Last weekend, while everyone was sitting around dreaming about riding, Tyler, Mike, Simon, and Myself took the journey upon ourselves to drive 2 hours, take an hour and a half ferry ride, drive for another hour, and ride some absolutely sick trails and take in the Naniamo Super D. If you have never been out to Vancouver Island for one of the Super D race's or even to go riding, I would highly recommend it.
Check inside for pics, results and video of the weekend.After eating 1.5 Large pizza's the night before, the 6am "wake and drive" came really fast. With 4 bikes, 6 bags, helmets, and riding gear packed up in Kakah's Delica, and no intentions accept to ride and have fun, we were off to the "races", literally.
Earllllly | Racing Van | Packed Full |
Once we arrived at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal about 20 minutes early, we made the journey to get a news paper, a coffee, and back to the Delica for some more well needed rest. Once onboard the ferry we endured the hour and a half trip across to the Island, where the sun shine was greeting us with open arms, and hot girls! We stopped at The Modern Cafe for breakfast called and to meet
our buddy Rob.
With full bellies we met up with the owner of
U Dog dog training, Rob. Rob was a super stoked guy, who came out for the soul purpose of driving the lazy employee's, and rider's of Pinkbike up the hill. Props to you Rob! As well, he drove a super cool Grummins Mail Truck. Rob would have joined in on the biking if he could, but recent surgery had him piloting the van for a few hours-thanks buddy!
It's actually faster than Kakah's Van
The road up Dumont Mountain was very exciting. The race plan was to boom down this fire road/access road for 100 meters or so, then duck into this little trail, that was just wide enough for 28" wide bars. Well the road was soaked in about a inch of island mud. Island Mud, for the record, is an orange color, and once it dries, is near impossible to get off without the use of a pressure washer.
Kakah | Notice the Mud | A small Pack |
Once riders ducked into the tree's, the excitement began. As stated, the trail was soul'y designed for sub 28" wide bars, and for really fast reaction times. After about 5 or 6 "meet and greets" of my knuckles into the tree's I decided that if I ever wanted to use my hands again I should probably not race, and just use the opportunity to take some photos, and shoot some video footage. The combination of wet roots, muddy terrain, and Island moss made for some very exciting racing. The ratio of riders in control to out of control was definitely in favor of the out of control on this 15 minute course.
Look Mom, 1 footed riding
Just to give you guys an idea of how gooey it was on the trail, here's a sequence of before, during, and after the race, of Pinkbike's own Simon Stevenson. Pose for the camera buddy!
Before
During
After
However, it was well worth it all for Simon with his 7th place finish in the Expert Mens category. Kakah had a well deserved placement of 7th in the Intermediate Men's class, and myself and Tyler were photo nerds all day. All in all the trip went really well, and the race was super cool. Mega props to the people at GRMBA, and all the sponsors and volunteers of the Super D for putting the race together. Without them, we wouldn't have had an excuse to get away from the rain and clouds in Chilliwack, and get out to the island for some well deserved riding.
The next race is on Mar 23, and is the Nanaimo DH race. It should be a very good race, and I hope everyone gets a chance to check this series out.
RESULTS-Super D-March 9th-Nanaimo
Beginner Women 1 46 chantelle johnson
2 23 rachel goalder
Expert Women 1 347 seana wright
2 349 rebecca ferri
Beginner Men 1 22 joe esnouf
2 38 peter templeman
3 42 curtis caldin
4 1 calen bachmier
5 34 stephan wright
6 2 dan daigle
7 30 trevor thew
8 35 craig bulloch
9 32 tyler friesen
10 19 hanlon oldale
11 13 brett payne
12 27 matt gerard
13 4 colton davies
14 31 cameron aldoff
15 12 tam crawford
16 33 tyler johnson
17 28 louis beckingham
18 45 stefan crucil
19 47 ryan low
20 48 chris gaboury
21 8 tukoda crawford
22 25 jarrit morpak
Intermediate Men 1 113 sean lunney
2 124 ron hewitson
3 109 mitch thacker
4 112 derek diedricksen
5 125 greg honeysett
6 128 scott mitchell
7 102 mike levy 8 133 james lledfort
9 115 jeff forsyth
10 105 dylan phye
11 118 brandn goebel
12 120 bryce blake
13 119 kyle austin
14 116 jonathan duncan
15 123 jeremy baker
16 101 brian kuhn
17 111 paul johnson
18 126 don jamont
19 108 dave pfaffenburger
20 127 matt beaulieu
21 103 craig piccoc
22 122 taylor smith
23 110 jesse belanger
24 129 dexter robson
25 117 david cusack
26 106 kevin mahom
27 114 sean reid
Expert Men 1 364 jeff beeston
2 331 brent anderson
3 342 robin dutton
4 334 jeremy vosburgh
5 355 bill mcmillan
6 337 matt dawes
7 354 simon steveson 8 340 andrew mitchell
9 351 bryon evans
10 362 dan espeseth
11 336 mark wieler
12 332 remi gauvin
13 341 kyle marshall
14 353 brian britton
15 343 trevor jones
16 333 sky gustin
17 358 cameron oscanny
18 306 ben glassen
19 335 dean tennant
20 348 tim coleman
21 344 david huntley
22 345 mike parcher
23 363 jeff larouche
24 346 lee blais
25 356 dan diedricksen
26 365 sean manara
27 350 steve pilsher
28 357 mandeep khtaria
29 352 branden grass
30 361 cam smith
31 339 simon garstin
32 360 joel collins
All in all the Super D race was a wicked event. Super friendly people and a really relaxed atmosphere. The Super D race was sponsored through the GRMBA association, and a lot of the local shops helped out as well. I would highly suggest anyone in the lower mainland area to check these events out. If you are an up and coming racer, or just looking for a good time, definitely give the Island Races a chance.
For more pictures from the event check out:
http://spoiledgoods.pinkbike.com/album/Super-D---Round-1---Dumont/ And for more information on the race's check out:
http://www.islandcupseries.com/ From Butter, Kakah, Simon, and Dolla Bill, best wishes, and good trails.
Lets hope to see some familiar faces at the next DH
Looking forward to racing the next ones.. and then the next one.. and then the next one....
i only get out to nanaimo in the summer, are there any races goin on around then?
Garstin*