Based on the chatter outside my window, it sounded as though today for most of the team started at about 8am. I didn’t have anything pressing to do, so I figured a sleep in till nine was warranted. Once up, I joined the rest of the crew for Breakfast and bike building.

bike building in the driveway…organized chaos! “Who has the 5mm??”

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Oh man, today hurt. I admit I slipped back into my usual habit of packing at the last minute. How last minute? Well, I was washing the bike at 9:30, and started packing it as the sun went down. With that half completed I broke for a coffee, and then started laundry. Yeah, that’s right, laundry at 10pm. Once the bike was finished I merely had to pack the clothes, tools, spares, camera gear and computer gear. Pffft, no problem. Have I mentioned that I had to leave for the airport at 4:30am?

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I loaded the DH bike onto the car today, the plan was to catch some laps in the bike park after work with Connor. That was the plan, at least. Turns out we hung out in the Whistler Clinic instead…but it wasn’t my fault.

Connor joined me for the ride to work, and I dropped him off at the Airdome for an 11-2 session of foam. He dialed in his 360’s, gave some superman seat grabs a shot and began working on some other tricks that I can’t remember. We met up again at around 2 o’clock for a late lunch at Portobellos and then he left to go do some dirt jumping, while I went back to work.

It was about 3 o’clock that I got the text message…”don’t freak out,” it said, “but I’m at the clinic getting checked out.” We messaged back and forth and the whole thing didn’t sound bad at all. He had nosed in off a jump, hit his head and sliced open a cut above his eye. After checking that he had no head injury issues I chalked the clinic visit up to the fact that your scalp/forehead bleeds a LOT when cut. No worries.

No worries, at least, until I got a text message at about 4:15. “@*#%! They’re giving me two stitches AND I need xrays of my head and neck!” What?! Well, I guess this work day is over! Off I went.

Turns out an over zealous Doctor was probably covering his butt, but Connor got the fully checkout. Thankfully he’s turned out to be fine…but I missed my park day to hang out at the clinic.

…at least it wasn’t ME needing the clinic for once!

-Dave

The plan was simple enough, we were going for a shuttle after Connor was done work. I puttered around the garage, finishing a 3000mile service on the bug, fixed the wiring on the rally car and generally avoided actually cleaning the garage. Soon the afternoon was in full swing, and Connor was released from the bike shop.

Clinton, Connor, Trevor, Scott, and I were joined by a new guy to Squamish, Nick. Nick met Connor in the bike shop, and a new rider is always fun to add to the crew…so off we went! The only trouble was figuring out which vehicles to drive. In the rush to meet and ride I kind of forgot to tell everyone they didn’t need to drive…so we had an abundance of vehicles!

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Connor, Trevor and I took the bug up the hill to ride Blow Out Your Candles and Angry Manice today. Blow is one of my favorite trails for 2009, I’m digging the steep and finding myself challenged to ride it fast while still actually making the corners. I have one corner left to dial, a ridiculously tight right hander. I always miss the corner by not looking ahead enough. I’m not looking ahead enough because it’s preceded by an ugly tight rocky section that I haven’t figured out the best line for yet.

True, a wise man would stop the next time he screws up the corner and figure it out. But then I’m still a 17 year old kid…so I don’t! Instead, I will slowly spend my summer screwing the corner up, but looking just a little bit more ahead each time until it finally clicks.

Trevor was hitting Blow for his first time this year, which is always an eye opener. It’s built in the early trail fashion of straight down the fall-line. Otherwise known as “don’t expect to ride this trail in the future”. Enjoy it while it lasts, and only enjoy it in the dry!

Angry Manice was somewhat uneventful. I was following Connor through I think, but as usual he had pulled about ten or fifteen bike lengths ahead of me. I was riding it my best ever…until I whipped around a corner to find Connor in a heap! What happened!?! He wasn’t sure, but my rhythm was lost. I duffed a corner shortly after, jammed my chain and had to finish off the section chainless. After wrestling with my chain for 10min I got it sorted and lazily finished the run.

Still a great ride though, still a great ride. Connor’s going to be cheesed about that fall though!

-Dave

Not sure what the story is here. My rough notes, used to remind me of the ride when I go back to write it, simply say “not my best 19th run”. Hmph. I’m sure at the time that was going to remind me of the ride, and why it wasn’t my best one, but I can’t remember it.

I remember Craig was on it…I remember he sketched out and almost ate it on a wood step-down near the top of Peanuts. I remember that because I was coming in after him and almost ate it as well!

I think Harry was on the ride, if this is the ride where he took the cheese-grater while Craig and I took the new trail. Yes, yes it was. I drove Harrison’s truck to the top.

Warwick was semi-on the ride. We dropped him off for an XC, and he happened to be in the woods when we passed by on Peanuts. Figures he was there to see me completely sketch out the peanuts step-down!

Scott too was on the ride, I’m pretty sure.

Hey, managed to stretch out a big enough blog post for not having a clue what went on during the ride! Hahaha.

-Dave

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly “perfect”…we did get a little lost in the middle…but it was darned close!

I wasn’t planning on riding today, I’ve got a new thumb-splint to go along with a second-degree UCL tear, but then I also wasn’t planning on bringing a work truck home for the evening. Hmmmm…have truck, will travel? A quick text message was put out to see who might be interested in riding. Connor was in for a ride, which pretty much shouldn’t be at all surprising at this point. If it involves his bike, he’s interested. I swear he thinks cleaning his bike is exciting!

Dinner was in the oven, ready in 1hr and 10min. Warwick offered to drive up the mountain (okay he didn’t really offer, I kinda told him that he was driving up the mountain) and so it was off to Connor’s to pick him up. I expected he’d be on the driveway, geared up and bike in hand…but instead found him in street clothes chilling in his room. DUDE!?! RIDE?! The rush was on, roast chicken was going to be ready in an hour!

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I skipped riding today, still haven’t had the thumb checked out. Instead, I checked out Connor’s progress on the local jump set. The tricks are starting to get dialed for the season, and I was there for the first slow-rotation backflip. It wasn’t quite successful…but it will be soon.

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Warwick, Scott and I went out this eve to take some shots of the bug for Thule and the RackStop…

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I can’t believe it’s Saturday. It honestly feels like yesterday or the day before that Connor and I were helping out Shaums at the Garage Sale. Our ride down Powersmart? That could have been yesterday too. This seriously feels like I’ve already had a three day weekend…and it’s only saturday night!

When our road-trip plans fell through, Connor and I agreed that we’d have to throw an airdome session into the weekend. Friday night didn’t work out, so tonight seemed like a good idea. I really wanted to know if my backflips the last time were a fluke, or if I’d remember what I was doing. Connor needs to dial in his tricks for the upcoming competition season and Trevor decided to join us since the airdome is such a good time.

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