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Seattle Bike Expo

SEATTLE, WA The nicest day of the winter so far was this Saturday for the Seattle Bike Expo. I have only ever been to interbike, so this was a little smaller, but in a good venue on the pier just past downtown Seattle with lots of bike loving individuals.

I was there to give a little presentation with Olympic and Paralympic medalists Jennie Reed and Megan Fisher. Seattle Bike PT- Eric Moen as host. Jennie is a Silver medalist Track Cyclist from team pursuit in london, and Megan is a gold medalist in road time trials from london, myself BMX Bronze from Beijing.

Both ladies had awesome stories. Jennie had been to 2 other games- athens, beijing as a sprinter,  and london she anged to be an endurance athlete for 12 laps as a team in a new event. They beat the odds against australia to win silver by.07 . She started a foundation to give back to cyclists Jennie Reed Foundation.

Megan was in a car wreck and nearly died, lost a lower leg, best friend died at the wheel, totally gnarly. She found bikes to be able to run her dog enough, and became the best in the world in her category. Thnk she also does triathlons, but for sure goes fast on a road bike.

My story was pretty sweet too, Blown out knee, made the team y one point, battled from last to take home a medal for usa in the inaugural BMX event, yewww!!. Yeah, good times sharing some memories with everyone.

Couple other fun events, Ryan Leech was there doing his trials show for Norco, Kat Sweet racing big wheels for Evergreen kids programs, some unicyclists kids doing routines, one lady who rides bikes with her 6 year old kids for hundreds of miles. Evergreen MTB alliance had a booth, Sea Tac BMX, there was a road bike classics show, our chiropractor was there from Inhealth:), Saw Whatcom county tourism representing bellingham area, GHY bike shop, etc. some food stops, etc. So a few homies in the mix. My pal Katie Holden and I had a fun time. Saw a couple of old pals from highschool too who ride bikes:)..

http://blog.cascade.org/2013/03/expo-olympians/

Barred for life 2- filming

Been some nasty winter weather lately with the downpours, and cold weather but Bryn has been out filming with Bjorn for a bike video called Barred for Life 2. You may have seen Barred for life, or Elemental, both Bjorn films. Anyway, Cable cams, epic NW scenery, good trail crew, couple patches of sun amongst a lot of mist and rain, lots of hiking, a couple of flat tires in the truck, a blown up Saab, etc, but overall good times out in the woods:) I can see why rednecks love being out in the woods fixing trucks and rigging stuff up, good times. Bjorn had some truly canadian moments yesterday, bear hugging trees and shimmying up, a little acrobatics, resourcefulness, lots of exaggerated "o"s, and some real funny stories.

Should be a sweet little section of Bryn the ripper doing his thing. I was there a couple days to assist. It takes a lot of energy to make this kind of stuff happen. Carrying gear, pushing bikes, fixing up the trail having snacks and water, tools, riggin up cables, and of course riding. Many hands make light work, right:). Special Thx to Greg and Christian for the hard work, plus Paris Gore .

Here is a small preview from my Sony action cam. https://vimeo.com/61075601

Sony- The Moving 206 project

Seattle, Wa Sony Seattle store chose me to be one of the athletes to help supply some Action Cam footage in the store. The Moving 206 project, is a nationwide campaign across social media, etc, 206 obviously is Seattle Area code, so yeah, I will be making little POV movies of my adventures.

I've been watching reviews and Youtube videos to use all my little accessories with the Action Cam. It is in the same category as a gopro or contour but does a few things differently. The colors are bright, couple different lens angles, stabilizer, sound seems good, fits nice in your hand for sniper hidden videos:) and has wifi to use your phone to control it and send files, all in all a pretty sweet little camera. Once I figure it all out, will get "moving" . Sony206

PotentRX

Seattle, WA We have enlisted the help of a high performance lab here in Seattle called Potentrx. THey work with a variety of people from Athletes, to firefighters, CEOs, people with heart conditions, etc. Having scientific proof and monitoring while exercising is reassuring to a lot of people, and the best way to check progress.

For Bryn and I , we have different strengths and weaknesses in our metabolic systems, so our training needs to match accordingly. The Vo2 test is pretty hard work, resistance keeps getting harder as you stay at the same cadence, testing your heart and oxygen system, (plus it's a little Darth Vader-ish breathing). Results show what HR you burn fat vs carbs and how much oxygen you provide to your muscles before it changes to co2 and you start flooding out with lactic acid. We also did a lactate test for recovery, resting metabolic test, biomechanics, pedal stroke analysis, etc. Really thorough place, awesome people. I'm no scientist,but thats the general idea. These guys are scientists, so we are really excited to have their help. It's very similar to the olympic training center style and Red Bull, but close to home!

We just saw a similar thing on the show Dirty Jobs with Race horses, go check it out...

Welcome to the team!!! Sean, Wes , and Dr.Tripps. Ninjas!!! Potentrx.com

Still in Seattle

We were planning on being in California to be able to ride more, but the Crazy part is that in Feb in the NW so far has been warmer than expected, and the trails are soo good here. All our new parts are rolling in as well , so I think we will wait till all our parts arrive, fresh new Norco bikes are built, and we are ready to roll. So yeah, we have been putting in hotlaps,  testing a few different Maxxis trail tires, Camelbak packs, etc. These new Camelbaks have a Lumbar bladder to lower your center to around the hips (best pack ever, in my opinion)Charger, and spark for ladies. Bryn's also been trying out the little hip pack version and likes that a lot too (flashflo) Fanny packs are back:).  http://shop.camelbak.com/packs/lumbar/l/163

Chihuly

We have been playing tourist lately for Bryn's mum , who is visiting from Australia. Pretty awesome activities in seattle. Dale Chihuly museum is not to be missed. http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

Then a trip to the snow.

2013 Partners

Yay Team!!!!!!! So honored to have this support group behind us this year!!.

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09 art

A little bit of a tweaker art project I found on my computer from 2009..

Bryn Vid

Our young filmer friend Jasper made another video , this time of Bryn ripping one of our local trails. You can't tell how cold and icy it was, but there were 3mm of frost on the branches of trees, burrr. Impressive riding, filming, and trail building... we are lucky here in the NW to have such lovely terrain:). http://www.pinkbike.com/video/296114/

Bell Built DH promo

Laguna Beach, CAOn a mission to help Bell promote their Bell Built program , Bryn and I flew down to Laguna to shoot a DH video with T.Sage. Pretty awesome to get to ride dry rocky soil and our dh bikes. Last time we rode DH at home was a cold push to ride throgh ice crystals.

Fresh full-9 helmet, Aurum bike, and Sombrio kit :) Also got to see some homies from Crankbros, H2, Shimano, Oakley, etc. So cal is the place to be this time of year, lots of people out riding it seems. Good stuff.  THX to Bell for making it happen.

So fresh and so nice.. 2013

A new year, and new changes to our program:). Team Norco Intl is running stronger than ever with most of the same sponsors from the past year plus the addition of Bell Helmets, Sombrio clothing, Camelbak, and Stevens Pass Bike park !!!! All fantastic people and quality products. It's been fun lining it all up. For the steven's pass gig, bryn and I will be hosting some delux camps at the end of the season, where I coach the ladies and he the fellas. Will be quite a nice weekend getaway package in the fall in Leavenworth, wa . Stay tuned for that, you will definatly learn a thing or two:)

Jasper's Video...

We made a little trail riding video with up and comer videographer Jasper Wesselman of Cascadia collective. Tyler, Katie, Jess , and I up on Galby riding one of my favorite trails. I Love Washington:) http://www.pinkbike.com/video/293749/

Galby

I am house sitting for some friends this week, and am within riding distance away from Galbraith Mountain www.ridegalbraith.com/ , home of some of the best all-mtn riding in all of the USA. SST is one of my all time favorite trails for its speed and flow, so I'm stoked right now. If the weather would warm up a tad, that would make it perfect:) Supercross is this weekend as well. Get ready... A1   RV looks cool as a cucumber in his interviews...

Moving to Cali for the winter...

Bryn and I are heading south to Cali for winter like a couple of snowbirds. Normally we live in Australia, but sold our house last year and are mixing it up to be closer to sponsors, do some testing, training etc. Just a little easier to be in the usa while prepping for the season. The riding in Wa is still awesome, some days of frozen ground here and there. Lots of technical apparel, which I secretly love, but it is really cold. Riding, then soup and thawing out is the norm . Most people know the drill, but I've been spoiled by endless summer for the past 8 years.

Still got nearly a month before we go, should be fun, there is a good crew who lives down there and a couple of imports coming. Bryn sold our motos in oz, so we are looking into a couple stateside. I'm more of a trail moto rider- enduro, so we will see how that works out.. Anyway, should be fun.

Solstice

Shortest day of the year is upon us. It's been like 5 years since I was in winter on the shortest day, but we usually go to a party to celebrate with our favorite Norwegian / Ballard based potter friend- Regnor, who has a kiln opening. Wiley group of potters , artists, musicians, etc. One bike rider and her crazy mom adds to the mix :).

Girl power?

The title girl power always makes me smile, in a cheesy kind of way. Reminds me of girl bands rocking out,and bryn commenting about girl power every time. Anyway, in the bike world, there truly is something special about women riding together, improvement is eminent, mini competitive drives push for it. It seems like such a novelty to have the opportunity to ride with talented ladies, as I'm really on a unique mid day ride schedule. But lately Katie Holden, (who just moved back into town), and I have been putting in some serious days of mud riding. I was showing her a new trail per day pretty much before training kicked in. Milly (amelia) is also one of mytalented gal pals, so it's quite fun to have a dynamic female crew. Little different than my usual role of being #3 behind luke and Bryn. Trail Boss is a treasured position, can't take it lightly. :)

Adding to that, Katie is really into adventures and photos, so we rounded up a few of our favorite canadian girls, Strand, Leishman, and Shorty, plus Paris Gore the photographer, and made a little trip over to orcas island to rally. Everyone brings a little something special to the table, from different backgrounds, so we had a lot of fun on trail bikes capturing the scenery. Rented a log cabin on the water with a little fireplace:) Good times, glad I got to be a part of it. Let the good times roll.

Snowboarding!!!

Wow, it's been forever since having an actual winter. When I was in school, I used to have a seasons pass, and snowboard as much as I could. I'm a little rusty now, but I sure do love the adventure. In the NW seems like everyone who rides bikes also snowboards or skis. Even Bryn is getting into it. We have a fun little crew, all my friends, plus Strobel is almost like a pro on a snowboard, pretty cool to see the crossover.

Anyway, with our new Stevens Pass Bike park alliance, that mountain is becoming like a second home. Will be visiting frequently:)

Red Bull HQ visit

I never take being a Red Bull athlete for granted. It is an honor to represent such a quality empire.

Anyway, I had the opportunity to go down to Santa Monica last week to do some testing. There is a High Performance program set up at HQ now, with awesome staff, gym, lab, etc. Some serious resources to step up my game. I had some blood work analysis done right after I broke my arm back in august, and this time was for Lactate threshold, physiology, fast twitch, etc. Interested to see what the science unfolds.

We decided to stay in the USA for the winter to be closer to these resources. Washington gets a bit frozen, which means So Cal is on the cards come january. Sad to not be heading back to Aus, as I miss our life over there a ton, and our friends, but this year is gonna be very fine tuned.