Point Break
I love the movie Point Break. It's got Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent learning how to surf to catch some bank robbers. Patrick Swayze is the head of the "Dead Presidents" - the surfing crooks. Keanu is Johnny Utah in the film and he soon joins the gang doing all sorts of extreme sports stuff. One of the scenes has them surfing ... _at night_. Scary!
With lines like ...
"If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. It's not tragic to die doing what you love."
... how could you _not_ love it?
The reason I bring up Point Break is because I always think of that surfing at night scene when I go on night rides. My buddies and I aren't just out there mountain biking ... we are doing it _at night_. Hahaha. It's one of those things that seems nuts when you first hear about it, but after you've gone a few times, it's really not a big deal.
Anyways to the ride ...
The ride was with Steve, Jeff, Andrew, Matt and Junior. Keith was supposed to come as well, but didn't show up for whatever reason. We started at about 7:45pm and the plan was to go up Maple Springs and then see what everyone felt like.
Even before we left the parking lot people were complaining about the cold. I usually get pretty cold on night rides, but I was feeling ok just standing in the parking lot. There wasn't any wind and my layers of clothing kept me feeling pretty good.
On the ride up the pavement I decided to challenge myself by riding only in the middle ring. I ended up going from my car to Four Corners in only the middle ring, which is a big deal for me. It's funny to realize that a month ago I was riding up the same trail in my lowest gear - and struggling at that. My sense of self importance was blown out of the water when Junior announced that he always rides in the middle ring when riding in the Santa Ana's. Hahaha.
There really isn't much that can happen on such a short ride, but I did set what I think is a personal best from the parking lot to Four Corners. I came in at a little under 1:15. I think my previous best was around 1:20.
When we got to the top it was obvious that everyone was freezing or frozen already. The tube from my camelback had actually frozen almost solid. The water was rapidly turning from liquid to solid.
It was funny to see everyone wait for someone else to suggest heading back down. I think we were all thinking we'd like to go back down instead of going to the peak or to the motorway, but no one wanted to be the guy to admit he had had enough. Haha.
Finally we came to a concensus to head back, which made me pretty happy.
The ride back was uneventful. I got back to my car in 1:39, which is a new personal best for Maple Springs to Four Corners. That's 20 minutes under the average time on GeoLadders, so that makes me feel good.
After the ride we all cruised over to In-n-Out off of Chapman to warm up and eat. It was funny because I couldn't stop shaking and moving once I got inside. It took a few of us 5-10 minutes to calm down to the point where we weren't shivering.
There might be some photos from Four Corners in the next few days. I know Jeff took some, but we'll see how they turn out.
With lines like ...
"If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. It's not tragic to die doing what you love."
... how could you _not_ love it?
The reason I bring up Point Break is because I always think of that surfing at night scene when I go on night rides. My buddies and I aren't just out there mountain biking ... we are doing it _at night_. Hahaha. It's one of those things that seems nuts when you first hear about it, but after you've gone a few times, it's really not a big deal.
Anyways to the ride ...
The ride was with Steve, Jeff, Andrew, Matt and Junior. Keith was supposed to come as well, but didn't show up for whatever reason. We started at about 7:45pm and the plan was to go up Maple Springs and then see what everyone felt like.
Even before we left the parking lot people were complaining about the cold. I usually get pretty cold on night rides, but I was feeling ok just standing in the parking lot. There wasn't any wind and my layers of clothing kept me feeling pretty good.
On the ride up the pavement I decided to challenge myself by riding only in the middle ring. I ended up going from my car to Four Corners in only the middle ring, which is a big deal for me. It's funny to realize that a month ago I was riding up the same trail in my lowest gear - and struggling at that. My sense of self importance was blown out of the water when Junior announced that he always rides in the middle ring when riding in the Santa Ana's. Hahaha.
There really isn't much that can happen on such a short ride, but I did set what I think is a personal best from the parking lot to Four Corners. I came in at a little under 1:15. I think my previous best was around 1:20.
When we got to the top it was obvious that everyone was freezing or frozen already. The tube from my camelback had actually frozen almost solid. The water was rapidly turning from liquid to solid.
It was funny to see everyone wait for someone else to suggest heading back down. I think we were all thinking we'd like to go back down instead of going to the peak or to the motorway, but no one wanted to be the guy to admit he had had enough. Haha.
Finally we came to a concensus to head back, which made me pretty happy.
The ride back was uneventful. I got back to my car in 1:39, which is a new personal best for Maple Springs to Four Corners. That's 20 minutes under the average time on GeoLadders, so that makes me feel good.
After the ride we all cruised over to In-n-Out off of Chapman to warm up and eat. It was funny because I couldn't stop shaking and moving once I got inside. It took a few of us 5-10 minutes to calm down to the point where we weren't shivering.
There might be some photos from Four Corners in the next few days. I know Jeff took some, but we'll see how they turn out.
posted by prevents email spam at
12:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home