September 22, 2007
This weekend is a UCI SuperCross race in Salt Lake, Utah. A few of the Canadian Elite men went down for this big race, which is just as hard as the World Championships because everyone is there. I think there were around 100 people racing and time trials yesterday determined the top 64 who get to race today. The two Canadian Super Models, Patrick Lebel and Kevin Hill made the cut in 35th and 60th spot, respectively. I love that Kevin has finally got to use his skills, and to think that the National Team doesn’t think he has any potential. What a joke!
I will be talking to them on the phone so I will keep you guys posted today to see how our boys do. Here is a picture of Scrumptious, Kevin and Scott Erwood!
September 19, 2007
First off I want to wish my Dad a happy belated birthday, it was on Monday so happy birthday. We have had many Cools birthdays this past week and what a good way to top it off with the Old guy himself, ha-ha.
Not too much going on here as I am swamped with school right now. I didn’t think that it was going to be so tough to go back but it’s slowly starting to come around. It’s been a while since I have been using my brain so much and it’s really starting to hurt, ☺.
I am in the process of looking for a central location (Calgary) that I can do winter training in. All I really need is some floor space, like a community hall so that I can do some dry land training over the winter. I did this last year in Red Deer throughout the whole winter and it made a huge difference in the kids when the season started.
What I will be doing is putting the group (kids and adults) through a series of body weight calisthenics, isometrics, plyometrics and different speed and agility drills. This training night will be open to everyone that wants to stay in shape and really gain a tremendous amount explosive strength and over all fitness. I am not quite sure what the cost will be but with the right amount of people to do this it’s going to be around $10 to $15 per session. If I can get a core group of athletes to sign up I will be doing a winter pass, but it’s still up in the air.
If you would be interested in something like this please let me know so I can get motivated to get this thing going. The training nights will be held on Mondays and/or Friday.
Anyway I am off to school here is a picture of us putting the Red Deer kids through some drills last winter.
September 16, 2007
This weekend has been a great weekend for weather here in Calgary. Perfect timing as Friday was Avrianna’s 1st birthday. I can’t believe that she is already a year old and it didn’t take her long to convince me that she is the coolest person I have ever met. On Friday we had my parents and brother over for some B-Day cake and presents, nothing too crazy but something for my parents who had to fly out to Ridge Meadows for the UCI Race on Saturday. On Saturday we did it all over again at Jenn’s parents house, lots of cake and presents, so she had a great weekend.
Yesterday was the 3rd round of North American UCI World Cups in Ridge Meadows. My sister won again with a stacked group of girls, to keep on top of the North American standings. I don’t know what she’s in World points but I’m sure she is still top 6. And to think that last weekend some Alberta BMX mom told my mom that Sam was really nothing, not that good and all hype!
Great job Sam! She finally loves BMX again and it shows with her consistent finishes. When Sam wants to win, there aren’t too many who can beat her, even on their best days. Here are the Elite results that I pulled off of BMX News.
Elite Men:
1. Kyle Bennett, Free Agent, USA
2. Donny Robinson, Formula, USA
3. Steven Cisar, Redman, USA
4. Randy Stumpfhauser, GT, USA
5. Matt Pohlkamp, Kuwahara, USA
6. Tyler Brown, Avent Bombshell, USA
7. Mike Day, GT, USA
8. Danny Caluag, Intense/Socko, USA
Elite Women:
1. Samantha Cools, Supercross, CAN
2. Amanda Geving, TLD, USA
3. Arielle Martin, Action Sports Depot, USA
4. Stephanie Barragan, Intense/Unbound, USA
5. Kaila Sweeney, Supercross, CAN
6. Kim Hayashi, Redline/Nike, USA
7. Toni Rude, USA
8. Cassie Bushnell, FMF, USA
Junior Men Winner: Doug Hayes, USA
Junior Women Winner: Nicole Woodrow, USA
I found out that the people out at Morley have raised the rent of the building considerably. There are lots of people out there who want to ride this winter and I think that if we ALL want Morley to happen we need to combine all of our efforts. I know that there are government grants available for small businesses such as myself. I want to find out if I could get some money to rent Morley for Camp Cools training and then I can rent it out to the BMX clubs, so that the price would be far less. Maybe if I can get it going we could potentially get a place to ride 3-4 times per week with the right funding.
I am serious about this but at the same time I am really busy with school. If there are any of you out there who are reading this and think you may know anything that can help, could you please email me? I’m not trying to take over Morley, I’m just trying to find ways that I could help so WE ALL have a place to ride and train this winter. Sam needs to be ready for Beijing so she needs to ride, and I know she’s not the only BMXer in Alberta who NEEDS to or WANTS to ride this winter.
Here are some picture of Avri, Sam and then Jenn and my beach cruisers that we took for a ride yesterday.
September 12, 2007
I have a few minutes this morning before I head out to school to get some studying in so I thought I would update my site. I will still try to update my site as much as possible but with school and BMX really slowing down I won’t be updating as much.
Last weekend we were up in Edmonton and as per usual for this year, it rained. Saturday started pretty good, as the day was really nice and sunny, but towards the end of racing it started to rain. There was a rain delay for about 1 hour and then they managed to finish the day off before it really started to pour. A bunch of volunteers were out on the track as soon as the race was over and put tarps over the whole thing, which saved the track for Sunday. The racing went really well though and there were some real good racks of Elite, both men and women. Jimmy Brown looked solid every lap over the weekend and won both days of Elite men. Scrumptious, Aaron or even BC boy Kevin Hill could not catch him or make a pass in any of the corners. The track is a fun track to ride but it’s a single lane track the whole way after the first turn so if you can get to the turn in first you are most likely going to win.
Because of the rain I was not able to do a camp after the race. Training camps this year have been great when they’re a go, but I have been rained out almost half of the camps I was suppose to do. I hope that next year will be better as far as the weather is concerned and we can get some real work done in the summer.
As far as this winter, I know that Abbotsford Indoor will be up and running in October and that I will be doing camps out there the whole winter. The Morley situation is still up in the air; I do think it’ll be a go as there are many people wanting it. As soon as I get some info on Morley I will make sure to let you know.
This week is the last week of club training for all the tracks. I don’t think we’ll be doing anything tonight, as it’s raining and miserable outside. Airdrie will be a go tomorrow (Thursday) and this Friday I will be finishing out the coaching in Cochrane. We will start a bit earlier (6:00pm) and go ‘till we can’t ride anymore. The coaching is open to ALL COCHRANE riders and I encourage everyone to come out and ride one last time, it’s going to be a blast.
Last Sunday was my 29th birthday and Jenn got me the coolest present. In 1997 when the UCI Worlds were in Canada, Airdrie had a Pre-Worlds World Cup race. Every Elite that was at the Worlds came and raced this race, including one of my favorite pros of all time, Thomas Allier from France. Back then the top team in the world was a bike company from France, Sunn. Thomas Allier, Christophe Leveque and Dylan Clayton were just a few of the W1 they had on the team. Their bikes were awesome and above all they had the raddest jerseys. The amateur team had green colors and the pros had the royal blue color and you couldn’t get them. They were for the team only but I really wanted one, so Patrick Lebels mom (Sue) used her skills and got me Thomas’s jersey after the race, which he won Elite in.
It was the best thing that I ever had from BMX since the jersey was so cool and that it was from my favorite racer. Anyway about 7 years ago before I moved down to the states, I was going out with a few of my friends and one of them borrowed it to wear out as it looks that good. I don’t think it was on purpose but he ended up borrowing it permanently and I thought that I had lost it forever as I lost contact with my friend.
Somehow Jenn managed to track him down and get my jersey back. So here is my B-Day present circa 1997.
September 7, 2007
Well it looks like it’s going to be a rainy day today but I think that the weather for this weekends Provincial should be good. The weather report says that it’s raining here in Calgary but it should be good up in Edmonton.
Jenn, Avri and I will be headed up first thing in the morning to set up our pits and get ready for the last weekend of racing (for me) for this year. It’s also going to be my birthday tomorrow so my Mom and Dad will be headed up there for the weekend as well so that we can hang out and go for dinner.
I won’t be going to the Ridge Meadows UCI race, as it’s Avrianna’s first birthday that weekend so we will be having a party for her. Over the past 25 years I have been to enough races that I can skip one for my kid, who is the most important thing in the world to me.
I have a new poll up on the side, I tried to think of the most popular bikes so start voting.
Here are a few pictures that I received from the Abby/Ridge Meadows camp that happened a few weeks ago.
September 5, 2007
Just a quick reminder, I will be doing a camp this weekend in Edmonton on Saturday after the race. The camp will start shortly after the last motto of the day and run for about 3 hours. We will cover all the ways to do the jumps, gates and rhythm section and go over a few mental things to get ready for the big race on Sunday. I will have Aaron Lepp, Shane Clarke and a bunch of top armatures to help out. If the camp gets to be a good size I will be splitting the group into two to make sure that all kids get in lots of good riding.
The cost of the camp will be $35 per rider or you can get a t-shirt with the camp for a cost of $45 per rider. Since this is the last race weekend of the year that I will be going to, t-shirts will be on sale for $15 each. I have every size from youth 6-8 to Adult XXXL, in both Black and White. Here is my logo that is on both the back on front. All proceeds are being donated to the fine people of Mount Royal College.
September 5, 2007
Yesterday was my first day of school, and wow did I really feel old! It’s been 10 years since I graduated from high school and most of the kids in my classes are fresh out of high school and pretty young. It’s cool though; I don’t mind being the old guy, ha-ha.
Currently I am attending Mount Royal College and am taking a bunch of University courses. I went to the University of Calgary for 3 years during 1996-1999 and I was then taking Geo Physics. I was there on a football scholarship so as you can imagine I was more into having fun then actually going to class. Because of that, my grades were not the greatest so now I am going to the College to upgrade for a year or two. The Sports Medicine faculty at the U of C is one of the top in the country but you need a pretty high GPA to get into it. My high school grades would have gotten me in no problem but they looked at my University grades as well and that’s why I have to go to the College to upgrade for a year.
I really have no problem with that as the MRC campus is really nice and I am enjoying my experience there so far. All the classes that I am taking are transferable so I am getting the credits for the cost of college tuition, works for me! Yesterday I had Physics and Calculus and this morning I have a Chemistry class to start the day…fun!
Last weekend Aaron and I headed out to Kelowna to do a two-day camp that went really well. We had about 32 kids out for the clinic and everyone had a great time as we got lots of work done. I haven’t been to the Kelowna track for about 10 years now and I forgot how beautiful the setting around the track is, nothing but hills full of vineyards and orchards, I loved it. The track was in really good shape and a lot of fun to ride, a great track to do a camp on. Thanks to the Oyen’s and everyone else who made it a great experience.
It seems that everyone liked what we did out there as the track is already booking a date for next year. This time it should be a really big camp and I will bring a lot of help with me. I will post all the dates as they are booked but I am sure that won’t happen until the beginning of next year.
Kurt Innes who is the Sport Performance Director for the Canadian Sport Centre-Pacific / Pacific Sport came out for the Sunday and hung out for the day. He wanted to learn more about BMX and BMX training to further his own knowledge. It was good to have him out but at the same time I was a bit nervous. Kurt is one of the most respected cycling coaches in Canada and was my coach when I trained for Velodrome. So to have him listen to everything that I say really made me nervous but at the same time I was honored that I could shed some light on the BMX scene for him. I’m not quite sure if he is going to start a BMX program out there but if he does and you can get to it, you’d better go!
Anyway here are some pictures of the weekend; I have to go to class.
September 1, 2007
Today was the Calgary Tattoo festival so Jenn and I spent the day down there. I got tattooed on my right forearm by Rob Hope out of Dutchman Tattoos in Burnaby BC. About 3 weeks ago he started the sleeve and it’s about half way there after two sittings. Today he did about 4 hours of work and it’s awesome, I love it.
Tomorrow Aaron and I will be heading out to Kelwona as we have our 2-day camp starting at noon. I won’t turn anyone away and it looks like it’ going to be the perfect size to have a camp. You can register when you get there.
I erased my tag board today as I’m tired of people always talking about this issue, and how I am using it as a marketing ploy. So everyone understands where I am at with my sister’s situation you should re-read my blogs. Other than a few catty remarks here and there I have NEVER once attacked anyone on my site. My sister was not going to China, you wanted to know why, I told you. End of story!! Yes I did let my tag board go on longer than I should have, but those were comments posted by concerned BMXers, and yes, I posted both sides of the fence.
My tag board was nothing compared to other websites around the world regarding this issue. The only reason the board was up there was so that people could give out kind words as Sam did get screwed, bottom line. And Sam would read my site numerous times a day and it really cheered her up. And for the record, Samantha never once blamed any one else for her placing at the Worlds, not once! She puts it all on her shoulders.
Sam has moved on with this and today she won the Elite Class at the NBL Grand Nationals, against the fastest in the world. Yesterday, mayhem in turn- one lead to Sam getting 4th in Elite Women’s at the UCI World Cup.
I think the only ones who haven’t moved on are those people who still want to talk about everything I say in the parking lot. Most of you are my friends and as you know if I am around I love to talk shop, so keep on talking. But for those of you who don’t like me, at the end of the day I’m here giving YOUR kids 100 percent of what I’ve got, so that’s your issue. And if you think I’m wrong for having my sisters back, then I have nothing to say because I’m a family man.
August 16, 2007
September 2, 2007 to September 3, 2007Sunday September 2 & Monday September 3.
12-5 on Sunday and 10-3 on Monday for a cost of $110 per rider.
Camp open to all Skills and Ages.