The tracks were wicked. Full of manmade features all over. Skinny’s, drops, jumps, steeps, cobbled areas, log rides the list goes on. It certainly is a place I really want to go back too. It also really amazes me that even though it was raining the wood is reasonably grippy. Unlike home they have lots of hardwoods such as cedar to build with.
So yep all in all a great time. The tour I have mixed feelings on. The riding was great (cut short at times) but the accommodation and organization was not how I expected it to be for the money I paid. I was skeptical doing a tour to begin with since I have always travelled off my own back. I do not regret it; unfortunately some of my worries did come to fruition.
On my last night in Vancouver we met Vic in town and had a big night. Was fun but we were so tired eh. You know it’s been a big night when you walk home (45min walk - poor poor ankle) and stop by the local McDonalds Drive-in to order a Big Mac combo. Hehe they served us too :-)
Seattle
After just a few hours sleep we were up and moving by 8.30 as we were heading to Seattle for the weekend across the border. The lines were pretty big at the border. We spent 2hrs in them even after going to the duty free store which allows you to cut the line somewhat. Anyways after going past the Peace Arch (Symbol of Friendship between the States and Canada) we were on the Freeway heading to Seattle. What a great city. First up was visiting the best REI (Outdoors Store) I have seen. It’s a 'green' building set amongst bush with tracks to test out Mountain bikes on, with a huge climbing wall inside. The range of equipment was awesome and like others I have been too for the most part the prices are great. That afternoon we checked out the waterfront, sculpture park and took in some sights before heading out to our motel. There are great freeways here that go through many tunnels and also floating highways. It really is the city of water. It’s surrounded by water and unfortunately the city only gets 70 or so properly sunny days per year. Yikes... That evening I had the best Thai food I had had since leaving Thailand. Super nice and it was actually spicy hot. Mmm yummy, yummy. That night we wondered round town a bit but were all pretty shattered from the night before and had a relatively early night. My ankle was very happy about this since it had been throbbing all day.
On Sunday we entered into the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (http://www.empsfm.org/). We really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Its set inside a very funky building (check out the pics) and has many awesome exhibits like the evolution of the guitar, a whole room dedicated to Jimi Hendrix who comes from Seattle. Not to mention exhibits on the grunge era originating from Seattle with great bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains & Candle box. They had a sound room and many small studios where you could jam with mates on drums, keyboards and guitars. In the Atrium was a huge funnel made from 700 guitars. It was fabulous. They also had the actual flying police car from the Film Noir Classic Sci-fi movie 'Bladerunner'. This brings us to the Sci-fi museum. Pretty cool. Basically it goes over the evolution of Sci-fi novels, thinking, movies and history. They had many original exhibits such as robots form famous films. This place is well worth the visit. Steve this is your dream come true. You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself in this place.
We also went up the Space Needle, an iconic Seattle sight built for the 1962 World fair. We went up both during the day and night on the Sunday. What great views of the cityscape. I really was impressed with Seattle. Great eateries, markets, shopping, views, waterfront Etc. Certainly reminds me that I want to live in such a place again where the CBD is vibrant and actually exists rather than the urban sprawl that is LA. Though we got there as it was closing the Public Market in downtown along the water front was a cool spot with fresh fish, craft stalls, funky shops and also home to the World's first Starbucks. Downtown the shopping was good though we just walked around. We did stop in Barnes & Nobel where I picked up a dirty jokes book. Suffice to say that after 5 mins I had tears rolling down my eyes and Vic couldn't handle it he had to leave to wipe the tears up a few isles down. I ended up buying the book for 'future reference' when one needs a good laugh. Dam it’s making me smile just thinking of some of them right now. Put it this way one super funny section was titled "Euphemisms for Male Masturbation", god I only flicked through the 3 solid pages of them and had not even looked at the Female pages and it had us rolling round. After a big Calzone for dinner and a nice Iced Mocha it was off to sleep. The next day I left late morning and much to my joy got some wonderful views of Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens out of the window of the Air Alaska 737.
Anyhow that was an epic write-up. I am thinking only about 10% made it this far. I appreciate your enthusiasm or maybe it was the strong coffee you needed to stay awake. I leave you with a reward. One of the not so dirty jokes from the 'Dirty Jokebook'. Enjoy :-)
* A hunter goes out looking for buffalo and hires an Indian scout to help him. After a while the Indian gets off his horse, puts an ear to the ground and says, "Buffalo come." The hunter scans the area with his binoculars. "I can't see anything," he says. "How can you tell?" The Indian replies, "Ear Sticky!"
* What do you call a farmer with forty lovers?
A sheppard
* What did the hurricane say to the coconut tree?
"Hang onto your nuts, this is going to be one hell of a blow job!"
* Why is Santa's sack so big?
He only comes once per year.
Now I know some a crude and maybe not that funny but I know everyone of you smiled if not laughed...
Anyhow Vic was there to pick me up with the other Kiwis (Jabez & Gareth) who had earlier landed from Wellington that day. After a good catch-up (we worked out it was Easter 2007 we last did a trip together back home) I put my bike together and attempted to get some sleep on the floor of Vic and Didier's living room. Between the hard floor and excitement for the trip to Whistler the next day I did not get much shut eye.
After fitting 5 bikes onto Vic’s Pathfinder we headed off to Whistler early the next morning with Sebastian (Seppel). He is a 'crazy' German, one of Vic's mates who says 'sick' more than anyone I have every met :-) Anyhow he was really hung-over and provided a quality insight into Vic's life since he moved over to Vancouver over a year ago. It was tough to decipher what was actually true but it provided much humor for the 2hr drive to Whistler which other than all the road works (2010 Winter Olympics) is a very scenic drive.
Anyhow Whistler was packed due to the Crankworks Mountain Bike Festival and the lifts were super busy as so we headed up the hill to the second lift and rode the trails on the top half of the Mountain for the rest of the day. The trails were wicked and we rode blue and black diamond runs with names such as: Goat's Gully, In Deep, Freight Train, No Duff, Duffman & Fatcrobat. This worked out well and Vic being a regular here threw us into the deep end taking us down what is or is very close to the 'hardest' track on the Mountain on our second run. Goat's Gully which is steep, mega technical, narrow and filled with rocks. I cleared it on my first run down this track. Something I never achieved again. I managed to break my shifter on the track after a crash the next time we rode it. Anyhow good times were had by all. After about 8 or 9 runs I was stuffed. I held in there longer than the poor guys from home. Especially Jabez (see the pictures) who had what was close to heat stroke. It was 35 degrees and we were exerting ourselves in full armor so coming from the NZ winter it was a big ask. I was use to it living in SoCal but still ended up really dehydrated.
The next day (Sunday) it was still super busy so we chilled and did Trail riding (ended up being a run of the Black Diamond track 'River Runs Through It') within the Whistler Valley itself. Didier and Henry came up for the day. The trails were 'sick' and were a good intro to skinny’s, boardwalk, seesaws Etc. I wish I had taken armor (Vic said we were trail riding, well I know his 'new' idea of trail riding now so will be prepared next time) but other than G nose diving off a wheelie drop onto his face, Jabez falling over a meter off a big skinny and myself also toppling sideways off a pretty high skinny due to my rear wheel not making the turn it was a day without major mishap. We had a great lunch at the local Whistler Brewery and also swam in a couple of lovely lakes in the Valley to cool off and clean up. Weird to think in winter these lakes can freeze up.
On Monday the weather packed up. Anyhow we hit the bike park for the next 3 days in mixed weather. The park being closed numerous times for a while due to thunder and lightning. We focused primarily on the lower runs where there were more tracks but still a 600 odd meter decent. Good times alright. My jumping improved so much it’s not funny. Tracks such as Crank It Up, ALine and Dirt Merchant did wonders for my jumping and being comfortable at times quite high in the air. They have some pretty big jumps but being all tables so the risk is low. You start slow and progressively hit them faster until you clear them and land on the tranny. Down ALine towards the end I was managing to clear all but 3 jumps at times sailing right over the trannys and flat landing on the other side. Quite the wee adrenaline rush until I crashed off the ALine rock drop because I hesitated.
Of course being me and my luck with bikes I did of course not have any luck with my bike. To cut a long story short the wheels are rubbish and I had spokes snapping left right and centre on the rear wheel. There is now a large flatspot and I spent close to $100 bucks over the whole trip just keeping the wheels in working order. Other than all the creaks and groans, the snapped shifter and the need for 2 new wheels my rear cluster is also playing up. I have a feeling that the 'useless' bike shops left out a spacer and so it was free to somewhat float around on top of the freehub body. I was not alone with bike issues but I certainly had the most issues. Vic's forks were bleeding oil for the whole trip (A weakness of many Rockshox Totems) and Jabez also had fork issues which he got sorted at a bike shop. Yep they actually fixed the problem :-)
Whistler, Canada - Mountain Biking Video Snippits from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
On our 4th day in the Bike Park on the 2nd run down the hill (we were doing one of my favorite runs from the top - Freight Train into Dirt Merchant - Close to a 1000m decent) I heard a 'yelp' behind me after I had cleared one of the jumps at the top of Freight Train. Anyhow I stopped when I could, waited a little bit and saw no movement and heard no sounds other than the soft patter of the drizzle. I ran back and found Jabez lying at the bottom of the tranny curled up almost unconscious facing up the track. He had blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Pretty scary I gotta say. Anyway I got him out of the way of the track and other riders, G patrolled the track I sent another rider down to call the medic. Anyway long story short after a trip to the local medical centre, then an ambulance ride to Squamish for more tests, then another ambulance ride to Vancouver (Jabez said the lights were flashing the whole time) for a CAT scan and a stay overnight he had got himself a lung contusion (Bruising of the lungs). Anyhow it was not super serious after all these tests had ruled out blood clots which was wonderful. Every doctor Jabez told us when we picked him up at Lionsgate Hospital the next day in Vancouver was amazed he had managed to bruise his lungs badly (was still coughing up blood 10 days later) but had not broken any ribs. Pretty lucky aye. Sure is testament to wearing full body armor. The outcome may have been very different otherwise. Also goes to show that shit happens. We had ridden this track numerous times and Jabez had cleared the jump before. Just shows that it can still go really wrong if you screw up the landing. So all is well, Jabez is all good but his riding needed to take a backseat for a couple of weeks. He unfortunately missed out on the Freeride Tour Gareth and I did on the Friday for 8 days.
Freeride Tour
The next day we were picked up from Vic’s place by Chris. Our tour guide. We then picked up a couple of Duchies as it turned out. There were meant to be 4 of them but they had an even worse record than us. They had been in Canada for 2 weeks already and on their first day riding one guy broke his wrist and in the following days another guy broke his collarbone. Both headed home. Bugger aye. I can see how it is though. It’s very easy to get over excited at Whistler and push beyond your limits. So our trip was down to just 4 of 7 which meant we had lots more room in the vehicle to sprawl out (it would have been pretty tight otherwise, especially with all our stinking gear).
The first day we rode the North Shore of Vancouver. Both Cypress and Seymour Mountains. What wicked technical tracks. They are full on, super steep for the most part with many rock drops and steep rolls. Pretty awesome area to have so close to a main city I must say. Your riding would get so much better if this was your local playground. That evening we headed towards Vedder our riding location for the next day. Vedder was fantastic. We shuttled with locals and hit up numerous trails with many man-made features, technical steeps and wicked trail riding through the rainforest. I really wish I had more pics and video of all the riding locations. It’s difficult to stop and make the effort when you will hold others up and also when you are having so much fun riding. After a spot of lunch at the lovely Cultus Lake we headed back for some more riding.
At this point G was nursing a sore body. He had crashed in what was probably the most spectacular crash I have seen firsthand. We were sessioning this 8 foot drop off a log which then had a pretty sharp left-hander near the bottom. Anyhow he amped himself up for it, rode in, hesitated, went a bit slow, did not pull up the front of the bike and rode it like it was a curb. What ensued was G riding his bike like a clown on the front wheel with the back well up in the air for 4 or 5 meters before gravity and speed go the best of the situation. He crashed to the ground in a heap. His Specialized Demo wrapped round him like a scarf. Talk about painful looking and it proved to be just that. I managed to get the bike untangled and he managed to get up after a long while. Somehow he had not broken anything but had stuffed his shoulder up big time. This would plague him for the rest of the tour (Vitamin I or Ibuprofen) getting him through day to day. All I can say is G brought armor at Whistler and with the huge shoulder pads they have I would not have been surprised if he would have broken his shoulder without it. This video would have been absolute YouTube gold had a recorded it. I really need to get a helmet cam.
That evening we had a pretty long drive to Silverstar past Kelowna where we were to ride the next day in the Silverstar bike park. A smaller different version of Whistler. The next day dawned nice and clear. Other than Gareth's shoulder we were all feeling ok and he was drugged up determined not to miss a day riding which he did not. This mountain was more trail orientated than Whistler with a number of runs being more like a DH race track. They were really enjoyable with names such as Downtown, Rock Star, World Cup DH, and Pipeline Etc. I would have liked another day here since there was so much stuff to do and they were fun tracks with a real chilled out more laid back atmosphere than Whistler. We finished the first day just as the heavy rain hit. I do have mixed feelings though. This is where I picked up my injury from the trip. I messed up the landing off a little sideways hip jump (just meters before was a much bigger one I did fine) landed into sand and proceeded to tear my right ankle to bits. Long story short I was now joining G on the Ibuprofen for the rest of the trip and 12 days later there is little improvement. Unfortunately I have been here before with my ankle and I think this will take ages to come right. It’s still swollen and sore to walk on let alone run or hike. Luckily the biking due to its lower impact nature meant I could keep riding though I was careful for the rest of the week off drops especially not putting too much force through it. Its strange thinking as you approach a drop to spin you peddles to land on your non favored leg. So all 3 of us Kiwis now had injuries to deal with, all with effects that I think might last for quite some time. Argh… The joys of Mountain Biking aye.
Next up was Kamloops where we rode for 2 days shuttling the local trails. They have some great riders here and testament to this is that both the women and male top riders at the Olympics both come from this town of 70000 people. The tracks here were dry and very different than others we had ridden. They had some very very steep sections which I loved as well as some good structures, jumps and skinnys. Not to mention some tracks which simply had good flow. Gareth managed to catch a pedal way up high on a structure. Next thing I saw was him falling 8-10 foot to flat off the structure. I thought OMG here we go again. Anyway I got up to him and his was fine. In fact the first thing he said to me was "I thought I was going to crush my n*uts, how did I not smash them..." Hehe got me laughing again. It was amazing, he had just sat on his bike and used it as the big squish machine that it was. After a couple of good meals here in town each night we crashed in our dodgy establishment the night before heading through some very scenic areas on the 300km drive to Williams Lake, our most remote destination. The drive was wonderful with massive, massive trains snaking there way through the countryside past many lakes.
Williams Lake for the most part is natural terrain with less man-made structures than other areas, I really really liked it. I wish we had done more riding here really. They have local trails just above town which are pretty small runs but lots of fun. A bunch of skinny’s to play on too. There was one just a foot or 2 above the ground but was real narrow (~6 inches) that I managed to ride on my first shot. It was at least 40m long. I could not repeat this feat again unfortunately. Many of the tracks here had sweeping sections which swoop down a gully going from one side to the other. This is serious fun. It allows you to take corners really fast (Like a Velodrome). Add jumps and hips into this and we are talking wicked fun ‘sick’. Helmet cam vids of this would have been amazing. We also shuttled a big Mountain called DeSeus. It was well out of the way but worth it even though the turnaround was well over an hour. It was big mountain natural terrain riding with tight trees to negotiate and serious loose steep trails with super tight steep switchbacks. Being clipped in here I found it really improved my riding. Unlike others with flats who would drag a leg basically as an anchor to control speed and direction being clipped in meant you needed to be super accurate. Wicked times that’s for sure with some great natural flowy sections through trees when you weren’t busy burning your brakes out on the steeps. Sure would be a good hill for brake manufacturers to test out new products on.
Riding in Bristish Columbia, Canada from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
On the Thurs evening we did a massive 550km drive through rain and storms all the way back to Vancouver. Unfortunately we needed to do this as the Duchies needed to be at the airport not long after lunch the next day for the flight home. This meant that G and I would ride the shore again. By this stage we were pretty wore out especially after a poor sleep the night before due to us crashing in the basement of Chris's parents place. Anyway we rode at Fromme which involved an hour long push up the hill to get to the tracks as you cannot shuttle this mountain. The tracks were wicked. Full of manmade features all over. Skinny’s, drops, jumps, steeps, cobbled areas, log rides the list goes on. It certainly is a place I really want to go back too. It also really amazes me that even though it was raining the wood is reasonably grippy. Unlike home they have lots of hardwoods such as cedar to build with.
So yep all in all a great time. The tour I have mixed feelings on. The riding was great (cut short at times) but the accommodation and organization was not how I expected it to be for the money I paid. I was skeptical doing a tour to begin with since I have always travelled off my own back. I do not regret it; unfortunately some of my worries did come to fruition.
On my last night in Vancouver we met Vic in town and had a big night. Was fun but we were so tired eh. You know it’s been a big night when you walk home (45min walk - poor poor ankle) and stop by the local McDonalds Drive-in to order a Big Mac combo. Hehe they served us too :-)
Seattle
After just a few hours sleep we were up and moving by 8.30 as we were heading to Seattle for the weekend across the border. The lines were pretty big at the border. We spent 2hrs in them even after going to the duty free store which allows you to cut the line somewhat. Anyways after going past the Peace Arch (Symbol of Friendship between the States and Canada) we were on the Freeway heading to Seattle. What a great city. First up was visiting the best REI (Outdoors Store) I have seen. It’s a 'green' building set amongst bush with tracks to test out Mountain bikes on, with a huge climbing wall inside. The range of equipment was awesome and like others I have been too for the most part the prices are great. That afternoon we checked out the waterfront, sculpture park and took in some sights before heading out to our motel. There are great freeways here that go through many tunnels and also floating highways. It really is the city of water. It’s surrounded by water and unfortunately the city only gets 70 or so properly sunny days per year. Yikes... That evening I had the best Thai food I had had since leaving Thailand. Super nice and it was actually spicy hot. Mmm yummy, yummy. That night we wondered round town a bit but were all pretty shattered from the night before and had a relatively early night. My ankle was very happy about this since it had been throbbing all day.
On Sunday we entered into the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (http://www.empsfm.org/). We really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Its set inside a very funky building (check out the pics) and has many awesome exhibits like the evolution of the guitar, a whole room dedicated to Jimi Hendrix who comes from Seattle. Not to mention exhibits on the grunge era originating from Seattle with great bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains & Candle box. They had a sound room and many small studios where you could jam with mates on drums, keyboards and guitars. In the Atrium was a huge funnel made from 700 guitars. It was fabulous. They also had the actual flying police car from the Film Noir Classic Sci-fi movie 'Bladerunner'. This brings us to the Sci-fi museum. Pretty cool. Basically it goes over the evolution of Sci-fi novels, thinking, movies and history. They had many original exhibits such as robots form famous films. This place is well worth the visit. Steve this is your dream come true. You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself in this place.
We also went up the Space Needle, an iconic Seattle sight built for the 1962 World fair. We went up both during the day and night on the Sunday. What great views of the cityscape. I really was impressed with Seattle. Great eateries, markets, shopping, views, waterfront Etc. Certainly reminds me that I want to live in such a place again where the CBD is vibrant and actually exists rather than the urban sprawl that is LA. Though we got there as it was closing the Public Market in downtown along the water front was a cool spot with fresh fish, craft stalls, funky shops and also home to the World's first Starbucks. Downtown the shopping was good though we just walked around. We did stop in Barnes & Nobel where I picked up a dirty jokes book. Suffice to say that after 5 mins I had tears rolling down my eyes and Vic couldn't handle it he had to leave to wipe the tears up a few isles down. I ended up buying the book for 'future reference' when one needs a good laugh. Dam it’s making me smile just thinking of some of them right now. Put it this way one super funny section was titled "Euphemisms for Male Masturbation", god I only flicked through the 3 solid pages of them and had not even looked at the Female pages and it had us rolling round. After a big Calzone for dinner and a nice Iced Mocha it was off to sleep. The next day I left late morning and much to my joy got some wonderful views of Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens out of the window of the Air Alaska 737.
Anyhow that was an epic write-up. I am thinking only about 10% made it this far. I appreciate your enthusiasm or maybe it was the strong coffee you needed to stay awake. I leave you with a reward. One of the not so dirty jokes from the 'Dirty Jokebook'. Enjoy :-)
* A hunter goes out looking for buffalo and hires an Indian scout to help him. After a while the Indian gets off his horse, puts an ear to the ground and says, "Buffalo come." The hunter scans the area with his binoculars. "I can't see anything," he says. "How can you tell?" The Indian replies, "Ear Sticky!"
* What do you call a farmer with forty lovers?
A sheppard
* What did the hurricane say to the coconut tree?
"Hang onto your nuts, this is going to be one hell of a blow job!"
* Why is Santa's sack so big?
He only comes once per year.
Now I know some a crude and maybe not that funny but I know everyone of you smiled if not laughed...
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Climbing San Jacinto & Some Pics from NZ
Well I head to Canada for a 2 weeks of Mountain Biking tomorrow. Its very exciting that's for sure. Vic who lives in Vancouver will be our Tour Guide for a few days at Whistler before Jabez and Gareth who are flying in from Welly & I head on an 8 day Freeride tour visiting numerous locations across interior BC.
My bike although not ideal (its not beefy enough)is all packed and ready to go. I have put some 1300gram tires on it to beef up the rims and add some weight for stability. Hopefully it will be sweet. Still I will be surprised if I don't break the wheels on the S-Works. We shall see.
Anyway a couple of weeks back I headed up San Jacinto. One of the larger peaks around SoCal and a lovely spot. Even if just for the reasons of getting well up out of the smog. The Peak is at 10800ft and the climb itself was a bit over 5000ft. Tabetha had a great time and I am slowly moving Americans who have never been up local climbs and rides to the Kiwi Outdoor way of life. She is planning to take one of her friends up it in a couple of weeks so its working 1 American at a time :-)
I can't wait for Winter. There will be some great cramponing around some of the local peaks.
I was bored one afternoon so ended up flicking through most of my pics from NZ. I have put up a best of selection on Picasa and below is a slide show of the 400 odd pics. They date back to my first year at Uni in 2001 and many of you will remember many of the trips and events. Its strange really. Being away from NZ makes you think of home a bit and going back over the pics really made me a little homesick. Esp some of the tramps and roadtrips. When I go back someday it will be a little odd that's for sure.
The pics themselves are roughly in chronological order and start with shitty scans through to better pics as I have got better at them and had better cameras.
Anyhow until what should be a great update after my Canada trip enjoy.
Kurt
My bike although not ideal (its not beefy enough)is all packed and ready to go. I have put some 1300gram tires on it to beef up the rims and add some weight for stability. Hopefully it will be sweet. Still I will be surprised if I don't break the wheels on the S-Works. We shall see.
Anyway a couple of weeks back I headed up San Jacinto. One of the larger peaks around SoCal and a lovely spot. Even if just for the reasons of getting well up out of the smog. The Peak is at 10800ft and the climb itself was a bit over 5000ft. Tabetha had a great time and I am slowly moving Americans who have never been up local climbs and rides to the Kiwi Outdoor way of life. She is planning to take one of her friends up it in a couple of weeks so its working 1 American at a time :-)
I can't wait for Winter. There will be some great cramponing around some of the local peaks.
I was bored one afternoon so ended up flicking through most of my pics from NZ. I have put up a best of selection on Picasa and below is a slide show of the 400 odd pics. They date back to my first year at Uni in 2001 and many of you will remember many of the trips and events. Its strange really. Being away from NZ makes you think of home a bit and going back over the pics really made me a little homesick. Esp some of the tramps and roadtrips. When I go back someday it will be a little odd that's for sure.
The pics themselves are roughly in chronological order and start with shitty scans through to better pics as I have got better at them and had better cameras.
Anyhow until what should be a great update after my Canada trip enjoy.
Kurt
Monday, 21 July 2008
Lake Havasu - Stag Weekend
Al had his Stag (Bachelor Party for the North Americans) Weekend at Lake Havasu. I was lucky enough to be invited for a weekend of fun in the sun.
Lake Havasu is on the Border of California and Arizona, however we were staying in Lake Havasu City which is in Arizona. There were 7 of us there for the whole three days with an additional 2 for half the time. Myles was also there so 2 kiwis, 3 Candians and 4 Americans made up the ranks.
Jeff has both a boat and a house in Lake Havasu so we essentially spent 3 days on the boat checking out all the local sights, gorges, sandbars & coves drinking, swimming, tubing, wake boarding and then more drinking. Lake Havasu is a lovely spot. The weather was perfect as was the temperature of the water. You could spend all day in the water and the air temps were into the mid 40 degrees each day. I guess it is in the middle of the desert but we should be thankful they did not get towards 50 degrees as happens often during the summer.
I got very sunburnt on the last day but that was just cause I was slack. I had managed to spend 2 full days out there without getting burnt then in half a day I roasted myself. Half a bottle of Alovera After Sun cream helped cure the pain however.
One of the great spots was called the sandbar. It as the name eludes too is a large sandbar where everyone anchors and walks round with a beverage and hangs out. It was also a good spot for throwing a frisbee or footy ball round. There must have been close to 200 boats there (this was a very small part of the whole lake). Seriously this was not even a busy weekend but I have never seen anything like this place. The gluttony, unsustainability and as I realized sheer fun of the place means it is not even close to replicated anywhere downunder or in few other places round the world. There were so many expensive boats there and with the price of fuel it is far from a cheap for of relaxation. Still for a one-off weekend it was well worthwhile. Come to think of it, it may not be a one off weekend :-)
Tubing at Lake Havasu from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
As the Above video portrays we had some wicked times on the tube. Jeff would start out easy enough, well initially anyhows then would go bonkers. Mate the water really hurts when you hit it at 35+ miles per hour. Prob much more with the actually tube speed compared to the boat speed due to all them centrifugal physics laws. The worst part of it was when your buddy lands on you. I remember one wipe out where John literally slides over my face. Kinda surreal really.
Lake Havasu is on the Border of California and Arizona, however we were staying in Lake Havasu City which is in Arizona. There were 7 of us there for the whole three days with an additional 2 for half the time. Myles was also there so 2 kiwis, 3 Candians and 4 Americans made up the ranks.
Jeff has both a boat and a house in Lake Havasu so we essentially spent 3 days on the boat checking out all the local sights, gorges, sandbars & coves drinking, swimming, tubing, wake boarding and then more drinking. Lake Havasu is a lovely spot. The weather was perfect as was the temperature of the water. You could spend all day in the water and the air temps were into the mid 40 degrees each day. I guess it is in the middle of the desert but we should be thankful they did not get towards 50 degrees as happens often during the summer.
I got very sunburnt on the last day but that was just cause I was slack. I had managed to spend 2 full days out there without getting burnt then in half a day I roasted myself. Half a bottle of Alovera After Sun cream helped cure the pain however.
One of the great spots was called the sandbar. It as the name eludes too is a large sandbar where everyone anchors and walks round with a beverage and hangs out. It was also a good spot for throwing a frisbee or footy ball round. There must have been close to 200 boats there (this was a very small part of the whole lake). Seriously this was not even a busy weekend but I have never seen anything like this place. The gluttony, unsustainability and as I realized sheer fun of the place means it is not even close to replicated anywhere downunder or in few other places round the world. There were so many expensive boats there and with the price of fuel it is far from a cheap for of relaxation. Still for a one-off weekend it was well worthwhile. Come to think of it, it may not be a one off weekend :-)
Tubing at Lake Havasu from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
As the Above video portrays we had some wicked times on the tube. Jeff would start out easy enough, well initially anyhows then would go bonkers. Mate the water really hurts when you hit it at 35+ miles per hour. Prob much more with the actually tube speed compared to the boat speed due to all them centrifugal physics laws. The worst part of it was when your buddy lands on you. I remember one wipe out where John literally slides over my face. Kinda surreal really.
Monday, 14 July 2008
SART Store Loop Ride
Well here is a video I put together of a local Ride up in the Mountains encompassing part of the Santa Ana Trail. Its a great wee loop taking about 1hr if you go fast back up the hill.
Colin had a helmet cam so I grabbed the raw files and put them together into an XC video. It has got me all amped to get my own Helmet Cam.
I am also really happy to have found a better video site for hosting videos. It has fewer restrictions and is better quality than Youtube. When I get a new Helmet Cam one day it should be better quality. We will see.
Anyway enjoy, if you get bored just enjoy the music. I know its not action packed like the Mammoth Video.
SART Store Loop - 27th June 08 from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Colin had a helmet cam so I grabbed the raw files and put them together into an XC video. It has got me all amped to get my own Helmet Cam.
I am also really happy to have found a better video site for hosting videos. It has fewer restrictions and is better quality than Youtube. When I get a new Helmet Cam one day it should be better quality. We will see.
Anyway enjoy, if you get bored just enjoy the music. I know its not action packed like the Mammoth Video.
SART Store Loop - 27th June 08 from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Video from Mammoth Mountain Biking
Kinda all over the show due to small snippits here and there but it will give you an idea of the terrain, scenery and type of riding up there. Check on the dust. Shes pretty skiddy in spots thats for sure.
The quality is pretty shitty below. Better to look on the Vorb website. It seems to be better quality.
http://www.vorb.org.nz/video-view-97426.html
Mammoth Mountain Mountian Biking from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
The quality is pretty shitty below. Better to look on the Vorb website. It seems to be better quality.
http://www.vorb.org.nz/video-view-97426.html
Mammoth Mountain Mountian Biking from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.
Monday, 7 July 2008
Independance Weekend at Mammoth Mountain Downhilliing
Well for Independence weekend I wanted to do a few things:
- Get Away from the Heat
- Get Away from the Smog
- Get Away from heaps of Traffic
- Get away from Millions of People
- Get into some Mtns
- Do some downhill Mtn biking
For the most part all my wishes were granted by a Trip to Mammoth Mountain to do 2 full days Downhilling with Cy & Chris. Al was also meant to make it but couldn't due to family responsibilities, and Rob is now helping to fight the Californian Forest Fires. We had a great time however and on Friday the 4th the chair lifts up at Mammoth were not overly crowded with only a couple of minute wait at the busiest times. However on Sat we had a few waits over 10mins for the chairs which maybe is not that bad but seemed sucky when we were use to the day before. Was cool actually being inside a Gondola rather than the Chairlifts back home where you practically hold onto your bike while sitting on the chairlifts and freeze your backside off if its cool.
- Get Away from the Heat
- Get Away from the Smog
- Get Away from heaps of Traffic
- Get away from Millions of People
- Get into some Mtns
- Do some downhill Mtn biking
For the most part all my wishes were granted by a Trip to Mammoth Mountain to do 2 full days Downhilling with Cy & Chris. Al was also meant to make it but couldn't due to family responsibilities, and Rob is now helping to fight the Californian Forest Fires. We had a great time however and on Friday the 4th the chair lifts up at Mammoth were not overly crowded with only a couple of minute wait at the busiest times. However on Sat we had a few waits over 10mins for the chairs which maybe is not that bad but seemed sucky when we were use to the day before. Was cool actually being inside a Gondola rather than the Chairlifts back home where you practically hold onto your bike while sitting on the chairlifts and freeze your backside off if its cool.
If you want to have a look at a map with the tracks check out the following link. We managed to ride all of the black and double black diamond trails bar one called Pipeline and another one not yet open called Techno Rock.
http://www.mammothmountain.com/bike_ride/bike_park/trail_map/index.cfm
The Mtn is a volcano so for those of you in NZ imagine riding on Ruapehu with trees around the lower reaches, except that the Chairlifts start at 8000ft and finish at 11000 ft so you are pretty high. The top is over 3200m. Being a volcano it is full of pumice and eroded basalts and some outcrops of harder granite. This meant that the trails were for the most part very sketchy. Full of a pumice like sand which meant that many landing from drops were soft and unpredictable and many turns were skiddy. One track from the top called Skidmarks was very aptly named and one long stretch of it was straight down a scree slope. After a few runs I was getting a bit carried away and blewout the rear tire trying to dodge some ugly rocks in an uncontrolled mess going way to fast (was very pleased it was not the front tire). It really is an experience riding down that stuff at 40 or 50ks trying to keep the bike on track. Its all about balance, both on the brakes (esp the front one) and weight distribution. We saw quite a few people lay the bikes down on this slope and I had many close calls. The full face and body armor really does instill an amount of confidence into you.
The top half of the Mtn was pretty limited which was unfortunate as this was where most of the elevation was lost. If they developed this area to be as comprehensive as the lower Mtn it really would be a special place. Some of the best tracks which featured small doubles, many technical rock sections, launches and drops as well as some great general terrain were Shock Treatment, Bullet DH, Flow, Velocity DH, Chain Smoke and DC10. Really there is no point going into too much detail as its hard to explain suffice to say that many left me grinning, buzzing and well a bit beaten up. Also a bit bummed that I did not have a true DH rig as my all-mtn Enduro got a hammering and limited me on some of the bigger rock drops and one very nice looking ladder drop (higher than the Maidstone one in Welly but a lovely wooden landing) which I contemplated but thought I would break my wheels and maybe me. Still for the most part considering the beating it got it held together well.
This trip has really got me excited about my Trip to Whistler (BC, Canada) in August with the boys from NZ next month. This place was so much fun I can’t even imagine how good one of the world’s top bike parks will be. I am very interested to see how we will be all riding, esp. me as I have no real DH rig, but for the most part were feeling pretty good at Mammoth. It will be interesting to see how easy or nice I will find hardpack predictable dirt instead of wallowing round in sandy drifty stuff which seems to represent SoCal Mtn biking. Hopefully it has improved my reaction speeds. Still in saying this without any Shuttling action in the next months, I will be jumping straight into the deep end. Especially with Vic, now well versed in the ways of BC riding. I can see all three of us being called p*ssy’s on many an occasion as he flies off huge vertical faces and lands impossible drops. I think I might start taking the hard pills today in preparation...
Monday, 30 June 2008
Huntington Beach & Hollywood
Ian, one of the guys from the group I hang out with had a bit of a gathering down at the beach. The weather was really really lovely. Spent 2hrs in the surf. I managed to break a boogie board in half by being thrown off the crest of a big breaker. I checked out the local pier and a few shops and we attempted to play volleyball but had to use jandals which are rather useless because the sand was so hot.
We then went and had a drink and some food at the Huntington Brewery. Great food here. I had a very very unique and yummy Chocolate Chip Calzone with melted white and dark chocolate inside and a lump of vanilla ice cream. It was exquisite.
I have also been down to Hollywood just to check it out and have a drive round. It certainly is not what you think it would be. Rather small in terms of the nice spots and the streets surrounding the central Hollywood Blvd area are very depressed, almost ghetto like. Not too cool really.
It was kinda cool seeing the cliched things such as the Walk of Fame, and all the hand and foot prints of various stars not to mention the 100s of stars on the boardwalks. All representing some one 'famous' though I had not heard of 90% of them. The smog was also not too bad so we got a pretty good view of the big Hollywood sign.
Tabetha knew an old friend down that way working as an editor for a TV channel. He knew of a good Indian place so I had my first Indian since I left NZ. It was pretty good though not spicy enough. Strangely they did not give the option choosing how spicy it should have been.
On the way home we drove though Downtown LA and checked out little Tokyo. For all the bad wrap LA gets its was ok, and there is potential. Still they will need to move the ghettos more than 1 or 2 blocks away from the nice spots. The contrast over a block or two was huge. Almost felt like a warzone in parts and all you needed to do was drive a block too far in the wrong direction.
We then went and had a drink and some food at the Huntington Brewery. Great food here. I had a very very unique and yummy Chocolate Chip Calzone with melted white and dark chocolate inside and a lump of vanilla ice cream. It was exquisite.
I have also been down to Hollywood just to check it out and have a drive round. It certainly is not what you think it would be. Rather small in terms of the nice spots and the streets surrounding the central Hollywood Blvd area are very depressed, almost ghetto like. Not too cool really.
It was kinda cool seeing the cliched things such as the Walk of Fame, and all the hand and foot prints of various stars not to mention the 100s of stars on the boardwalks. All representing some one 'famous' though I had not heard of 90% of them. The smog was also not too bad so we got a pretty good view of the big Hollywood sign.
Tabetha knew an old friend down that way working as an editor for a TV channel. He knew of a good Indian place so I had my first Indian since I left NZ. It was pretty good though not spicy enough. Strangely they did not give the option choosing how spicy it should have been.
On the way home we drove though Downtown LA and checked out little Tokyo. For all the bad wrap LA gets its was ok, and there is potential. Still they will need to move the ghettos more than 1 or 2 blocks away from the nice spots. The contrast over a block or two was huge. Almost felt like a warzone in parts and all you needed to do was drive a block too far in the wrong direction.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
A Slog up the highest Pk in Southern California
On Sat 14th June on what was a very warm day in Redlands (40 odd degrees) we arose at 4.30 in the morning to be driving by a little after 5. We were off to climb the highest peak in Southern California. San Gorgonio is the name and the Trailhead is just 40 odd mins from where I live. It is 11,499 feet (3,505 m) high and was the highest I have ever been by about 1400ft (I think). The route we did of course it is not the easiest and has over 7000ft gain (2200+ odd meters) and we took a longer route back so did 28 miles all up in a 10hr mission. Part of the reason for leaving that early other than for time constraints is to beat the hot temps before we got to the summit.
Anyway the fellows on the expedition were Derek, Myles, Mike (another guy from work) and surprising Dave Bones. Have not seen him in years and he has just recently moved to Orange County so thought what better way is there than two former CUTC (Canterbury University Tramping Club) Committee members to catch up. We might as well slog up the side of a big ugly granite mountain. Well hey at least it got us above the smog right…!!!
What was quite interesting is that we had 3 kiwis and two Americans climbing an American Peak. Figure that one out aye...
Anyway as you can see from the Pics its very different than the mountain back home. It really is odd to me that you can be on the top of a 3500m peak and not far below are large trees. Not to mention the Chipmunks trying too steal our food. I held up pretty well though. I think we all had stiff muscles a couple of days later. Well I know I did. The main issues I had was my big toes. They are quite bruised so I am hoping the nails will not just fall off.
Anyhow this climb has got me keen to do some more. In Sept all going well we plan on climbing the Mountaineers Route up Mt Whitney (The largest Pk in the US outside of Alaska) as well as the large local 'Cactus to the Clouds' climb up San Jacinto. A huge 3000m+ ascent in a day.
The day after the climb I headed round to Al's place for a pool party celebrating 3 birthdays. It was 40 odd degrees again and Margaritas and a pool were just what the doctor ordered after the big day before.
Until next time keep safe,
Cheers,
Kurt
This is absolute gold...
Anyway the fellows on the expedition were Derek, Myles, Mike (another guy from work) and surprising Dave Bones. Have not seen him in years and he has just recently moved to Orange County so thought what better way is there than two former CUTC (Canterbury University Tramping Club) Committee members to catch up. We might as well slog up the side of a big ugly granite mountain. Well hey at least it got us above the smog right…!!!
What was quite interesting is that we had 3 kiwis and two Americans climbing an American Peak. Figure that one out aye...
Anyway as you can see from the Pics its very different than the mountain back home. It really is odd to me that you can be on the top of a 3500m peak and not far below are large trees. Not to mention the Chipmunks trying too steal our food. I held up pretty well though. I think we all had stiff muscles a couple of days later. Well I know I did. The main issues I had was my big toes. They are quite bruised so I am hoping the nails will not just fall off.
Anyhow this climb has got me keen to do some more. In Sept all going well we plan on climbing the Mountaineers Route up Mt Whitney (The largest Pk in the US outside of Alaska) as well as the large local 'Cactus to the Clouds' climb up San Jacinto. A huge 3000m+ ascent in a day.
The day after the climb I headed round to Al's place for a pool party celebrating 3 birthdays. It was 40 odd degrees again and Margaritas and a pool were just what the doctor ordered after the big day before.
Until next time keep safe,
Cheers,
Kurt
This is absolute gold...
Baseball, Beach, Swimming, Food Markets, Touch Rugby - What a weekend!!!
So the weekend that Chris and Em left I headed down to Dodgers Stadium with a few of the boys in Downtown LA. Derek is a big time Chicago Cubs fan (Baseball) and his team was playing against the LA Dodgers. Unfortunately the cubs lost. It was an ok game but personally once or twice a year will be heaps. Good experience though I must admit and it was cool to see another stadium and just go somewhere different. I had heard great things about the Dodger Dogs but they were as ‘crappy’ as every other hotdog I have had here. It’s a bit Ironic really that the American Hotdogs are so much better in NZ than in America.
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A Great Stadium. Sits about 52000 people.
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Love having a camera with a big zoom...
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After the game since I was much nearer to Myles place at Manhattan Beach it made sense to hang out there for the weekend. Myles is one of the 4 other kiwis I know working here at ESRI. He is also like Edan from Christchurch (well Woodend) so yeah 3 Crusaders Supporters within 100m of each other at the ESRI campus. We all went to a lovely place for dinner in Manhattan Beach (great margaritas) and great Mexican (surprise, surprise). Myles and Ashley really have a cool wee pad down there. It’s a lovely place. On Sunday morning we played 1.5hrs of touch rugby South African style with a bunch of Sth Africans, Kiwis, Aussies and a few Poms and an agro Scotsman. It was heaps of fun and takes some getting use to running in sand and playing the 1 touch rule, instead of the 6 touch rule back home. This is a regular Sunday occurrence at Sth Santa Monica Beach. We got some lunch at a great wee market in Sth Santa Monica before checking out the AVP Beach Volleyball being played on the beach in Hermosa.
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Its hot work running round in the sun on the sand...
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One of the many poses. Still do note there is no woman sitting next to him :-)
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Looking down to Manhattan Beach from Hermosa Beach
All in all another great weekend in pure Southern Californian Style = Dodgers baseball, freeways, beaches, volleyball, fine dining and mighty fine weather.
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+001.jpg)
A Great Stadium. Sits about 52000 people.
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+002.jpg)
Love having a camera with a big zoom...
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+006.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+008.jpg)
After the game since I was much nearer to Myles place at Manhattan Beach it made sense to hang out there for the weekend. Myles is one of the 4 other kiwis I know working here at ESRI. He is also like Edan from Christchurch (well Woodend) so yeah 3 Crusaders Supporters within 100m of each other at the ESRI campus. We all went to a lovely place for dinner in Manhattan Beach (great margaritas) and great Mexican (surprise, surprise). Myles and Ashley really have a cool wee pad down there. It’s a lovely place. On Sunday morning we played 1.5hrs of touch rugby South African style with a bunch of Sth Africans, Kiwis, Aussies and a few Poms and an agro Scotsman. It was heaps of fun and takes some getting use to running in sand and playing the 1 touch rule, instead of the 6 touch rule back home. This is a regular Sunday occurrence at Sth Santa Monica Beach. We got some lunch at a great wee market in Sth Santa Monica before checking out the AVP Beach Volleyball being played on the beach in Hermosa.
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+013.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+015.jpg)
Its hot work running round in the sun on the sand...
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+017.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+019.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+020.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+025.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+026.jpg)
One of the many poses. Still do note there is no woman sitting next to him :-)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+030.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+032.jpg)
+-+Touch+at+Sth+Santa+Monica+7-8Jun08+035.jpg)
Looking down to Manhattan Beach from Hermosa Beach
All in all another great weekend in pure Southern Californian Style = Dodgers baseball, freeways, beaches, volleyball, fine dining and mighty fine weather.
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