The US Gravity Racing Season Starts This Weekend!

Unless I missed something last weekend, January 10-11 represents the first weekend of gravity racing in the US this year. Woohoo! The Southridge Winter Series is held in Fontana, CA and kicks off on Saturday with cross country, Super D, and 4x races. Sunday is downhill!

And the East Coast isn't lacking in racing either. I ran across the Blue Mountain Snow 4x Biker Cross (yes, that's what they call it) race while surfing DeclineMagazine.com. Blue Mountain is in PA, and the name of the race completely defines it. The race will be held on Saturday. Yeehah!

December's Featured Rider: Katrina Strand

It's hard to discuss Canadian downhill riders without mentioning Katrina Strand. She's a Whistler, BC local who has dedicated her career to gravity riding. Katrina and Claire Buchar are the Candian DH Girls, and the two were ranked 19th in Decline Magazine's 26 Most Influential People in Mountain Biking earlier this year. When Katrina's not racing World Cups or Canadian Nationals, she coaches other athletes through her business, Katrina Strand Fitness Coaching. Oh, and can someone get this girl a frame sponsor?--FF

Name: Katrina Strand
Home: Whistler, BC
Age: You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever?!
Favorite type of riding: Downhill! But there isn’t any type of biking that I don’t like – you’ll see me at the dirt jumps and the velodrome, riding cross country, all mountain , BMX, and road
Why you ride: Challenge, adventure, fun
Sponsors: Oakley, Maxxis, Shimano, Mavic, Fox Shox, Crank Brothers, Syncros, Dakine, e13, Giro, Fizik, Whistler Bike Park, Evolution Bike Shop, Peak Performance Massage Therapy
Website: CanadianDHGirls.com

On a rainy summer day in 1997, my best buddy Lisa Lefroy and I grabbed her dad’s cruisers and brought them up the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. We were the only people out there, slip and sliding the whole way down. At the end of the day, we were scrapped, bruised, muddy and happy. Shortly after I bought my first mountain bike!

When I first started mountain biking, my intentions were %100 genuine. I loved being outside with my friends, riding trails, going on adventures, and challenging myself. Ten years later, I have traveled all over the world with my bike – from South America to Jamaica, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. I have represented Canada at the World Championships, had top-three finishes at the Canadian National Championships, and top-15 results at World Cups. I have written several media and editorial projects, been in countless marketing campaigns and magazine articles, coached thousands of people and co-created the only women’s-only freeride event in existence, The Gala.

Through all of this, my intentions remain the same – I ride because I love to ride! All of this came through being passionate about mountain bikes. I work hard because I want to work hard. It has not been glamorous in any way. I have, for lack of a better expression, worked my ass off! But, I love it. I am so lucky to have found my passion – so when the hurdles get big, it doesn’t scare me away, it only makes me jump higher.

I’m starting off 2009 with a trip overseas to Australia and New Zealand. As for the rest of the year, I’m not so sure yet. I am still working on a frame sponsor so we’ll have to see. But whatever happens, the future looks bright. I’ll always be a rider and I will always be out there, riding in the woods, looking for the next adventure, pushing my limits and laughing with my friends.

Freeride Foundation in the Press!

We're pretty excited to see that the word is getting out about Freeride Foundation. Last month, Decline Magazine ran a blurb about us in their News Ticker. This month, Mountain Bike Magazine gave us a whole column in their Fresh Tracks section. Yes, we're stoked. We're also stoked to see the Melissa Buhl interview on the same page. Go gravity girls!

2008 WomenzWorx at Crankworx

Declinemagazine.com posted an article about the 2nd-annual WomenzWorx events to be held August 11-12 in Whistler, BC. To celebrate, Whistler Mountain Bike Park is giving the first 100 women to get to the park each day a free lift ticket. The Gala freeride competition will take place on the 12th, and there are half-day women's-only clinics to take as well. Read more about WomenzWorx here.

Sea Otter Shocker

I'm a slacker. I haven't signed up for Sea Otter yet. Last weekend, Jenna Kowalski mentioned that racing downhill at Sea Otter is so expensive that she's thinking about racing road instead. She, of course, can do that.

I know Sea Otter is expensive, but I didn't think about pre-registration until today. Mark Jordan brought the Sea Otter shocker to my attention. He posted a little rant about the cost of racing the downhill on declinemagazine.com. He points out that no matter what class you race, as of today you have to pay $90.00 to race. If you want to race slalom too, tack on $75.00. I went online and started putting it all together. In addition to the $165.00 in entry fees for the two events, you also have to pay a fee of more than $6.00 for each race. My total came out to $177.27. (I didn't commit, though.)

Mark points out pricing comparisons to other events, which makes the cost of racing at Sea Otter even more painful. Since the registration is hosted on Active.com, I was unable to figure out which riders had pre-registered (a handy feature on Sportsbaseonline.com). I'm interested in learning how many riders wait until the last minute to register.

I used to pre-register for everything. Until I started crashing all the time. In fact, after eating it last weekend at Fontana, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to ride at Sea Otter at all. Now that I know I can race, I'm not sure I want to ride both downhill and slalom like I'd originally planned. Ironically, as I was contemplating all of this, Allie called to see if I'd registered yet. She brought up a few more disturbing points.

• The late entry fee rate has risen $24.00 from last year's cost.
• On the Downhill Racing page on the Sea Otter home site, the $65.00 entry fee rate is not raised to $90.00 until "after April 4". Active.com says the rate changes on April 3.
• Pros have no downhill practice on Saturday according to the schedule on the Sea Otter site.
• The chart on the 4-day event schedule has no pro downhill practice on Friday or Saturday.

I'm a copy editor by trade, so I tend to get nitpicky when it comes to type-os and missing information. However, if I'm going to pay $90.00 to enter an event, I want to know precisely when I can practice. For $90.00, I should be able to ride as many laps on the course as I please.

Visit declinemagazine.com to read Mark's comments.