April, San diego and Sea Otter Classic

My time with Sam W at the start of April was really good, we got loads of riding and training done, so I was pumped, His parents were over also for a visit which was great, they are good people and its always nice to have lots of other Austrlians around when in other countries, it always makes you feel more at home, although, with Alise staying with Sam also, then myself and Sams parents, we were 5 deep in a 1 bedroom apartment. I'm a bit of an early bird when it comes to bed time, and Sam's parents...not so much, and Sams dad had legendary snoring abilities!!!! So after a few nights I found a new bedroom to make sure I got my sleep in. Turns out that Sams wardrobe is the size of a small bedroom, and the mattress fit in perfect, I was sorted! haha. Nice and dark and quiet, just how I like it! Some of the best nights sleep i've ever had!

We got a few days riding done at Chula Vista on the SX track, as well as the normal ABA track next to it. Was real good to get some good time in on the ramp, and some good skills sessions, but the crosswinds were pretty annoying, especially the last day, everything on the track was pretty much unrideable.

I got to ride the SX track on the 4X bike though which was rad! They feel pretty good on the track, better than I was expecting. Everything felt good with all my riding there, training has been going good and I was riding strong, so it was a good little confidence booster with the main part of my race season fast approaching.

From there it was off to Monterey for the Sea Otter classic, The weather was so nice! borderline hot everyday, a first for seas Otter.

Slalom was rad as always, and I felt good on the track, had a couple smooth but a bit steady Qualifying runs, and qualified 3rd, so that was good after feeling pretty cruisy.

Between the Yeti Factory team and the Support team, we qualified 5 places for the top 32 final, out of well over 100 pro men entries, so that was awesome for the whole team.

My races were going really good, I won every round pretty easily, first against Florent Payet, then Andrew Neethling, then Kyle Strait. Then I had Mick Hannah in the semis, I made one bad mistake towards the bottom in run 1 and mick got my by.3. I was on the slightly slower course for run 2 so I knew I had work to do to beat him, as he was riding so good. I had a good run 2, but not quite good enough, I got him by .15 but it wasn't enough and I was done.

I had the small final then for 3rd against Jared Rando, I was off with the fairies a bit for this, and had a stupid crash in the 2nd turn, giving him the easy win, then I had to make up the maximun 1.5 seconds in the 2nd run if I wanted to get 3rd. Trying to make that up against a super solid slalom rider like Rando was always going to be a long shot, I tried to play with his head a bit at the top, telling him the pressure was all on him to not stuff up now haha. I gave it all in the 2nd run and had a pretty big lead, but it wasn't quite going to be the 1.5 seconds I needed, so I ended up 4th. I was happy with how I was riding, but was making silly mistakes when it got to the pointy end of racing and when everyone was pushing over their limits.

My Yeti team Mate Aaron Gwin was riding rad and came up against Mick in the final, Gwinny was all over it on the turns, but there was a solid pedal to the line, and Mick Mowed him down at the end of both runs to take the win from him.

DH was the next day, I felt so dam tired from Slalom the day before, but that all goes out of your head when you get a bit of that nervous energy come race time. Practice went really well that morning, the track was getting super beat up (well beat up by sea otter standards atleast) the the little Short Travel Yeti 4X was handling it! Everyone was telling me all week that I was on the wrong bike, it was getting almost annoying after the 50th person told me their 2c on what they thought I should be riding, yeah it was a bit wild in a few spots, but overall I knew it was going to be the way to go.

After not being at Sea Otter for the past 2 years I was seeded badly for racing, which meant I was up pretty close to the start, no worries though, atleast I would get my run done early and not have to sit around waiting for an extra 90 minutes. One thing Ive worked on this past off season a lot is working out what works best for me as far as warm up before racing goes, so it was a good time to test that out. And as soon as I pedaled out of the start I knew my run was going to be good, I hit everything spot on, with the exception of 1 turn about half way down where I ran wide and into the tape for a second and gave a photographer who was lying down a bit of a love tap, just a slight clip, but nothing that cost me any time, just a bit of added excitement.

I crossed the line and then got to wait through about 100 more pro men before I knew if it would be good enough for the win. In the end It was good for the win! I was pretty pumped, I have done no training for Sea Otter in Particular, its all based around power and speed over short bursts, So i wanted to win, but didn't really know how it would work out, and with Gwiny in 2nd, making up the Yeti 1-2, it was awesome!

Im back in Colorado now, which is where ive been for the past week, staying at Yeti Bossman Chris Conroys house, I love staying here, I have my own place out the back with everything I need in it, Including a gym setup with Squat rack right next to my bed, and a pump track) and i'm spending time at the Yeti factory through the day. I arrive at the factory and the start gate is ready to go for me to use, they have a squat rack setup there also, tons of good riding around, and pretty much everything else I needed to get final preparations done for the upcoming world cup series, feeling real good about things right now, so I'm looking forward to get the races underway!

Just 2 more days till I leave for Europe, I suppose I better pack some gear!

Gravey