Month: July 2006

Revenge of the Sith – Day 9

Posted on by Smoke

Now that we’re back in the Okanagan, we’d better take the time to ride Powers Creek.

Is that….PAUL? It IS Paul! On a gap no less. He’s been holding out.

Of course, you are spared the endless run-ins, but he seems to be the sleeper hit of the tour.

Oh look, its Paul on another gap. Ho hum, it’s not a surprise now.

…and we already know he could ride ramps.

This is me, not crashing.

This is Barb, also not crashing.

Same girl, same stunt, same result.

Oh Tony…..

Uh oh, that shouldn’t have hurt that much. This stunt shall hereafter be known as the “Jedi Fucker.” Dave likes to give stunts rude names so that little kids can swear at their parents.

Now, while Tony was pretty sore after that crash, he was still in the game for another ride if he throttled back, so that’sw what he did. Unfortunatle, he slipped a pedal shortly after this and caught the backspin right on the sore spot. Which pretty much finished him. Fractured tibia. Bummer. I guess that’s what happens when you stay out all night….

The rest of the crew kept on charging.

Panama managed to catch up to himself on this spiral ramp.

Say hi to Dirty Dave, the architect of this particular zone.

Craig was also out partying with Jedi until the wee hours, but seemed to be handling it a bit better.

Until this miscalculation the wall.

If you look closely you’ll see his tibia. Nothing that a few pieces of tape won’t fix.

That was 13 stitches if you were curious….

Revenge of the Sith – Day 8

Posted on by Smoke

Lat day in Nelson, lets climb!

Yeah, I know….it’s every Englishman’s dream to push your bike up steep mountains in Nelson. We went right by this sign on the way up, and for those of you who don’t know this already, Smilin’ Buddha is Pauls’s nickname (he even looks like the Buddha in the pic).

Me, “Aww, we gotta do this trail. It’s named after Paul.”

Local guy, “Uhhh, it’s not in very good shape.”

Me, “Perfect, neither is Paul!”

These trips are a laugh a minute, I tell ya.

From chuckles to hucks…

This would be the infamous 719 road gap, as seen in some New World Disorder film.

Jedi found something to love here.

Our nameless local guide (if I don’t write it down, it never happened. Anyway, he’s a ripper and good guy. Look him up if your in Nelson).

That was a nice warmup. Back to the push……

OK, the top. Here’s some skinny stuff for you, Paul.

…and a few drops for Tony.

The weather started to get sort of unsettled as we rode. It would sort off cloud over…..

Then get windy and sunny…..

…and then it got dark.

REALLY dark.

Then it poured rain. We’d planned on going to Castlegar to check out some serious new stunt action, but Kootenay wood is not rain riding friendly construction, so we packed up and drove down to the Okanagan.

I think most of us were satisfied with what we’d done anyway.

Plus it gave us a bit of rest before settling in at Salty’s Beach House for some martinis.

Revenge of the Sith – Day 7

Posted on by Smoke

Time for a guides meeting…..

“I think you should switch to the Orange Sunshine. The Purple Microdots are for night time…..”

Today we went to Kokanee Creek, aided by our lovely and talented friend, Dangerous Deb. Our first trail was Hitman, and what a warmup it was.

A little bit of everything on Hitman.

They call this part Zorro. I wonder why?

At the bottom of Hitman, there’s another trail called Doz Slabs. Very reminiscent of the Disneyland area on the coast, with lots and lots (well, maybe 12 anyway) open granite slabs to wail down.

The last one even has a bit of a gap off the end.

Good and steep.

Our other local guide, whatsisname…..(sorry dude, must be the Purple Microdot).

Lap two took us to Newtsack.

Newtsack is more technical, with trickier log rides, steeper rock faces, and just generally stuntier.

It’s an excellent display of the trail builders art.

This teeter was near the start, and really got things rolling.

Gotta have another look.

…and once more for me.

OK, last time on the teeter, I swear. It was worth going back for……really.

Lots of room for improvisation here, as Pnama makes it work.

More sick steeps.

Gotta stay cool on some of the drops, because it was a long way down if you blew it.

The final move drops in at a real 90 degreees +.

We had just enough time for one more lap for dessert, so we hit a really technical line called Sitkum. It started off with some pretty healthy moves, like this burly stepdown that Deb stomped.

Here’s another angle, which doesn’t really do it justice.

After that, the trail becomes a lot like Fromme on the shore, but without all the erosion. Our mandatory frosty bevvies on the beach, and another epic day comes to a close.