I took a coaching course recently, PMBI to be specific. What is PMBI you might ask? Well that would be Professional Mountain Bike Instructor. I thought that it was important to get a formal certification with all of the coaching/guiding I have been doing, so that’s what I did. There was a gap in my busy schedule this summer and luckily it matched up perfectly with the course. Up until this course, I took all that I have learned over the years from coaching, being coached and racing….and put it all together to create teaching material. I must say, after a week of this course I am a MUCH better coach. Riding and explaining riding are two very differnt things. It is crazy how much more effiecent and safe you can be with your teaching when you have a proper framework to teach from. Biking is an inherently dangerous activity and if you don’t know how to explain something properly, you can seriously endanger someone. I want to get more people stoked on the sport I love, not injure them or wreak their confidence. Plus when you teach more efficiently, people have more fun because they progress quicker and are able to see their progressions easier. I coached for Fluidride the week after I finished my certification course and I felt like it was a night and day difference.
Paul who runs PMBI out of Whistler is a smart guy with a knack for breaking biking down from the basics and being able to explain it….it was a total pleasure to work with him for a week and I would recommend the course to anyone out there looking to do some coaching. You can find out more about PMBI here…http://www.professionalmountainbikeinstructor.com/
It is crazy to think that Crankworx has come and gone already. It was a crazy week as usual. I pretty much flew from Windham to Seattle, packed up and drove right up to Whistler to start scouting for the Deep Summer Photo Challenge. I have been wanting to do Deep Summer for a long time now. It is such a cool event.
How it works. There are 6 photographer. Each photographer picks a team of riders to shoot with, usually the average is about 5. The photographer has 72 hours to shoot from Function Junction (the southernmost part of Whistler) to Emerald (the northernmost part of Whistler)…50% of which has to be shot within the Whistler Bike Park. After the 72 hour period there is half a day to edit and then the shows have to be submitted.
The Fairmont Chateau Whistler hosts the party + show and it is always sold out. Huge room, 1000+ people. Pretty rad. Everyone watches the shows and then the judges deliberate.
I was honored to be the only girl selected to participate in Deep Summer. I was actually pretty surprised- the first day I walked into the meeting for the riders/photographers/Whistler Blackcomb peeps and I was the ONLY girl, with the exception of Robin, one of the photographers. Not gonna lie, I was so excited to be standing there side-by-side as an equal, ready to battle it out with the freeride boys.
My team consisted of John Wellburn, our super rad photographer- he is based out of BC but spends most of his time in Argentina. The riders on my team were myself, Mike Hopkins, Sam Pilgrim, Mike Kinrade and Cory. It was sooooo awesome working with the boys…The shoot itself was fun but pretty brutal at the same time. Weather was not on our side, it was pretty much pissing rain the whole time and because time is limited that means we were out in the rain for really long hours. I didn’t really care though, I just wanted to pump out as many rad photos as possible.
In the end we didn’t end up placing but it was an incredible experience and I am sure more than a few of the photos will be published so I will keep you all posted on that.
Anyway, Deep Summer was a mission, a 4 day mission. And then I tried to race 3 days in a row after that. HA. ha is right. I did the Garbanzo DH, A-Line DH and Pumptrack. I was totally spent but I was entered so I just did it anyway. We will just say the results were among my most forgettable results, ever. Whatever, I had fun riding my bike and supporting the place that I have called home for so many years, Whistler. The Whistler Bike Park has done so much for me over the years, it would be crazy not to race. I love you guys!
Boy was I excited to be done with my events come Thursday. FREEEE TIME. I got my socializing on. Went to the GLC and Longhorn a few times. Listened to BCDC. Hung out at the SRAM VIP Lounge and watched slopestyle. Which was RAD by the way. Red Bull pumped A LOT of money into the event, both the execution and the promotion…I think it was a really good week for the sport. The boys sent it as usual. Brandon Semenuk took home the gold….finnnnnnnnallly. Home town boy. Last year it was looking like he was going to do it but he crashed backflipping the last stepdown and broke his collarbone. He got redemption this year though.
Can’t wait for next year!
Here are the top 3 Deep Summer shows! (via Pinkbike.com)
I have been working with Simon Lawton of Fluidride (formerly Downhill Northwest) since day one on the bike. Literally. Back in high school Simon lead a camp for a week with my class and I fell in love with bikes and I haven’t looked back. I coached for him in the past and I coached again for him this week which was a lot of fun. We had a group of 6 up from the Seattle area and they were loving it. Lots of improvement. Lots of smiles. That’s why I do it, I love seeing that. And I am a big people person too…I just love chatting and getting to know new people. Anyway, it was a blast.
A couple of weeks ago when I was in Seattle, Simon coached me for an afternoon and we also filmed for his upcoming movie Flow-Tonic. Flow-Tonic breaks down riding into footwork…sounds a bit abstract but once you see it and understand it, it’s pretty crazy. In one afternoon I shaved a significant amount of time off my runs just moving my pedals around to match the terrain. Anyway, I thought I would share those stills with you guys. Keep an eye out for the film. And if you are in the Seattle area you should hit up Simon for lesson, you will make some huge improvements in a short period of time!
Third World Cup this year was not a charm, at least not when it comes to race results. This year has been pretty tough on me on the racing front, luckily I can always find something else to keep me occupied.
My troubles started on my way out of Boise. We left Sun Valley around 7am so that we could make the trek down to Boise for our flights. My flight out of Boise was a couple of hours late, causing me to miss my connection in Minneapolis. Albany is a small airport so there are not too many flights going in and out so there were no more for the day. Delta put me up in a hotel in Minneapolis for the night. I woke up super early flew to Detroit and then Albany. The bike got lost somewhere along the way. Happens to everyone, been traveling with my bike for years now and I have been pretty lucky up until this point. So I will take it.
Anyway, my bike didn’t show up until after practice. The girls were all super rad and lent me some of their stuff so I could at least go up and check it out for a run. I used Lauren Daney’s bike, shoes and Leatt, Gabriella Williams pad’s and Miranda Millers goggles. Wasn’t ideal but at least I got to feel the track at a snails pace. I probably have a good 35lbs. on Lauren as she is tiny…her bike is XS, her suspension is really soft and her shoes are 1.5 sizes too small but it was really cool of her.
I got my bike built up that afternoon and then proceeded to have mechanicals my first 2 practice runs the morning of qualifying. I got 2 more runs in but 2 runs was just not enough to get up to speed on the track. I tried to pick up speed on my 2nd run but quickly found that maybe that was not so smart as I ate shit twice. I was expecting to get a 3rd run in before qualifying but the marshalls were at the bottom after my second run and that was the end of practice. Hadn’t even jumped the jumps yet. The track is pretty easy at a cruisy pace but once you start to pick up speed, there are lot of things that will put you on your face at speed. Not exactly ideal but looking back at it I think I played it smart in qualifying. I cruised and only jumped half the jumps (for the first time). I was not even close to at speed so it was kinda embarassing cruising down but to be honest, I have been plagued with injuries with last couple of years and the old Katie maybe would have just gone for it but I don’t think that would have been too sensible. Would have been gutted if I took myself out.
So instead of mopping I found other stuff to occupy my time. I did some interviews in the pits with Billy from Dirt Magazine which was a lot of fun. Video turned out pretty good…check it out!
All of the World Cups are broadcasted live on Freecaster.TV and so I ended up doing the commentating for the women’s race with Rob Warner which was so much fun! Have a listen./watch …http://freecaster.tv/mountainbike/1016721/uci-world-cup-2011-dhi-5-windham-usa-replay-women
I went out to Sun Valley, Idaho for the Specialized 2012 shoot. Let me just say this place is totally underrated. It is gorgeous. The town is cute. The people are rad. The trails kept me grinning from ear to ear all week.
We did lots of shooting with Mr. Sterling Lorence. Love him! So excited to see the ‘nugs’. But we also got to do lots of freeriding, I went on a bunch of epic rides out there.
Smith Optics is based in Ketchum so I got to go check out the HQ which was cool. The vibe in there is really nice, everyone rides to work, the space is nice. Got some new shades on my way out.
Rebecca Rusch lives in Sun Valley so we met up a few times. One of the afternoons her and Susan invited me to coach their Wheel Girls program which was a blast. Basically it is a 6-week little summer camp where the girls go out for group rides. Most of the girls were either ski racers or freestyle skiiers so it was pretty cool to see the skills cross over.
One of the highlights of the week was the Hailey Rodeo. I have always wanted to go to a rodeo and I got my chance. Mutton busting was my favorite….I found a YouTube video for your viewing pleasure.
Oh yes, and guess who we spotted out to dinner…Mr. Punked himself, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. ha.
