Hoff Fest – Finale

Finally…..Cory is here.  Now we can get some jumps going.

So, bummer about the weather.  It finally came together, but it was a bit of a drag that Aggy, Jordie, Alex, and Doerfling had to bail.   But that’s the way she goes sometimes, boys.

Nico and R-Dog  stayed, and it went a bit like this:

Actually, it was Andreu who got the ball rolling….of course. Once they got going, it was the full show.  Unbelievable how big these jumps are, and the boys made them look easy.  Like they were going slow when they hit ’em.

Of course, they didn’t all go as planned.

But when they did…

Phone home…

OK, so that was cool and all, but it was kind of boring.  Hey!  What’s this yellow thing doing with it’s doors off?

Yeah, let’s do that.

Is this some kind of joke?  Those are jumps for ants…

Gnargus up front with a good view of the trail.  You get a better view with the doors off.

You also get some premature aging when the heli flies off unexpectedly with your camera bag open and no doors.    Luckily nothing fell out, but there was definitely a small comedy of errors for a bit.

Whatevs, Amber and I bagged the first heli drop off Reco.   It was OK.

Meanwhile, back at the Fest…

Their little hands make the jumps look SOOOO big.

There ya go.  Andreu got the Trick, Nico go the Style, Sorge has the Whip, and KJ went Hoff.

Wicked times hanging out with friends (old and new) all week.   That was just way too much fun.  Here’s another take on the Hoff:

That was a full pull.  I think I’ve been on the road for about 5 weeks, and I really need a break to absorb it all.  What a way to end it though.

Hoff Fest – 3

Well, it’s not pouring rain today.  But it did last night, so the jumps are still pretty wet.  Everyone put in some more time trying to install drainage, but it’s just not happening.  I guess we’ll have to do something else, like set a new record for dollar amount on the roof of the van (well north of a hundred grand with this load…).

I think we should also maybe head up to Reco for some big mountain riding.  Or more accurately, the boys decided we should go up to Reco for some big mountain riding and I tried to just hang on to the tail of the dragon…

Can you guess what they’re thinking?

I wonder if they expected to see the girls on top of the peak waiting for them though.

Buehler is having first and second thoughts here, but it goes.  You know it’s going to just take one guy to make the move and it’s going to go down.

And Doerfling pops the Reco face cherry!

Quickly followed by Alex (I’m not sure if that’s Pro or Volokhov, but they rode similar lines so you can pretend it’s whichever one you like best).

Then Sorge and Aggy dropped in via the summit couloir, prompting a regular avalanche of debris and freeriders.

Buehler…

…and Vink…

…and Herb.

..and finally Andreu, who rode it faster than anyone.  Probably in large part due to his nearly bald rear tire.

The boys at the bottom, although we’re still near the top of the ride.  Somewhere near there is Sorge’s GoPro, which he lost when he dropped his helmet while dodging rocks falling from above.  It’s in the bowl somewhere, along with another dozen or so that have been lost around here over the past few winters.

Once again, I’m sort of surprised that they’re that into riding steep scree.  I guess what’s old is new again, sort of like neon colours and long top tubes.

Here’s the whole dirty crew for you.

Meanwhile, Gnargus was waiting patiently for the gang so he could make a few bucks today.

Sorry buds, they didn’t feel like working it for you.  Except James.  He put in some high exposure ridgeline time.

I’m pretty sure that things are going to work out alright for Riga later in the week, but in the meantime we still have another day or two of indeterminate weather to wait out before we know what day this is going to go down on.