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 I'm camping in our van with my oldest kid. She has a soccer game in Glenwood Springs tomorrow. So I felt like writing a love letter to skate parks. I've started riding park again on my dirt jumper. It's been fun to make some short video clips for Strava. Shooting video is a new element for me, and I like it. It forces me to keep trying a trick until I get one that qualifies. I have very exacting standards.  A new skate park opened last summer about 20 minutes from my house. It's a really fun park with good design. It was my privilege to bring along two junior roller derby skaters and they proceeded to tear the place apart. My daughters friend has already mastered dropping in to a five foot transition. So I'm sure Breakneck Betty will be catching up soon.  Speaking of dropping in, I met a skater dad who started skating at 40! And he was dropping into an eight foot quarter pipe. I told him I was very impressed. Dropping in for the first time is an important rite of p...

  Monday morning I walked into work with a pep in my step. I had ridden my bike to work, and on Sunday I had kicked off my first dirt jump sesh of '23. I was feeling good. I said hi to my coworker. He asked how my weekend was.  I said it was fantastic, I went dirt jumping. I asked how his was. He explained that he had bought a bunch of ammo on Saturday and he got a "plate." My good vibe started to falter, I said, " You got a plate carrier?" He explained, "No I already had the carrier, but now I have a plate for it. " And just like that I was dragged down off my cloud and into the foul, shitty reality that is our country. To quote the great band Len, he stole my sunshine. He did not want to hear about my dirt jumping, but he did want to talk more about his plate armor. "I've been watching tons of youtube testing and haven't seen anything that can penetrate this brand." I said, " Sounds like you're ready for combat, now all yo...

I know I bag on mountain bikers who only ride for PR's, it's not because I dislike speed. I just think they have no style. But I do like speed. I love driving fast, especially over winding mountain passes and twisting canyon roads. I like riding a road bike fast, especially on the Copper Triangle . When I was a Summit Stage driver I even drove a bus fast. Too fast. As a bus driver I received several speed warnings. The police don't stop a bus, but they flash their lights at you and they might call into dispatch. If you're caught you can't deny it because there is only one bus going from each location at any given time. But for me, the most thrilling sensation of speed comes with skiing. The feeling of the cold wind blowing past you. The sound of P-Tex chattering across hardpack. It is truly breathtaking. And it takes a special technique to go really fast. In a car you stay on the gas to go fast. On a mountain bike you stay off the brakes to go fast. But on skis, you...

     Like all good superheroes, my Jeffsy has a tragic origin story. It starts with a violent car crash. It was a Saturday in early winter. Both my little girls were in the back of my 1991 Mercedes 190e. We were waiting at a light  when a Suburban rear ended us doing 50 mph.  The Mercedes was crumpled at both ends, but it took the hit like a faithful guardian. The brave sedan sacrificed itself to protect me and the girls.        With my head dazed and the girls still crying, my thoughts turned to my other vehicle, a 1972 VW bus.  We all loved riding in the bus. If the weather had been 10 degrees warmer we might have been in the bus. I  had daily driven it for 18 years.  I thought I would drive that bus forever, and in that moment I fell completely out of love with it. I knew that if the bus had been hit like that the result could be deadly. I sold the bus and bought a used Audi, with money l...

The tale of the Left Hand Canyon trail signs is a story about art. Art in the woods, and corporate timewasting. I had become hopelessly addicted to Left Hand, and I had access to a sweet welder. I thought the broken shovel design fit with the asthetic of the trail system. A system dug by hand with sweat and shovels. My signs would be a tribute to the guys spending their free time out there digging. I started with Indy and Bon Scott since those were the existing trails, quickly followed by Deadass and the RZA GZA sign. The early signs were kind of crappy as I developed my technique. I eventually decided the best way to make the letters was a multistep process. I would lay down a layer of weld, then grind the top smooth, then lay another bead and repeat. I actually carried some of the originals down off the mountain and applied more weld to bring them up to the new standard. Also the first ones were unpainted and nearly invisible to a passing rider. The new trails started coming fa...

I love mountain bike culture. I love our tribe, I love all the different characters I get to meet. On a recent trip to Left Hand I met up with some fun riders, each at different stages in their cycling career. The first rider I met that day was my friend Matt. I knew he was out there because his car was in the usual spot. All summer, me, him and this dude with a Jeep Wrangler had been vying for the first tracks of the day. There is something special about being the first one to enter the trail system. Matt has known this feeling many times, including that morning.  This summer I learned to stop hating Strava and enjoy it as a way to see that my friends are out riding. So, I started to notice that Matt had been riding Left Hand consistently for many weeks. Matt has been on a streak. Starting At the end of August he rode, 26,28, Sept 2,9,11,13,16,18,20,22,23,25,27,29, Oct 1,2,4,5,7,9,11,13,14.  I love that he is doing this. I think it will forever affect the way he rides. W...

     I limped into work on a Monday and my buddy asked what I did. I said, I slipped my pedals doing an ET. He said, The kids at BMX are always doing those. Why’s it called that? Doesn’t it stand for something?        Well,  dear readers, ET does in fact stand for Extra Terrestrial. Today I’ll tell the tale of how the cute little alien may be unknowingly referenced at your local dirt jump spot or bike park. First I’ll describe the trick. This is a pretty easy trick and I encourage every rider to try this for themselves. You ride off the lip of the jump and then once you are in the air you start pedaling again,  as you begin to drop, stop pedaling, set your feet level and stomp the landing        For me a good one is two or three pedal strokes. Blake from GMBN   says his record is six full cranks. That's a pretty big jump. I can also do a half a crank on a really little jump or roller. I think these are a fun, un...