Thursday, April 29, 2010

Croatia is made of ROCK lets go to Italy!


finding some 'trails' in Croatia...

A few more days in Croatia.. we tried to search for some MTB trails, but it appears Croatia is a very rocky landscape with little dirt to be found. We decided to hit up another national park but when we got there it was deserted. We decided to hike this trail up a hill with my bike to see if there may be any cool spots to shoot but it was mostly covered in snow and the view to the lake was hazy anyway. We headed to Italy in search for DIRT!

I had heard about this place ‘Nimis’ in Italy from my mate Carlo who I met last year at Riva Bike Festival. They hold a slopestyle photo contest each year so we decided to go in search for the course cos I was keen to ride! Upon arrival in Nimis, a small rural village in the north east of Italy, surrounded by Vineyards, we found the closed information centre and only a few locals traipsing the streets. All we could do was go to a cafe and order our second Cappucino for the day. Italian coffee rules! Then by some stroke of luck sha and I were looking to see if anyone was inside the locked info centre and I spotted a dude on a dirt jump bike – the first ‘real’ bike we had seen in a while.. the guy spoke mostly Italian but we worked out he was part of the Nimis Slopestyle Club (www.slopestylenimisclub.blogspot.com) and soon we were following him in the Bumblebee to the slopestyle course – Pistoni. Had a bit of a session on the lines and then they had to go so I took Sha up Monteprato to do some mellow DH runs back to town on old access roads through vineyards etc.
Hangin with the Nimis Slopestyle crew

Went back to Pistoni that night and had a good ride with a few of the guys from the club, finished off the night with Pizza and beer and started driving to Riva Del Garda.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Switzerland to Croatia

nat park Croatia


inside the VAN!!!











Sup Brah's
Me and Sha cruised off from Switz on tuesday and headed for Croatia , we drove thru Italy and called in to the Garda lake (where we are heading next week for DJ comp) to see whats up. it was pretty sweet , the lake was hella flat and I went for a swim and it was F##kin cold .
We pinned it to Croatia , Thru Slovinia , Oh yeah And we copped ANOTHER fine (in Italy)for having a bike rack on our car ( without a reflective triangle) which just GOT ME STOKED!!! Police men are such lovley chaps.
We got into Croatia and every thing seemed super chill which I was happy about , not to many jerks on the road , plenty of parking spots and nice and CHEAP for a dirtbag MTBer like ME.
We went to some canyon to look for some big mountain lines , it looked sick in the photo but when we got there climbing equipment may have been more appropriate rather than a bike! I found some scree slides to ride , which was sick .
We also went to a couple of National parks , there are some kick ass places to check out here.
I am in the town of Split right now which is a cool coastal town , We are here for a couple more days then we head back to Italy for the Italy KOD comp in Riva del garda next weekend which should be cool banannas
look out for more shizzle commin soon
Chur
Kelly

Monday, April 19, 2010

The town of Fucking, Austria.



We called into the town of "Fucking" last week on the way home from Vienna, we had heard about the place and looked on the GPS and found that the it wasn't much out of the way on our route back to Switzerland. Shanine and I decided it would be a CRIME not to call into Fucking to see what the place was all about. After all it's not every day you find a town with a cool name like that. As we followed the GPS instructions and left the main highway the roads got smaller and smaller and we were wondering where on earth we would end up. The road leading into Fucking took us past rural farm areas and there weren't even any road markings.
When we got into Fucking I was stoked, I was just really happy to be there. while I was in down town Fucking I waved my New Zealand flag around and also pounded a Redbull to stay energized. We looked around town for a shop to buy a Fucking souvenir but we couldnt find any!
All up I decided the town of Fucking was fucking cool.
apparently there is a town here in switzerland called "Bitch" maybe we will call in....

Rocket Air Slopestyle, Switzerland

The Rocket Air slopestyle went down in the town of Thun in Switzerland on the weekend . I showed up a few days early to help my mate Ramon out with a bit of course building.

The course was set up in an ice hockey stadium which actully worked out to be pretty cool as the whole crowd could see every part of the course and could sit down drink beer.

I was pretty stoked on the course , it had a pretty decent roll in drop into a big dirt jump then a step up step down into a box jump then final dirt jump then a quarter.



flip off the start drop

The comp kicked off on Sat afternoon , All the Euro shredders and some USA riders showed up so it was pretty gnarly , i had a couple of not bad qual runs and made it thru to the finals . stoked.

The finals were loaded with shredders, I had to man up and flip down the first drop which had a tiny little kicker and was hella scary, but got it done in practice just before my finals run. I had a couple of good runs , I got pretty loose an a barrelroll and only just managed to footjam the quarter... but other wise I was pretty stoked. I ended up 12th .

Just another day at the office!.. ha ha ha!

The battle for the top 3 was pretty intense with it all coming down to the last run , Martin Soderstrom took 1st in the end with a smooth run and a 3 double whip. SICK. and kabanni and pilgrim in 2nd and 3rd.




Over all it was a sick comp the staduim was stacked with people , it was an awsome atmosphere, like watching a game of ice Hockey but 1000000 times Better!!!!





Course building team on lunch break











Sundbaum came over to ride the comp and hang out







Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Vienna Air King

Turned up to Vienna and stayed at Niki's place, the next day he took us to his personal "Dirt Garden" dirt jump park www.dirtgarden.at it had cool lines in both directions and a sattelite dish.
The next day we went and checked out the Vienna Air King course, I checked into my hotel and my room mate was Aggi which was cool. The course was sick, right in the middle of Vienna with a sweet first drop and 3 comp style dirt jumps finishing with a quarter.

I was getting blown around in the wind a little bit but the jumps were fun as hell.

On the day of the comp the weather was a bit shady but we got on with the comp anyway. The Euro riders were on fire, some sick riding was goin down. I got a safety run in the bag which landed me in 16th place so I had to step it up on my last run because only 15 guys went through to the final. I had 360'd the first drop in practise a couple of times so I decided to go for it in my final run, I landed the drop smooth but just tagged my back wheel when I flipped the first jump and didn't have enough speed to get through the set.

I was bummed but thats just the way it goes. The rest of the comp was sick and holy some crazy stuff went down, I was really impressed with Martin Soderstrom's double whip down the drop.

It was a great comp, thanks to everyone involved!














Friday, April 9, 2010

Czech Republic and Linz dirt jumps

Linz dirt jump park

Next stop was Czech Republic for some sightseeing in Prague and drivin the country roads to Linz Austria via Tabor. Prague was a really cool city, we checked out some old stuff and drank some coffee then hit hte road.

We tried to find out if there were some dirt jumps cos there are some sick Czech riders but no luck so we ended up riding at the Linz jumps where they hold Austrian king of dirt. Niki Leitner came to meet up and ride which was rad, Linz jumps were sweet, loads of lines and a couple of pretty large jumps. We sessioned there until we were tired, then loaded up and drove 2 hours to Vienna

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Bavarian outback

From Switzerland we drove the "bumblebee" to the Bavarian outback of Germany. She made it all the way there! Phew!
I met up with Dominic Amberger at his backyard dirt jumps, we rode until dark - it was a good session!
"The Bumblebee"
Kelly and Dominic at his jumps

Sunday, April 4, 2010

A week in Switzerland

Hangin with the tourists at the Top of Europe

Just spent the last week in Switzerland getting sorted for the next few months, bought a super sexy Fiat Fiorino, it's amazing. Hopefully it will get us around the place.

Did some DH tracks in Thun with Ramon and the crew. Wicked day for it. Some fun riding around here.
Next stop was 'The top of Europe' with a million other tourists.. it was super wicked up there with views all round the alps and stunning scenery. The train you take to get there is the highest in Europe, it goes up to 3500 metres

Top of Europe

On the way down we stopped in the Alpine Village of Wengen where our friend Naomi, who is a local showed us around and we watched the annual Poolrace event where competitors race down a slope on skiis or snowboards with the aim of making it all the way across the pool of ice cold water, some are pretty good at it, others not so much and there were some sick crashes and splashes which was entertaining!


Poolrace in Wengen

Other than that have been enjoying Swiss food - delicious cheese, bread and meats, even got treated to a home made Fondue dinner the day it snowed!

The next mission is to Vienna Air King which is a dirt jump contest in downtown Vienna.
www.vienna-air-king.at
Going to check out Czech Republic on the way and do some sightseeing.

Cheers, Kelly McGarry

Rocket Air Slopestyle teaser vid

Rocket Air Slopestyle 2010 Teaser from Rocket AIr on Vimeo.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

McGazza has landed in Europe...

Rocket Air Slopestyle banner in Thun

Flew into Zurich on Monday night where my mate Ramon picked me up and drove us to his hometown of Thun to hang out and find a van for the trip - champion! Switzerland is a great place and wicked to start the trip here. Woke up to snow on the ground this morning which was pretty but it better melt soon so we can ride!

Have been setting up my bikes and getting sorted to head to Vienna Air King next week -sick! Thun is holding Rocket Air Slopestyle contest here the week after so will be back for that after Austria. check out www.rocketair.ch

Downtown Thun, Switzerland