Uni up Diablo! second go...

My second ride up Diablo!  This time I made it up the "wall"!  Pretty stoked and am a bit reassured that I have been improving since 2012 when I last rode it.  Also, that was when I was recovering from my 4th shoulder surgery so maybe that hindered me a bit?  

A glorious day awaits...

Stefan and Nathan enjoying the fine fall day...

Nader taking it easy for his knees...

Beautiful colors.  Green hills!

Being interviewed with a guy from Mt. Diablo Cyclists.

Nader catching up.

Nathan on his way up the wall.  I had 125mm cranks, so I need to practice my balance a bit more to go slower.  

Airplanes buzzing us on the way down.  

I love Mkhi!  Glad to see him get the playing time he deserves... hopefully with goals like this he'll stay in the starting line up...

Vid: Xmas break in Tahoe with the kids

Had a great time in Tahoe with the fam.  The rain from the week before had killed the snow pack, but it was fine for teaching the little ones how to ski.  A few of the days it got warm enough that the snow started softening up on certain aspects.

OK, here's the short version highlighting Nikko's improvement over the 4 days of consecutive skiing.


And here's another longer one... for family mostly.

My first SUP race... Long Strange Trip.

Tim congratulating the guy he beat in the "kayak" category.  

Durbs encouraged me to sign up for a paddle race that he signed up for with his buddy Chuck. Turned out to be a beautiful morning (it had been raining quite a bit here), a really fun event, and an interesting peek into a subculture full of nice folks.

This was going to be by far the farthest I'd paddled at 13.3 miles and I was a bit nervous, but I was pretty confident that I'd finish and not die.  At the end I was tired, but I wasn't really sure where... I think mainly my lats.  I wore my stinky Aquasocks under my trailrunners which worked quite well for my foot.

The event was well catered with yummy food, great beer, and awards for everyone (I got a 101 Surf Sports beanie for coming in 2nd in my division).  The SUP-ers started 10 min ahead of everyone so it was really cool seeing some of the best surfskiers around up close and personal.  All in all, a great morning....

https://paddleguru.com/races/LongStrangeTripPaddleRace2016
https://www.visitmarin.org/event-calendar/2016/december-2016/long-strange-trip-101-surf-sports-paddle-race/

And here's the log...

this black bird loves the Dragon Wagon...

the veterans all knew each other quite well...

in SUP racing there isn't much difference between going at 70% vs 90%... I didn't pass or get passed by a SUPer after the first mile.  I was behind her for the whole race...

AK 2016 - Vid part 2

Well... this is long overdue... egh?  I should post up some pics from this trip too... ok... on the to do list... 

I've been just busy watching vids like these... then I don't feel like making these vids anymore... sigh.
BUT... it was fun to go back and edit the footage so much later as now I recall the trip a bit better.  

MOONLINE -- Mathieu Bijasson from PVS COMPANY on Vimeo.

The kids first day of the season!

They did pretty good... Nikko couldn't get enough.  He wanted to keep going, and going, and going... 

Ecuador! - Part 1: Papallacta Hot Springs

OK!  Back to Ecuador.  Man, I'm slow.  This was a trip commemorating Kimbo's 40th trip around the sun.... we were trying to decide where to go... and we went from bike touring in Germany to just going to Ecuador.  Which was awesome.  Many thanx to Kimbo's folks for watching our boys while we were abroad.  We made sure to Skype with them most nights and the boys and grandparents did an amazing job.  

After arrival at Quito, I rented a car (around midnight), and somehow navigated our way to our AirBnB, close to the airport.... we only managed with the the help of Google Map's offline function.  

The doggies... 

arriving at Papallacta in the Chevy Spark.  This thing was a hoot...

and right away we decided to go check out the property by going on a short hike.  But the clouds were pretty low, so we couldn't see any of the big peaks...

Alpacas...

and the little waterfall we walked up to...

looking back to the valley

and back for our dip!

The hot tubs were pretty amazing...

sweet door egh?

and to Quito to start our adventure!

Some pics of typical Ecuadorian food... they love their hominy

and meat...

typical lunch consists of a meat with fries and rice... 

LINKS:
Check out these podcasts about randonneuring... they feature the SFRandonneurs and the second episode is partly about the Fort Bragg 600k that I did a few months back.  I remember that lady in the campsite talking to everyone... I was drinking a beer and resting I think...

Nocturne - http://www.nocturnepodcast.org/nocturne-episodes/
Episodes 23 and 24.