Martis's blog.

Closing complete. Then the fun shit began.

2009-11-24T19:45:00.000-08:00

Well, we closed on the house one week ago. Right now I'm sitting at my desk among a sea of boxes and bikes in my new office.

Closing went smoothly. The realtor and mortgage broker told us it went as smoothly as a sale could possibly go. Then we started moving in. We took a couple of boxes of random shit up on Tuesday, so we could "camp" at the new house, then started running load after load on Wednesday, with our UHaul reserved for Thursday.

When we woke up on Thursday morning, it was raining. Not pouring. Not drizzling. Just a hard, steady rain. We picked up the UHaul, a 14-footer. As soon as we got it to the apartment, I saw a problem. Metal ramp. Rain. The exact shoes I broke my leg while wearing. Whatever. It took a lot of effort, but we got the refrigerator out. When we were trying to get it up the ramp, though, I couldn't trust my grip on the slippery ramp, and eventually got pissed enough that I just pushed the thing over in the middle of the road. My temper is nothing to fuck with. Michelle got pissed. We eventually polished everything off but the dryer, when I flipped out again. It was a shitty ride to my parents house, where they calmed us down and helped us take our gargantuan dresser out of my old room, down the stairs, and into the truck.

The hard part behind us, we were met by my riding buddy Jarrod and Michelle's Dad at the house, where moving everything in went incredibly smoothly. Jarrod and I bought a bunch of alcohol after one more trip to Greensburg, and got royally shit-faced upon returning to the new house. Jarrod barfed for the first time in four years.

We woke up around 11:00 to pick up my Dad's Subaru and then drive to Monroeville to get Crustin. I had bought tickets in early October to see my favorite band, Cave In, play in Philadelphia. We stopped, hung over, at Mad Mex, then drove for 5 hours to the other side of the state.

The show was incredible, and we got on the road at 11:30, headed for Pittsburgh. Jarrod did a good job of keeping me awake on the drive home, and it was hell trying to wake up Crustin to get his address so I could plug it into the GPS. We dropped him off and eventually returned to Bear Rocks at 5:30 AM.

The next day, I woke up late, and made several more runs moving things in. As of now, I've been back to the apartment a few times to pick up a car-load here, a car-load there, but one solid day will pretty much clean that place out.

We have a wood burner at our new house, and have yet to even turn our oil furnace on. It's free heat, it makes the house smell nice, and gives me some exercise with the log splitter and carrying all the wood. We have two sheds, and I turned one of them into wood storage, and with all the wood my Dad gave me today, we have enough for at least a week. I NEED MY CHAINSAW BACK, though. That's going to be key.

I started working on the backyard trails, although November to March is pretty much a lost cause when it comes to riding. At least I'm building, though. One trail has been started, and another is mostly scoped out. I'd like to set it up like some sort of bizarre pump-track abomination where you can just lap the entire yard forever. But that will come with time. Right now, I need to get some dirt moved and some wood installed. I'll be doing some more work by the end of the week, after I move the rest of the junk out of the old apartment.

Closing?

2009-11-17T00:50:00.000-08:00

It looks like we're closing on the house tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, I need to be at work during this process, and no one at my job is very understanding when it comes to circumstances like this, so I might have to experience a "car problem" at some point.

It doesn't exactly LOOK like most of the packing is done, but it really is. as far as I can tell, we need to get our essentials in order once the house is ours, and move it all in with the big furniture. What good is a couch without a TV and vice versa? We can handle boxes of random stuff and small furniture later. We have the apartment until December 1, so there's really not a huge rush, but come on... a good sized house versus this dinky little apartment under a family of insanely loud turkish people? Plus, I'm the sort of person that wants instant gratification. If it was up to me, I'd move everything into the house tomorrow night.

Still not stoked about renting a U-Haul, but a refrigerator, two couches, two recliners, a queen size bed, a washer and dryer, a medium dresser and a gargantuan dresser would require way too many trips in the truck, not to mention about $150 or more in fuel costs.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Sleep Deprivation

2009-11-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

So I had to be up today at 7:30 for SPT training up at Seven Springs, for my winter job in the terrain park. I think I'm sucking down a bit too much caffeine, because after trying to fall asleep at 1:00 am, I watched two and a half movies, chugged two cups of supposedly relaxing, calming tea, and could not fall asleep. I think 4:30 had come and gone by the time I finally passed out.

Now I'm trying to fight back the urge to collapse on the couch or crawl into bed, because in 2 hours, I need to go to the pizza shop and work until 1:30 AM. If I get it right and manage to stay awake, I'll crash as soon as I get home, wake up early tomorrow, and get back on a normal sleep schedule.

See, when I'm not working a morning job, I'm instinctively awake until 3 or 4. I don't know why, but I think it has to do with the fact that I habitually sleep in. It's not uncommon that it'll be 2:00 in the afternoon when I wake up. Then I go to work, come home, wind down, and winding down inevitably ends up with me getting stoked on something and not wanting to go to sleep. Then, the next thing I know, it's 4:00 am and the cycle repeats itself.

New house and other shit - continued.

2009-11-13T20:09:00.001-08:00

Michelle and I have gotten sick of our irritating Turkish neighbors and their constant dropping-bowling-balls-on-the-floor contests at midnight, their "snake charmer music" at seven am, and their nonstop gibberish-screaming children. So we decided to buy a house. We found one that suited us almost immediately after beginning our search, and are closing on it at the beginning of next week. Tuesday, tentatively.

I'm still at the pizza shop five days a week, but training for winter terrain parks at Seven Springs starts tomorrow morning. I'm not nearly as stoked for this as I was for working at the bike park, but still... it's a job, it's money, it looks good as far as getting to the position I want at the bike park, and it involves snowboarding. I can get behind that. I'm just wondering when the other shoe is going to drop at the pizza shop and my notoriously short-tempered manager flips out on me when I tell her I can only work two days a week, at the most.

But back to the house. I'm going to miss Greensburg just a bit, as the place we're moving to is about 25 minutes away, up in the hills. I have everything worked out here, which bars I go to, where I order food, stuff like that. Everything has to be re-evaluated now. But that's no big deal. I'm dreading the whole moving process, though. I've moved twice in the past 13 months, and I have quite a large assortment of shit, easily enough to fill our 3-bedroom house. Right now, it's shoehorned into a 2-bedroom apartment, and packing it, shoving it in a truck, driving, unpacking, and arranging it is something that takes forever, and I've never moved this far. Keep in mind, I rarely have days off, so the whole process could take even longer than I've anticipated. That's where the whole feeling of dread comes in. Knowing our closing date is coming at a time where I'm working close to 40 hours a week at one job, and will probably be totaling close to 65 once both jobs kick in. No time to do all the fun shit that comes with buying a house. The good part is that we're in our lease at the apartment until December 1, so I've got SOME time on my side here.

Good stuff, now. We have one heavily wooded acre. This means a couple of things. 1) I don't have to pay for firewood anymore. and 2) Trails. Dirt Jumps. North Shore drops. Backyard Bike Park. and 3) Barbecues. Lots of those.

New house and other shit.

2009-11-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a beast of a summer. Since I last posted, I finally got hired up at Seven Springs for the purpose of building trails. Dream job? Sort of. There's a lot of mundane shit that goes into that job, not much of which is exciting or fun. But the payoff is getting your ass out there with some hand tools and busting out a new section of gnar to shred.

We built a ladder drop my first week there.

And then on to a new trail, Frankenstein. We added the ladder bridges at the end later in the season.

Then we started working on a few new features and a new trail. The Tank, The Battleship, and Slingshot. The Tank:

We're getting started (supposedly) on a slopestyle section at the top of the park at the beginning of next season, hopefully we can fire this out there before all the snow melts. To be continued in the next post.

The difference a year makes.

2009-06-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a year since I've posted anything on this. Facebook blogs are just easier. But good lord. I just read my little synopsis of the Seven Springs Bike Park. One year ago... that really was sort of the dawn of the current age, so to speak. The article I wrote didn't go into detail about how much things really changed after the first time I got back on my bike. I'll try and get back up to speed here.

A few days after this, I brought Michelle, and an old BMX friend, BJ, up to the bike park. They loved it, and BJ went as far as to buy a downhill bike immediately. A Specialized BigHit. I thought I would be stuck on the Azonic forever.

In late June, Seven Springs announced the FreeRide weekend on July 14 and 15. A two day free lift ticket weekend. BJ and I made plans to camp during it.

July 5, Adam throws me awkwardly into his pool. I land on my heel and nearly break my foot. It feels absolutely terrible for the next several weeks, including the FreeRide weekend.

The FreeRide weekend is a blast. Seven Springs opens two new expert-level trails, EC and Super Connector. Met lots of cool riders, saw some people get life-flighted, watched BJ bodyslam a tree, and got REAL drunk at the Bavarian. BJ and I each won drinking contests to take the top two prizes: a Fox backpack and a Fox Downhill helmet. Just try and beat me at chugging two successive beers.

Riding becomes more important than work. I decide to stay manager of Sunglass Hut until I can purchase a freeride bike, then quit. I start to look for mellower, more part-time jobs and in early August, begin delivering pizza to help fund a vacation and a freeride bike.

I help out the head mechanic from Seven Springs, and he assures me I won't have to pay to ride for the remainder of the season.

In mid August, I stop into Bike Line in Greensburg, PA to purchase a new tire for my Azonic. I see a 2005 Trek Session 77 Freeride bike in the corner of the showroom and jokingly inquire about the price. "Probably less than $1000. Let me check." I'm told. When I'm quoted at $800 out the door, I hand him $100 to hold the bike and vow to return when I receive my next paycheck. I show up two weeks later and purchase the bike. Michelle is not happy, seeing as we're going to Myrtle Beach a few weeks later.

The new bike is amazing. I can ride faster, harder, and longer than I had ever imagined. But I can't get the fork dialed in. I also start shutting my phone off when riding, no longer caring about my job. As far as I'm concerned, Sunglass Hut served its purpose. I don't need the money anymore.

Seven Springs announces the Almost FreeRide weekend. Professional demos from top Freeride dudes, half price lift tickets, and lots of novice riders. One of them is sitting right after the drop-off on Super Connector. I swerve to miss him, and am tossed over the bars. I break my rear derailleur and derailleur hanger in the process. I ride my almost-new bike chainless for the remainder of the weekend.

BJ takes the rest of the season off to work on MMA training. I start riding with some of the Park Crew guys, and a few local riders, all of whom are very, very fast. I improve exponentially and am wondering if I should start racing again.

I consider stopping at Wisp on the way back from Myrtle Beach for a Gravity East race, but decide that after a week of vacationing, I will want to go home. Besides, I need to find a new apartment.

Start looking for one-bedroom apartments in Greensburg, and have a really tough time finding one I like. Settle on one in the not-so-nice part of town.

Continue riding almost every weekend through September, while trying to work two jobs and prepare for the move. Get little accomplished.

Pick up my first pet, a miniature Daschund named Klaus. He pees and poops on the floor sometimes.

Move. Learn that the upstairs neighbor is terminally psychotic. Immediately gather my valuables and prepare to live with my parents for a few weeks until I can find something better.

Wind up finding a nice two-bedroom apartment in the nice part of town for only $50 more than the dump I was moving into. Accept the fact that I am going to have a tough time getting everything out of the other place and into the new place.

Hang up the bike after my first full season of riding. Make plans to race in the spring, should an event happen anywhere near me.

Move. Have no stress relief, work 70 hours a week, and become generally miserable.

In November, only a few days before "Black Friday", quit managing Sunglass Hut without notice. Immediately regain some sanity.

Start working on things I need to do for the 2009 season. Start eating better, start working out more, start downloading lots of bike-related movies. ha.

January 15, slip on icy steps during a pizza delivery. Break right leg. I am out of work for 6 weeks and my training is halted.

March, start the South Beach Diet and drop 20 lbs immediately. Return to the gym, working out several days a week. Leg has healed, but not enough to ride.

Drop bike off at Trek Pittsburgh to do a complete overhaul, fix shifting, and add an e-thirteen chainguide.

Late March, start building dirt jumps with BJ. Check on Seven Springs opening date, and am disappointed to find it's not until May 23.

Mid April, smoke my final cigarette. I haven't touched one since.

Find schedule for Gravity East 2009. Plan on racing at Wisp, MD and Seven Springs.

Pick up bike. Start riding street in Greensburg to re-familiarize myself with my freeride bike.

May 17, first day of the new season. Ride at Wisp, MD. Did bigger drops than I ever have, some in excess of 10 vertical feet. Deal with the extremely slow lift.

May 23, show up for first chair at Seven Springs opening day. Ride with some of the dudes from last year. I am disappointed at the apparent lack of progress in the off-season. Offer to work or even volunteer at the bike park.

May 25, ride with Michelle. She is on my old Azonic, and has a good time on Rock and Roll, the beginner trail. Start scoping out potential race courses for the Gravity East race.

May 30, ride all day.

Discover dirt jumps in a potential downhill trail location in Greensburg. Start building new lines.

June 6, ride with BJ. Start picking lines through the race course, which is Upper EC1 to Lower 007. A heavy pedaling course with very few tech-y sections. Not my cup of tea at all. Break my chain on the third to last run. Tell some other riders I plan on racing Category 3. At their suggestion, I decide to race Category 2, one step below Semi-Pro.

June 13, practice day. Ride from ten until four. Find some new lines, and totally dial in my run. Become very skeptical about racing Category 2, almost rescind my decision and drop down to Category 3 upon seeing other riders in my category.

June 14. Race Day. Get a few practice runs in. Sore and tired from the day before, nail an almost perfect run, but am somewhat slow in the pedaling sections. Finish 19th in a field of 37, with my time only 11 seconds behind the fastest run of the day. Had I raced Category 3, I would have finished second, but I feel it would have been a bit of an empty victory. Ride with faster riders, and YOU get faster. I'm all Category 2 right now, and if all goes well, I'll be in Category 1 next season.

As of right now, June 16, it's less than a month into the season. I feel great. Riding my bike is one of the only things my life really revolves around right now. If a day passes and I'm not on my bike, I feel a bit empty. Like I'm not getting enough out of every day. I do plan on racing again in the near future, and taking trips to Diablo and Snowshoe, two east-coast freeride meccas. But as I type this, I'm burning daylight. It's a good day to ride.

Th

Seven Springs Mountain Bike Park

2008-06-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been forever since I've been on my mountain bike, due to my laziness for oh, the past eight years or so. Accepting the fact that I need to get at least moderately back in shape, I decided to revisit one of the only things I've ever really been good at.

Apparently, things have changed in the past eight years. Seven Springs, which is where I do a good bit of snowboarding and a good bit of drinking in the winter, opened up a downhill course last fall, which I got wind of a bit too late to be able to use it. However, as I normally end up catching the mountain bike bug for a week or so every spring, I decided to upgrade some parts on my barely-ridden Azonic Dual Slalom bike and have a go at the new course. The first thing I noticed upon arrivial was that my bike looked like a bit of a lightweight compared to the full-suspension freeride machines most of the other riders were piloting. I should elaborate: My frame, although overbuilt, lacks rear suspension, has no chain tensioner device, still has a triple chainring (how quaint), and a good deal of my components (including my fork) are ten years old. Or older. My stem and handlebars are new. That's it.

So during the inital run, I was blown away by what was an extremely well-designed course. The top section is very BMX-oriented, with about five ten-foot-gap tabletops, three or four rollers, a perfectly angled hip, and nice, steep berms. After dropping through the hip, the course drops into the woods and becomes a bit muddier, with an off-camber berm into a small kicker that requires a lot of adjustment in the air. A few more rollers, a step-up, and then a nice off-camber drop-off finishes off the top half. Then things get a bit scary. For about a half-mile, the course traverses down a slope, and the trail is rocky, fast, and at times, pretty scary. There's a few rollers thrown into the mix, as well as a few small drop-offs. After the last 180 degree berm, the trail heads into the woods again, with a nice rock drop and a few small kickers here and there. It ends up shooting out behind the beginner area, where there's a nice, big drop, and a few more optional kickers, but nothing too big.

Even during my initial run, I had some issues. First and foremost, my lack of a chain tensioner caused the chain to bounce off over even a moderate impact, like landing off of one of the tabletops. Usually the only way I would notice this was to start pedaling, and realize nothing was happening. Second, even as I'm typing this, my hands and wrists feel like my bones have been pounded into dust, due to my ten-year-old suspension fork. I should mention that it was, at one time, a "downhill" fork, built for Shaun Palmer. However, lack of maintenence over the past ten years has caused a seal to blow out, and fluid will sometimes be seen dripping from the bottom of the fork. Not only that, but the 80 mm of effective travel has somehow been lowered to about 60 (and that's being generous). Probably has something to do with the fact that it's blown out. I also noticed a bit of play in the fork legs, but that's to be expected after thing was used off and on for ten years. The legs themselves are absolutely dwarfed by pretty much any current forks on the market, and the lack of rigidity has a lot to do with that. I should also mention that, although I saw two other riders on hardtails throughout the day, it was absolutely punishing. I haven't done that much riding on my current setup, and I'm still used to having at least a moderate amount of full suspension. Mine is a very, very stiff aluminum frame, aimed more at the dirt jumping/mountaincross crowd, which makes it an absolute joy in the BMX-style upper section, but beats the crap out of me in the lower half. With the way I was banging the thing through the rocks and drop-offs in the lower part, I'm truly amazed that I didn't pinch-flat. Another notable feature of my bike is the fact that I'm still running circa-1998 Shimano V-Brakes. Although they function just fine around town, and when they're not being depended upon for too much, they work great. But in the aformentioned lower section, where my hands and wrists are getting bounced around, getting two fingers on the levers comes at a serious loss of control on the bars. I need some disc brakes.

All complaining aside, today was, without a doubt, one of the best times I have ever had on a bike. Nothing can explain the exhilaration of ripping through the upper section, and then having your heart in your throat the entire time you're getting beat up in the second half. If you have the means, I highly reccommend it.

All photos are of the 2007 course.

The upper section:

Into the lower section. It's scarier than it looks:

The rock drop. It was WAY muddier today:

Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing

2008-05-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

So. At this point ten years ago, I never thought I would be writing about how much I love Dire Straits. They're yet another band my parents enjoy, that I always wrote off as "music for old people". Considering the fact that "music for young people" sucks ass anymore, reverting to a band like Dire Straits is probably the best option.

"Sultans of Swing" is one of those songs that I heard for years and years before figuring out the name of the song, or who even played it. About ten years ago, I picked up "Tread" which was intended to be an "Endless Summer" type film for the sport of Mountain Biking (obviously, fourteen years later, it didn't really achieve the desired result). Mark Knopfler's solo towards the end of the song was featured during part of the video, and even at that point, as an under-educated high school pop-punk fan, I immediately recognized the genius factor of, if nothing less, the solo. After doing a bit of research, I still had no idea who wrote or perfomed the song, but was convinced it was Son Volt, as they were featured prominently on the rest of the soundtrack, which was a theory i gave up on after purchasing all of their records. I heard the song throughout the years, on the radio, and occasionally being played over the intercom at work. Numerous attempts to ask people who the band was proved fruitless. However, after purchasing a few of their records a couple years ago, I heard the song at work again, and thought "Man... that sounds like Mark Knopfler." It was a lucky guess, and after downloading a few songs, "Sultans of Swing" was the one.

This version of the track is almost 11 minutes long, from some unknown concert in 1985. Normally, it would only run about 5 minutes, but this video is an excellent showcase of Mark Knopfler's mind-blowing guitar playing. Maybe I subconsciously like jam bands, but watching a musician like Mark just going berzerk with such a simple concept is, in my mind, the way this song is meant to be played, and heard. Try to make it to the 8:00 mark. It's worth it.

Enjoy.

By the way, dude is FINGERPICKING the whole thing.

The Takeover UK videos.

2008-05-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

The Takeover UK is one of the best bands on the planet right now. That could easily be construed as a biased statement, but truthfully, I don't think there's anyone out there right now playing such well-written pop rock. One part Beatles, one part Stones, one part Clash, one part Television, one part Thin Lizzy (I agree completely with the blog they posted regarding Thin Lizzy). The end result may at times draw comparisons to the early 2000's wave of "three-car-garage" rock, but I honestly can't think of any of those bands who genuinely sound better in a live setting, or even in the studio. This brings up another point. Their record is very good. They and their producer did a great job capturing the energy that makes them so fun live. But trust me, in a live setting, they are untouchable. I haven't been to a Takeover show yet that wasn't a party. And not just a party, but a total rager. You know. Beer getting spilled everywhere. Cigarette burns. Broken heels. The shows are generally in an intimate environment, like Lava Lounge or Brillobox, but that's when they're at their best. When the bar is no more than fifty feet away, the club is so crowded that it takes you fifteen minutes to get a drink and make it back to the front, and it's so loud you can't hear right for a few days, at least.

Here's some videos:

That's all for now. Enjoy.

This is long overdue

2008-05-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Well, after years and years of posting blogs on myspace, I think it's time I shift the process over to blogger.com. Keep in mind, I do an awful lot of writing, and this is just a small portion of it. I really have no desire to share most of it, but the important stuff, I'll post.