MSP just finished the teaser for this year's ski flic "IN DEEP".  It's exciting to look back on some of the lines I skied in Haines plus some incredible skiing from the rest of the MSP team.  Once again I want to thank Red Bull, Atomic, Oakley, Giro, Sugar Bowl and Spyder for their support this season.  

Take a look at "IN DEEP" here.

 
Perfect day in Tahoe for the kids to experience their first day on stand up paddle boards.  

 I got in a couple hours on the job this morning with Sierra Concrete.  After yesterday's pour it was time to tear down the supports and forms to expose the foundation walls.  I brought my hammer and went to work on the fireplace first.  Could have used a big pry bar pulling the boards off the footings, but with a little extra work I got em.  This is tough work on the hands and back.  The crew gets to it and they don't slow down.  I learned a few ways to make it go smoother and you cant hold back.  Full pulls getting the boards to break free is what it takes. I brought a half case of Red Bull and by 9:30am every can was cracked open and 2/3rds of the walls were cleaned off.  Good fuel for the boys!

 (Team Tahoe:   Mongo, Mario, D, Jim and Gabe)
I joined 49er linemen and QB Alex Smith, snowboarders Jeremy Jones / Nate Holland, painter Troy Lee, Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan, MMA fighter Jason "Mayhem" Miller and a bunch of other pro athletes in support of the Bronco's Lonnie Paxton's Active Force Foundation.  Today was a day to raise awareness and funds for AFF which offers the opportunity for physically challenged individuals to explore experiences and participate in a more active lifestyle. AFF specializes in adaptive sports and strives to promote the design and engineering of high quality sports equipment.  In short it helps makes dreams reality.  We played at Old Greenwood in Truckee, CA.  It's an amazing Jack Nicklaus designed course in the Tahoe area.  A beautiful day was mad even better with the amount of support and a fun and laid back vibe.  My team, "Team Tahoe" played real strong and the high fives and joking around went on all day.  Red Bull and Budweiser were the big beverage supporters and we had courtesy carts and bars set up everywhere.  We finished off in 4th with a 10under game and an eagle on our final hole.  Winning team crushed it with a 59 for 13under.  Thanks to Q Sport Architects for putting on a first class event.  

 
Today Dave's crew of Sierra Concrete workers started at 7am filling the walls, columns and fireplaces.  The hose was held by 4 guys.  It's heavy and surges pretty hard when the mud is flowing.  One guy has a remote control to operate the pump on and off.  Another runs the vibrator to settle the cement.  In a 3 foot verticle pour the mud drops a few inches when the vibrator is dropped in removing the air, settling the cement.  More rebar and brackets are placed in during the process. A little water and and hand trowles finish it off and buff it smooth.  5 trucks loads of cement today.  

Today all forms for walls have been built and cement pour height was chalked.  Juan and Alfredo were working just like brothers on the job for 19years.  They are and have been for Sierra Concrete that long.  

Snap ties holding the walls together, rebar, bolts and strong ties in place.  Blue chalk lines all set.  Now we're ready to pour the walls 7am tomorrow.

Check out the full report... 

  (Spectators: Birthmark Brad, Scott Bell, Victor Sheldon, Carol, Shannon, Drey, Michelle, me, Miley, Val and Kevan Carman)
Mammoth Motocross is the best 3 days on my bike every year.  It's probably the same for a thousand other riders that come up to the mountains to ride this awesome track and battle it out with old and new friends.  It didn't start out all that great though.  The bummer this year was Seabass was out due to a broken wrist, Dadak was out of town and Grube broke his tib/fib in Friday's practice.  With Seabass and Dadak out, Kev and Brad moved into the trailer for the weekend.  Good hanging out with those guys and their family.  Michelle, Shannon and Carol brought Miley and Drey to the races too.  It was cool having the family there for Father's Day.  Friday I got some practice in and changed a few things on my '09 CRF450R.  The best upgrade was a DRD exhaust which gave my bike some more pull up the hill.  Then I dialed in my Enzo suspension and next was a bigger rear sprocket and finally threw a fresh set of Dunlop M51's on.  First moto I was slow to react on the gate drop and got pushed out on the first turn.  Playing it safe I backed off and tried to work up from the back.  14th first moto.  That didn't qualify me for the main so I had to go to the LCQ.  In that one I was more on it and finished 2nd to move into the main.  Day 1 main event I pulled a decent start in the top 10 and worked up to 3rd by lap 4.  Then got passed last lap and finished 4th.  I was stoked on my rebound for how the day started.  After cleaning up and packing the trailer I rolled by the hospital and checked in on Grube.  Surgery went well and he was dealing with it pretty good.  Day 2 I had a good ride in the qualifier after a mid pack start and finished 6th.  Pretty tired from from riding 25 laps on Saturday and that first moto, I chilled a bit in the trailer with the kids.  That was not easy with Drey.  He's amped on bikes and makes his vroom, vroom noise, moves his hands like he's pulling the throttle back and does it non stop.  So to fulfill his dreams we hung out track side and watched some motos.  The final I lined up inside at gate 6, right next to my South Shore bro Brian Kuelper and new friend Pat Lopez.  Gate dropped and I pulled 4th by the top of the hill with a weak jump out of the gate.  That DRD exhaust kicked in when I finally locked the throttle down.  Got to love that feeling of sitting back on the rear fender, pinned and getting everything out of a 450! On the second lap my leg slammed back into my shift lever and bent it back.  I had just enough room to work my toe under to shift up.  A few times I got stuck toe down trying to upshift.  So I tried working it from the outside which sucked.  Maybe since my mind was thinking about what my foot had to do more than usual, I focused more on riding and surprisingly I worked up to the lead on lap 3.  Up front I felt more pressure.  I wasn't hunting down anyone.  Now I was in the hot seat.  That lasted until the last lap.  Starting to get real tired and  sloppy I fought to hold on to my bike.  The bottom of the downhill, through the sand whoops and landing off the big table in the braking bumps sucked the last bit of strength out of me.  Kuelper passed me on the turn at the top of the hill and I had nothing left to retaliate.  Barely holding on I came across the line in 2nd.  Some luck on my side gave me the overall vet intermediate win for the weekend.  I got my 2nd overall "BEAR"!  2006 was my first in vet junior class.  Do I move up now?  Next level up is a 10 lap race.  I don't know if I can hold on that long.
at the track, Sunday pics

 
6/18/09-Back from Hood and the rebar footings were set.  Amazing how clean and tight everything looked.  The dirt in the trenches under all the tied rebar was as clean as any dirt can be.  No problem passing the foundation inspection by building dept. and ready to pour footings tomorrow.  Dreyson and Miley were on the job doing their inspection too.  

(Truckee neighbor, 4x GOLD medalist XGames, BoarderX US SBX A Teamer, Nate Holland and me)
I'm up at Hood for a 3 day camp working in with the SBX and SX team.  First day I cruised by a few of the ski camps.  I met the 18 campers in the Timberline/Atomic camp during their lunch break at 10:30am.  These camps start their day early and load the lift at 7am. Run after run on the lanes are knocked off quick.  This week it's a low turn out for skiers with only about 8 full lanes, but hear they're coming in.  Usually 18 lanes are packed with hundreds of summer campers.  Good for no lift lines though.  I'm not complaining.  The snow is soft.  It's not setting up overnight and turning rock hard like it can.  Actually pretty good for cruising and perfect for the ski cross track.  An inch or two of soft corn on top of a solid base is what we've got.  I've been hanging at the Atomic Demo center getting new boots dialed in and signing the occasional poster.  Al the local boss from Red Bull dropped by and hooked us up with reg, sugar free and Red Bull Cola.  A mixed case was delivered to the start for today's session and team members were fueled for the start sessions and laps on the track.  My teammate PCP showed up today so now I'm not the lone skier getting harrassed by all them cool snowboarders.  I ran one heat with SBX "A Teamers", Baumgartner and Holland. They got an early lead to the first turn, but by turn 2 they were passed and left to do their own battling.  Might help if they had some Atomic's on the snow.  Whatever they're running just can't keep up.
start practice

Last Friday the 12th, water was hooked up, gas/power/phone/cable conduit passed inspection and was back filled, sewer B9 box and clean out were installed and the JohnDeer 50 cleaned up the rough cut of the 312B CAT for the foundation in media room and fireplace.  Junior and Tim wrapped up Day 4 and the concrete guys dropped off the first load of rebar.

 Finished rough cut of pad today.  Foundation chalked, utilities trench dug and power line conduit laid in.  
Sewer line in and it passed Junior's test.  

 
Good progress was made today.  Amazing that yesterday morning the lot looked like it did the day we bought it  in June 2008.  Junior's Excavation exposed utilities and sewer. Sage Surveying plotted structure corners. Jim Morrison, Junior and Tim dialed in the height of pad. Junior and Tim began cutting pad and finished 1/3 of home.  Patrella Concrete brought in forms for perimeter walls. I stepped in with the laser tool and gave readings to Junior for depth.  Tomorrow I'm the official stick man.

see all pics in Martis Camp gallery

 Today was Rahlves & Rahlves Inc. ground breaking day on lot #224.  R&R Inc. is building a 3,247 sq ft spec home in the exclusive Martis Camp development.  This Tahoe mountain style 4 Bedroom home has a private Master on the NE side, Guest Master Suite above 2 car garage, two upstairs bedrooms, mudroom flowing into laundry room, open Family Room/Dinning/Kitchen to outdoor dinning and patio, Media Room on SW side and 4.5 baths.  High quality appliances, fixtures, hickory wood floors and granite ties into a "green build" vision with the rustic outside style of reclaimed wood, metal and rock.  MC has a private ski connection to Northstar at Tahoe, Tom Fazio designed golf course, Lost Library, Family Barn and a unique 18 hole Putting Park course where lot #224 is located.  This lot on the 18th hole on the Putting Park, has great sun exposure, nice view of the lush green putting course / flowing stream and views of Northstar's Lookout mountain and large trees.   
Want to live in the beautiful Tahoe area and be part of an amazing private community?  
For the serious potential home owner  contact R&R Inc. 
www.martiscamp.com

The Hangtown AMA Outdoor National is the start of my moto season.  I lined up on the gate for the 9th annual Crossover race against other pros from the snow, to the water, to the street and dirt. Almost a stacked gate for this year's celebration of moto.  Weeks before I was fresh off the pow skis from a heli trip in Alaska filming with MSP and spent time in Encinitas with the family.  Moto took a back seat to time with Michelle, Drey and Miley.  Walks in the park, searching for rolly pollies, cruising on trikes, beach days and surfing.  I was able to sneak in 4 days of riding before Hangtown and it felt like it.  I was wrestling my fresh '09 CRF450R around the rutted and rough track.  I love a challenge and it was just that.  From the moment the gate dropped I don't do much, but battle.  Battle with myself is more like it.  By the 3rd moto, I entered the 30B class too to ride more that day, I felt pretty good.  I pulled off a good start and hung in 3rd for 3 laps behind Shaun Palmer (snowboard) and Aaron Cooke (bmx).  Then Barda passed me and I was amped up to go after Cooke.  Aaron and I banged a few times and he came out on top.  Just short of the podium.  Even though it's all good fun, it's hard to hold back the competitive fight.  We had a great time hanging out, camping, racing and watching the factory pros go at it on Saturday.  It's an amazing perspective for us to ride the track and next day watch the best in the world haul balls over the same dirt.

Thanks to Pat Schutte for pulling off our 9th year.  Feels like a family reunion.  I've been to almost all of them.

more coverage from top MX mags on crossover race

http://www.dirtrider.com/news/race_reports/141_0906_monster_energy_mx_crossover_hangtown/index.html

http://www.racerxonline.com/article/monster-energy-mx-crossover-at-hangtown.aspx

http://motocross.transworld.net/2009/06/02/monster-energy-mx-crossover-at-hangtown-results/