Finally back on-line

finally got hooked up with internet at home so now i can spend all day (when it rains) trudging through the endless abyss...

saw this...

Wynyard DH fluffing

WORK HAS BEGUN!!!!

you heard it right...theres a shit load of money getting poured into Gorge Road this spring to make it THE BEST AND BIGGEST jump park in NZ.

Imagine five times the size!!!! yeah thats right, FIVE!!!!

So far pro drainage is in and there is now four hose taps throughout the park for sprinkling the H2O when the trails dry up!!! perfect dirt even in the middle of summer!!!! the 2 tonne front loader is here and the dirt is slowly startign to get dropped off. so far we just been doing prep work and bulking up the exisiting line.

also we have been up Wynyard DH harvesting the perfect gold dirt to slap on them berms. the photo above does no justice. the berms are now bigger and meatier. we have also made it gnarlier by making it almost mandatory to jump from one berm to the next. flow, technique and railage baby!!!!!

NEW BIKE!!!

Got the new bike!!! THE NEW WEAPON OF ASS DESTRUCTION!!!

yeah thats right i got a commie meta 666. and yes thats right, its got a name that sounds like i should be wearing uber baggy bondage pants, black nail varnish and a choker chain.

ALL HAIL THE DARK LORD...well the snow white virginal one in this case.

Ceci the stag

Ceci is getting married, actually he already is, long story.

To celebrate Ceci made us go as far away from big black strippers and lampposts for his stag do.

Old rednuts himself.

This is what keeps the soft stuff inside me head

When you need to be absolutely sure that a summer of riding home absolutely blind drunk hasnt totally wrecked irrepairable damage on your prize peanut shell then just get it xrayed and check it.

I was pleased to see that my helmet has no internal fissures despite wrecking it most wednesdays when i attempted to ride home drunk from the Phat Wednesday celebrations. My beautiful helmet may not look so beautiful now but it still works and thats what counts.

trail report

I may appear to be a cheapskate but when it comes to giving you the best possible bike park trail report update then no expense is spared.

This photo was taken from a float plane i chartered on the last day of Crankworx. As you can see from the photo the braking bumps are monsterous, the trails are as loose as a Norwegian backpacker, and the lift line cues are longer than the dole cues on a tuesday in scunthorpe.

Spoke Magazine

Well knock me down with a feather. The picture here of me doing bendy legs in Cromwell last autumn taken by Tim Pierce ended up being printed in Spoke magazine alongside two other photos of yours truly. Im muthafuckin big time now so dont expect anymore updates cause im starting my own TV show and have a bunch of product endorsements and shopping centre openings to do now...

booze is horrible

whoever said biking is a drug is fucking stupid.

after a wicked session of riding i dont feel like shit the next day.

KELLY MCGARRY KILLS IT!!!

News is starting to circulate that Kelly McGarry killed it at Crankworx Colorado and came 7th, AND QUALIFIED FOR THE MAIN EVENT, WHISTLER CRANKWORX!!!!!

what a fucking champ!!! above is a stolen photo of said man sending a big gap with twizzly steez

rockslides, indians and no fucking ninjas or cougars

Pemberton, a town so sick it needs medication

Saturday consisted of enjoying the lack of crowds thanks to the rockslide on the highway. Reports are coming in that disgrunteld locals set off the rockslide so that they could ride Ninja Cougar before the masses of vancouver and seattle destroyed it. However the trail never opened on schedule. we poached a few laps before heading to potatoe town home of the indians, also known as Pemberton. got some sick laps in and was almost sick after eating too much mexican roadside food. in the evening we went back to the bike park and schralped the canadian open course which is closed. the end.

Big props to Kelly McGarry who got 7th place in Crankworx Colorado which qualifies him for Crankworx Whistler. fully sick bro

Phat Wednesday Four and a Loonie

Round four aptly held on the 4x course, or the giant slalom or the dual vision or whatever you wanna call it.

Basically it was not a dh race in the slightest and put off alot of people from actually attending. in fact it was the lowest attended phat wednesday by far this year. For the kids with dual bikes it was perfect and they got to show their wares. for the rest on big bikes it was like pissing into the wind. the results prove this.

anyhow, dave patten and carlos the mexican are back in town so despite the low attendence at the apres it still turned messy. again i woke up on thursday morning not knowing how and when i left the party, witht he only thing sto show for the night before is a mega hangover and more scratches on the helmet from riding home way too drunk to be in control of a vehicle of any sort.

for the first time this summer i actually did make it to the thursday night Loonie race that followed a phat wednesday. however i was less than stoked to have to ride out to function junction in the pissing rain. we (myself and back in action fellow xc bandit, steve reid) missed the start of the race so we decided to pedal out to cheakamus lake in stead. god damn it is beautiful out there. so worth the pissing rain ride. on the way back we stopped at the Loonie apres. seems it was best food and beer of the summer. shame it was mega pissing down and we were keen to pedal the 9 km home and get out of our soaking riding gear. what is it with the best apres having the worst weather all summer long?

ps. the above photo has nothing at all to do with this article if it has been concerning you why its there. just part red herring and part obituary as it seems the glory has been sold.

Up the Khybers...

Yesterday went and got some much needed alpine fresh air. Took the lifts up Whistler rode down old No Joke (scoped out the progress on the new Freight Train and new No Joke) then rode up past RDS to Khybers. 

I first heard about Khybers whilst doing a winter here. A friend told me the first time he skiied that area it changed his life and from that moment onwards he knew he was destined to spend the rest of his life in Whistler. Since that moment i had to explore for myself and the skiing in that 'zone' didnt dissappoint. it is an experience rather than just another line in the mountains. The biking up there has had mixed reviews. Partly due to its long effort required to get there and partly due to a very mixed message style of trail - is it big bike terrain or hardcore xc?

The ride down varied from the most beautiful oldgrowth flowy trail of Khybers to blown down blown out trail of Upper Babylon which turned some sections into hike-a-bike. Then Lower Babylon is an overgrown Alder whip fest but finishing with the flow and fun of Tunnel Vision. All in all the trail could of been a fireroad and i would of been happy just with that time spent in the alpine at the top. Whatever, 1600 metres vertical descent and 25km round trip aint bad for a wee mid day lap with still time to spare to get some more garbo dh laps in and a session in at the dirt jumps in the same day.

Please Whistler-Blackcomb can you open more alpine singletrack to bikers. How about Blackcomb accessed from the Peak-to-Peak next summer?