First day out

Today was my first day riding this year and one word can summarize it: epic! Not only was it my first day on wheels this season, but the dirt out in batch was nice and dry, I got my first laps in on my new setup and the posse of 10+ was amped. Seems like everyone I love who I haven't seen all semester was out shredding with big smiles all round. The fresh trail is definately seeing some early season action and getting broken in fast! The other thing that was so nice was just to be outside!! Studying, working and training inside makes for some pent up fresh air frustration! The other day the track at the TCC was dry and I was out there like noones business running my legs off (actually pulled my quad), but it still wasn't the quite the same. Today on the bike out in nature the lungs were definately happy.
The new bike was awesome! My old girl fought hard for all it was worth year after year but I am definately happy to have some new and improved wheels under me for this season. The ride on this years Glory DH (http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-US/bikes/mountain/2271/32155/) is really smooth and the bike feels like it just wants to go! When you get on the pedals out of corners the suspension is super efficient and the bike picks up speed really quickly. Overall the bike feels very balanced - in the small amount of air I got to take it felt confidence inspiring and on the ground the bike feels really agile. I am looking forward to the suspension breaking in more so I can get it tuned exactly the way I like it. Even on my first ride of the year with narrow bars, wrong tires and breaking in suspension, by the third run I was starting to feel it, enough to get zesty in a gully, drift a corner and take out a big tumbleweed. What fun.
The other new addition today was my Troy Lee Air Crow Moto helmet (http://catalog.troyleedesigns.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=663_664_690&products_id=1873), which I recieved yesterday. The first thing I and everyone else noticed when they picked it up was just how light it is. Scotty picked up the box with everything in it and remarked that it weighed less then his D2. The quality on the moto Troy Lee is noticeably higher then on any bike helmet I have seen. The lining is so soft it makes you happy to just put it on, and is removable with snaps, not velcrow, to take out and wash so it will stay nice and clean all season. The paint and graphics are top notch and pictures do not really do it justice to the finish. The other thing it offers - and the reason I am in it - is the safety quotient. We are riding our bikes so much faster then our helmets are rated for - at moto speeds - through trees, over huge gaps and pushing the limits of our abilities all the time, it is time we all did our due diligence to our protection levels and stepped up our helmet safety. Head injuries are scary - above almost any other injury you can sustain. Everyone knows someone who's life has been dramatically changed by a head injury - the kind of thing that steals a persons personality and their ability to go about their life. I have had enough concussions personally and seen enough of my friends hurt to say enough is enough and go for the full deal, and after one day I am super satisfied on every level. If you are at all interested or curious, definately feel free to come up and ask me questions or try my helmet on.
Anyways I am out for now, but sounds like tomorrow holds more riding and hopefully will see some pics to post up here shortly.
All the best!
Justin Terwiel

Happy Birthday Taylor!

I recently took a visit to the hospital to investigate some shoulder pains and recieved some discouraging news. Apparently my collarbone only ever healed to about 75% and because of the number of times its been broken, it can't heal any further than that. Basically I was informed to avoid crashing onto my right side, because it will break pretty easy. It kinda sucks, and makes me feel a bit worried but it is what it is I guess. I am going to just not worry about it and carry on with riding the way i started this year( With the addition of some really anoyying nerve pains!). In other/more upbeat news, today was Taylor Hollstedt's birthday, we just finished one of the funnest jump trails ever in his yard, Kurt is visiting from Nelson and the sun was shining bright. All this mixed together for a killer ride all day long, only to be interrupted by ice cream cake and hot dogs. We were having way too much fun to even bother picking up a camera. But the action can be sumarized as everyone learning how to rail corners extremely hard and repeditivley case jumps in a "smooth" fashion.

funnest day yet

Yesterday was the funnest day ever.. i cant stop thinking about how much fun it was to be in kamloops for the first time this year with all of my bestfriends from there. I came over late at night on saturday and spent the night with Ian(thank you very much to the Killicks!) and we got up nice and early around 8 oclock and headed to the bikepark where we found korb, deon, ace, as well as brad and noah from kamloops already getting their dig on, so we got goin with that and fixed up the middle line, which dylan mention is so amasing right now! way to fun and smooth! near the end of the day we headed up the the stepup finally, as we'd been talking about it all day and, well, see for yourself. Dylan had a bit of a spill but should hopefully be back destroying every jump in no time, noah and i were trying some 720's, korb, brad and matt brooks getting into upside down mode, and ian in sideways circles.

http://www.vimeo.com/3811513

Killer Days

Warm weather and blue skies were the treats for sunday! A few friends came to town from vernon, luke beers snook into town from Merritt and Taylor even came shredding. Jeff came out to shoot photos all day again. Always stoked to run the shovels, Taylor kept us stoked and we did a ton of digging throughout the day. The medium line at the Ranch is probably one of the funnest jump lines around now, with three sweet jumps connected by tons of rollers and pump jump action! I was working hard on getting my riding super consistant and it seemed to be working out so I was feeling pretty excited!
Later in the day we headed up the hill to Ian Killicks favourite jump where he got right ridiculous, Korbyn learned to spin, Matt Brooks bottoms up and I was trying to get rad. I managed to pull off a pretty solid super whip but fell over on a soft patch at the bottom of the tranny. Being that I'm old and feeble, I heard a really funny noise come from my right shoulder. I instantly felt sick to my stomach with the thought of having broken my collarbone for the fifth time. After a minute or two of walking around being stressed to the nines, I realized it didn't hurt much and I had almost full motion in my arm. It has been feeling better all evening so I am pretty sure its minor details, but I am going to hit up my specialist just in case! Also, if you want to scope any more of Jeff's photos that don't get posted check out his web page. Thats all for now folks, get out and enjoy spring!

End of a season

So this weekend was the last weekend of coaching ski racing for me this season. Pretty crazy to think that I just completed my 8th season coaching with Sun Peaks Alpine Club. This time of year is always good because I get my weekends back and can start getting on the bike more, but it is sad to pass on a group that I have had the opportunity to work with and watch grow over the whole ski season, with 5 of the girls moving up to the next level this time. Ah well, a yearly occurrence, and today I got to ski with a couple kids I coached in my first season and 4 seasons ago, who are now high level racers absolutely killing it in the race course, but are still stoked to meet up and shred the whole hill any time they can. I've been around with the club long enough that this season I came full circle, with a girl I coached in my first season becoming a coach and coaching a group all season. Pretty cool.
The program I ran this year was 2 day E2 level racers, a group comprised of seven 9-11 year old girls who absolutely ripped. My little posse could be spotted on any given day on all parts of the mountain, impressing people equally wherever they went. I have a strong all mountain focus in my coaching, teaching formost a love for skiing and second a value for being able to rip any condition. I believe strong all mountain skiers make the best and most versatile racers, so we ski everything equally hard. This weekend I had my group of my girls hitting large jumps in the park, charging bumps and trees on double black runs, ripping race turns in all conditions, sending it off cat tracks, etc. So much fun and so cool to step back and take in fruits of a season.The weekend also saw the Sun Peaks Nancy Greene Festival, the largest event in BC with over 400 kids in attendance, comprised of a dual glalom, speed skiing, a bump off, a combi course and a distance jump. My girls were well represented throughout every category of top 10 age group awards, with one girl winning every single event she entered within her age catagory. (cont'd below)

Coaching wind down wind up

(cont'd)
High and above the awards though was to see the girls beside their peer group and notice the changes over the season in their maturity and independence. I expect a lot from my group in these areas, but give them independence and control that other coaches don't in return. We work closely on learning to set and achieve goals and how to successfully figure out how to hit different features. The results of this are that the girls are learners, they don't just wait for me to tell them how to do it, they are relating it to other things they have hit, asking and watching other people do it, and getting my feedback and input to make sure. One of the most rewarding moments I had this weekend was when my 11 year old racer Emma set a goal and then hit one of the large doubles in the park for the first time, and I got to share in the experience of pushing the boundaries of what she believed was possible for her to do. Remember the first time you hit something really big, how suddenly everything was possible and you were empowered to take on the world? I do. I told her about my moment, and she said that was exactly what she felt, with a huge empowered smile all about her. To be able to give a group of kids these types of experiences consistently, in an environment you control, twice a week for a season is the most rewarding thing you can do. The kids are empowered to take on their dreams, and not in an undirected kamakaze fashion that will result in them destroying themselves (possibly like I did), but in a measured, professional manner that will make them successful at anything they take on. Coaching this season for me was the highlight and the most rewarding pursuit of the last few months, and if you get the chance I highly recommend the opportunity to anyone.
Justin

Kamloops Is Dry!

Well, at least the bike bike park is. Today we got a good crew together consisting of myself,baby shred hard, Korb, De, Ace and Ian. It was the first time so far this year that I've had the chance to ride all day long, and I deffinitly had a blast doing the usual stuff as well as working on some new tricks! My favourite part about the day was that it kept raining on and off, just enough to keep the dirt really tacky. Riding my bike in the rain is my favorite thing in the world so that had be pretty fired up. Also, My buddy Jeff Connor, otherwise known as J-con, is a killer photogrpaher and whose been snapping nuggs for a while now. Jeff shot the riding photos from today and he is super keen on getting into shooting mountain bike stuff so look out for lots more shots from him!

Fangers

At a time when all the "ski booters" have been flattened and people are swapping their full on dh bikes for lighter mid travel rides, the style of freeriding in Kamloops is changing. More creativity, more tricks and more style are comming out all the time. 2009 is the year of the Fangers; a new and amazing style of stunt far more suitable to smaller bikes and gnarlier riding. With all the old classic jumps gone and an increasing need for variety of stunts to shoot, Fangers will be exploding into the scene like never before. Taylor and I began some Fanger construction today with his chainsaw and other essential tools for building fangers. Warm weather is here and the snow is clearing quickly. Look foward to many posts with alot of Fanger content comming soon!

paint job!

the weather around these parts is starting to show signs of winter, but more of a vancouver winter with melting snow and rain to make super mud! not stoked on that, but what i am stoked on is how the other day i was pretty bored so i decided to spice up my bike with a nice little paint job on the fork...stripped the stickers off, sanded, 3 coats of black, electrical tape, 3 coats of blue, and 3 coats of clearcoat! pretty pumped on how it turned out.

new stp!

Soo a couple days ago I went in and picked up my new '09 stp. I haven't had a chance to ride it on any jumps yet but it feels reallyy good. I threw it on a scale and it weighs in at just under 29 pounds which I am really happy with. Anyways, thanks to Cheryl and Taylor and everyone else at cafe for getting the bike together for me.

Stories

I wrote a little story about Kamloops and the Bicycle Cafe a while back and poster 'er up on pinkbike. Give'r a read and check out some of kaleb's photos!

happy

the past couple of days me and alex have been doing a bunch of digging/sweeping/maintaining at the bikepark while its been to wet to ride, and today stuff was dryed out enough that we could go for a schred. way to much fun. luker was getting one foot tables/ no cans/ one foot downside whip things and i was working on tailwhips, since ive finally been getting comfortable with doing them on stuff aside from my learning jump. heres a couple pictures and clips from the day.

whipping

and a couple whip clips, not super dialed but their starting to work for me.

shocksss

hello blog..for the past while ive been digging a bunch of stuff new stuff and fixing up other stuff because of the moisture in the dirt from our recent snowfall. no riding lately, however, here is a quick little throw together of some clips of me and kyle riding a line we built in early february and a rad rock wallride we put a lip onto before the snow came. enjoy!

http://www.vimeo.com/3464502