Over the weekend Alison and I attended the Dirt Series Mountain Bike Camp in Corona CA hosted by JensonUSA and Rocky Mountain Bicycles. The camp is a super skills clinic broken into two days, then further broken down into classes and rides. They limit the number of registrations so there is a healthy balance between the instructors and students. I signed up for the class for a couple of reasons; I’ve had some bad injuries that make me gun shy, I haven’t seriously ridden in five years, and mostly I want to be a better rider! Alison signed up for the class with me to become a better rider herself (She’s one of the best new riders I’ve ever seen. I probably wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t paid for this a few months ago given current circumstances.
Day 1 – Saturday
We got up early on Saturday and headed up to the Jenson USA Corona store. I had checked the weather and it said it was going to be high 90s for the day. That’s fricken hot! We arrived at the store early and wandered around a little bit. Around 8:30 things started to get in order and we signed our wavers and met a few of the other riders. They announced there was demo equipment available in the back corner. Things like Raceface pads, Crank Brothers pedals, and the coveted Crank Brothers Joplin! I was standing there looking at the seatpost sitting benignly next to the pile and asked Cassandra ‘Is that a demo?’ And she said ‘Why yes it is.’ SCORE! Erik, who we had just been talking to seconds earlier exclaimed ‘GAH! I wanted that!’ (He got to check it out on Sunday) Within five minutes I had the new fancy gadget mounted on my bike and I was ready to go.
Just before departure Candace introduced our coaches. With us we had Penny Cameron, Cassandra Boon, Lorraine Blancher, Tera Card, Andreas ‘Dre’ Hestler & Wade Simmons. I apparently have been living under the mountain biking rock as I had never heard of anyone. (More on this later) Candace then got us all motivated to head out to the training site in Fontana. I think the only complaint I had about the camp was the distance between the shop and the class/riding areas. Oh, and the heat. 
The training area was a nice grassy park allowing for soft cushy crashing should things go wrong. The morning consisted of four classes. The initial warm up class getting people comfortable on their bikes and emphasizing Bike Body Seperation. Then there were three classes with smaller groups. Mine were; Downhill Braking and Rolloffs, Wheel Lifts & Jumping & Straight Line Riding. (I feel like I’ve forgotten a class, oh well)
The first warm up session was fun. It got everyone into the groove and people comfortable with their bikes in the environment. They emphasized that you are in control of your bike and how good bike body separation gives you more control. (I’m not going to give super details, if you’re interested I highly encourage signing up for one of their courses) Following that we broke into our first smaller groups. The first class my group had was Downhill Braking and Rolloffs. Penny and Dre were our instructors. We were coached on how to control our bikes on downhills and small drop offs. As well as the importance of our brakes and proper brake control. The biggest pearl of wisdom from this class for me was how to get off your bike on a steep descent without become an tangled mess and tumbling down the hill with your bike. I still need to practice that more but its much better than my usual downhill dismount technique typically composed of falling over and my bike beating the crap out of me. Its funny how you can ride for 15+ years and not learn certain things.
The next sessions was wheel lifts and jumps. This was a bunch of fun! Lorraine (our instructor) asked ‘Who here can do a wheel lift?’ I raised my hand, no one else did so I got called out. So, I did what I considered a wheel lift and she said ‘No, that’s a manual, we’ll learn that next.’ Haha, ok. So we learned the difference between simple wheel lifts, manuals, and how to lift our rear wheel. On platforms, that is a challenge. Following this we got to do manuals off of the boxes to practice. I think riding up the 2×6″ plank was harder than dropping off the box. But, as long as you kept looking ahead it was all good! Growing up riding BMX bikes jumping was something programmed into my head from when I was a child. Everything that I could jump, I did. So I was a natural at it. Lorraine asked me to be the demo jumper at the end of the session to show people what it looks like when done correctly. (I know, self promotion, but I am a good jumper when I don’t crash) So far, the day has been awesome!
During our jumping session I was watching what was going on over at the straight line riding course. This is a skill I haven’t worked on much and was a little nervous about. And, it was our next session. Apparently I wasn’t the only one nervous which made me feel a bit better. As it turns out, if you keep your head up and eyes forward, its not as tough as it looks. I think its more of a mental state. 
We rode planks, then elevated planks, then planks with drops and finally, the teeter-totter plank. I had never ridden one of these, and somehow got to be the first in the group to go over it. Very weird feeling. You’re going up, then you’re going down really fast. Candace coached us on how to manage that. The subsequent runs were far more controlled and way more fun. Then, she made the big teeter-totter which was twice as high off the ground. What was the difference? Nothing really, a bit steeper. Same rules apply, keep your head up and eyes forward and control the rate of the drop using the techniques she showed us. Once again, we were shown some bail out techniques. One of the reasons I would get off and walk some obstacles is because I did not have good bail out skills, nor knew how to develop them. This was my second pearl of wisdom for the day. Knowing and practicing these skills are invaluable. Having this knowledge in your head leads to greater confidence on gnarly terrain.
We broke for a short lunch after these sessions having some tasty food from Qdoba Mexican Grill. After swapping the pedals from the platforms to the clipless we did some socializing and met a few other people who live pretty close to us in San Diego. During lunch they showed us the class options we could sign up for the following day. Basically, you could choose two classes and focus on the skills you wanted to improve on the most. The plan for the afternoon was to break into different groups based on what you wanted to work on. I had signed up for improving my downhill skills. With lunch over, the bikes prepped we headed out.
The afternoon groups were smaller. I think there were just five of us. Tera was our torture master for the ride. She made us tow her up the hills, it was brutal! (Ok, she didn’t, but she’s a prankster so I was trying to perpetuate this lie to harass her) Tera is a spectacular coach. She managed the group very well (As ‘diverse’ as we were) I had decided when I signed up for this course I wasn’t going to chicken out of things. That’s not to say I would do something stupid. But, I would take what I learned, apply it, and improve myself. I feel the biggest improvements I had were during this short ride. We rode some difficult terrain, nothing world class, but difficult for someone just getting back into the sport like myself. I really felt the gained confidence and improvements in my riding having some of the additional knowledge and skills from the prior courses. Most if it, was in my head somewhere, it just needed to be brought back forward and applied.
After we all finished our rides we headed back to the shop for dinner and some bike workshops. I signed up for a bike fit by Wade Simmons (Again, I’m clueless about this guy at this point) and sat in on a suspension clinic by Luis. Alison took the tire changing class (Now she can change my tires!) It turned out, my bike was pretty well setup for me as is. My bars are a bit higher up than Wade would suggest, but otherwise he said I was good to go. Off to sign up for the Sunday classes! I already knew I wanted to do High Speed Cornering but I wasn’t sure what other class I wanted to do. Tera was there taking sign ups and said “Oh, you didn’t get to do the riding over obstacles, you should totally sign up for that!” I figured, sure, what the hell! With that out of the way we had a couple tasty adult beverages, socialized some more, and went off to the hotel for the night. The hotel was marginal. The bed was eh, and the shower had two temperatures. Lava and Magma. After a hot day a super hot shower is not preferred.
Day 2 – Sunday
Alison and I got up early and got breakfast at IHOP. Better for you than a Clif Bar and a Dr Pepper (I still had my Dr Pepper, not much of a coffee drinker). We rolled over to the shop around 8:15 and made sure we were all set to go. We got Lise’s bike loaded up, we had transported her bike on Saturday too. While getting ready to load her bike she had bought a brand new one!!! Congrats! A new Rocky Mountain bike was getting prepped to be sent back to her home in Michigan. Driving to Aliso/Woods was waaaay longer than I expected. We left the shop and arrived at the class location about an hour after we left. Alison wasn’t feeling too well. She had been sick the whole week prior so she did the smart thing and took the day off. I don’t blame her, it was fricken hot. And Sunday was hotter than Saturday was. I wussed out and took the shuttle up. I think the riding group had left already by the time we got to the site anyways.
The Riding Over Obstacles class was actually something I was already generally proficient at. As a matter of fact Candace and Tera gave me a hard time about it. But, I told them I was there because ‘this is where all the pretty women are!’ Which, ensued another round of harassment. I didn’t mind though, it was nice to hone some skills especially on the new bike. (And, I did get to hang out with the pretty women rather than the mob of sweating guys following Wade around)
High Speed Cornering! Wow! What a fricken blast!!! This is one of those things that most people won’t commit to doing because well, its really easy to crash while you’re doing it. Wade and Dre were our instructors (Again, I’m still totally clueless about these guys). They set up some corners using the rope and cones and then demonstrated. Holy crap those guys are good. Then, they demonstrated the turn like you were racing and they both raced through the turn together. Yeah, I’m not worthy, haha! Erik and I were in this class together. After we had a few solo runs at the high speed chicane Dre and Wade told us to pair up with someone and choose alternate lines to see how it feels. We had done our afternoon ride together yesterday and found were pretty compatible. Man, this was probably the most fun I had all weekend. I couldn’t stop smiling. Erik is a good rider, very strong and I had a hard time keeping up with him or not getting passed by him. The next step in the high speed cornering was handling tight turns while coming at them with speed. Wade called it a ‘cutty’. Basically, you come into the turn and use your rear brake and your body to slide the bike around to align for the turn. Again, a total blast! (See picture above)
We broke for lunch and the prize give away. The sponsors for this event are great. There was a prize for everyone. Fox, Sugoi, Dakine, Luna, Kicking Horse Coffee, Brave Soldier, Giro, & Addidas all had stuff for them to give away. The full list of sponsers is on their site. I plan to write a personal letter to each of these sponsors thanking them for supporting the Dirt Series, and encourage them to continue to do so. I can’t express how awesome it was that Rocky Mountain and Jenson USA made this event possible. Thank you!
After lunch we split up into ride groups. My ride leader was Wade with Kurt from Rocky Mountain as our sweep. Riding with Wade was incredible. Well, as much riding with Wade as I could do. He’s just awesome to watch flow through the terrain. If I didn’t know better I’d say that Rocky Mountain added some magical dust to his bike or something. We rode up the road from Canyon View Park to the top of Cholla. From there we rode down Lynx. I have probably doubled my downhill speed using some of the techniques from the two days. I wouldn’t say I’m blazing fast, but I’m definitely not a total slowpoke now either. At the bottom of Lynx we climbed back up Chollo. At this time, I’m wishing I had put my clipless back on the bike. I made it all the way up with only one spot I had to get off. There was a 12″ or so lip I just didn’t have enough momentum to make it over. Awesome trail though! We headed over to Meadows trail from here passing through some residential areas. When we got to the trailhead Wade lead out, Kurt followed, and I was right behind them…for a little while anyway. I didn’t know the trail, and with all the greenery so high it was hard to see where the next turn was. Eventually the lost me, but the time I got to ride behind them was great! Meadows dropped us off not too far from the vehicles so we pedaled on over finishing off our ride.
The post ride activities were great. I’ll refrain from posting any incriminating evidence but lets just say much hilarity ensued. After an hour or so of socializing with the gang we all had to head our own ways. Alison and I had dinner with Erik at In and Out (My favorite post ride eatery).
Now, back to me being clueless about our instructors. Every coach has an awesome and impressive resume. They are all wonderful people and very talented. I personally had no idea I was riding with legends. I have been out of the sport for a few years. The legends I grew up with like Ned Overend, Tinker, Missy Giove, etc.. are out there but I have no idea where. Sunday night, Alison and I were flipping through some magazines a local shop had given us and we started reading an article in Decline and there was Wade and Dre!!! I told a new mtb friend of mine about the class and said who our instructors were and his response was “You rode with Wade f%#&ing Simmons!!!??? And Dre Hestler?!?!?” Honestly, everyone who coached is now a legend to me. Thank you all for putting on such an amazing class! Hopefully see you guys in Blue River!
Note: If you want to improve your riding skills, I highly recommend this course. I’m already working on getting signed up for a second one later this year.
