BALLS TO THE WALL FISHING

The only place to stay current on the latest manic ramblings from the Florida Panhandle.

CHEEKY FLY REELS, THE OFFICIAL REEL OF BALLS TO THE WALL FISHING

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

AND THEN THERE IS THIS.....

NOT EVEN WORTH ONE UPPING...BUT.

In 1984, I had moved to the town of Gunnison, Colorado after spending my first winter out west in Kestone. I ended up there by strange circumstance in my 1970 Opel Station wagon that took me west from Tallahassee, Florida. My first summer was spent working in Yellowstone National Park where I met still good friend Duke Brown, he owned a bike called a Stumpjumper, I'd never scene one before, but duke would ride the thing around the trails of Yellowstone before they were outlawed there. The next summer in Gunnison, I sold my car for $500 and bought a mountain bike hybird for almost $700, it was a TREK 890, and I rode it to work everyday in Almont where I worked as a rafting and fishing guide all summer. That fall, the town just to the north, Crested Butte, hosted an event called Fat Tire Bike Week. It included a mountain bike race ( I believe over Schofield Pass from town), and it also included a overnight ride to Aspen over Pearl Pass. Our camping gear was hauled up the pass by a couple of piece of crap old trucks that also hauled a but load of kegged beer up there. Several hundred people participated, it was pure wilderness innocence and it was an amazing time to be on this new invention the mountain bike. This video recently popped up on Facebook, and I'm incredibly thankful for it, as it brings back some great memories from a time in my life when it was all in front of me. To think that to this day, 30 years later, the mountain bike still means so much to me is amazing. So lucky to have been a part of this time in MTB history. There was some crazy shit going on back then, and I remember one character in particular from Crested Butte whose name was Lynn, and he talked about how they had originally welded a road bike rear derailleur to a klunker frame to create a geared bike...who the fuck knew we'd be here today buying $15,000 mountain bikes. This video is priceless..and I lived it, what an incredible time indeed.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

BOOM BOOM, OUT GO THE LIGHTS....

If you live here in the Eagle Valley you hear it constantly, "it was epic at Vail", "best day in five years", "it's so good in Vail". It's always Vail, Vail, Vail. To be honest with you, I love that it is so epic in Vail, because the people who only ski Vail, have no clue what is going on just up the road at Beaver Creek. I ski Beaver Creek pretty exclusively, and for those of us who ski the Beav, we laugh, because we know. Never lift lines, and always as much or more snow, without having to traverse every single run for what seems like miles to get to the next lift line, and God blessed the trees at the Beav. I skied Vail with my girlfriend yesterday because she likes to ski there, and the leftover snow from the two days prior which was so "epic", was no where near as deep as what we saw at the Beav during the same two days. Everyone go ski Vail....it's epic.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

ROYAL ELK OPENS WITH A 45 INCH SETTLED BASE....BEAVER CREEK IS ROLLING

Rippin around with Ciro last Friday...super lucky to be there when the rope dropped, and then mega hot laps with the ten other people riding Grouse that day....it's better at Vail, go there.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

I BELIEVE IT'S TIME

To get back to some old school vij right here on Addicted to Bicycles. So let's do it. I'm out!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

OK, OK.....

Look, I know the blog has sucked lately, but my life is just a skosh on the busy side these days. The Mountain Games have come and gone without one picture or video post. Jake Wells won the snow bile events, including the National Championship Mountain Bike XC snow race, Gunnison/Crested Butte kicked ass, and nobody still can't beat Josiah Middaugh. 
With that said, Courtney Gregory was wondering why all the wire he rane at his new electrical job was not working very well, then he found a once hungry and very stupid fried squirrel who was the culprit. This may be the best picture ever posted on A2B, nice job Courtney.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

SVEN NYS IS YOUR 2013 CX WORLD CHAMPION

 image ripped off from CX Mag
But you already knew that...Marianne Vos once again bested Katie Compton for gold, but silver for Compton is pretty special. Wonderful ride Katie...Now they all have 8 weeks to get ready for Cult Cross.