Monday, June 24, 2013
Vancouver to Squamish trail delight
Cananda, Squamish
After a few internal USA flights which we got hit up $100 each leg for excess baggage, we touched down in Vancouver, Canada. We picked up our new house on wheels from the airport, a 24ft sick ass campervan. On exiting the airport I miss judged the height of the boom gates and got stuck under the gate and ripped off a light, a great start!
We headed 1:30hr North of Vancouver to the small town of Squamish. The town is a sesspit for adventure sports people. From mind boggling cliffs for climbers, high vert peaks for base jumpers, snow fed canyons for kayakers and some of the most technical and aggressive mountain bike tracks I have ever ridden, this place rocks! 90% of all vehicles have bike racks and the other 10% are towing snow mobiles and motorcross bikes.
Squamish mountain bike tracks are made up of some serious riding from flowy groomed berms to rocks, roots and mud patches the riding keeps you engaged at all times. I have been trying to ride some of the tracks that the BC race touches on day 6, and can confirm that I suck hard. Well the good thing is that there is heaps of climbing, we have been ridng 30-40km’s per day and you spend 80% of your time switch backing up the side of a 25% gradient to bomb down one of the 100 or so single track downhills (just need to avoid the 20ft drop off’s or huge structure’s that have a 10ft gap to clear). Its no mystery why we haven’t come across many other riders on XC bikes and just surrounded by guys on fat travel all mountain and downhill bikes. 40kms also taking a comparable time frame to my usual 100kms, as has proven fairly easy to get lost and stopping to pull out map and consult the Magellan GPS every other trail crossing and intersection really pushes out the time! Not to worry though as staying light here until nearly 10pm which so far we’ve made it back before dark and not run into any bears or mountain lions!
We had awesome weather the first couple days but now just to add some spice, today it is pissing with rain non-stop and no doubt going to make those roots and rocks a little more challenging and energy sapping. I used to think this race would suit me, now that I am here and riding some of the most techie trails in the world, I will be happy just to finish with no injuries as the trails beg you to go harder and faster than you know is good for you and befor you know it you have hit a wet root fishtailing into a tree.
Next stop Whislter to suss out what they have to offer!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Over the past year Magellan GPS has allowed me to attend and race the best races in Australia and New Zealand from MTB,road,multi-sport to tough mudder, although it’s work, it has been super cool to work at something you are passionate about and have vision on product developments. Logging riding data everyday and analysing my stats has given me more focus to set goals and I have to admit it hasn't got stale!Suppose the key is always keep things fresh, and I have been lucky enough to be riding some awesome Rocky Mountain MTB bikes and Jamis cyclocross bikes having the ablity to mix my riding and training up from road to dirt. The BC race I will be ridng the Rocky Mountain Element 999 with full Sram XX1 and beleive is the perfect all mountain bike at sub 10kg's I will be expected to bat above my average.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Mid winter swells reeling
Mid Winter update
Ok so it has been a while to get around updating my blog, cos really it has been hard to find the time over the past 12 weeks of summertimes, I mean winter swells to find a gap.
Winter thus far has been so mild with only a handful of rainy day over the past 3 months, but still heaps of barrels and a few tow sessions nothing that will take the cake for the Rebel awards yet but watch this space as a big 7m swell hits us on Saturday. So crossing my fingers we have the a new battery in the ski - check! Now let me tell you pre-ops are an essential part of tow surfing, ensuring everything is 100%, but no matter how much time you spend on pre-op’s a curveball will always be thrown at you. As the below picks will show you the situation we found ourselves in 2 weeks ago when the battery decided to die mid session out at Sunset… yes it was a totally mission but between Rick, Sammo and Mad Mike we put our heads together and got the ski semi safely to KlienSlangkop to change the battery and get it back to the slipway. After having to pull Sammo and Ricks out the water drive around to where our ski was beached swap batteries and then mission home total 3 hrs!
Tow session at Sunnies just two of us out, look closely and will see a midget!
Otherwise Dunes is the new Long Beach and heaps of days down there have been super fun and the odd Kbay session in between.
Another mild winter slab no one around!!!
Then we have also made a few 3am west coast missions with the ski to surf this big lefthander, which found me left behind by the Ou’s (crossed comm’s) in the middle of nowhere- no clothes, no water, no food however managed to get a lift in the back of Andy’s bakkie back to town to find the guys kicking back sucking beers and watching the rugga’s in the local westkis pub!
Ok so it has been a while to get around updating my blog, cos really it has been hard to find the time over the past 12 weeks of summertimes, I mean winter swells to find a gap.
Winter thus far has been so mild with only a handful of rainy day over the past 3 months, but still heaps of barrels and a few tow sessions nothing that will take the cake for the Rebel awards yet but watch this space as a big 7m swell hits us on Saturday. So crossing my fingers we have the a new battery in the ski - check! Now let me tell you pre-ops are an essential part of tow surfing, ensuring everything is 100%, but no matter how much time you spend on pre-op’s a curveball will always be thrown at you. As the below picks will show you the situation we found ourselves in 2 weeks ago when the battery decided to die mid session out at Sunset… yes it was a totally mission but between Rick, Sammo and Mad Mike we put our heads together and got the ski semi safely to KlienSlangkop to change the battery and get it back to the slipway. After having to pull Sammo and Ricks out the water drive around to where our ski was beached swap batteries and then mission home total 3 hrs!
Tow session at Sunnies just two of us out, look closely and will see a midget!
Otherwise Dunes is the new Long Beach and heaps of days down there have been super fun and the odd Kbay session in between.
Another mild winter slab no one around!!!
Then we have also made a few 3am west coast missions with the ski to surf this big lefthander, which found me left behind by the Ou’s (crossed comm’s) in the middle of nowhere- no clothes, no water, no food however managed to get a lift in the back of Andy’s bakkie back to town to find the guys kicking back sucking beers and watching the rugga’s in the local westkis pub!
Early 6am launch mission:
Got some solid walls way up Northwest
Now that my leg has heeled I have been hammering the km’s on the bike daily and feel as strong as ever and been handed new pass on life after my NDE. Have a cool goal to ride with the Cycle Lab team on the Double century race in Nov. But am training most mornings at 5:30am with Mat who has proved to inspire me get my butt of bed in the freezing cold and layer up with all the riding gear I can find from merino glove to my neck warmer… but still warmer than NZ!
Also a quick heads up was lucky enough to get invited to the movie premier of Life cycles http://www.lifecyclesfilm.com/ , if you get chance to see this insane visual display of cinematography capturing some of the best downhill MTBing I have seen!
Cool will keep updated as the winter swells are just starting to reel in!!!!exciting ….
Got some solid walls way up Northwest
Now that my leg has heeled I have been hammering the km’s on the bike daily and feel as strong as ever and been handed new pass on life after my NDE. Have a cool goal to ride with the Cycle Lab team on the Double century race in Nov. But am training most mornings at 5:30am with Mat who has proved to inspire me get my butt of bed in the freezing cold and layer up with all the riding gear I can find from merino glove to my neck warmer… but still warmer than NZ!
Also a quick heads up was lucky enough to get invited to the movie premier of Life cycles http://www.lifecyclesfilm.com/ , if you get chance to see this insane visual display of cinematography capturing some of the best downhill MTBing I have seen!
Cool will keep updated as the winter swells are just starting to reel in!!!!exciting ….
Friday, June 3, 2011
Lucky to be Alive from Bayview jump off!
Well it has been 3 days till I could bring myself to face the reality that I am a mere mortal and Neptune is always the one with more power. No matter how fit and strong a person is the ocean can dominate you at any point and you can see how happy I am standing above with a few new sticks to charge with to the story which unfolds below:
Arrived to pumping Bayview...the ampt was high!!!Quick quick lets get on it!NOte the unfriendly rock cliffs!!!
My lesson 101 of patience and sometimes the longer safer road may be the better road to take rather than get out there now quick as it is pumping 15ft and other Ou’s are getting waves… is not the right option.
We drove for 2 hrs up to Hermanus to find Bayview cooking 10-15ft reeling down the bay with a fair crew on it… quick quick lets get out there the convo with Seth went knowing he had to be back in CT by 4pm. Wax up the 8.6 and dart down the pipeline which I always jump off when it is 10ft plus. Now the jump at the best of time is gnarly and requires a set of balls and impeccable timing as many have sat out there and pondered what if you actually got done on those rocks? You would be screwed is the common outcome, as it is a vertical cliff with 8ft whitewaters pounding the knobbly rocks with such force. The census is that you would die. Well I am glad to say I am living proof that is not the case! Yes I timed it wrong, well should I say Neptune throw a curve ball at me in between the sets, it seem dead flat but rather a small closer in wave broke 30metres away from me when I was stand at the point of no return on the cliff face thinking “ Ok I can jump over this white water” but didn’t expect the wave to crash even harder on the rocks I was on 10metres away from me and exploding 12ft higher than me so at this point the best thing I could think of to do is jump into the turmoil of white ball with my brand new (1 surf old) 8.6 an hope for the best. Well at this stage the best was to come out ALIVE. I got hammered and slammed dunked on the cliffs from all angles – felt like 50 guys with steel toe boots where kicking me as hard as they could. I smashed my shoulder, elbow, lat, head both sides, cheek bone, foot and worst of all my hip. Which was like jumping out a car at 60km/h onto concrete, leaving unable to move my lower half. After the waves past I found myself on a dry ledge 20ft out the water, with my board dangling down below with a new rocker setup- bit like a L-shape. I jumped down in the water to meet Seth who all this time was hiding behind a ledge with his 10.2 in hand, which the 12ft high white water had crashed over him but survived. His eyes wide open and the only words to come out where “ Fuck are you alright? ” At this point I didn’t really know the adrenaline was pumping so high and my focus was on just staying concussion as if I was to blank out under water that would be me dead. So I think I said like “ sh+-,* I think I am pretty f**& up” and my board is gone. On inspection of my board once we had paddled beyond the breakline I found that I had snapped 2 fins, all my rails where smashed and the my brand new board was snapped in 2 = R4000 down the drain.
Went to the chat to the guys in the line up, not really thinking too clearly as was running on adrenaline, the only option was to paddle back up the point 30mins to the old harbour to get out as to negotiate 15ft waves in would be kind of silly! Not too mention silly would be not to just paddle out from the old harbour and save myself the trauma that I had just been through. So paddled by myself through the shark infested water bleeding everywhere with 2 x 4ft boards for 30 mins and the hit land to discover I could really stand on my hip!
So hobbled up the harbour in the town square with all the tourists skimming were has this dude come from and what the hell is he doing! Till some nice +-35yrs old lady who has just come out of Bayview hotel getting her nails done checks me out as says “ you guys are crazy” my response was “mmm suppose so” then she sees me hobbling a little more till she grasps “ shit are you OK? can I give you a lift?” – hell yeah I take a lift 2 km back to the car as I can’t walk at all and feel like a train has run over me. So I get the 8.6 inside her brand new R350 000 Toyota Fortuner and she insisted that I just sit on her leather seats so didn’t argue the point and she drove me to our car and could only offer me some deep heat which at this point I was going to take anything that would easy the pain or suspect may come handy.
Back at the car I had to get Mickey D undress me taking my suit off was slightly painful, peeling all the scabs off as the suit was ripped off me, Andy M to put my pants and socks on and then listen to all the guys ranting on how sick the waves where! Pain pain and more pain as I hadn’t even caught one wave the whole day…but hay I am alive and not dead…so it’s a good day!
3 days later I have been lying in bed, icing every 30 mins, arnica- pills and gel, hot baths then ice, positive thoughts and read a whole book in 2 days (record for me- “The Alchemist” positively inspiring book to help me set new goals whilst down and out). 100% focusing on rehab on my hip, which I have self-internet diagnosed as “traumatic bursitis” of the hip and hoping that no bones are chipped or broken. As will only be able to tell once the rugby ball size lump of fluid and bruising has subsided. Also my nurse Carrie has wonderful the first 2 days but think I have used up all my please can you pass me the…
I have set myself till tomorrow when I am going to try get onto the spin bike, and see how it feel and hope to be back in the water after 10 days, otherwise till then it is slow low impact road bike rides to get mobile…Thanks to everyone who has call me up or dropped by to get me a Howzit!
3days later pic, fluid dripping down
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Sani2C Team Olympic Cycles
Wow wow wow, is 3 words (if they are really words) on how I would start to describe the Sani2C 3 day stage race.
I was lucky enough to obtain a much sort after international entry to the event based on my oversea’s race results and snapped up the relatively cheap R4000 race fee quick stix. As I raced the Cape Epic and Carrie supported us knowing her heart really wanted to ride the Epic this year, I choose this race to be a relationship-building event with my love. Some take there partners to Indo or the a chilled island the Philippines’s to sit back and sip cocktails we choose an endurance event which covered 300km’s of insane African terrain mixed with some of the best single track and loads good farm style kos. The Sani2C is one event I would say to anyone who is lucky enough to get an entry is a must do in one’s life.
It starts in the Underberg 1700km from Cape Town which is about a 24hr drive and end in Scottsburgh on the Natal coastline. Which also is a sick right-hander break that offers a super ripperable waves on most days. So plan was to take two days to drive up, surfing along the way. Had good Lookout on the new super bank along with all the newfound locals. But did get it late in the evening all to ourselves plus a few floating logs, trees, doors and even a dinghy which sat in the middle of the line up! The thought of those big fish did cross my mind as that river mouth has some serious shit float out it and is super wide at the mo. But didn’t bring that up with Carrie as she was having a blast on the mellow right hander running for 50m down the bank to ourselves. We camped down at the Keurbooms river and the Landies rooftop tent is just so insane, we are hooked. Next stop before hitting the next 1000 to Underberg was Jbay on the Tuesday, we rocked up and found 3-4ft waves with min Ou’s on it so surfed for 5 hrs till 4pm that day with only 6 others with some 6ft sets reeling down supers point. I just couldn’t stop saying to Carrie “this never happens, we so lucky!!!” Couldn’t get over that we had it so uncrowded.
Floating over impossibles (click to enlarge pic if wanted):
Snap snap at Supers:
Even snabbed a barrells all to myself earley in the morning:
Didn’t take pic’s but above pics are of on the return trip. Just can’t say no to surfing Supers. So this is where the endurance event started surfed Supers for 5 hrs got out once the car was packed with the bikes and boards couldn’t find the car key!Doh unpack and find key slammed in rear door and yes the PC chipset in the electronic key was toasted. So 5pm the day before “Voting day” so Wednesday is a public holiday (to courier the spare key would have been R3000min- no chance ) we are sitting in Jbay not being able to start the Landy…cut a long story short we couldn’t drive anywhere slept at the Dace’s in Cape St Francois (Jade and Tant our savoury’s) had to rent a car for PE airport at 10am morning and drive 12 hrs to Underberg in a Tata 1.1 engine with 2 bikes, 2 surfboards and all our shit – arrived there at 8.30pm and where the last people to register and had no where to stay (as had planned to sleep in Rooftop tent on Landy which was sitting at PE airport immobilized). But our Karma turned around and one of the organizers said “no you come stay with us on our farm after the hassles you have gone through to get here”. So rocked up to her farm 5km out and had set us up in a sweet rondavel with double bed and down doona and woke up at 5am to a full breakfast laid out for us prior to hopping on the bike for 70km for the day.So to just start the race was awesome for us as things where looking pretty bleak at one stage in Jbay with no car, no key and a public holiday with everything closed the next day! Stoked to be lined up at the start line in our Offical race team Olymipic cycles kit http://www.olympiccycles.co.za/ with Carrie lining up at her first multi day race. Day 1- 87km was filled with some good flowing fast tracks which took us 4.11hrs to complete. Carrie rode well and recovered well for day 2 which was to be the best day in the saddle that any mountain biker could experience.
It start with 10km of fun flat tights single tracks to drop us down a fast 14km switchback groomed single track with breathtaking Umkomaas valley views…just so insane so I won’t rant on about too much!But Like I said you just gotta do it to experience it!Also had the best water stop ever at about the 60km point – I had 2 x Nando’s chicken burgers, 2 x Jam doughnuts, had my sunglasses polished by a 1st grader, some fruit, sweets and farm baked banana bread and some juice to flush down. Then hit the toughest climb of the day 5 mins later, love it, felt like bloated Wilderbeast climbing up a cliff. Finished riding a tough 96km in 6hrs ps: Around the 50km point Carrie started to realized stage racing is kind of tough, pps: around the 80km Carrie mumbled the words “ I am going to puke” followed 15mins later by “ I can do endurance” and little pushing and pulling from her beloved partner (after all this was a relationship building exercise) and yes finished within the top 20 mixed team that day and gained 50 positions overall. So a great day!
Day 3 was relatively short and fast 78km through the cane fields with some fast descents, however became fun when we started to ride along side another mixed team who where also trying to race for top 20 spot. Out came the fire and the will of the two girls (us guys just chatted and shared nutrition advice while the girls sweated it out) even to the point of them both riding through the water points and leaving us guys to stop and grab food and then catch up. Yes the race was on and now it was fun (yes I love to race and beat people!!! But turns out Carrie does too) so the relationship building excerise is really working now! So we raced head to head for +-40km to the last 2km where they sent us over the Scottburgh beach (where the sweet right hander is) and had built a scaffolding structure which we had to ride over. Carrie infront me behind – looking at the surf then rode off the side of the structure to slam dunked myself so hard off the structure –blood everywhere, baseball size nugget on my leg muscle, camera’s everywhere and crowds of people all gasping – yes I AM A MUPPET! 2km from the end after 300km I eat shit hard! In front of the crowd- yes MUPPET. Now the race with the chicks is still on and I have to pick myself up wipe some blood off and chase Carrie who certain didn’t wait for her competent boyfriend (Not) to find there was a 1,5km 15% uphill to the finish line. My leg is feeling like hulk kicked me with steel toe boots and now have to pull Carrie up the hill out the saddle as the other guy is dragging is chick up the hill 20 m ahead of us –pushing his limits…and that’s where I end this story as there was no happy ending…I didn’t catch him and we didn’t beat them but finished 20th in the mixed couples with blood all over me and not being able to walk or surf but with a big smile and a partner who gave it her all and push new boundaries…and the relationship still in tacked! Success in anyones words…P
The hill after 2 xburgers + everything else on the table : note Carrie not smiling
as the hill was named " A Push of a hill":
Fresh start after endurance driving of note in TATA 1.1 at 120km
The 100m man made bridge to cross-awazing
Sleeping amoungst the Maccadamia trees:
as the hill was named " A Push of a hill":
Fresh start after endurance driving of note in TATA 1.1 at 120km
The 100m man made bridge to cross-awazing
Sleeping amoungst the Maccadamia trees:
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