Well the time has come for me to head home. 12 weeks have been and gone and I don't think I've looked forward so much to getting back to Leeds. I managed to get up to this and that in my last week. At the weekend I was planning on going to the last round of the Sandhill dual. The 6am start got the better of me and after driving 20 miles I realised I'd not put my bike in the car! What a div!!! My the time I got back to the hotel I decided I was more in need of some sleep than getting back in the car. Went looking for a few postcards which was harder than i expected. the only shop that had any was the native american gift shop which was run by the biggest freak I've met over here. He wasn't a red indian but he had all the garb plus a lovely denim shirt with a kickass airbrushed wolf on the back howling at the moon. I asked him if he knew if there was anywhere that sold postcards round here and it was like I'd just slapped him in the face or bad mouthed jebus or something. not my fault he keeps his dusty postcards hidden behind the door. fat fuck. Went for dinner at my work mate's ranch up in the sierra's earlier in the week. He showed me his 86 Carrera, numberplate DAS ZOOM haha. in amongst his 5 acres was his shooting range where him and his wife blast away with their extensive gun collection. I was hoping to slaughter some beer cans with the magnum but i wasn't allowed. :(Tuesday I went over to the Arena in Sac to watch the Kings take on the Lakers. was totally awesome. Out of all the American sports basketball is the only one i can watch and the game didn't disappoint. MVP Kobe Bryant was on fire and bagged most of the lakers points.Adult swim over on cartoon network have been putting on loads of kickass comedy like look around you and dark place. Saw this one the other day:
Anyway, like Sanchez I gotta run. See you all in England!
Easy, how you all doing? My presentation on Monday over in our San Francisco office went well. didn't have much time for sightseeing afterwards though. I did get chance to get up to the old hippy neighbourhood of Haight-Ashbury for the afternoon. They've got a record shop up there that is possibly one of the best on the planet. It used to be a bowling alley back in the day but all that's since been stripped out and replaced with CD's and 12"s. If you imagine AMF under the Merrion Centre but with a fuckload of tunes then your almost there.After picking up a couple of records I had a wander round some of the shops up there but it was all a bit spenny. Funny how a place that was the birth place of acid and freelove and all that bullshit is now a seriously overpriced high street.After I tripped over a few crackheads and got the bus back into town it was time to get back to Folsom but I reckon I'm gonna head back over next weekend and do some proper sightseeing. I think a re-enactment of The Rock (starring Nicholas Cage) is in order. Not sure what my agenda for poisoning the city will be. Maybe improvements in integrated public transport.. Turns out the last train from Sacramento to Folsom leaves at 7pm (wtf?) and I got there at half 7. $80 taxi fare went down a fucking treat.
Went back down to Brentwood again today for the third round of the Sandhill race series. was back to 4X again and seems like people were put off by the searing heat (26C, in March. In your face suckers!!) as it was pretty dead. we had 4 of us again in cat 2 but most of the other category's were pretty slim. We did 3 races with the winner decided on total points. my 2, 4 and 1 earned me a second overall so was fairly pleased. just a bit pissed off about the 4. It was a relatively exciting trip over there today, narrowly missed getting hit by a crop duster, ran over a (hopefully) dead raccoon and saw another wiley coyote.
Props to big Trev down FBP for capturing an elusive badbwoy dickey taboh:Just need to get that elbow in n I'll have em inverted.
Alright hows it going? sorry about the lack of updates, slack work lad, slack work. last weekend I was back to the race track down Brentwood for the dual slalom. it was totally awesome, berm into perfect berm all the way down the hill for 30 seconds. Anyone who doesn't know about dual slalom basically there's two lanes and each round you do a race in each lane and the fastest rider goes through to the next round. My class had 6 people so after qualifying the two fastest qualifiers (not me) got a bye into the semis. I won my quarterfinal fairly easily then for my semi I managed to draw the fella who qualified fastest. In the first race it was neck and neck and ended up being a dead heat. He got the upper hand in the second race and i thought it was all over until a gust of wind on the last jump caused him to bin it. Hahaha on to the final for me! By this point I had nothing left in the tank, i did some good shralping but couldn't manage any proper sprinting so second place it was. Theres some good photos here: http://www.afinishedproduct.exposuremanager.com/g/642_richard_chamley
One of the blokes from the 30+ class did a run with a helmet cam, check it. listen to freakshow cadence on the gate n all.
During the week I managed to get down the bike park for a few sessions. Tuesday night I was totally on fire, busting 7 different kinds of smoke over the biggest jumps they had on offer. Then I went down on Thursday, didn't notice they'd moved the first takeoff back by two feet and nose bonked it so hard i almost shit meself. back to square one...USA pro DHer Duncan Riffle was down shralpin' that night so I had a bit of inspiration to get me out of my slump. I'll be back on it next week.
This weekend has been total dogtoss. I've got a big presentation in San Francisco this Monday but its nothing to do with the work I'm doing out here so I've had to write it in my own time. So I've been doing that and finishing a report that should have been done on Friday but we had a power cut. Then to top it all off the douche at the off licence decided UK driving licences aren't good enough anymore so I had to walk all the way back to hotel for my passport. in the rain. crying. when i got back my Wendy's nuggets had gone cold.
ANYWAY the forecast for the bay area is sunny for tomorrow an I've got most of the day for some sightseeing so should be fun.
take it easy bro's!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
This is what I was looking for yesterday. Got em! Shred! Pedal!Hooray!!
Alright, hows it going, I was gonna update this at the weekend but I've been let down on some photos I was expecting. I know you must have all been on the tenterhooks waiting to find out what I've been up to (Ha!). Anyway, saturday was an early start to drive down to Brentwood for a fourcross race on me mountain bike. They've got a full on ranch that was setup for motocross in the seventies and they expanded to fit in mountainbike racing in the last 6 or 7 years. they've got a fourcross track and a dual slalom track that is officially the balls. These photos shouldn't have been stuck together but I did it anyway! You gan just about see the motocross GP circuit in the background. Look at that blue sky. I now have a kickass farmer's tan and its only March. Booyeah!
There was some pretty decent sized jumps and the corners had plenty of lines round them but it just wasn't very difficult. I had the whole track dialled after my second run down and I'm not even that good. due to lack of numbers we ended doing points race so three races and all the results added together to work out the results. I didn't mind that its just they did lane choice on the gate by picking numbers out of bloody hat. this is standard for a final and keeps it fair but it doesn;t make sense for 3 points races. use a moto sheet thats what they're there for! I'm feeling a bit put out by this basically cos I managed to pick the worst lane 3 times in a row. I had to ride over a load of grass just to get to the first jump! awesome.
So after the points were added up I was 3rd out of 4 when I should have won it or at least got a second. It should also be pointed out that of the four of us I was the only flat pedal rider. You wont find me clipping in like the rest of those kooks. You might be sensing a bit of bitterness here but I did have a lot of fun and there was a bunch of lads from the bike park came along so was a pretty good day out. Also I got a shiny medal so I was happy. Made sure I put Sheffield Dirt Society down as my team name, its about time they got some west coast rep. Was pretty funny hearing the announcer read that out! I just couldn't understand why so few people turned up. If they had a race on a track like this on a day like this in England you'd get at least 40-50 people turn up not 20 like they had on satdee. This saturday coming they're doing it all again but on the dual slalom track which I'm well looking forward to. I had a few runs down with the lad I'd been battlin all day and we had a couple of dead heats so there should be some close racing in store this weekend.
Other news, The Damned United is due out at the end of the month. Just in time for Dickey's triumphant return to the UK! Hopefully it'll show Leeds in a better light than the book did. Either way I dont care cos it'll be mint seeing Leeds United and Elland Road on the big screen. We are Leeds we are Leeds we are Leeds!
Sup bro's, how y'all doing? This week has been another full rainout, its starting to get more like Manchester every week here. it rained so hard on Tuesday that all the dirt and rocks by the side of the road got washed out then got dumped further down the road. It was like driving down the middle of a river. I was worried about flooding the car then I remembered it was a rental. "pay nine bucks for a reyntal car, do whatever the heck you want you want with it" i agree
I thought all these guys in their pickups would be loving it but the 4x4 owners are just like back home. You cant possibly get them dirty! There's some seriously big pickups out here though. The little ones are bigger than anything in England. Also I think unless you got your pickup jacked up like a monster truck then you're a pussy. i see trucks like these pretty regularly and I'm still not used to how big they are. The cabs are almost as high as a double decker bus. the best is when they overtake you doing 90 down the motorway.
Managed to get down the bike most of Saturday and got some of the bigger jumps down which pleased me. I'm learning some of the local colloquialisms when I go down there. such as "dude that corner is gnar" "I know, some dude chunked it last week" I think that means the corner is a bit tricky cos someone messed it up. "bro you totally shralped it" that means you look like your riding a crosser not a push bike. you can also "shralp" it and go "shralping" I thought I'd post the slam dunk contest from the Allstars game the other week cos I think Joe's the only person who saw it. 5'9" Nate Robinson's dunk over the top of 6'11" Dwight Howard is pretty impressive.
Evening all, this weekends been another washout so not been up to much. Decided to visit Folsom's #2 most popular attraction the Folsom Prison Musuem (#1 being the folsom valley railway, treats!!). I've been quite looking forward to visiting the prison due to the recording Johnny Cash did here. Anyone who's not heard Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison should buy it cos its a good listen.What I didn't realise was Folsom is a high security prison full of some pretty horrible people, I have no idea why Cash wanted to perfom here. To go to the museum you have to park up in the visitor parking where people are coming to visit inmates. There any signposts for the museum so you just had to wander round the grounds. I felt seriously uneasy in there. It wasn't like I thought they could break out, just not a good vibe.The museum was supposed to be $2 but the lady said I didn't have to pay. fair enough. The museums not bad for free. Theres a mock up of a cell as they were when the prison opened complete with animatronic Charles Bronson lookalike. Loads of weapons the guards were equipped with. Back in the thirties they were tooled up with tommy guns and baseball bats. must have had some ropey inmates. Famous people who have been incarcerated here include Robert Downey Jr, Rick James, Charles Mansun and Timothy Leary.One of the most interesting bits was the collection of confiscated blades and shanks. All the prison officers have to wear stab vests and i'm not surprised with these things kicking about. The newest ones had been taken during a riot that was due to a long running race war so they'd probably been used.. All in all a good visit but I wont be going again. I hopefully wont come that close to high security prison anytime soon. The rest of the weekend was spent working my way through the dvd collection. I've run out of Wire and Entourage so gonna have to buy some more sharpish
Nar then, Saturday saw the first leg of the Tour of California kick off in Sacramento so I hopped on the light railway to check it out. Like most international tours the first day took the format of a time trial. They had a 2.5 mile circuit set up around the Capitol building and gardens so there was some dry heaving on the cards. Nothing wrong with a good puke after some hard sprinting, can happen to the best of us..There was a good turnout with the crowd there for one reason - Lance Armstrong's comeback. The big man has been out of the race scene for the last couple of years doing marathons n whatnot and this was his first race back. He did his fans proud with a decent 10th place. not bad for a 37 year old.^ Lance just getting going ^ I was hoping to see David Millar do his stuff but I couldn't see him on the results sheet so dont know what happened there. Talking of drug cheats, Floyd Landis got one of the biggest cheers of the afternoon. I think the Americans see the situation more as plucky American being picked on by the snooty French establishment, not guy who tested positive for banned substances. I didn't cheer him on. Swiss Fabian Cancellara won for the second year running.I dont know who this is but its the best picture I took all day so had to stick it up innit. Arnie was wheeled out to give out the prizes. From where I was stood it looked like he was comparing biceps with the winner. I hope he was. "you are a gurly man!" "Git to da Choppa!"
Other than that I haven't really been out of the house. The weather has been pretty terrible. 'owlin' gales and 'orrizontal rain. The telephone was out this morning after high winds took a telegraph pole down.
Anyway gotta go cos the NBA Allstars is on and its off the hook y'all!
Howdo, How you all doing? I've just about recovered from my saturday boozeup. It was good fun, and wasn't all lone drinking. luckily some of the locals were keen to take a feckless foreigner under their wing. My only downfall was the drinks were a little stronger than expected so I was fairly steamin by the end of the night which meant sunday was a right off. Before I went into town I had a quick ride out the back of town over to Eldorado Hills n took a few snaps. Space StationThis is the back road into El Dorado Hills. You can just about see one of the gated communities to the right of the main road. Theres loads of em round here. I find it funny they have so many because the chances of trouble round here are slim and none. Everyone has ended up totally paronoid that people are going to come into their homes when they're are in and 'get them'. The tv is full of ads for home security with masked men smashing through windows in the dead of night. Road back into Folsom
As promised I got a couple of videos up from the supercross:
Evening all, I'm writing this while getting ready for first boozeup in Folsom old town. I've been told a raucous atmosphere awaits with the choices of drinking hole being Scarlets, Folsom Hotel, The Sutter Club, Powerhouse (not gay) and Hacienda (I asked if the owner was a manc but apparently its mexican joint). Hopefully the patrons will be able to understand what I'm on about. No one at work has any problem but occasionally I speak to the some of the staff at the hotel and they just smile and nod. I know they're not getting me cos I do exactly the same thing. You can't bullshit a bullshitter. I had to rephrase the question "do you have a number for a taxi" four times tonight. don't smile and nod I'm asking you a bloody question!! Its been a fairly uneventful week all in all. After spending two weeks busting a gut trying to design something completely new to me we found out it wouldn't actually work so I was quite relieved cos i thought I'd gone stupid. I'm not stupid, I'm actually pretty clever. Other than that I was fairly dismayed to find I didn't get a Yorkshire joke my mum had sent me. In my defence it was a joke that needed to be said out loud and I wasn't in a position to be sat reading jokes out loud in a broad Yorkshire accent. Sat in the sun in February in California its easy to forget your roots and embrace a new lifestyle but theres nothing like watching this video to remind you where you're from.
Beautiful, I need to find a nice piece of 'addock.
Eyup, went to check out Folsom Bike Park on Sunday, so thought I'd share a couple of snaps with you. Didn't take many pics cos I got loads of riding done. After having to ride at tracks built by people who don't know there arse from their elbow it was so nice to be able to ride somewhere built be someone who knows what they're doing. The trails here go from about roughly blair witch main line size jumps up to full on contest sized jumps so if I'm not going massive by April I'll be disappointed with myself.$2 lets you ride all this all afternoon (^cleeeeck^) The kids are all shredders as you'd expect. Tuck no handers seems to be trick of choice
there was a few spins and turndowns going down n all360sLovely takeoffs
Other than that, on Friday I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. I'm quite picky with my films but I definitely recommend you go see it. They're billing it as the feel good film of the year out here which I think is stretching it a little seeing as its a film about child slavery and poverty in the slums. Its pretty full on, I felt exhaused by the end. The sound track is mint with a heavy dose of M.I.A. and Leeds even gets a (very) brief mention, Brap! check it! Might have some non bike related posts for the rest of you soon
Howdo, been a busy weekend, first off I went to the AMA Supercross over in San Francisco. Getting there was no problem as the freeway outside the hotel goes straight into the city with no turnoffs. The only problem i had was getting some petrol. They dont have service stations like we do in UK so if you need to fill up you have to just pull off into whichever town your passing over at the time. This wouldn't be such a problem if they had any streetsigns but they don't. Once you leave the motorway your on your own but you dont know where you are because that information isn't deemed important for the motorway user. The junction i came off on didn't even have an on ramp so i had to just follow my nose for quarter of an hour till i finally got sorted. I was worried it was gonna go a bit Judgement Night starring Emilio Estevez but it didn't come to that. The Supercross was totally amazing. In all my years following SX I never thought I'd ever get to go to AMA race. They certainly know how to put on a show over here. They had enough pyrotechnics to blow up a small town and once we'd had a rendition of the star spangled banner (new era hats off boys) it was time for racing. In the main supercross class I was lucky enough to see Bubba, Chad Reed, Kevin Windham, Ivan Tedesco and Josh Grant duking it out. Bubba totally killed it though. If he doesn't win the series I'll eat my bike. Bubba had a great entrance before racing with his own video of him dressed as an old rocker performing Wanted Dead or ALive by Bon Jovi on guitar hero. Following some big explosions he rode into the park on his 'steel horse' with the same rocker outfit on. had to be there i spose...
Before the mains we had the cowboy Kenny Bartram and his Jagermeister stunt team do a 4 man backflip train. all four of them were in the air at the same time over the same jump upside down. totally mental. I'll see if I can get a video of it up cos it was sweet.
I'll tell you what i did today later cos i got some washing to do
Just had my first weekend in Folsom, and got up to this and that. Went for a ride down through town and over to the lake. It didn't quite have the excitement of my usual loop round Emmerdale but the main street in town was pretty good. They've preserved all the old saloons and shops as they were in wild west times. More like Lovejoy than Deadwood these days.They have a real old time railway as well but I'm saving that for another weekend. Don't wanna run out of attractions too soon do I! Yo check out my whip son! Work sorted me out with a Pontiac G6 GT. Somebody out there thought it would be a good idea to put 3.5l V6 in an average family saloon. I think I agree. This is easily the most ridiculous car I've ever driven. I unintentionally (seriously) get the wheels spinning at every other set of traffic lights and that's with the traction control on. and no rear wiper. whats that all about??
Found a kick ass bike park 2 miles from my hotel. They don't open when it rains and it rained this weekend so no go but gonna pop in during the week have a go. Check the video, cos like Ron Burgundy, this place is the balls!
Eyup, I thought a few of you might want updating on what I'm up to during my placement to CA. So I've started this blog to put up a few pictures from places I'd bet none of you would consider visiting. Not that its not nice up here, just a bit off the beaten track.Well I arrived on sunday night n they've hooked me up with a nice little serviced apartment over in Folsom. They said they didn't mind me sticking my bike in there but they havnt seen how much crap i can get on it. (^click on the picture to bigulate^)These bad boys get topped up every day so I'm probably not gonna have any teeth when i get back. Macro! This is the view from the back of our office.
Gonna head into town on saturday check the vibe. If its not like Night at the Roxbury I'm gonna be seriously disappointed!Seeya!
Tuesday I went over to the Arena in Sac to watch the Kings take on the Lakers. was totally awesome. Out of all the American sports basketball is the only one i can watch and the game didn't disappoint. MVP Kobe Bryant was on fire and bagged most of the lakers points.
Adult swim over on cartoon network have been putting on loads of kickass comedy like look around you and dark place. Saw this one the other day:
