Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Vail 50th Snow Comes Thru

12/14-17 Vail And BC rocking new snow and good times with Brent on long weekend. Almost 100k vertical in 3 days including Sunday at over 46,000!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Lex Huge Sunday

Full Gale and mast high curling waves. 3.7 too much. Good challenge 35-45 winds for Craig, Jerry and Jon Z. Gita get a 3.2 now I think. Alleve me please.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Ardents rock Pontiac's leaf trails

Great fall ride on Saturday at Pontiac. The brand-new tires worked out well on the leaf covered trails. Still riding about 15 minutes faster than the 26 bike on the two Niner. Ergon grips great upgrade too.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Marysville 4.7 makes it 3 in a row

Sunday started out looking like gales at Metro but after two hour wait it was quite obviously we needed to move. Marysville was the call. We got up there about 2 PM and sailed for about 2 1/2 hours 4.7 powered the whole time. Southwest at 210° 20++ with great swell and no boat traffic. Just MB and I, great fall session that beats Metro every time it's tried.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Metro again delivers 4.2-4.7 wave sesh

Alright 2 in a row and more For Sunday. Great 4.5 hour wave session on the shoal mostly. Started a little underpowered 4.2 first hour and then powered up to the 4.7. So windy 20-30 SW at times wave got knocked down a bit. Lots of sailors out on small stuff a playing off the point. Great sun and 55-60 all afternoon. Highlight crash-got completely catapulted as wave closed out on and rolled me up-luckily I went with it and cleared the nose. Great time after Tuesday at M-ville. Harsens for Sunday, it's gonna be good.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Marysville classic SSW overpowered fun

20-30 SSW wave fun and sun. 60 degrees and 4 hour sesh on the river. Very powered 5.4 Atlas and 84FSW whole time with one break. Occasional curling lips for some jumps and slashes. Everyone smiling. More on tap this week for fall fun.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Highland Tree Ride Rash

Saturday and 14.6 miles in 2:05 with JB with nice tree bash on C loop. Finally time to cut the bars down a little I think. I had 4 tree bar end hits and luckily not more falls. Finally this ride is easy on the legs only have to worry about the bar ends and carrying so much speed through them. Highland is still Highland but a lot tamer on the 29 Stumpy.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Classic SSW sun, waves and fall temps @ MB

Loving it: 2-8pm rocking waves and 20-25 steady wind on the Metro shoal. Sun and 55 degrees make for solid (read no holes at all) 4.7 Atlas sailing. Too much wind for me to kite but that didn't stop the 30+ people out on 7-10m's. Great times and it just kept better as the sun went down. However, weeds were bad on inside and water is at lowest level I can remember. All makes no difference with a 2-5 ft swell and occasional 6ft. curling wave way outside. Too bad I forgot the pov video again as I had it all to myself for the first few hours. Solid A rated sesh.

It's Tree Farm again... Very fast indeed.

Low tire pressure and cushy 5" susph makes a great ride. Getting faster each time and hardly touching the brakes. Got the BB squeak finally figured out. It was the derailleur hanger! Was super quiet and set perfect for the log piles I never miss. 56 minutes of fast slightly damp no loose dirt. I'll take it.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Quick loop at Tree Farm.

Had a nice ride at Tree Farm 80° no humidity and beat about 15 minutes off my best time. Ranking on Strava.com is 99 out of 218 average speed 9.5 mph. 56 minutes is fastest time yet. Thank you 29er. Riding lower tire pressure really helping with turning grip and washout. Still loving bike.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

KP goes off before I get there!

Forecast Saturday perfect sun 70 degrees NW winds and gale warnings! But I won't get there on water until 2. Oh well atleast got in 2 straight hours fully powered on the 5.4 Atlas with some pretty nice swell. Raced up and down some 10-15' swells when they popped up but mostly was small 3-5' waves. Great session and got an hour of kiting in but still struggling on the upstrokes.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Boyne High fun fast DH runs

Boyne Hi DH and XC day. Got 2:15 in for 16.4 miles mostly on the orange run going faster every loop. Dry hot and sandy. Couple of crashes with the full gear on so no damage except for the right handle plug which is now destroyed. Almost 2900 ft of decent averaging 7.4 mph. Trail here is fun particularly the Spline of the North on orange. Love it.

Monday, August 27, 2012

ILSRA dry dust race in the Heat

Island Lake was fun on Saturday afternoon got in 13.5 miles in one hour and six minutes. 25-30 minutes faster than my the old 26 bucket of rust. The king of the mountain (KOM) according to strava.com is averaging unreal 44 minutes at 18.2 miles an hour. I am at a sloth at 12.3 mph average finishing 133 ranking out of 225...




Monday, August 20, 2012

Sunday @ Highland dry speed plush

Dave Barrett joined JB and I for a 12.5 mile Highland ABCD loop. He did great through whole ride. 2:20 with lots of stops but a great ride. Still psyched on the new bike just killed the hills and bombed the decents. What do people do on the still riding 2-6?

Friday, August 17, 2012

Metro South Sesh Good not Great

Ok, late to Metro but the rain did not happen. Got out about 4pm after rigging kite and winds started to rip so quickly rigged the 5.4 Atlas/84FSW for a run out to the Shoal where it was capping SSW 12-18k. An hour or so of good planing and I need to kite! However 6pm winds were 10-15 now inside and I failed to get any long rides just struggling to roll up and keep the kite powered. Very frustrating as all the others were working their kites and making it work. Got to get out in heavy air and work on powered kiting. The light wind stuff is too much work.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Best Wave And Classic LTB NW sesh!

Super Sunday-right on forecast. Great day 4.7 - 5.4m 20k all day. Fun and sun with 75 degree temps and steady NW made for really great wave day highlighted by Bayview breakwall curling shorebreak. JB, Fox, Monz and I had the shoreline north of Petoskey SP to ourselves most of the day chasing rogue swells and cresting ramps. Great direction and flow for sailing powered up and ripping the Petoskey shoreline. No complaints just smiles and lots of Alleve for the afterglow. Solid 6+ hours of pure Michigan.... Wind and waves. Thanks to Brent for hosting and bringing the breeze.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Mabury midweek heats up

2 super quick loops at Mabury where the 29er makes everything easy and fast. Getting really good at turns here on the big wheels and holding the line. One loop at 38 and other 40 minutes. 13.57 miles total 9.3 mph average speed. Strava rating 77/111 not so good, top guys looping in 26 minutes @ 13.4 mph ave.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Lex Classic well worth the drive.

Saturday-the day looked weak for wind especially at Blue Lagoon Boat Fest at noon with white caps dropping and clouds rolling in. Hey let's drive up to Lexington for 10-15 North forecast? Yes! Steady North 20s the whole afternoon once we joined Harry. Not really a lull or hole to be found. Great time overpowered 6.9 Xpresh/107 right down to 6.2 Alpha/84FSW again mostly overpowered. Classic sun and no clouds with a minor 3-6 ft swell. 5.8-5.5m with 85 liter would be perfect. 10-12m kiters ripping. Things definitely rocking on the open water and solid cool north winds and 70-80 super warm capping water. Great fun with about 15-20 kiters and sailors.
Charts say it all: steady annomoly conditions blasting the lower SLH coast. Long drive all worth it.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Monday Hot Nukin' Gorge like Metro for a little while

When temperatures hit hundred degrees you usually can't sail in Michigan but you can count on it in the Gorge in July. Lucky for me this is one of those special days were it was hot and very windy especially mid afternoon on LSC. 100+temps, pure sun and serious whitecaps (no waves) I sailed solid 4.7 (85/Atlas) on the shoal from 1-3pm without another person out. Super fun and solid power and flat out speed. No weeds out there too! Rest of the crew showed up after 3 for more fun but the winds backed off a bit. All in all a great sesh especially since its been over a month since the last one. Hot hair dryer sailing!