Back again...

My rythym, my zone, my confidence, whatever you want to call it. It's back. I'm Stoked.

I went up to T-line yesterday with Noah and Ryan from work. It was my first time back on a snowboard since snapping my leg back in June, so I was very curious to see how I'd hang. I've been pretty inspired with how well it's handled the bike, so I had high expectations.

Since it's still early in the season, I brought my T5, which was demoted to "rock board" status when I bought the Titan. I should have brought the Titan. I never realized how heavy the T5 was compared to the Titan until I was off of it for a year.......Damn!! It was actually a good thing though, as it gave me a good idea of how strong the leg is, and aside from my left leg being noticeably weaker than the right and needing an occasional breather, it was game-on.

Surprisingly, we ran into David (Flow) and Kevin (Rubberdown) in the lift lines and got in a run or two with them. Kevin was pinning behind me on one section of Stormin' Norman, but caught an edge or shoveled the nose or something and took a digger to his right shoulder. He was right back up and riding with no complaints, though (I did tell him he should get a boarding helmet, because it could've been his head on ice instead of his shoulder on powder). We more or less lost track of them after that run, but occasionally ran into Kevin or David in the lift lines throughout the day. Noah is thoroughly stoked on the Bone Zone gullies. I think we spent the majority of the day riding those gullies, along with some nice tree stashes and some built-up kickers. Honestly, I had the most fun just pointing it in a straight line and passing people. Getting back in tune with my body and my confidence was a rush. All in all, it was a great day.

As great as killing it in the pow all day was, oddly enough, I'm still thinking about riding my bike. I have a few goals I want to achieve, and I'm confident I will very soon. Gonna be a great winter for riding, and I can't wait for next spring.........Yep.

Now then...

Put a little more time into the bike to get it where I want it. Replaced the Nevegal/Blue Groove combo with a 2.7 DHF/2.5 DHR Minion set (2.7 shipped in error). With the new tire I have up front, lack of front traction will no longer be an excuse. But from what I hear, the 60a durometer is death on wet wood (the 2.7 is a 60a), so I have a 2.5 DHF with the 42a rubber on the way. Pretty as that 2.7 is up front, it's just too much.


I put a 450 lb. spring on my shock at lunchtime on Friday and took it over to the ramped loading docks on Nimbus across from my office, and it felt like a different bike. Less "fat" in the rear if that makes sense. A lot more reactive than before and balanced with the forks.

Weather permitting, I may take it to Syncline on Thursday. Not sure about rain for the weekend, but may try for Black Rock regardless if it isn't dumping at Skibowl or Meadows. I keep talking about getting my bike right or this or that, and I think the guys I ride with just don't want to hear it anymore. They just want me to shut up and send it.

I think they're right!!

11/23 and 11/25 - More baby steps and a stick on the ground...

Went riding with Jamie, Terry, Darren, and Josh on Friday, and Jamie, Darren, and Casey on Sunday. I'm getting more used to having the shorter stem and am getting progressively faster cornering my bike. Feeling a little more comfortable jumping it bigger too, although I was having trouble going fast enough to hit tranny on the Stimulator in Basic Training or on E.T., even when following someone in. Darren told me if I didn't clear a stick on the ground 20 feet past E.T. (official starting point of the tranny) that I'd be walking home from Black Rock. Given that choice, I finally made tranny by about a foot, but "worked my chain" for it. Pretty sure I found the problem though.

Irish Rob came by last night and was checking out the new parts, and said "dude, you have no spring tension." So, as I thought before, even though I thought the suspension was balanced again, it is under-sprung right now, which is sapping my energy and getting me squirrelly when I land. We dialed-in the shock, and we're going to spend some time on the forks tonight with a shock pump so I'm good to go for next weekend.

Hopefully next weekend is bigger air with less effort. Hell, I may actually take off the skirt again and get in one of Jamie's vids.....Or so I can dream, anyway....

Darren, Casey, and Terry were sending huge as usual, and Casey and Darren have progressed to an entirely new level. It's impressive to watch!!

Grease is NOT the word

Went out to Post Canyon today with Noah, Jamie, and Jake. The trails were uber greasy from the get-go. We drove all the way to the top this time, and the little DH section up top was so blown-out Jamie and I diverted to the fire road. 2 Chair from below the fire road was pretty decent, but still pretty mucky.

The run-in to the step-down felt trippy today. The dirt rolled really slow, so you'd overcompensate and go too fast. I pulled up too much on takeoff and landed nose-high and out of control but managed to keep from kissing ground after coming to rest in the bushes. A combo of not being used to the new stem yet and weird dirt basically kept my tires on the ground for the rest of the day.


This pretty much sums up Noah's day. He decided against hitting the step-down first, and tried to connect the whole line. He didn't follow anyone in to check his speed and came up short on the gap and cased his frame on the landing. Bike stopped and he rag-dolled the landing ramp.

We watched Casey boost it like normal and Jake hit XChorusX twice and then rode the fire road back to Family Man. Noah wasn't feeling too hot after his wreck, so we rolled on out from there (after dropping off another casualty of the day at their vehicle).

Last day at Post for a while I'm guessing...

Still grinning...

Finally left the skirt in the truck and hit some big jumps at Post Canyon today. It felt good. I think I'll do it again soon. Yep. Oh yeah, that and bring my damn camera battery!!

Special thanks to Jamie and Kevin for encouraging me to send it, Tom and friends for the shuttle and second run, and Mike and Miles from Hood River for letting us ride virgin trail.

Black Rock - Sunday, 10/21/07

Sunday was interesting. It's been less than four months since I broke the tibia and fibula in my left leg (June 23rd), yet two days shy of that four month mark, there I was at Black Rock. The leg is feeling good except for some nerve pain hot spots (interior knee and ankle), and I should be cleared for actual riding by Christmas, but I have been going stir-crazy to get back on my bike and Noah extended an invite to ride, so down to Black Rock we went.

We got lucky and didn't see much rain while we were down there, but you could tell pretty quickly that the ground hadn't had much of a chance to absorb what had already fallen on Friday and Saturday. Everything was covered in trail snot, which made for a super greasy ride. We hiked up to the top of Upper Banzai, which my leg handled better than I anticipated. Other than the occasional sharp pain in my knee reminding me a doctor had been dicking around in it a few months earlier, it felt pretty normal and not as weak as I thought it might. The snotty trails were sketchier than I thought they'd be. A lot of that may have just been me not being on a bike for a while (balance was a tad off, and the left crank arm is definitely bent from my crash in June, although not so bad I'm going to rush out and buy new cranks), but it was cool at the same time because you had to ride faster to keep speed up and brakes were next to useless on the trail grease. It was weird: I found myself avoiding stuff I'd always done and should have no problems with while healing (ladder rides on Banzai), yet at the same time was hitting all of the little booters on the way down and actually got more distance off of the last two hits on Lower Banzai than I had up to now.....Figure that out!!

It's funny to me: when my body and bike were more than good to go, it was my fear and my mindset holding me back. Now my fear is under control and my head is in the game, but common sense is holding me back so I don't add insult to injury because I'm being impatient. It's a hard pill to swallow, but all part of the sport we enjoy.

I'm just stoked to be riding singletrack this soon after having a limb completely snapped, and even more stoked at the possibilities for progression going forward. Yeah yeah!!

Soon, guys.......Soon!

Recovery Update / First Post

Well, I'm finally out of the leg hardware I'd been married to for the last three and a half months and back to a matching pair of shoes. It truly feels odd. Bones are more or less repaired, and now the focus is on getting the muscles in my left leg back to 100%, which, with all of my work obligations, has been harder to do than I expected. That, and the fact that I get extremely lazy after work, hasn't helped. Mentally, I am more fired-up to go and "give 'er" than I ever have been since getting back on a squishy bike last year, and have quite a few things I need to prove to myself (not to mention the bulk of the WSFR/WTF crew, that have heard me talk and talk and talk some more). I've been visualizing being back on the trails almost constantly for the last month or so.

Yesterday, Jamie extended me the invitation to tag along down to Black Rock and fart around. I just put new pedals on my bike, and am pumped to start riding it again, so I took it out and did a few laps around my apartment complex last night to get used to the feel of being back on the bike. Unfortunately, my left knee and ankle weren't feeling as robust as I'd hoped they would at this point. My cranks also felt a tad weird, so I'm wondering if I may have slightly bent my crank arm or the splines on the left side of the bottom bracket. It's probably just the fact that I haven't been on the bike in almost four months and am not used to the pedals, but I'm going to pull the crank arm off and check it just to be sure before I go ride it again.

I REALLY want to start riding my bike again, so here is hoping next weekend is better. In any case, back on the trail full-time by Christmas!