The Good Life - Max Houtzager

My season has been ‘over’ for a little while now after finishing off back home with a podium finish at the Howl Mountain Classic. After many weekends of nonstop travel and racing, two weeks off was a great chance to hit the reset button on my body...And then jam in my Subaru all the way up to Whistler!

I made the drive alone in two days stopping in Portland to stay with my idol photographer (legend in snowboarding, soon to be in mountain biking), Tim Zimmerman. I drove straight to a freshly redone dj park in Portland for a GT photo shoot with Eric Carter...




We feasted on sushi afterwards which was delicious, and amazing to sit next to another legend, EC. I learned a lot while devouring endless plates of sushi. Life in Whistler is obviously pretty rad, living a stone’s throw from the village/chairlift in a house with a bunch of chill Aussie’s.

Multiple dirt jump and pumptrack spots within a 5 minute pedal from my door. And trails galore. Don’t feel like riding the road or bike path? Just ride the ripping technical singletrack that’s right next to it nearly everywhere in the valley.

The ‘xc’ riding doesn’t exist by US standards, it’s all tech trail/all mountain stuff, and I could not get enough. I barely rode the same trail twice and your constantly either going steep up/down or over endless roots and rocks. Just how I like it, although coming home to fast buff trails was a nice change.



Another highlight was the Art of Flight Premiere, where I got to watch on the big screen and see all my favorite snowboard pros in person, including the all time Travis Rice.

I pretty much spend all my time riding, cooking, and eating. A lot of thinking about food and I am obsessed with some of things available (Farmer’s Market twice a week, Local Wild Salmon, Grass-Fed Buffalo, Pastured Eggs, Japanese ingredients, epic cookies).



Lots of Experimenting (Coconut Blueberry Muffins with pastured eggs and the best blueberries)

I did the last Wednesday night downhill race, Chainless on A Line with most everyone dressed up in costumes. Unfortunately I didn’t have any thing out of the ordinary to sport.



Overall actually getting to live in Whistler was quite epic, and a great beginning to my year off of training, traveling, cooking, and racing! It got a bit cold and wet towards the end and I’m stoked to be back in Cali, until it gets too wet here :)

I also got to hit up the Air Dome before leaving and stopped to shred and eat in Ashland on the way down.

BC2011 Teaser Trailer

BC 2011 Teaser video from our friends Joz & Moz Zimmermann

This was a tough one. A few days ago I decided to finally sit down and have a look at all the footage that my brother Jonathan and I captured during our amazing summer in Whistler. 'Having a look at the footage' quickly turned into dragging all the files into my editing software and working my way through it. Well... I'm nowhere close to being done but here's a first glimplse at what to expect from us in the following weeks... enjoy!

Trek Session 9.9 Build

If you thought the V10 was light, check out this sub 29lbs Trek Carbon Session 9.9, complete with Split-Second DM. Full ride report to follow courtesy of VitalMTB

Fanatik Santa Cruz Carbon V10

Check out this beautiful 32.8lbs Santa Cruz Carbon V10 build courtesy of Fanatik Bike in WA. Click here for a full report!

Pinkbike Product Pick

Pinkbike has been putting out regular product picks on what they are using and like right now. Our Podium Pedals made the cut, click on the photo to hear what they had to say.

Pinkbike Tech Tuesday

Santa Cruz bikes product manager Josh Kissner runs you through some tips on keeping your VPP bikes fresh. Don't forget your Podium Pedals.

Pumptopia

Writer (and rider) in the field Lee McCormack, has been putting in some pump laps on our pedals. Check out this latest video from a new pump track in Oak Creek, CO...

Recent athlete photos

Some recent shots from our athletes...

Ian Massey - Northstar Pro GRT (ouch)


Jordan Lopez - Sandy, OR Super D

2011 Devinci Wilson

Sicklines just posted a review of the 2011 Devinci Wilson. Choosing tier one components like our Split-Second DM and Podium Pedal, no expense was spared. Click on the Sicklines link to read the full story!

Sandy, Oregon Super D - Jordan Lopez

Hey Everybody, Like many of this season, I had another great weekend of racing and growing in Oregon for the 4th and final round of the Oregon Super D Series. This weekends race was held in the town of Sandy and I must say that this venue was one of the best of the season. The “Sandy Ridge Trail System” trails are fast, fun, challenging and a rush from top to bottom and they encompassed every part of Super D/All-Mountain Racing; rock gardens, drops, table-top jumps, dozens of berms, and miles of single-track.



The course this year was a bit longer than the previous years and at 6.25 miles it was definitely one of the best courses of the season. In my race run I finished in 21:55 and with this time I finished in 11th and less than a minute out of 4th place. With hindsight being 20/20, I now see a few places where I could have pushed harder and gone for broke in my race run. This is a frustrating feeling, but I know that self-realization and self-motivation are at the core of racing.

Overall I had a amazing weekend of racing and riding in Oregon with some of the best All-Mountain racers in the country. Oregon Super D Series showed once again that they have the process of Super D/All-Mountain Racing figured out and they ran a seamless race with no hiccups and to top it all off they gave each racer their race time as they crossed the finish line. It was also great to see my teammate Lizzy English take the overall Pro Womens Title and watch my other teammates Timmy Evans Battle for the Pro Men’s #1 Plate

With the completion of the series, I am very excited to say that my final ranking for the Oregon Super D Series is 7th of 35 in the Pro Men category. With this series being one of the premiere Super D/All-Mountain events in the country and with my goal for this series being top 10, I am very happy. Now I am looking forward to improving this rank by 2 places and getting into the top 5 for the 2012 season.

With all of this being said, this race capes my 2011 season. Thanks to all my sponsors!