A couple weekends ago I entered my first bike race at Riverhead outside of Auckland. Free Riden, a bike shop in Huapai and the West Coast Riders Club built a new track and hosted an Enduro event. An Enduro event is mixture of a downhill race and a cross country, so there is ups and downs. I am more of a fan of the downs, but like any mountain biker done my shares of the ups as well.
Now I am competitive and do want to do well… well just not come in last! Luckily I managed to come in 10th out of 40 riders. Not a bad effort, but i did learn one thing; dont do so many practice runs. I did 5 practice runs and by race time, my legs were empty.. the ups burnt! So on next race day, fuck the practice runs. Just pin it to win it and hope for the best!
Check out this lycra wearing fat bastard rage on this other mountain biker. He ended up getting charged with assault and rightly so. I dont think the other cyclist was innocent either, he was egging him on a bit and on his tail. I think he is a bit of a pussy for letting the old man push him around, plus when the old guy pokes him he says ‘ thats assualt.’ ahah what a tosser… both of them need to chillout.
And about a week later an old man toss around some bmxer’s in Christchurch as well. I guess these little punks were tossing stones and being complete idiots, so he handed them a bit of old school justice! I love when the kids call him on he doesnt back down and just toss them about. Good on ya old dude.
On Saturday I was out a woodhill riding and approached a jump to find a woman in the middle of the trail with two bikes. I locked it up and was able to stop before the end of the lip. I said oi and then turned around to get the speed up again. Hit the line and carried on. Didnt think anything of it really. I wasnt being disrepectful, just wanted her to know i was there and to not walk up the trail… it could have ended with me creaming her. After my ride I headed back to the car park and was putting my bike in the boot when the guy approaches me farily aggressively saying… i dont like how you talked to my family. All i said was oi and he then told me there was a nicer way to say it.. true. I could have said excuse me, so I appologized. He then he appologized for his family walking up the trail.. they should have known better. Really man! Senseless eh!
This past friday night I went to see Xavier Rudd at the Kings Arms in Auckland. This was the first time in 8 years he has been in New Zealand and he didnt disappoint. This guy is an amazing musician and showman. The Kings Arms is a small rock bar in Auckland and being able to see an artist like Xavier Rudd there is a pure treat. It was a very intimate show and he he played for roughly 2 hours and put his heart and soul into the show. I managed to be right up front for the entire show taking in the everything. Upfront everyone was into to it, dancing and carrying on. The man is amazing; whether he’s rocking the didg and playing the drums/guitar/singing he doesnt skip a beat. Thanks Xavier Rudd for the great show and I hope it is not another 8 years before you retrn back to New Zealand.
A interesting fact is that he spends his time between Australia and Northern Ontario… Yah Northern Ontario representing! Ill have to invite him by the cottage when I return back to Canada.
Helter Skelter at Riverhead. Great build West Coast Riders MTB Club.
It’s Easter and the weather is pretty mint, so I headed out to Riverhead to do some riding early in the morning. This past summer has been really wet, which has been ideal for Wooodhill, but the recent sunny weather has meant I have been able to get out to Riverhead to ride some of the great trails the West Coast Riders MTB Club has built. Big props to them and the variety of tracks they have. There is some really nice single track laced with some great jumps and Helter Skeleter is a massive line with some pretty big hits. I would be lying if i said i hit them all, some of it just plane intimidates me. Since i first got to NZ I have definitely progressed in my riding and hopefully one day soon I will be able to hit this entire line.
