Sunday, June 7, 2009

The Two Towers! & Vulcan Master!

6/6/09

1211 (local time)

All righty! Well, there has been a lack of posts coming out, because ive been too busy windsurfing… gee tough life I hear you ask… well actually it is! Its quite draining. Definitely better than being in an office… (suckers)

Well on Thursday the 4th of June, I got up at 6.30 am, had a super quick breakfast and peddled down the Club Vass, because today we were going on a 3 hour bike ride up a massive hill to the two towers.

I was pretty pumped for it, got some stuff together, Camera, Apple and a Banana, put them in my “Gay Mans Bag” and set off. I got to Club Vass, with everyone waiting (I was a tad late). When I got there, I realized that I had left my battery back at Fish House, so I had a camera with no battery!!! AWESOME!

Never mind, didn’t have enough time to go back for it, just had to use other peoples cameras. So off we went on this epic bike ride, is started off on a flat bit of tarmac that turned into an uphill battle… I kid you not, this uphill went for about 1.5 to 2 hours. It was just hectic. Some bits were mega steep whilst others were just a uphill. None the less though, it was bloody tiresome. We went past different little towns and quite little communities that were up in the mountains. It was pretty awesome.

Anyway, we arrived at the town, only to realize that we had only really gone half way… Now, do you know how heart breaking this is, knowing that you have already been peddling UPHILL for about 45 minutes, only to realized that we were only half way to the top. Its like buying an ice cream, tripping and dropping it all over the floor… It can bring a grown man to tears. But never mind, I took some photos, and we headed off again.

Guess what… it was more uphill, the only thing that was running through my head… apart from how sore my ass was getting from this seat, and my right nut chafe-age was this epic downhill… But it did worry me, that I would get a flat, and have to walk my bike all the way down the hill.

Well after another 45 minutes I could see the top of the mountain, I could see the two mobile phone towers on top of the hill, but before that, was one of the steepest up hill sections ever… and to make matters worse was that it was off road. I let out a huge sigh and worked my way up this last hill. I HAD FINALLY MADE IT! My legs felt like jelly, my ass hurt and my right nut, felt as if it was on fire… but I had made it. We took a few photos, had a bit of a sit down and chat, and we had to set off again.

Right, now it was time for the downhill section, the down hill section went for about 30 seconds, until there was a short little uphill again, but what made this different is that Andy Barnes who was leading skidded to the side, then the person in front of my road over something brown in the middle of the gravel path, and then this brown thing slide just in front of my front tyre, it was a snake, chilling on the road. Pretty cool stuff.

The first bit of proper downhill was epic double track, on really loose gravel with lots of twisty corners and hair pins, I was three-quarters down, when I heard a bang, followed by a hissing sound, then my front tyre went completely flat… I couldn’t believe it… I couldn’t be stuff so I kept going, my hands were getting shaken off the handle bars but I could see the bottom of the first bit of down hill. When I got down, there were a few people waiting for me, I showed them my flat, lucky they had plenty of spares so we all fixed it, and sorted it out. No worries at all. Apparently the cause for a front tyre flat is poor technique... i don’t think this is true, because I’m probably the best rider ever... but all the boys were giving me shit for it...

No worries, we fixed the flat, waited for everyone, and then set off again. More down hill! Woo hoo!

The next down hill, was not very technical but very fast! So we flew through it all... it was awesome! So fast!

We then got to the bottom, for the last proper bit of down hill... Super technical, really slow speeds and really tight corners. For me, this was the favourite part of the ride. You have to be so well balanced to get your bike around the super tight corners, and at very slow speeds, it can be very tricky... but alot of fun.

We made it to the bottom, road straight to the super market... because I wanted to treat myself for such an epic ride... so I bought some coco-pop type cereal for a ridiculous price, but I didn’t care... I was going to treat myself. They were bloody nice.

When we made it down to the beach the wind was starting to build, which was awesome, so I got some kit together and headed out.

The first 30 – 60 minutes were awesome, I was constantly trying Vulcans and getting really close, but it ended up getting really crowded and gusty, and I was getting nailed every time I tried one, so I threw a bit of a hissy fit and went in for an hour and a bit to just chill out...

I went out again for the arvo session with all the pros, I was sailing next to Andy “Bubble” Chambers, Max, Oli and Phil the Canadian. They were all busting tricks everywhere. I was happy again because at least I had someone to sail with and it wasn’t so crowded, because all the beginners had gone in.

I had my own little area to practice my tricks, and a few people were watching me get nailed, which was pretty awesome... Anyway, I came in for one of my last runs, it felt good, I had good speed, spotted a place where I was going to pop, did a smooth pop, transition went well, sliding backwards got the rig, and quickly water started out switch stance... I had just completed my very first Vulcan!!! All the people watching me were cheering! I was so stoked!

It was a pity the next one I tried was a failure, but I didn’t mind, I called it a quits after that with a massive smile on my face!!!

I went home that night, planning on having a big one... planned on having a quick hour nap, then get on the piss... that one hour nap turned into a 10 hour epic sleep!

I had an awesome day!

Peace out

Steve

1st time Vulcan Master!!!

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on the "Vulcan"...I have no idea what it is or looks like, but it sounds like an achievement! lol. Good work!
    keep showing them all how its done!
    speak soon buddy xo

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  2. Good stuff Stephen - we know you have been sweating on nailing it for a while now!!

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