Andrew Taylor’s Showdown

Words and Photos by Joshua Kern

AT’s Showdown was a huge success in many ways. Being one of the first pro only invitational dirt jumping event in the area many were not sure what it would be like. Running a new format that many haven’t seen before we were all in for a surprise. With practice supposed to run on Friday but the rain coming and shutting practice down, Saturday would lead to be practice, qualification, and finals for the riders. Practice was held early in the morning before my arrival but when I arrived I came in right when the riders were maintaining the course for qualifications and finals.

Cam prepping the course

Geoff Gulevich showing California how they do it in Canada

Qualifications were simple, jam format and the top 16 would move on to the final round. In the early minutes of quails it was obvious who was standing out and who did not. Greg Watts rolled into his first run and flipped the opening step down, soon after other riders followed with Jamie Goldman being next to do so. It was apparent that some of the new guys and some of the unknown riders were about to step it up with riders like Eric Lawrenuk going huge doing some of the largest 360’s I have seen. Mitch Chubey came in and within his first few runs did a huge front flip over the last jump the only front flip of the day. Many were shocked with the riding of some… some because nobody thought that they would be riding or because it was amazing riding. Cam Mccaul had a hard crash during practice that many thought would have knocked him out of competition but many were wrong with him qualifying in 2nd to his younger brother Tyler. Some of the other top guys to qualify were Jamie Goldman who appeared to not have found the flow on the course not being able to put in a solid full run but throwing banger tricks. Paul Bas came in and was throwing huge tricks like the 360 tailwhip over the last jump giving him a spot in finals. Greg Watts made it through the qualifying round only to drop out of the competition after spending most the week building the course he was tired, his spot was given to Andrew Taylor a shocker to not have qualified.

Andrew Taylor throwing a corked flip

Mike Montgomery getting silky

Finals was a different format from any other comp that had ever gone down. 16 riders had moved on. The 1st place qualifier went against the 16th place qualifier, whoever won moved on. With the first round going Tyler Mccaul against Cob a SC local. With the way that finals were formatted this meant that consistency would win the game many riders were scared to throw their biggest tricks incase they wouldn’t be able to hold it together in their run and not be able to move on. In the end it was great to see Jamie Goldman show amazing runs after not looking like he had understood the course during qualifications, Jamie ended his night in 2nd after having to bail in his finals run giving Cam Mccaul the easy win in the final round. A rider nobody knew would come this far was Brian Miller, finishing 3rd on the night a local from San Francisco.

Paul Basagoitia 3-whipping the last jump

Andrew Taylor laying it all out with a nice tuck no hander

When it was all said and done, it was a great contest.. Many riders were shocked at the tricks going down on each jump since they were so huge, the first jump was measured in at 35 feet. With the final 2 going Cam Mccaul in 1st, Jamie Goldman in 2nd, and Brian Miller in 3rd we were all very excited to go back home and get some rest from the long day we had just experienced.

CCCX DH #3 Fall ‘09

Words and Photos by Nate Phillips

Continuing the CCCX Fall Series, the 3rd race went down on a hot Sunday with a good group of riders. Much of it was just the same old, a familiar course and familiar faces on the podium, but it was still a fun time all around. The course started far up in the hills of Toro, with average times coming in at around six minutes. It was mostly pedalling with weaving singletrack. Geared heavily to the spandex/clip pedal crowd, those on traditional downhill squish machines were suffering by the bottom.

Allen came for an appearance

Max beasting it on the pixie bike

Max pumping his way to victory

Eli cornering through the course

Max railing the corners hard

Max on the podium

Mark Weir, the mountain man from Santa Cruz (who happens to be a new father; congrats Mark!) shattered that average coming in at around 4:20 to the top Pro Mens spot. Prime’s own Max Rausch took first place in Junior Expert with a sub-six minute time. He also took second in Pixie class, missing the top spot by a mere 3 seconds. All in all it was a good time as always. Stay tuned to Prime for the next race!

My First Column

By Will Scharninghausen

So this is my first column for Prime everybody, so I guess for those of you who know me, I’d just like to say what’s up, and I hope that your off seasons are all going well. And for those of you, who don’t know me, my name is Will Scharninghausen, I’m 18 years old, from Menlo Park, California, and I am a freeride mountain biker. My bikes are a Specialized Demo 7 II, and a Specialized P.

So I guess I’ll start off by talking about what I’ve been up to lately. Now that Winter is approaching, and the rain will soon start falling, there is really one thing on my mind, and that is building as many new stunts up at the Carlmont trails as possible. My first attempt at building a step-down up at Carlmont this off-season was an epic fail. It was a decent sized drop and gap to a flat landing, and upon impact the front Mavic Deetrax rim exploded. I guess that was really my last bad crash, but anyways, the other day I was lucky enough to check out the San Francisco Bike Expo at the Cow Palace, where I scored a Rock Shox Boxxer Team for super cheap, so I was pretty stoked on that, and the bike feels super dialed with that fork up front. But I think the best part of the expo was watching A.T’s Showdown, which for those of you who don’t know it was a dirt jumping contest that was held at the bike expo. Cam won it so that was pretty sick, and I was super stoked when A.T. flipped the opening drop, which was pretty damn big. It was also sick to see guys like Fogel killin’ it in a comp against some of the worlds best.

Now, is the part of the article where I am going to talk about my goals for the next race season, and for the next year or so in freeriding. So this year I am going to start the season racing in Cat 1 19-24(Expert), and assuming this year goes like every other year, I will remain in Cat 1 in the end of the season. But my plans are to race Sea Otter, San Ynez, Angel Fire, U.S. Open, Kokanee Crankworx, and basically any other race I can make it out to. I’m going to start training this off season, because if I want to get to where I want to be in Downhill Racing, I have realized that I am going to need to put in a lot more work this year than I have in previous years. My goal for racing is to have a USA Cycling Pro-Class License by the 2012 race season, but it could happen sooner, or it could happen after 2012, we ‘ll see in due time.

Anyways on a less serious note, it’s time for freeriding goals. In the next year, my only real goal is to hit this one road gap up in Northern California, no one has done it for a while, but its around 20 feet down and 50 feet out, over a fire road. I went to go do it last winter, and I’m not sure if I would have hit it then, but almost immediately after we finished grooming the lip and landing, the cops were called, so we left, and then when we came back that same afternoon, the cops were called again, so we called it a day and went home. But I’d definitely say that slaying that gap is my main goal for this year in freeriding. Also the gap over the trail Sidetrack in Whistler is in my sights, if it’s even there anymore. Lastly, I’d like to build some gnarly step-downs and doubles up at Carlmont. We’ve got a perfect location already for a 45 foot double up there, and another spot where I plan on putting a 40 to 50 foot step-down. So I guess if all goes as planned there’s going to be some new super gnar gaps, booters, and step-downs up at Carlmont this winter, but like I said about racing, we’ll see in due time if these dreams become a reality. So until my next article, in the words of Mac Dre, “Keep It Treal.”

Midweek Randoms

These are really delayed midweek Randoms. There a few contributing writers who’ll be sounding off every now and then so check Prime everyday for something new. Here’s a little bit of randoms to keep you occupied.

Training with Brandon

Wut

Midweek Randoms

We’re all looking forward to Thanksgiving Break but we still have a few weeks left. My Birthday is on the 10th. Things are about to go down. He’s a little to keep you occupied with you boring moments either in class or at home.

Ham & Steeze Jam

Grizzly Bear- Two Weeks

Cam Zink talks about his wheels

Prince Of Persia (go to youtube)

Kink in Seattle

Midweek Randoms

Halloween is in sight. You guys better have some god awesome plans. Here’s stuff to hold you over until then.

British madness

Watch out

Yes

Oh god.

A drive with Brandon

CCCX DH #1 Fall ‘09

By Nate Phillips

Photos by Nate Phillips

It’s that time of year again! The Fall CCCX DH race series is upon us again here on the Central Coast. The trails have been rebossed and  the riders were out in force. The course consisted of tight switchbacks and slightly moist dirt from the recent rainfall. Building crews built a small dirt lip over a rock section and berms were put in on some of the corners making them faster and much more railable. Although there was much of the same old same old, riders were stoked on the new features.

The long hike to the start

Kiran MacKinnon on his way to 1st place

Kelly and Brian hanging out

Max Rausch entering towards the final section to the finish

After getting the first place overall title in the summer series, Prime Designs sponsored rider Max Rausch was ready for the Fall season. He pinned it down the course and came in second in Junior Expert to Kiran MacKinnon by a mere second. As is always the case at CCCX, most of the fun was to be had off the course rather than on it. Unicycles made their appearance and Max tried his hand at it; painfully.

Good job to Eli Reidl, Max Rausch, Clayton Grissom, and Vince Lucido

Eli seems to be confused why he has food on his shirt but not in his stomach

Max looks like he’s having a good time

Overall it was the CCCX experience we have come to expect, the same courses week after week and lots of fun times with friends off the race course. See you next race.

Barred for Life is Here

I just received Bjorn Aunet’s movie “Barred for Life.” I will be giving a full review of the movie soon. Stay tuned.

Rider Down

By Allen Stoddard

Finding out bad news is never fun, especially when it involves a great friend of mine. On Saturday, October 17 a friend of mine, Justin Wyche, went down hard at his local dirt jumps. Earlier that day Justin rode for about 30 miles on a cross-country training ride and was very fatigued when he went to the jump park. This resulted in Justin falling and landing on his head hard. From what I know he messed up something in his spinal cord and was paralyzed.

Justin is the kid you see at races who is always smiling and has only positive things to say. His smile is contagious when you see it, for me at least because Justin always made me smile or laugh. The kid is an amazing friend too, I have learned a lot from him and he has given me confidence when I was nervous or in doubt at races.

He is also an extremely talented rider who can compete with top pros. His speed on the track amazed me with how smooth and stylish a rider can be while hauling ass. I enjoyed riding with Justin at races and we also had a blast riding in Canada together! He is a strong person and I feel comfortable saying that he will be okay. Downhill racers are almost like brothers; we all care about each other and when one of our brothers is down, it affects us all. We are cheering you on Justin and we have your back!

I plan on visiting Justin soon to keep him company and to bring him some cookies along with gifts. Contact me if you would like me to take Justin anything when I visit him. All my thoughts and prayers are with Justin and his family. STAY STRONG BUDDY!

Allen Stoddard