Skills Park

Girls Got Skillz–Day 1

Posted on by Smoke

Was the weather going to co-operate?  Or was it just going to rain?

Yay sun!

Another spring, another bunch of ladies out to secure some new skills.  I couple of returning faces this year (like Chris, a couple shots down), but a lot of new ones too.  The progression is wicked to see.  A few years ago the overall level was way lower. 

The morning was spent doing a bunch of the basics in the park.  Really fundamental stuff.

The president of the NOCS came down too.

Hanna is the youngest rider to come out on one of our clinics.  She’s only 15, and DRIVEN.  Pretty rad.

Big smiles! 

I think we were all smiling after that rad morning, especially with the sunshine.

After lunch we went up to Myra/Bellevue to ride some trail.   There’s still a bit of snow up there.  Good thing we fed the ladies some good food, ‘cause I needed their help to turn the van around…

The weather was a bit sketchier up in the hills, but it was a RAD ride.  Definitely Bush Pilot calibre.

Our lovely crew…

Girls Got Skills – Day 2

Posted on by Smoke

Day 2 of the clinic, and things are getting fabulous.

Yes, it’s silly outfit and hula hoop day.  I think Walmart must have been busy last night.

No, these are just my reading glasses.

OK, on to some more training.  Worked on berms and cornering today.  Having this rad berm all freshly built for us made it easy to progress.  From tentative first turns…

..to all out radness in just a few minutes.

The socks help:

Having Johanna set demos like this may also have something to do with it.

We went up to Powers Creek for the afternoon to get some more advanced riding in, and also to show off some hot fashions on the runway.

Big smiles, that’s a sign of a successful session.

Just try it, if you fall off you’ll be landing on people.  They’re squishy.

A lot of learning went down on this run.  Powers can be very intimidating to new riders, and there was no shortage of fear at the top of the trail, but by half way the girls were killing it at every turn.

Although there’s no guarantee that you’re not going to eat it on a flat section and take a mud bath.  You know that you can pay top dollar for this sort of thing at a spa, and we just include it in the price of the weekend.

Another excellent weekend clinic.  Thanks to Barb, Johanna, and Candace for the excellent coaching, and all the women who came out to ride.  We will be running this camp annually, so see you next year!  Or if you have a few girls who are looking for some instruction, just drop us a line and we can set something up.

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.