It all seems to come back around

There have been many times that events or experiences I have had come back to influence me days, months or years later. It is weird how little things can have an impact on you or come out in a way that can only come from yr subconscious. The very first two records I really remember listening to a lot were Black Sabbath's Paranoid and ZZ Top's Tres Hombres. I was in 1st grade when one of my Mom's boyfriends left Paranoid at our apartment. I pretty much wore that record out on my little red and white Disney viewmaster record player. ZZ Top came around a few years later after I saw them at Tulane stadium for my 1st concert ever around 1975-76. Many years later when I picked up the guitar at the height of my hardcore punk rock infatuation my playing echoed of Billy Gibbons and Tony Iommi albeit more primitive and sloppy. In high school I took a two-day speed reading course that at the time I thought very little of. However, over the years I found myself employing it w/o thinking about it. I read tons of stuff including usually 3-4 books at a time, half a dozen magazines, the most sections of the daily newspaper and piles of articles online.

Last fall I was in Boulder, Colorado and met up w/Lee McCormack (see pic) the co-author of the book Mastering Mountain Bike Skills. I enjoyed the book even though some of it was kinda corny. I found out that Lee offers skills clinics http://www.leelikesbikes.com/skills-clinics and figured "what the hell?" I met Lee at The Fix bike shop, a totally hardcore shop dedicated to Freeride, DH, All-Mountain, and Dirt Jump pursuits. They have their own set of dirt jumps and a pump track behind the shop and their neighbors are Maverick American bikes. As I said these guys are hardcore all the way. He spent 2 hours going over bike handling drills, theory, and balance techniques all very jedi-esque. It was very informative and a lot of fun, however I really did not think about it all that much with my riding immediately thereafter. Yet as recent as my ride today I found myself flowing lines and new sections with ease including some new jumps, drops, and skinnies that have just been constructed on what is IMHO the best trail around here at Freedom Park. http://trails.mtbr.com/cat/united-states-trails/trails-virginia/trail/PRD_170743_4585crx.aspx I started to realize that I was incorporating many of the techniques I had gleaned from Lee w/o even thinking about it. I went off a new drop there that depending on where you land sends you 3-5' airborne as calm as I could be and landed very smoothly. Needless to say I highly recomend checking out one of his clinics or writings. A big pat on the back goes out the EVMA who really has stepped their efforts with this new trail and its nicely challenging features. http://www.evma.org/.

As write this I am enjoying a nice post home made chicken nacho and beer buzz in honor the Super Bowl. I really don't give a rat's ass about the game or any pro sports for that matter. My friends in college used to say the only thing worse than pro sports are the fans. As gay as I am about cycling I really do not care to watch the Tour or much of anything else on TV. I would rather be involved. To paraphrase Yoda (speaking of Jedis): "no try; just do."