Girls Got Skills

Girls Got Skills – Day 1

Posted on by Smoke

New jump park, and 20 ladies out to enjoy it.  I love the springtime.

A slightly lower turnout than last year, but I was gratified to see that there were way more local women out for the camp.   There’s a ton of clinics around, so you don’t NEED to travel to ours.  Unless you want to be at the best one, that is.

As usual, Johanna started things off with some yoga.

Having a skills park makes a big difference to what we can teach in a day.  Not only was this group quite talented to begin with, but we saw massive leaps in ability right away.

Here’s some exercises designed to help you find the center.  Ride as far back as you can, then ride as far forward as you can.

After a morning in the park, it was time to hit the trails.  A full house on this teeter showed that the girls were making big strides in their abilities.

Nice form, Candace.

Most of the girls were really apprehensive about anything constructed of wood.  Here’s Monica mastering those fears, and discovering that it’s not difficult, just a bit scary at first.

To help overcome those fears, we encourage everyone to hug a tree.

Hey wait…those are Man Boobs!

Somebody got a new bike and had to get a quick lap in.

To end the day, there were amazing displays of skill and dexterity.

Our Johanna is a woman of many talents.

Girls Got Skills – Day 2

Posted on by Smoke

Day 2, and the weatherman was so wrong.  They were calling for a bit of rain today.  Pfffft….hardly. 

The ladies went up to Myra/Bellevue to work on more advanced techniques for today.  Lots of little drops and dealing with the realities of natural terrain.

Stunts may get a lot of the attention, but it’s the natural terrain that’s the hard stuff.

Barb also took the afternoon off, so I got to do a Vapour run with the girls and a chance to do work on some cornering skills.

Oh, and also to take some ultra rad pics.

Some of the other groups got into a bit of trail maintenance.  The aftermath of the big fire of 2003 is still in effect as the standing deadwood begins to rot and fall over.  Here the girls are learning to operate the manual chainsaw.

Holy Top Model, talk about fierce!

Somehow, I doubt that Tyra could handle mountain biking.

A bit of a session here on some tech rock lines.

Nice focus.

You gotta be impressed by Laura.  She’s never been off road before, and is on a demo Kona here just killing everything we sent her way.  Thanks to the Kelowna Cycle guys for setting that one up.

I shouldn’t really single any of the girls out though.  They all rode well beyond any expectations.

Thanks to all the amazing women who came out to take part in this incredible weekend. You can bet that this will be an annual event for some time to come.

Girls Got Skills – Day 1

Posted on by Smoke

The day has finally arrived….are you ready to fly?

Nothing like 30 mountain bike women doing yoga in the morning to convince a guy that he’s losing his mind.

Exceeding all expectations, the Girls Got Skills Clinic sold out with 25 women showing up to take part.

The first part of the session was spent going over fundamentals on the grass at Mission Park.  I’ve never seen a camp run this way before, but the coaches are old hands at this and ran the program ultra smooth.

All the drills were fun, and totally relevant to riding hard trails.

This of course, is totally irrelevant, but the shuttle driver had difficulty controlling himself around all those amazing ladies on the bikes.

Luckily, no one was totally sickened by my vulgar display, so we went up to the trails to put the new skills to the test.

A brief safety discussion at the top and we were on our way.

First up was a teeter session.  It’s a little bit harder than riding on the grass, but since everyone I saw nailed it, something must have gone right.

Well, almost everyone……

Then, just when things were going so well, a mild disaster.  Ever notice that you always go where you look?   Check out Tatty Cat’s line of sight here (and her rear wheel).

Despite a picture perfect mid air dismount, an unlucky bounce led to a bit of a wrist injury, and Calah is out for a month or so.  That’s mountain biking for you.  At least the rest of the girls weren’t put off by this unhappy turn of events, and our pal Calah is in great spirits.  She should be ready for the road bike in a week or so.

What amazes me about this group is that every single girl had some kind of breakthrough in their riding.  Some of these women have never ridden off road before and here we are SHREDDING Gillard, an area widely regarded as one of the most progressive zones in all of mountain biking.

Dale was even finding ways of rolling down places that have only been aired before.

Well, Day One is finished and even with the casualty I would have to call it a success.  You can see some more pics over in the Girls Got Skills Gallery.