Just got back from the race #1 of the new NWCUP race series at Dry Hill, just west of Port Angeles. The NWCUP basically takes the Port Angeles stops of the previous year’s Fluidride Cup as their own race series.

The great thing about a mountain bike race series that starts in March…. that it starts in MARCH a full month before the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey CA, which most consider the annual kick off to the race season. The bad thing about having the first race of a mountain bike series in MARCH…. the weather. It could be good, it could be bad. This weekend was a bit of both.

SATURDAY

I missed the first ferry to Kingston, but really wasn’t in too big of a hurry. Once in Kingston it will be about an hour of driving to till the race venue at Dry Hill, just west of Port Angeles, WA. Practice starts at 9:00, so I will have plenty time.  I saw Scott Stewart and Levi from Bikeworks of Lake Stevens and got caught up on whats new. I haven’t seen them in about a year.  Scott gave me a bad time about the amount of dust he figures is covering my bike in the garage back home, nothing new there. (PS…… anybody want to by a barely-used “vintage” Santa Cruz VP Free ????)

Roll into the parking lot and hit the hill. Not raining, but not sunny. Like many of the guys racing this weekend will be a good opportunity to try out most of the new gear acquired since last season. A couple new lenses and some new lighting.

I met photographer, Ki Kopkau shooting on the trail.  I’ve seen his work at many of the same races I shot last year and was always very impressed with the quality of his work. It is always nice to finally talk to people that you only know on-line or or only know by nome from visiting their website. I have come to think of other photographers in a similar way that I (when I raced) considered other racers.  They are my peer group. My social peers, which you share experiences, exchange ideas and stories. But to some degree they are “competitive” peers and I want to see how my photo results stack up to theirs.

SUNDAY

Woke up from an awesome sleep at the luxurious Port Angeles Super8 motel (it was very nice, and as a bonus, its very cheap. We retired my mobile accommodations “casa de mazda”, so staying in an actual motel is a bit of something different) got a couple cups of lobby coffee headed back to the race course.   RAIN.   I talked to some of the guys getting in an early practice run reported from that the fresh-cut sections of the Pro/CAT1 course was soaking up the rain and it wasn’t much slipperier that the day prior. That report changed as the rain continued and “Dry Hill” became “Wet and Muddy Hill”.

Anyway this was my first field outing using my newly acquired set of PocketWizard PlusIIs, which I found to have somewhat of a learning curve, but I am getting the hang of them. STill waiting to get a new camera, but figured that could wait. I’m pretty happy with the results considering the weather. I definately have some things I want to do different for the upcoming ProGRT/NWCup#2 coming up in a couple weeks. It was good to get back out shooting bikes. Jake is sick of me taking his picture all winter.

Check out my full gallery of all the photos from 2010 NWCUP #1   HERE

— G