A weekend without biking

Went a weekend without the bike to help rest my fingers. Cheryl, Dana and Andrea came down from Vancouver to visit Seattle, so it was ok that I couldn't bike.

Saturday I bought a new acoustic to make up for the one that Marcel ran over with his truck on Tofino. I almost went ahead and bought a high quality one, (Martin or Taylor), but I ended up with a lower line Yamaha which for the money sounds pretty good. Why not the more expensive one? I wanted a guitar I wouldn't mind bringing on a camping trip, and if it ever gets run over I don't want to be mad :) I then showed Dana/Andrea Golden Gardens which is always nice. Saturday night we all went to the Last Supper Club for Han's birthday party. They got some VIP deal where guests got free cover and cheap drinks all night. It was a good time.

Sunday I worked for most of the day. Cheryl/Dana went out shopping and we later met up for some Indian food at my favorite Indian restaurant which is always good.

Had a voice conversation with my Family for the first time over MSN Messenger 7.5. My brothers were all home for the week, but I didn't make it due to the ridiculous ticket pricing. Anyhow, they had a great time fishing. Here's a photo that captures some of the good times...






Anyhow, until next time...

Seymour and Tendonitis...

This weekend I headed to Vancouver again to take advantage of the beautiful weather. Only problem is my hands still haven't healed from my last whistler trip. Current thought is that it might be tendonitis (or tendinitis - apparently both spellings are acceptable). That's what the physio I was biking with suggested anyhow.

So I wanted to limit my biking. That proved harder than I thought. Saturday I limited myself to just one run down Boogieman, Sunday I met up with Glade for his innaugural VP-Free ride which was a full shuttle ride down CBC/Neds.

One thing I did learn was to stock up on tubes from MEC. That place is way cheaper than the others I've been to. Whistler prices for a DH tube is about $18CDN, where at MEC you can get a DH tube for just over $6CDN. I also found that the ODI grips I bought at MEC were at least $12 cheaper than at the Cove shop.

Crankworx 2005

Well, last weekend I went to Crankworx for the second year in a row. Crankworx is "Canada's premier Freeride Mountain Bike Festival" if you read their site, but it's also a sweet time.

Cheryl, Jen, Glade and I stayed at a condo for very cheap ($50/night), so that helps, but the sun was shining and the bikes were flying, so that is what made the weekend.

Saturday I rode mainly the Garbanzo chair with Jen and Glade. The garbanzo runs require a lot of braking, so my hands were in very rough shape at the end of the day. All the braking made me feel as though I have arthritis. I hope I don't (My hands are still recovering from the weekend). I only had one run-in with a tree - no major injuries.

Saturday night was the slopestyle competition. Please look at the pictures as they are sweet indeed... Matt and Dan showed up to make the party better. Matt rode in three races, got a 3rd in the bikercross, 10th in the Air Downhill, and got a flat on the one he should have done best in (the Enduro DH). Sunday I took a ton of advil for my hands, and went back up again, this time spending most of the day on A-line, Dirt Merchant and other lower runs. Those hurt the hands much less. I took an advil almost every second run. I might get better brakes sometime soon. I saw two big wipe outs... One was a guy going 30mph on a gravel road before turning too sharp. I think I saw bone on that one. A second was a concusion off the fun box in the middle of the park. That guy couldn't remember what day of the week it was for at least 20 mins. With a record setting 1800 bikers on the hill there were bound to be a few injuries.

Anyhow, the biggest mechanical I had was a flat tire. That's a good weekend :)

Whistler for a wedding

Sweetness! Two weekends of whistler in a row. This post is on the first weekend.

This was for Kelly and Neil's wedding. Kelly and Neil are friends from Vancouver who went with Cheryl and I on the West Coast Trail last year and helped us cope with the "record setting rainfall" we lucked ourselves into. It was awesome. The ceremony went off without any issues, the scenery was outstanding, the food was amazing, the dance was hopping, and the times were good overall. Did I mention it was in whistler? I took my bike out and ripped it up as much as I could. I early on realized I had a severe crack in my rear rim which put me back $180CND including labor which is very pricey for a back rim given my first bike probably cost less than that.

Anyhow because it's whistler I was back in the park almost immediately.

We stayed at a condo with Cheryl, Stephen and Taleen up near creekside. Stephan ran while I rode on 'A River Runs Through It' just before the wedding. We had time for that ride, then time to clean up just before the ceremony.

Here are the pictures from the wedding.