Hi Everyone!

The 2010 Sea Otter Classic is coming up April 15-18!

My focus at this world renowned cycling festival will be to perform trials shows in the pit area (see schedule below); but as a side bonus, I’m happy to announce that I’ll be offering free morning yoga classes for anyone that is interested.

So this blog post will serve as a reference for all those riders who might be interested.

Whether you’re racing, watching, working, exhibiting, or performing, the goal of this class is to charge you up so you’re feeling amazing for the day ahead—loose body, primed muscles, and a clean and clear mind. Nothing too serious, just playing yoga!

Instructor: Ryan Leech

When: April 16, 17, 18

Time: 7am – 8am

Where: Chapparel Building in Campground B (here is a map, the building is at the north west part of the loop)

Style: Vinyasa Flow

Level: All levels All good

For Who: Everyone welcome

If you have your own yoga mat, please be sure to bring it. But I’ll have a few extra just in case.

For an interview with Ryan about how mountain biking and yoga fit together, check out NSMB.com.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments feild below, I’ll do my best to answer!

If you’d like to check out a trials show, I’ll be at booth 755 with a brand new demo obstacle set to ride on. Come on by for daily shows:

Thursday: 1 and 3

Friday: 10:30, 1 and 3

Saturday: 10:30, 1 and 3

Sunday: 10:30 and 1

(photo-Harookz, chain line from CRUX)

Looking forward to see you there!

All the best,

Ryan

PS-If you’re looking for a mountain biking and yoga holiday, check out the one I’m hosting with Boreale Mountain Biking in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, Canada

Earlier this Summer, I spent a day filming to help out with some promotion for the new Sea to Sky Trail. This multi-use trail is already open in sections and will ultimately run from Squamish to Whistler to Pemberton, and on to D’Arcy. Pretty sweet! Working with Jack Christie is always a delight, and getting to hold a boom mic for Dr. David Suzuki was an honor The team that put this promotional film together did a fantastic job. The purpose of this film is to generate interest and support for the completion of this important project; so please check it out, and picture yourself exploring by foot, bike, wheelchair, or even unicycle,  this spectacular part of the world.

Hi Folks!

The approach of the InterBike Trade Show and Convention in Las Vegas acts as the end of one riding season and the beginning of another. Over the past year, my goal was to lighten my load of demos and focus on other areas of my career; while that was more or less the case, I still managed to perform 58 shows, and many of those were full Trials of Life school presentations. Mix in a variety of sponsorship obligations, magazine articles, photo-shoots, advocacy work, and filming sessions, and all of a sudden a year blows by!

Some may know that playing yoga has been an important background activity of mine for the past five years, but recently it has come to the foreground through my desire to share the benefits of the practice with others. The 200 hour yoga teacher training program I embarked on finishes the day before InterBike starts, and I’ll be throwing myself in to the teaching world by offering a “Free Morning Yoga Session with Ryan Leech” on Sept. 23, starting at 7:30am in Casanova Room 602, at the Sands Convention Centre.

I leave tomorrow for Ucluelet, BC, the sister city of Tofino on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. This is the venue for the rest of my yoga teacher training. Though I won’t have my bike with me (except for my pavement bike), I may get out in the waves for some surfing…actually, it might be required by my teacher Eoin Finn who is huge in to surfing. Should be ten days of intensity and chillosity (is that word)…two things every yoga practice should have!

If you have some good ideas about a trials show demo set-up, please pass your ideas or drawing along to me at trials@ryanleech.com; after four years of shows on the same stuff, I’m excited to mix it up with a new trailer and a fresh obstacle design. I need the obstacles to have a quick set up and tear down time as one of my plans for 2010 is to launch another Canadian Trials of Life school tour, on which I’ll be visiting and performing at multiple schools everyday. Whew!

Project Blue Sky is up and running and looking good! If you’re curious about how much of an effect your carbon friendly modes of transportation have, then please sign up and start using the handy dandy kilometer counting widget. You can embed the widget in your blog (just look to the right on my side column), or link to it in facebook, it’s pretty cool. The goal of this athlete driven, student directed project is to inspire concrete action to fight climate change, that concrete goal is one billion kilometers of carbon friendly travel which incidentally would balance the amount of CO2 emitted indirectly from the Vancouver Olympic Games. It’s a big goal, so if you ride to work, or take the bus once-in-a-while, log it up at Project Blue Sky!

Happy September Everyone!

The days have been long (approx 20 hours of light) and full during our visit to Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

Yurts rock! Boreal Mountain Biking’s Headquarters (Yurtville).

Josh, the cinematographer/editors from The Ride Guide setting up for a shot beside a caribou antler. We’re on a mountain above Carcross, about one hour south of Whitehorse. This ride was called Mountain Hero; it is historic because it follows the path of the old miners that built a wooden tram line over century ago. Check the image below.

Our host and guide Sylvain pushing up to the top of Grey Mountain for a trail called Money Shot and Easy Money. That’s the Yukon river in the distance.

Today we’re hitting the town getting some scenic and lifestyle shots, some yoga in the park shots, farmers market shots, bike shop shots, and then we’re going to hit the trails for some evening sun.

Yesterday marked the kick off of a week of riding in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory in Canada. With the anticipation of sunny skies and 30 + degree weather, the excitement is high.

Day one went quickly, it was only half a day, but it was full. We were greeted at the airport by local owner of Boreale Mountain biking, Marsha Cameron (the other owner Sylvain Turcotte was on a ride) and met Josh from The Ride Guide TV show and raced off to drop our gear at Yurtville, the base camp of their riding operation (more about the glory of modern yurts later). I had to build my trials bike quickly and get to the local Canada Games centre to set up for a trials show.

Arranging random riding obstacles in a trialsy way is always fun and challenging. I spend about 2 hours doing so until the local rippers and bike enthusiasts starting showing up for an evening of mountain biking. Local ripper, Kate White, member of Contagious bike club, rallied the troops and got them pumped about a helmet campaign called Bike your Brains Out, and then handed it over to me. I did a thirty minute show and after, while they watched some segments from Crux, the obstacles were re-arranged for an open riding session/pizza party/helmet give-away. Helmets are perfect for signing, and since they gave away 60+ helmets, I was kept busy and didn’t get to do too much extra riding, but it was so great just getting to meet all the locals, the best part of my job. 

For photos, check out Dustan’s offering on Norco’s Flickr site.

So much momentum in the mountain bike world in the Yukon. I’ll share more soon! I gotta get my Fluid LT built up so we can go film. 

Happy Days,

Ryan

The first goal was to collect some video content to be used in promotion of the new Sea to Sky trail. The second was to shoot some photographs in Pemberton with Margus Riga for Norco and Mace.

So, part one. Picked up Margus in North Vancouver and blasted to Squamish in time to help with an interview of David Suzuki. The world renown scientist was kind enough to offer some thoughts on the environmental benefit of a good multipurpose trail through nature (in this case, from Horseshoe Bay to Lillooet). He was a real pro in front of the camera, not surprising considering his television resume; he arrived, made his on camera spiel perfectly on the first take, and was off to his next appointment in a flash. The key to his message was that humans protect and preserve what they love; so if they have increased opportunity to ‘get out in nature’ with a trail such as the Sea-to-Sky, they may be more likely to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

It was a pleasure, as always, to work with Jack Christie who was the director/personality for the shoot. He promotes the outdoor lifestyle in myriad charismatic ways, whether on TV, in print, in books, or most importantly one on one with full authenticity. Margus asked me if there was anything he didn’t know about the outdoors becauseas he was constantly sharing stories and spewing out unique facts about the area. Be sure to check out his website and perhaps purchase one of his quality books. He’s good people.

A couple youngsters, Evan and Shawn, came down from Pemberton to be in the video shoot. Photo Credit: Margus Riga

Robin Harvey, the marketing/promotional gal behind the Sea to Sky Trail has been busy coordinating this day of filming, and she was able to squeeze it all in for us by the early afternoon so Margus and I had time to blast off to Pemby to get our ride/shoot on. We rode up and then down a trail called (can’t remember right now) and took photos along the way. It was glorious, except for the onslaught of giant Pemberton Mosquitos! 

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

We got back to the truck by 9pm. Grabbed some snacks for the drive home quite content with the days efforts.

I picked my trailer up on the way home, switched my gear and bikes for the trials variety, ready to head out the next morning for some shows! Good times all around!!

The Sea Otter Classic attracts some seriously enthusiastic cyclists. Whether they are racing or just soaking in all the action, the energy is positive—I”m doing my best to contribute to that vibe through my trials shows in the expo village.

Yesterday I had three shows. Had a fairly early start to the day to set up my demo area and get it looking good, had a couple breakfasts, one at the house, and one at the venue to get some extra calories for the day, and was performing by 10:30 under bluebird skies and perfect temperatures. 

Toward the end of the day, I was cleaning up my demo area; I was inside my trailer at one point and the doors blew closed, so I walked over to open them again, but before I got there I heard it being latched closed and it then went pitch black inside. I called out “hey I’m in hear, can you open it up!!”…..nothing….then called out “I bet that’s Ben Boyko out there, come up, funny joke, but open up!”…still nothing, nothing, nothing….I flipped my phone open to find the light switch, and got it on. Probably more than a minute passed and I decided someone had thought they’d be nice and close my trailer door to keep things safe. I was just calling one of the Norco guys on my cell to come let me out when, sure enough, Boyko let me out. When he plays a practical joke, he’s thorough!!

I thought I’d pedal my bike (my Fluid LT) back to the house we’re staying at so I could make a late afternoon cup of tea, do some yoga, and maybe read a book until the rest of the crew arrived. I got to the house, but the key was missing from the hiding spot; someone had taken it to the event by accident. No worries though, a little yoga in the backyard on the patio carpet, and a little reading on the deck chair to a setting sun was nothing to complain about…I did miss my tea though!

I’m quite tired today as I type this, not sleep tired but muscel tired. Another three shows today, and then perhaps a cross country ride with the Marzocchi guys will finish me off quite nicely. Good things it’s sunny out, because just like my wife, I’m solar powered.

Have a great weekend folks!

Ryan

We made it all the way to Santa Cruz on Monday, it was about a fairly easy 14 hour pull from Salem, OR. That made for a relaxing pace on Tuesday. Woke up, had coffee, jumped on our bikes and cruised the Cruz sea wall on our bikes, watching the surfers, and enjoying the sunrise. Grabbed breakfast at a wicked little Brazillian restaurant, and headed for Laguna Seca to drop the trailers off, got them washed, and organised some gear.

The Norco crew is staying at a house close to the venue, so we all got settled. A couple went to get groceries, another worked on the computer, and I took advantage of the late afternoon and set my yoga mat up in a sunbeam to grab a session. 

Today we’ll set up at a leisurely pace, and feel the excitement build for the Sea Otter Classic which starts on Thursday. You can find my schedule right here! Hope to see you there!