OTB 2025

 I've been off the bike for a long time, so it was nice to kick off the season for real. The first thing I did was bring a total newb to Valmont. He's a kid I work with who's a wildland firefighter. He said he's never had to chance to mt. bike but always wanted too. So I threw him on a dirt jumper and told him where to go. He did awesome. I sent him down the small slope style line, dual slalom, pump tracks and single tracks. 

With full sleeve tattoos and a borrowed skid lid he already looked like an X Games pro. It was fun to see him work up the courage to do the tiny diving board. The first time he pedaled towards it, then stopped and had to start over. I got to see the exhilaration of a successful attempt. The ride went perfectly and at the end he was googling used dirt jumpers.

A few days later I got out on my first trail ride. My riding buddy Aki took me out to a new trail that I had only heard about. We started down and encountered a large rock slab. I scoped it out and was immediately impressed by the quality of the construction and the vision the line had achieved. Admittedly I am not a big slab rider, I assessed the feature and said, "I don't know about this." Aki said, "don't worry, that's only the first one."

We continued down the trail and encountered one massive slab line after another. Aki rode several, but I kept taking the easy-out go-arounds.

I started to have the realization that this new trail was beyond my abilities. Often I pass on Left Hand features because they are poorly constructed. That wasn't really the case here, the slabs were just big commitment features built for young riders with nerves of steel and bones that flex. I feel like this trail represents what happens when a rider's first mountain bike is a modern 29er. It was a glimpse into another rider's mind about what should be possible on a bike.

All these thoughts were swirling through my head as we rode along a flat area between features. It wasn't even flat, I was going slightly up hill when I noticed a large triangle rock poking up in the trail. My bike usually clears obstacles like that so I didn't even plan to pop off of it. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with my bike on top of me. Later I analyzed the rock and determined two other riders may have experienced the same thing.

Going Over The Bars is truly a wildcard event, you really don't know how it's going to turn out. One time years ago I went OTB and my head hit the dirt, I remember looking at the rock six inches away that I could have hit, but didn't. Sometimes I see it coming and I've consciously jumped over the bars as the bike is going down. Other times I'm just locked in place as the event unfolds and I don't even have time to react. Maybe that's best, it seems like I never try to catch myself with my wrists. At least I haven't yet.

The motion is like a catapult trying to lob a big rock, only the rock doesn't fly out of the cradle and just gets slammed into the ground in front of the catapult. 

I can't blame this rock though, I know it was my fault. I was in between scary features and Just Riding Along. I let my guard down because I perceived I was on an easy part of the trail. Here's the secret to mountain biking, There is no easy part.