Commitment

This picture caught my eye this morning. (Browsing Farkin.net) Why you ask? the bright blue, the clarity? Nope and Nope. It's the commitment the rider is showing here. Cranks down, Knees tucked in as if he's railin' a berm...but wait, it's an off camber flat corner.
I dream of cornering like this...not because of the fear of failure, but simply for the joy of feeling calm going that fast over something SO difficult to execute. I had one of these on Saturday. Calm, Cool knees tucked in weight back and low and the bike just bounced back and forth between drift and corner, drift and corner. As DH racer's we see the likes of the World Cup racers floating their bike over the terrain insuch calm and cool manors. Learning to execute techniques like this, something I've never really understood is so rewarding!! Now...consistency is the next step...doing it ever single time, over and over and over again...in other words, consistency to commit.

Whistler Crankworx "Slopestyle"

Heading out to Whistler this year, there were a handful of different events to compete in. One of these events was the Slope Style. Competing in it last season was a blast, so I went into it expecting nothing less this year. Coming into the event everyone had high hopes for the course. Unfortunately it did not meet the expectations of most. The course had lost a lot of flow from last season, had some very flat landings, and was extremely accident prone.

Practice runs started off fairly smoothly, but as riders became more comfortable with the terrain, they started to go bigger and before you know it, ambulance after ambulance was called in. Seeing all of these riders hurt was not exactly a confidence booster, but as a wise man once said, "The Show Must Go On," and that it did.

Coming into the day of qualifying, everyone’s nerves were acting up. There was a much more tense feeling in the air than most freestyle competitions, and you could 'feel' the fear of all of the competitors. For my first run I just wanted to play it safe. It was going extremely well with some tuck no handers, x-ups and a bar spin onto the Kokanee Box, with a 360 off the box. But when it came down to the last jump, I ended up falling on my back flip and came out hurting too much for another run.

Needless to say I did not make it to the finals. I'll be back next year Whistler ... can't wait!


Glen Bradley,

Let'er Buck