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.

Bryn's all fixed up:)

After a year and a bit, bryn got the plate taken out of his femur. The amount of hardware he had in there was ridiculous, and rubbed on his knee and I.T. band. He's feeling tons better and back on the bike already. Mostly organic again- git some!!!!!. Congrats:)

Fall happenings...

Well, It's getting cold, but the dirt in Washington is soo good right now. Leaves are falling, bit of snow now too, but underneath is dark loamy heaven. We have another month in the US before we head to Australia for the winter and 70 degrees again. Between riding, jumping, organizing team stuff, family time, climbing, digging, sorting everything out, etc, been pretty busy enjoying the time off. Official training starts up pretty soon. Stoked to have some homies in town to ride with:)

5.10 media summitt

BEND, OREGONBryn and I were invited to 5.10's media event down in oregon this week to learn about the brand, do some climbing, riding, and smoozing with our new journalist friends/editors - ( Outdoor magazine, Men's Journal, Backpacker, Climber, theGearcaster.com, Oregonian, Washington Post, decline , etc).

5.10 sponsors most all of the best climbers/flyers/ mountain bikers in the World, so we also met the legendary Dean Potter, Mayan Smith Gobot, JT Holmes, etc. Bryn , Carson Storch- who is a slopestyle rider , and I were there representing the bike world.

It was pretty humbling climbing for the first time at smith rock, but also probably the most amazing introduction of all time to a sport with this crew. Dean was our belay for one climb, which I'm sure was hillarious for him as a guy who climbs without a rope and who has done things in this environment that no other human has wanted to or could do.

Anyway, The people who work for 5.10 are super down to earth and accomplished athletes as well, so plenty safe, but still the initial fear for a first timer is there. Bryn made it up a 5.9 route on his second climb, so that was cool. Think I did a 5.7 which is still scary. It was mostly a mentally draining thing to do, because of the balance of fear and focus. Once you know what you are doing I am sure the death grip eases off a tad:)

5.10 is a difficult climbing grade, hence why a company who a, and they are the only ones with this type of rubber, which is incredible. There was a merge with Adidas, but the core of the company stays the same, just adds better distribution, vendors, etc

For the next day of biking, none of the pro climbers came, but we had a good time teaching the editors and 5.10 staff about biking. Cog wild, which is a bike tour company outta bend was awesome too. Even Lindsey Voreis was there as one of our group leaders, keeping everyone entertained and laughing:)

It's such a great opportunity to get to spend this kind of quality time with our sponsors. Thank you 5.10!!

Luke from5.10 Bike division:)
Dean and Whisper- climbing dog:)

TLC- Tara Llanes Classic

Truckee, CA – September 30th, 2012 Think this is the 6th year of the Tara Llanes Classic benefit race. The TLC began as a fundraising event to help Tara cover her injury costs, but now is focused on helping others and raising funds for Spinal cord research.  (Portion of funds go to: The Christopher Reeve-Irvine Research Center, Center of Restorative Exercise- C.O.R.E., and the Tara Llanes Road to Recovery)

Northstar resort is a pretty fun place to ride, not too steep but lots of loose dirt and rocks etc. For this particular race, they combined like 3-4 trails to make a really long dh-ish race. There is one lower trail that is super rocky n tech- stiks n stones, but the rest is really pedally , and uphill sprints at the start. I tried both my dh and trail bike and ended up racing my trail bike with a dropper. There were 2 sections that were a little Harry through the rock gardens.

Quite a good amateurs turnout. Couple big pros, Neethling, Voreis who took a slam the other day and isn't racing , Matt Condro, grame Pitts, Tim krentz, Haderer, Kyle Warner, Pro joe,  me, etc.

Honestly  just had a lot of fun riding at the bike park, some hidden trails near by, the new bowl-y public pump track next to the BMX track , etc. Sombrio Pump track. They even had a bonus race on the pump track worth $250 to the fastest 2 laps (kyle warner won). I was a second off:( he rips .

Our homie Luke from 5.10 lives in Tahoe, so good times hanging out, learning the scene. There is a woodward west here in Tahoe too, think its open in winter for skiers n stuff too, yeah all good.

It was really important to me to be able to show support for Tara as an old race rival / friend who has been through a lot and is raising money for good causes. More people need to put this event on their list. Solid industry support from Giant, Northstar, Shimano, fox, leatt, Sombrio, 5.10, etc Good raffle prizes too- carbon nomad, fox 36, bike racks, go pros, etc

Neethling and I ended up winning, but everyone was a winner. Good Job to Tara and her crew!! Well run event, lots of fun, fun riding, etc.  I drove 13 hrs straight the next day to get home. My biggest solo drive, but well worth it. Bryn was sick and couldn't make it, but he was there for Tara in spirit:) c ya

PRO MEN
1. Andrew Neethling 2. Tim Krentz 3. Grame Pitts

PRO WOMEN
1. Jill Kintner 2. Shanna Carlen 3. Robyn Embry

Tara Llanes Classic

Northstar @ TahoeNext up is a solo mission down to Tahoe to support the Tara Llanes Classic @ Northstar bike park. This is an awesome charity event to give back to spinal cord research among other things. Tara and I were rivals back in the day, but now friends, so I support what she has overcome with her paralysis, and her a person. She really is an inspirational lady:) Should be fun! dunno which bike to take though, heard it's a mega D ??

Design by jill for a Tara Lip balm:)

Interbike 2012

LAS VEGAS, NVJust finished 3 big days at interbike trade show. It's north America's biggest bike convention, but really most of the industry goes to Eurobike in Germany, which is like 6 times bigger I've been told.

For us, interbike is about meeting with sponsors, unfolding our plan for next year, and checking out all the latest gear. I set up meetings to fill up 3 solid days almost every hour. Lot of socializing as well. The bike industry has so many great people, that it's really fun to catch up with everyone. Hard to walk more than 10 feet without seeing someone to talk to:) Such a blowout though. As someone not accustomed to standing up all day, the ol back and legs really feel it. Need a few days to recover from all the potpourri air conditioning , and Buhly's retirement party.

bikes are fantastic, and the dream continues. Really nice to have created our own program and have such quality people behind us. Team Norco international will be better than ever next year:)

Bryn in Norway

Bryn did awesome last week in Norway. His speed was on point- at the first split he was 2nd, next split 6th, then a bit of arm pump kicked in from a nasty crash he had in morning training, to ultimately finish 20th. So proud. The course looked awesome, and redbull coverage was the best yet. Congrats to stevie smith for his first win!!!

Norway: World Cup Finals

HAFJELL, NORWAYGood luck to Bryn for tomorrow. He qualified 14th and had some impressive splits! Looks like he is having a lot of fun and riding really well!!! Go get em little friend!!! xoxo

Stevens Pass Photo shoot

I spent all day yesterday doing a photo shoot with the famous Chase Jarvis n his buddy Scotty for Steven's Pass resort. Stevens is the only chairlift accessible Bike park in Washington, and we frequently ride there, so I am stoked to help be a poster child for that spot as well as a few other people. Good stuff. 3 day of DH riding!! so fun.