It’s been a week since Eric and I got back from Whistler! We both attended theSummer Gravity Camp like we did last year. 6 days of riding and coaching at the Whistler Mountain Bike Park.
How was the trip? In a word - BRILLIANT!
I had to say ‘brilliant’ since I’ve been hanging around Aussies and Brits all week…
Here was an example of our daily camp schedule in Whistler. WARNING! If you have a weak stomach, you may not want to read any further:
- breakfast at the Longhorn
- ride
- lunch
- ride
- Kokanee at the GLC
- jacuzzi
- dinner
The weather was perfect for us. It had rained 4 days in the previous week, so the trails were in nice shape. We had temps in the low 90s, then we got some partly cloudy weather at the end of the week and rain on the last day.
The camp coach lineup:
Andrew Shandro & Thomas Vanderham
Jordi Lunn
Tyler Morland & Adam Billinghurst
Katrina Strand & Claire Buchar
Steve Wilson
Lisa Lefroy
Dave Watson & Kyle Jameson (I missed out on photos of them).
Our roommate was Scotty, a friend from SoCal. He had attended the Gravity Camp last year as well.
On the first day of the camp, the coaches watched us all ride and divided us into groups according to level. There’s always some guess work to that, so generally the first riding day means some shuffling and you decide whether you need to move up or down a group. I felt pretty much right in the middle of the group in terms of riding ability, which was nice. The group was somewhat large, around 10 people with coaches Katrina Strand and Lisa Lefroy.
On the second day, my somewhat large group from the first day got split in half. I ended up in a small group of 5 riders with Lisa as the coach, or should I say cheerleader? She was so much fun, and had so much energy. I also really hit it off with one of my fellow riders, Mary, who was there from Melbourne. She came from an XC riding background. She had such a great attitude and was a fun person to ride with.
Mary and Lisa
Scotty & Eric after a run
Wednesday the coaches shuffled a bit and Steve led my group. It was a day for going over the basic skills and position on the bike.
Steve doing a little rock roller on Golden Triangle
We had a nice treat that week as well - friends Dan and Stephanie happened to plan their Whistler vacation at the same time Eric and I were at the camp!
Lunch at the Garbanzo Bike & Bean
Another SoCal sighting - Joe and Curtis
I hadn’t felt very challenged in my camp group up to this point. It was great to work on the basics, but I was definitely ready to step it up. Eric decided that it was time for the two of us to ride together apart from the camp and work on some of the things I had wanted to work on, such as drops. We also wanted to do some riding with Dan and Stephanie before the week was out.
After a few runs we went to the upper Joyride practice area to work on drops. The drop practice area has 4 graduated drop levels. I hadn’t gone off any of them before. They’re a little intimidating because as you come up to them you can’t see where you’re going to end up. After the first attempt on the easiest drop, I loved it. A few more successful attempts and I moved up to the next one. It felt even better! I liked drops before, but now I was seriously hooked.
Dan
Stephanie
me
Eric going off the 4th one
By Thursday I was not sure what to do. I wanted to step it up and be challenged more than the group I was in. On the other hand, I was afraid the next group up had moved too far ahead and I would be overwhelmed. I decided to stick it out with my group, and I just worked on riding relaxed and tried for more speed. My coach Lisa noticed, because she told me I needed to move up one, if not two groups. It was really nice to hear that!
I moved up to Katrina’s group the next day. I felt like I was finally in the right group. I got the challenges I needed; a steep rocky descent into a hard right turn on Hornet (off A-Line), doing Ninja Cougar and Karate Monkey more smoothly, clearing a number of jumps on Crank It Up. I even cleared a big jump near the bottom of A-Line, I really surprised myself!
Katrina took me to work on the GLC drops, since I hadn’t done them yet. There are 3 GLC drops: first is a roller, second is a 4-foot drop, third is a 6-foot drop. First step was the roller. We took a look at it, Katrina did a demo for me, and then I did it. Katrina said I was ready for the middle GLC, since I had been doing the drops successfully at the Joyride practice drops. So I knew Saturday was going to be my day to nail the middle GLC drop.
Forgot to mention, we were there the week before Crankworx, so we witnessed a lot of construction for the freeride events.
Did I mention all the celeb sightings?
Neil Donoghue & Dan Atherton
Dan & Gee Atherton
Rachel Atherton
Cedric Gracia
Also spotted twice (by Eric) was Travis Pastrana! And Sam Hill! I missed out on a Travis sighting…but I would be seeing Sam Hill the last day.
The last day is coming in the second installment: more riding, Crankworx Dual Slalom. Stay tuned!
