The Capilano University, Mountain Bike Operations course has gone through some changes and now Jay Hoots is the lead instructor! What!!!!!
True story, this last semester saw yours truly set down the assistant instructor role and step up into a position of responsibility!

Dan Scott from IMBA Canada and past student in the MBO program is my assistant instructor and with his help we have transformed the traditional course into a Dreaded jam packed Giv’R sorta gig that serves to give real experience and provide a huge range of skills…

The program now going into its 5th year continues to grow in so many cool ways. Great feedback from students and the open minded attitude of the school means that the program is getting better…

2010 is the first year a municipal partner has come on board to offer a large land area to be developed for future school trail building projects, Sechelt rocks!

The advanced trail building course runs for the month of April and it is ‘full on’ with multiple projects, massive amounts of information and of course project design and construction in the field. The students all rose to the occasion and designed and built “Brown Sugar” a multi level bike trail that is soo much fun.  It was great to work with all the students and I appreciate the time spent in and out of class with such a wide variety of characters.

During the month I lived on the coast and in between marking exams and assignments I did manage to get some solid riding in both on moto and mountain bike.

That’s it for now huge stuff for May!!! Hope the weather continues to hold…

Ride ON!

Hoots

Hmm lets see, March, what happened…

Wow! Olympics! The impact of the Olympics in February hit me in March! Man was that cool… Can’t believe I was such a wiener!  I tried to ditch town in order to cruise through the whole Olympic affair and ended up right in the thick of it! Thank goodness, what an amazing experience!  Heck I even got to see some of the coolest events rocking!

Got the fever so I even tried it out…

Had a wicked Birthday in March and went for a week to Death Valley with the boys to grow another year older with a bunch of motor heads that are many years wiser : )

Check this out…
http://www.dualsportbc.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=10082&forum_id=11

I did get some great pre season bike riding in. The proto type bike is still railing and I can’t wait to see what happens for production.

Along the way I convinced Ash and Aaron (aka the Powder Chef) help dig out a sk8 park from snow so I could catch some concrete waves

Pic: Hoots in sk8 park

Waiting with baited breath for my Mace gear… 2010 promises to have some sic stuff…..

Hoots

Recently we rounded up all of our athletes and put together a little video of their awesomeness, and added some of our new gear as well. Being that they help us develop and test all of our products it only seemed fitting. Enjoy.

Winter Olympics in my Home town, no snow to speak of, and a blanket of people about to converge on Vancouver, Lower mainland all the way up to Whistler…

I am out!

I thought that with the amount I travel I do to so many cool places combined with how cool my job is that I could sail through life at full charge, ready to handle all the daily nuances without issue… Apparently this is not true and I found myself pretty burned out after an incredibly successful 2009 season went down… hmm what to do??

‘Surf trip to Costa Rica! Yeeeha!

Almost 3 weeks of traveling around Costa checking it out, holing up in cool places surfing on sand break, busting beach time Frisbee in hand and checking out the local medical system after my Sting Ray encounter… Wow! Sweet mother earth thru sand and surf! Man I could feel the layers of stress peeling off, almost as fast as my sun burn, YIKES!

‘Sunset blessings!’

Of course no trip is as fun as when you can recreationally ride mountain bike and that’s just what went down! While in Las Vegas for the Bike Show I met young gun Philippe who ‘sent it’ lap after lap in Boulder Canyon. It turned out ‘big P’ was from Costa Rica and when I let him know I was considering the possibility of visiting his country he offered to meet up and show his favourite trails. Enter stress relief trip.
A 4×4 road to the middle of ‘no where’ 10,000 feet up ended up ‘somewhere’ in a town called Providencia where the village welcomed us with open arms! Providencia embraces bouldering and Mountain bike and they have a 10km downhill trail including several other trail options, most of which are very advanced steep ass trail, GNAR!!!! Two days of riding and I still wanted more!

‘Tica (local) riders Cristhian and Philippe tearing it up’

As luck would have it there was a bouldering competition so I got to check that out as well, man how cool… There are no major hotels or restaurants, however, comfortable sleeping arrangements and GREAT food from the local bar (both breakfasts and dinners) were easily arranged. We met Great people in Providencia and it was very accommodating to mountain bikers, they were stoked to have us ride their trails!

“Grrrrr gnarly trail alert! Wish I could scream ‘WICKED’ in Spanish!

I was offered the lead instructor job position for the trail building component of the Mountain Bike Operations Course at Capilano University. After a lot of consideration I have accepted the position and am now hitting the books trying to get my teach on so I can kick butt on information delivery for the students!

‘MTB Op’s Municipal moments…Council chambers anyone?’

April will be the advanced trail building section of the course so I will be on the Sunshine Coast working and SHREDDING all month!!!! Sweet!!! Stoked to hit dirt with the Coastal Crew while there, the coast is just so cool..

I continue to put mileage and wear on my Proto type ‘all mountain’ bike and my Mace gear which both are equally loving it!

– ‘This Top secret ripper is da bomb!!!

New updated rear stays on the bike have got it nailed and the last round of feedback on the gear has got me stoked that Norco and Mace development departments are listening! SIC! I love my job!

– ‘I love my job!’

Hoots

It is always amazing to me just how quickly the seasons go by.  It is even more amazing to me to watch what appears to be a shift in the seasons…  I am a believer in global warming. And it is interesting to watch how Mother earth is responding to her human infection.  In the last 5 years of riding and building I have witnessed the seasons migrating 3-4 weeks down the line from their original calendar dates. October sure acted like September this year and I think that trend is a year round ordeal that keeps shifting.

It is really hard to grasp the current state of the environment and even harder to figure out what you can do to be a part of the solution. I know my truck, excavator and chainsaws aren’t easy on the air.  The other side to that, however, is that I have a motorcycle I ride to reduce the amount I drive the truck, and my truck and excavator are both used for building skills parks and trails both of which promote cycling. I guess I have come to grips with the fact that I have a justification for my fossil fuel addiction. And I am not sure if everyone has taken a hard look at their own lifestyles to do the same.  Industry and government need to take a stand in order to be responsible leaders, yet we as consumers don’t pressure them to do so, where are our community leaders?  Where is the support from us as neighbors in municipalities to make this happen!!!?  Why is no one listening to the experts and man o man why is it that when I get a bag of chips only the bottom ¼ is full??? What is the frickin deal?  Make smaller bags or fill the big ones but stop wasting… I digress.

Pheeew…  I have had quite journey since the last blog and I think I might be a bit pent up…

Completing the final bike parks for the season thru September and October we shifted gears and went into trail building mode.  I then  spent time at the Nordic center in Canmore to build and XC trail and then building hiking trail for Parks Canada on a remote island and just recently I got back from building riding trails in Puerto Rico. Wowsa, life is quite a ride.

During the fall I also found a bit of time and busted it to Interbike and got super busy building and filming for the next Norco video short to be released in January 2010.  The vid is sic and I can’t wait to hear people’s feedback on it!

While in town filming I spent a bunch of time cruising the bike park in Hinton. Check out these two links: click here to see the Hinton bike park at the hoots site, and click here to see the Hinton bike park site.  And after 2 seasons I finally went after a gnarly line that I had been thinking about since originally building the drop zone…

I also have been testing a new prototype frame that whoops butt!  It is an all mountain bike with a 6” platform and it is around 34lbs. This bike is so fricking rad!  I am so stoked to be on it and man I have been tearing it up.  I think I am riding the fastest and gnarliest I have ever ridden on this bike. Granted one has to remember that a mountain bike is not a ‘chuck it’ bike but this thing schooled almost all of Whistler and shredded Canmore climbs.  I have sent it off 25’ drops and 40’+ jumps while turning around lifting up the seat and cranking for an hour uphill at ridiculous speed and comfort. Sure hope this bad boy makes the 2011 line up it will be hard to touch.

Here’s a cool progression: This years Mountain Bike Operations (MBO) program has 28 students in it and everyone is so keen and passionate about riding and mountain biking that I am revved!  We have already completed the basic building course with the advanced course happening in April.  I have heard that resorts and bike industry are really looking at this diploma as a huge asset when evaluating applicants for jobs. So cool!!!  Legitimization of our sport requires education and I am stoked that Cap University can offers this wicked cool course.

I am still rep’ing the Mace products and just wanted to throw it out there that everything so far is still on the solid.  Durability is becoming a mainstay of Mace and I am now finding that I can use Mace stuff in other sports as well.  I always have Mace gear on when moto’ing or sledding and even rock the armour when snowboarding now…

Aight. Huge amount of info, Rad amount of time. Get out there and grab some adventure and I will keep my eyes peeled for you! Happy Holidays and may Santa bring you all new bikes!!!

Hoots