I just did a great ride yesterday; one that made me giggle and smile and forget about all the stresses and concerns of event planning and business concerns. It struck me as I was riding another of the many life lessons I have found while on a bicycle.
I was approaching one of the many optional moves on this trail and was pretty convinced I was going to do it. Its a big rock that you can ride around or if you choose; take advantage of its perfect ramp like shape and launch yourself several feet in the air and return yourself to the trail without a trace that you had ever left, kind of a coll move. What makes it even better is that the shape of this rock allows one to go up the ramp and "huck" off the flat top or use the ramp as a jump and thus clear the flat top and get a bit more height but still landing "in trail" quite nicely. The beuty of this and so many moments in Mountain Biking or even scary road descending is the mental discussion that goes on as you roll through lovely grassy meadows approaching the "problem at hand". Sometimes your mind is free and confident and hardly thinks twice, those are the times you cruise the hardest of terrain without even seeing it as hard. Other times we succumb to the fear and either pull off or stop or worst of all; hit the move all tensed up with fear and thus ride like a manequin attached to a bike via some wrap of duct tape and bailing twine. Those times often end in disaster and as a point of advice I would say, if you cant wrangle the beast of your own fear on that particular challange, it might be best to save thyself and take a rain check. BUT… most of the time it works like this; you start thinking about the move, a bit of concern or evaluation occurs in your head and you start to consider the famous question "should I go or should I stay now", if you decide to go there could be trouble and if you ride around on the easy line, you will be bummed on your descision and thus have to slump more and kiss arse mnore at work all week. You decide to go for it… as you roll along now about 100 feet from the move, you ask again… are you sure? A voice seems to answer twice in a row… YES / I think so… its at this point that success or failure are determined I believe. If you just take the yes and say "screw it and do it" you may or may not succeed – I wish you luck. If you latch onto the hesitation of the "maybe" you will start talking yourself into the excuses you will use later as to why you rode around on the green run or you will start yourself on the tense up and freak out road described above that will nearly always land you in a neck brace or at least in a head of humility. Again; the best option to me is, you respond to your confilcted self with "shut up"… you continue speaking in firm tones to thyself… "you know what to do, feel it and ride it and shut the fk up" it is at this point that you have made the move. Unless your trying to ride ladies only in BC and you have never left the grounfd on a bike before; if you have skills and have properly asessed the move and have a basic clue on the skills required, the movement of your bike and the path of exit on the other end; your skills will take over. It’s amazing to me what the ability that lies within us really is and it is equally amazing what we can do to hinder that performance with our overly cautious minds. So much of our "scary moments" in modern life are all optional and self chosen, I think it has cost us a bit of the animal instinct that we would have had while facing off against a saber toothed tiger with nothing more than a sharpened stick. I think we’ve gotten a wee bit softer. But kudos to all of us for making the choice to get out of our cubical and onto a bit of reality that we call singletrack and making oursleves face these descisions once again. Its a great part of this sport and of life.
So… you roll on with the utter comitment to letting yourself do what you know your self can do (or at least hope.. again you utter "SHUT UP" to that voice of question). Once you in the thing you are so taken by the experience of what your body and mind and bike seem to be doing and seemingly doing without any need for you to help. Its a cool feeling when you just go along for the ride of your self and your skills and your well chosen steed all doing what they know and love and really CAN DO. All that remains are the flowing feeligs of smiles and great living and the knowledge that you will stand up straighter tomorrow and walk a little cocky and no one will even know why. It’s a beautiful feeling and it doesnt even matter if anyone at all was watching (although its always nice to think someone had an onlooking "wow, nice one").
I drew the life and current event metaphor this morning when I turned on the news reel to see the on-going "be really fckin afraid of the tanking economy" and some fed guy who says "we are really gonna screw the dog on this one and everything will die and/or be eaten by wolves before we ever see any reason to be happy to be alive again…yada yada" It strikes me with utter similitude. Can you imagine if the press was at every technical section of every trail we ride? "hey buddy, your gonna wreck so hard" and a few feet later "you got insurance dont you?" and as you hit the first rock or lip or drop… "no way your gonna make it"… this seems to be the plan for economic demise in our nation right now. We are going to harp on this thing until everyone gets so scared and freaked out and economically careful that no body buys anything except from Walmart/China and makes darn sure that our debt outweighs our value and then we can all stand up together and say "the press was right"… yeah, we made sure they where. SO LETS NOT!. Tell those nay saying voices to shut the heck up! We know how to ride, we know how to work and we will be fine through this somehow I assure you. Square your shoulders, relax your mind and feel the flow of the greatness of life. Enough of that naggy little voice and enough of me being really scared because some guys who never worked a day in their lives lost a whole bunch of un-earned and intangible money in some company that stills eems to have enough liquidity to pay out mulit-million dollar "hey we just tanked a company" bonuses. Thats not the world I live in and not the world I want to live in. I can ride bikes, climb rocks, travel, float rivers and most importantly celebrate the friendships and the shared lives of the great people and the great world around me and I dont need AIG to do so.
Ya with me? I hope so… lets ride and lets live and lets not let the piss ant press tell us to be so afraid that we actually manifest the fears they recite night and day. Im still livin’ and I’m still ridin’ and I’m sure as heck still spending. Yeah sure; as a small business owner who cannot afford to pay off my line of credit let alone a 5 million doallr bonus for being a dumbass… yeah I get a little nervous at times. But I got a bike or two, I got one I can loan you. I got great friends and I know some great places I can go in the great outdoors where there’s no entry fee or application for entry. I got two feet that can still walk around and even dance if Im drinkin’ enough. I got a toy or two and really didnt need that new toy that badly anyhow. I can still find cheap wine and I can still get a party sarted pretty good and spread the joy to those around me. Yep; thats my deal and thats my aim here… relax… believe… look up and smile…. hit that shit!
Here’s some tips for cyclist in economic times of turmoil:
- 1 – Gas is cheap and trails are everywhere and entry fees are LOW
- 2 – If you loose your job… ROAD TRIP
- 3 – As long as I have a yard… you have a home…
- 4 – Downsize your car… maybe your house… DO NOT sell a bike, they arent worth much used anyway
- 5 – Carpool to trailheads; its social, fun, green and saves gas money
- 6 – Ride SLX or SRAM X9; that pretty much zeros out the loss in your 401k
- 7 – Spend your money with real people who can in turn support whatever biz your in (I know we see very few Chinese mountainbiker customers at OTE)
- 8 – Shut off your cable TV and go ride more
- 9 – Come ride with us – we already experienced at being lower class
- 10 – Stay Positive and go big! We hope to see you soon, if we can help; we got a smile for ya and a trail that will make you smile!
Rock On my people!