12/29/2012

Day 5, Tarik Saleh Bike Club 100 Challenge

Whoop, long day. Had some brekkie with the famly and then my brother and I took off for some Stand Up Paddle board lessons.
Old man and an old man sport, brah...

Which was good fun and all, I found it ridiculously easy in the smooth harbor and then fairly challenging in the (very light) swell and wake area just out of the harbor. I did not fall off until we hit cross wake, and then I fell a few times, my brother did not fall at all. Seems like I liked the longer narrower SUP than the beginner wider one, but it may be that the beginner one was not quite big enough for someone of my massive presence.

Car watching here on the streets is insane
Streets are paved with cherry VW's

I clearly had some balance problems that I was not expecting, maybe due to some knee issues and lower back issues, but all in all it was pretty fun and I would do it again. We got right up to a bunch of sea lions piled on top of each other on a buoy. Other highlight included paddling under some monstroso catamaran yacht parked in the harbor.

In unrelated news, I am enjoying all the rolling shamble bikes here in Santa Barbara, lots of great homemade trailers and basketed cruisers piled high with stuff. I saw this couple down by the harbor
SB apocalypse trailers
I saw one other similar trailer up by campus. Both of these trailers were piled high with reeds or tall grass. Maybe for shelter building? Not sure what is going on, but it is a thing here apparently.
Later I rode down to my brother's house for pizza and movies for the whole family. My nephew has better hair than me, but I got him in the mustache department for now

Nephew still has better hair than me...

Rode back in the dark, enjoying the humid cool weather and the peepers and abundant herons and suicide bunnies along the trail. Saw some nice crusty abandoned wheeled detritus on campus. Like these encrusted salmon brake pads on a half stripped gas pipe Bottechia:
Supercrusty

The ride total was a bit over 20 for the day. Putting me at 67 total . Hopefully I will get a chance to sneak out for one more long day before I leave here on monday. Would also like to welcome UnkyBike MoBabo MichaelL to the challenge, riding on his fat bike up there in the artic north somewhere, he knocked out 51 miles on his fatbike somewhere in search of the a passage to warmer climes, he ate no sled dogs. JerryM in Los Alamos is holding down the fort riding his fixie in the cold. Andy Big Dummy Daddy is updating via his blog. Others are cruising along with notes via comments or email. I think that makes 10 people in on the challenge not named Tarik, so I am pretty psyched.

Mr Jalopy Sends photo evidence of some MTB adventures somewhere in LA
MTBFever Dec 27 - 1 1

Well done everyone.

6 comments:

Sean McCarthy said...

Thanks for helping me out of my turkey-beer-cookie-induced stupor by offering this challenge. Could easily have seen the bike staying in the garage and me staying on the couch in front of the bowl games this holiday week. Didn't see the post until the night of Christmas, but got 12 miles in Wednesday, 14 Thursday, and 32 yesterday. A little over halfway there.

Sean McCarthy said...

Thanks for helping me out of my turkey-beer-cookie-induced stupor by offering this challenge. Could easily have seen the bike staying in the garage and me staying on the couch in front of the bowl games this holiday week. Didn't see the post until the night of Christmas, but got 12 miles in Wednesday, 14 Thursday, and 32 yesterday. A little over halfway there.

mindful mule said...

I like this challenge. So I might as well throw my cap into the ring. Although I'll probably go for option number 3. I'm rather exhausted from all this holidaying. Plus it's raining here, three blocks from eLAy. And we don't go out in no rain. Santa Barbara's looking beautiful. Thanks for your Blog Freekin Gold. Happy New Year. p.s. - suicide bunnies would be a great name for a band.

Jerry said...

Got another 15 in today on the fixed gear. Got all the way up to 29 F today! Warmest day so far this week. Hoping to do 32 on the geared bike tomorrow. That will leave 10 more to go for Monday. Forecast is 40% chance of snow for Monday. Might be a tough 10 miles.

JerryM

Andy D. said...

Those are quite the impressive facial follicles. Nice Squareback sighting, too. I lend my voice to the appreciation for your effort to get a growing group of us out on a bike. Riding promotes sanity, and is especially valuable this time of year.

Wileydog said...

hey howdy Scott from Spokane here and I have accepted your challenge,too. Great idea. Been riding along since Wednesday. Santa Barbara sure looks nice.