First off, this is the first post written from my laptop since my first week here in eNZed – this might be a short-lived trend, we’ll see if this machine has fixed itself or not!

At any rate, to get back to it, I don’t have a new tale of adventure or the like this week, just some fun little tidbits of fun things that have happened:

The idea was to land going straight again… Sam and Brook muscled their way out of these whips.

I had my first couple of photos published online at VitalMTB.com from a wicked gathering/ “Whip Off” contest put on by Vertigo Bikes and Atlas (bike shop and bar).  It was like a mini World Cup event mixed with local heroes.  A wild time, with a lot of wild moments – the whole gallery of photos will show you what it was all about!  What makes this a funny story: I wasn’t using my own camera.  Legendary photographer Sven Martin decided to trust me with his cameras, and the first sequence shot was taken with his money-maker, a Canon 1D with a 70-200 1.4fL lens – it was like being handed the keys to a race car having only ever driven a decently fast street car.  To get the shot, I had to stand in the apex of the corner the riders kept crashing in/into following their bold attempts to get as sideways as possible.  I initially thought against standing in this Corner Of Doom, until Sven saw me milling about trying to find an angle and shouted down, “You’re just gonna have to man up and stand in that corner…” 10-4 Sven, I’ll get right to it.  Moments later, I was thoroughly roosted with rocks and dust thanks to Brook MacDonald, the trailing rider in the sequence – good show!  Though I nearly got run over several times, and avoided being a crash pad a few more times, both the equipment and I made it out unscathed; for which the same cannot be said about several riders and bikes…ouch.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday, catching up with friends from around the World, whom I had previously seen in the Catskill Mountains of New York, just six months prior.  It’s still a little crazy to me that I can travel to the other side of the Globe and catch up with people I know. 

One of the local dudes hanging it all out.

Other news that I am particularly excited about was finally receiving a new mattress I had ordered.  Never before has something so trivial been so hotly awaited – this week, my back didn’t hurt for the first time in a month and a half – I feel like a new person!  We spend 30 years of our lives sleeping, so to me, a comfortable bed is money well-spent, not to mention that I now sleep through the night and wake up at a reasonable hour again!  No more noon-time rising, no more day-half-gone drama! 
I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve made it this far while typing with no issues from my computer, so I’m going to try and edit some photos from my camera and get them up on here…stay tuned!