It was pretty cool riding with Wade Simmons...

I did the Wade Simmons Clinic on the weekend at Blue Mountain. Brett Tippie was coaching (and entertaining) as well and both he and Wade were awesome to learn from and ride with. I learned so much in 2 days of riding. I went from being too scared to jump or really be in the air at all to doing the jump line at the end of the DH course at Blue. Like actually landing on the transitions!

Here's a report  and some pictures from the clinic.

Here's a video of me riding some stuff.

DH'ing

This week I did the TEVA Tuesday night DH race at Blue Mountain. The race was on Embryo, which I was happy about. It's a trail I really like and is not too hard or scary. The race was an open jam style where you could do any number of runs in an hour and your best time is counted. It was fun to meet and chat with other riders while waiting for your turn. I won the recreational women's category and a sweet pair of TEVA LINKS shoes. Report here.

Come out this week for the Tuesday XC.

I love summer!

So what have I been up to lately? Lots of fun summer stuff. I bought a stand up paddle board, which I am absolutely loving. It's been so warm and sunny here, it's great to get out on the water. It's been a fun challenge figuring out how to control it in the sometimes choppy bay and winds.

I also started downhilling at Blue Mountain the past few weeks. It's been a really fun progression and so refreshing to work on new skills and ride new trails. My Scott Genius has been the perfect bike. It took me a few rides to get used to a full suspension again, last week I even put down the seat!

Last week was the East Coast Open race at Blue. It's a 3 race event with a XC, dual slalom, and DH. I decided to do both the XC and DH. I thought about doing the dual, but was too tired after the XC race. The XC was great, a long course covering 12 km per lap and we did 2 laps. There was a long climb, a traverse across the top and then down one of the most fun DH trails. I felt good and took off from the start. By the top of the climb I could feel the effort and my teammate Mikaela Kofman took the lead. We rode together for a while, but I felt I could ride the trails quicker, so I took the lead again. From there I opened a gap and build on it for the rest of the race, taking the win. It was great to win and especially at a hometown race. My teammate Derek Zandstra won the men's race. Race report here.

The next day was the DH race, my first. It was a trail that I felt comfortable riding, so I knew that as long as I didn't do anything crazy or stupid, I'd make it down alive. I knew I would lose time on the jump line at the bottom, but wanted to have a run where I pushed my limits a bit and rode smooth. I had my fastest time on my race run besting my qualifying time by 6 or so seconds. The winner was some 50 seconds ahead! Pretty awesome and inspiring to see how the women rip.