Hello everyone!

I thought perhaps it was time for another email/photo update. I’ve been meaning to email for a while, but I seem to always get into bed at night and fall asleep instead of staying up to type. That and the fact we’ve been staying in the tiniest of Austrian towns and when you ask about internet they just laugh at you and shake their heads. Oh the bother of all this traveling…

Anyway this first picture is of probably the absolute best hotel buffet breakfast that ever exsisted. It was while we were staying in Kirchberg and this was only one small corner of the breakfast display, but probably my favorite. Any grain, nut, seed it was there in a cute little glass bowl waiting to be scooped up and eaten, right there along side Cocoa pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch…my personal fav. This table is a nightmare for those who potentially suffer from anaphylactic reaction due to nuts, but for me, a dream.

Beside it was an equally impressive arrangements of meats, cheeses (approx. 7-10 different kinds of each) pickled anything, and an assortment of misc. spreads, all of which were labeled in German, creating too many “unknown factors” for my comfort level, therefore I ingested not one “spread”. Then we had the bread table, who knew they made that many breads, and then the egg, veggie, fruit and jam table. It was great. I LOVED it!!!

This is yet another photo of the Schwartzsee (Black Lake), and me doing my intensive training for the upcoming triathlon. I really feel like my technique here will definitely give me an edge over the other competitors. Yes, yes I do.

Yesterday brought us to Krimml, Austria a little town somewhere in Austria. I wouldn’t be able to point it on a map if you asked me too. It is small and Austrian, this is what I know of it. 

 Thankfully it was warm and got sunny so not only did we not completely freeze due to soaking, but it made many many rainbows appear all over.

Here we have our latest “Gasthaus” (guesthouse) where we are staying, which is almost directly across the street from the falls and is very sweet. Our bedroom is on the very top level, and I have been happily deadheading the petunias along my balcony this evening. Hans, the owner of the house, collects crystals that he finds and herds sheep. If only I spoke just a touch more german, or he spoke just a hair more english, I would have approximately 1000 more questions for him. As it stands he directed us to a fantastic pizzeria. It truly is amazing though how much communicating one can do without a common language. Ask Ryan, he is getting fantastic at charades. I also got to see my first firefly here tonight and perhaps the largest frog in existence. The frog was cute but the fireflies were amazing. I LOVE those little guys, so unassuming in their non-glowing state…

These last two pictures are from the GrossglocknerStrasse. The Grossglockner is a very very high peak in Austria, I do not want to mislead by saying the highest, but I’m leaning that direction. And the GrossglocknerStrasse is the CRAZY road leading up to it. The view points were amazing and the road was ridiculous. Motorcycles loved it and there were so many crazy cyclists going up, I can’t imagine how hard it would have been. There were road bikes with no granny gears, and mtn. bikes loaded down with panniers. I’ll have to find the stats on how far and how high, but it was very very far, and very very high and steep (some of the signs suggested a 10% grade). Of course with all of my fantastic-o training I have been doing for my triathlon, it would have been a breeze for me. Obviously.

Here is just a small sampling of the road. It zigged and zagged and wiggled all through the Alps and was nutty. I loved it and was terrified all at once. Watching the cyclists whiz down at ridiculous speeds right into the tightest of all switchback corners, made me highly anxious. Ryan at one point had to turn his head and he refused to watch.

So there we have it a little update in the going-ons of Austria. They aren’t the best of pictures, but they tell the story I suppose. Tomorrow we are off to find internet and Salzberg. I am now going to spend the rest of my night determining a way to convince two young men (Ryan and Mark) on why they should spend their afternoon at the Sound of Music sights.

 

I hope you are all doing wonderfully. Enjoy your summer!

 

Lots of love to you all!

Caryn

 

Bringing Trials to the trailsRyan Leech has a unique way of riding. He claims to be a trials rider, has made videos on how to ride trials, yet his style of trial riding has a unique appeal. Most trial riding I see does not appeal to me, riders bouncing around on their weird looking bikes, generally looking discombobulated. But Ryan captivates my interest, he always has. There’s an element of his style that lends itself to flow, to a certain purity of aescethetic. His riding is visually pleasing and astounding in nature.As a mountain bike filmmaker, there are certain qualities I’m constantly in search of. These are great locations, spectacular light, and unique riders. The first two are self explanatory, but what constitutes a unique rider? I’m looking for riders that have personality, can express themselves and first and foremost have a riding style and matching ability that separates them from other riders. This might be a little too simplistic, there is something more that only really translates when you see the footage. Some riders simply look good on film, while others don’t. It has to do with style, flow, presence and some other indescribeable qualities.I’m approaching the 10 year mark of mountain bike filmmaking. I’ve seen the sport blossom, witnessed the first 5 freeriders getting their first sponsored bikes and filmed them trashing them with their cowboy like antics back in 1997. Now there are so many sponsored riders that I know just a handful of them. But what hasn’t changed is that to make a great mountain bike film you need to pay attention to what is unique. Like making a fine dining experience, you need the great raw ingredients if you expect to make a culinary delight. Same with a mountain bike film.During the filming of Kranked 5, I really wanted Ryan to bring his trials riding out of the urban environment and into the forest. We ventured into the forest and attempted to translate Ryan’s riding onto the trails. I was stoked, it was all there, it would look fabulous, it was new, fresh and spectacular. But my mind was too far in front of reality. Ryan couldn’t hook it up. He gave it a hell of a shake though. It was apparent that he needed some time to get used to the new environment, get a bike more suitable to the terrain and I think most importantly get his mind working on the translation from urban to mountain.Three years later I showed Ryan a location I had found. A mystical, mid-elevation old growth forest ravine with a beautiful creek running through it. THe place is beautiful and inspiring. Within minutes we had found a natural flow for a trail, utilizing the natural elements that were present. Ryan’s imagination took off like Dodge Viper at a Las Vegas intersection. He started describing the indescribable. “Build this, make it this far apart, I’ll gap that, side hop this,, make some 10 foot posts, here some skinnies - 2 inches wide.” Soon he had it all sketched out. He was psyched, hell I was too. It seemed Ryan was ready to bring trials into the trails.The trail crew began building. Ryan came up and refined the build, making sure everything was perfect. I’ve noticed recently that the riders successfully pushing the boundaries all have two things in common, they are great riders and they are amazing tacticians. They know exactly what they and their bike is going to do. How big the gap needs to be, where the transitions must be placed, what will work and what will not work. Gone are the days of winging it and hoping for the best. The trail was built to fit in with the natural beauty of the forest. It is a piece of art. I’d like to think of it as a homage to the forest and how we humans can interact in a non-destructive way with this pristine ecosystem.But this trail is crazy. It does not appear to be rideable. Ryan designed it, explained what he was going to do on each section, so we built it. But now, I look at it and wonder. Is it rideable? Is Ryan able to pull this off? I have moments of angst. The trail took a lot of work to create, it would be such a drag to have it flop, to have been overzealous in our ambitions. But Ryan is a master tactician of trials riding. I have to trust it will happen.Ryan waits for a new special bike. For the first time I have filmed with him he is going to ride a full suspension bike. It’s necessary to be able to make some of the more ambitous moves. The geometry is all different from his usual bike, a bike he knows intimately. Now it’s new geometry, and rear suspension to add a twist in how the bike handles. Ryan will have to adapt his skill set to the new bike.With anything worthwhile it seems you have to go the distance, put extra effort in to realize the vision. Although we are still not finished filming the trail I ‘m feeling confident that this segment has that special uniqueness to it. An innovative, visually pleasing rider, a spectacular forest location and that indescribable element that puts the sparkle on the screen. Ryan has that special uniqueness about him that has allowed him to once again create something spectacular. In this case he has pioneered bringing trials into the trails and let me tell you, it’s damn cool.To check out what this is all about see PROGRESSION - Kranked 6. Ryan rocks it.