Zorg, weather permitting? You mean, if it's doesn't rain you don't go?
I'll be there Saturday. Don't know why, as I ride Ft. Ord enough during the winter.
I was so spoiled last year. I took my wife and my 2 sons on Friday. The weather was perfect, and the crowds not too big. OTOH 2 or 3 years ago, I went with my older son and GMM and it poured on us, and we left Monterey after only an hour there completely soaking wet.
Anyway, unless there is a deluge, we'll be there. I just want a beer mug!!
Faster is not always better, but it's always more fun
Racing da otter DH and DS for the first time. Never raced DS before so that should be interesting. How does DS rules work anyway? Qualifier then race against everyone on both tracks?
I was so spoiled last year. I took my wife and my 2 sons on Friday. The weather was perfect, and the crowds not too big. OTOH 2 or 3 years ago, I went with my older son and GMM and it poured on us, and we left Monterey after only an hour there completely soaking wet.
Anyway, unless there is a deluge, we'll be there. I just want a beer mug!!
Got 2 CORR trucks (1 of which has many options waiting to be built up) and 1 buggy that needs a new servo. I've had no time to do anything but work for the last 3 weeks.
Can't you get the SOC organizers to build you an RC track somewhere?
I'll take a few days off here and there this quarter, and used some of them to go practice. Oh yeah.
Faster is not always better, but it's always more fun
Me and the b/f are both racing - me Sport XC, him Sport DH. I wanted to race the DH but it's at the same time as the XC race... boo! We're getting down there Thursday afternoon. I wish we could bring our dog with us but I can see how the fairgrounds would be a c/f if everyone brought their dogs. Looking forward to meeting a bunch of you at the MTBR booth!
Jeng, you racing sport or expert? is Corina racing the XC?
Originally Posted by jbt56
Are you a whiny Marin liberal, or a hand-wringing Berkeley liberal?
whadda 'bout the sleaze otter? i'll be there, the bike mechanic/teacher @ work here is starting to hype it up. i just don't wanna black out before all the fun starts in the evening.
Internal14...I'd love to hear a trip report from Moab when you return. My wife and I leave for Moab & Fruita to celebrate our 15th in a couple weeks.
As for SOC... XC Clydes Sport & Super Lame D, 3 kids, camping Thurs-Sun.
SOC #16!
Will be there Friday - Sunday, staying in Smellinas.
If anyone has a campsite up near the front entrance let me know which one and I'll bring the best (Dogfish Head) beer known to man. Trying to make it easier on myself to get in and out of the venue and at the same time race and take pictures. Just need a place to park my car during the daytime.
I will be staying in Santa Cruz with buddy Friday and Saturday night but be at the event Saturday for my 7:30am race and then I will check out expo area for a couple hours, hope to see some of you guys out there.
Man, those are some sweet jumps. I assume that the FF helmet is in case one of those random 4x4's sticking out of the ground happens to fall on you... Good thinking.
I'm bringing the family and staying in Monterey starting tomorrow night, and racing DS and DH. Unlike sand-Jeng-bagger, I'm doing Cat-1 even though I've only done one DS before, and it was at the Otter about 6-7 years ago in Beginner class, and my combined qualifying time was around 30 minutes. Ok, Jeng's probably got the right idea - and I'm going to get my but kicked. We plan to bring our boys (3 and 5) to the kids rodeo and Ride Zone a few of the days. Looking forward to talking to an inebriated MTBR founder during the raffle again...
I'll probably be there on Friday, which coincidentally would be the 14th anniversary of when I first contributed to this website. Back then the Internet was this system of rusty tubes that delivered data via modems.
i'll be there Friday thru Sunday.
We're planning to ride ft. Ord Saturday morning. care to join us? then celebrating Apollo's birthday Saturday night in campground H.
Anyone know what the story is with feeds on the XC course? I remember last year they were handing out partially filled bottles on at least one of the laps. Should I count on being able to snag a full water bottle from the neutral feed each time around, or stash bottles in the bushes somewhere?
Racing da otter DH and DS for the first time. Never raced DS before so that should be interesting. How does DS rules work anyway? Qualifier then race against everyone on both tracks?
I'm moving in Wednesday to the best campsite I've ever scored! How? Oh, I gave them even more $$ WAY back on June 1st. Yep. That would be like five weeks after I left last year
DS Thurs/Fri, hardtail DH Sat, C1 DH Sun. Going for the trifectah!
Jeng- Here's the DS scoop. Get there early. Do as many practice runs as you can. Watch others and learn from their goofball lines. When qualies start, try to pair up with somebody fast. You'll do one timed run on each side. No particular order, just get the gate, they take your number, they tell the tent at the bottom who's about to go and then you go. After all have been down, results will be posted at the bottom.
Say there are 23 dudes in your class trying to qualify. 16 will advance. They add your two run-times together for a total time. Say you run two 45.50" runs, your time is 1.31.00 right? Now, say the 16th fastest rider has a time of 1.31.05, you just qualified by the knobby of your tire and will get to race in the finals. Sweet, you get more for your money! And you get to ride the most badass slalom course in nor-cal some more. And the more you ride it, the faster you'll get.
OK, you're in the finals. Get there early. Walk the course if you're there early enough. When they clear the course, go to the top. Stay at the top, close enough to hear the loud ass tough guy tell everyone the order of classes. Stay at the top, keep an ear to the loud guy. If you miss your run, you will be very bummed out and will not advance.
OK, your in the gate. "All right riders, lets set 'em up. Rider's ready, watch the gate, beep beep beep bEEEEEEE" The gate drops and it's on. Forget the other guy, focus on your run and pin your lines. Do not miss any gates. Your run is not timed. When the first rider crosses the line a timer starts and then stops when the second rider does. This is the differential. Say you beat your guy by 0.24 seconds. Sweet, but not there yet. Go straight to the top and get in the other line. Back in the gate with the same dude. Beep beep beep BEEEEE, you do it again on the other course. You loose this time, but only by 0.13 seconds. You advance, the other cat watches and pushes bikes the rest of the day.
1st vs. 15th, 2nd vs 16th and so on for the first round (of 16). Then the round of 8, then the round of 4. Win that round and your racing for 1st or 2nd. Loose that round and you're racing for 3rd or 4th.
I'm an Ottah suckah, racing one event - DH, Cat 1 old guy
My daughter is racing DH and DS so I may need to sample the DS course during practice and am hoping to squeeze in a loop on the XC course on Thu
you're doing th dh justin? feel free to hit me up, we can punch out some practice runs together. what class you racing?
Cat 2. Let's ride Will!
I got free entries and am too cheap to buy an annual racing license. But really I'm not going out there to win, just to hit some sweet jumps for a few days. I'm not a fast jumper and I didn't want to have to race DS cat 1 so there are all my excuses. Let the sandbagger comments commence
Thanks dude but I think I'm going to have to hit my Friday afternoon DS qualifying run cold turkey since I can't make it out to practice on Thursday and there is no practice on Friday morning for my class. One more question Lars. I see that people mostly run dual squish. My two choices are my sweet new Trek dirt jumper bike that I set up dual slalom style or my 6 inch travel Remedy. The Remedy is long and not real low but I am super comfy on it. It takes berms and pretty good but if they are tight not so much. The new bike is fun and I was thinking would be perfect but there is no room for error on jumps and on braking bumps no forgiveness. Which bike say you oh wise one
kpd -- I think my group takes off just a in front of yours. try not to run us over please! I'll be the single speeder on a white Ventana El Comandante and wearing a Team Mad Cat kit...say hello as you rocket on past I'm targeting a 3 hour-ish finish time as well. I'm not sure what the situation is with feed zones/bottle handoff's. This is my first time doing a 2-lapper here. I'm assuming there will be something, but if not, I'm prepping my wife on the the art of bottle handoffs
Kappius Components Ambassador - Ping me a note for a discount code
kpd -- I think my group takes off just a in front of yours. try not to run us over please! I'll be the single speeder on a white Ventana El Comandante and wearing a Team Mad Cat kit...say hello as you rocket on past I'm targeting a 3 hour-ish finish time as well. I'm not sure what the situation is with feed zones/bottle handoff's. This is my first time doing a 2-lapper here. I'm assuming there will be something, but if not, I'm prepping my wife on the the art of bottle handoffs
Isn't there always 1 feed at the FR climb right after the wide/fast paved DH?
I say if you have the confidence to rail the Trek, ride that. WAY faster out of the gate, and that will be not only a mental boost for you but a mental drain on your competition. Play it cool on the top section of off cambre rough stuff, then rail the berms. Big sprint at the bottom, so another efficiency tick for the Trek there as well.
Come say hi to me, I will be one of the few on a Tomac Primer with TLD gear.
...Endor?
Man, that was nerdy.
Hopefully racing CAT2 XC on Saturday morning (currently reg for CAT 3 Sunday, but I'm trying via email to switch). It will be Showtime at the Apollo on Saturday night.
Oops, I spaced the annual license requirement and am a major broke jobless tightwad. I'm only there to support my daughter, she won DH Cat2 last year and should throw into Cat1 this year. Kinda wanted to practice with her and race on the same day, even if I get a woopin, I'd be there. Totally agree the annual license sucks the fun out of that
Cat2 is a better home for me, probably too late to change....
Put on a number plate and you can ride all the fun Ottah stuff. Put a heat on and race the next morning, eh what the heck. Seize every moment and every ride possible!
Not busting on Jeng (yet) but should be bustin on his sponsor. Thinking Jeng and Corina should have full ride
Lars - thanks for the posting all that - I'm pretty much in the same situation as Jengster, and wanting more info as well. It's only going to be my 2nd time on the DS, and the first was about 6-7 years ago and I was painfully slow (and didn't get past Quals for Beginner Men - which had 110 people in it for my age group back then). I'm planning to ride my DJ hardtail, but my other option is a Blur LT setup pretty XC-ish. Cat-1 40+ this year. See you out there and on the DH course!
BTW, if giving him beer counts as sponsor, I'm one of Jeng's sponsors. He's a sandbagger though. Fn sandbagger...
I'm predicting Ustemuf is on the podium in the DH - only riding 5 months? This dude is fearless! (I'm the old guy you helped at Carlmont last Weds :-))
Oops, I should have added that. Racing my "rootbeer" (also known as sparkly brown) Sir9 w/ a white Fox fork up front. Not sure what the heck I will be wearing clothing-wise. I have to find something that doesn't make my butt look too big and doesn't clash with my Sidis....
Free Wi-Fi throughout the venue! Access the SOC network "SeaOtterFREE". No password required
Nice, thanks for the heads up.
I'll be there in CAT2 40-44 XC. I'll be sporting a new www.Tunebug.com jersey with my normal SJBC kit. My friends' start up company will be there with a booth. See you in about 24 hours
I will be there Fri, Sat, Sun. Racing Sat morning Cat 2 40-? Could they have made the race any friggin earlier??
As for you racing Fri afternoon I will be handing bottles to buddy of mine (Don Gallegos who been tearing it up in exp 45+ this year). Soooo if anyone else wants a little help with bottles let me know!
And Francois I will be looking for an MTBR tshirt as I still have not recovered from my dissappointment of you running out at MBO I use the pint glass to good effect but it just isnt the same.....
And what is this about a dinner on Fri?
Originally Posted by XC62701
Agreed...make it longer. I want to know death is an option
Hopefully racing CAT2 XC on Saturday morning (currently reg for CAT 3 Sunday, but I'm trying via email to switch). It will be Showtime at the Apollo on Saturday night.
I'm going to do something different, the Grand Fondo Long on Saturday.
I live in town, so the Sea Otter is a local event for me, so I'll try to visit all you campers, allways up for a party.
Yeah - it was but we still like ya anyway! I am not going to get down there this weekend - was not looking promising, and the final buzz-killer yeterday made it so that I won't be able to get there Saturday. Oh well. The puppies will be glad I am around. All you Apollonauts have fun and throw back a beer or three (or margarita) for me!
Well, now it all makes sense. Thought maybe Madcat had changed up their "trail displays" a bit. Did you race or just shoot pics? Thanks for IDing your self as I passed. Good to almost see you out there.