Tag Archives: naturalcause.org

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Dude!

So, this week I celebrated another lap around the sun and I thought about my place in the world and where I am currently with friends, family, and business associates. It’s funny, but as you age, you think about what is appropriate and how you should act and think based on chronological advancement. I always say I will advance chronologically, but never mature. That give me a youthful outlook on life as I continue to pursue things like skiing and riding a mountain bike. But it is equally curious when I hear myself referred to as …..”dude.”

This word, in the vernacular of the active set, is kind of curious and not really in my vocabulary. But I find it refreshing and funny actually when it is used in conversation with some of my younger friends as well as some of my more grizzled, granola crunching associates. There are various uses to this moniker which sort of goes like the following: ” Dude? – how are you man?” Kind of addressing you as “dude” instead of your given name. Or there is the use of surprise when perhaps you have done something spectacular. ” Dude!!!!- I can’t believe you did that?” ” Awesome dude!!” Perhaps you did something not so spectacular and out of character for you. ” Duuuuuuuude??? Really man? ” Or perhaps as an expression of something really great that your greeter has done. ” Dude!!!- you cannot believe the powder we were shredding today!!” Or perhaps from what I call my communist skier friends, ” Dude!- we were tele skiing the most amazing face today. You would have loved it” or from the dirtbag mountain biker friends, ” Dude- we rode Wolf’s Rocks today without a dab. We were really ripping it – dude”

Maybe there is a question that your greeter has? ” Dude- did you really do that?” Or – ” Dude- I saw this dude rocket down that trail at full speed without any fear. That dude rips man!!” The versatility of this word is amazing. But, I can say, without hesitation that I have never used the word in conversation. Kind of like how I would like to grow a patch under my lip but I could never quite do it because it doesn’t really match my Howdy Doody personality. I have often been seen as too clean cut for that but deep inside, I would like to be a ………….dude!!

My friend Angelo always refers to me as “dude”. He is so laid back and uses the word in an endearing way when he says, ” Dude- whatever you want to do, I am in.” He leads us on great rides in the Laurel Highlands and I posted about his business recently – http://www.naturalcause.org Angelo is really a good dude- oops! Not really in my vernacular. But he is a …….good dude.

My Colorado friends tend to be laid back and refer to me as “dude” quite often. ” Dude- you have to get out here man. It is puking snow and you need to be here with us. You are a good dude and need to be skiing with us today” My friend Jeff from Sacramento is a snowboarder and the term “dude” is an accessory to being a snowboarder. You have to use that word if you want to snowboard and we all loved it when he joined us at Mt. Rose recently and stated. ” You old dudes are fun to ride with.” Old dudes? Seems like an oxymoron? But we were laughing when he continually referred to us as the “old dudes.” He splitboards, he is an IT consultant, a real outdoor enthusiast and really …….a good dude.

So, in conclusion for this week, if someone addresses you as “dude” take it as a compliment that you are still able to hang in the halls of the youthful experience. If you are a “good dude”, you are held in esteem probably by someone who is younger, or at least thinks they are younger. I always enjoy telling them that I have socks older than them, but if they think I am a “good dude” I am happy. I can still hang in the world of snowboarders -even as a skier. I am a mountain biker, a general good citizen of the planet, or whatever other category registers with “good dude.”

So be a good dude and someone will smile at you and say,……”Duuuuuuude!!!!” Thanks for reading dude.

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Almost Heaven

Why is it that it always rains sideways when I go mountain biking in West Virginia? I remember the NORBA races back in the day at Snowshoe when it poured biblically the night before the races and the course was a peanut butter mess with extremely high humidity. I suffered like a dog. The years that we all went down to Slatyfork for the Fat Tire Festival, we could hear the torrential rains swelling the creeks outside of the Jerico Bed and Breakfast http://www.jericobb.com in Marlinton and woke up to flash flood warnings. But we rode. This year we went to a great event called Dirt Fest run by Dirt Rag Magazine http://www.dirtragmag.com in Big Bear, West Virginia and again, it rained cats and dogs on the Friday that we arrived. It was like “Almost Heaven” was saying to me,” Pat- you have to bring your “A” game down here and we are not going to EVER give you a gimme.” Even though we had brilliant sunshine on Saturday and Sunday, the damage had been done and the slime on the rocks, boulders, and roots which define West Virginia riding, made Saturday morning the usual challenge. There are people like Tom Florcik http://www.trailflobikes.com and Sue Haywood who make it look easy and send it over the big drops. But I tend to be more cautious because as I always like to say, ” I ride to ride another day.”

So why do I keep beating my head against the wall and venturing into a most challenging environment? I do it for the beauty of West Virginia and the people who make the event so much fun. Dirt Rag Magazine has been around for over 25 years and was the brain child of Maurice and Elaine Tierney. I am happy to say that I have known MO a long time and have had many enjoyable riding days with him along with cohorts like Karl Rosengarth and Jeff Wuerthele. Dirt Rag arranged all the logistics with Big Bear which is a formidable task along with arranging a whole myriad of suppliers in the bike industry to attend with demo equipment. Along with great food by Doan’s Bones Bar b Que http://www.doansbones.com and the fabulous pizza supplied by Liz Klevens, the event was lacking for nothing. The movies and the beer supplied by Green Flash http://www.greenflashbrew.com and Oskar Blues http://www.oskarblues.com did not disappoint and the whole weekend went off without a hitch. No one seemed to mind the muddy but steadily improving conditions. But what really brings us back year after year? The People!! The mountain bike community is a friendly lot of “crunchy”, ” earthy” people who love the outdoors and can really ride the challenging conditions. It is not often that you see a group of ladies like Val from Asheville, NC, Chrissy from the Canaan Valley and Stephanie from the burg, pound fearlessly over muddy, rocky obstacles with smiles on their faces and laughter all around. Mountain bikers know how to have fun and at the end of the day, know how to kick back and enjoy the fading sunlight and the roaring fire complete with stories about the adventures of the day sipping a cold IPA. I love my crew and also love to gather with the “tribe” at events like Dirt Fest. The Chetlins, the Girones, and Sy were missing but they were in Bend riding. So, they had an excuse. Our local crew makes a contribution to the scene with characters like the Shark, Bob Bannon and John O’Toole- veterans of the sport, Johnny Mac and Bob Anderson- really skilled riders, Pete Hilton, Mike Connors and his son Riley-fun, good riders, and Angelo Ross- the originator of http://www.naturalcause.org . John Casuccio, Joe D’Oro, Michele with an “L”, Michelle with two “Ls”, all skilled MTB folks, and of course Jeff Balicki who got MVP for the weekend riding the heinous rocks and roots just out of knee replacement surgery three months ago. If you ever saw passion for a sport, look no further than this affable barrister from Pittsburgh. He worked hard to get back on the trail and will be ready for ski season for sure. It’s the people…..people!!!! That is why we ride. Sure it is challenging, it is hard, it rains like a cow peeing on a flat rock, but the people of Dirt Rag and the folks of the eastern mountain bike community make it fun with the camping stories, the crackling fires, and the beers. Barry and the guys from Dirty Harry’s make sure all of us ride in style and repair the damage after weekends like this. The local shop is part of the community and we should all support them.

So if you ride mountain bikes, find events like Dirt Fest and support the cause. You will not only have a lot of fun no matter what the weather does, but you will make friends for a lifetime sharing the passion of riding and the truly spectacular trails. Thanks for reading.