Day 1 at the 'fire angel.

Pics from today.

We at Angelfire...finally.

Whoa, the drive was absolutely insane. 20 or so odd hours driving through Cali, Arizona and New Mexico was particularly heavy this time around. Too tired to post many words, just pictures for now.

Angelfire Pre-game

Today I will be departing for Angelfire, New Mexico for a race that is part of both the Mountain States Cup series as well as the NCS gravity series. Arguably one of the more important races on my agenda for this season. The forecast calls for wet weather, cold and thunder storms that will no doubt keep things interesting for the 8 days that I will be on the road. The group of friends that I will travel with includes an interesting mix of Pro, JRX and foreign racers as well as a would-be photographer...so it should be entertaining.

Notably missing from the entourage is my good friend and usual travel companion Sanjay, he has some "issues" that he must deal with and cannot accompany us on this trip.

I'm pretty excited for the week that lies ahead, I will try to have updates as soon as we arrive sometime Wednesday morning.

Weekendage.

Nice. Haven't been home for a whole weekend in ages. Seems like the weekend lasts a lot longer when you have little to do. I did manage to get out with Griz and the Ozys on Sunday afternoon for some shredding at the Wal Mart jumps and some ditch in East County (Lakeside ya'll *LFLFFL*). Griz sent me some old (4 week old) photos from rocky pass, check' em out.

Little S-turn action:

Me and Brad killing a wood

bridge...we did not have gas

and matches at the time. You can barely see Honkey-tonk in the background. *This photo is in the

JUNE 2007 issue of DECLINE

Magazine, check it out.

Dirtyumping. How gumpy do

I look on that small bike??

Fontana "NCS"

Ahhh Fontana. Chairlifts, trees, cool temps, no pedaling...Oh, oops. I was dreaming again. The first round of the NCS gravity series stopped at Southridge park in beautiful Fontana, CA. The DH course was surprisingly technical with the usual dry, sandy turns on the top section and the infamous "Wall" section towards the end. Practice was good. I was getting the course down and stoked on the new bike (except for the wheels). This race was a national so there were a bunch of old faces that I had not seen since Snowmass last year. Many big names showed up to this race including the likes of Nathan Rennie, Chris Kovarick, Rando, Riffle, Streb, Leov and the eventual winner Cody "C-dub" Warren.

The course was similar to last year's NCS course. A couple of turns up top followed by the rock-waterfall which claimed Hank's thumb on Sunday. After the waterfall came the G-out which lead into the rocks. Over the saddle, sharp turn down a rock chute and a hard right into the steeps. There were many lines in the steep section, so it was almost easier to let go of the brakes and hope to stay between the tape. Cody Warren pictured to the right, letting loose.

Not much to write about on this race. Bryn took the win in the 4x on Sat. and Jill Kitner took we women's honors. Sunday came and Sanjay joined me and Wes for race day at the Fontucky national. I readied myself for the 7:30am practice session, met up with my teammate Tommy and hopped on the shuttle for the first practice run. The weather had turned extremely windy, more so than previous days. I noticed that the start house had been completely blown away and alot of course markers were missing. Long story short: On my second practice run I got blown off the course, bad. I ended up with a concussion, 6 stitches in my forehead and some bad soreness all over my body. Pretty bad, but not as bad as my teammate Hank Cadle who broke his left thumb on the waterfall section. Not a good weekend for me or my team, but Fontana is in the past and I am looking forward to Angelfire.

*photos by Orven/Heather Zaragoza

Non-Bike related news

So who is going to the "Rock the bells" concert in late August? The list of performers is stacked!! It should be completely off the chains!