SNAKES IN THE GRASS

So ever so nice of Mr Cooper to write us a short report from the Snakes in the Grass tournie.

Snakes went down something like this. The day dawned as it had for the last 3-4 days… beautiful sunshine and a little cloud. Unfortunatley I had made the mistake of telling everyone to bring their BBQ gear so therefore tempting fate with the weather. Got to 4pm… could see the weather was closing in a little….5pm… the “ohh shits” started…. 5.30…. light drizzle…. 6pm…. pissing down… 6.30pm… still pissing it with people arriving looking for a course that still had to laid out.

The un-race race was run at the Frankton reserve in flatish grass. The lovely council had no idea that years before the LoG was even a glint in your eye that their tree planting skills would provide us such a brilliant dual slalom course. With the aid of a few cones we had a course. Thanks to Staff for the help with measuring… yes we measured the course.. very officially in fact. We had a proper metre measurer to check the evenality of the lines.

Well before you know it there were 32 riders in the pissing rain all keen to go ahead. Course laid out and practise underway with traction being the biggest competitor,lowsides,highsides and washouts were the order of the day.Before “racing” even got underway Matt Weir managed to washout lowside and maybe dislocate his little finger.Off to the hospital he went.This saw the event quickly renamed “Suicide Slip-in-Slide Snakes in the Grass”. The draw was completley random… names in a bowl dram by Ceci. Paper Rock Scissors was the way lanes were chosen. Ging was the first man through to the second round. Reon Boe ex world cup racer managed to take out Aaron Fernandez of NZRIDE.com. However the closest run of the evening belonged to Frazer and Peter Miller. We actually had to go to a video replay care of MattyBoombatty. It was’nt a good night for the brothers Weir with Pete going endo after slipping a pedal coming out of the first turn and locking everything up. His opponent Dan from Vertigo could’nt believe his luck with having washed out round the second turn there was Pete with a bike following him upside down.

We were lucky enough to graced with the presence of Duncan Ferris for those that don’t know races 4x for DMR bikes and is here on holiday as far as we know and taking in a LoG or 2 while he is here. The final was a best of 3 affair with Duncan making it through to go up against Guto. Guto has been seen around town however no-one knows who he is but he can ride a bike. Duncan washed out in round 1 but made a comeback to win the next 2 with the rain making a final comeback to close things out. We didn’t get to pull out the Bunny-Hop-O-Meter (Pangs invention) due to the rain but it will make it out (hopefully) for the PumpOff. Pang missed the event he was looking forward to the most due to a persistent back problem. I think we may just have to throw in a version 2 somewhere. Thats about it from QT. Thanks to Staff and Pang for track input and design help. Till next time… “Pin it to Swim it” Feb 4th.

CHAINLESS V-LINE

A wee write up on the Dirt Mag website from the Chainless V-Line race last week. Click on the link for full results…sorta.

SATELLITE ANNOUNCEMENT

Push play.

MID WEEK ENZED – REALLY RAILING RALY RACE

Write up on Dirt Magazine by Jimmy Carling for the Reallly Railing Rally Race HERE

MIDWEEK ENZED DAS UBER D

So the first and second of the Queenstown franchise LoG races have been and gone…but not forgotten.

Jimbo Carling has been doing some lovely write ups for the Dirt Magazine Website recently including one on the Das Uber D. Have a read of it HERE.

T-SHIRTS…MORE THAN JUST USEFUL FOR HIDING NIPPLES

So Graeme has been printing black market T-shirts and selling them off in order to make a quick buck…

for the super amazing awesome QUEENSTOWN MTB CLUB.

T-shirts are $25 dollar and the $5 profit goes straight into the QTMBC kitty for the end of year piss up, I mean necessary trail maintainence and further trail expansion.

Seriously anybody who has benefitted from the local trails of Queenstown NEEDS to be a member of the club. If you aren’t already a member then you need to sort your s**t out and get a membership. Those trails didn’t just appear like your morning glory.

I wish I knew a fool proof way of making all you none believers sign up, instead I will just place the link to the QTMBC website HERE and HERE and HERE in the hope you three times a charm and you sign up.

If not then you’re gay, so buy one of these t-shirts and cut it off just below the nipples and show the whole you’re gay, whilst we laugh at you because your gayness has gone to benefit the QTMBC.

xox

COVERAGE

The “bloody great fun” LoG races have been getting bit of coverage recently.

Firstly here, SPOKE and Dirt Magazine web pages somehow managed to pick up the news that the LoG Queenstown Chapter is under new management.

Then Jimmy Carling has been doing a really lovely job of covering the LoG on his delightful Mid Week EnZed thingys. Firstly here.

Then the bloody huge news hit the mega web that Callum Jelley purchased the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia franchise.

But then when you thought it was all going stratospheric it went one hundred percent mesopheric when The Scene latched onto the LoG phenomenon. Read the mega front page news here folks.

For now that all. But don’t be surprised if that horrible little ozzy media mogulist comes up and starts having a nibble sooner or later…

DATES

All the LoG Queenstown event dates are contained within this post. Click the blue READ MORE tag below to get them or click on the Dates toggle which is located either at the top or side of this page. It moves…when I tell it.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SELF-TIME

How it all started. A need, an answer, and a biro.

Welcome to the LoG webber. All things start small. Infact that reminds me of a good line a good friend Brett Frew once said, “you gotta start small before you go big.”

Well we certainly started small. It was the AGM of the Queenstown MTB club in November 2008 when a certain Graeme Cooper (remember that name as this story evolves you will see there is a beautiful synchronicity to everything) spoke up and asked why the club didn’t put on events. The already swamped club had no time or resources for doing so and they made this clear. That sparked a light in a few heads. A brighter light in one head in particular.

The day after that meeting the first race was announced by Seb Kemp. It was due to take place two weeks later on the 3rd December 2008 on Graeme Coopers birthday (see synchronicity or grand scheme). It was to take place on the excellent and under appreciated Skyline trails. The name of the race was the Das Uber D which alludes to the fact that this race was going to be a little different.

The format was a super-D. A format which can level the playing field between XC and DH riders. It also introduced the (I think) revolutionary self timing system. This meant the entry fees and stress to Seb could be kept low, but mostly it meant that if it was to be self-timed then riders had to test their own integrity and honesty (“CHEATER CHEAT THEMSELVES”) in order to keep the ideal alive…

However, a fool proof scheme was invented to back this up. Instead of rewarding the ‘fastest’ riders, everyone was rewarded. First place meant nothing in the grand scheme. Everybody self judged their own ‘race’ upon the FUN that had doing so. This is something that can’t be objectively measured or compared. It’s something that only the individual can judge. There’s no losers. “FUN IS ALWAYS FIRST PLACE”.

The DAS UBER D finished in the Revolver Bar and riders had to race up the steps with their bikes into the bar and down a beer before their race was ended. No one threw up on the bar that race amazingly.

After the success of the first one. It was decided that maybe they could be more regular. A slap dash attempt was made at coming up with a calender of events, but usually it meant Seb coming up with the format and details a few days ahead of the date, or in some cases the day of, or in one case at the start line of the race.

After a summer of events many friendships were cemented and many more new ones created. That was the barometer of success.

However, the barometer also pointed to ‘changeable’. Seb didn’t return the following summer because of a date with the bottom of many many bottles of tequila. Just as the LoG races looked like they would become just a flash in the pan, Graeme Coopers birthday notification sprang up on Sebs Facebook news page. A moment of clarity. He was the chosen one. Throughout all the original LoGs he was the chap was embodying the principles most whole heartedly. An obvious choice that was so oblivious to Seb at first. A hastily compiled message was sent of to Graeme begging for him to take the reigns. Luckily he said yes, because the LoG would of being put to rest, maybe forever. In 2009/10 he has taken hold of the LoG and continues to embody all the founding principles.

Then a day after the global announcement that Graeme was to become the new organiser, Callum Jelly came forward requesting to take the principle of the LoG and share them with the folks on the Sunshine Coast, BC. Half a world away from the small hand drawn start and those simple ideals have spread.

The LoG is Seb Kemps proudest achievement, but without the help of everyone from right back into the humble beginnings to the big bright future it would of come to nothing and meant even less. Thank you to everyone that has ever helped, to anyone who has ever donated time or goods to the LoG, and to everyone who has come along to the LoG and embodied the ideals.

The future is bright…now if only we can make some bloody money off it and sell it.