The Shore - by night!

Being a night ride, there weren't any pictures of it but it was fun. This was my first night ride in Canada and so obviously we started steady - with a black diamond - CBC. I know it pretty well (in the daylight) but it was really odd at night.

It was also my first time riding on skinny wood at night - that was the real wierd thing - I couldnt seem to find my balance - in fact so much so that I lost my balance and had to jump off the bike into the pitch black who-knows-what off the millenium log! Scary but fotunately I landed on nice level ground so no broken/twisted/strainded ankles - phew!

Since then I've done a couple more night rides but this time with a helmet mounted light and wow what a difference. It does make it hard to spot stuff on the track but you can still see where you're going when you jump!

Fun fun FUN!

Ridin' the classics - Pink Starfish

So, since I've been here I've wanted to ride a little trail on Mt Fromme called "Pink Starfish" it's infamous but pretty old now. Today was the day courtesy of Jon, Rich and Ewan.

We met this rather unfriendly local on the way up....... it was only a couple feet long so we managed to fight it off ;-)







there's some really funky stuff on PS, like this skinny-log-skinny-log-skinny thing (thats Rich in the photo)
















Jon just about to clean it with a really fearce look on his face!


















Ewan



















Rich again, this time dropping into a real gnarly bit - awkward corner to steep off-camber rocks to gnarly roots and rocks - all of which is on a corner - sweet!
















here's headless Ewan rolling... this rock is actually pretty steep and accessed via a skinny ladder



By the way. What do you think of the new camera?????

October 17th - Happy Birthday Aachal!!

It was Aach's birthday today, Andy got her a cake - what a nice lad!
















It was a very emotional experience.... awww













For those that don't know, Aachal is from the British colony of Fiji









It's a bunch of islands in the South Pacific, near(ish) Australia

















Aach is from Viti Levu, the biggest island. Her dad still lives there but her mum lives on Vanua Levu, the second largest island in one of the more tourist-orientated towns








but it all looks pretty much like this.....
























































































Happy Birthday Hun :-)

Workin 9-5!.....well, more like 5-9 but who's counting?!

Yes that's right. I got a job. More accurately a-nother job to add to my College computer lab duties and my English tutoring. The difference this time is that it's a real job.

I'm working as a move manager for a small company that orchestrates office moves mostly for the Canadian Government - so far I've spent all my weekends moving Canada Revenue - the equivalent of British Inland Revenue.

This has all been made possible by a change in the law during the summer that allows international students to work up to 20 hours a week. It's pretty handy too as my extended stay here doesnt come cheap - college fees alone are over $18,000 a year, plus books, food, lodging, skiing, biking ;-)

All is going well though, and they already cant live without me ;-)

....and finally. What about the photo then? Half Man, half what? Donkey? Cauliflower? Potato Peeler? ......clean suggestions welcome!!

Last Day of the bike park :-(

The 9th October was the final day of Whistler Bike Park 2006 :-( obviously me and the boys (Jon and Rich) had to be there.

It was one of my best days in the park so far :-) We did all our favourite runs (again and again) and actually found the conditions to be the best of the whole year! How crazy is that!!

One of our favourite bits (actually my personal favourite thing on a bike anywhere) is this rock drop/jump thingy. Here's me flyin' off it

It's quite high up on the mountain, you come tearing down the track, turn hard right and hard left of over a mass of roots, get one or two pedal strokes in and you're in the air - it's brilliant - the effect is made all the better by exiting the trees into open space all around - it feels like shooting out of the exploding deathstar in that film. In summer, there's even a trail of dusk following you to add to the FX....





Here's Rich

....then, nothing but the buzz of the backwheel until you touchdown 10ft lower and 15ft out - so softly your granny could do it! And then the bonus - the huuuuge injection of speed you get from landing - as Ferris would say, "if you have the means, I highly recommend it".






Finally our Jon showing his BMX roots "giving her" some style. Nice one mate.













But all too soon it was over, the run, the day, the season. But what is this we see.....

....could it be snow? I think it might be...... :-)

Goodbye Foreplay :-( Goodbye Hummer :-( Hello Nemesis :-)

More bike stories.....

Well yes, I had three bikes up until recently. I'd been toying with the idea of selling two to buy one and the Shocker repair pushed me over the edge to raise some cash. So the two hard-tails went and have now been replaced with a Brodie Nemesis. It's a sweet ride, short travel, low slung, slack angles and built to last. Perfect for chuckin' around The Shore :-)

Oops, I broke it :-(

So, I was just riding along (a bit of wood) and the front wheel slipped on the damp wood - next thing I know I'm heading head-first into a pile of pointy rocks - "oh my" I thought (or something similar) Fortunately I landed on my head and my trusty Troy Lee helmet saved the day (and my bones) Phew!

Unfortunately, a moment or two after my "touchdown" my bike followed and hit one of the rocks in a weird way, and I succeeded in writing off the whole back of the bike :-(

Fortunately (have you noticed the structure? - as my English teachers would say!) being Vancouver, I merely dropped off my very rare bike off on the way home and it was fixed the next day :-) I wont go into the cost, it troubles me :-|