Day Three and Four

On day three Aggy joined us, three weeks off a broken elbow, and I bumped down to Group 5. Group 5 were under 13 but were all little rippers (with my 11 year old Café protégé Jackson Phillips at the helm), and as I got my bike back I was stoked! Fox sent me a new 2011 compression cartridge as a surprise treat (THANKS FOX!) which felt great, and despite my appreciation for the rental back-up bikes while mine was down, it was sooo good to be back on my Giant which fits me perfectly, weighs about 20% less and performs flawlessly in every aspect. Again, Group 5 the riders were thinkers, and together we discovered what worked best for them on the trail and in the air. While fine-tuning advanced moves is great, there is something really satisfying about working with riders on perfecting foundation skills and watching them progress quickly and gain a ton of confidence and control as they learn. Good times indeed. Day 3 was really hot and the kids were starting to fatigue, so by the second half of the day we had to stop for water breaks every run. Unfortunately Aggy came to the conclusion that 3 weeks was a little too soon to be riding, so he decided to just come back and hang out for the last two days.

Day four saw me bump back to Group 7 and I decided to take Jackson with me. I have worked with Jacky for 3 years on both on dirt and on snow, and he seriously has everything together he needs to succeed in either sport (think spinning 3s, hitting double black park jumps and winning races at 9 years old on skiis, and shredding his little Stinky 2-4 just as hard). While not able to role quite as fast on his 24’s as the older riders, on most of the hill he was only just behind them and on the jumps a lot of the time he was taking the lead. While the whole group have progressed into seriously amazing riders over the time I have known and got to work them and it is hard to single any rider out in the crowd of over-achievers, Liam Stevens (http://www.pinkbike.com/video/164020/) returning for his 5^th year was a definite highlight for me. At 9 years old when he joined us for the first year he was already standout rider and by the third year Hunter had helped him get on a junior development program with Specialized. Now at 14 on a dialed little SX that can finally keep up with his skills, he shreds for the love, mirrors the pros he rides with, has zero attitude, slays corners and jumps equally well and nacs harder than your mother (or your favorite pro). I know he has the skills on snow to match, so like Jackson he is a 4 season shredder. Very cool. Day four had to be one of the most fun days I have had on a bike, with the riders and I basically discussing riding as equals in between fantastic shred-fests. We did a few group drills but mostly only minor individual fine-tuning was really needed. Every rider was throwing down everything they had while screaming down the hill in a massive supersonic pack, mixing up the order, trying new things and feeding off eachother’s energy. I seriously regained my sense of youth on a bike, just shredding in a massive pack and having the most fun possible. Part way through the day the riders had been earning it hard so we focused on developing their style in the air with different types of whips, scrubs, tables and a few tricks. Again it wasn’t a teacher-student atmosphere, instead we discussed our favorite styles, brainstormed ways of achieving our goals, demoed different moves for eachother and all of us (including myself) came away having learned new style moves. A couple highlights for me were getting to be mid-pack in a massive scrub-whip train and following a couple feet behind Jackie on the last big step-up on Steamshovel while he layed out a flat one-footed euro-table. Pretty much blew my mind… 11 years old.