After six months of silence, I finally get crackin` and start blogging again. Mostly due to the fact that I have too much spare time at the moment. But also because I`ve arranged my life in a way that enables me to do an awful big amount of biking in the years to come. And writing about it might be a way to make my experiences fun for other people too:)
During my last days in Whistler last summer, I was preparing mentally for the severe anti-climax of riding at home. Don`t get me wrong, riding/dayly life in whistler was a blast, but the anti-climax never made it`s presence. The summer at home turned out to be the best ever! Both in terms of riding, sun and "afternoon playtime". For the first time since elementary school, I did something fun every day. And most of my friends were at home, not working too much. The whole thing turned out to be a plesant clichè.
As far as riding was concerned, my riding buddy Sigleif "Ziggy", and his brother Kristen had been getting even faster since last season. Even though their last ride was in March 2008. I guess thinking/visualizing riding while waiting for the snow to melt makes you faster. We hammered our favourite DH-trail several times a week that summer. Taking turns in chasing each others rear wheel. Seemed like every other ride was the fastest one we ever did.
We also gained two new members of our DH-crew this summer. When Ziggy bought himself his sweet looking Giant DH racebike, my older brother Steffen bought his old Norco six and started adding up for the lack of common sence in the group. His classmate Eric Sadorge, is a crazy rock climber/skier who needed something to occupy himself with when his fingers hurt and the snow has melted. So he joined our crew, just a short ferry-ride from his house. And he is killing the trails!
The summer ended suddenly when I had to move to Stavanger. When you are almost halfway to 50 years old, It`s time to make a carreer choice. Therefore I attended a full year study in Oildrilling, packed into a half year course. So for a whole semester, I went to school five days a week from 08.30 to 15.00. With a final exam every friday. My everyday life was pretty much just School, eating and going to the gym. Luckily, one of my roommates from the army, Steffen Flateraaker showed up in my class. And also Aleksander, who went to High School with Ziggy. So even though it was an exhausting semester, we still had a lot of fun. Sufing, partying and just hangin` out.
So what have I been up to lately?
Well.. I finished school in december, and have been applying for jobs ever since. I`m hoping to get a job offshore ASAP.
Christmas 2008 was really good. Me and Ziggy had the fastest run ever down our favourite trail. And this happened on a mucky combination of snow and mud. Drifting through corners with the foot out, and attacking like it was summer. We were pretty stoked about that.:)
I`ve been wanting to build a DH-track behind my house ever since Håvard and I started riding that deertrail almost five years ago. What`s been keeping us for all theese years is the huge amount of blood sucking ticks crawling around that aerea in spring/summer. (hence the new name of my blog;) So therefore me and Håvard figured that we could build the trail after the frost, and use it as a training track during the cold winter months. Ziggy and I have been digging and building for two weeks now, and the result is one of the coolest Tracks I`ve ever seen. Steep and technical at the top, gnarly drops. And smooth, yet difficult berms. The track is called "Grevling på Styret", (bagder on the handlebars), wich is a phrase from a song by Norwegian rap group "Side Brok".
On top of this, Håvard has recovered from his injury, and has bought the meanest DH-bike ever made. (Canfield Formula 1)
2009 will be a good year for shure.
See ya:)
Pictures today:
1.A drop with a gnarly landing on "Grevling på Styret".
2. Kristen, gearing up with cotton before one of our fantastic X-mas rides.
3. Aleksander, doing his best to look stupid on the trampoline behind the cabin owned by the Flateraaker Clan.
4. Aleksander, Steffen, Kjetil and Espen relaxing at Bore Beach in October(!!).
5. Me, chasing ziggy down the upper, mellow and scenic part of our favourite trail, in late July.
