My Sea Otter Experience

[tkblazer]

I'll start from the beginning since this road trip was nearly canceled last minute. I was packed and ready to roll by friday morning and then i checked the weather forecast for the weekend, 60% showers in Monterey ... freakin great i thought to myself. There is no way in hell that i'm going to drive 6 hours to stand around in cold pouring rain .. A few hours later the forecast changed to only 30% chance and i said , F it! lets go ...

fast forward to friday night, getting ready to take off for the night ride up to Shannon's pad. Jeff shows up at my house after getting lost for a bit. Jose, in typical Jose fashion is late ... after a short delay, we pack my mini car up with a ton of stuff, most of it was Jose "Diana freaking ross's" stuff and hit the road. After a few hours we make it to a small town called Morro Bay. From the little time i spent there, it seems like a nice quaint little town. The kind of place where everybody knows your name and you theirs. Shannon's place is off the freakin hook!! The house is planted atop a small hill and you are literally across the street from a dock in the bay. The views in the early morning are pretty sweet, even with the thick marine layer that was lingering in the air.

Shannon and Bruce, you guys are the best! Thanks for letting us OC boys crash out at your pad and keep you up late to drink on friday

Saturday morning - We had a hearty breakfast thanks to our chef Shannon! everyone gets packed up and we head out to Monterey. Everything goes off without a hitch until we get closer to Salinas. The skies unleash the fury and it starts pissin' rain. My little car is hydroplaning all over the place and its pretty hard to keep pace with Bruce "Schumacher" F1 driver extraordinaire. Once we get off the 101 and head into town for a quick stop, we have a group meeting. It was basically a quick chat about how crazy are you and what are you willing to do for fun. To be honest i was ready to turn around, Jose was up in the air and the only guy that was really happy about the rain was jeff. this guy is a nut, but he had a point, we drove all this way and it would be a waste to turn back. Well, i packed a cooler of beer and i thought to myself... i'm gonna drink some beers and have to put up with the damn rain.

Once we get inside Laguna Seca, its freakin nuts.. bikes all over the place, cars driving in and out, i was in freakin heaven. We met up with Neil and his wife Tracy who were too nice and served as our host while at the track. Without their camp fire, i believe the three of us would have suffered from hypothermia. We were soaked from head to toe. [FONT=&quot]Thanks guys! You’re the best!

[FONT=Verdana] The first race i watched was the short track race. Now i've never had an idea what true short track was until i saw it in person. It was a short loop of maybe 1 mile max and the riders had to do a certain number of laps within a set time. With the mud, cold and rain you could really see the pain these riders put themselves in to compete against the best. I was very impressed and shocked how fast these riders are, its not something i would be able to do thats for sure.

The next race i watched was dual slalom, this is freakin sweet. Since i have an interest in racing this type of event, i really wanted to watch how the pro's do it and see for myself the different riding styles and techniques they use in a race run. Practice was nice and seemed to go off without a whim, that is until it was time for qualifying. The rain just started to pour again and made for tricky conditions in the high speed lower sections. I was really amazed at how smooth and controlled these riders are through all the turns, whoops and how strong these guys are when they pedal.

The DS concluded my race spectating for the day and i made it back to camp. We drank some beers and ate a bit and then Jeff, Jose and I went into the expo to check things out and talk to some people. It was cool to see all the new products and even just being in such an awesome environment. Nearly everyone had a beer in hand since they were giving out cups of Sierra Nevada pale ale at the Commencal booth. I was hanging out there with Jeff chattin and who is standing next to me? none other than Cedric Gracia himself, this guy is freakin dope and a hell of a rider to boot. Jose ventured to the Niner booth and i followed. I really wanted to check out their new JET 9 and it is a work of art, i want one [/FONT] we cruised around a bit more, but it was getting late and a lot of the booths were closed for the day so we left and headed back into camp. By now, it was really starting to get cold and we were still wet from the rain. Everyone huddled around the camp fire and enjoyed a few beers. We grilled up some burgers and had a good time. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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Sunday - We came back to the camp site and neil was already out on his race run, which i'll let him decided whether or not to talk about it. We unloaded our bikes and head for the DH course. The semi pro's were doing practice runs so i hung out for a bit, took pictures/vids and then went back to camp to get some beers. I headed back to the expo area to see what was happening and man it was packed! The DJ'ers were in full effect and pulling off some sick aerials. Lance mcdormett was once again the only one doing front flips like he did at Crankworx, the crowd went wild when he first pulled it off.
After cruising around, i ran into Keith and Sarah. We chatted hung out for a bit and chatted. Jose and Jeff soon came by and it was a good old STR reunion. I saw Darin and Lacey in the crowd, but didn't get a chance to see how she did. Andy- Rut was there and partying it up in his usual fashion. After grabbing a quick snack i headed back to the DH course. To get there you have to do a killer steep road climb and i felt like i was back home on Modjeska Grade. It seems i got to the course just in time as some of the pro's were starting their race runs. I caught just about all the riders that i wanted to see and i'm freakin amazed at the speed these guys can carry and still stay soo smooth. I guess you have to be that way to be a world cup level athlete. Anyhow, i watched Lopes, Hill, Rennie, Peaty, CG, Graves and more race right in front of me... so freakin awesome! i just wish i brought my air horn
After the DH racing we headed back to camp to get ready to leave. We packed up the cars, gave our farewells to neil and tracy. The drive back was pretty uneventful, no traffic at all so it was pretty sweet. So after 3 1/2 tanks of gas, a lot of beers and junk food, we were about to conclude our Sea Otter 2007 road trip. Looking back, i really had a blast and am glad we decided to stick it out and stay in town. Jose and Jeff, you are some cool cats to hang out with, but i don't want to be stuck in a car with you guys for a while It was funny to see Jose all hyped up at my house ready to party and then every hour that passed, he got quieter and quieter... maybe next time we'll fly?

ok pics and video to follow! [/FONT]
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now i didn't take any many pictures as i wished, so i'll let the other guys take care of any expo and campsite pictures.

Men's Short track



Women's short track with winner in black





some DS action

Cedric practicing



Rennie rippin a berm



Sabrina Jonnier at the finish to take 1st!



Kintner placed second



sam hill's new ride for 07



overlooking the expo area



what a beautiful day it turned out to be on sunday



vid's

Jonathan Olcott representin The Path Bike Shop



Brian Lopes



Nathan Rennie



Steve Peat "Peaty"



Cedric Gracia



i also have a vid of jared graves and chris kovarik i need to post up..

[slowSSer]

very nice write-up! the mud du jour at sea otter is always fun. ah, the ubiquitous rain. Monterrey at Sea Otter time should just be called "oregon south"

oh, and morro bay, cauycos (next little town north), cambria (further north, a little more of a tourist trap) and all those little towns are really sweet. a great place to sepnd a relaxing weekend off the MTB- the roadie riding seems pretty nice.

[Burner]

so did you guys actually do any riding?

Originally Posted by tkblazer

[FONT=&quot] neil was already out on his race run, which i'll let him decided whether or not to talk about it. [/FONT]

uh oh, that's not a good piece of foreshadowing.... hope it wasn't an injury or a problem with the new bike?

[tkblazer]

jose and jeff did a quick loop around the demo loop, but i didn't ride any dirt. The rain on saturday kinda killed a lot of time that could have been spent riding.

[1x1clyde]

Thanks for the write up Nam, I got home at 4 am this morning and still made it to work this morning

Turns out I did get 5th, I protested the guy that protested me and so on but that sure leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Thanks for coming out even if you had to drag jose along...Jeff I like but his Jose fellow

[andy aka rut]

I guess I should chime in too.
I have raced SO for several years, but over the last two I found a new rush... in the bottle. Sierra Nevada IPA to be precise. I was lucky enough to get a hospitality pass for the weekend. This pass allowed for free breakfast and lunch (daily) and all the beer/wine I can consume. Well, my jacket would hold 6 bottles and my backpack held 4 in the front and 10 in the big back pocket. I was forced back to the tent about 4 times a day.... everyday.
I remember seeing Sarah (sauce) out on the course at the feed station and gave a STR cheer for her. She was crushing it. I think the woman out front should have raced on Sunday with the other pro's-but that's just me.
Neil (1x1clyde) and I chatted on the phone but were never able to see each other, I think?! You 'member?!
I hosted 3 raffles from another website and even gave away a few bikes. The generosity of some of the companies just floors me. Niner Bikes let a friend borrow a bike for a race. Can you imagine Specialized allowing someone to do that? They also donated a frame for the raffle. WTB must have donated 2 cases of tires for the raffles. Santa Cruz a frame and too many to count t-shirts and sweatshirts. Schwinn a cross bike and Marzocchi donated a fork. There were just tons of stuff. The Path Bike Shop donated at least 100 items. Adidas Eyewear gave me a set of glasses as well as a few sets of grips and a few beers. The list can go on and on. Everyone was sooo cool. I even got to talk with several uppity up's at Shimano and did my best to convince them to start doing 29'er rims. Luckily it was still early in the morning and I was still doing coffee.
Francis and his crew at MTBR were some of the best hosts around.
I didn't race, but I rode the course a time or two and did the feed zone for several riders.
Oh, there was rain? What day did that happen?
To all that competed.... huge kudo's to you!!!!

[sauce]

Keith is doing a RR and going to post some AWESOME pics. He got some many great shots of just about everything at Sea Otter. Just about.

That was you Andy?! Yeah, the girl who beat me in the single-speed sport class is on a road team and has been racing expert this last year. What a sandbagger. No big deal ... I never thought I'd get second. I was shocked. And I was only a few minutes behind sandbagger girl anyway. I'm moving up to expert as soon as they will let me, b/c sandbagging is so not cool. What's the joy in winning a race, if you're not competing at your skill level?!

We heard Andy was having a great party, and Keith and I went biking around w/ our night lights looking ... but we couldn't find the party! We were so tired, so it's just as well. We both have bruised ribs ... some beginner man fell in front of me, and I took a high-speed endo and rolled down the fireroad mid-race. It bent my seat backward, so I had to ride out of the saddle for a few miles.

The beginner men were really rude and definitely affected all of our times. I think I'll let Chelle (who fricking KICKED BUTT single-speeding!!!! Almost podiumed, and she JUST GOT a single-speed) explain.

[mp3]

SoCal was represented nicely by several female SSers! Great job to all of you.

Sauce,
Yup sandbaggers are lame and beg. men racers are even worse -- can't handle having their arses handed to them.

[ShinKen]

Originally Posted by sauce

I think I'll let Chelle (who fricking KICKED BUTT single-speeding!!!! Almost podiumed, and she JUST GOT a single-speed) explain.

I thinkss she had a SSer before this NEW 29er so, she's not knew to the chit!!

ahh yeah I'll post pics ASA I get this camara to work!! he he

[sauce]

yeah, but chelle did some sort of course that required JUMPING on her 29-er! that is HARD CORE! :-)

[tkblazer]

francois over at mtbr posted up a bunch of vids

pro downhill practice


Dirt jump practice


Dual Slalom

[Wrecker]

OKay, I had a SS 1 1/2-2yrs ago and rode it a few times. I had never riden my SS on a ride longer than 18 miles, that ride was the St Pat's ride (beer powered! woohoo!!).

I did the Super D on the geared bike, so the only jumping on the 29'er was on the XC course. The Super D really required a big ring--ever wonder why that's there? Yeah, you need to ride the super D course up there....and, no, don't think I'll do a real Super D, I liked the baby course

I'll have to do RR later, but I did spend the weekend up against experts (open women and the SS). No real mechanicals and I finished my events (cept the short track, wanted to save my legs for the SS and actually get through it)

[mtnbikerdude87]

I had a great time! The rain was a bummer on saturday but it cleared up on sunday and the day was great. I race out there sunday and the course was great. No mud puddles but all the sandy sections were packed down. Talk about a long course, the climbs just kept on going. I was surprised I finished. Saw Andy, Jose and his buddies, Sauce, Maxwell and Lacy. Nice to see you guys.

[Keith B]

[FONT=Arial]Here's my RR for the whole weekend - its more of an event/road trip report really because I did more drinking than riding! [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Its worth pointing out that if you're heading up to race at the USA's premier Mountain Bike Festival that you ought to book a place to camp or stay in advance…..Or alternatively you could just wing it, race up the 101 to Laguna Seca roll up to the Security guard at 10pm and have a conversation like this: [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Me to Sarah: I have no idea what I'm going to say to this security guy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Security guard: Oh you're back[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Me: Urrr……Yup! back again[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Security guard: I suppose you misplaced your camping pass?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Me: Yeah…..no idea what happened to that![/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Security guard: OK off you go then[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Me: *incredulous look* [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]It was like the whole Jedi mind trick thing for real! [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]It wasn't over then because we have no idea where the camp sites are located within Laguna Seca. Another security guard ends up asking us what we're doing and somehow I recall from a quick glance on the net that there is a camp site G which is just so happens is just off the road next to the one we're on. We find 'G' and low and behold in a packed camp site we drive straight to where there is a spare spot the size of a tent of a car. The guy who had the spare space said it'd be fine if we paid his bud who did the booking - [/FONT][FONT=Arial]Who said Friday the 13 th is unlucky?!! OK we were kind of bad and bent the rules but it was all for the good of the sport.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Sarah's Singlespeed race was at the ungodly hour of [/FONT][FONT=Arial]8am[/FONT][FONT=Arial] so it was an early start for her to get food and bike prepped, get registered and put in some warm up time. I've raced the Laguna Seca track so many times on Grand Turismo so it was a total trip to ride it on the SS. Although I wasn't turning into turn 5 in a 100mph 4 wheel drift 2 wheeling it around there was still a lot of fun. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Chelle and Bernice from Sho-Air were in the same race – they all looked so calm before the off - I'm sure I'd have been a mass of nervous laughter and brown pants. I'll let Chelle and Sarah give the low down on the race because I was eating breakfast and snapping whilst they were putting in the hard work.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]This was my first time in NorCal – it's just like [/FONT][FONT=Arial]England[/FONT][FONT=Arial] and as such it threw it down just after the race ended. A beer and some lunch (Thanks Mario) made it all seem better and we even found a brand new Toyota SUV to keep us dry whilst we waited for Sarah's turn on the podium. I must have eaten a 4 leaf clover on my salad at some point to get this kind of luck. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Fortunately it stopped raining after a few hours and although the expo area had been turned into a quagmire it was great fun just to be there with so many like minded bike heads. Met Jose, Jeff and [/FONT][FONT=Arial]Nam[/FONT][FONT=Arial] arrived just in time for us all to discover that Commencial (French bike manufacturer) were giving away free [/FONT][FONT=Arial]Sierra Nevada[/FONT][FONT=Arial] – does it get any better than that?! [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Having broken as many rules as possible already it seemed like a good idea to get the SS's and lights out and sneak onto the BMX track – you can't get much flow in the dark with that many sharp turns and the wrong gearing. It probably wasn't a good idea with us both having bashed up ribs but it was a lot of fun. In fact we should have headed up to the dual slalom track for a blast down that! Doh![/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Our plans to hit some major food and beer later on Saturday night turned to dust when it turned out that all the fooderies and Sierra outlets just shut up shop at night and we couldn't find Jose and Andy for their beer fests. Big thanks to Chelle for the offer of bringing us pizza – a granola bar kept the hunger at bay till sunrise. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Sunday: Due to the extreme pain of sleeping on a hard surface with a bashed up body it was a crack of dawn drive over to the nearest Starbucks then breakfast in [/FONT][FONT=Arial]Monterey[/FONT][FONT=Arial]. It seemed like a short ride to SS it in from the back entrance of the park but it turned out to be 5 or 6 miles of seemingly endless hills – the ribs were begging me for 2 more advil and another Sierra Nevada (It's a heady cocktail believe me!) [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]We missed the end of the expert women's SS race but caught the podium and took a special picture just for Jose [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Watching the dirt jumpers was a humbling experience – awesome mid air acrobatics and they're jsut so incredibly balletic and smooth. One guy left the place in an ambulance but I suppose someone has to appease the gravity Gods with a sacrfice. Watching the pro's on the downhill course was a total blast – that looked like soooo much fun. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]In short the whole experience was great. Will be back next year for the full four days and hope to race at least twice – although I won't be able to compete with Chelle's impressive entry list this year! Oh and thanks to [/FONT][FONT=Arial]Nam[/FONT][FONT=Arial] for the Beer [/FONT][FONT=Arial] Sorry we lost you in the human traffic – after a few beers ripping through the crowds on the SS is just too much fun! [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Things I discovered on this trip:[/FONT]
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• [FONT=Arial]There is such a thing as 'rib karma' so don't make someone with a busted chest laugh[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial]Along with an air mattress, oven gloves and zip ties are things you ought to take camping[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial]Thanks to Ann for the clothing – it saved my ass in the cold.[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial]Check the structural integrity of all Portable toilets before entering - high winds can cause toilet terror[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial]Also – before you spend 10trips to pee in the bushes check that there isn't actually a toilet 15yds away[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Sarah warms up for her race early on Laguna Seca race track[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]The blokes waiting to race.....[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Sarah and Chelle look extremely serious before the race[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Carbon Racer X[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Thats just not right........[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Crazed man in wrestling mask[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Sarah finishes 2nd in SS[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Man dresses up as giant Otter[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Best place to be in the rain[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Top 5 for womens Sport SS[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Troy and pops hanging out at Santa Cruz - the boy will go far![/FONT]
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[Keith B]

Dual Slalom







Just for Allison - new Niner bike Pron



Look dude I hate it OK?!



Jeff and Sarah talk bikes & Sierra Nevada



Dirt jumpin'









OMFG !!









Expert womens SS



Downhill







Atmosphere shot....