EB eNews for June

May 26, 2008

On Wednesday last week we put on a mountain bike skills day at Highlands School, the kids (and our instructors) had a great time! We were inspired by the kids at the school who have been riding their bikes to school all week and participating in different bike related events. It's exciting to see the younger generation being active and environmentally conscious. Way to go!

This week is 'Bike to Work Week', we encourage everyone to get out on their bikes, enjoy the sun, the fresh air and improved fitness!

Upcomming Programs!

Don't miss out on exciting programs this month!

We are offering a full line-up of programs in June:
- Learn to Ride: Progression Sessions
- All-Mountain: Progression Sessions
- Freeride/DH (level 3): Progression Sessions

- Dirt Jump and Drops Clinics (June 14th)
- Cornering Clinic (June 15th)

- 1-Day XC Skills Camp (June 7)
- 1-Day Freeride Skills Camp (June 8)

For our younger rippers:
- After School Rides
- Youth Sunday Rides


More program info. . .

Youth Summer Freeride Camps

NEW: We now have StumpJumpers Camps for our younger rippers - ages 6 - 10

Mark your calendars!

We have posted our Summer Freeride Camp Schedule for our StumpJumpers, Intro to Freeride, North Shore Freeride and Advanced Freeride Camps. These camps will introduce you to new skills, new places to ride and new friends, they also include a day at Whistler Bike Park! Our instructors for these camps include Mike Kinrade, Geoff Pendrel, Jay Hoots and other well known riders.

After a very successful StumpJumpers Spring Break Camp we are very excited to offer it in our Summer line-up of youth camps. This is a great opportunity for younger, less experienced riders to get comfortable on their bikes while learning core mountain biking skills.

In addtion, Mike Kinrade will be holding a Custom Youth Freeride Camp for advanced riders, the camp will have a maximum of 5 riders (ages 14-18) and will be held from July 7-10. Registration will be available on the EB website shortly.

More information on Summer Camps. . .

Whitehorse Camps: August 1-3

Join us in Whitehorse for Men's, Women's and Youth Camps!

In Whitehorse they are lucky to have hundreds of kilometers of buff single track. You can ride for hours and not see another rider. Some trails are left over from the gold rush days and some are specifically built for mountain biking. The semi arid climate lends itself to lasting trails and rain isn't much of a concern.

Whether you are looking for fast flowy trails for the beginner, steep technical descents or an epic single track adventure, Whitehorse has it all!

Get top-notch instruction from professional riders Jay Hoots, Darren Butler and Kelli Sherbinin while experience the amazing northern terrain. Endless biking will be offering a Youth Skills Camp (Aug 1), a Women's Skills Camp (Aug 2) and a Men's Skills Camp (Aug 3).

Want to sleep in a yurt? Check out Boreale Mountain Biking for accomodations, discounts are available for camp participants.

More info. . .

Learning is Endless Contest Winner!

Oliver tells us what 'Learning is Endless' means to him

I remember the day I wanted to start bike riding, my friend brought his bike to school and I thought it was so cool, I had to get one. I was 11 and I asked my dad to take me to the bike store to look at bikes and there were so many cool bikes. I wanted to buy one but didn't realized that bikes cost so much money, and I didn't have enough to pay for the the whole thing. I made a deal with my parents, if I worked and saved my money they would help me out and pay for half. I worked all summer cutting neighbors' grass and doing chores around the house. I went to the bike store to look at bikes and picked the one I wanted out. I want back for two months looking at the bike - the people at the bike shop knew me and encouranged me to keep working for what I wanted. I saved up all my money, and finally I had enough for the bike I wanted. I still remember the day my dad took me to buy the buike - it was one of my happiest days.

I started doing rides aroudn the trails by my house and doing little jumps, I was hooked. My mom wanted me to join a biking club so she searched the internet for local clubs. She found Endless Biking and thought it was the perfect thing for me so she signed me up. I signed up for the Sunday Youth Rides and met so many people and learned so much. I still wanted more experience so I ddi an Enldess Biking spring break camp. I remember how snowy and wet it was outside, I would come home every day soaked and exhausted, but I loved it. After that first camp I wanted to do more camps so I did a few summer camps too. The coaches were so cool and going to Whistler was amazing.

Endless Biking has taught me that I can learn and continue and grow as a biker. "Learning is Endless" means to me that no matter how good I am at one jump, at a trail, at a trick, I can always get better, and improve my skills. If I set my mind on a goal and don't give up, I can accomplish so much. Learning also means practicing a skill and trying to improve.

Enless learning means striving towards reaching your goals, you cannot just think about doing something, you have to get out and do it. You can always be one second faster, or jump one inch higher. When you strive towards a goal you will have endless amounts of success. - Oliver, age 14

As winner of our "Learning is Endless" Contest, Oliver takes home a sweet custom Endless Biking Dakine pack. Thank-you for inspiring us!

June Contest!

Show us your EB sticker and win a Dakine Apex Pack!

To enter our contest this month send us a photo of your EB stickers!

Send us your photos!

View our EB sticker photo gallery!

Kelli Trains in Mexico!

5 consecutive days riding about 7671 ft!

On May 2nd, 2008 a group of 8 riders got together to train for the upcoming BC Bike Race in Copper Canyon, Mexico.

Organized by Big Mountain Adventures in conjunction with BC Bike Race, 8 riders and 2 guides headed on a 7-day adventure with 5 days on the bikes. Amongst the crew were BC Bike Race directors, Dean Payne and Andreas Hestler, Big Mountains' administrator, Natalie Grether, our photographer, Johnny 'the cable boy', four BC Bike Race Competitors, Lorie and Dick Woodbury from Minnesota, Mary Sharkey and I, from Nother Vancouver. We also had two superior guides, Arturo a Mexico local and Ryan our Mexican-Texan-British Columbian. What a crew!

It was a last minute trip for me, but a well derved on at that. I thought to myself, what a great way to train for the BC Bike Race, 5 consectutive days in heat and altitude. Our base camp elevation started at 7671 ft and during our adventures we exceeded 8000 ft. Altitude is a very interesting beast that affects everyone differently.

On the evening of May 2nd we flew into Chihuahua, Mexico, Which is a large city comprised of about 3 million people. Thankfully all our bikes arrived, as there were five of us on a little plane.

The next morning we were up early to load up both suburban trucks for our 4 hour drive to Creel where we would be spending the remainder of our trip RIDING! Creel is a small town of about 3500 people and is surrounded by pine forests, interesting rock formations, canyons and has a lot of culture. Creel is the regional centre for the Tarahumara people who are indigenous to the canyons. They live isolated within the formidable topography and have retained many of their traditions, with many of them living in caves and log cabins, and wearing vibrant and colourful clothing.

This trip was one of the best trips I've done, with incredible dry rolling single track through remote Tarahumara villages, grazing cattle, goats, horses, lakes, canyon's, large rock ringer formations and our own private show with a local Mexican planying guitar and singing for us from our hotel through town and up to Arturo's house for our last night's celebration.

Our guides, Arturo and Ryan were outstanding with their knowledge of the lay of the land. They led us through various trail mazes, veering off in all directions. Every morning, Ryan would have freshly brewed coffee waiting on the front porch for us to enjoy as we would gather to watch the day awaken. They even organized a special treat along the way, a ride down into a valley to a catered lunch in the middle of our ride.

We had just finished riding some of the sweetest single track, passing by incredible views of endless valley's and canyons when we arrived at these rock finger-like structures, with grip-rock underneath out tires. We all stopped to take in the views and then picked our own lines down to our lunch waiting for us. It seemed too good to be true!

The next few days were spent getting to know many of the trails around the town of Creel, where we were able to ride from the front door of our cabins. We road for at least 4 - 6 hours each day and had multiple stops for photos and socializing. All meals were arranged and we were able to spend breakfast, lunch and dinner all together.

On our 3rd day, we drove out to an area approximately 1.5 hours west of Creel, deeper into Copper Canyon. The day started with a mini hike a bike and then a rolling single-track on a mountainside, passing by Tarahumara people along the trail. Approximately 3 hours into our day we got to descend into this government funded village, one of the largest villages of the Tarahumara people, with an elementary school, hosptial and church. As we rode into the village, all we could see was young girls running with sticks in their hand and a plastic Frisbee-like disc (possibly ringette). They were in the middle of their PE class. Jonnie our photographer got some incredible photographs of these girls in action. After their game had finished, they came to visit us in the church, where we were taking a break from the hot sun and tired legs. We spent at least 45 minutes with the girls and then rode up and out of the village and back to our vehicles

Day 4 was 'Spandex Wednesday'. Mary Sharkey surprised us all with her little red triathalon spandex that she bought especially for the trip. Needless to say, she was a hit with the whole town including the Tarahumara men!!! Nice work Mary! Dean payne was in a head-to-toe BC Bike Race outfit with full-length white arm warmers to keep the heat off.

We rode from our cabins to the outskirts of Creel, where we exited the highway (about 5 km out of town) and started our double/single track into the mountains. This was our first point-to-point trip where we split into groups. Some did an 'out-and-back', which was a bit of a shorter ride while Dean, May, Jonnie, myself and our guide Arturo headed for the committing adventure of the point-to-point, where we were going to be picked up at 4:30pm in a small area called Cusarare. What an incredible day!

The first leg of our ride was to a dried up waterfall where we got to ride the mouth of a once raging waterfall to where it tipped over and became un-rideable. We then rode back up and out and enjoyed amazing views and single track along the way. We rode through two separte canyons, Tararecua Canyon and the Cusarare Canyon where we finished. What a treat!

Day 5, our last day riding was great. We decided to hammer a little and not take as many stops and breaks as in previous days, it was a quick and tiring last hoorah. After the ride we packed our bags and drove back to Chihuahua where we would all depart back to our regular lives in the morning. On the drive back we got to pick Andreas' brain about nutrition, personal limits, stage racing, fatigue, training, etc. Andreas is a wealth of information.

For our last night Arturo invited us to his family's home for dinner where we were wined and dined! Ryan handed our special Chihuahua belt buckles to all of us.

A great trip with great people and great riding! Thanks to Dean Payne for convincing me to go, it was worth every penny!

Check out Kelli's photos!

Featured Rider: Susan Sheldon

If you hear Susan laughing on the trail, she's probably just crashed!

You would think that having chronic wrist pain and osteoarthritris in boht my knees would keep me from riding, but nope! You'll still find me on the trails with wrist-wraps, knee braces and a giant smile on my face!

Riding is an awesome way to lead a stress-free life and 2008 is shaping up to be a great riding season!

I had to take the winter off due to a cracked rib from a (super fun) snow ride in December. Normally, when I come back after time off my bike like that I usually ride a bit more conservatively for the first few times out. Not this year! By my third ride back I had already conquered a pretty major stunt that I've been working up to doing for some time now. It was EXHILARATING!

Every ride I've been on since then I've been able to cross more things off my "list". Many of these things have been on my list for a while. Taking the Progression Sessions and Hotwheels with EB last year really gave me the skills and confidence to tackle a lot of obstacles that I always had trouble with before.

I mostly ride on Fromme, Seymour and Burnaby Mountain with a couple of trips to the Sunshine coast each year. Summers see me at Whistler Bike Park and Silverstar as well. I'm looking to start riding more of the Woodlot, Vedder, Eagle, Burke and Squamish as well for a change of scenery. It's always good to mix things up a bit and experience new things.

This year we did out first biking vacation outside of BC. Easter long weekend saw us riding in Nevada desert for three wonderfully sunny days without a cloud in the sky! Way more pedaling than I've done in a very long time but every day brought more beautiful terrain and desert scenery. It also helped that the people we were with were super chill and awesome to ride with. Good times all around. Cottonwood Valley, Bootleg Canyon, and Cowboy Trails - I highly recommend them!

Over the past couple of years, I've also become actively involved with the Muddbunnies and the NSMBA and I have to say, it's a LOT more fulfilling being an active part of the mountain biking community through organizations like these.

The best part of being involved is meeting so many amazing people. I never have a shortage of riding buddies now. And the key to getting better, I find, is to just get out and ride as much as possible.

EB Instructor Uses First Aid Training

Shannon demonstated his first aid training while helping an injured rider.

Recently while out on a ride, EB Instructor Shannon Moldowan put his first aid training to use to help an injured rider. Rider Derek Stewart tore his ACL and MCL while riding on Seymour, Shannon and his friends came accross him at the bottom of Pangor, after Derek's friends had already spent 20 minutes helping him down the trail. Shannon quickly assessed the situation and jumped into action. Feedback we received from one of Derek's friends sums up the situation:

"Thanks so much for taking control of the situation and helping Derek out last night. It really made a difference to have someone so obviously trained in first-aid and leadership. It would have taken us a lot longer to get him and the bikes out for sure."

We are stoked to have such great people working with EB! We're sending healing vibes to Derek who is schedule for surgery in June.

Race Season is Here!

Congratulation to all the girls who raced last weekend!

Bromont, Canada Cup

Congratulations to EB Instructor Micayla Gatto on her first place finish in the Women's Senior Elite Category at the Bromont Canada Cup!

Race results!

Kamloops, BC Cup

This past weekend Kamloops hosted Race the Ranch. Three EB Chickas raced; Rebecca Bourque, Kelsey Begg and Danielle Baker. The girls had a great weekend, met lots of other awesome female racers and are probably still trying to get 'Kamloops dirt' out of their gear.

Kelsey showed true sportsmanship when, after sessioning the course for two days, she flatted near the top on her race run. Instead of ending her run there, she ran down the course in her full armour with her bike, through the wall ride at the end and with a huge smile on her face the whole time! Awesome!

Congratulations to Rebecca who took second place in her category, Danielle who came in third and to all the other girls that raced!

Race results!

Photos!

Get Involved in the Fight Against Cancer!

Four great ways to get involved.

Cycle for Cancer - The Bike Gallery has created a team to participate in the community bike ride after the Westside Classic on June 1st. The team will raise money for the BC Cancer Foundation and will be riding with Trevor Linden, Axel Merckx and Alex Steida. In addition, the top fundraiser will win a VIP trip for two to the Tour de France!. For more details and to sign up please visit Cycle for Cancer or email Stephen.

Raffle - The Bike Gallery has also donated an Argon 18 Helium full carbon frameset to the cause. Raffle tickets can be purchase for $10 at the store (4433 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver).

The Weekend to End Breast Cancer - Three EB Members, Danielle Baker, Rebecca Bourque and Sam Duncan will participate in the 60km walk in September. Together they will raise over $6000 for the BC Cancer Foundation. If you would like to donate, please visit Sam's page or Rebecca's Page.

Art Show - Sam is a very talented artist and will be having an art show at the Public Lounge (Main St. & 17th Ave, Vancouver) during the week of July 20th to bennefit The Weekend to End Breast Cancer.

Come out and ride the pumptrack!

Lynn Valley Days: May 31 & Test of Metal: June 14,15

Come out and ride the pumptrack with us! We are partnering Obession Bikes to bring you the track at Lynn Valley Days on May 31st.

We will also be partnering with Shimano to bring you the track on June 14 & 15 at the Test of Metal in Squamish.

Grab you bike and helmet and come out for some laps around the track!

First Friday Ride: June 6

Open to 2008 EB Club Members Only!

First Friday Rides are a great opportunity for EB Club Members to ride with EB instructors, volunteers and other club members.

We had a great time at our First Friday ride in May and we look forward to seeing you all again on June 6th.

We will meet at 5:45pm at the watertowers on Mt. Fromme, the ride starts at 6pm sharp! The ride is open to all levels of riders, 19 years and older. The group will be divided based on level.

The ride will be followed by a social at Seymour's Pub where you will receive a 25% discount on your food.

Please be sure to RSVP so that we know how many riders to plan for.

RSVP!

More info. . .

Dakine Girls Cross X Gloves: Review

On a quest to find the perfect women's glove?

On my quest to find the perfect riding glove I've tried everything from kid's gloves that don't really fit right to women's gloves that don't offer enough protection. Needless to say I was more than excited to find the Dakine Girls Cross X gloves.

In most gloves I take an x-small or youth size so I was happy to find out that I take medium in these gloves, with a range of x-small to x-large there is a wide range of sizes to fit all women. In addition Dakine offers an accurate sizing chart on their site to help you find your size.

The silicone grippers on the middle and index finger give you a great grip on your brake levers even on wet and muddy north shore rides! The molded knuckle and finger panels, along with the padded palm offer your hands some protection in crashes. . .especially during run-ins with trees (I tested them!). The terry cloth panel on the thumb keep runny noses happy on the trail.

The next time you're on a hunt for a new pair of gloves, check out the Dakine Girls Cross X, you won't be disapointed!

Ripper Recap: Super D

EB provides ripper shuttles

The Super D Ripper got off to a rainy start, but at least it wasn't snowing this time! There was a great turn out, lots of fun costumes and even a grand entrance by some ABBA impersonators!

As usual the Ripper was a great representation of our community and why we ride, there were all ages and riding abilities out in attendance and a good time was had by all.

Endless Biking brought out the 'Big Rig' and Peter shuttled rippers between Old Buck and Mushroom lots. For a full write up about the event check out Dan Gronross' write-up on NSMB.

The next Ripper is the Triple Crown, details are at: NSMBA. Volunteers are still needed for the event, if you're interested please email Aimee.

For more information about NSMBA events, including Rippers and Trail Days, please visit: NSMBA.

Thanks for reading EB's eNews. We look forward to riding with you.

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