Five Broken Cameras

Jamie and I were hanging out last night and we found ourselves with a few hours to spare. We decided to watch a movie we haven't yet had time to see. My vote was Gandhi, her's was a documentary called Five Broken Cameras. My movie was three hours long, her's was an hour and a half. We watched her movie.

Now, I don't pretend to understand anything about the Middle East and what is going on over there. I only know bits about what Jamie shares when she lived over there in the summer. Anyway, Five Broken Cameras is a documentary filmed by a Palestinian man about his town and how it is being encroached upon by others. Through the course of his filming he breaks five cameras whilst documenting the violence.

I didn't understand the complex situation and politics about what was going on and so I'm not trying to give an opinion on the situation  I'm just trying to say what I saw in the movie, and what I saw was a little town, filled with people who lived in a situation much different than my own. Their situation was dangerous, unknown, and somewhat helpless. I felt fear for them as their land was taken, soldiers threw tear gas at the residents, the town residents threw rocks back, and people were killed. Through all of this the man filming keeps showing his little boy and family. I looked over at Jamie, and I thought about the future we are about to begin together. About how uncertain I sometimes feel, and how fearful I am. I wrote a poem about it the other day, in order to get my thoughts out on paper.

O whither leads the path I take?

On which my entire life 's at stake

Is power of direction mine,

or led by something more divine?

O wherefore don't I know,

O, whither I shall go?

My blind step seems so slow,

but...is that truly so?

For whither leads the path I take?

So shaky are the plans I make.

I do not know what I will be

o whither does this path take me?

Despite this uncertainty I realized how lucky I still am. I am lucky to live in the land I do. I'm not stuck in some situation where men with guns take my land, my livelihood, arrest my children, shoot my friends, and the laws which should protect me are ignored. I live in such security. I have such opportunity  I was a little ashamed of my fears, when Jamie and I are so lucky and have so little to actually fear.

I thought of how many other places there are in the world where people don't have the chances I do. I felt a strong responsibility to help. I have a favorite hymn with words that say, "Because I have been given much I too must give." I feel so blessed and therefore must seek to help and give. Now...I don't mean this as a type of "white mans burden". I don't see myself as any better than any other human beings. These people in the movie were people just like me. They just live somewhere else, have some different customs, language, but they are people like me. Somehow, in the organization of the universe, I was deemed to live in the place I do now. I'm lucky, and I've been given much, so I feel that I too must give.

This kind of thinking was the impetus of my trip, this Longboard for Love endeavor  A way I saw that I too can give, especially to the Romanian people I love. A teacher for these abandoned kids can turn a hopeless situation into a wonderful thriving life. I wanted to help, but I also have a hope that my effort can inspire someone else to see that they too have something special and unique to give to the world. Something that the rest of us need. That we can demonstrate some active integrity, mixed in with love, and help one another. Life is too hard to do it alone, and too challenging to make it more difficult for each other.

I feel that as human beings we must help our fellow man. What could the world do if there was a little more love for one another? In Five Broken Cameras the protesters often pleaded to the humanity of the soldiers  Asking if they had family, homes, pity. I wonder what was going on in the minds of the soldiers as they tried to remain stone faced to the terror.

What would the world be like with a little more LOVE?

Thank You S-One Helmets!

In preparation for the trip, we've been looking for the best gear to bring with us. Crucial to the trip is the board, and we're grateful for the help from Kahuna Creations and their awesome Black Wave board. Just as important as the board, in my opinion, is the helmet. Both are essential and one should not go without the other. If you have a board and no helmet, don't ride it! Get a helmet first. If you have a helmet and no board, well...I suppose you can wear the helmet around. If you really want to. But unless you're trying to start a safety oriented fashion statement you probably want a board too.

My current helmet is a little small for my head and gets uncomfortable on long rides. I started doing some research to find a new helmet, and I was astounded to find out that my current helmet wasn't certified for safety. I even called the company's customer service to ask them about it. Longboard For Love has been looking for the best helmets for the trip. Safe helmets first. Stylish helmets second. Great news everyone...we found them.

We've been able to work something out with S-One Helmet Company. They have been friendly and helpful with us. We emailed them, explaining the project and our need, and within 45 minutes they had emailed back with more than enough help for us. What prompted us to contact S-One Helmets is their concern for safety. They really emphasize their dual certified helmets the most, and tried to inform their customers about helmet safety instead of and I liked that.

I'll talk about helmet certification in a later post, but this video does an incredible job at explaining and demonstrating what it means.

You may ask me, "Mason why should I wear a helmet? It messes up my hair. Its uncomfortable. I've never crashed yet." "Well," I may reply, "allow me to ascend my soapbox and tell you why."

BECAUSE NOT WEARING A HELMET IS IDIOTIC!!!

Every year, in the USA, there are about 900 deaths from injuries due to bicycle crashes. In 2011 there were 42 deaths related in skateboarding. Now these are deaths, not the concussions and brain damage that can easily be done to your skull and the three pounds of tapioca pudding inside your head. I wrote a post earlier about traumatic brain injury (TBI) and what happens. There are on average 473,947 emergency department visits for TBI each year for children 0-14 years old. The CDC says "Children aged 0 to 4 years, older adolescents aged 15 to 19 years, and adults aged 65 years and older are most likely to sustain a TBI." Below I've shown a chart with the statistics of TBI annually in the United States. The chart brings up a good question at the bottom. How many more people hit their head and suffer damage or bruising to their brain and never receive treatment for it.

So...what does a helmet do? Why don't I just sit inside and protect my head from the frightening world outside? Well...what a helmet does is, in short, slow down your head. When you crash your head is moving at a certain velocity. Upon impact your head comes to a sudden stop. The skull stops but the brain keeps moving and bounces around; bruising itself and tearing on the bone in the skull. If you are wearing a helmet it lengthens the time it takes for your head to stop when it hits something. This causes the impact to be less severe and optimizes your brains chances of survival in an impact. This is why we need to protect our heads. This is why S-One helmets is so wonderful. Because they care so much about certifying your helmets and protecting our heads. Wear a helmet!

The S-One Lifer

Now, if you are one of the valiant ones who has made it to the end of the post I have one more thing for you. My Behavioral Neurobiology professor made each of us students make an oath to him in class. We stood up, put our hands over our hearts, and promised to always wear helmets. He was kind enough to share the pledge we made with me and I've included it here. I expect all of you to make the same pledge. Post it in the comments with your name filled in, and wherever you are, stand up, put your hand over your heart, and pledge to wear a helmet. If anyone looks at your funny, invite them over, I'm sure they need it too.

I [your name] do solemnly swear that I will always wear a helmet when I engage in potentially dangerous activities such as riding a motorcycle, riding a scooter, skateboarding, riding a bike, skiing, horseback riding, playing hockey, lacrosse, football, and baseball, white-water rafting and kayaking, ice skating, roller skating, roller blading, sledding, unicycling, etc.

Crazy Summer

Well....this post has no purpose except for me to share how awesome my summer is going to be. This weekend my fiancee Jamie and I were up visiting family. There was a lot of snow and my mom and sister wanted us to take picture in the snow. We were good sports and went out in the freezing cold for pictures and they turned out pretty good.

I was looking at them this morning and I thought about my crazy summer coming up. The school semester ends April 24th. Jamie has graduation on April 25th. I leave to longboard 650 miles on April 30th. I finish on May 28th. Fly back to Utah, and on May 31 I get married to this beautiful wonderful woman shown below.  June 3rd we leave for a few months for an internship in California. Crazy crazy summer. Its going to be a lot of fun.

Please, everyone else on the road, don't hit my with your car while I longboard. I want to make it
back safe for my wedding or else this cute girl will not be too happy with me. 

The Board... Has Arrived

A big thank you to,

The trip seems even more real now, and I'm super excited to go! This week, my board arrived. THE board that I am going to take with me for 650 miles!

Kenton and I thought for a long time about what we wanted to bring with us. We both have Sector 9's, but they just didn't seem right. I love mine, but its too high off the ground and a little too squirrely for a long stable ride. The wheels and trucks are huge, along with riser pads to make it even higher. This makes pushing hard because I have to go so far down to reach the ground. The quest for the perfect board continued.

Kenton with his new board. He decided to go
 Black Wave with the clear coat finish. Looks great.

In our searching for how we should do our trip we found distance boarding legend Rob Thompson. He holds many a record for distance skating. His first board he used was low to the ground, stable and solid. Just the right thing for long distance pushing. However it was a Rolls Rolls carbon fiber board and Rob learned his lesson with that. It was too stiff and just not the right material. He teamed up with Longboard Larry and the developed the Pusher 2.0. With this board Rob traveled the length of China! This seemed right for Kenton and I.

That was until Kahuna Creations came out with their masterpiece, the Black Wave. I really love Kahuna and their stuff, but beforehand their boards didn't match what I was looking for. They have great boards for cruising or carving. I was just missing the drop down, low-ride, stable board I needed. The Black Wave was that and more. Besides being a high-performance board, it just looks amazing. Not only will we be rolling along easier, but we will look good while doing it. I talked with Kenton, we compared our options, and in the end, the sheer beauty of the board, and our existing relationship with our friends Kahuna Creations, convinced us we needed the Black Wave. The quest.....was complete.

We contacted Kahuna and they gave us a great deal on the boards. Kenton's arrived first....and I was jealous. A few days later mine arrived up and my parents house. I had to wait all the way until the weekend to go visit and get the board, and it was beautiful. Wonderful board, with black Bear trucks, and clear orange Kahuna wheels. Behold my excitement as I opened up the board.

The box is here! I'm so
excited to open it

What could it be?

PAPER!

This was a good and happy moment. Look at the joy on my face.

Thanks Kahuna

Sadly I haven't been able to ride it yet because it has been snowing almost non-stop, all I could do was stand on it and imagine. I am super stoked to though. Kenton and I are really excited to take these boards on their first long-distance trip!

Thanks once again Kahuna.

With Your One Wild and Precious Life?

Jamie and I, and you can see the book right there.

I love poetry quite a lot. When I asked my fiancee, Jamie, to marry me I used a book of poetry to propose. I got an old copy of Poems by Robert Frost and I wrote her a note and a page number. When she turned to the page I had written the question, "Will you marry me?" there.

I have favorite poems like "If" by Rudyard Kipling, or Edmund Vance Cooke's "The Eternal Everyday", and I love Edgar Allen Poe, or anything Shakespeare. I just love poems. One that I've liked for a long time now is by Mary Oliver.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

It's a poem about the beauties of life. All of the paradoxes that exist in the graceful swan and the lumbering bear. What a beautiful world that allows such diversity! The precious metaphor of the grasshopper who stays a moment and flies away. It gives the imagery of a lazy summer day, and then ends with a reminder how life will end, even these summer days. We are left with a question, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

This is a question I ask myself a lot, especially in this time where I am trying to discover just what I want to do. This is one reason why I'm doing this trip, because it is something I desire to do with my one wild and precious life. I want to help people. I want to do something I love doing, like longboarding. 

We live in a culture where we love to tell each other to "go for your dreams", "reach for the stars". It is nice to pat each other on the back and say, "Yeah...go for it man." Its fun to say, but our culture only likes to say it, not to live it. It tells you to live for your dreams, but then tells you to wake up to reality.  Eventually we need to "grow up" right? 

We live in a culture that doesn't let people feel good about themselves. We're never skinny enough, never pretty enough, never wearing the right clothes, never eating the right food. One of the worst is that we have dreams about doing great things, like a good marriage or happy family, or helping other people. "That is not success or fulfillment," the world tells us, "What you need is money, this new car, or a nicer phone. A high paying job or promotion would make you happy. Marriage is a failed institution, not to mention constraining. Children whine and slobber. You can't make a living helping other people." 

Its hard to say with all of these influences shouting otherwise, but I don't believe those things. I really think that we can all go for our dreams and we'll be happier doing so. We have this time here on earth to be joyful.    However we don't have much time here in this life because, "Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?" So why not go for what we love.

That's one thing I hope to do with this trip. I really hope to be able to help the Romanian children, I hope to have an adventure, and I really hope that it can inspire others to go for their own dreams. 

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"

Kahuna Big Stick

As a college student, it goes without saying that I am poor. That is just the life we all lead, and its not that big a problem, I eat, I have a place to live, I'm doing really well. I am also paying for this trip from my own pocket. However longboard equipment gets expensive. I have been petitioning help and I would like to introduce one of my sponsors.

Paddle Handle

The rubber blade

I've been wondering how to get more endurance and mileage out of each day, and I thought a stick to push with would be good. At first I contemplated using a crutch, or a broomstick with a rubber tip. Thankfully, a company that saw where they could help stepped in and gave me some assistance  Kahuna Creations is a company that makes longboards and also a really cool little invention they call the Big Stick. Its like a paddle, but at the end there is a rubber blade of sorts that you can use to push off the road. A genius idea. They helped me out in acquiring two sticks, one for me and one for Kenton.

I have been nothing but impressed with them and their product.

I got the adjustable stick which will be helpful to carry on my backpack on the trip. It is much more sturdy than I anticipated and the rubber end is quite durable. I've been able to go on rides for four or five miles and my feet never touch the ground. It adds a whole new element to longboarding! It is also a really good core and arm workout. I went out for an hour when I got it and I was beyond sore the next day. For distance longboarding this thing is a must-have.

I really love having it. I get some funny looks sometimes, but I like to think everyone is just jealous of how awesome I am.

Over the weekend a friend and I went up Provo Canyon to ride around and look at the fall leaves. It was so beautiful we decided to take some pictures while we were up there, we rode a casual three or four miles. It was a perfect day, and using the Kahuna Stick was a lot of fun.

My lovely friend and photographer, Jamie Wheeler. She's a little upset
 because I made her wear a helmet.

The fall leaves were amazing. 

I feel a little vain with this montage of me. 

I hope you are all of jealous of the beautiful day I got to spend. 

Few things make you as happy as spending time in nature, riding your board, and
spending time with good friends. Good day.

Thanks Kahuna for the help. I really appreciate it. 

Longboard Helps: How to Brake

Unforgiving rock hard asphalt. Covered in little gravel pebbles and tar. 20 grit sandpaper surface. This is what is waiting to welcome you if you fall off your longboard. This is not a welcome most wish to have. Longboarding can be a very fun sport, but if not done safely it can cause serious injury or even death. One thing to keep in mind is that the faster you go, the harder you fall. Therefore it is paramount that you keep your speed in check.

If you get going too fast not only does your danger level build, but you may experience the dreaded SPEED WOBBLES!!! (Dun dun duuuun). At certain high speeds and with certain board set ups, your board will start to uncontrollably pitch from left to right and eventually throw you off. Take this poor sad man for example. He had a bad case of the speed wobbles, and the lucky guy was stupid enough NOT to wear a helmet. Bad decision every time! He's lucky he missed the car and made it to the grass.

I remember my worst case of the speed wobbles. I decided it would be a good idea to put my longboard trucks on my skateboard. Then, stupid and without a helmet, I decided to bomb a hill. I was surprised at how sharp my turns were on my board. However I forgot that the shorter the board, the less stable at high speeds, and soon my carving turned into wobbling. The full force of my stupidity hit me and I wondered what to do. I decided to bail before I got going too fast. I jumped off my board...took two running steps...tripped...did a flip....landed on my back and rolled four or five feet where I came to a stop on the curb of the road.

I lay there bleeding, groaning and wondering why I ever did something so dumb. My little brother came racing by me on his board, "Mason! Are you okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!!!!" And he shot right by me as I lay there in the road. I eventually pulled myself off the curb and onto the grass and waited for my brother to come save me. Five or ten minutes later he returned and was somehow surprised, after my ragdoll asphalt acrobatics, that I was still laying down. He took me home and I was fine except for some roadburn and bruises. I am lucky beyond all reason that I didn't hit my head. When I flipped I really should have slapped my forehead on the ground. I got a lucky chance, and I've always worn a helmet ever since.

I can tell you from experience, check your speed, stay in control. Going fast is fun, you do look cool, until you hit a rock and go flying, or get speed-wobble-thrown and get all cut up. Controlling your speed is one of the first things you should learn.

"Mason, hold on a second," you may ask me, "there are no brakes on a longboard. How on earth can you control your speed. "Good question," I respond, "there are a few ways. Lets talk about them."

Ride It Out or Bail
If you feel confident enough you can just have faith and keep riding until your board slows down. If you're on a hill that levels out at the end you may be able to hold fast and ride it out. If you feel uncomfortable my advice is to bail before you get going too fast. Jump onto some grass. The sooner you get off, the slower you'll be going, and the risk of injury is minimized.

Skidding
If your board has a kicktail you can push it down to the ground and use that as a brake. I would suggest getting a tailguard if you prefer this method or else the road is going to eat up your board. To be honest I would not suggest this method of slowing down. Lifting your two front wheels off the ground while going at high speeds is not the brightest or safest idea.

Sliding
A fun but more expensive way to slow down is to slide. Basically your board goes perpendicular to your direction of motion and your wheels slide sideways on the road and you slow down. Its fun, and it looks really cool. I suggest looking up some videos on how to do this. It can get a little pricey because it causes damage to your wheels, causing flat spots that bump as you ride, and sliding-gloves are recommended as well. This can add up. This video below shows some pretty cool slides as well as some impressive footwork.

Carving
Turning your board from one side to the other, or carving, will slow you down. The harder you carve the more you decelerate (my physics teacher would hate that I just used that word). This is a lot of fun for riding  and a preferred method of braking. Carve those hills! My one word of advice is not to play "Chicken" with the curb because you lose every time, the curb won't move out of the way, and Bonnie Tyler will not sing about her hero.

Windbraking
If you are going at a speed of 25 or more miles per hour you can stand up and spread your arms, pull your jacket out wide, just do everything to create as much wind resistance as possible. Certain companies sell "sails" you can buy, the problem is that wind conditions have to be near perfect, and one crash will tear up the "sail" material. Windbraking won't stop you but it may slow you down just a bit. There are still better methods however.

Brakes on Your Board
Some companies do make brakes for your board. I'm not sure how well they work but they look cool. You can check them out here Skatebrake.com and Brakeboard.com.

Foot Braking
Besides carving this is my preferred method of braking. Basically you are dragging your foot on the ground and this slows you down. This can bring you from high speeds to a standstill if you want. You need good balance because what you do is take your back foot (or whichever one feels most comfortable for you) and you drag it on the ground. Start by putting the front pad and toes on the ground and slowly lower your heel down and try to apply pressure using the whole surface of your sole. As you can see from my earlier post on shoes, this does eat up the sole of your shoe. However, I think its better to have asphalt damage to your shoe than your face. This is why I recommend going with a cheap pair of shoes, a pair you bought specifically to trash. Practice foot braking because, in my opinion, it is the cheapest and best way to slow down.

Kahuna Big Stick

An ingenious idea of a "paddle" for riding was used by Kahuna Creations. It is basically a paddle handle on one end of a stick and vulcanized rubber on the other end. This is primarily a propulsion device, but it can be dragged on the ground to slow you down. It is a lot of fun to use for pushing forward or braking, I would suggest anybody getting one. Dragging it for braking does cause some wear on the rubber but you can buy replacements for pretty cheap.

Now that you know all of these methods, get out and practice them. They will make you a more dynamic rider, and really increase your fun when you aren't falling and getting injured all the time. Most important though, WEAR A HELMET!!! Safe speeds and safe riding is no substitute for a good helmet. You can go brain dead moving at five mph or fifty. Wearing a helmet is your best tool to minimize injury. My personal favorite are Triple 8 helmets, and I'll explain why later, but just get some sort of lid on your head.

Team Member Two: THE Kenton Durfee

Last camp trip we built a shelter

I would like to familiarize all of you with the second member of the Longboard For Love team, Kenton Durfee. Kenton and I have been close as can be ever since we were little boys. We lived right next door to each other until the age of three when my family moved to Kansas. However we would see each other every summer when my family visited Arizona. A lot of my favorite childhood memories are with Kenton during those summers. Everything from camping, to swimming in the irrigation ditches, chasing chickens, scenic hikes, milking cows, running around barefoot, and all sorts of boyish tomfoolery. Kenton is one of my closest friends and I admire him very much.

Kenton and I with his family

Kenton introduced me to longboarding back when I was 14 years old. I had just gotten back from living in South America and we were visiting the extended family. Kenton and I were nigh inseparable that summer. His dad had just bought a Sector 9 board, which would actually be the same model of board I would later buy, and he let us take it for a ride. I was instantly hooked. Riding up and down the streets for hours in the blazing Arizona heat. I loved longboarding the moment I stepped on a board and I couldn't really explain why. This glorified plank of wood, which had been shaped and worked, attached to metal bars with urethane wheels was one of the most thrilling things I had ever experienced.

Kenton's last visit we
 explored this cave

Kenton was patient with me and let me ride probably more than I should have. We would play, swim, and work during the day. Then, late at night, after the construction workers had gone, we would go to a nearby road which was being re-paved and would longboard for hours. Rolling on the newly paved road was like skating across a smooth sheet of ice, no bumps, little rumbling of the wheels. It was wonderful. As soon as my family went back home I began my own life of boarding. I guess we could say that one reason I'm doing this trip is because Kenton introduced me to longboarding. Thanks Kenton, and thanks Uncle Dale for letting us ride your board.

I'm really excited to do this trip with Kenton. He is a great guy. He is determined and hard working so he won't give up on the hard days. He has a great outlook on life and a positive attitude, which will help on those draining days when we push uphill with a headwind pushing us back. Best of all Kenton is my friend.

I'm sure he'll have a lot to say when he starts posting on the blog.

And then there were two...

Kenton and I playing frisbee golf while camping.
Its a family tradition for the guys.

Well I am more than happy to announce that I will not be embarking on this trip by myself. My cousin Kenton Durfee has agreed to accompany me. I called him a few months ago when I first got this idea. It was just after I went to meet Ben Smith on his trip, that I went to grab a bite to eat with some friends. I was sitting there and I got an idea. I quickly scrawled "Longboard really far" on my receipt stub, so that I wouldn't forget what I was thinking.

I thought about all of my friends who would agree do something crazy with me and then actually follow through, and Kenton came to mind first. We talked on the phone for an hour or so that night. We were absolutely thrilled at the prospect of doing something like this. The biggest obstacle has been organizing both of our busy work and college schedules together. Kenton has committed now...and he's coming. All he needs to do is figure out if he is coming for the whole trip or just part of it.

I'm still looking for others to join, especially if Kenton can only come for a week or two and not the whole trip. Anyone interested? Let me know.

Journey to Utah Lake with a Side Quest or Two

One of my goals in training is to become better at longboarding longer distances. The furthest I had gone before I got this idea was about eight miles. Two days ago I put in my headphones and got on my board headed down the Provo River Trail. There are few things that are more relaxing than cruising on your longboard listening to some tasty jams. The soothing and constant rhythm of kicking your feet and carving down the trails, a steady grumble of your wheels spinning on the pavement below your feet, the warm summer sun beaming down on you as you have this time alone to just move and think. I absolutely love it.

Before I knew it I had been going for about a half hour and needed to turn around, a friend was coming to visit. I turned around and rolled on for a few feet when I saw a sign. It was a map of the trail and on it I saw that I had gone about five miles from my home and I was a mere half mile from Utah Lake. I turned back around and went all the way to the lake. It actually felt really cool to go there, but sadly they wouldn't let me into the lake property because I didn't have two dollars to pay the entrance fee. I just got to see the sign and turn back.

Headed home I was cruising along again and I looked over the the river on my right, I saw some kids on a rope swing swimming in the river. I jumped off my board and ran over to join them. This rope swing...was awesome. The water was deep and slow making it perfect to swim in, although it did smell a little like fish and was completely opaque. It was a fun little adventure and I have since gone back again with my friends to swim there. You can't see these things when driving by in a car. That is what is great about traveling by longboard, you are inserted into the local environment, you experience everything as you pass through, instead of just passing through.

Another thing I saw was a movie being filmed along the river. There were camera crews and a bunch of people dressed up in clothes from the 1800's singing and two men dressed in white in the river re-enacting a baptism from early Mormon times. I hope I didn't bother them when I was crunching through leaves and sticks trying to take a picture of the event. I'm a little disappointed with how my picture turned out but I didn't want them to film and view the footage later only to find a guy with a longboard and bright blue skating helmet peeking out of the bushes across the river.

I got home after 10-11 miles of riding and hung out with my good friends. One thing I want to mention is that my back started killing me in the evening, something that hasn't happened yet on a longer ride. I wonder what wearing a hiking backpack will do on 30-50 mile days will do. Hmmmmm.........