our big move

We're getting settled in a bit, having been here about 10 days now. This is a wonderful place, I've always liked it here, and to borrow a quote, "I'm not from Chambersburg, but I got here as fast as I could".

But, we left a great place too. At least, our little neighborhood in Centreville was great, which we never really discovered until having Oliver. We didn't realize what a great kid community was right there, or the value of having a school & playgrounds within easy walking distance. I also certainly liked my easy, safe, 10-mile bike ride to work at VDOT. Now, I'm about a 2-hour drive away, but am attempting to make that trip as little as possible and work from home most days. I'll also miss the great bike community there, especially, the Bike Lane folks, and even a certain trail that I wrote about a month ago in a sappy piece that I didn't post until now.


Oliver was not very happy on the move-in day. A whole lot of big changes his way in a short time. New school, new family, new 'hood, new rooms to play in. He would light up whenever I found a box containing some of his toys or beloved track & trains. As soon as he set up his first track, he started getting more comfortable. He turned 4, four days after we moved in, and Kim created a wonderful party with family and some of Oliver's numerous cousins and our new neighbors (who have 3 young boys).

this is Oliver's cousin Tiffany singing him a birthday song that she wrote herself.

new e-mail

So, I tried to send a bulk BCC e-mail to everyone I recognize in my address book (hand selected of course), informing everyone of my new e-mail address in Chambersburg, PA. But, my new server (or maybe Outlook Express?) stops at each bad address, and there were many before I even got past the letter "C".

So, my address is here:
larry dot camp at comcast dot net

I've updated it on the various forums I use, so I can always be reached that way too, or from the regular work address.

Finally!

We just got word that the owners of this house in Chambersburg will accept our offer. We are thrilled to get this little house in town.

Use this map link to explore our new environment in Windows Local Live.
Legend:
1 - our new house
2 - Ski Whitetail
3 - Michaux Maximus
4 - Curse of Dark Hollow
5 - Terror of Teaberry

Things are closer than they may look. For example, going from 1 to 3 is like going from Centreville to Reston.

gettin' sappy

This is one of those "what do you feel", journal style posts. I know a couple people like reading these, though most couldn't care less what I think about things.

So, it looks like we have a good contract on the house, and will really be moving soon. So this is a sentimental post about a trail. What, you thought I was gonna write about something important or something? Kim slept during the day today for night shifts, and I put Oliver for a nap around 2:00. I then had a few hours free before needing to be home for Kim to go to work at 7:00. I couldn't really decide if I even wanted to ride, I thought about just taking a nap with everyone else. I thought about doing another trail run, but I did a long one of those yesterday and didn't see the need to do another one today, plus I'd already hiked this morning with Oliver. Where to ride, where to ride??? Fountainhead? Conway? Schaeffer? Wakefield? gravel roads from the house?

I finally decided on Fountainhead, because this actually could be my last ever ride there, other than for the annual Cranky Monkey races. Fountainhead has been my default trail for 11 years. I was there for the opening day in 1995. I've helped build trails there, and maintain them. I've mapped and GPS'd them. I've raced there, won races there, and always had a whole lot of fun there. I also decided on Fountainhead today because I thought I might run into some friends there, as I usually do. I like the social aspect of Fh, even though it's a pretty anti-social trail in general. I mean, you drop in, you reach max heart rate in about 30 seconds, and unless there are some really new people out there, you likely won't pass or be passed for the whole lap.

My luck couldn't have been any better. I passed Jim Harman and Dan from EX2 Adventures
at the picnic tables. I was on my 1st lap, and they were headed out on their 2nd. I finished my first lap, with a minimum of playing around, hoping I'd catch back up to them. I did, again at the picnic tables as they were stopped, talking with a couple other riders. So I finished the second lap riding between Dan and Jim. It was a real pleasure getting to ride and chat with them. I never get to talk with Jim, because when I see him, he's usually hard at work organizing, or it's at a trailwork session. He and his EX2 crew have provided me with many happy riding hours over the past 4 years. I'm so grateful for them for starting the local race series in my home county.

As we finish and climb up into the parking lot, we run into Randy Smith and Dave Simpson just getting started. It's funny, how I run into one of these guys 9 out of 10 times I ride Fh. I like riding with these guys a lot. They're both older than I (in their 50s), and they're both tough as nails and competitive Masters racers. They're so old school cool, that I bet they've never read a blog, so I can write whatever I want and they'll never see it. I think they are a couple of the coolest guys I know in Northern Virginia.

Ok, so now I'm getting sappy about some people. The truth is, I'm going to miss all of those guys. They have been a part of my life here in NoVa for many years. I look forward to seeing them back here for the NoVa races in the years to come.

nice wave Jake!!!

Our great-nephew Jake Lahr made the local Ocean City surf site w/ this sweet wave from Ernesto

Jake and his brother Ryder live in OC, Md and have become really good surfers and body boarders the last few years, now stepping in to the local contest circuit. They enter longboard, shortboard, and bodyboard, and came away w/ a few 1st's in their opening contest of the season.

Happy 15th Anniversary

Happy 15th to my lovely wife Kim.

SM 100 report

Another uneventful Shenandoah Mountain 100 for me.

My favorite kind.

I don't like "events" like crashes, broken chains, flat tires, broken derailleurs, stomach problems, or the myriad other things that can go wrong at this 100-mile mountain bike epic.

I started slow (intentionally), finished strong, rode with many many friends all day, and had a blast as always. This was my 4th year doing it on a single-speed, and first doing it with a rigid fork. The fork had been a concern of mine, as I wondered if it would take the fun out of all the downhills, and add a new level of fatigue to the body. I didn't really enjoy the descent on Tea Creek Mountain Trail a few weeks ago at the Wild 100 because of the rigid fork. Well, the descents at the SM must be a hell of a lot smoother, because I had no problems at all. I felt just as confident as with a shock almost everywhere on the course. Particular highlights were the descent into CP-4 with Albert on my wheel, and the descent into CP-6 with MattyD and Mark Wigfield (2 guys that I seem to spend a lot of time with at the end of this race every year). Another highlight was pulling into 5 and seeing JoeP break into a big "I'm gonna beat Camp" grin. He left as soon as I got there, as I began searching for some chamois lube. One of the biggest highlights for me is having enough gas left to climb the Hankey > Lookout fire road the second time, and passing lots of geared riders. It was here that I passed Matt and Mark for the last time, and briefly passed my friend Frankie Maguire from Mt. Nittany. We chatted for a while on the Lookout trail until it dropped downhill, and I pulled off to let him fly it.

[insert some poached pics here when I find 'em]

I finished in about my usual time, with the same group of riders that I usually finish with. And this year, I also came close to another goal I always have: that of drinking one beer for every hour I spent on the course. I'm not sure if I made it to 10, but I tried. That's my incentive to do it in 7 hours. I know I can easily drink 7 beers, especially with all that extra time.

I was most impressed with many of my friends: JoeP climbing like a goat on testosterone; Andy Neal (pic) rocking on a fixed gear and being the talk of the SingleSpeed brethren; Steve who finally had a mechanical-free 100 and beat the 10-hour mark, and Brian from Bike Lane (aka 'BLS') who shows up on a borrowed bike 5 days after getting back in the country from Afghanistan.

Lookin' forward to the next one already!

Chambersburg

CLICK the pic.
This was taken from the playground of Oliver's new school in Chambersburg. The mountain bike mecca of Michaux State Forest is only a few miles away.

Assuming we ever sell our Centreville house and actually move there, my plan is to tele-work from home back to VDOT. I would also be taking O to school, and picking him up each day.
I wonder if I'll ever be late getting back to the home office?
I wonder what the teachers will think seeing my bike on the roof so often?
I wonder if riding solo, w/o all my NoVa friends will be as fun?
I wonder, with the SM100 11 months away, if I'll even be motivated to ride?
Whatever, I'm just eager to get there and see...

This is Kim pointing out that some of her favorite people are also Montessori alums. Her all-time fav, Julia Child, plus Jackie Kennedy, Katherine Graham, Einstein, Graham Bell, Jeff Bezos among others.

The Wild 100

Wild 100 story over here on the Bike Lane blog

Quantico mountain bike racing

There's a mountain bike race next weekend on Quantico Marine Corps base, which I'm really hoping to compete in. Quantico will be like a homecoming for me, it is where I began mountain bike racing, in 1991. Yes, 1991. That's the same year Kim and I were married, and I remember nervously racing at Quantico the weekend before our wedding. This is our 15th year of marriage, and I've been racing mountain bikes for that long as well.

I'm looking though shoeboxes for an old photo from that race (we had film cameras then). I'll post it it I find it.

Wednesdays at Wakefield

The local race series is over for this season

Wow, since this blog was plugged in Spokes Magazine, I guess I better get busy with some more worthwhile content eh? The Spokes article used all my good quotes, so I guess I'll just write some words about the Single-speed races.

Last year, I won the overall series, and won a couple of the individual races (when Jason wasn't there). I had such great success last year at this event and the Cranky, that I actually thought I might be sandbagging. HA ha, nothing to worry about anymore. Last year, I thought the main reason I was fast at Wakefield was "gearing". I was out-gearing all the other SSers. With my 29" wheels, I was using a 34x16 gear, and was easily gapping folks on the flat cinder trail and the powerline sections. After the series, last Fall, the trails at Wakefield got a lot of work from IMBA, Larry Cautilli, and MORE. The Phase 2 sections took out some rutted fall-line trails, and replaced them with the new "rollers". Word was that the new course this year would be even faster.

So, I put on an even larger gear than last year, a 34x15 for a pre-ride the week before the series started. Yikes!, that gear was way too sluggish (or was it me?). I changed by one for the opening race, a 34x16. I got the hole shot, as I would for most of the races, and had my best finish of this season, a 2nd to StevieD. After the race Stevie tells me my gear is too hard, that he won by using a lower gear. So, I believed the logic, and went down another gear for the next race to a 34x17. Again I got the hole shot, again I died on the last lap, and finished 4th this time.

Anyway, to shorten this story, for each race including the Cranky's, I went down a gear until I was finally running a 32x17, a far cry and downright "Ricky" gear compared to the monster masher gear I started with. My last laps got better, but I never cracked the top-3 again.


The Single Speed class has become quite strong and competitive. Pearce spent the previous 10 months pulling heavy cargo around in a bike trailer on the streets of DC. Pierre swims and runs triathlons, and works out on his local trail at Fountainhead, RickyD has turned into Mr. Epic. Stevie has stopped road racing so much and his dirt speed is way up. Marathon man & log hopper Frasketti is always in the mix now. Nick and Dave are always tough, and of course, Jason can beat any of us when he shows up. Anyways, congrats to all the strong and fun single-speeders out there and huge props to PVC for putting on this great event. It is the thing I will miss the most about moving to PA. Maybe I can arrange to have work in NoVa for 4 Wednesdays next summer?

Cape Hatteras

A nice time as always on Hatteras Island with Kim's niece and family. Barry Quigley also joined us for a few days. Ridable surf for 7 straight days, from small and glassy like below, to bigger and choppy.




Oliver talkin' story with the big boys. They had a lot of fun (and tolerance) with O. All of these kids are great young surfers. They all live in Ocean City, MD and really enjoyed the warm clear water (we could see shells on the bottom 6' deep), and lack of crowds. Of course, clear water also means we saw all of the wildlife swimming around us, some of those big rays were cause for minor alarm.

airborne

Check out this pic of the Weds. at Wakefield race.

neighborhood bike race

How cool to come home from work and see this note taped to our window. One of the neighbor kids was inviting Oliver and me to his neighborhood race. I'll sure miss these kids.

moving

Well, this ought to get the word out,
if anyone looks at this blog....

Steve's bachelor/riding party at Spruce Knob

pics here and here

longboardin', most fun on 4 wheels

I've been amazed lately at the number of kids I see on my bike commutes out riding longboards, and skateboards in general. My ride takes me through an older-style neighborhood where the majority of the kids seem to walk, bike, or skate to their elementary and middle school. I've been seeing several different pockets of skaters each day lately, most on longboards.
Speaking of longboards, the other day I was in Eastern Board Sports getting new wheels for my longboard, and tried out the CarvStik. Talk about fun! This thing sticks to the turns like mad. You can really put your weight into it, and you can keep yourself going by gyrating as long as your legs can stand it. The most fun I've found with 4 wheels for sure.

a short,, solo GW ride

words over here

Bike to Work Day

For the past several years, I've worked one of the pit-stops for VDOT on Bike to Work Day. This year, we had plenty of people willing to work the stops, so I decided to try to get some new riders interested, and offered to lead a group ride from Centreville in to Chantilly.
The weather was far better than last year, described here in one of my first blog posts. Michele and Randy met me in different parts of Centreville, and we had a pleasant ride in and home. Randy bought his bike last week, just for this event. Three other VDOTers biked in from Vienna and Falls Church. The bike rack held a record 6 bikes yesterday.

12 Hours of Lodi

Some words here

Oliver on the bike

This is definitely not a, like father like son thing. I've never owned a trainer, and Oliver has never seen me or anyone on a trainer.

Now this one, maybe is imitation.

race season has begun...

Most tales will be told over on the Bike Lane blog, though nothing really to tell yet. Two races, two fun days, maybe something after this weekend's 12-Hour race with my ol' Woodbridge buddy Bryan Sims.

the skis are gone

.. no longer in the car....
no hope now..

Watershed

more pics here on the Bike Lane blog

Bull Run Mountain

wind sculpted pine at the rock overlook

lost and found

I rode to work today, a beautiful clear & calm 25-degree start.  But, that isn't the story today.  In the locker room of the Health Club where I shower, I find a wallet in an empty locker.  A leather wallet, stuffed so fat that it can't fully close, bills thick enough that they're poking out the edge.  So I grab it and take it to the Manager, and she opens it to find out who's it is and says she'll call him.

 

After I shower, while I'm getting dressed, a guy comes in, goes straight to the locker where my stuff is now stored, looks in, turns around and leaves.  I asked him if he was looking for his wallet, and he said yes.  I told him I took it up to the office.  He said, in an annoyed tone, "thanks".

 

I guess I expect too much.  Most people in this office park health club know, or at least recognize, everyone else.  This guy is new there.  I guess I expected a more hearty thank you, and maybe a "nice to meet you".  Seems like that would've taken a lot less energy than having to reclaim your life after an identity theft.

cool 'toons

Some good stuff here

Yee Haaa!

where are the posts?

Anyone who actually comes to this blog to read my bike/outdoor tales will find most of them now on the new BikeLane Blog where like-minded folks put their words too.

This blog won't die, but will probably continue to have fewer posts, unless I can think of interesting non-bike stuff to post...

White Grass, Jan 27

ahh, the bike commute

warning: this is a typical "journal" style blog, nothing really interesting will follow...

I rode to work today for only the 2nd time since ski season began in early December.
Not that I've been totally slacking,
been off for holidays and in Vermont a lot of that time,
been trail running on the way to work other times,
and have done plenty of general "leg work" to get in shape for skiing and running,
which I'd think would help for biking too.
so, why did those little bumps seem like big mountains.....

the reason I biked today is that all the other factors just worked out, not because of the tragically nice weather,
early in my ride, I was passed by a familiar pair of trucks,
for years, the concrete company's trucks pass me on Compton Rd. almost every time I ride,
there are usually 6 guys in each, crammed into their extended cabs,
for some reason, I feel comfortable knowing they're behind me,
I feel confident that they aren't going to hit me or yell at me,
maybe it's because they see me all the time and possibly expect me,
maybe it's the extra eyes to help warn the driver if he dabs for a second,
when they're behind me, I know that no other vehicle will be able to hit me,
when they pass by me, I smile and nod their way,
and then I get nervous again.

tragically nice weather

the temps today will be close to 60 degrees,
I think this is a tragedy.
it's mid-January,
the ground should be frozen,
if the ground would stay frozen for Dec, Jan, & Feb., we could all mtn bike on any local trails we want without doing any damage that we have to waste time repairing in Spring.
if the ground would stay frozen, White Grass and the lift-served ski areas could thrive,

since I've been keeping track of weather for work and play,
18 of our last 24 months have been warmer than the 30-year average,
I'm now hoping for a month and a half of solid winter for Feb-Mar.

why is this happening?

will Oliver be able to ski in the lower-48 when he's my age?
many scientists are wondering about that....

Vermont

Wow, been a long while since a post here.
I wish I could say we've been here that whole time.


the top of Vermont, Mt. Mansfield in Stowe


our 100 year-old house in the village

Lookin' forward to some less peaceful views from the top of Buzzard Rocks this Friday during what has become an annual Veteran's Day ride for the lucky gov't workers.

where?

I added one of those site tracking maps to this blog, which shows where visitors live. I'm surprised that many people are visiting this site, so maybe I should start adding some more interesting and frequent content eh?. I took it off, way too slow..

For the first time in the 18 or so years that I've been riding and racing mtn bikes, I finally have an injury that's keeping me off the bike. I pulled a hamstring in a skateboard incident. Wasn't a wipeout, or an accident, or even a fall, but it's done a number on my leg for a while.

I came off the board,
board still rolling slowly,
I jump back on,
front foot makes it,
back foot doesn't and drags behind.
Front foot pulls away and rips my hamstring,
putting me into a deep split

Comics

Who knew there were mountain bike comics in the Post? Not me. I pretty much quit reading the comics when The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes (whose writer was also a mtn biker) ended. Found these from a MORE thread.

Buzzard Rocks

an unexpected shock blowout messing around on some hops the night before, meant
I'd be doing Buzzard Rocks on a SS and a rigid for the first time.
a good ride until we lost our mojo,
Joe endo'd and broke a spoke,
Pierre endo'd and broke his rear brake lever,
we had some tube issues,
our frames took some damaging rock scapes,
some legs did too,
we cleaned many of the sections,
Joe riding big!
we all loved it,
Pierre says he'll be back next week

Trail Maintenance

Conway-Robinson trail work was today,
I was kinda bummed that it was today, 2 races to choose from,
Small turnout, big plans
We ended up getting a surprising amount done,
I even started suggesting additional things,
Was reminded of the low turnout,
Held my tongue,
No new responsibilities…..
No new responsibilities…..

My morning commute

My morning commuter trail, Cub Run Stream Valley

Venture Quest adventure race

I did my first multi-sport race today, the 6th annual
Venture Quest held locally in Clifton/Fairfax Station.
I was lucky enough to be invited by two of my Bike Lane
teammates, Anne and Laura, to join their team. Laura has
done all of the VQs, and Anne has done it once before.
Both are experienced multi-sport athletes, who like to have
a lot of fun too.

I'm always so impressed with EX2 Adventures' mountain bike
and running races. Jim Harman and his incredibly dedicated
army of staff and volunteers are always the tops in organization,
planning, and course work. I do a lot of bike races, all over
the region, and these are really some of the best run. I feel
lucky to have so many high-quality events like these so close
to home.

This race was a 31-mile mix of trail running, mtn biking,
orienteering, and canoeing. I know for sure now, that I suck at paddling. Man, that
hurts my arms and shoulders!! And I've never run anywhere
near the distance that we had to run today, which I think was
something around 10-13 miles. But, boy was it fun. A lot of
races I do, I don't really think they were much fun until a day
or two has passed, but, not this one. I guess I know
what that means...

The Bike Lane had quite a showing today:
Dr. Kathy, Pierre, and newcomer Frank Febbraro finished
1st co-ed and 2nd team overall. I love it when my chiropractor
beats me in races!
Lauris, 1st women's solo
Tracy, Mike, and Jeff were 2nd co-ed
Julie, Greg, and Paul were 5th (?),
Blake, Rob Howard, and my old Woodbridge buddy Bryan Sims
were 7th in a large Men's field.
Laura, Anne, and I brought in the last Bike Lane team. No doubt
due to my inexperience and weak paddling arms.

My friends went skiing in Chile

They tried to get me to go along, but leaving Kim and O for 10 days didn't seem like a practical thing to do. Real skiers, I guess, don't worry about such things. Mike, Barry, Tom and Julie got it on. Heli-skiing for $150 to boot!!

For those of you who think I'm nuts about mountain biking and single-speeding, well, that's nothing compared to how I feel about the glisse. Nordic, snowboard, backcountry, x-c, telemark.... I love it all, and feel the jones of missing out on this trip.




Barry Quigley

The Shenandoah Mountain 100

My favorite race every year!
What a perfect day, and a fun race. Everything is always special about this season capping 100-miler, but to have it in weather like we have now is a bonus. It was great to race with so many friends and experience different parts of the race as I yo-yo'd my way up and back through the pack on my singlespeed.

I had a completely uneventful race, my favorite kind, and finished 88th overall and 12th single-speeder. No flats, no crashes, no unusual pain. My smoothest 100 yet?

One of my more articulate friends, who I spent a lot of the race with had this to say about the race.

Cranky Monkey Series

Just to keep this blog thing going, I'll say that I had a great Cranky race series. Raced the single-speed category, and was lucky enough to have won 3 races and the overall (for which I won a very cool set of On-One Mary handlebars). I've been wondering if I'm sandbagging and should go "back" to racing Expert. When I first started SingleSpeeding 3 seasons ago, I did race Expert at Wakefield (there was no Cranky then). I suddenly shot up the scoreboard with my big gear and big wheels. I think I was 3rd for the Overall Series, and usually finished around 4th or 5th in each race.

Last season, for some reason, I wanted to compete against my own kind and raced the shorter SS race. I have to say that the shorter distance did, and still does, bother me. Out of the 4 races last year, I don't think I finished higher than 3rd. Judd, Evan, and Jed I believe won them all. This season, of the 4 Wakefields and 3 Crankys, I did not win 2 races, and had a sprint finish at another one. If the SS World Championships had not pulled away folks like Nick, Steve, Jed, Dave and others, I likely would not have won the last Cranky either.

So, am I sandbagging?

Wild 100

It was definitely not 100 degrees in Slatyfork for the Wild 100, like it was here at home. More like 70s, and for once, no rain! I raced the 2-person with Andy Neal as my teammate, both of us on single-speeds.



The short version is we took 2nd place in the 2-Man class. We made a smart choice on our way to CP-2 that no one in front of us had done yet, and we gained a lot of time there. But, we gave most of that time right back to several groups led by Chris Scott who bushwhacked a section on their way to CP-3. We took a longish route to 3 that contained the best singletrack of the race across Tea Creek Mountain. We rode to CP-4 with a group of folks from Kentucky and Ohio who had just been "lost" for about a 1/2 hour, and were none too happy about it. Andy knew a bushwhack to cut off the top of Prop's Run Trail which gained us a few places to the last CP.

We finished at 6:51, it was the fastest Wild 100 for either of us. Not sure how many miles we actually rode since neither of us carried any technology. We could've used a compass though...


a very pleasant Wild, one of my best. Congrats to all who rode that race! lookin' forward to the Shenandoah Mountain 100 and hanging out with most of those folks again.

Death from the parking lot

One of my favorite VDOTers died today. Mike Hamilton was hit by a dump truck pulling out of our VDOT parking lot in his orange truck. He apparently died instantly (as if that's any consolation to anyone).

Mike was one those old-school kind of guys. Lived and worked in northwest Loudoun County his whole life. Not many people do that any more. He was the Superintendent of the Hillsboro Headquarters. The Hillsboro office was always far and away the best performing VDOT area in Northern Virginia. This is directly because of Mike Hamilton. Lately, Mike had not been spending much time at Hillsboro because he kept filling in at other offices when their leaders turned over. Whenever we in GIS and IT developed map applications and software tools for the field staff, Mike and Hillsboro were always the very first ones to embrace them. When we sent out maps for the field to review and return, the first ones back were always from Mike. Not once in a while, but every single time. Mike was out front on everything we did.

The reason Mike was here at the main office today is that he was meeting with HR about applying for a new management opening.

He was going to retire in 3 years, and stay home to take care of his handicapped daughter.
He coached,
He volunteered,
He will be missed by many,
He will be missed by me.

Certified Nurse Midwife

Kim passed her Board exams months ago, but this week she received both her new CNM lab coat, and her first position. She took the job at the District of Columbia Birth Center where she'll be providing care to the underserved women of NE and SE D.C.

So, it looks like no Alaska for us (Kim certainly tried though), and the women of DC will be the beneficiaries.


Congratulations Kim!

surf

An update from the Island of Hatteras where I'm spending some time with my family and Kim's niece & husband, and their 2 young surfer boys.

Surfing for me, is 90% paddling, 9.5% waiting for waves, and .5% riding waves. I've been a novice surfer for about 25 years and the total amount of time I've spent actually riding waves is maybe equivalent in time to one bike lap at Wakefield. But I love it nonetheless and would be quite happy spending time every day trying to get beyond novice.

Jake, the 12-yr old

Surfing also has a "critical moment" similar to golf's (see golf blog below..), but with a more physical penalty for not succeeding. It's the moment of takeoff, after paddling up to speed, and after being lucky enough to be in the right spot to catch the wave. On small waves, the penalty is usually just a harmless fall, but on bigger waves, missing the takeoff can be quite painful.

Yesterday, after catching lots of crappy waves in the morning at Ocracoke, Jake, Ryder, and I wanted another session after we got back to Hatteras, and with a SW wind, we headed to Buxton to the Coast Guard Station north of the lighthouse. When we crested the dunes, we were amazed at the difference in size and quality of the waves here vs. those in Ocracoke where we had onshore winds messing up the surface. Tropical Storm Franklin was sending some weak pulses this way that weren't quite getting around the corner to Frisco and Ocracoke. There were only a handful of guys out, and all of them looked like experienced surfers. Ryder (the 10-year old) said he'd forgotten to bring a waterproof band-aid to cover up his stitches and so he said he'd sit out. I was somewhat relieved since it was a long paddle to get out to the break and I knew I'd have a hard time keeping track of all 3 of us in big-ish surf. Jake (the 12-year old) and I started the paddle out and it was tough. Jake eventually made it out, but I couldn't get through on my longboard. After struggling for a long time, I looked backwards and realized I was still closer to Ryder sitting on the beach than I was to the break. I headed back in and walked south around the groin and then paddled easily out right next to the groin. Should have thought of that the first time.

Anyway, the point of this now rambling post was to pat myself on the back and say that Jake and I each had 3 chances at the "critical moment", and we both made all 3. Good thing, cause it would've hurt if we'd blown the takeoffs, and we more than likely would not have been able to make the paddle back out. I paddled for, and caught 3 waves, all larger than anything I'd ridden in years and I kicked out of all of them before they closed out on me. I don't think I've ever been "3 for 3" before, and since we only had about 30 minutes for that session, that's all we had time for, and we were both quite happy to call it quits.

Da boyz

golf

I spent the morning last Friday playing golf with my lifelong best friend Mike. Mike's a regular golfer, and I'm a "once every couple years" golfer. The idea was mine, mainly just to spend some time with Mike and to give a little money to a VDOT benefit cause.

Golf, for me, is 90% looking for balls. Even on a relatively open course, I lost a lot of balls. Golf has a "critical moment", that millisecond where the club strikes the ball. If everything isn't perfectly aligned at that moment of impact, chances are good that I'll soon be poking through tall weeds looking for my ball. No matter how well I hit the ball on the practice range (and I do), I get nervous and tense up over my real shots. I usually swing too hard, squeeze the club, or yank my head at that critical moment, usually topping the ball. Ironically though, the only two good shots I hit were two iron shots out of the rough. I think it's because I was forced to hold onto the club very tightly to keep it from twisting in the rough before impact. So, for those two shots, I guess I kept a consistent grip and swing all the way through.

If golf is going to be one of the games of my senior years, I hope I get a bit better at it.

Single Speed, Multi Gender?

The final Wednesday at Wakefield Single Speed race was a blast as they all were. Nick got a flat midway through the 2nd lap and he dropped off my wheel. SteveD also had problems and dropped his chain 4 times which allowed me a lot of space. Thanks to all of the great competition, the PVC folks for running such a fine series, and The Bike Lane for the great support and prizes. Can't wait till next year.

Weds races

We luckily got the race in last night between storms all around the area.  We Single Speeders were schooled by Mr. Jason Beckley, otherwise known as the "novice who crashed into Pooch".  Jason usually races Expert, but last night dominated our race, then took 5th in the Exp. race.  Then, to further rub insult into us, he rode home to Annandale on one bike, pulling the other alongside him, while we drank beer at the finish area watching him ride across the bridge.

I took 2nd place, a little ways behind Jason. For part of the last lap, I thought I could catch up and make an interesting finish, but I just couldn't get there, and passing was getting more difficult with several lapped riders between us at all times.

A baby step towards Alaska

Kim had prelim phone interviews with 2 different places in Alaska this week.  One in Anchorage, and one in the bush, Kotzebue, which is inside the Arctic Circle.