While preparing for the holidays and free time, check these posts older from this summer:

Marko wrote an excellent article (with videos) about B.A.S.E jumping icon Jeb Corliss a while ago, read it HERE.

Mountain biking is clearly our number one summer activity, so we’ve made quite a lot of content relating to it lately. Some posts here I (subjectively) rank valuable/informative (especially if you have any interest on mountain biking in Finland):

Tahko MTB Event 2008 - Finland’s biggest Endurance race/event (with cool pics I got from a fellow Finnish rider, those are worth of a look at least)

Riding Pics from Heinola, Finland - well, this post is kind of unfinished and the pics are not action ones (as I was riding solo), but IMHO the images just tell quite well about the riding / nature here…

Riding my Fully Rigid Singular Swift SS - An article I wrote to Made-to-Order Bikes site…check out this cool site (and thanks again for Carl to letting us to promote our little ramblings on their site, heh. Anyway, I also hope this article will be helpful/inspirational for some other riders out there. At least for me riding a fully rigid bike was a nice and teaching experince.)

Ok, for some obligatory freeride stuff I chose THIS POST where Marko is remembering some older bike flicks, riding in the Swiss Alps and the amazing skills of Bobby Root. Pretty cool stuff for sure.

Our featuring writer from Greece, Andreas Cavalieros, posted some information and tips on mountain biking in Rhodos Island. One of our most informative and interesting articles for sure (again in my humble opinion).

If you like some more water sport oriented material, take a look of this post from Andreas too:

How about windsurfing this time?

And while on the subject of Southern Europe, Marko wrote an article about very interesting site in Spain:

El Caminito Del Ray - The King’s Pathway

That’s a nice ending to this post actually - as I’m off to Spain for some time. Let’s see if I get to ride a bit while there and also at least take a look at the mighty Pyrenees - a place I’ve wanted to see for a long time.

We’ll be back in the beginning of August. Homeboyski wishes you relaxing summer holidays!

________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Usually we like to try write something valuable, not just send pictures .

Anyway, my last mountain biking related article got this comment from Carl of Made-to-Order Bikes, Atlanta:

“Would love to have you write a guest post on our blog about this…contact me if interested!”

Pretty cool. So, we agreed with Carl that I will wrote a first ride report/review of my new fully rigid 29er set-up to their site. Keep checking their site for the real stuff about this issue. I only post a few (lower resolution) pictures here for now.

Ps. We had a blast riding the bikes today. A fully rigid bike  isn’t THAT bad, after all…

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I converted my Singular hard tail 29er to a fully rigid single speed. (See the earlier set-up here). While I was totally happy with the bike e.g. in the Tahko MTB endurance race a few weeks ago I thought it is time to test something totally new.

I practically learned to ride a mountain bike on a full suspension. I had an old rigid GT Tequesta steel frame back in the 90’s but I used the bike more as a commuter and only rode on some very easy trails occasionally. So, this is going to be a totally new experience for me. I believe that the 29″ wheels and big, meaty tires (Panaracer Rampage 2,35″) are going to help some though.

I only rode the bike to work couple of times. It felt what I imagine a huge BMX would do - pretty stoked about the feeling; sharp, fast handling, accurate, and light, so easy to loft the front on top of things. “Trialsy” riding on this set-up would be fun! Also, rolling down on some steep sections was very nice, while the geometry stays the same the whole way. (Yes, I played with some urban features and such when commuting, and felt totally like a little kid again!). Riding a single speed again was a total blast (see some more history here). I am only a bit concerned on how the set-up will work on the worst technical roots/rock gardens we have here. I will report later more as I get the first real trail miles under my belt.

I used a normal Shimano rear hub, a single speed kit and a few spacers from an old rear cog. A bit “ghetto” but works with no problem. The frame has a Phil Wood eccentric bottom bracket shell - the converting was an easy task. The gearing is the standard 32-18 (While 32-19 would maybe be even better for our trails, this coming from an experince of riding a Gary Fisher Rig for a season here in the local trails.)

Isn’t it a beauty? I totally dig the simple aesthetics of a fully rigid single speed

Ride report coming soon…

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Another sure sign of the coming autumn is the realeses of ski movie trailers from the production companies.  If you don’t have any feel for skiing at the moment, I am pretty sure you have after watching this trailer. (I thought I was totally into biking right now and  was going to write about cyclocross and cyclocross bikes but skinny tires and spandex wearing guys will wait for better time for now…)

They are not too modest at the MSP, naming the movie “CLAIM, the Greatest Ski Movie…EVER!”. Well. why shouldn’t they - big production, big budgets, the best skiers in the world. This is SKI PORN, as I already wrote last winter (about their last movie, Seven Sunny Days)

Still, what impressed me the most was the song (well, almost). I can’t believe they put THAT particular song in the trailer (Do you believe this was actually all the rage in the 80’s? In Scandinavia at least, and at least among the 12-year old school boys! Those were the days, I believe I learned my first wicked daffies and spread eagles at the pretty much same time Europe was on the top)

Ok, no more rambling, here’s the trailer, enjoy

Few observations from the trailer:

They brought back the “Saucer Boy” - great!

That floaty air at around 2.50 - pure sex. I just love stuff like that. Sure the flippy-spinny stuff is cool but nothing beats the simplicity of a big tucked up air, “sent” with some serious speed (so that you get the good trajectory, not just fall from the cliff!)

Paraglider “switch up” at around 3.47 - Holy s**t. Usually I don’t dig base/paragliding etc. stuff so much in the ski movies but that was something different & creative!

And at last but not at least…sorry, I got to do this. The real stuff, Europe performing in their home country, sometime in the mid eighties. Well, enjoy(?) also this. That guitar solo (3.34–>) is pretty damn cool, heh.

Click-if-you-dare!

(Too bad the embedding was disabled by request…but click on the link for the great clip!) 

But maybe we all should. How many times have you thought about starting summer training  right now but realised in November that you’ve totally lost your ski legs and gained a respectable beer belly during the summer months?

I wrote some time ago how I constantly look for interesting ski blogs and/or sites (to be added on our blogroll, or just to be mentioned here in the posts).  Recently I was again doing some research and stumbled upon this one: http://winterwonderings.blogspot.com/

Ok, then I browsed a bit through Ian’s texts, and bumped into a series of posts about ski fitness. This information is as basics as it gets - and that’s the greatness of it really. We here at Homeboyski like to keep things simple and stupid…meaning that we are willing to offer very basic “how-to” information for anyone interested in the sport of skiing. So, this time I feel the best way to do this is to link straight to Ian’s ski fitness posts:

1. The most important ski muscles

2. Legs

3. Core 

4. Arms

The author in trouble…having some leg muscles, especially hamstrings, would probably have helped here!

 Ian’s posts are indeed very basic stuff. But in the end getting shape for skiing isn’t that complicated. Pick up a muscle group, work it, rest a day or two, train another muscle group…repeat say three times a week. And vary your program once in awhile, like in six weeks periods. I am 100% sure if anyone starts this NOW, he/she will be more than ready to hit the slope in the early winter.  

Also, people (skiers) usually seem to be very fascinated about the nuances of ski technique. While the truth is that being in shape just helps so much too. Having finessed tehnique is always a great thing but e.g. “powering” through difficult conditions has nothing wrong with it (in  my humble opinion of course). In the end  power often equals technique and vice versa. Think any very strong skier and I wonder if you disagree with me?

I have been a mountain biking guy for years and biking is good for your general fitness for sure. I still feel that some weight/strenght training wouldn’t hurt - and I always promise to myself to start the weight training earlier than before but usually only do just a short period of gym training in the late autumn. Reading Ian’s texts hopefully motiovates me to start a bit earlier this year?

So, Enjoy the summer but don’t forget that winter is just behind the corner. Starting training now would probably be better idea than e.g. buying tons of new gear that actually won’t get you any better! (yes, I know, easier said than done…)

Sooner than you think it is (hopefully) going to look like this and up you must go…and drinking beer  and eating nachos won’t help you with any peak-topping stamina!

The race was my first big “marathon” event. I took part on the 60km (just over 37 miles) route, the most popular class. Other classes/routes were 25km, 45km, 120km (75miles) and 180km (112miles). (Btw. on the longest race, 180km, the participants have to apply in advance to get a permission to ride - you have to somehow prove that you can ride that distance in requested time limits!

Syväri Lake and the race-ending downhill at the background (click for larger pictures):

Marathon races are mostly concidered quite untechnical. Tahko MTB is a exception to that rule: about 1/3 of the trails are fairly technical, maybe 1/3 some easier single track & fire roads and the rest is gravel roads/asphalt. The amount of roads has been increasing through the years though. This is a bit sad but on the other hand, the area developes all the time (lots of new construction) and the organisers have to somehow deal with the growing rider figures - it is not easy to figure out how to let some thousand bikers onto the same narrow trails and avoid bigger “bottle necks”.

Hectic feeling at the Start, photo Jonna Keskiaho (used by permission):

Still, the above fact leads me to my only complaint: as a first timer I wasn’t quite sure about how to deal with the different “tactics” and how to divide the power onto different sections etc. My only “tactic” was to maintain steady pace and not to rush it too hard on the first third of the course. This was a slight mistake. The start was divided into three groups and I was in the second group (the biggest one, with riders who aimed at around 4-5h end time). I should have maybe gone to the first “hot” group or, optionally, sprinted into the lead in my group and tried to maintain a good position for the trails. I didn’t do this and after the start’s (quite long) road sections was kind of forced to ride the more technical trail sections in a long line / “traffic jam”. My bad. This lead to a feeling that I rode slow where I am usually relatively fast (technical single track) and faster where I usually take it easier (roads / mellow sections through the “real” trails).

Kinahmi Trail, can you dig this? Photo: Touho Häkkinen (used by permission):

I guess that all is also a question about the riding style / personal character. I once took part in Finnish Enduro race where the idea is to race timed short(ish) technical sections, ranging from about three minutes to around 15 minutes, and the transitions between the sections are not clocked. That was fun as hell and I think I might get into those later on again. (Note that the British term “enduro” means pretty much what we call a “marathon” here. The Finnish “enduro” is totally different animal, based on the motor bike enduro races)

Anyway, the event organisation was top quality, the weather was nice (although the trails were slippery from the previous week rains), the views quite stunning (a bit of a suprise), people were having fun and the best trail sections were super-duper-good. I especially remember one long downhill which started a bit more technical then changing to more even, very fast single track. I got lucky and was able to ride that particular downhill mostly by myself and got only chased by a guy just behind my back. I was just having fun and tried to took air on every possible bump etc. The guy behind me was on some “normal” full suspension trailbike (and me on my hard tail 29er). After the downhill trail we got into the gravel road and slowed the pace down a bit and the guy was asking “does the big wheel really go THAT well…?”. Well, I guess it was either the bike or the fact that I was having those rare “flow” moments where you just ride as fast as you can and totally feel in control with the bike (ok, let’s not get too “zen” about riding and whatnot but I guess you know the situation…in a way you are totally focused and totaly relaxed at the same time! Good powder skiing comes to mind as a comparison)

(And, yes I can totally recommend the 29er bikes, especially for taller riders. But let’s not get into that too much at this post. Let’s just say I dig the concept, eventhough it is definately not for all riders)

Slippery when wet…photo by Touho Häkkinen (used by permission):

All in all Tahko event was a very positive experience. I guess I might even to train some for real next year and try the 120km option - just to get to ride the emptier trails in peace on the second loop, heh (the route consist of a 60km loop, and 120km = two rounds on the same loop).

And yes, if you are interested the results can be found here. (Click for “hae” with empty fields and you get all the results at once. Btw. check out the time of the winners…those guys are fast!). My time was a modest/average 4.45 for the 60km. But who cares really, I wasn’t there to win anyone but myself. And after all I got the feeling that I might even ride a bit faster and/or longer, which is good if you think motivation to participate in the next year’s event!

And at last but not as least; this guy’s bike, see below - Surly Karate Monkey 29″ Fixed Gear, 32-18 gear ratio, front disc brake and 100mm of front suspension. And yes he rode the 120 km route. Talking about dedication, skill and pure crazyness!

PS. Special thanks go to fellow riders Touho Häkkinen and Jonna Keskiaho for excellent pictures and the permission to use them. Check out for more here.

See you on the trails..The fixed gear guy and all the others on single speeds inspire me to just go out and ride - it is all about the ride, not the technology and gear IMHO…

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(Image source: www.pinkbike.com via www.tetongravity.com/forums)

The feature is built in San Jose, California and sponsored/promoted by the energy-drink mega corporate Red Bull it self.(By the way - do you know anyone that drinks their stuff actually? IMHO Red Bull could concentrate on building up events/features like that and promoting & marketing them but personally I couldn’t care less about their actual product after all. Probably younger generations differs on this but I mean does the drink even taste good? And don’t get me wrong - I really dig their events though!)

The Freecaster.tv site has a really cool video shot on location in the dirt pipe (check out below). Damn that riding looks fun. I mean even as an aging geek moving into a more xc(ish) riding lately, I can really appreciate this stuff. Loot at the front flip at around 1.00. That move still looks like it somehow against the physics althought they’ve been around for several years already.

Ok that’s for now, a little shorter post this time. Tomorrow I am going to ride in the biggest MTB event in Finland, Tahko MTB (they don’t have a proper English site which is kind of sad). I am “only” participating in the “wimpy” 60km route (37,3 miles) while some others take part in 120 km (75 miles) and 180 km ( 112 miles!) rides. Well, maybe next year…The good thing I might even have some time to takes photos from the event.

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Kalle just joined the international 4FRNT’s team.

(Image Source: www.newschoolers.com)

That is some great news for the Finnish skiing. We have had intenational level alpine skiers like Kalle Palander and Tanja Poutiainen already for a while, not to mention the mogul guys but the bursting new school skiing scene has waited this moment already for a couple of years. Everyone that follows the “scene” here has known that there is talent here that is as good as in international teams. Iisko Heiskanen’s 2nd place in Orage Open 2006 was one clear indication of that fact (the guy was only beaten by the man himself, Candice Thovex!).

Kalle Leinonen, on the ther hand, was a promising alpine racer only a few years ago before he concentrated 100% on freestyle. I believe he was ranked first in his age group in Finland and quite high on the FIS list too. So, you kids out there: don’t judge the gates too hard…knowing a solid turn never hurts you later in your skiing life! By the way, Kalle’s sister, Sanni Leinonen, is on the Finnish women Alpine Ski Team and has done quite well lately, despite her young age. I believe we are going to hear more from Sanni in the near future as well…

But back on the topic. Kalle probably didn’t have a very high international profile before this great move. He has concentrated on the FIS events and won almost every competition he entered. A quote from the 4FRNT’s site says:

“Well, if I told you that we had a rider that finished in the top-5 in competition over 80% of the time, you’d think Tanner Hall or Jon Olsson. If I told you that this rider stood on the podium at competitions 9 times in a single season you’d probably think about TJ Schiller or Simon Dumont. You wouldn’t change your mind when we told you that he beat out more than 10 X-Games competitors throughout the season or that he finished second overall in the World Cup standings or that he won his country’s National Championship and was named Freestyler of the Year. In fact, you’d probably bet a fair amount of your bank account when I told you that you weren’t even close. But, that’s exactly what this young phenom did this past season – at the ripe old age of 18. Didn’t see that coming, did ya? Check out Kalle’s team page.”

Check out also the impressive merit list on the 4FRNT’s site.

Again, congrats Kalle! We are going to follow what this young jedi master is up to in the next season for sure.

Below is a video of Kalle on one of his latest standards, a double rodeo 900…(and I thought daffy-twister was the s**t when I was 18, heh)

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What you could call a “trail” has some variety though. Quite alot of the riders in the several locations around the world probably would call our (often quite technical but pretty flat) trails more of a lazy sunday cruises. For Example, I remember a Mountain Bike UK interview of the downhill racer Steve Peat which included some “trail riding” with him. (Note: seems like the magazine has no website of its own but works with this larger community: http://www.bikeradar.com/ - looks definately worth checking BTW.) The magazine staff was quite suprised that Peat’s thought about “trail riding” included e.g. drops of about 6-10 feet and some very steep downhills!

The so called North Shore riders in Vancouver, Canada, are another crazy breed. Some of the stuff the guys call “trails” would be labeled as full on “stunts”/bike park freeride here - which quite a few riders would even attemp I guess? 

The below video shows an example. “Mishugina!” trail on Bowen Island, Vancouver - built by the legendary rider / stunt builder, “Dangerous” Dan Cowan. Check out the no-handed track stand at around 0.50. Technical, eh? The Drop In Crew riders make this kind of stuff (almost) look like it would be a walk in the park…

 And as we get into the gravity assisted mountain biking: an example of  Steve Peat riding. Freeriding vs. DH? You be the judge…I’d say downhillers still get my vote, by a very very small margin though. I’d just say DH competitions are all about speed and that just separates the men out of the boys, just like in skiing one could argue? Anyway, enjoy the video:

I still search for any good ski blogs around the world to add, and just recently found another very interesting one. (by the way, if you want your blog to be added or know some you think are good enough, just contact us!)

Wildsnow by Lou Dawson is all about human powered backcountry skiing (particularly in Colorado). So, no lifts, no helis, no sleds…up you go - by your own foot. How cool is that?

And if you don’t happen to know the man, here is a short description taken from his site. Pretty hard to deny Lou’s auctority in his field, isn’t it?:

“Dawson is the first man to have skied down all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks. His grand adventure began with a ski descent of Castle Peak in 1978. He added a few others to his list, then in 1987 he set out in earnest to ski them all. He accomplished his goal in May 1991 with a 16 mile, 16 hour ascent and ski of Kit Carson Peak in the Sangre de Cristo range of southern Colorado. A few of the “fourteeners” offer wide and gentle ski slopes, on others, Dawson contended with pitches of 45 to 60 degrees.”

That said, the site offers some really good information about the ski randonnee gear, backcountry tips and of course great articles of anything related to ski mountaineering and backcountry skiing.

I especially find these info “packages” very useful (another example how a blog can be really helpful and offering valuable information for the reader!):

Dynafit Info

Fritschi info

Binding Mounting Instructions

Marker Duke info

Gear weights

(By the way check our earlier articles about the Duke and How-to Decide Right Binding Mounting Location on Today’s Skis…)

And how about Old Backcountry Gear Ski Museum? Must be a ski-gear geeks’s heaven!

All in all, Lou’s blog is clearly one of the most respectable ski blogs of the whole internet (in my humble opinion of course). I think I could spend days with all the great archive content! And I am sure I will be back checking out Lou’s article frequently in the near future.

Also, I will go through the Lou’s blogroll and links - quite unfamiliar names to us there. I bet there is some more really good content to be found. I will write more about this later.

Enjoy the midsummer, we are going to be back soon with some more summer sports related content!

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