The Life and Times of KJ

What to do in an Earthquake...

2010-09-05T01:49:00.000-07:00

Very interesting reading!

WORTH THE READ

Directly opposite of what we've been taught over the years

I can remember in school being told to "duck and cover" or stand in a doorway during an earthquake. This guy's findings are absolutely amazing. I hope we all remember his survival method if we are ever in an earthquake

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE: "TRIANGLE OF LIFE"

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries...

I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the children were told to hide under something.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the "triangle of life".
The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the "triangles" you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1) Most everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake... It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created.. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on The back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different "moment of frequency" (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway... The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone's life... The Entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!

"We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly".

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did "duck and cover," and ten mannequins I used in my "triangle of life" survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover. There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the "triangle of life." This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

A couple of Winter Day Trips in SoCal

2010-01-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

Here are a few slideshows from a couple of trips I have done in the last few weekends. They are things that are within 1hrs drive of where I live and have been meaning to get there for ages.

First up is looking around at Joshua Tree National Park. I headed out there with Derek and Kendra. It was a great day before some big storms. It was heaps of fun, lots of cool trails, boulder hopping and some climbing. The rocking climbing here looks incredible. This is one of the best desert environments I have ever seen and it was the perfect time of the year to be there. Temps were perfect and there was no smog encroaching from the surrounding urban areas.

After the biggest storms in the LA Area for many years I thought it would be the perfect time to head up Mt San Jacinto 10,800ft high. I took the largest rotating tramway in the world. In just 10mins your are transported from pure desert into a Alpine Zone. Very impressive. I went for a good hike up to one of the smaller peaks (about 10,000ft high). The top of the Tramway is at about 8,500ft. It was a good 5 mile hike. I didn't get snowshoes and was the only one with just boots. It was ok though. Also my 'Old Man' poles helped my knee somewhat but it still has many issues. The views down into the Coachella Valley were very impressive.

Some Video from my big Mountain Bike Trip last year.

2010-01-10T18:20:00.001-08:00

Well it has taken me a while to get round to this. Video editing takes a fair amount of time. Anyhow embedded below are 3 videos I put together from my biking trip with Craig & Paul in Colorado and Utah with the Grand Canyon along the way. Enjoy!

Grand Canyon & Monument Valley from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

Road tripping on the way to Durango, CO. Big dust storms in Arizona. Nuts. 60mph winds

Colorado MTB Trails from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

On our road trip in Oct09 we hit Durango, Grand Junction and Fruita in Colorado. Good times and big smiles :-)

Utah Mountain Biking - Oct09 from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

A fantastic trip in Colorado and Utah with the bikes. This video features Moab and Gooseberry Mesa.

The ‘Big Easy’ for Xmas

2010-01-05T19:57:00.001-08:00

Well yet another Xmas was upon me and being only two weeks out I realized that few people were going to be round Redlands. Ideally I would have been home in NZ but after the last big trip I had no time or $$$ for that. On the other hand I did not want to be alone. I perused the map and figured that given it was winter New Orleans (NOL) was the place for me to see.

Looking at options flying out on Xmas day was cheap and the only cheap way I could get home was a Train. Yep, a 2000 mile 45hr epic. Crickey… One thing for sure is that in my almost 2yrs in the States I have made an effort to see this massive country and have still only scrapped the surface. Anyway after being up at 4.30am and transiting through Houston I got to the Hostel I was staying in about 4 miles down Canal St from the French Quarter of NOL at 4pm on Xmas. The usual hostel types were there; hippies and younger people out to party. It was good as I met people too hang with at night but few of them really seemed that into seeing the sights. Many just got roaring drunk and slept till 2pm the next day. I dunno aye, I am well over that. 5 Aussies from Adelaide were the main culprits (They had a great time though). So for my 3 odd days there I spent the days alone wondering the streets of New Orleans and doing some tours and spent the nights with people met at the hostel though I never got super toasted as I would have been useless during the daylight hours.

The Nights were spent in both Bourbon St which is touristy and expensive though heaps of fun and lots to see and do. Many many bars and places to dance or listen to Jazz and other live bands and simply people watch. Heaps of places to eat too. Good times. We also hit up the Frenchman St bar area. Here is home to the local stuff, small music bars with cheap drinks, less crowds and a much more chilled atmosphere. Like Vegas you can walk the streets with open drinks and even on Xmas night it was pretty busy downtown. Sat and Sun nights were pretty packed.

On the first day I walked about the Decatur St District. Checked out the Frenchman’s Market. Had some Pralines (Famous candy from down that way) and also looked at Royal St. Wow. This has such a great array of awesome little art shops. The Architecture of NOL is also as I imagined. Very quaint with small streets and well kept front facades for the most part in a mixed French/Spanish style starting from the 1730s. NOL has some of the longest history in the States and a very colorful past.

That arvo I did a ‘City and Katrina Tour’. We visited the Garden District. Very nice, lovely and expensive houses. A cemetery which is all above ground in NOL due to the swamps. Lots of Mausoleums were present as a result. This was pretty cool to see indeed. Also the NOL City Park. A massive park where 2000+ oak trees were lost in Katrina. We also checked out numerous neighborhoods that were covered by water in Katrina. Keep in mind that 80% of NOL was flooded. We could see flood lines on houses and buildings. In many areas the devastation was still everywhere and barely cleaned up. All the buildings that had not been bowled over had either a cross or half cross on them. This signified if the house had been checked. If it had a half cross the floor was unstable and should not be walked on. If a full cross was present it meant that the house was ready to collapse at any moment.

The 9^th ward which was covered by 13ft of water was the hardest hit. This is a massive area of complete devastation with many houses left as they were after the storm. You can also see many holes smashed in the roofs where people climbing though to they could get rescued. We could still see the levees that broke and areas where their walls had been strengthened and heightened. Poor people. In this area Brad Pitt’s initiative to help people rebuild was evident. We saw 17 of ‘his’ houses. They were awesome though placed in a pretty stark and devastated area. They were very green homes with solarpanels and many modern eco features. Most on big stilts and 1 actually floated. Very cool. It was this area was where a massive 200+ ft barge was picked up and dropped on numerous houses. It was also sobering to hear that Katrina only hit NOL with a Cat.3 rating. Not the Cat.5 rating many think. Even with all the improvements which will be completed in the following decades the City will only be able to withstand a direct hit of a Cat.4 hurricane. Fingers crossed for them and really it makes you wonder what they are doing when the highest land is 18ft above sea level and much of it below it and the fact that its only a matter of time for the ‘big one’.

http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

I saw a film about the storm and a family’s ordeal at the IMAX downtown and much of the destruction is of course human caused. The massive Wetlands between NOL and the Gulf where the hurricanes came ashore have been minimized greatly over the last couple of hundreds of years. GEOG 101. Cut a sediment supply to the coast and all you will do is watch it disappear. This is what happens due to all the damming and channeling of the Mississippi river and its tributaries. The interesting stat here is that for every 3 miles of wetland lost the storm surge will be a foot higher. Keep in mind that many, many miles of wetlands have been lost from the Mississippi Delta south of NOL. As with so many of the issues we do not put effort into fixing the issue we just look for ways to engineer round it such as making the levees higher. This is the same the world over from avalanche risks to earthquakes to volcanoes. It must be noted though that planting efforts are now in place to attempt to rejuvenate the wetlands and increases the buffer it provides to NOL.

I also did a famous “Ghost Tour”. It was of course of course a joke (unless you REALLY BELIEVE) but hearing the stories of NOL’s colorful past meant it was quite worthwhile. The National World War 2 museum was also a great place to visit. I spent a good while here and its one of the best war museums I have seen. Not too bias and it was not about big guns. It was about the human and strategic side of the war. It gave me much more appreciation of just how big a threat the Japanese were and the destruction caused in the massive battles in the Pacific often overlooked by the ones taking place in Europe.

After a great few days in NOL I boarded the train at noon and spent the following day, night, next day and next night on it reaching Palm Springs and home. Epic. 45hrs all up. We passed though some places normally unseen. The train was called the ‘Sunset Limited’ and its full run to LA is 2000 miles. Through Louisiana, Southern Texas along the Rio Grande for a good part, though El Paso then on to Tuscon, AZ and home. It was a good experience and one better shared with a companion however it meant I got through a great book. Well almost… It’s “The Worst Journey in the World” and looks at Scott’s Expedition to the South Pole between 1911-1913. All I can say is it is humbling and the adventurers of that day we will never be see again (the hardships they went through is well ridiculous). Just read it. It’s voted the best adventure book of all time by Nat Geo for a reason.

Over and out,

Kurt

Massive 5 week Western North American Road Trip (Start of Winter)

2009-12-18T19:11:00.001-08:00

Well I am not going to do a massive write-up here. I have spent too much time just dealing with all the pictures. This time I have put captions with the photos that deserve to have something be said about them or are not self explanatory. You can get to these pictures via the map at the bottom of this post. I have also put a few pictures on this blog in a random order for a little taste of the pictures in my albums. So overtime if you are interested just flick through all the pictures in the 18 different albums linked off the map or form this link. I have broken them up in geographic units and you can pick on what you are interested in. There are lots of pictures but that’s because I now use the online albums as backup. Still I only pick decent ones to backup.

So in summary. Bridget and I spent 5 weeks road tripping around the Western US and South Western Canada. We saw heaps and heaps and there are many places we missed or want to see better such as Yellowstone Nat Park, Glacier Nat Park and Oregon. Also we want to go back and see them at different times of the year. All up we drove 6200 miles or about 10,000km. We had all sorts of weather. Heavy rains, blizzards, heavy snowfalls, heaps of snowy and icy roads and some very cold temps. Down too as low as -19C. For about 8 days straight the windshield washer liquid never thawed out. We met all sorts of people and saw many different ways of life from high class San Francisco suburbs, mates from years gone by, ranch/farming people, small-town folk who never leave town and real cowboys. For the most part 75% of people had no idea where NZ was but most had heard of it and most say they would love to go there even if they think it’s next to Belgium! Also it appears that the Flight of the Conchords have done as much for NZ as Lord of the Rings have. Overall the friendliness of people was high. We never felt unsafe even when we thought we would and overall few people left us with a foul taste in our mouth. It was wonderful. We saw some crazy driving, never an accident apart from the aftermath of a few in the icy, snowy regions which is pretty good considering the amount of time we spent on the road. Also I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Toyotas. It now has 187,000 miles on the clock.

Some of the highlights (there are many, just look at the amazing countryside in the pictures) include:

San Francisco.
Sonoma Valley.
Mendocino Coast (Northern CA)
Eureka Township. Cool we spot for lunch.
The Redwoods National Park and the off the beaten path coastal road there.
The Blizzard on the way too Crater Lake which we didn’t see cause of it.
Bend, Oregon.

Drive to Portland from Bend. The Columbia River, Salmon Farm and Multnomah Falls.
Portland.
Bridgets Birthday Dinner in Seattle.
Halloween in Downtown Vancouver with mates from home.
Whistler and the awesome drive to Kelowna.
Seeing an Ice Hockey game in Kelowna with Neil and Fran.
Lake Louise with falling snow about and it almost being frozen solid.
Banff Itself. Great town in a wicked location.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival.
The Drive up the Icefield Parkway from Banff to Jasper. We had the chains on for 120 miles straight. Nutty.

Seeing our first Bison (this became almost normal) at Elk Island National Park near Edmonton
Chillin in Calgary. Pretty cool city.
Early morning drive from Calgary though Alberta Ranchlands under the Canadian Rockies.
Montana in general. Esp. Glacier Nat Park and the drive along Highway 2. Awesome.
Spending the night in Butte. Very, Very cold and authentic old school Chinese for dinner.
Hanging in Bozeman, 2ft snow about and the Museum of the Rockies.
A little look at Yellowstone Nat Park before we got sick.
Thermopolis, Wyoming.
The Grand Teton National Park.
3 Bull Moose outside Jackson, WY.
Las Vegas – In particular the Cirque Show ‘O’ at the Bellagio.

Map of our route. Click on the ‘Cameras for a link to the photo albums of that area’

View BBT in a larger map

Till the next post after my wee adventure over Xmas somewhere very different than all these places – CIAO.

Merry Xmas and a

Happy New Years

Mountain Bike Trip to Colorado and Utah via Arizona on the way

2009-12-06T20:30:00.001-08:00

After getting back to Redlands at 5.30pm on Fri 2^nd Oct and after a pretty broken sleep I had to be driving at 6am the next day to pick Craig up from LAX at 7.30am for our ‘Boys’ MTB trip. After some organization and shopping we hit the road from my place in Redlands at 10am and drove all the way to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (GC) getting there just in time to see the Sunset. We drove the I-40 through CA and AZ most of the way. At the turnoff north to the GC the woman at the gas station was moaning about the fireman who had lit fires to do a burn off. It was windy and she said they were stupid. We agreed. After driving through it on the way to Williams it didn’t seem to be under control. Sure enough on the news the next day was a raging out of control fire around the town of Williams, AZ.

The GC was as incredible as you can imagine. So much so that the pictures do it NO justice. The size is too big to comprehend. You can actually see the curve of the horizon in many of the pictures taken of the view across the GC. The sunset was incredible that evening. The views majestic and after such a long day the sleep was much needed. The next morning we arose early. In near freezing temperatures (The South Rim is 7000ft high) we biked along the rim to find a good lookout too watch the sunset. It was awesome though the lighting conditions made it difficult to get good pictures.

After breakfast we spent a few hours driving east along the South Rim to the final ‘Desert View Lookout’ checking out all the view points and getting different perspectives of this giant scar on the Earth’s surface. Next up was a pretty giant drive though the Arizona Desert to Kayenta for a late lunch before seeing Monument Valley. We hit numerous dust storms along the way. Vis was down to just 10s of meters. It was like being in a red blizzard except you could actually hear the paint of the car being blasted by the sand. In the 60mph winds we saw a number of tumbleweeds. It was pretty Wild West. Awesome.

Monument Valley was the Camry’s biggest challenge yet. With 2 bikes on the roof we ventured off onto the ‘4wd’s Only Recommended Tracks’ so we could have a good view of the monuments. In dust storms we got some incredible views though it meant a few big scrapes on the underside of the old beast. The rear window latch thing had broken so it keep sliding down in the roughness of monument valley. With the massive winds it meant the car filled with red dust. Enough so that it got into my camera and crippled it permanently. Bugger. I wanted a camera with a wider angle lens so now I had my reason. Once back on smooth roads electrical tape came to the rescue and the window though it could not be used never fell down again. The rest of this day was through some wild country in the South East corner of Utah to the Four Corners Monument which was closed just 15mins earlier. It’s the only place you can stand in four States at once. 1.5 hours or so from here and we were in Durango, Colorado. That evenings feed of hot wings and Fat Tire Beer went down very well.

The next day after hassling the guys at ‘Hassle Free Sports’ we headed out on the lovely multiuse trail next to the river running through Durango to the Horse Gulch Trails. Wow. What an introduction to biking on our trip. Some of the flowiest trails I have ridden. All made by MTBikers for MTBikers. Lots of variety and right in town. During our rip around out there Craig almost took someone out. After I recognized who it was we stopped and chatted. It was Todd Wells charging around on his proto Specialized Carbon 29er on his local trails. He is from Durango and it was awesome meeting one of the best Mountain Bikers in the world on his local trails.

On our last morning in Durango we were up early in the freezing temps and headed to the start of Dry Creek and the Colorado Trail. We rode 22 miles in pristine Alpine and sub alpine zones up to 9600ft. The climb in the thin air was worthwhile. The downhill ripped and again it was once of the best trails ever ridden. Flow, technical bits, wicked views and amazing autumn colors. Just look at the pics... So far Colorado is living up to all the good things I had heard. The drive that day got us to Gunnison in Central Colorado. The highlights of today’s drive were 3 high passes, 2 over 10000ft and one over 11000ft. Wow. What views and the highest I had ever driven. Some of the towns such as Silverton and Ouray were incredible. Another gem was seeing the “Black Canyon of the Gunnison Canyon National Park”. A deep cut in the Colorado Plateau. Pictures here due to the setting sun and stark environment were very difficult.

The next day was a big day too. All these days were big trying to fit in as much as possible. Craig and I were having a great time and it was time to pick Paul up in Denver who was flying in from Aussie. After a lovely 4hr drive from Gunnison we arrived in Central Denver with a few hours up our sleeves. We walked around the State Buildings and 16^th Street Mall. It was a lovely area actually and we had a very tasty lunch. I was quite impressed with Downtown Denver. After grabbing Paul from the airport it was straight to the massive bike shop (Wheatridge Cyclery) where he brought a brand new Enduro for a bit of a bargain. We were set. 1 Camry loaded to the hilt and three bikes clinging to the roof for dare life with trails to hit in Grand Junction, Fruita, Moab and Southern Utah in 10 days.

NOTE TO THE NON COMPUTER PEOPLE– TO GET TO THE PICTURES LOOK ON THE ROUTE WE TOOK ON THE MAP AND CLICK ON THE CAMERA ICONS FOR PICTURES OF THAT AREA. CLICK ON THE LITTLE POPUP PICTURE TO BRING UP THE WHOLE COLLECTION.

View MTB Trip to Colorado & Utah, Oct 2009 in a larger map

After an evening in Boulder we hit the road in the first snows of the season on our way over the Rockies on following the I-70 to Grand Junction. This drive was sick. One of the most amazing roading engineering feats I have seen anywhere. Massive tunnels, a high pass and a stacked multilane highway through a 20mile long gorge. That afternoon the 3 of us rode together for the first time in many years on some incredible trails in a moonscape environment. They were technical and quite the introduction for the boys on loose, rocky, steep trails here in the States. It was called the ‘Tabeguache Trails’ or Lunch Loop Trails. They were just out of the town of Grand Junction and I loved them. That nights the meal at the Local Brewery went down very well indeed.

The 2^nd day in the Grand Junction area was my Birthday. Quite frankly I would be hard pressed to have better activities to do on my Bday. Riding was in Fruita today 12 miles down the road and WOW. The morning was spent driving around the Colorado Monument. A Protected area. Lovely views indeed. First up riding wise were the ’18 Road Trails’. They were smooth, fast and fun with some extreme hill climbs. Lots of ridge riding and we hit trails named Prime Cut, Chutes & Ladders, Perimeter, Western Zip, Frontside, Joes Run and Kessel Run.

After a late lunch to refuel we headed out to the famous Kokapelli Trails. They were all I imagined and more. Nothing has been even a little disappointing so far. We started on Horsethief Bench and finished on Mary’s Loop. Wow. So so good. Flow, technical stuff and incredible views. Yep it’s all getting repetitive. All this good riding I know. I don’t know how else to describe it anymore. If you are a mountain biker you need to get to Colorado. I will have to go back. It was a massive day. 60km of single-track. After a big dinner at the Rockslide Brewery I had the earliest night I can remember for a birthday. I was satisfied though :-)

Rose early so we could spend the morning hitting more trails at Kokapelli before the short drive into Utah to the mecca that is Moab. That morning we rode Lion’s Loop, Steve’s Loop and Mack Ridge. All awesome. That afternoon we drove through the Colorado Gorge via the back roads to Moab. We setup base for a few night at the downtown Ramada Hotel.

We spent 3 days riding in Moab including one afternoon exploring the nearby Arch’s National Park. I could go on forever but will let the pictures do the talking. We rode Slickrock Trails the first day and after Paul crashed we spent the afternoon getting his biking sorted. All I will say is I never knew I could ride up stuff that steep and was able to clear every climb there. I was well happy with myself and few others we saw cleared everything. You just need horsepower and balance and you are away. All the grip you will ever need is there. The 2^nd day we rode “The Whole Enchilada”. This was a shuttle run. We were dropped off in the La Sal Mountains at 10000ft. We then rode up to 11200ft. From here we spent hours riding mainly downhill back into Moab. All up that was a 40+ mile ride. It was technical, smooth, alpine, rocky and the best single day I have had on a mountain bike. It took in numerous trails including Porcupine Rim to finish. Go do it is all I can say.

The final day was spent at the Trails: Amasa’s Back, The Portal and the Sovereign Trails. All wicked as usual and really after 3 days we only scratched a deep scratch in the surface of the riding options in the Moab area. I’ll be back. The Portal Downhill was the most exposed trail I have ever seen and ridden. A signpost on it stated. “Dismount now. 3 people have fallen to their Death at this Point”

After viewing the 24hrs of Moab Race the night before we were back at the Slickrock Trails on our final morning in Moab. Paul was compelled to complete the loop after it defeated him the first time. That afternoon we had a big drive across Utah and down to the St George, Zion area. It was a lovely drive again across a big variety of terrain. So much to see and no time to see it as always. Such a big country.

We stayed in Springdale right on the gate into Zion National Park. The first day there we headed out to Gooseberry Mesa for the day. Wow. I was well impressed. It was very different than any trials we had yet done. Slow going and technical with a bit of slickrock, exposed track and some great views. We had heaps of fun here and though it had little flow or big downhill’s it was back to basics Mountain Biking. Not really going anywhere but going everywhere if you know what I mean. These trails are well worthy of their reputation.

Our last day in the Zion Area saw us up early yet again to look around the Zion National Park itself. A stunning place and a place I want to go back too and camp and hike. Lovely. Massive walls, great streams and very impressive views. We also saw some tiny dots on the massive walls. They we big wall climbers and I wished I had a much bigger zoom on the camera or atleast binoculars. On the 2500ft high walls they were almost impossible to spot. That afternoon was spent getting down to Las Vegas. For a night on the town. It was Paul and Craig’s first trip to Vegas and we had one raging night then left. The best way to do Vegas if you are there to booze. Anymore than 1 big night there and you get a bit over it. We saw the Cirque Show Zumanity at New York New York. It was good as was the Brazilian BBQ dinner and the fancy pants club at ‘The Wynn’ which included a 6 storey waterfall in the middle of the club and well over priced drinks of course.

After a short sleep in the shitty Hotel 8 we awoke hung-over and visited Hoover Dam before the 4hr drive across the barren desert back to my place in CA. Hoover Dam was impressive indeed. Very big and the Visitor Centre was worth its entry fee. What is more impressive is the massive 4 lane Bridge they are building across the gorge to link Nevada with Arizona. When completed 16000 cars will pass over it everyday. Sunday was a long day also. That morning I took Paul and Craig on the local trails I ride. It was ‘The Hellride’ comprising of the full length of Santa Ana River Trail Singletrack. They really enjoyed it and it was a fitting end to an incredible trip. MTB trips are the best way to spend time with mates and when they flew out that evening back to Aussie if it was not for Bridget arriving the next day and a next adventure to begin I would have been rather deflated.

One of my favorite tracks from back home...

2009-12-04T00:34:00.000-08:00

Rata Ridge: BTE from Spoke Magazine on Vimeo.

VISA Trip To NZ

2009-10-04T21:57:00.001-07:00

Well it seems like an eternity ago now but I’ll write up a few things I did while in NZ for about 2 weeks to get my new VISA to enable me to work in the States for a longer period of time. I landed in Auckland at the same time as Matt, early on Saturday morning way back on Sept 19th. Matt had been away in Bolivia and Peru working and it was his first time back in NZ in 2.5 years. It was great to catch-up at Marke and Paula’s place that weekend. Pretty good timing really. They flew in from London via Hong Kong and I from LA and landed within 20 mins of each other.

After being put to work in Marke and Paula’s yard making a retaining wall I biked at Woodhill with Marke and the Auckland MTB Club that afternoon. It was great fun and I always have a good time at Woodhill. After an evening at the Cooper Room in Taka’s drinking Monteith’s and watching the ABs I crashed that night. The next day we all went for a walk at Piha Beach. I love that beach. That evening Marke showed me some of the local technical trails on the North Shore. A little tough on the SS but I can’t complain as Marke also only had one gear but also no suspension.

The next day I caught up with some colleagues in Auckland after getting my VISA at the US Consulate. Yip. I needed to fly halfway across the world to sit in a room for an hour waiting to talk to a US VISA person for 10mins. In this day and age of carbon miles, dwindling oil supplies and global warming this seems a bit off. Anyhow it meant I had an excuse to head home for a while.

I landed in Welly on Monday night and had till Sunday in the capital. As most people were working I rode out at Wainui and Makara on 3 occasions. It was great to ride the wicked Welly Trails again. I forget how different they are to over here in Redlands. I had totally forgotten how to ride Deliverance. I think it is rougher now but geez in the wet and the roots and the rocks I was all over the show. Crickey. They rest of the time was spent hanging out in town, catching up with friends for lunches and hanging out with Bridget.

On the Sunday night after a pretty cold week in Welly I landed next to the sheep paddocks in Timaru to hang out with the parents and Lauren for a few days. I had a good time of course. I ate lots of Mum’s incredible cooking and baking including homemade Licorice Ice Cream. Mmmm... I also did a couple of rides with Dad for the first time in many years on the local Timaru Trails. Good times. I think he got a little idea of what I really get up to on the bikes these days. Bit different than when I was a teenager and most of the riding was in the flat Burwood Plantation in Christchurch. We also went for a drive through Geraldine, Woodbury and up the Rangitata Gorge/Valley. Lovely country and it reminded me how awesome the Southern Alps are. After too short a time I was back onto the big bird destined for LA.

Tioga Pass and Road Biking in Mammoth

2009-09-14T20:17:00.001-07:00

Well it’s been a wee while since I last had a post on here. I have just been chilling. Hitting the beach a few times and relaxing after a busy first half of the year focused around racing on two wheels.

Last weekend I headed up to Mammoth, this time with Derek which meant that we had road bikes in tow, not the usual mountain bikes. Anyway we left early and by the time 1pm rolled by we were zooming down the 395 from June Lake towards Tioga Pass. This is the pass you must cross to get to the Eastern Entrance of Yosemite National Park. The climb started on the valley floor at about 7000ft and headed up too just under 10000ft. 9945ft to be exact. We were guttered. Anyway it hurt. The altitude was felt as was the steepness. It was however the most beautiful place I have ever ridden a road bike. Incredible passing by huge avalanche slopes and lovely lakes with huge valleys and peaks all around. The pictures though pretty good do not show the scope of this country side. It was epic.

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Even more epic was the downhill. What took us 1.5hrs to chug up was dealt to in about 15-20 mins of downhill. Man Derek was just ahead of me, we were tucked. He shook his head and I looked at the speedo. Yep. 60.3mph. Dam. Insane. 100 clicks in metric terms. It was awesome though we got out of the tuck position both from excitement and from self preservation and never went faster. We were catching up to traffic real fast. Anyway it was exhilarating. I still cannot believe how stable those bikes are. So light but at speed that carbon is just so stiff.

The rest of this ride was tough. Derek started to drag the anchor, but man he did so well coming out of some surgery not a month before. My legs were wrecked too especially due to the head winds and rolling hills past Grant, Silver and June lakes. The Jacuzzi helped out immeasurably that evening however.

That night we were met by Dave, Kendra and Kerri who had come to spend the weekend up in Mammoth also. They did some great hiking. The two nights we had there were spent playing Apples to Apples. This is the best board game out. Add a bit of booze and it means you have the grumpy neighbor knocking on our door at 10pm saying that she was angry from the night before by all the noise of people having fun the night before. Man. We should have offered her earplugs. She did live in a condo next to another one that is rented out to holidaymakers coming to Mammoth to have FUN.

Another ride Derek and I did was also awesome. It consisted of a round trip down to the Devils Postpile. Awesome extruded hexagonal lava outcrops are the main attraction here. I visited this site the year before. Riding down there was awesome though. Mammoth really is a sweet spot. From Hiking, rock climbing, cross country mountain biking and downhill and also sweet road riding. And that’s just in summer.

Before we hit the long drive home through the desert we visited Mono Lake. What a weird place. 10% salt in that lake. So it’s real salty due to evaporation being the only way the lake loses its water. Also there are real weird limestone formations call Tufa. They grow under the water and when the level of the lake drops they are visible sticking up like little spires round the shoreline. The pics will give you a better idea of what I am talking about.

Yesterday I just did a 100 mile road ride with Derek aswell as Lee and Eric. Their first big big ride. At lunch in Big Bear after 2500m of climbing Eric told us it was his birthday. Pretty sweet doing your first century on your birthday if you ask me.

Anyway this is my last post before I head back to NZ to get a new working VISA and catch-up with all the peps. This time I will take a bike back home so I can remember what riding in mud, on roots and not in 35 degrees is like. The riding is so different to here which is good. Variety is the spice of life after all. After that there is a variety of shenanigans planned so keep posted to see how it goes. I have lots to look forward too and can’t wait.

So till my next post from the road take care,

Kurt

Dave’s West Coast of the South Island (NZ) Midwinter Touring Mission

2009-08-25T18:26:00.001-07:00

A great wee write-up and some awesome pictures from one the best parts of New Zealand. I love this area.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=3Tzut&page_id=119124&v=6Q

A sample picture from Frankton… Awesome

Great wee Vid for all you Cyclists out there :-)

2009-08-12T21:32:00.001-07:00

Dam. I gotta hit this up next time I’m in Rotovegas

2009-08-10T18:16:00.001-07:00

Maybe its about time for a rework of the Bible…

2009-07-30T17:32:00.001-07:00

In the beginning God created the bicycle, saw that it was good, then went for a nice Sunday ride on the bike lanes He'd made the day before, and they were good, too, because they were new and He had the angels keep them clear of debris. Later, of course, God would get cross and have the flood wash all the good ones away.

And God said to Himself, Let us create man, because cycling is too much fun to keep to Myself, and so He created man, him did He create, create did He him do. And God put man in paradise, and commanded him, Glideth upon the earth anywhere thou wisheth, except for that big hill over there. For on the day thou goeth down that hill, thou shalt surely die.

And God said, Man needs a companion to keep him from spending too much money on new bicycles. So God caused man to fall into a deep sleep by asking him if he wanted to go clothes shopping at the mall, then took a rib from him. Then God said to Himself, Who am I kidding, I'll never hear the end of it when she finds out she was just a rib, so He created woman from frankincense and myrrh and a certain je ne sais quoi.

And God said, Let man have dominion over lathe drills and Philips head screwdrivers, and let woman have dominion over everything else, and as long as thou art naked and unashamed, thou might as well be fruitful and multiply.

Lastly, God created the chicken and the egg, in that order, which should clear up that matter.

Now the serpent, he was a wily one, and he said to woman, Yea, hath God said you may cycle anywhere but down that hill? And the woman said unto the serpent, That's about the size of it: go downhill and die. And the serpent said, Ye shall not surely die, you probably won't even fall off. For God doth know that on the day you go downhill, you will not need to pedal for a long time. Go on, give it a try.

And the woman saw that the hill was good, she did not need to pedal for a long time. She told the man about it, and he also went downhill. Their eyes were opened, they saw they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves into padded cycling shorts because sometimes it got bumpy going downhill.

And they heard the voice of God as He was offroad, fully suspended of course, and they hid their bicycles at the bottom of the hill and started whistling nervously. And God called unto the man, and said, Where art thou? And the man said, We art down here. And God said, Hast thou cycled downhill, whereoff I commanded thee that thou shouldest not? And man said, It was her idea.

And God said unto the woman, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow whilst climbing hills; in pain shalt thou perch upon thy saddle.

And God said unto the man, Because thou hast harkened unto the voice of thy wife, cursed is regular bike maintenance. The inner workings of the hub gear will be beyond thou to repair. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou service thy freewheel.

And God said, Behold, the man doesn't listen very well, so he kicked him out of paradise and guarded the entrance with a sign of a picture of a bicycle in the middle of a red circle. And He had a Cherubim with a flaming sword stop by a few times a week for good measure.

This is the book of the generations. The first bicycle was a single speed, Godspeed, but after that it got complicated. Sprockets begat sprockets and cables begat kinks. Celerifere begat Draisienne begat Macmillan begat Michaux begat Ariel begat Bayliss Thomas begat Lawson begat Rover begat Boneshaker begat Ordinary begat Raleigh.

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth in a critical mass, God saw that the wickedness of man was great and he did not like to give way to anyone on the road even his mother, so He directed Noah to build an ark made out of renewable resources. There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark every type of bicycle: one to ride and one for spare parts. And Noah gathered two touring bikes and two mountain bikes; two recumbents and two tandems; two road racing bikes and two cross bikes; also four unicycles, just in case there was a misunderstanding, and a brace of Bromptons, as their folded countenance pleasethed Him. And God said there might be Some strong winds in the Southeast. And it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, then drizzled for another fortnight.

And God remembered Noah and asswaged the waters, and Noah opened a door on the ark and set loose Japheth on a unicycle, and God said This is a covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature: that a man on a unicycle is a hilarious sight. The waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

A bit later, God spake unto Moses, saying, Here are a few ground rules, I hath numbered them for thou for easy reference:

I. Thou shalt hold no other races above the Tour de France.
II. Thou shalt not make unto thee helmets which cost more than £100.
III. Thou shalt not take My name in vain everytime thou gettest a flat tyre.
IV. Remember to oil thy chain, to keep it rolling.
V. Honour the Zebra Crossing and those walking upon the face of it.
VI. Thou shalt not ignore other road users, nor cycle recklessly upon the pavement.
VII. Thou shalt not steal bicycles.
VIII. Thou shalt not kill, except bicycle thieves.
IX. Thou shalt not hang onto moving cars.
X. Thou shalt not covet they neighbour's new Cannondale, nor his groupset, nor his £3000 mtb, nor even his stylish shades.

Forget not the Titanium Rule: Signal unto others as thou wouldst have others signal unto thou.

And moving right along, there came four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and they were the Taxicab Driver, and the Motorcycle Messenger, and the White Van Man, and the Man Opening a Car Door Without Looking.

Amen

The Worlds Fastest – Random Stuff but pretty incredible.

2009-07-20T17:18:00.001-07:00

Race Season Wrap-up – Thanks for hanging in there with me…

2009-07-14T10:13:00.001-07:00

Well a summary of it and a few sums that I calculated. It sure was pretty surprising when you start to look at totals. Yikes.

14 Feb    - Tour de Palm Springs Charity 100 mile ride
1 Mar      – Bonelli Park (US Cup Race 1 & Sthn Cal State Race 1)
7 Mar      – Vision Quest 60 mile Mountain Bike Race
29 Mar    – Fontana (US Cup Race 2 & Sthn Cal State Race 2)
5 Apr      – Sagebrush Safari (US Cup Race 3 & Sthn Cal State Race 3)
11 Apr    – Mulholland Challenge 103 mile race (King of the Mountains Race 1)
19 Apr    – Sea Otter XC Race 40 miles (US Cup Race 4)
2 May     – Breathless Agony 114 mile race (King of the Mountains Race 2)
23 May   – Heartbreak 100, 102 mile race (King of the Mountains Race 3)
31 May   – Big Bear Shootout 1 XC Race (Sth Cal State Race 5)
7 Jun     – Elings Park XC Race (Sth Cal State Race 6)
13 Jun   – Ride around the Bear 100 mile race
28 Jun   – Rim Nordic XC Race 1 (Sth Cal State Race 7)
12 Jul    – Big Bear Shootout 2 (Sth Cal State Race 8 – The Final of 2009)

All up I have raced in the above races 790 miles (1270km) this year. 519 miles (835km) of this total has been on the road leaving the remaining 271 miles (436km) being on the dirt in XC MTB races. Roughly the total amount of climbing in all of these events equals 82500 feet (25000m). That's similar to climbing from sea level up Mt Cook 7 times. Mt Cook is New Zealand's highest mountain for all you North Americans :-)

It’s pretty weird totaling up these figures and seeing just what is possible when you really concentrate on racing. It has been by far the most active race season, the most action packed, the most varied and the most rewarding I have ever done, as well as the toughest. The combination of huge road rides vs the shorter insane paced XC races in the Cat 1 category has been a tough one to balance. Looking back at it I thought the long endurance rides would have helped out my shorter XC Races but I gotta say that the tougher rides were definitely the MTB races. Though they averaged only around 2hrs for most of the US Cup and Cal State races the pace and intensity for the most part meant I found them harder than the long road races where I was out for 6-8hrs.

All that was missing from this mix was competing in some 12/24hr races like I use to do all the time back home. Oh and mud. In a weird way I missed the mud, though I never once missed riding in rain that’s for sure.

The highlights have been across the board. First up was completing the Vision Quest (the biggest MTB race I have done and doing pretty well in it). Competing at Sea Otter was also a great time however the most satisfying events I have completed were both on the road (I think cause I had not raced on the road before and due to the epic nature of the events). It was pretty fun I have to admit, though I am still a dirt boy. Getting about 20th (out of 400 odd riders) in Breathless Agony and finishing it with Derek together after all our training together and beating many good roadies with all their bling at their own game was awesome and massively satisfying. At the same level however was competing and racing in the Round the Bear Century. I raced this by myself, rode by myself and had a fantastic day. After 100 miles, 10000ft of climbing and 5hrs 57min in the saddle I got 10th out of about 350 riders. Lastly but not least though was the XC racing and especially the final Big Bear Race as detailed in my last post. Getting 2nd was great and the 4th overall placing was fantastic.

The Dons Bikes Team has also had a pretty successful year overall. Both Al, Lisa and Jeff have had great results in both individual races and in the overall series as well. More details can be found on the Dons Bikes Team Blog we have setup and pictures on the team Picasa site.

I gotta say though I am pretty happy that all the racing is over. I just wanna chillout for a bit. Hit the beach a few times and start doing some exploring on the mountain bikes and do some more downhilling like I did last weekend up at Lake Tahoe. I wanna get the buzz of exploring new trials and riding because I want to ride not because you force yourself due to the race next weekend. Don't get me wrong I have really enjoyed the races and will be back to it at some stage however some time out is required. I just got to try and keep a bit of a base there so that I can get back to race speed pretty fast. Oh and not eat as much as I have been cause I will not be burning as many calories. Or maybe I should just eat some pies and turn into a true blue DH guy :-)

I leave you with 2 collages. Each has 15 pictures in it. One is a selection of pics from my road races this year and the other is from all the MTB races I have been doing. Over and Out.

Sthn Cal State Series Final – Big Bear Shootout 2

2009-07-14T09:32:00.001-07:00

Well finally. The day came. One I was not looking forward to because really I was a little over racing. Still even after going out into town for the first time all year - pretty lame aye and getting a little buzzed on the Friday night and only a few hours sleeping I went to bed real early on the Sat night before the race and headed up the Mountain with Lisa and Jeff to Big Bear. I was feeling pretty good actually and after the warm-up riding up a tarmac road to the start of the race I knew that it was all on just a few seconds into the first climb.

It started at the usual insane pace and I was left thinking Oh No. This will suck. Within a few mins though I found myself in the top 3 guys (even hanging with the guy that has been winning by big margins for a bit). I ended up by myself in 3rd for a bit and stayed here for a while very slowly catching up to David Santos (Champion of my category in this years 8 race series). I kept looking back expecting to see others in my class catching up. It never happened though. David and I rode together for ages. It was great and the best competition and closest direct competition I have had all year. We really pushed each other and the pace of the race was really high.

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20 Miles Long, 2700ft climbing, 1hr 24mins Race Time

David and I went back and forth many times trying to get an edge. At one point I really thought he had me but when I reached the high point and the fire road that took us to the final main descent of single-track. The fire road was rolling and I slammed the rig into the big ring and put in a massive effort. In the end I slowly pulled away and when I got into the single-track I was well clear and feeling good. Man though was I in for a shock. The technical stuff is what I normally feel good about and love that stuff, it really is why I go up hills. However when in the most technical section of downhill single-track where many people were watching waiting for carnage, well lets just say I made sure they did not go home disappointed. I think I thought I was on my big bike with my full face helmet on like the weekend before at Lake Tahoe. The line I took (by accident because I came in too hot) was NASTY. I bounced over big expose roots, thought I had got things back together but then hit a massive rock. I remember flying over the bars doing a bunch of rolls and tumbles head over heels down the hillside and hearing many different sounds from those watching (from excitement to horrified yelps). I jumped up, adrenaline taking over, and got back on the bike before I felt any pain. The finish was only a few mins away and I had to make sure David didn’t catch back up. I cranked over the line in 2nd place. My best finish of the season (why did I have to wait till the last race). I was stoked and just 2 mins off Vincent’s time (winner) and only 5 mins off the fastest Pros time. It was a great finish to the season.

After I stopped I checked out the grazes. I came off really well. Bruises on each knee and a cut on the bum from a stray stick. Haha – but like a true cyclist the worst injury was to my bike. Yep a few good scratches on one of the fork legs. Bugger aye.

We hung out for hours in the sun waiting for the results. It was good to get to know some of my competitors. Both Vincent and David were really nice guys and I wish I got to know them earlier in the season. Arwell, next time maybe. In the end I got 4th overall for the season (out of 8 races) in the Southern California State Series. I am pretty happy with this and know that with more dedicated training specifically to XC racing I could have done a little a little better. I had many 6th place results and were often just a few mins off 3rd place. Still its been an enjoyable time. Its been satisfying and its been great sticking to a hard tail. I love my new hard tail and are very happy I didn’t go to a full sus rig. They have their benefits but I love the simplicity of no rear suspension. Also I can now confirm after all the races this year that Titanium really is as good as you hear. It’s a pleasure to ride it and gives me a big smile everytime I’m out on it. It’s one of the best rides on 2 wheels for sure. Well a Ducati 998 would go down ok too I must admit, but don’t EVER let me buy one of them. EVER. I will become one of those ‘temporary citizens’ very quickly.

Downhilling at Northstar (Lake Tahoe Area)

2009-07-08T18:35:00.001-07:00

Well what an epic trip. 1200 miles driving in a few days so that we can ride bikes down hills without the requirement of having to pedal them up first…

What can I say? I have got the DH bug back. Man what a great time. Some had told me not to get my hopes up about the Riding at Northstar. After riding at Whistler, Mammoth and Silverstar last year I can say that Northstar is second only to Whistler and is better than the other 2 mountains I have ridden at. Sunpeaks in BC is another that is a must and from what I have seen may be better than Northstar. However the variance at Northstar was good with a large percentage of it being natural terrain and lots of technical riding (rock gardens galore). Overall the tracks were technical and not flat-out. A big focus on cornering and like I said rock gardens were the main themes. There was nothing insane there either, or maybe it’s because I am getting a little better. There were only a few drops and one insane rock garden called ‘The Waterfall’ which I didn’t hit. Had I had a bigger bike I would have tried a few of these obstacles. We spent all of our time on Black and Double Black Diamond runs.

The weekend started with packing up the car at 10.30pm at night then driving throughout the night with Andy and Jason. It’s the first time I had been away with these guys and the trip went well. We were all of a pretty close ability and pushed each other in all the right places. Not one of us came away with any major injuries, a big deal because we were super pumped up to hit the dirt and super tired on that first day also.

So yeah we drove from 11pm for 8hrs through the night taking shifts until when we arrived in Truckee at 7am. After hitting the local diner for breakfast and much needed caffeine we walked round the main street a little before driving the 15mins to Northstar. A ski field in winter which like many of the ‘best’ ski fields provides a place for mountain bikers to hurl themselves down rocks during summer without needing to get up the hills under their own steam.

The first day was intense. We concentrated mainly on the right-hand side trails in the morning, doing many laps of Live Wires. Northstars equivalent to Whistler’s Aline. Jump Jump Jump corner, launch, jump, corner, jump, corner, berm, berm, berm, jump…. It was great to get back into jumping and I was starting to clear most of them by the end of the second day. It was rougher than Aline though. The last run of the day was again down Live Wires and I needed to peel my right hand from the handlebar as as it was locked in a deathgrip. Geez… but we didn’t want to stop riding.

Boondocks was another great track we hit many times on the first day. Technical, loose, fast, drops, trees. We had a wicked time on this track. In the afternoon I met up with Matt from San Jose for a few hours and we rode with his buddies on the more technical left-hand face of the mountain. What can I say. Super technical, rock gardens everywhere, a few drops, not many jumps and some serious loose out of control steep sections. It was a great time and really beat-up the hands and forearms. Even though the place was open till 7pm on the Friday we were so beat by 4.30 we had to stop. After driving the whole night we could hardly keep our eyes open at dinner. A little burger joint by the name ‘Burger Me’.

The next morning we sleep in and were at the mountain for 10am opening. Today we chilled a little more than the first day. Less rushed and had a great day, helped by the fact my eyes wanted to stay open. We still got in many runs, maybe not the 15+ of the first day but we concentrated on hitting a few drops we were too chicken to hit the first day and also spent more time on the rock gardens chasing each other through the dust. It was so quiet both days but especially on July 4^th which was weird. We never needed to wait in queues on either day. The weather was also perfect each day. We all had pinch flats on Saturday. Jason got the first in a rock garden. I got mine after landing on a rock sticking out of the transition from one of Live Wires jumps and Andy had another on Boondocks. It turned out to be his last run (we only had time for one more anyhow) as we could not get his 12mm rear axle off with a little multi-tool. This evening after pizza in Truckee we checked out the fireworks for July 4^th over Lake Donair. A spectacular location for fireworks with the explosions echoing around the mountain sides.

On Sunday we had the epic drive around the NE side of Lake Tahoe, down to Carson City and all the way down the 395 past Mammoth and home. The Lake Tahoe area is awesome. Not spectacular like Yosemite but just lovely, an outdoors paradise. Out of places to live in CA this would have to have been one of the best places I have seen so far. The drive right down to Bishop is lovely. After that it becomes desert and then sprawl. The drive was interrupted however with some riding. We shuttled Rock Creek with Andy’s cousin who lives in Bishop and his mate. Nothing insane but a great trail. It followed Rock Creek down through a gorge and had some great wee launches, awesome corners and in the lower sections some rock gardens. It was a great way to break up the 550 mile return journey.

Finally some Mountain Biking that is not Racing

2009-06-25T21:48:00.001-07:00

Marke was coming back from the UK after a trip home and had a few days stopover in LA. Of course being a true mountain biker he travelled with his bike meaning that we had a couple of days riding up our sleeves. We meet Matt (an old Uni friend of Marke’s) at Kernville. A lovely wee mountain town in the Southern Sierra Mountains about 3hrs north of LA. Matt drove down from the Bay Area.

The first day was great just hitting up a few local trails in the middle of nowhere. The views were lovely and the tracks heaps of fun. One trail was called ‘Just Outstanding’ and it was simply that. Flowy, bermed and tones of fun. The vista overlooking Lake Isabella reminded me of the Central Lakes Region in the South Island back home. One section in the pics below shows a tunnel if Manzanita bushes you had to rude through.

The next day was our main goal and highlight of our time in Kernville. It’s a trail called the ‘Cannell Plunge’ and it was extraordinary. First up we had to shuttle to the top of the ride. No small drive. It was a 1hr shuttle up to 9200ft (2800m). Yep this ride started at this height. In total there was 2000ft (600m) of climbing over its 26 mile (42km) length, however all this climbing was done at over 8000ft (2400m). I was pretty use to it from my racing however Marke coming from Sea Level in NZ and lots of time off the bike struggled. He got stronger and stronger as time went on which was great, especially considering he had just flown 12hrs from London and still had lingering injuries. A job well done.

The trail was truly lovely and we took our time admiring the views not to mention the great downhills. One rocked quite literally. It was a Rock Garden Decent lasting about 200m of vertical drop. The Enduro loved it and so did I though a few close moments made me realize how remote we were. Especially being all decked out in XC Garbe and no armor (oh and Vic as the pics show no lycra on show here for once…) Still we nailed the downs. Marke and his Anthem had a slower yet much more accurate descent while Matt and his Yeti 575 had some interesting issues. Namely the flex in the rear wheel and seat stays meaning when corners were railed the tire would buzz against the rear carbon chain stays. Yikes.

So after 3hrs of riding and mucking about we reached ‘The Plunge’. Yep we were still at 7200ft after 3hrs and had a downhill all the way to 2400ft. That’s a 4800ft (1500m) Single-track decent after a day of great riding already. I don’t know what to say but having my first 2 crashes in many months meant I was loving it and pushing the limits. We hit over 35 miles per hour on single-track. It was of the best downhills I have ever done and probably the longest. It was flowy, rocky, steep, techy… It had something for everyone, including blind corners for me to crash off. Hehe

Cannell Plunge at EveryTrail

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So after a big drive back to pick up the car we left at the top and some fun Mountain Driving trying to keep up with Matt’s WRX in the Camry Tank we then headed across the hills to the 395 and down to my place. It was a great drive until we hit the ugliness of the LA sprawl at Adelanto and Hesperia. Why people live out here in the desert in cookie cutter homes is beyond me. I know they are cheap but you might as well live on the moon. This country is so contrasting. From some the nicest scenery I have ever seen to the ugliness of the desert sprawl all on a short few hour drive.

Anyway the next day we did the Full Santa Anna River Trail including Morton’s Peak. This is my backyard and I am glad the guys loved it. It was 50km of single-track and was a tougher day than the plunge. In all it was a 65km day and we experienced great views, perfect temps (well it was in the 90s at home though, so a little warm), wicked single-track, a few tough climbs and got really beaten up by all the over grown plants. Geez some of them are spiky like Spaniard back home. Real mean especially when it gets stuck in your hand and you need to pull it out. The Gourmet Pizza Shoppe went down real well that evening as did watching Seasons.

Santa Anna Trail - The Hellride Route

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The next evening I had to drop Marke off at LAX, he called me 15 mins later telling me his plane was delayed so I picked both Marke and Paula up and we headed down to Santa Monica for the night. It was a lovely evening and going to ‘Bubba Gump’s Shrimp House’ of Forrest Gump fame was a cool experience. Man all I can say is that these trips give me the bug. All I want is to fill the car with bikes and mates and go everywhere biking. Bend, Oregon, Moab, Southern Utah, Tahoe, Downieville, Sedona, Golden, Fruita, Breckinridge, Durango, Park City and of course back to BC to a little a little spot by the name of Whistler.

‘Ride Around the Bear’ Century

2009-06-25T21:20:00.001-07:00

Well yet another century ride to report on. In the end this race was most enjoyable and very uneventful. This is a very good thing however and much anticipated by me all year. There are no epic crashes to report on, no disasters with ripping tires and having 5 punctures and also no stuff ups with preparation and nutrition.

The race started at just before 7am down here in Redlands on Sat 13^th June. It headed up the big local mountains doing a big loop around Big Bear Lake over Onyx Summit (from the other side) and back down into Redlands on the highway I am familiar with (due to training and the Breathless Agony Race). All in all it was 101 miles long with at least 9000ft of climbing (160km and 3000+ meters). It was just myself as Derek was at a wedding and I went out there with few expectations on myself, except wondering if I could break 6hrs. Anyway other than getting a little lost on the way to the bottom of the hill in the mist and drizzle all went well. I rode all but about the last 5 miles by myself where two of us worked together. I kept catching people that were slower because the 9 people that bet me either started before me or too long after me. Therefore there was noone my speed to ride with. I really enjoyed it though especially when we broke through the cloud layer at about 2000m just before the rest stop at Snow Valley. The ride around Big Bear and down to Angelus Oaks was clear and perfect temperature wise.

View Larger Map

So in the end after slamming it down from Onyx Summit in the fastest speed I have ever done from up there because I had a sniff of getting in under 6hrs I made it in 5hrs 57mins. I was pretty happy and inhaled a bunch of food at the BBQ afterwards to replace what I had burned up. In the end I got 10^th out of 311 males starters. I was stoked with this especially cause I just rode my own race and felt good (relatively speaking) that evening and the next day. Man who would have thought aye. To think for years I refused to get a road bike let alone actually race one. Now I can even do pretty well at these events. Very cool. But just to let you know. Dirt is still where its at ;-)

So now I only have 2 more races planned. 2 more XC races. I am coming 4^th in the Series (SoCal State Series) so hope to hold that position in the races coming up at Rim Nordic and again at Big Bear. After that I look forward to some downtime in terms of training and just getting out riding my mountain bikes to have fun and explore new trails.

Elings Park, Santa Barbara CalState Race

2009-06-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

Well I had a tough race out at Santa Barbara in the last XC race I have competed in. I ended up back in 6^th place after my 4^th place finishing up at Big Bear the week before. It was a 24 mile race with 4 laps. A total of about 3500ft of climbing. It was up and down the whole time with no real good rests. It made for a very tough couple of hours. At this stage Big Bear suited me better as it had longer more steady climbs. Much more akin to the road biking I have been going. The intensity of these shorter XC races is just so much higher and more varied that I struggled in this race.

I ended up about 10 mins off the real fast guys in my category. That did include spending 2-3 mins going the wrong way (don’t ask) and also helping out a buddy who had crashed with another guy who had somehow got his leg between the rear triangle of his bike as well as through a number of spokes. Yikes.

All up the 340 mile round trip to get to the race was worthwhile. Al was there to provide company and someone to talk abotu bikes for the entire trip ;-) There were some lovely views as it was on the coast and the track itself though a tough day out was fun. Heaps of corners and single-track that was technical enough to keep you on your toes.

The Scene of the Race and ensuing PAIN…

Yes yes. I have since had a haircut. Talk about a new meaning to Helmet Hair.

Finally Cracked the Top 5

2009-06-01T20:35:00.001-07:00

Well I was really thinking about not going up to the Big Bear Shoot Race this last weekend on the 31st May. I am still getting up to speed since I had been away to NZ/Aussie. Anyway I forced myself up there (just to look good in the new Don’s Bikes Race Kit….hehe). After disintegrating my alternator belt on the way up the mountain I made it with plenty of time to spare as it was an 11am race start.

The Race went well. It was my second race on my tubeless wheels and still no punctures. Man what a change for me. Lovin it… Also I had my GPS going for the first time on the MTb. I love the device. It rocks my world and seeing the elevation gain always makes the pain feel more worthwhile. Here is me getting a little more technical than usual. Really its the least I can do since I work with maps and spatial data everyday. Embedded is a Google Maps window with my GPS track I recorded. Have a zoom a pan at the very least. For those not accustomed to such high tech things (Dad) switch between the satellite and topo imagery to get a full experience. Yes you use your mouse to do this :-) The left mouse button to be exact...hehe

View Larger Map

The Course was just under 24 miles long with a fair bit of climbing. You can view all the cool details on the Motionbased website where I upload my GPS tracks. You will also see the last two 100 mile road races and their associated stats such as elevation profiles. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/user/mtbkiwi

The course itself can best be described as loose. The Mountains up there are heavily eroded granite so the fireroads and the single-track was all very loose and pebbly. Its pretty interesting riding in the stuff with lots of close calls at speed on the fireroads. A bit of drifting action, normally not intended was a constant reminder to concentrate and not look at the good views all around. The single-track rocked my world. Pretty dusty behind people but it was flowing and pretty technical including a mean loose rocky single-track climb which came close to ripping my legs off. All of this race was above 2000m high so as Damien said its gotta be good for the heart.

I got home in 4th. I finally cracked the top 5 voodoo in the Cat 1 category in one of these races. I felt pretty good and was only 1 min down on third and 3.5 mins down from 2nd place. 1st place, well he is untouchable. 8 mins ahead and he would have got 3rd in the Pro field. Can’t do too much about him. Lisa did real well winning her class and Al got 2nd overall out of the single speeders. Crazy nutters they are… Good on them.

KOM3 – Heartbreak 100

2009-05-25T21:30:00.001-07:00

Well it was finally upon us. The final 100 mile race of the King of the Mountain Series. After completing the previous two: Mulholland and Breathless Agony and having a very good race in the Breathless Agony event I was not looking forward to this one other than wanting to finish it. I knew that after my small ride on Tuesday night after I got back from down-under that no riding and a bad diet of pies, beers and ice cream would have diminished me somewhat from the form I was in for the Breathless Agony race. I am quite sure before I headed down-under I was the fittest I have ever been on a bike and the result at Breathless somewhat confirmed that. Top 10 was probably quite feasible had we not had crashes and some bike issues to deal with.

Anyway we headed off into on paper what was to be the easiest of the races at about 8.30am. 101 miles (162km) with a bit over 8000ft of climbing. Just 2500m or about 1000 less than the other 2 races. Derek and I rode together for most of the first half of the race. We were holding a good pace and enjoying the scenery and lack of traffic on the roads. Some real cool roads too. Swooping, not too steep and the surfaces were decent in most places. However after the 53 mile checkpoint I could only stay with Derek for 15 mins. I was starting to suffer and that was to get progressively worse. I was starting to go backwards and many many people past me including many of the people that I had passed earlier on in the day. I had no gas in the tank. I was dehydrated, tired, hot, feeling sick and my legs were toast. The worst aspect was the mental side. It took lots of will-power to complete it. My mind was still thinking I could do what I did at Breathless Agony where I felt good on a much harder course but the legs and body had other ideas. I had gone backwards a couple of months. Derek recorded temps of 93 degrees (34 degrees C). It was quiet demoralizing having too totally different races that were just 3 weeks apart.

I knew that I would have gone backwards a little but to have fallen off my form so much after it takes months of hard-work to achieve was a real eye-opener to me and certainly a lesson learnt. Diet and maintenance of you fitness are vital and this can be changed very very fast indeed. The last 30 miles were some of the hardest times I have ever had on 2 wheels. Overtime one always forgets about the suffering until you put yourself through it again but being on the verge of cramping big-time for 2hrs is not my idea of a nice day out. I was very happy to finish and still did a respectable time of around 6hr 40mins, however that was almost 1hr slower than Derek who had real strong race and must have finished really well in the standings.

Still the goal was completed. Roughly 320 miles (515km) and 32000+ Elev gain (10km) in 6 weeks. It is very satisfying and was overall a great series. I had some wicked moments and some very low moments but overall it all builds character. I still look at it all and think how I have changed. Hell there was a time when I would not buy a road bike let alone dedicate myself to a series of road events.

Mmm. 6hrs of Salty Crustiness

Next up is trying to get the edge back and other than 1 last century called 'Ride Around the Bear' in a month I will be getting dirty again and concentrating on Mountain Biking, both racing and just having a good time on the trails. I miss just playing on trails and want to explore some new ones too.

FOTC at the SBBowl

2009-05-25T21:23:00.001-07:00

A number of months ago when I had the chance to buy some tickets for Flight of the Conchords Derek and I decided to go for the show at the Santa Barbara Bowl where we would combine it into a trip encompassing the last of the King of the Mountain Centuries we had to complete. Anyhow after getting stuck in lots of horrible traffic trying to get out to Santa Barbara on the Friday afternoon we eventually got there feeling a little frustrated. We had a couple of hours to burn and spent most of the time in the downtown area. It’s a lovely spot with some great shopping to be had. Santa Barbara itself is a wicked area. Lovely houses, hills, beaches and the place just has a good vibe about it.

Anyway after a good feed we headed up to the bowl which is tucked under a steep cliffside. It’s a lovely location and is one of the best venues, actually probably the best venue I have ever been too for a show. It holds 3000 people. We were sitting in our seats at 7pm when we expected the proceedings to begin. We were kinda worried cause it was meant to be a sellout show and half the seats were still free. Anyhow by 7.30 it was chock-a-block full and Arj Barker (Dave from the show) did 30 mins of standup. He was a bloody fine comedian. I had some great laughs and will definitely watch him again given the chance.

He introduced FOTC and they appeared in their robot helmet suit things singing "Too many d*cks on the dance floor". It was quite the intro and we had a great show. They did a bunch of their classic stuff and some less known stuff. I could not believe how well it went in an open air bowl in front of 3000 people. I always thought it was best suited to smaller venues. Little club type places but it went off. They were much better than their studio versions and they added extra words and phrases into many songs, often being more naughty than TV and album producers would normally let them be. They played a solid 1.5hr set non-stop and Derek, I and the whole audience had a great time.

They of course heckled NZ, playing on the sheep jokes and our lack of population (tiny size) when they invited the NZ Symphony Orchestra which turned out to be one guy onstage to help with some instrumentals.

If you ever get the chance to see them live go for it. Especially in a big venue. They rocked.

FOTC Snippits from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

After this show we had to drive 100 miles to Lebec where we were staying as the Heartbreak 100 both finished and started here the next morning.

Trip Downunder – Dingo’s, Kangaroos and a few Kiwis

2009-05-20T19:12:00.001-07:00

Hervey Bay

Well you would think that flying from LA to Auckland then to Brisbane the evening after a race like Breathless Agony would mean that I would sleep ok in a plane. Well nope. It was restless and I only managed to rest for 4hrs. I was very disappointed in myself. I just cannot get comfortable enough in Cattle Class not that I have flown in any other class. Anyway after a dam long flight and a heap of TV watching I got to Brisbane to be greeted by a very tired Bridget who had had less sleep than me the night before. Anyway we picked up our little Suzuki Swift Rental car and headed north at about the same time I realized that I had left my Lance Armstrong book on the plane. Dam. That’s the second time I had done that. After visiting a Ginger Factory and getting hit by a big rainstorm in Maryborough we arrived in Hervey Bay where we were to hang out for 4 days and nights. It was a nice wee spot though very quiet. In fact all of Aussie was quiet. It’s the off season I guess and also the global recession has not helped the cause.

The next day we did a bit of road tripping round the area and ended up in the town of Bundaberg (famous for its Rum) where there wasn't really much to do. We had on the way there found a great ice cream place. All hand-made and the creamiest Ice Cream I had ever had. We had also found a bunch of wild Kangaroos hanging in a school yard to watch as well as some sleepy seaside towns. The local farming was cool. Sugar Cane for as far as you could see.

On the Wednesday we did a day trip to Fraser Island. It’s a National Park and a World Heritage site. It’s the largest sand island in the world and we checked out most of the highlights on a whirlwind day tour aboard a large 4WD Bus. It was good fun though rushed and ideally I would have had my own 4WD to spend a good few days camping around the island where it would be possible to get away from the crowds. We did see the highlights of the island though such are crystal clear creeks which make no sound as its all sand and no stones, also the rainforest and heaps of birds within it including some very colorful parrots. There is also the Maheno Shipwreck and the colored sands cliffs which were a real disappointment to me. They were not very spectacular and had been described as being so. I guess when you are use to big mountains in NZ and the US that Aussie overall is pretty flat for the most part, though it does have some ‘mountains’ in Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales. The best area for me however was Lake Mackenzie. It had some of the clearest water I had ever seen. It was a freshwater lake and over the years many minerals had leached from the sands and bedrock giving it a PH of 4.2. It is pretty acidic in other words and people clean their jewelry in it. Sunscreen is also a waste of time as the water simply washes it off straight away. There was also a couple of Dingo’s hanging out on the beach seeing if they could scab any food off people.

The final full day in Hervey Bay was chilled out. We went for a big walk and watched the new Star-trek Movie. It was a dam fine movie, much better than I expected. I can't wait till the next one now. Story and pacing was good and the special effects were awesome.

Noosa

We spent the day inside the little Swift making our way south to Noosa via back roads and the little beach towns such Rainbow Beach. We eventually got to Noosa to be greeted by Craig and Amanda who I had not seen for years (they are now living in Brisbane). Paul was to arrive later that night (from the Northern town of Gladstone) after being held up in traffic due to a motorcyclist crashing into a car that pulled out into the road without looking, unfortunately the cyclist died. That evening we chilled out, had a nice dinner and yet more ice cream. I ate my fair share on this trip. We had a great apartment Craig had found just up from the Noosa Main Street and beach. It was just a 5 min walk down the hill to what is normally a party spot but was super quite due to the economy I suspect.

The next morning after their flight from Auckland Marke and Paula arrived. Again it was great to see some mates I had not seen in a couple of years. We chilled for the rest of the day after Myself, Bridge and Paul had a good few hour walk out to a headlands and some sweet beaches. Ha, one happened to be a nudist beach. We had some great Indian for dinner that night and swam in the pool right under our main deck and hung in the Spa.

The next day we headed down to another beach to chill for a bit and see a new spot. After playing some beach soccer and breaking one of my toes ‘I suspect’ Craig and I went for a swim before having a great feed of Fish 'n' Chips before yet more swimming at the apartment. That Arvo Lance my brother showed up and 5 of us went on this exciting boat ride in the Ocean. It was a pretty wicked boat, the same type the SAS uses for sea transport. We got heaps of air hitting the big swells and got sore legs from holding ourselves up to stop our backsides getting smashed up on the specially designed seats. I recommend this trip. The way it can corner too is impressive too; close to as good as a river jet can turn.

That night after wicked Pizza we watched Armageddon (what a cheesy movie) before hitting the sack. It was lucky Lance had been there. He was sleeping up stairs in the living room to awake to an intruder breaking in. Long story short he scared the guy who had obviously robbed this place before to hell. Lance attempted to catch the little bast%$d but he was off like a little monkey in the night. Jumping off the balcony onto a tin shed by our room (I don’t know why I didn't hear it) running past the pool, leaping anther fence and off into the bush where evil monkeys belong. Anyhow we were lucky because we would have been cleaned out as many people had their wallets and valuables lying around on the top floor. In the morning Lance who wants to be a cop was most disappointed about not catching him and teaching him a few moves he learnt in the Army. Haha – Once a Grunt always a Grunt :-)

Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Mew Zealand

The next day was pack up day. We said good bye to everyone and headed out of Noosa on our way back to Brisbane. On the way back I, Lance, Bridget, Craig and Amanda stopped at the 'Big Kart Track' where we spent in the next hour racing each other round well a big outdoor kart track. They were pretty fast and the competition was pretty tight. Craig got two bung cars. The first one was slow as a dog and I felt sorry for him, the next one was fast as hell due to what seemed to be higher gearing. He flew past on the straights though could not hold the lead in the corners due to slow acceleration. The overall champion would have to be Bridget though both Lance and I would say that it was the weight advantage she had over us. She always pulled away on the straights, though I gotta say she is a bit of a dare-devil and I am pleased she does not drive like that on the road (well most of the time) :-)

After dropping Bridge off at the Airport that arvo I spent the next day and a half with Lance at his place on the Gold Coast. We went to the X-Men movie which was good but not nearly as good as Startrek and also had some drinks and good food. Mmmm La Porchetta. The next day we went to Wet 'n' Wild. What a flop. It’s a big water park which should be called 'Get Wet for no reason'. It was boring. It was too safety conscious and I am pleased it was off season cause I would have cried if I needed to line up for the boring rides. All they needed to do was pump more water down the tubes and the thrill factor would have gone way up. Anyway don’t go, only good for kids under 15. We expected to spend the whole day their but instead left after 2.5hrs to check out the wicked houses in the canals (where the ‘stupidly’ rich live) and just hang out in Surfer's Paradise.

Lance dropped me off at some silly hour at Brisbane Airport where I spent the whole day flying to Timaru to catch-up with Mum, Dad and Lauren for just a day and a night. It was worth it of course though it was a real flying visit. Lauren who loves music more than I like bikes was well happy that she somehow ended up with my Sony MP3 Player as an early Birthday present after her last MP3 player had broken. Spoilt little sister’s aye…

The next evening I flew back to Welly to spend my last few days here catching up with Bridget and all my mates that were around that weekend and still living in Welly. Many have left. Anyway it was a great few days involving much eating and drinking and visiting people. It’s always good seeing people you haven't seen for ages. I experienced some typical Welly weather. Gales and horizontal rain going every which way and also looked at all the local hills and trails wishing I had my MTB and more time to go get Muddy.

Anyway till the next race report keep well,

Kurt

KOM Race 2 – Breathless Agony (and aptly named…)

2009-05-20T18:42:00.001-07:00

Well it has been over 2 weeks since this race now so I will keep it short and sharp. Derek and I rode together the whole time in this well run event. It is amazing how well matched we are on a road bike. The weather was perfect for this type of riding, a little windy at times especially on the decent from Onyx Summit.

After some issues with Derek's bike on the unkept 'Jack Rabbit' road (more like an easy MTB track) we were making good time. We climbed up the Oak Glen road pretty dam fast and well we were feeling pretty good aye. On the 2nd main turn into the downhill I was following another punter after Derek had passed him before the turn. It was a big sweeping left-hander and is a tricky one. Anyhow this fellow whom I was probably just a few meters behind started to hit the brakes on the turn itself and was drifting further and further to the outside of the turn. It’s a deceiving corner, one of those that gets steeper and sharper the further into the corner you get. Anyhow he drifted into gravel and instantly slammed into the ground at about 25mph (38 kmph).

He was yelling and sliding right in front of me, I was in panic mode, my back wheel was locked up and I was doing a sideways skid at some stupid speed on tarmac on tiny road tires trying to not end up ontop of him (my tire wore down to the weaving in one spot). Somehow with the wheel all locked I managed to clear his head by I swear no more than a couple of feet. It was a scary, real scary moment, I'm not sure how I managed to turn inside him at that speed but it happened so fast. Being use to a bike feeling that way (from all my Mountain Biking) had to have helped. Anyway as I was passing him and trying not to crash myself he was stopped by slamming into a metal road sign. It was a horrible noise. I managed to stop in the gutter without any damage to me or the bike. I was in shock somewhat and yelled out to Derek who came back up the road. It was the most horrific crash I had seen in person, except maybe a few DH crashes.

We reached the guy who was already on his cell-phone calling his wife for a pickup. He was a mess. Blood all down one side of his body and his face was real messed up with a massive cut under his chin. He was in shock. Anyway after we sorted him the best we could we got down to the checkpoint and informed them of the crash though others who had ridden past told them of the mess and that two guys had stopped to help him (us). I have no idea about what happened to the guy but I hope all is well and that he makes a good recovery. Geez if that happened to me I think that would be the end of road biking for me. When you do crash by god it can be bad. Lots worse than most MTB crashes.

The rest of the race was uneventful thank god. At the bottom of the Oak Glen downhill it was all on. A 30 mile uphill. About an 1800m climb with a few rolling sections but mainly downhill. Anyhow we went about our business and felt pretty good. 5hr 29mins after we left Redlands (the start) we arrived at the top. This was to our surprise good for 22nd place out of 511 starters. We were well happy with this and had Derek’s bike been fine and had the guy not crashed we would have have been at least 10 mins faster and 8-10 extra places up the ladder. It’s fair to say it was a very satisfying ride that’s for sure. We were pinned most of the time but no more than the last 500ft of elevation when another guy was trying to burn us off. In the end we had him and pulled away from him to be greeted by the Grim Reaper at the 8500ft high Onyx Summit.

All up we rode 114 miles (183km) and climbed 11500ft (3500m). Quite the day out and surprisingly for me as I did it without cramps and felt pretty good in the following days.

Sea Otter Classic 2009

2009-04-21T22:10:00.001-07:00

Day 1 – The Drive & Setup

Well it was quite the drive. We packed up Al’s RV and headed onto the highway at 7.30am to arrive in Laguna Seca near Monterrey and the location of the Sea Otter Classic a bit after 2. After spending a considerable about of time we managed to shoe-horn the 29 foot RV onto the small amount of flat space our campsite provided. There was room for the 3 tents to be setup on the grass down the slope a little so it was all good.

We headed down to the registration area to pick up our number plates for all the respective races we were doing. I could glimpse over the fences and see the vast number of stalls and shows from all the vendors but restrained the urge to look. Instead I went and setup my new Crossmax wheels with No Tubes with both a UST and non UST tire using Al’s air compressor and guidance. It was to be my first experience running tubeless tires.

Al, I and Katrina headed out to ride the Super D course. I kinda wanted to do the race but restrained myself due to the high entry fee for a 6 minute race. It was fun though. Smooth and fast with big drifting fire road corners. There was also a huge flock of sheep around too. The area looked and smelt like the foothills of Canterbury. We also hit up some of the single-track near the campsite.

Day 2 – Vendors and Pre-Ride

After a super cold night in the tent, it got close to freezing I spent the morning and early afternoon hanging out in the Vendor area. It was massive with heaps and heaps of bling to look at and buy of course. Heaps of wicked people to talk too and chew the phat with. Bikes galore and all ‘us’ bikers were in heaven. I spent a good half hour hanging out with Kieran Bennett and his new X-Fusion Team. He’s a real cool guy and he spotted me with my Kiwi cap and VORB Shirt when I was ogling his new Intense Tracer rig. Pretty dam sweet ride and that proves how the DH course really is not a full on course when the top guys are running smaller bikes like Kieran. I also had some custom Lizard Skin Peaty Grips engraved with my own name and in anodized red to match the rest of my bike. Pretty mean.

That afternoon Al and I headed out to pre-ride the XC course. It is a 19 mile loop (30.5km) with 3300ft (1000m) of climbing and we had to race 2 laps on Sunday morning. Al was doing the Pro Single Speed and I was doing the Cat 1 category, the same as all my other races. As it turned out we were out there not long after the beginner race began. So for the next 2 hrs we were chilling behind slower people before we had the chance to break loose and ‘shred some gnar’ for a few breif moments. Right at the start of this lap though I was ripping down a hill, one that Al did 45mph (75kph) on in the race (I had no speedo) and hit the ‘G’ out at the bottom. I got bucked right at the same time I thought my new rear wheel had blown itself to smithereens. I was not happy. Anyway after almost eating the dirt at some stupid speed I managed to not crash and be laughed at by all the beginners that were were flying past. Turns out with 35psi in the rear tire I managed to roll it off the rim and ‘burp’ air out of it. Anyhow we were back on the track after a couple of mins thanks to CO2 canisters and 40psi back there now.

I had heard bad things about the course. Let me tell you I was impressed. Heaps of Singletrack and then fun double track and not that much fire road. Super sandy bits, blown out corners, steep techy climbs, fast fast patches, wicked flowy single-track through trees and a series of 3 fire-road climbs right at the end (called the 3 b@tches) before you finished the race on the raceway itself at the start finish line.

That night we headed into Monterrey to have a great dinner at “The Brew Pub” before we went to the North American Premier of Clay Porters new film called “The Tipping Point”. It was good but more of a documentary. We spotted Sam Hill, Minnar, and The Atherton’s all in the audience. Gee introduced the film.

Day 3 – Chillin and Dual Slalom

Today after riding a good distance the day before I wanted to let the legs recuperate so I spent much of the day at the vendors in the hot, hot sun. They had a whole demo area setup with pump track, jumps Etc. So I tried out an Intense Tracer and a GT Sanction. Pretty fun times but I nearly stacked it big time in front of all the little pinners since the brakes were all on back to front North American Style. Had some good gelatos and looked at more and more bike bling.

That evening I watched the Dual Slalom finals. It was great fun. Lots of action all the time with 2 riders coming down the hillside at a time trying to beat the other to the bottom via jumps, berms, pedaling sections and some mean as cornering speed. Sam Hill in the end won it pretty easily beating out Gee in the Semis. Rando was out there cranking his Trance X and was very competitive. Pretty cool to see for a 40yr old. Seeing these guys hit the tight corners so fast is awesome. Sam Hill really has upped his game with pedaling this year but he really can corner in a different league like always.

That night I had an early night. It was warm as hell and the sleeping bag was too hot in the tent this time, a huge change from the first night thats for sure.

Day 4 – Race Day

Well it was finally here. After watching thousands of others, some world class racing in their own disciplines from DH to XC to Dual Slalom to the road races and crits my race was here. I started at 8.15am and lined up on the Laguna Seca start/finish line with about 40-50 other guys in the Cat 1(expert) class in my 25-29yr old age group. We spent the first mile tearing around the raceway before hitting the dirt. The pace was pretty intense and the top guys on the first big hill started to get away. They were still just insight not too much ahead of me for the first 20 mins however. I settled into my work and got stuck behind someone in the first tight single-track section. I saw two people had crashed already as we went by. It was loose and tight in there with many blind corners and blown out outside lips of the track with numerous trees to get in your way.

Anyhow I settled into my work and felt pretty good actually. One of the first downhills was this sandy double track thing. It seriously was like surfing. Keep off the front brake and use your legs and weight to steer via the back wheel. People were falling off all over the show. It was all good fun apart from all the sand flying over the already dry drive chain. At the halfway mark of the lap they had a water/cytomax stop. I was handed a bottle of water and continued onwards getting a gel down. It was getting real hot now and I was as always sweating like a tap. More climbing and a small chat to a Pro SS suffering on the steep grades I was really having a good time. There was a cool ridge section with small pinch climbs over red rock and fast little decents. Some big smiles along here till a half mile pavement climb which was steep though I felt pretty strong and was pretty sure I would start catching people.

A short decent and onto the 3 b%tches. They were not too long but kinda steep and demoralizing as its all open and you can see what’s coming. A guy in my Cat caught me and we started to chat. Turns out he was one of the guys that crashed at the start, it also turns out he won it last year. Ha. So the fact I hung with him right till the top of the last b$tch meant I felt pretty good. He also said when I asked that there was another water stop at the start/finish line (start of the 2^nd lap). Hearing this and the fact it was roasting I finished my liquids. Well this was a mistake though in the end it would not have made any difference.

After ripping down the speedway I knew from a distance there was no water here. I was not too happy bout this. So I was now running dry for the next 10 miles and it was getting real hot. Well into the 80s (28c+). Anyway after 5 miles I could feel the muscles saying that if I push too hard then they would cramp. Finally got to the midway point. I grabbed a bottle of water and cytomax and slammed them into the cages. I then got a gel down and to my horror when I was already round the corner and up a hill I noticed that the bottle of water was half full. How pointless is that? Giving racers a half full bottle. Well the damage was done. I had stopped sweating all together and for me that’s a big deal. The next 10 miles to the end got harder and harder. I pushed on the downs and cruised on the ups and dreamt about water, well actually Fresh-Up.

Finally passed over the finish line in 3hrs 2 mins. A total distance of 61km with 2000m of climbing and good for 12^th out of 31 finishes and a bunch of DNFs. It was a great course and I wish that I had worked out the liquid situation better as I was only 5 mins down on 7^th. I was well down on the top few people though. Like the other races so far they would do very well in the Pro Class. My goal was top 10 so I was not too far off and hope that I can pull a top 5 at one of the smaller races. My laps times were about 1hr 24min and then it blew out to 1hr 38 mins which shows how I died towards the end.

All up a great long weekend. A great event and any bikers of any type should check out Sea Otter oneday given the chance.

KOM Race 1 – The Mulholland Challenge

2009-04-12T20:34:00.001-07:00

Well where to begin aye. Geez. Derek and I drove up on Friday afternoon to Calabasas. We stayed at the Goodnite Hotel where the race also started and was administered from. That night I got more ‘full’ than I can remember being. We went to a place called the Woodlot Ranch or something and the meals were massive. I had half a BBQ’ed chicken and trust me this chicken was suffering from gigantism. Also chips, salad, half plate of breaded and shredded onions along with a chocolate desert so rich even I couldn’t conquer it.

The next day after waking up and still feeling full during the night I had a real small breakfast and we headed off at 7.07am. The way this ride worked was that you knew the checkpoints and food stops had certain open times and that you had to get a stickered at 6 spots to signify that you had in fact been there and had not cheated by taking a shortcut. So slower people could leave at 6.30 and you could leave as late as 8ish. We were up so decided to head off pretty early.

After freezing my fingers (they were super painful) we finally descended the couple of hundred meters to the Coast to ride along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) for about 5 odd miles before heading up the first big hill. It was actually pretty steep but it was good to warm up. So the first 27 miles went by pretty fast and before we knew it we had our first sticker. A bit of a big ring downhill, Derek was ahead of me at this stage, we were both just doing our thing and then bang. Yep here we go. As I slowed to check out the rear flat tire Derek rode away from me not noticing what had happened.

Suffice to say I was real ‘pissed’, because I was not that happy with my Michelin Tires anyway. They are not very old and have little cuts and wear points on them and they are not cheap. I think they really are too lightweight. I gotta go with a bit more BEEF.
Anyway I fixed it while everyone was zooming past me. 460 riders were signed up for this event.
Got going again. Not 400m down the road…”BANG”.
Yep I was furious.
Checked the tire real good and the rim this time. Couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. I put this down to just bad luck or a bad tube. What else could I do? In goes the last tube and my last CO2 canister to fill the sucker up.
Well this time I got not half a mile. BANG…. S*&t, F%$K, C#$P
By this stage I was half an hour behind and people were still flying past me.
Anyway I was having to ask, beg for help by this stage.
One guy stopped. He said he could spare a tube so I put it in then he realized he didn’t have enough CO2 so off he went.
Next another guy stopped. He could spare a canister but didn’t want to stay so took off. Anyway his canister did not fit my little pump thing so now I had a tube, a canister and no way of getting air into the tire.
Next an older guy stopped. He was good and had all manner of stuff with him. After he blew up two canisters trying to fit them where they don’t fit we managed to fill up the tire. BINGO. This time I saw the problem. Yep there was a 0.5cm ripe in the sidewall of the tire. The tube was actually bulging out of it like a zit ready to pop.
We talked about this for a bit, what to do and then as we were standing there, BANG. Yip and it was not even on the bike.
Anyway this guy left and I was on the side of the road pretty despondent. I was already planning where I was going to do some ‘real’ riding in the dirt the next day since I had only done 30 miles.
Another guy stopped to help me now. He was not in the race but was training for a fundraising ride to support a cure for AIDs. Anyway he spared me a tube.
As we were about to pump it up a Sweeper fellow in an SUV came by. He had a boot. A hunk of rubber we seated inside the tire which was better than the chocolate bar rapper I was about to use.
By this stage everyone had past me. All the slower people and I knew I was going to miss the first checkpoint. The sweeper guy said just explain the situation and as long as you are in by dark you will be good.
Got going again finally. Some guy not racing caught me and we rode together for a bit. He thought I was nuts hearing the story. Then we caught up to some other guy riding the Challenge. He asked what I was doing back here. Anyway after 8 miles he said well it looks like you are going to be sweet. It’s holding well. I kid you not, it was not 10 secs later and yep. You guessed it… BANG!!!
He really put his foot in it and he said sorry. Haha. Anyway this guy was a bike mechanic. He had my wheel off and tire off before I could feel even more sorry for myself. The other guy had a great big sticker thing made for just this repair. We plonked it in. They gave me a tube and air and we were on our way. Just 90psi in the tire to make sure we didn’t put too much pressure on the torn sidewall and I was off again.

So 5 tubes and 7 CO2 canisters and help from 4 people I was finally on my way. I rode essentially by myself for the next 100km. I passed hundreds of people. Had some good chats to people along the way and I take my hat off to the people that really are out there just to finish. They have great determination and if it was going to take me 10-12+hrs then I wouldn’t bother. Good on them. I felt kinda bad flying up the big hills passing them all. It was silly really but gave me some appreciation that I am actually kinda fast and that the training has paid off somewhat. Many asked what I was doing back here and what time I started. I told them the brief story. “Basically 5 tubes, ripped sidewall and well over 1hr lost”. One guy grinding away in his granny gear said it was my fault for running such light ‘racing’ tires has he churned away at a half my speed dragging double the rubber ran friction up the hill as me. Haha. Good on him.

I got dehydrated, bored, exhilarated, real tired, felt like my legs would fall off and wow’ed for the next 4-5hrs or so and 60 miles. The scenery blew me away, descending from 800m staring down to the PCH with its deep blue waters much like the Kaikoura Coast back home. It was incredible as were the descents themselves though I was always worried about the back tire for the rest of the ride. We climbed so many hills and some steep grades but in the end I finished. I finished pretty strong but I was done. I had had enough of the day, the frustration and pain mixed in with some wicked moments. It was all too much and I was happy for it to be over. Real Happy.

I finished with a time of about 8hrs 20 mins. My riding time was just 6hrs 26mins riding 102 miles (164km) with +12000ft (+3660m) of climbing. An average speed of 15.86mph (25.5kph). Derek ended up doing well. He had a recorded time of just over 7hrs but I was pretty happy to hear that he had a ride time just 10-12mins faster than me. Maybe I could have been close to hanging with him :-)

So the main thing is I finished and I am still in the running to do the King of the Mountains Series. In 3 weeks the next one, the hardest is up. In our own back yard it’s the “Breathless Agony” where the final climb is a 2000m ascent up to ONYX Summit at an Elevation of 2600m. Yikes.

Before then however I have two more races in the dirt. Yippee. One of them being Sea Otter which will mean something to all you Mountain Bikers out there :-)

ChannelMTB Vids from Fontana and Sagebrush

2009-04-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

2009 Fontana City National - Cross Country from ChannelMTB on Vimeo.

Just the Pros in this Vid.

2009 US Cup - Sagebrush from ChannelMTB on Vimeo.

I have a fleeting moment on a climb 2min 47secs. I'm the big bugger.

Sagebrush Safari XC – US Cup West Race 3

2009-04-06T22:58:00.001-07:00

Number 3 of 6 down in the US Cup, though I am only likely to do 5 of them because one is in Colorado in June and being a 16hr+ drive, well its a little hard to justify for a long weekend. All of the races I have done thus far also count towards the Southern Californian State Series (so its 3 down out of 8 there).

Early on Sat 4th April 4 of us met at Al’s place, packed up his big RV and headed down towards San Diego. Not long after going through Temecula there was a weird sound from behind us and Jimmy noted how a big hunk of rubber just went flying past his window. We stopped and found out one of the tires had de-treaded itself and ripped off the wheel arch cover while it was at it. So we limped into the burbs and Al replaced all four tires and the spare with a set of EXTRA heavy duty tires. $600+ later we were on the road again having made the tire people’s morning. It was lucky it happened where it did otherwise it may have been a real nightmare had it blown in the middle of nowhere especially since one of the other tires sidewalls had a massive boil ready to pop.

We got to the Sagebrush Safari staging and camping area early that arvo after making it almost to the Mexican border having spotted a number of border patrol cars on the way. We setup and headed up for a small spin. Rob was there racing in the pro class, Al was racing pro single speed and Jimmy was racing Cat 2 single speed. Anyway long story short it was a fun wee ride but we ended up spending almost 2hrs on the bikes, riding 29km and climbing 700m. Not really the ideal prep for the race tomorrow. We rode the whole shorter course that Jimmy would ride tomorrow. The rest of us would have to add a 13km extension up Mt Pinus (get your head out of the gutter) with a further 400m of climbing. So the race for me, Rob and Al was 42km long with 1100m+ of climbing.

Anyhow after a chill night with the wind blowing a gale and the boys in the tents being buffeted around for half the night we relaxed till the 11am start times. This course was designated as the most diverse of the series and I think it will prove to be. It went as follows:

Started with a 2 miles of flat rolling tarmac. This was weird. The whole group was together. 20+ riders in my wave. Someone would break and everyone would charge and draft. The whole peloton would slow right down no one wanting to break wind and waste energy. Then someone would breakaway and slowly a few people got dropped. This process happened again and again.
Hit the first climb. About vertical 300m up tarmac and I struggled to hang with the top guys. I held my own and was 7^th up the climb.
Hit the first single-track and started to realize why I MTB again (I was wishing I had my 17 pound road bike for a while then).
It was like a big BMX track. Rolling, swoopy with some blown out corners and rock sections to keep it interesting. I passed one guy in my class about 5 mins into this section.
So after cranking up and down rocks, sandy slopes and managing to keep the rubber side down in the windy dusty conditions I caught up to the top Pro women bar one who blew the field away. I hit a fire road and attempted to ride one-handed while trying to eat a squeezy. Well I soon got put off that idea as riding at 25+mph with loose rocks and ruts to deal with one-handed is not one of the brightest things I have done.
The most technical climb of the track was up now and though I cleared all but a small part yesterday today too many people were falling about all over the place so it was hike-a-bike time. Once at the top it was back to double-track styles. It was middle ring territory, cranking up and down the small hills along the ridge hanging on trying to make the wheels stick to the desert sand. It was swooping, pretty smooth, fast and major fun.
A small rip down a rough fireroad, through a small creek crossing and then it was up up up again ;-)
Eventually it turned to tarmac again and people were everywhere. The top girls were still about fighting it out between themselves. It was cool to be witness to that competition. They are real strong. At one stage one of the girls burst up the hill and draughted some other guy. I had 2 of the Kenda sponsored girls behind me and I made it my mission to slowly drag them back up to the other girl. It worked and I also passed the guy but he was not in my category.
After reaching 4-corners where we headed down the hill yesterday to complete the short course I today headed up for the extra 13km, 400 vertical meter loop. It was sapping tarmac right till the top (my calves quivering for much of the way). For you Welly guys its much like starting from the top of Willis St and climbing up the road till a near the top of Hawkins hill. The grades were similar.
Anyway having been in pain for 30 mins it was with much delight I reached the start of downhill fireroad. As it would turnout for maybe the next 15mins I had the biggest grin on my face I am sure. It made all the pain worthwhile. I let rip and was beginning to the get the feeling of the new HT with the 110mm stem and lo-rise monkeylite bars. For 2 mins it was rough fireroad then it was wide singletrack for the 450-500m descent. All I can describe it as is a single-track Super D course with heaps of BMX style whoops. It went something like… straight section – whoop (airtime for a second or two at 30kph) – land - brake shit brake - rail berm - down chute (dodge rock) - round blow out corner - dodge ugly looking bush - whoop (shit flew a bit too far that time) – corner (dam stay in the rut wheel) – berm – whoop (whoa that’s sweet, went a good few meters that time) – c$%p brake (yell, pass slow person taking out a bush on the way) – pump, pump, pump – whoop – berm – rocks (oops bit fast, please don’t puncture) – Whooopie :-)
Well you get the idea. It was WICKED. No one caught me and I passed a bunch of people all whom were good and let me through as best they could. Some of them pro’s must be roadies cause I picked off a few of them aswell.
Back to four corners after a good chat up the last hill with one of the other Cat 1 racers in an older age group before it was down the last downhill of the day.
It too rocked my world. Having ridden it the day before and eaten dirt I held it together and we were all needing too hold back a little cause we were with all the short loop people at this stage.
Passing people is an art of patience and urgency all rolled into one. I seem to have few issues and most will let me through. I have perfected the art I believe. It involves flying up behind them (in a controlled manor of course…). The skidding brakes and loud clicking freehub which came out of nowhere seems to make them realize I mean business. They will often pull over a little themselves. If not I say something like “when there’s room I’ll come through”, if they pass by a spot that will work and don’t let me by then I get more proactive. As soon as I can see a spot coming up I yell on the right or left and make my way through, though taken by surprise sometimes I skip through fast and no damage is done. I have never (touch wood) caused an accident. I always say thanks and always get a friendly reply back. I stay in the good books and feel good myself. 12/24hr events have perfected this for me. At times this has lead to off track detours but that’s my issue to deal with, especially when there is a big rock hidden in the grass or a huge hole under the pine-needles (Rotorua/Taupo anyone!!!)
Anyway I crossed the dusty line in 2hrs 3mins. Good for 6^th, 10 mins down on the top guys in my category who would have been in the top 10 in the Pro Category. Go figure.
All 3 of us Don’s boys finished real close to each other. With the staggered start we were only a few mins apart in the end. Rob getting me by a minute and Al only 2 mins down on a Single-speed (2nd Pro Single Speed). Dam that’s an effort. Lisa came through in 4^th place. Her field is tight. Less than 5mins separating the top 4 in her category.
Sid Taberlay, the Aussie Nat Champ racing for Team Shoair over here this year won the pro class again somehow taking another 20mins off my time. Pretty incredible. They are climbing machines.

So all in a great weekend, and even though all the tarmac was there it meant some mean as descents on the dirt. Great times. Bring on the pain of the Mulholland Challenge this weekend. The first of the King of the Mountains Centuries. 176km with 3700m of climbing. Dam why am I doing this. Goddam road bike. I will not feel my man parts for hours, yikes. Well that is if I can make it. It will prob be about 9hrs on the bike. This is the biggest ride I have ever done for sure. Stay tuned if you care…

Fontana US Cup XC Race

2009-04-06T22:06:00.001-07:00

My next race after a few weeks interlude since the Vision Quest which went well and the first US Cup XC race which did not was another US Cup. At this race in Fontana which was unique cause the course was based around one small hill in the middle of the suburbs. From any vantage point on the course you could always see signs of civilization, houses, roads Etc. I never raced in such a place; it was not removed from elements of the human world at all.

Anyhow the track was actually pretty cool. Heaps of single-track and most of it for a race was pretty technical actually. I had to do four laps of a 6 mile course, so about 34km all up with about 1200m of climbing over the race. The lap started out in a huge burst as always. People are so dam eager and I gotta say there are some real fit people in my category. A few small pinches to spread out the group a little then into a real gut buster of a climb. Super steep with a huge hunk of rock slab to ride over in the middle of the climb. The top part always had to be walked due to it being so steep and sandy. It was then into some great single-track, it was tight but a hell of a good time except for side-swiping a massive granite boulder with my shoulder. Something to look forward to after the climb for sure especially on the last couple of laps. Next up was gentler climbing to the high point of the track winding round more great flowing single-track. It was then down gradually through berms, sandy patches and narrow single-track. Back up a fireroad for a few minutes before a short fast technical downhill. Flat riding around the backside of the hill and after some switchbacks and a few chutes in front of the spectators it was through the finish line for yet any 3 laps.

For me it went pretty well. 1st lap was hard. It seems to always take me a while to warm up. 2nd lap was not so good due to issues with bottles flying out of my cages again. It seems to be the Don’s Bike Shop bottles. They are soft and ok on the road bikes but when on the dirt they can’t hang with it. 3rd lap was a good time. A few duals going on with some of the fast guys that started in a category after me. Last lap was an effort, starting to cramp near the end though I held it together well and finished in 6th place. It was cool catching up to Lisa. Our girl rider in the Don’s Team. She finished 4th in her class and Jeff managed to get a photo on course with both of us in the frame. So I did much better than last time but the guy that has now won both races in my category was 12min ahead. He is dam fast and I doubt I can even come close to being near him. Still my goal of top 5s is looking a little more likely now.

That afternoon after the race I also headed out for a road ride with Lee and Derek up the big hill to Angelus Oaks. I wanted to do this because I have not been doing enough endurance training. Just no time and the first of the big mountain centuries on the road bike is in a couple of weeks. Yikes. Anyway it was one tough day with the race then this ride. I was stuffed and the legs were dead. Still that’s what it’s all about aye. No pain no gain.

5 days in 'The Big Apple'

2009-03-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Friday 13th March

Well after leaving Burbank Airport near Hollywood at 9pm on Thurs night I landed in NY at 5am. It’s fair to say this was stupidly early and I knew I had a big day ahead of me with just 2hrs of restless sleep on the Jet Blue plane. After getting through Terminal 5 I found myself on the Airtrain which took me to the Subway. It was bloody cold that morning and day. About -4 degrees C. This was dam cold to me after CA and the fact that it only got to 1 degree C that day meant I was cold for the whole day.

So I hoped off the train at 6.20am in lower Manhattan right by the World Trade Centre area. Since little was going on and cause I was cold and Hungary I ended up in Macca’s for the first of many coffees to keep me warm and awake for the day.

• Headed out to the northern tip of Battery Park City on the Hudson River and made my way south. This is a park like residential ‘suburb’ within the concrete jungle.
• Stayed warm in the new World Financial Centre. An impressive building.
• This was a pretty place, this walk alongside the River with the sun breaking out.
• Checked out the Castle Clinton Nat Monument and Battery Park itself.
• Hoped on the free Ferry to Staten Island to get a closer look of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. Didn’t stay on Staten Island, it’s just the burbs anyway.
• Spent a little while in the impressive Smithsonian Building where they have exhibits of Indian Culture.
• Next couple of hours was spent around the Financial District, Wall Steet, Broad Street, Exchange Place Etc. All well kept areas, very tiny streets, huge security, lots of history and some very cool buildings such as the Trinity Church, New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Hall National Monument and The Vietnam Veterens Plaza. What struck me here is the one-sidedness. I kinda expected it but it’s all about their losses and fair enough but nothing said of the devastation on the Vietnamese. After seeing the museums in Saigon, well this whole site seemed very selfish/too patriotic and missing the point of war. There are always 2 sides, it well left little to be desired after seeing he images of small girls being burnt by Agent Orange. Soldiers choose (well unless enlisted by law) to be there. Small children playing in the streets before being acidified are the true losses/innocents.
• Checked out the South Sea Port commercial zone. A nice spot for food and some shopping right on the waterfront.
• Walked over Brooklyn Bridge. Great views, great bridge and a great thing to have done. There were good views of the adjacent Manhattan Bridge.
• Made a long walk to DUB Pies along the industrial water front of Brooklyn. Unfortunately though the pies were still meat pies it was a waste of time really. Small, not that tasty and way too expensive. Though it’s all relative. Some guy walked in and ordered two dozen for a party. At $5US a piece. Yep. You can get a better one at a Gas station back home for a buck.
• After walking miles and miles and miles and my feet being so sore I hoped on a Subway after walking through some pleasant Brooklyn Suburbs around Pudding Hill to both sit down and to check out Coney Island.
• Wow what a dump. It was all shutdown because it was cold and not summer so no rides were going and it was deserted. Numerous depressed Soviet Style Apartment blocks were there, shitty shops and dubious people. The beach itself was ok and got some cool views from a pier. After another coffee form Dunkin Donuts and pleased not to be ‘mugged’ I hoped back on the train for Manhattan. Got a call from Derek and we planned to meet up at his Buddies Place.

Derek was coming from JFK and I from Coney Island. As it turns out we both ended up on the same train to his mates place in Harlem. Anyhow Harlem really was different. Wow. It was cool to see and spend a while there. Matt whose place we stayed at was a good guy and we had a couple of good nights. Though there were many poor people around I felt pretty safe overall as there were always heaps of people round and the Subway Station was right by his place along with a great Deli. Deli’s are everywhere in NY where you can order much good heart food such as bacon egg rolls or crème cheese bagels.

That night we headed out to the Soho Area and had a drink at the Red Lion and some other lounge bar. Dinner was had a great Peruvian Restaurant called PioPio. Top top chicken there.

Saturday 14th March

After a late night and an experience of being on the Subway at 3 am (it’s still surprisingly busy) with a dude being handcuffed in the station for what looked like pickpocketing/burglary. I woke up late and had a Deli Breakfast before making my way down to the Times Square Area for the day. Times Square was cool to see and I would be back here but it was touristy as hell with crowding on the streets like I had not seen since Bangkok. It was all glitzy with heaps of theatres and shows, cheap touristy junk shops and restaurants galore.

I checked on MOMA for a few hours. (Museum of Modern Art). This sorta place often bores me eventually, though it was all good stuff. Its has been said to be the most influential museum of modern art in the world. Of course much of it is weird as hell and really some of this contempory art is well no art in my mind. Bits of chopped up cardboard box stuck together with masking tape is hardly a profound masterpiece if you ask me, but then they certainly don’t ask people like me. Geez some will find the meaning of life and the deepest inner workings of the artist’s mind from such a piece of junk. They did have lots of Picasso though and the odd Van Gogh along with Warhol, Boccioni, Bacon and Monet to name a few.

That evening we had some takeouts then went and hung at one bar in Hell’s Kitchen called ‘Rudy’s Bar and Grill’. I like this place. A real dive bar with cheap beer and free hotdogs. Yep. From $7 for a pint in Manhattan, well you can’t go too wrong. We spent hours here just chilling and drinking on the duck taped seat covers before heading back to Matt’s for some much needed shut-eye.

Sunday 15th March

Derek left for the airport at 11 and I also headed out about this time. Today I made my way across the Eastern side of the Manhattan Island to Central, Central Park where The Met. Or The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located. This museum has a collection of more than 2 million items and is one of the world’s largest galleries. Nuts aye. It opened in 1872 and the building itself is a masterpiece. The interior is very cool indeed. After spending 6hrs in there it shut on me and I had skimmed lots of it and missed a heap more. Though I confess it was enough for me. The Ancient Egypt collection was great and the biggest outside of Egypt. The Middle Ages collection was also cool with the full suits of armor and all the weaponry. The Greek and Roman art was also super awesome. The interior was all crafted with large roman pillars and what not, and the number of sculptures and statues was impressive as was the food prices in the Café which resembled more of a food court.

After being sick of being told off by security guards and they are everywhere for wearing my backpack inside the galleries I left and walked (yep a continuing theme of shin splints in this trip) through half of Central Park towards Times Square/Hell’s Kitchen where my hostel was. It was a little bleak as was the whole city really; however in summer Central Park must be great when the grass if actually green and the trees are not bare. There were many people out enjoying the park amongst the skyscrapers though which was good to see.

I caught the end of a busker show. Good God they are money hungry. I missed the first half but they collected money in huge bags before they actually concluded their show with a guy jumping over a couple of people. Not too impressive, and I mean they went around a number of times making sure that they missed no-one from their collection. Of course the Dutchman in me refused, especially since I was skeptical as all they had done was talk smack since I was there and then proceed to say how rude people are for not giving them money. I like to see what I am paying for first. They were basically begging. Pffft. Whatever, they did not deserve my money.

On the edge of the park I walked past the ice skating rink which was cool in amongst the park and buildings back towards concrete jungleness. The geologist in me spotted many great slabs of rock polished smooth when the glaciers reached this far south in the last ice age 10,000 odd years ago.

That night I checked out a movie after eating some great $1 pizza slices across the road from the dinky wee hostel I was staying in. The movie was called ‘The Reader’. It was ok but a little depressing in the end.

Monday 16th March

Well I was looking forward to this day. After spending almost an hour looking for something healthy to eat instead of cooked breakfasts (it’s no easy feat in this city) I settled in a great wee café called Lenny’s and compromised on a yogurt muffin, yummy coffee and a heap of fruit salad. I was then off to The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in the Upper West Side for 10am opening. From Wiki “…is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world. Located in park-like grounds, the museum comprises 25 interconnected buildings that house 46 permanent exhibition halls, research laboratories, and its renowned library. The collections contain over 32 million specimens, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time. The museum has a scientific staff of more than 200, and sponsors over 100 special field expeditions each year.”

This was my sorta place. Ha, none of this artsy fartsy stuff. None of these great religions buildings to gaze at. It’s a place dedicated to science. Let’s just say they had to kick me out 8hrs later at 6pm closing time. Hehe – I needed another day at least to do it justice though I got round lots of the spots that really interested me. Which was most of it? By far the best museum I have ever been in and a must for any visitor. Kate I thought of you a bit. You would have loved this place being a geologist. The mineral section was incredible and the volcanism and Planet Earth display also kicked arse.

• Wicked Exhibits of real Asian North American and African Mammals in awesome lifelike dioramas created in the 30s and 40s. Man they still look so good now. The dioramas themselves are famous and are rare these days.
• Great Marine Exhibits with a full size Blue Whale model.
• 34 tonne Cape York Meteorite
• Star of India. The largest Sapphire in the World.
• Asian, African, Pacific and many more peoples exhibits
• Dinosaurs. Oh Yeah  Including Rex, Triceratops and a Stegosaurus.
• Evolution of Man Exhibition. This was super well done.
• Hayden Planetarium. Awesome huge ball thing that you sit inside and watch the amazing projection of the universe above you. You feel like you are there and its super informative looking at all things big and small in the Universe.
• IMAX Theatre. I went to ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ and the awesome ‘Wild Ocean’ film set off the coast of South Africa.
• Another highlight was the Climate Change Exhibition which was super informative and well presented. I had a good chat with a researcher who helped create it. I think he was happy to have someone with some knowledge in the subject to talk too. Beats trying to control the millions of kids crawling over the museum on field trips. I mean heaps and heaps of kinds. Dam.

That evening I walked around Time Square to people watch (including the infamous naked cowboy) at night after heading up to the Top of the Rock. A lookout on top of the Rockefeller Centre 70 stories up. No lines like the Empire State Building and you get views of the Empire State Building instead. The views were obscured somewhat by hazy/smog but still good. It’s in the evenings that you really miss not travelling with people and being such a small hostel there was no one to hang out with there so I went to another movie. So many good places to eat but I was not going to waste money doing that by myself. Called ‘Race to Witch Mountain it was on at one of AMC’s 25 screens. It was actually pretty good fun.

Tuesday 17th March

Well this was my final day in NY. Started off with Lenny’s then checked out the USS Intrepid Museum. It was a good exhibit with a bunch or warplanes and the aircraft carrier to wonder round on. Similar to the one in San Diego. They also had a Concorde on display and a Growler Sub, the real motivation for me to pay the admission. Of course once in there I found out they had closed it down just recently to do some renovations on it. Typical!

Next up was a big walk south along the Hudson River to the West Village and Soho shopping and residential districts. Also Chinatown. Well there were some pretty neighborhoods round here. Stupid expensive though but nice with tree lined streets. Also some funky bars/cafes and shops. Soho was very much tourist mecca again full of shopping and ‘recession sales’ – yep the American’s will sell anything. Even a recession. Come waste all the money you don’t have in my shop so you can go broke and not me ;-)

Chinatown was cool but like much of NY was dirty. It was overrun and crowded and after being in Asia the overcrowding was the only authentic characterization of Asia. Oh and the cheap rip-offs and Asians on the street trying to sell you all sorts if useless s*#t.

After sneaking into BK to find one of the rarest things in NY, yep public toilets I headed down into the subway system only to get on the wrong train to make my way to JFK for my 6pm flight. After figuring out what the hell I was doing and getting lost in the labyrinth of the underground city I managed to get out to the Airtrain connection through to JFK. It was then onto a 5.5hr flight back to CA before my 1hr drive home from Burbank. At least the traffic was flowing well apart from around two accidents on the 210 that had strewn carparts across the freeway.

Thoughts:

Was great to see NY. A place that has always fascinated me. I had a great time overall however here are a few thoughts.
• Dirty has hell overall. There were some good spots. West Village, Wall Street Area, Battery Park but overall the place was much more dirty than I imagined. Rubbish, beat up paths Etc
• Cold and bleak at this time of year. Would be depressing when snow is there too cause it just gets filthy dirty
• After living in LA, well I was blown away by the smog here too. A haze that was always about.
• Subways run super well overall and are well made use of. Especially when one is packed in there like sardines at rush hour.
• Security is nuts. Major Paranoia. It’s everywhere. From Shops to banks to and landmark to museums. I guess who can blame them though aye. I think I will get cancer form all the x-ray machines prematurely now.
• Didn’t heap that the trees had no leaves but it’s a major concrete jungle. You don’t appreciate just how much this means to you until you are there. I like open spaces too much.
• Parking is insane as is the driving. It’s not uncommon to pay $40+ for a days of parking.
• Everywhere things were being constructed/repairs from office space to subways to museum facades.
• Very difficult to eat healthy and cheap. Cheap is possible but its all crap food.
• Overall people were like you hear kind of grumpy. Everyone is storming around on their own personal missions.
• You j-walk everywhere
• I could not live here. Maybe and I mean maybe for a while but that’s it. Not enough greenery, no good MTBiking with in biking distance. Still it’s a great place to visit. 5 days is a perfect length of time.

For all you Facebook 'Enthusiasts'

2009-03-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

Mission Impossible Facebook - watch more funny videos

Cool Vid from my First XC Race this year

2009-03-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have a starring role for about 3 seconds right on 5 mins into the vid as we are zooming down some singletrack.

2009 US Cup - Bonelli from ChannelMTB on Vimeo.

Good wee story on the VQ

2009-03-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mountain-down-bike-2329777-very-trail

And a little interview with Manny. The winner.

VQ - Ticked Off

2009-03-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well after all the anticipation and it being in my mind since the 1st of November when I signed up for the Warriors Society Vision Quest (or VQ) and was one of the 175 hardout idiots who got a spot before it sold out in 4hrs, well it’s over.

The race was yesterday, the same day as the classic NZ Mountain Bike race called the Karapoti. I have still yet to crack 3hrs due to unlucky incidents such as 2 punctures in the last 5km last time I raced the Karapoti. Next time I want to get into the 2hr 40s however especially after feeling good about my race yesterday. Damien hold me to this aye. I want to crack 2hr 50 mins.

Being on the same date was the only similarity however between the Karapoti and the VQ. This is I have to say the best race I have ever done and one of my best sporting achievements. Not only did I finish the 92 odd kms and over 3500m of climbing I did ok. I got I believe 28th out of the 175 and was real happy with that. Not to mention I of course had a dam puncture which cost me about 12 mins. Before I say anymore, yeah this was something insane to do (a real fitness challenge) but for all those who may think it was just a fitness race this had some of the best single-track I have ever ridden anywhere. I mean wicked downhill single-track. As in I cannot think of a track that is all single track and descends over 1000m in one shot as the Upper and Lower Holy Jim trails do. It was intense and amazing fun and made the massive climbs well worthwhile.

If you read my blog about the shortened XC race I did last weekend you would know I was quite worried about my body and in particular this race. Well I learnt my lessons. I prepped food wise much better and after seeing the results I will never be complacent over the nutrition side again. I watched what I ate over the week and had protein to build back my damaged muscles after the debilitating cramps. The day before I had lots of carbs and some electrolytes and the morning of I got down more electrolytes and porridge, peanut butter sandwiches. The key for me was during the race. I had my camelback and two bottles which in the end was a little over kill because there were two aid stations. However better safe than sorry. I forced myself to drink and drink and then take some squeezes and a peanut slab (oh that was like heaven (I’m pleased I saved that from my trip to NZ). With some oranges at the aid stations that’s all I ate. The only time I felt I may have cramped was actually after the 2nd climb and going down Holy Jim trail. I slammed another squeezy, drank more and I never cramped. Man I never even cramped after the race. It was awesome and this was 7hrs of effort (though paced) vs. less than 2hrs of harder effort form the weekend before. Real stocked.

As for the race well I stayed with Al and Katrina in their RV near the start of the track. We were still up at 4am however to be ready on the start line for the 5.30am start. It was freezing too. About 4 degrees c at the start. 350 riders all up. 175 doing the VQ and another 175 doing the shorter version of it which cuts out the last climb and decent but is still a huge race itself. So we all took off into near darkness. After 20 mins there was enough light however that we did not need any lighting. So I put my little head torch in my back pocket. Well the first climb went on and on. Was incredible looking back down the valley at the snake of lights coming up from below. I paced myself and settled in alongside an arrogant bugger on an S-Works Stumpy. Every time I went to pass him he wouldn't let me and would speed up. Was fine with me because I was controlling the speed. I tried to say gidday and he just glared at me. So after maybe 1.5hrs of climbing (1200m) and some steep pinches we got into the first single-track.

Lovin the Down after fixing my Flat

I was buzzing at this point. I felt I had paced myself perfectly and then two minutes into the single track decent and it was rocky I pinch flatted the front tire. I was fuming and was not too worried it caused me a high speed crash into a lovely bristly yet impact softening bush. I was running 40psi in it as it was, dam do I need to buy some tubeless wheels). So the Stump guy passed me along with many more in that 12 odd mins I lost. Anyway back on the bike and I tore it up. I was angry and loved every minute of it. I passed heaps of people and a guy in a coilair passed me but I stuck on his wheel. Was a rough ride on the HT but awesome. I tell ya the brakes were smoking after this effort.

Anyway I hit up the first aid station and refilled my empty bottles and had some orange and a squeezes then it was into the unknown once more. There was a couple of miles of pavement then back into dirt. This climb had no steep pinches. I think I middle chain-ringed the whole thing however it was maybe a 2hr effort of just climbing. Maybe more. I need a GPS. In one sustained effort it was 1100m of UP. Anyway because I lost time I ended up passing many people. That 12mins really meant I lost my rightful spot in the hierarchy of competitors that had all settled into their individual comfort zones on the first big climb (this occupied my mind for ages thinking about this during the race). I had many a good conversations with people. Some were arrogant (maybe cause you caught up too them and were to pass them) but some were great. Jens, a German who lives in San Diego was great. He was riding a Seven Sola (almost like my bike) and upped the ante and went my speed up the climb. We chatted for ages. It was very cool. Was funny talking about world politics, crazy Germans, lazy Americans, tubeless wheels and the benefits of titanium all during a race. Oh. And I also passed Mr I’m too good for you Stumpy. Anyhow after this effort and the incredible views from the top we descended down a little fire road (with snow on it in patches) before we entered the Upper Holy Jim Trail.

OMG. I rode all but a few bits and had it not been a race I would have tried them. No time to scope it out. It was good having the Talas on the front. I popped it up to 120mm travel and let it rock. Jens was a great decender too and the two Sevens were passing many people. This track for you NZ fellows, well imagine a dryer version of Deliverance in Welly. With bits like Ridgeline and Aratihi with switchbacks like on the Scout Hall track as well as many parts like the Captain Thomas Trail in Chch. Now put all those tracks together with no uphill at all and you have an idea how good Upper then Lower Holy Jim was. I have no idea how long it took other than my hands and fingers were in the death grip for ages and the ever reliable Juicy Sevens held up as those particular ones always have. The decent was amazing. I don’t know what else to say. I wish I had a video off it. It was epic.

So after this massive decent I must have had the biggest grin. The only issue were hikers walking up the trail. They meant I had a few moments of "Holy Cow", I nearly slammed that little girl off the cliff cause she decided it was better for me to try and ride over rocks and an embankment that was near vertical instead of herself stepping to the side when I was doing 25ks and my bar would have chopped her in half. Mountain Biking really has to be one of the sports that require some of the best reactions and split second decisions. Especially when riding/racing and track for the first time. Marke this might well be a trail to hit up when you are here in June. We will have a massive climb to contend with in Mid-Summer however.

At the bottom of this decent the Counting Coup racers (shorter version) headed out down a 4wd road to the finish and we headed back up to do another 900 odd meters of climbing. This time it was different. The climb was all single-track and much of it steep and loose. It was a hike a bike and we were off our bikes for maybe 400 vertical meters of that climb. Again I don’t know the numbers but I was pushing/carrying for maybe 30mins. It started off up this valley and was technical and rocky. Pretty fun I gotta say actually though painful. I passed a few people here, it was great. All up in this last climb/decent I think I made up a good 6 or more places. By this stage it was also real hot so I was pleased I took off my merino base layer before I started up this climb. Anyway after the climb it was some up and down fire-road. Man at the top they had a BBQ going and were offering burgers. Oh man that was so tempting. I almost stopped but forced myself to push it onwards. I kind of regret it but I wanted it all just to be over. After more climbing on the fire roads than I thought we entered back into the bush. Much of the following decent was sort of shaley loose rocks with a little dirt compacting them and then leaf litter over the top of them. It made for fast, fast but sketchy descending. The corners if you hit them and weighted the outside bar seemed to stick and again I caught a few people. I really enjoyed this decent also, nearly as much as Holy Cow, I mean ‘Jim’ trail. I was real easy on the bike and tried to un-weight the wheels as much as possible after 6.5hrs of racing a puncture here would have brought me to my knees literally.

So after reaching the aid station where I ripped right through it there were 5 miles of slightly downhill rough as 4wd track to deal too before the finish. This was all a blur suffice to say that the idiots in their SUVs who thought they were doing 'real' 4wd driving were a right pain in the butt. The dust they threw up was horrible. Anyway I was in the big ring and more than any other part of the race my back got super sore. It was rough and fast and because it was pretty flat you were sitting down lots. It was the first time I thought a Full Sus would have been the ticket. Anyhow I crossed the line in a bit under 7hrs (official results are not out yet, and in about 28th place). I was pretty happy with this especially cause I still felt pretty good and I did not cramp at all. Just to put this into perspective however the winner was a top Pro and did it in 5hrs 14mins. How sick is that aye. It ridiculous. Al managed about 9th in a little over 6hrs and he was happy with that as you should be. The other Don's member, Lisa was sure she got 2nd woman home in about 8.5hrs. A huge effort considering few women would race it let alone complete it.

So after all this when I thought the off-roading was over for the day we as it turned out and it was ironic we had to take the Camry up that 4wd track to pick up some of Al's gear which he had dropped off at the Aid Station including his Truck keys. Suffice to say we proved to the SUV owners that an old Camry can make it up the track, all be it with a few tender moments of scrapping rocks on the underside and a little scoping and line picking required. I think it made it out alive, no holes in the muffler I don’t think. So yeah what a day all up. I got home after a fast drive on the 91 freeway and continued to eat all manner of things. I slept for over 11hrs last night. Actual sleep. I cannot remember the last time I slept for that long. It was heaven.
Next adventure. 5 days in New York next weekend to explore the Big Apple.

Over and out,
Kurt

P.S - Sorry. It was a lecture but some people like the stories and those that don't. Well don't read the dam thing. I'm not forcing you too ;-)

Good explanation of the doom the world is facing...

2009-03-02T20:32:00.000-08:00

US Cup Race 1 - Bonelli Park

2009-03-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday on the 1st March I had the first of my races for the year. It was an XC race in San Dimas, being part of the US Cup West Division, as well as one of the races in the Southern California State Series. Total distance was roughly 24 miles and total climbing about 3400ft (38km, 1050m). My time was 1hr 52 mins.

I was pretty disappointed with how it went in the end. It was a bit of a disaster really. I got 12th out of about 20 in the Cat 1 (25-29 age) Class. This is the old expert class and is one under the Pro's. It’s a huge step up from the lower classes I won last year. A huge step up. There are some very fast fit people I'm up against.

The course was relentless. No super steep pitches but it didn't let up. You were pedal to the metal the whole time really especially with the hot competition. Speaking of hot the backside of the main climb was in the open, the heat beating up off the fire roads. It was at least 32/33 degrees c. I think I brought a new meaning to the word 'sweat'.

First Lap - Started out with a bang. Everyone is super eager and I struggled to hang with the top guys. The large long fire road climb was first up and it was 'HOT'. Anyway I was running 45 PSI in my tires and was skittering around all over the show. I keep pinch flatting and pinch flatted out there on the Pre-Ride the day before with 40 PSI so I was playing it safe. The first techy, fast rock downhill highlighted to me I had to be on it. I had little grip for braking on the loose dirt and had to hang it out a little on some of the corners. Into the first rocky single track and I was starting to have some fun. I passed a few people and they must have thought I was nuts. With no grip I must have looked like a ball in a pinball machine banging off rocks on the way down the rocky trail. Still it was fun till my bottle flew out of the cage. For a split second I thought stuff it, then decided to stop. Threw the bike on the side of the hill and ran back up to get it. About 10 people passed me in that time (not just my class though). This same issue happened once more 10 mins later and I was fuming. I bent my metal cages big-time to hold the bottle tighter and it was fine from there on.

So I continued to attack the climbs then on the last downhill of the lap I was screaming, though I braked way to late and ended up going straight off the track (instead of making the left turn) somehow not going over the bars and coming to rest on a huge scrubby bush still clipped in. It must have been a sight. I was ecstatic. It was a real buzz.

Lap 2 - Was uneventful. It hurt and my legs were dying. I passed a few people in my class and think that at one stage I was in 5/6th place. The heat killed me though and I noticed that I was not drinking enough.

Lap 3 - Start of the main climb I got a new bottle handed to me but the damage was done. I started to cramp. It was so bad. I had to stop halfway up (for at least 5mins) for a stretching session in the best shade I could find. So many people passed me. It was horrible. I knocked down a shot and finished all my drink and continued the climb. Geez for the next 10 mins I was crawling up the hill with my right quad and left hammy wanting to cramp AGIAN. Finally the single-track came and I am sure a glimour of a smile reappeared on my face for a little while. 10 mins later I think the substances kicked in. My legs were tight and sore but they would not cramp and I could use the remaining grunt left in them. I started to pass people again and hung with a pro for about 2 mins (though he was on his 4th lap). I was feeling good, the best I had for the whole race. So yeah, I finished in 12th, I was disappointed and pleased cause at one-point I was on the verge of pulling out.

Many lessons have been learnt. I got carried away the day before and built my new bike. This was the first ride I had on it. Luckily there were no issues though I would have known about the bottle cages had I ridden it before hand. At this level to be competitive I need to take the nutrition a bit more seriously before and during the race I need to force the right stuff into me. I need to make myself drink the right stuff and need to make myself use gels. If I came back from such bad cramps I am sure that if I do stuff right from the start I will not end up in that position. The day before food is also important and drinking beers/margaritas at a party, even only a few of them is not ideal, not to mention the random food I ate that night.

I also need to think a bit more about the training. I need to do recovery rides and simply plan my training a little better. Geez it’s all so much work eh.

One thing I have noticed was even with these real long road rides I have been doing, well they might give me a base but a 2hr long MTB race is a different story. The concentration needed and the shear intensity is at another level. Road racing is very different being in packs and drafting etc. All the Mtb races are painful in comparison. You are working all the time. So yeah along with the long road rides and road races I need to look at simulating the MTB races much more closely with some more intense 2hr sessions on the dirt. I can’t wait till day light savings comes.

Anyway hopefully I can sort some of this stuff out and be more competitive at the next race at the end of March in Fontana. This one might be even bigger than the 700 riders at this race. It has UCI points up for grabs though that means nothing to me. That’s best left to the likes of Sid Taberlay. The Aussie Champ racing for Shoair in the States who won yesterday. Just for comparison he was roughly 25% faster than me doing 4 laps in the time I did 3. Sick. Hopefully they will not lap me next time :-)

Oak Glen Training Ride

2009-03-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago Derek and I headed out for a road ride. The goals were to cover a couple of climbs we had never done before which were to be in one of the races later this year. One of the trails is the infamous Jack Rabbit Trail. As it turns out a MTB would have been a better choice. It is an unused road (ascends for 300m maybe). The pavement is all cracked in many places missing altogether. There are pot-holes and gravel to deal with and some dirt. Sure was a different experience doing this on little tires and lightweight road bikes. We made it fine but will not do it again until we need to in the race. I punish the bike enough mashing away at the pedals on normal climbs.

Next up was the backside of the Oak Glen climb. It is much steeper and more sustained than the other way. It was a hard climb and I ended up taking it slow towards the end not feeling too well. Not sure if it was a new energy drink I was trying or the carrot Cliff Bar. Maybe I just pushed it too much. Anyway there was snow all round the pass up there and was kinda cool to be around. The downhill was wicked. Some big fast sweeping bends. So much fun. We were to go further but both of us cramped up real bad so we headed home, stopping for Mexican on the way at Chipoltle.

A hoon into the Wintery Mountains

2009-02-17T18:33:00.000-08:00

After the Palm Springs race I was bored on the Sunday so went for a drive into the Mtns since the weather was somewhat reasonable to check out the wintery conditions. A few observations…

For some reason even when the roads were cleared and my Camry had no issues bar a few slippery but in control moments (more speed than anything else J) people love to drive round at 20mph making a huge noise with chains banging the underside of their trucks cause they are not fitted right.
Why fit them to begin with. There was no snow or ice on the roads.
I wish I went to McDonalds in lake Arrowhead for lunch instead of a local restaurant. I thought I should support the local community but the burger was bad and double the price of the McDs equivalent.
Some shallower parts of the lakes were actually frozen and even with big signs saying don’t walk on the lake ice what do people do…
The Fudge in Big Bear really is top notch and competes with the Fudge at the Remarkable Sweet shop in Queenstown.
And the best one. People drive up into the Mtns and shovel snow onto the roof of their cars, trucks before they drive back down the hill. I guess to show off that they went to the Mtns and got snowed on. Man all those times I have seen snowy cars down here in Redlands thinking a local had come down from the Mtns. I was fooled by these weirdo’s that do this. And this was not just one or two cases. At every turnout people were doing this.
Oh and it gets worse. Some put a whole tonne of snow in the back of pickups. What for I ask??? To keep their Beers cool. Yet it will be the same people with huge trucks that drive around with the tailgate open thinking it will mean they get 11mpg instead of 10mpg from the 5 litre V8 American made tractor engine.
There really were some lovely views and sights to be seen. The sunset from just below Angelus Oaks was wonderful. Check out the pics.
I can’t wait till the snow melts however as there is so much biking to be had up in them their hills. I think a little excursion into the snow might be called for soon.

My First 100 Mile Ride - The Palm Springs Century

2009-02-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

Well it’s been a month since I have been back in the States after a great trip back to the land of Marmite, Squiggles, Monteith’s, Mac’s, Hell’s Pizza and Meat Pies. Carrying on from that I have now well and truly worn off all them meat pies I had. Even Edan would agree. What have I been up too???

Well it started off pretty busy. In the days after I landed I moved into a new house with Derek now that Alex is in Alaska and lovin it from what I hear. The new place is great. A million times better than the old place and has such conveniences including a door opener and general fittings that actually work. Since then I have been trying to do as much riding as possible. I have not done as much as I wanted due to the bad weather. Yep it’s been real shitty here. I nearly got hypothermic a couple of weeks ago when I was MTBiking and got caught out in near freezing rain with a super chilled wind coming down from the Mountain Peaks. Even in Redlands itself we have had some pretty cold weather with a few heavy frosts. For those that don’t believe me are here is a picture. It’s hard to believe that in a couple of months there will be no rain for months and months and the temp will rarely have a max of lower than 30 degrees C. For weeks in a row it will hover around or above 40c.

So it was with a little trepidation that I did turned up with Derek to the Palm Springs Century Charity ride. (I had 3, 50 mile or less rides under my belt in the month since I was back on the road). There were 3 lengths available to ride. 100 miles, 55 miles and 30 miles. All up 9000 odd people participated. Anyhow this particular Saturday turned on the weather for once. Friday was shitty as was the Sunday and especially the Monday just gone. It was cold however. Probably about 5c degrees at the start but we soon warmed up. We started after the mass start so for the next 2-3 hrs we were passing a constant stream of people. It was kind of fun actually. Especially the punters who were riding some serious bling but going at a speed that I could have ridden a downhill bike at J. We saw tandems, triples, recumbents and even a tandem recumbent.

The first 50 miles of the ride was pretty intense. We pushed each other, well mostly Derek was pushing me slightly having the edge most of the time. I stuffed up and left all my electrolyte drinks at home on the counter. This meant that at 50 miles I was starting to cramp. The water only diluting the few salts left in my body. Luckily at one of the food stops I drunk heaps of very strong Gatorade and filled up my one bottle. After another 20 miles I started to come right which was just as well because the final 20 miles was fast. We were in a fast group with everyone pushing each other. It was painful but racing in a fast group was surprising enthralling. The one thing I struggle with is being super confident right on the wheel of another. I am learning but it requires lots of trust in strangers you have never met. When I hang off their wheels or miss the slipstreams though I really pay for it cause I spend so much more energy keeping up the pace. With MTBiking this is not an issue and team work is rarely needed so I am taking a while to cotton on.

Don’t worry MTB is still where it’s at fellows J

So in the end we finished together in the same fast group having done the 102 miles in 5hr 15mins ride time. So it was a 19.4mph or 31kph average which I am pretty happy with. It makes me feel better about the proper hard centuries we have lined up starting in April. Though these centuries have 3-4 times the amount of climbing. The first being the ‘Mulholland Challenge’. 110 miles, 12,500ft climbing and the fastest time ever is a bit over 6.5hrs. So I might be looking at a 8-9hr day in the saddle if I make it at all. Jeez…

One more observation from the Palm Spings ride. OMG tandems can be fast. At around the 35 mile mark a tandem was drafting me, they then passed me and I drafted them and Derek drafted me. To cut a long story short they kept upping the tempo. They keep pulling. In the end they were hitting 45+mph on the flat rolling terrain. We were well dropped, I got spun out (ran out of gears) and my legs wanted to separate from my hips. Insane. Derek hang on for another minute or so having a bigger gear than me then was also dropped. It was incredible. A guy and a girl. We can’t say how blown away we were. When they pulled out to pass if you were not right on their wheel you lost their slipstream and that was that. No getting back in behind after that. WOW.

Next race is the first of the Southern California State XC Series and maybe Super D (Not sure if I will do these or not yet). I was thinking it would be a nice intro to racing again as it’s a week before the Vision Quest on the 7th of March. This is the race I am really worried about. 60 miles of off-road riding, heaps of technical single-track and 12,000ft of climbing. However this first Cal State race is 27 miles (44km). 3 laps of a 9 mile course. No walk in the park especially cause the race categories have been changed this year. I am in Cat 1, one below the pros. The Semi-pro category is gone so now I will be racing against a bunch of semi-pros that did not want to have their arse handed to them in the Pro category. Yikes.

The only consolation to all this is that I am working on a new race bike. It’s pretty exciting so I can’t wait to have that up and running.

Anyhow until next time get out there and push some boundaries. It’s entirely satisfying in a painful why the hell am I doing this kinda way… ;-)
Kurt

P.S – One more thing. I did a Dirt Bike (Motocross) introductory course a few weeks back for 5hrs one night. All I can say is it was tones of fun. That the MTB skills really cross over and that after a couple of hrs I was really starting to tear it up. Oh and don’t ever let me buy one. If I do I will not be round much longer, or will end up as many Southern California dirt riders. In a wheel chair. .. It’s sad but true. The Pro running the course told me this and is the reason he doesn’t race anymore.

Home Sweet Home

2009-01-23T17:13:00.000-08:00

For Xmas and New Years I headed back to NZ for the first significant time since I headed to Asia in November 2007. After 10 months working in the States it was nice and also really exciting to head back down-under, down-under. After 30hrs of travel from Redlands including some heavy traffic by LAX and via Fiji and Auckland I arrived at Nelson Airport at 5.40pm on Xmas day. Mum and Dad were there to greet me. They are the only family members who knew I was coming and when I got to Oma and Opa’s place they were very very surprised. Especially Lauren (Sis). Ha-ha I was so sure that she had a few ideas I was coming after almost being caught out when talking to Mum and Dad on numerous occasions the months before I was to arrive on skype.

So after having a good time in Nelson with the Family for 5 days including a day trip to Kaiteriteri and Marahau I headed back with the whanua downsouth and got dropped off in Christchurch while they continued down to Timaru. The drive was great and it had been a long time since I had driven the Kaikoura Coast. It is somewhat similar to the Coastline between LA and San Fran. The weather was great and the seals friendly. Well until I got within their big ‘personal bubbles’ that is. It was at this point they would bark at me like a blubberised retarded dog.

So New Years in Chch for the first time in ages. Bridget and I did the whole Strip thing for dinner then hung out in the new ‘Sol Square’. A very cool spot indeed. Well impressed. A couple of bands, great weather and flavored Sake to say the least in some Japanese bar we got stuck in.

Next up was the part of the trip I was looking most forward too. An 8 day road trip round the SI. Bridget and I headed off over Porters pass wishing we had lights to head through Cave Stream. It really is a stunning area, then we had lunch at the Bealy Pub. Sure brought back memories from the many tramping trips which passed through the pub on most occasions when I was at Uni. Good memories. Over Arthur’s down the West Coast to Franz for a couple of nights. The West Coast is stunning. One very good location though we had rain while kayaking there is Okarito Bay. A place I have always wanted to go. And yip we saw a number of White Herons. Lovely birds and the view from a kayak is the best way to check them out.

After a few days here it was through to Wanaka for a night before heading onto Queenstown. One thing I knew but really struck me on this trip was how diverse NZ is. Also how lovely the place really is. It sounds soppy but I guess you realize these things when you are away in the big wide world. That morning we were gazing at a glacier just 300m above sea level in the rain and mist. An hour later we are driving through the likes of Bruce Bay and the rest of South Westland. One of the wettest places on earth. Up over the Hasst Pass and all its waterfalls and then down towards Lake Wanaka and Hawea. Here the climate, scenery and vegetation is stark by contrast. The lakes are turquoise blue and the sheep numerous, not to mention the vineyards and orchards. All this in a day. It really puts it into perspective when you can drive for a day solid in the States and see little change.

Don’t get me wrong the States has some very cool places, many which I have yet to get to, but what I noticed back home is the closeness and proximately of ecosystems and also that none of the scenery is boring. It’s always changing. Oh and the best thing after living in SoCal is it feels like NZ is empty. Geez to think I use to moan about the traffic in Chch. Haha – Its funny to think about it. I saw in the 2hr drive from LAX back to Redlands more cars than I had in the whole trip to NZ combined. Probably many many more infact.

Anyhow we stayed in Queenstown in a great hotel room with a view of the Lake for cheap thanks to Gemma (cousin) working there. Qtown is a great spot and we checked out the view from Qtown hill amongst other spots. Also went River Boarding. Basically it was a 5km stretch of the Kawarau river of numerous Grade 3 rapids. Snds easy. Man it was hard work. Just yourself, fins and a body board. My ankle really got a beating. A highlight was certainly the water slide at the end of the trip that spat you out into the fast flowing gorge. Lucky there was a jet ski to pick you up. Bridge found this scarier than rafting the mighty Zambezi and that was Graded 5+. There is some comfort to having a big rubber thing filled with air to sit in.

After heaps of good food in Queenstown. Man don’t ever let me get the fudge from the ‘Remarkable Sweet Shop’ again not to mention the pies from the Arrowtown bakery. Dam they tasted so good. I should really start a pie shop over here. Minted Lamb and Steak, Bacon and Cheese :-), we headed over Lindis Pass not without stopping in Cromwell to get a real fruit ice-cream. Something I have always done when passing through Cromwell. We drove to Lake Ohau and had a lovely dinner at the Ski Lodge overlooking the lake. The dinner was lamb which made sense after earlier that day having to shoo them off the road when driving up to the head of the Huxley Valley. For hours we keep an eye on the storms brewing at the head of the valley toward Mt Cook Nat Park.

Blue Lake at Mt Cook Nat park was the last stop of the trip before heading back to Timaru. Wow I can’t believe it’s taken me that long to see it. Huge iceburgs had carved off the Tasman glacier. Just how big??? Well in the pictures look out for the boats carrying 15 odd tourists to give them a close up view of the burgs. That really gave the burgs, lake and mtns a huge sense of scale. You feel real small in these locations. Well worth a visit by everyone.

The rest of my time in NZ consisted of time with family in Timaru and a couple of days in Welly catching up with mates. Including an evening at the Syn Bar and the great Hell’s pizza. Oh and Monteiths. Yet another thing I was greatly missing from NZ.

The trip through Fiji back to LA took forever with a 7hr layover. We could not really leave the area either due to the floods so the resort over the road from the airport had to suffice for a few ‘Fiji’ beers. From the plane I could see numerous flooded houses, agricultural lands and roads. Looked pretty devastating.

All up a great trip. It has given me lots to think about but I gotta say NZ is a great spot to have a passport from :-)

Skydiving Video

2008-12-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

Skydiving in Las Vegas from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

Las Vegas Blowout

2008-12-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

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!!!

Kiwi's In LA Dinner

2008-12-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

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.

Santa Joke - Golden

2008-12-14T22:02:00.001-08:00

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.

Sedona (Arizona) MTB Trip

2008-12-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

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.

Some Work Stuff - An NZ Topographical Map

2008-12-04T08:25:00.000-08:00

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

Later,
Kurt

Road Ride to Onyx Summit

2008-11-23T20:22:00.000-08:00

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.

A Hike Up San Bernardino Peak

2008-11-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

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.

AirNZ Cranial Billboards

2008-11-23T19:37:00.000-08:00

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

Sitting down for lunch in San Diego halfway through a 60 mile ride along the coast with Derek.

Rampage Video

2008-11-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

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.

Rampaging in Southern Utah

2008-10-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

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/

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park

2008-09-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

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:

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...

The canyon itself is much deeper than the Grand Canyon. Up to 8000ft in the deepest spot from river to ridge
Roaring River Falls

Sequoia Nat Park Highlights included:

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?

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

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.
So all up other than the overheating car and pollution and smog migrating up from the riff raff below in the central valley (I thought LA pollution was bad) it was a great trip. It has got me all keen to oneday do the 'ultimate' North American Roadtrip. So, so many good places to see and it does not need to be too expensive if you camp as often as you can.

Enjoy the lovely pics below.

The Getty Centre - Los Angeles

2008-09-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Canada, BC Mountain Biking Trip with Seattle as an added bonus

2008-09-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

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...

Climbing San Jacinto & Some Pics from NZ

2008-08-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

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

Lake Havasu - Stag Weekend

2008-07-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

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.

SART Store Loop Ride

2008-07-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Video from Mammoth Mountain Biking

2008-07-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Independance Weekend at Mammoth Mountain Downhilliing

2008-07-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

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.

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...

Huntington Beach & Hollywood

2008-06-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

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.

A Slog up the highest Pk in Southern California

2008-06-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

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...

Baseball, Beach, Swimming, Food Markets, Touch Rugby - What a weekend!!!

2008-06-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

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.

A Great Stadium. Sits about 52000 people.

Love having a camera with a big zoom...

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.

Its hot work running round in the sun on the sand...

One of the many poses. Still do note there is no woman sitting next to him :-)

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.

First Kiwis to Visit Me

2008-06-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted which is not really all that long but I have been up to a bunch of stuff in that ensuing time. First and foremost I had my first Kiwi friends visit. Was great to see both Emily and Chris for 5 days before they took off in their Blood Red Rental Chrysler PT Cruiser for a great few week road trip from my place, through Las Vegas, to the Grand Canyon, up through Utah to finish in either Idaho or Montana before Chris competes in an Adventure Race.

They were not here for a weekend which was bad timing but I managed to take them to some yummy places for dinner, and on a Mtb ride in the local hills, as well as a little climb up to Forrest Falls.

The highlight however was taking the day off and heading to Six Flags Magic Mountain. A theme park which can only be described as one thing… Roller Coaster Mania!!! It’s essentially all we did for the whole day after a large 100 mile drive out there. Man I still cannot get over how many people on the freeways are in their cars by themselves. Despite the traffic we had a pretty clean run out there as we could use the single transit lane (you need 2 or more people in your car to take advantage of this lane). So here we are zipping along at 70miles while 4 or 5 lanes of traffic right next to us with single people (or dumb people) were chugging along at 30 miles. Go figure aye…

Anyhow I have a few pics of Magic Mountain and a video also. I was lots more brave after getting use to big rides on the Gold Coast earlier in the year, and with the addition of my small camera, well I had the guts to hang onto in on a few of the rides. I loved ‘The Riddler’, a standup coaster and the ‘Viper’ with 7 loops (both have video). Well in fact I liked most of them bar a very tame water ride. By far the scariest was the last ride we did with a line of 45 mins. It was called ‘Tatsu’ and is essentially a lie down coaster. It’s so scary because you are at the mercy of the machine completely the way it holds on to you, also because you cannot see where you are going. Freaky but real fun. It was the only one that I actually did not want it to last longer. No video of this sorry bar a little from the ground. J One thing missing was themed rides. They are often surprising amounts of fun like the ‘Scooby Doo’ ride on the Gold Coast at Movieworld, however I suspect all these rides and no doubt better ones are at Universal Studios.

Anyhow I had a great time with Em and Chris and I hope to entertain more of you with the delights of an oversized, overpopulated, smog ridden metropolis again soon J. Who will be next to visit me???

1st Race in the States...

2008-06-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

First up I have put a video on youtube of some fun riding up at Big Bear. It was more technical track than last week and I had my big bike with me this time so it was great fun. Link is here. Make sure you have the player turned to high quality otherwise it does not look that good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl2KNyipuhM

Righto so I was meant to go to Sequoia and Kings Canyon Nat park but had been feeling bad for a while. Bronchitis has been doing the rounds and the feeling it in my chest last week so was not super keen on heading away for the weekend. However on Sat I improved a bit, still not right but enough to give my first Mtb race a nudge over here in the States. It was the Big Bear Shootout. Part of the Southern California MTB Champs. Anyhow it went real well. The whole race was above 2000m so that was interesting and the temp was 20 degrees so perfect for racing really. I entered the Sport Class, I will end up in the expert eventually I imagine. Anyhow I lined up on the start line for the race and was a little worried. People over here really have the gears, flash bikes, full matching lycra and here I was on my trusty steel stead with baggies on and an old torn Dons Bikes Race top the boys who are sponsored by them wanted me to wear.

Anyhow the race started and we were off. One guy shoot off and I thought "Arh,,, here we go... Pain, Pain, Pain". I just stuck with the group for a few mins and let the legs warm up then decided that it was strange as I thought the pace would have been harder. Anyhow I moved up a gear and pulled away and caught up with the guy that shoot off. He had blown-up (predictable) hang with him for a bit then decided to move it up another notch. To cut the story short I did not see anyone from my class again and bet 2nd place (yep I got first) by about 4 mins.

So yeah a great wee race to kick things off. With more prep and a few more sport races I will be keen to move into the faster Expert division. We shall see.

The last downhill was awesome. Most people seemed to ride it pretty well. I passed a bunch of people, it was real technical and pretty scary at speed. Very cool :-) Big Grins

One thing I have noticed, its hard to tell yet but the fields are tighter. Basically less 'Sunday riders' than at home. The people that participate seem to be pretty into it overall really and its there passion. Back home you get some real 'slow' people but they are giving it a go which is great which spreads the field out. Over here those that enter appear are a bit more serious. So yeah its good and bad I guess. Good for racing as it might be more competitive, but maybe its a less inviting more formal environment which scares some people away that would have raced had it been in the NZ scene. Don't get me wrong though. The top guys back home are as fast as the top guys here. Just and observation form my first race. I may well change this opinion.

Race Stats:

34km
1000m Climbing
Prob 70% fireroad (but fun fireroad, well the downs that is)
Rest single-track
Total time 1hr 36mins.
Liquid consumed in the hours following the race - many many gallons.

Yep. They all raise there hands over here like real gumbies...

Riding at Big Bear & Hiking at Idyllwild

2008-05-19T20:52:00.001-07:00

Before I start off this is a Great Video. Basically based around a Kiwi Huey Pilot taking the 'piss' out of Aussie Jet Pilots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BzU1sYPjzo

I have just spent a great weekend up in the Mountains, and a good weekend it was to leave the heaving metropolis behind. Down here in Redlands and the Inland Empire the temps got above 100f or about 40 degrees C. This is smoking hot and something we New Zealander's are not use too. The closest I have come to this back home is in the McKenzie Country and that's not all the time. Over here I can look forward to weeks of these temps and hotter in a row. Great huh...

I just got back from a ride after work to see if I could handle the heat. It went better than I thought. Prob around 36 degrees when I left work. It was strange though as I did not sweat as much as I thought because the heat and lack of humidity meant that the moisture just evaporated before it ran off me in small waterfalls as some of you fellows know occurs when I exert myself hard. Ever seen me after a lap of a 12 or 24hr MTB race??? Well you prob don't want too!!!

Anyhow on the Saturday just passed we tried to get out of the heat by driving up to Big Bear (via Onyx Summit 2600m) to try out some of the Trails at Snow Summit via the chair lift. We had a few newbies with us and some average bikes which meant I spent lots of time on a fully ridged 15yr old bike while Tabetha enjoyed the pleasures of the DMR. A bike I love having here as I have yet to see another one here in the States. Next time I will definitely have the Enduro up the hill also mind you. I did miss the full sus goodness.

Up the Snow Summit Chair lift with the bikes. Its a great learner Snowboard Mtn so I look forward to that after the 5 months of living in an oven.

Big Bear Lake (2100m asl)

Some of the Trails

This is steeper than it looks and is a great effort for the first time Mountain Biking... Hmm! must be the DMR :-)

The High Altitude glare off Big Bear Lake.

The Camry loaded up heading down to the 'High Desert'. We took the long way home. Some great Mtn roads to stretch the legs of my new old car.

So Big Bear was pretty cool to ride overall. Certainly not Downhill riding as such. It use to be but they stopped that due to erosion and because they got sued when someone broke there back or neck riding there a few years ago. Yep this is the land of Denny Crane. Still from an XC fun point of view its a good spot to go. I'm sure there are many more trails to find also. Bring on Mammoth Mtn in June, then Whistler in August. Can't wait.

The next day since it was yet another hot one I wanted to check out San Jacinto State Park. San Jacinto rises about 3000mm from the desert floor and is a big day climb/challenge called the 'Cactus to the Clouds' that I want to do at some stage this year. Idyllwild is the Mtn town in the Shadow of San Jacinto Pk and was our destination for Lunch before doing a small climb to a lesser peak in the sweltering heat. It was a lovely area and the Mtns seem really easy to climb in someways. Back home if you are above 2000m it is proper alpine and the tree line has long since diminished and you are either rock climbing/scrambling or on ice and snowpacks. This is not the case here due to different tree species and a warmer climate in summer. As you will see in the pics below trees cover San Jacinto Peak which is about 3300m high.

Leaving the Interstate and Palm Springs valley behind and heading up into the hills of San Jacinto State Park. The Mountains in the background are the San Bernardino's incorporating Big Bear.

This is a Trike. A 3 wheeler with a Motorcycle engine on the front. Strange alright but a cool way to travel and it sounded real good.

Speaking of small furry animals I managed to see a few chipmunks on our hike up here. Made sense as there were acorn trees everywhere.

Idyllwild is a great wee Mtn town just 1hr from my place. Can't wait to Mtb here. There is very good riding apparently.

Goes without saying. Had to take this since there is dutch blood running through my veins. Hey Oma I would take you here for lunch if you ever made it out here to see me :-) For those that don't know Oma = Grandma in Dutch

A lovely wee stream basking in the continuous weekend sunlight. There was no respite until it dropped below the horizon for the night.

San Jacinto Pk in the background. The Cactus to the Clouds climb starts in the Desert almost 3000m below the summit on the other side of this peak.

Hermosa Beach, David Beckham and Ladybugs

2008-05-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well a couple of weekends ago I headed down to Hermosa beach with a few of the boys. We played some American Footy and hang out at a bar for the afternoon. Gotta love happy hour :-)
Hermosa Beach was a nice spot but the weather was overcast and not very warm so certainly not swimming weather.

The Hermosa Beach Pier

After lounging around in Hermosa we arrived late at the Home Depot Center. This is the home of Beckham and the LA Galaxy Soccer team. It was actually a pretty decent game. A bit of action but LA have terrible defense and after coming back from a goal down they let the New York team leisurely stroll through their lacking defense to score a good goal. Beckham also got a yellow card. He fully deserved it but you would have thought that everyone was just told they had had there car stolen. They worship the guy here, think he's the bees knees. He played ok but is a bit lazy these days, just his delft touches being all that remain of his former self.

The next day I headed up the into the local San Bernardino Mtns with a friend from work. She is into tramping (well hiking as they say in these parts) and the outdoors and that's a bit of a rare find over here, though I am slowly meeting a few more people interested in getting into the great outdoors, be it biking, hiking or camping. Anyhow we headed up to Forrest Falls. A lovely wee spot and just 30 mins drive from Redlands. The Mtns are just so different here, and the flora and fauna.

Had to play round a bit. Heaps of fun climbing round the bottom of the falls. There were some nice but pretty advances cruxes around for you guys into rock climbing virgin spots with Natural Pro. A couple of pitches would get you to the top of the falls. The rock is also all granite so has heaps of grip and is pretty trustworthy. Not to the quality of the Darrens back home in Fiordland though.

Yep, they have ladybugs over here to. Some things are the same :-)