08/22/2008

A Pro View of Sea Otter Tom Prochazka grabs the mic.

Words and photos by Tom Pro
I rolled into Monterey last night and hooked up with the Rocky crew of Dre, Les T., Matt, Kevin, Mike the wrench and Allison for a fine dinner at Pacific Joe's. Luck had it that hockey was on the tube and we were able to stay till the end to see the Nucks sqeek one out. Of course that required a high level of beer consumption, so the bartender didn't mind staying late. Besides, if you ever have a chance to hoist a few with Dre (Andreas Hestler), you should not pass it up. The man is a true proffesional, and the more he consumes, the funnier he gets. He had me at least 2 to 1 on pints.

Pretty fly for a French guy.  Cedric showing off his Freeride Entertainment buckle.

Onother proffesional I ran into is Toshi from Sponsohouse.com. He was having a dinner with the Mavic boys, but just before the bill came he conveniently relocated his carcass to our table where he remained until the Mavic dudes covered the bill. There is a true veteran of many schmoose fests.

Cowan's jumps are about as purty as a Monterey sunrise.

After being snowed in at Whistler, choking on powder and skiing my ass off all winter, it is good to get down here and immerse myself in the bike world, cold turkey. More than the bikes themselves, it is the people around this industry that bring me most joy. After Tom Radke and I set up our booth, The Bike Parks Of British Columbia, I set out to hunt down all the different characters that I missed over the winter.

Cove Riders (l to r) Steve Smith, J.D. Swanguen and Andrew Mitchell.

Being here is a huge eye-opener for a small town yokel hillbilly like myself, so you can imagine how I felt when I had to run gauntlets of lycra clad savages with chisseled bodies of negative body fat levels and shaved appendages. I'm used to seeing hairy men with beer keg builds, covered in dust and blood, curvy women in sweaty tank tops and snot nosed groms with "bite me" attitudes. I'm used to baggy shorts, full face helmets and armor. I have not seen this much spandex since the eighties. And what about those high tech bird's nest contraptions these funny folks call helmets?

Darren Berrecloth concealing his lycra.

You can't imagine how happy I was to run into good ol' BC Junior DH stars, Micayla Gatto and Steve Smith. They were cruising around on their Big bikes after their practice runs on the DH course. After that I ran into Mirranda Miller, a DH ripper from Squamish, and had about an hour conversation with her. How many seventeen year olds do you know to spend that much time talking to an old man - not many. I have always held a high oppinion of Miranda and I hope that she absolutely kills it this year.

The future is now.  Micayla Gatto and Steve Smith.

Next stop was the Marzocchi camp to see Bryson, Tom and JP. Bryson was a mere shadow of himself and I almost had to hang on to him in the wind gusts as he was in danger of blowing away. It seems that Bryson chundered himself surfing some big waves and required surgery to mend his knees, resulting in great loss of weight. It seems that what weight he lost he gained in generosity as he handed me a swank new Dickie's Marzocchi jacket. Looking cool, I headed in the direction of the dirt jumps.

John Cowan making some deals after making some jumps.

John Cowan built the dirt jumps here and if this a sign of things to come in the Boneyard and Crankworks we are in for a treat. The roll-in, the jumps, everything looks like it's on steroids. Imagine the step-down and step-up in the Boneyard last year and you have the picture. Unfortunately it was blowing the dog off the chain here all day, so they did not get to practice. The wind took down one of the Flow riders as he launched himself off the highest ladder and used his head as the landing gear. He was taken away in the meat wagon. I was there when the medic was telling Dangerous Dan that his rider was a bit incoherent. Danger's reply was that this is a good sign, because he is incoherent most of the time anyway. Hopefully it was not serious.

Dan Cowan concealing the evidence.

At the dirt jumps I ran into Cowan, Bearclaw, Greg Watts, Scott Hart, Paul Bas, Tom Hey and some rider with a lot of hardware pierced through his face. John Cowan and Tom Hey, John's right hand man, can't wait to get up to Whistler and start building the Boneyard. Paul Bas had knee surgery this winter, but is good to go. He was bummed that he did not get to come up to Whistler and get in some snowboarding. There is another likeable lad that kills, yet remains humble and polite.

Paul Basagoitia doing his Teen Beat pose.

That was Pro's take on Thursday at Sea Otter at Laguna Seca - just east of Monterey in California. In the summer Tom is the guy who keeps the Whistler Mountain Bike Park running fast and smooth. Thanks Tom!   I arrived Thursday night so I'll be giving you my skinny on Friday when I get back to the keyboard.  For now it's time to watch the Canucks come back from a 2-0 deficit. Cam McRae

Anything to say about Pro's words or Sea Otter in general?  Here's the place.