Understanding Fear in Mountain Biking

Fear is a topic that isn't often publicly discussed in mountain biking. Admitting to feeling it can cause us to feel insecure, uncomfortable, and isolated. It wasn't until the Q&A session at the Crankworx Fox booth last year when Claire Buchar and Katrina Strand fielded a number of question about managing and overcoming fear in mountain biking, that I realized how common of an emotion it is in our sport. It also became clear, the more I spoke to athletes about it, that feeling fear is neither a limiter or predictor of success.

The Bakery: Revelling in the Joy of Our Anarchy

I recently had the opportunity to help with promoting The Moment - a documentary about the history of freeride. Most of the people I reached out to were thrilled with the idea of the film and with having a showing in their town, but a few of the responses I received back surprised me. 

"Does the film reconcile or reflect on the change in times or does it revel in the joy of anarchy?" 

This question wrapped up a larger message of concern about "weed talk," rogue riding culture, and the lack of marketability the film would have to an all-ages audience. Another response I received was in respect to taming down mountain biking's extreme image.

"I'm trying to promote mountain biking to women and I'm not a huge fan of promoting the gnarly stuff like Rampage and freeriding because I think it scares a lot of people away from the sport." 

Don't get me wrong, at the heart of both of these examples are genuine issues that people are considering. This is a time of hypersensitivity around illegal trail building in some places and I do understand that the mainstream media version of mountain biking may not be truly representative of what is available in the sport to everyone. But since when does that mean we shouldn't celebrate our history or that we should leave out the bits that are inconvenient to our current (or sometimes individual) concerns?

That's It, That's All: 2015 Dunbar Summer Series

After spending over twenty-five hours driving this weekend, a solid four hours shooting in the pouring rain, and another twelve lovingly drying out my camera, I expected to be glad this weekend was wrapped up and in the books, but I'm not. The Legendary Summer BC Cup at Fernie Alpine Resort this past weekend marked the last of the Dunbar Summer Series races for the season - this is officially your signal that it's time to grab a six pack, a bag of Doritos, and plan your Netflix viewing until spring.