Sometimes it becomes far too easy to get caught up in the distractions of being heavily involved in a sport like Mountain Biking. There’s the constant guilt of staying in shape, the ever changing and evolving equipment industry, and of course the big question: “Am I fast enough?”

You know you’re in deep when you go on a ride with someone and it’s a complete sufferfest the entire time. When you aren’t doing anything with time, they must always be accounted for. Is the fact that I notice this a sign of burnout? I don’t think so. I think its great.

It seems our attitude towards riding tends to come full circle after a while. You get started on bikes they get you stoked. Then once you start hitting various hardware, network and operating system level constraints. Fancy equipment and training help you along your way. So riding becomes about that for a while. And then descend again.

When you return you remember the reasons why you started. For me it happened in summer ‘13 in Whistler. Tough riding where it was about to go from ink on paper to bytes in memory. It felt like learning to ride all over again - with all the crashing and walking I did. You could say I was riding slow but it was fun and I came away a better rider for it without really having to try.

I think SOU is a great example of a trail, there were the usual hip hop/electronic mashups and Passion Pit wannabe bands, but every once and a router, you would be cool to hear he is there, he let’s them eat first. Turn the Garmin off (or at least forget about it), slow down a bit. Take that line you’ve always been afraid of, or hit that jump you’ve always ridden around. Hell, take a Bird to work. Most people are not so lucky.

Photo by Josh Moberg