Olympic athletes are so darn disciplined, where do they get it from?! I managed to get myself in to a contest with my friend and Olympic silver medalist Dave Calder, he’s a rower from Victoria, BC. It’s not a rowing contest, I’m not that crazy, it’s a contest to see who can accumulate the most carbon friendly transportation km’s among our friends….and he’s already in the lead

So I need your help! Project Blue Sky has a beautiful widget (look to the right to see it in my blog) that you can use to track the number of green km’s you travel, for instance biking, walking, or transit’ing.

If you don’t do it for climate change, then maybe you can do it for my ego by going to Projectbluesky.ca, signing up, joining my team named “Alternative Approach”, then entering your km’s in the cool km tracking widget, be sure to enter my team/group name ALTERNATIVE APPROACH when you do so.

I chose that team name because I’m technically classified as an alternative sport athlete, and taking transit or riding your bike to the store/work/school is an ‘alternative’ approach to driving solo in your car.

Dave is already in the lead, and I only have one week to show him how transportation saavy my friends are.

Ride ON!!

There has been an endless stream of exciting projects, adventures, and challenges this year; and that’s just what I wanted-to mix it up a bit.

Norco has their 2010 product launch next week. For most riders, this would be a drool fest, having the chance to test ride and learn about all the latest bikes and specs, but it’s reserved for only their top dealers and invited media…and factory team riders! I’ll be doing a show, leading some mountain bike rides and an urban ride, and giving a chat about the Fluid LT (my bike of choice).

I have been brainstorming with another key sponsor of mine, Shimano, about a new project that will involve five of their top team riders and one of the most talented film crews…that’s all I can say though;-)

In a couple weeks I’ll be heading up to the Yukon to film with The Ride Guide TV show. We’ll be hosted by the leading mountain bike adventure company in Whitehorse called Boreale Mountain Biking; they’ll be spoiling us with the best trails and some fine accomadation in their famous yurts…I love yurts, maybe because it’s fun to say out loud, yurt. If you live in those parts, come out to my Trials of Life presentation on July 24^th.

A couple days ago, I teamed up with two Olympic medal holders David Calder (rowing) and Stephanie Dixon (swimming) to launch ProjectBlueSky.ca. Using the internets social networking power, we hope to inspire people to use alternative modes of transportation (walk, ride, transit) instead of their car. The goal is to save 1,000,000,000 kilometers of car driving by the time the 2010 Olympics finishes. Incidentally, One billion km’s is equivalent to the 190,000 tonnes of CO2 which is being emmited indirectly from the games. VANOC has offset their direct emissions which is fantastic news, but Project Blue Sky is all about preventing and reducing emissions. Please sign up at Project Blue Sky today, we need everybody’s participation!!

Twitter twitter twitter twitter, I guess I’m a twitterer twit. Check it out if you like….

The YogaThon is this Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium (UBC). Sign up here to help raise money for children affected by HIV and give them the opportunity to go to Summer Camp. . I actually had the opportunity to visit Camp Moomba, the summer camp these kids go to, to do a trials show and teach some yoga. I had a blast, the kids loved the bike riding of course, and that gave me some cred for the yoga sessions. The kids probably won’t start doing yoga, but perhaps later in life they’ll think back to this camp and consider giving it another try. If you can’t go or don’t live nearby, please consider donating some money to the cause. I’m on a fundraising team captained by Eoin Finn called the Bliss Army, you can donate on our behalf here!

Talking about Eoin, I was only able to teach yoga to these kids because of the teacher training course I’m halfway through. I wrote an article about my experience during the first 100 hours of this course, and reflected on what the ancient practice of yoga looks like in our modern world.

After about four months of volunteer work, the Port Moody Rotary Trials Park is now open with fresh lines and challenges. The highlight is an obstacle my dad and I designed which has now been tagged the Trials of Life platform, and because of it’s four quadrants of varying height, it will appeal to all levels of riders. Fun!