Making the most of it

Big week last week.  

I went into Vancouver to work for a few days after the Elk / Vedder / Cheam trio.  I broke up long days at the office with morning runs around Stanley Park.  On Thursday night, I hit the Grouse Grind with a colleague.  

Friday morning, Connor and I headed out to Chilliwack to organize for RedBull Divide and Conquer and put in a quick Den lap on Vedder.  Vedder is so good.  I just can't get enough.  Fast, smooth, steep, and lush.

(Toby, rolling it)

(Connor on one of many, many stunts)

We headed back in Van in the afternoon, after picking up the Dudeman car and some team kit.  

The RedBull race was on Saturday.  We got off to a wicked start.  Joren had a stellar run and put us in front by 5 minutes over Ed McCarthy and Mike Simpson, the two runners on our radar.  

(Joren, pulling through for the Dudemen)

Ricky started off well and had the lead up to 11 minutes through the first descent.

But he crashed at the bottom.  He managed to get through the next climb, but couldn't get through the next descent.  He walked out and into an ambulance, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the hospital.

I knew he was in trouble when he was only a few minutes slower than expected.  If there is one thing Ricky is not, it's slow.  After Connor's team came through the bike - paddle transition, our race was over.  I gave Connor a few minute head start, then busted my balls to catch him.  I got pretty close!  And he didn't know we were DNF, so he busted his balls too.

(Dave, Connor, and Mike - dudemen on the day)

With two of the top teams out - Stephen Matthews crashed and ended his day at the hospital too - North Shore RCMP (Dave Vunic, Connor, and Mike Simpson) bested everyone else easily and walked away with the glory and the cash.    

(Win or hospital)

Then it was off to tend to this dudeman.  He was hurting, with a dislocated bone in his hand.  He'll be OK, but out for a while.  

You win some and you lose some.  We went for it and that's how to do it.  And it's the how that counts, if you ask me.

With some help from RedBull, we got a lot of press in the weeks leading up to the race and some good exposure for our partners - Mt. Waddington's Outdoors and the Clearbrook Coffee Company.  These are good guys doing good stuff.  Patronize them.  Here are some links - 

http://globalnews.ca/video/596510/red-bull-kayaking

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Calgary+kayaker+returns+Vancouver+defend+Bull+Divide+Conquer/8491137/story.html

http://globalnews.ca/news/626251/teams-of-runners-bikers-and-kayakers-compete-in-annual-red-bull-divide-and-conquer-endurance-race/

http://www.redbull.ca/cs/Satellite/en_CA/Article/TEAM-“NORTH-VANCOUVER-RCMP”-CROWNED-RED-BULL-021243350181005

http://www.redbull.ca/cs/Satellite/en_CA/Video/Red-Bull-Divide-and-Conquer-Action-Clip-021243350941623

http://www.theprogress.com/sports/210880871.html

I got another Den lap in before making the big drive back on Sunday.  

A big weekend in Chilliwack

Ricky and I both spent a lot of our racing careers in Chilliwack.  It's a great training venue for both mountain bike and slalom racing, but other opportunities abound.  For my part, I didn't quite realize to what extent until I 'retired' and pursued a more diverse set of interests.  I was in Chilliwack again this weekend, the river was at a great water level, and I didn't go paddling. 

After an all-nighter in the car, I arrived on Saturday morning and needed to stretch my legs out and get some fresh air.  So I drove up to Elk Mt. and ran up it.   35 minutes and you're here, with big views of the Fraser Valley.

(Elk Mountain)

Then we got down to business.  

We're racing RedBull's Divide and Conquer next weekend.  This year, we've teamed up with Joren Titus, a man not bound by gravity - this dude can run uphill - and we aim to repeat.  Last year's race was super fun, with three hard legs and a very strong field.  This year will be no different - we're going head-to-head with lots of old friends and sparring partners.

Anyway, we're working with Mt. Waddington's Outdoors and Clearbrook Coffee Company this year, helping to promote their Fraser Valley businesses.  So we have a team car.

We painted and stickered it up on Saturday afternoon and put on a barbecue for the whole crew.

Sunday morning brought the Vedder Mountain Super-D race for Ricky and the same ride for Connor, Melanie, and I.  Vedder has some of the best mountain bike trails in the world and they were in incredible shape.  So many bridges, stunts, and bermed corners.  Places to open up and places to hang on for dear life.  From the high trail, The Den, you can stretch the downhill out for 20 minutes!  

(Race start)

There were over 100 racers.  I think that's the FVMBA's best turn-out ever.  Ricky broke his bike about half-way down and coasted to 8th place, less than a minute off the pace.    

(Ricky, sending it)

Straight after the race, it was back in the car and off to ski Mt. Cheam.  

The dudeman car was packed to the gills, with Ricky, Nathan, Melanie, Connor, Jon, and I, and Max the dog making the trip.  Nevertheless, with a little pushing, tailpipe collateral damage, and some strategic rock placements, we got it all the way to the snowline.  

(Oops)

With just a few km to the base of the mountain, we made quick progress and were up to the saddle in a few hours.  It was late and the weather wasn't so great - we were socked in a few times on the climb - but the snow was, so we turned it around and got in some good turns on the way down.

(A man and his dog)

(Nathan Etsell, Ricky, Connor, Melanie, and Max take in the view of Lady Peak and Jones Lake)

 (Connor, hucking it out of a natural booter)

 All in all, about as good as weekends get.  And all right in the backyard.

Dudeman, where's my car? continued

A few months ago, we wrote about the ultimate Dudemobile.  Since, several new candidates have emerged:  

(The Legomobile.)

Compact, fuel-efficient, with excellent feel for the road, the Legomobile speaks for itself.

(Mel's Hotdog)

The advantage of Mel's Hotdog is obvious - it has the highest front-end crash safety rating of any car ever.   

(The Popemobile.)

If the pope had died, I might have thought twice before making fun of him.  But he retired.  And the new pope is too humble for this kind of car.  It's perfect for the Dudeman on display.  

(Find your path.)

This Pathfinder probably crashed Kijiji.  Any Pathfinder is a solid choice; this one, as described, is perfect.

(Tried and true.)

Miraculously, this 1947 Toyota Tercel 4x4 has withstood the test of time.  It requires no muffler, it's a beauty, and it easily goes 70 kph.

(A poor imitation of Mel's Hotdog.)

Did you know that some cars have aerodynamics that rival those of golfballs?  It's true.  Just leave any car out in the hail.  

What's the right car for the dudeman?  You decide.

free polls

Dudeman of the week - Vince Osborne

A few years ago, I got a call from Vince Osbourne.

Vince - Do you want to do this 36-hour adventure race?

Toby - OK.

Vince - Anything else you need to know?

Toby - I don't think so.  Oh wait, I guess I need to know when it is.

And we went from there.  

In that race, the harder it got, the more tired I was, the faster he seemed to go.  This guy saw briars and bogs and he put the gas pedal through the floor!  We've been chasing each other around the mountains on most weekends since.

Last weekend, Vince - whose age now starts with a 4 and with a baby on the way - is up front breaking trail, holding his own in a pull-up contest, and sending it down big pillow lines.

Photo: Yannick Letailleur

Full dudeman, Vince Osborne, full dudeman.

The Yaar! traverse

Earlier this month, Andy Traslin got some play for climbing both Yak and Nak mountains in the Coquihalla ski area in a day.  We see your Yak - Nak and raise you a Thar.

A few days ago, we considered doing the Nar (Nak - Thar) traverse, but once up there, we wanted to see it from the other side before we skied it.  So yesterday, Ricky and I set out to do laps on Thar to check it out.  This is what we ended up doing

No GPS.  Just great drawing with a mouse.

the Yaaar traverse, or Thar - Nak - Yar.  

There was already a skintrack in between Thar and Nak, but it eventually broke left and contoured around Nak.  We used it to start up Thar and then traversed around the bowl.  

From the back of the bowl.  Nak front right, Yak behind.

After skiing Thar, we returned to the track and took it all the way up Nak.  

Ricky scopes it out.  Nak and Yak from the top of Thar.

The weather wasn't great on top of Nak and there's awesome glades to ski below, so we did a run all the way down off it.  

As we climbed back out, vis improved and we decided to give Yak a shot as well.

The last pitch of Yak.

The climb up Yak is somewhat exposed, but less so if you go all the way to the saddle between Nak and Yak in the trees and then traverse across the face.  That's what we did.  The last 150 m. are steep, but yesterday, snow conditions were good.  That made for fairly straightforward climbing to the summit and great skiing right from the top.

Ricky, from the summit of Yak.

If you're just in it to bag the peaks, you could do it much more efficiently.  But there's great skiing on all three, so it's worth taking a few runs down along the way.

Dudeman, where's my car?

Vancouver won a prestigious award this week:

#2 in traffic!

The obvious solution is the triplet the Port Mann.

Or, people should just live closer to where they work.  If you work in Vancouver, live there.  If you live in Abbotsford and you're going to get in your car at 6 AM, it better be to the Coquihalla.  There is never a traffic jam heading east.  Ever.

The dudeman doesn't commute.  Rule number 8, or whatever rule we're on.

But the dudeman does need a car.  He's going places, just not to work.

I present three fully capable options.

The Classic Tercel wagon

Conquering the Mt. Cheam fire road.

It's four-wheel drive, it's got loads of space, and it's cheap.  This car will tackle anything, at speeds up to 80 km per hour.

The hail-damaged insurance write-off

It's ruined.

This can be any car, per se.  The important thing is that, although there's nothing actually wrong with it, it has no value.  Hence, there can be no further objections to racking up tons of miles and taking it places you probably shouldn't.

This Pathfinder

Dudeman makes a compelling case, which requires no further elaboration.  Unless you're this guy, he's not going to sell it to you.

Would the real DudeMan please stand up?

I'll never forget the moments after team "the full dudemen" won the RedBull Divide and Conquer. All the racers were hanging out at the RedBull tent and over the megaphone we heard 'would the full dude man please come up to the stage'.  This was a call for our team to come to the stage; however, there was like 5 or 6 other guys who also walked up to the stage.  They of course were thinking, 'Hey, I'm a full dude man'. So this brings up the question who and what makes a dude man a dude man? I'll try and fill you in with 8 simple rules and attitudes that can make you a dude man.

1-Dude Man is the master of all, and jack of none.  This comes from the phrase 'jack of all trades, master of none'. So basically dude man is just good at everything he touches.  He is oozing with talent in everything he does. He can try wind surfing on a whim and just slay it.  Dude man is kinda like Chuck Norris.

2- Dude Man don't care.  Dude Man is like the honey badger:

He just don't care.  It's pissing rain? Dude Man don't care.  We have to sleep in car?  Dude Man don't care.  

Dude Man sleeps with sunglasses on.

You wanna drive 8 hours both ways to do a 4 hour bike ride?  Dude Man don't care.  You wanna have cereal for dinner? Dude Man don't care. You shovel chicken shit for a living?  Dude Man don't care.  You haven't had a shower in 2 weeks? Dude Man don't care.

3-Dude Man is on a full-dairy, full-meat, full-gluten diet.  

Clean your plate, son.

He does't show up at a dinner party and say 'Oh, I'm vegan and I won't eat that rare bloody steak.  Oh, does that beer have gluten in it?  I can't drink that.  Ice cream gives me gas.'  Dude man!  If ice cream gives you gas, that's sweet.  Your own brand is not so bad.  Dude Man just eats everything and doesn't complain about it.

4-Dude Man gets shit done.  It might not always be pretty, but it always gets done.   Dude Man is persistent.  

When there is a tree across the road, you just build a new road around it.    

New road.

You break your chain?  You have a chain tool and you know how to use it.   Skins not sticking?  You duct-tape them on.  Dude Man can suck it up.

You need to go from Liptovsky to Prague in a compact when a few dudes, a few boats, and a bike?  No problem.

5-Dude Man does not play games. That means no sucking up to the fire chief to get that napping and bbq job. No whoring yourself out to the industry to get a free set of tires.  Dude Man tells it like it is and bends over at the cash register if need be.  However, Dude Man does everything in his power to avoid paying retail.

6-Dude Man is not a punter.  When it's 4th down, Dude Man sends out Peyton Manning and goes long. He doesn't send out the kicker and just give the ball away.  When there is a river-wide hole the size of China,  Dude Man boofs it like a champ and maybe gets pitted, so pitted.  

Or if there is a sick booter into a blower pillow line, Dude Man just goes for the back flip and maybe ends up doing a lawn dart.   Or he sticks it.  It's all cool dawg.

Full lawn dart.

7-Dude Man doesn't always race, but when he does, he races to win.  Half-ass is not in Dude Man's vocabulary.  It's full win-or-hospital.  Either you don't care to compare yourself to other people, or you're going to crush their balls.  

Dylan Wolsky, of The Nomads, leaving it all on the trail.

8-Dude man is not a dick swinger.  A dick swinger is someone who has something that's not really needed but you want to show others how big your dick really is.  Like they guy driving his lifted Dodge Cummins diesel truck down Robson Street with 2 sleds in the back.  He revs his engine saying check out my dick, its huge! Or the guy who lives in a 6000 sq ft house with a 4-car garage.  Maybe he needs the 4th garage to make his house into a massive dick?  Dude Man doesn't need to swing his dick.  When it comes down to it, we are all really just mid-pack in the rat race, and there is no need to swing your dick around, except as a joke.

Are you a full dude man?

'You have to be a certain kind of dude...'

A dudeman emerges at the Olympics

I can't say enough about Vavra Hradilek's performance in the Olympic qualifer on Sunday morning.  Here's the play-by-play:

For his first run, he arrived at the start just a few seconds before he was scheduled to start, coming off the conveyor and directly onto the course.  He made a small mistake right away, in the first offset, then settled in, and was very solid all the way down on a run where everyone looked a little bit lame.  It was good enough for second.  He gave the brown claw at the finish.

So brown.

What the hell does that mean?  Here's some required reading.

Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Brown

The story of the brown claw

On his second run, he arrived at the start pool early and looked bored as he bided his time.   Then he absolutely smashed the course - he did a crossbow in a move that caused most of the women to spin yesterday - beating all of the first run times even after floating for ~5 seconds to the finish.  Hannes Aigner was more serious, went similarly well, and won the day.  

Bold.

Watch the runs here:


http://www.ctvolympics.ca/videos/channel/obs1/watch/slalom-heats.html

The kayaks have stepped up their game this year, in particular the young Germans, French, and Czechs.  Kauzer and Molmenti look flat by comparison and could easily end up outside the medals, despite having dominated in the last quad.


In other Olympic news, an expected showdown between Martikan and Estanguet lived up to its promise this morning.  Martikan went gold, silver, silver, gold at the last four; Estanguet won the other two.  No one makes it look better.  They are the best of a generation, if not all time, at any discipline.  


Estanguet took it.  Here's his last run (probably his last ever):  


Estanguet in the final, en francais.

The kayaks are only going to find 2-3 seconds on that tomorrow.


The German, Sideris, was just as good and was second, in maybe one of the best races of all time.

http://vimeo.com/44021291