CORBA Fat Tire Fest 2006
by Rob Blue on October 14th, 2006
Today was CORBA’s annual fundraising Fat Tire Festival. I was sure on Friday that it was going to rain and ruin all of the fun but it turned out to be perfect weather for the festival and mountain biking.
CORBA is Southern California’s most active trail advocacy group. A good chunk of the trails that everyone rides in the Los Angeles area are open to mountain bikers because of this group. Serious bikers in the area know CORBA well so the turn out for the Fat Tire Fest is a good one.
This was sort of a kick off event for the Evomo Mountain Bike Team. This was the first time anyone has seen Mikel riding in an Evomo kit. Mikel was not only riding but leading a group ride and teaching a skills clinic with none other than mountain biking legend Marla Streb. I barely slept Friday night I was so excited.
While Mikel was off riding, Bryan, Greg and I enjoyed meeting our fellow mountain bikers. What a great group of people. Mountain biking has a completely different vibe to it versus road biking. I’m not knocking all roadies but a few of them need to learn how to turn off the attitude. I have only witnessed this in a handfull of mountain bikers. Most MTB riders check their egos at the trailhead and just enjoy the ride.
We had quite a bit of traffic at the Evomo tent. Lot’s of people wanted to see my Scott Scale that was hanging from the roof by it’s seat.
We handed out tons of stickers and catalogs for Evomo and our partners Kenda tires and Stan’s NoTubes.
One of the highlights of the day for me was watching the log pull.
The other was listening in on Mikel and Marla’s skills clinic.
I love watching the look on peoples faces when their riding skills start to click. I saw a lot of huge grins out there.
The end of our day couldn’t have gone better when we got a visit in our Evomo tent from Marla and her husband Mark. Both of them are the coolest most down to earth people you could ever hope to meet. We had a nice chat about La Ruta de los Conquistadores which I am thinking about doing next year. Well, it was nice until I got freaked out by the talk of poisoness snakes, crocodiles and rickity old train bridges with 5 foot gaps and a 40 foot plunge below. Both Marla and Mark say Costa Rica is a must do for mountain bikers. I’m sold.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
I was at the CORBA FTF last weekend. What a cool event. Thanks for the great skills clinic that Marla and Mikel hosted. I wish we had more time with them. I am definitely a weekend warrior that would love to try a bit of local mountain bike racing sometime.
I dig your clothing designs. the Hurl is my fav!
J.