TUESDAY!!!! Do you even know what this means!!!! It means that I'm not in the shop for a day and.... if someone, hopefully like 2 other people, anyone... has the day off.... were goin downhillin!!!!!!! This means that all the paultry bullshit and rediculous things that occur in life (ie: work, home, life) are gone (maybe momentarily), and they vanish.... in order for a more perfect union between my soul and gravity!!! Collocting all the required articles feels almost like the preparation for an expidition through the heart of the jungle. The journey is exciting, thinking abour all the little features that are waiting in store!!! Berms and drops and launches and logs and rocks and dirt!!! F-ing FAST!!!! So fast it's not even funny, and the sensations just tingle.... but I must focus!
After reaching the top and conversing about the driver rotation, we send the truck off and prepare! All the straps are tight! Nothing dumb is clicking on the bike! Hey, it's actually kinda hot up here (as i'm wearing a suit of armour that would rival the most illustrious knight). Some one calls... DROPPING.. and were off, 0 to 60 in a few seconds!!!! Ha ha 60 might be an exageration but seriously f-ing fast!!!! Bobbing and weaving like an real athelete for once ha ha, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee! The trail straightens out... the trees blur and the rocks fade away and the dirt that's oftens time flying by vanishes as though i've entered warp speed in space!!!! (I love space so much! That's tight that downhilling and space are so similar!)
Oh no.... it's a sweet feature! Well no sweat... I'll just lift off! Thats just it.... when you're riding you make simple, effective decisions! Turn right here, bunny hop that, suck your legs up, throw your weight, back pedal.... all these decisions affect the now.... that very split second that you make it, it has passed and a new decision needs to be made!!! So on and so forth.... that is the order of things, and while in most sports, there is fast paced action.... when your riding a downhill bike... it isn't action.... it's survival. And it's not just the elements, it's you competing against yourself..... me against me.. and that makes it challenging, because when you know what to do, but can't... it makes you want to become better and faster and stronger and inherantly stronger in that specific enviroment
Once a few runs, the arm pump starts to set in.... just the sensation of being able to close my hand becomes the only neccessity in life... squeezing the bars and brakes with that intensity takes it toll. The veigns are throbbing, the tendons are swollen and enflamed, how much longer can I take it! I know that now more than ever I must hang on to that damn bike! It's going to pull me through whatevers in front of it... so it's time to aim it and send it!
If you can't see the beautiful agony (O face!) that downhilling (and most bikes for that matter) entails.... then I must beg you to experience it. Just cuising down the street with your hair swept back is a close feeling, but it's when your cruising with no shirt, no shoes, and a 30 pack in one hand that the same feelings return and life sways in my actions!!!
