HoW To TrAiN a DrAgOn

Two is the number of Florida State Champs that I have trained.

One was LIL NI who won the State Championship for the 6 to 8 year olds, even completing the season with a broken arm after a post ride accident in Tom Brown Park.

The Other was LIL'R NI in the 3 to 5 year old class.

Huge props to Dave Berger from Gone Riding dot com. Not only did he Literally give birth to the sport of competitive off road racing in the state, but, He helps families create memories that will last a lifetime and then some.

Recently I have decided that I wanted to give a gift to LIL'R NI. Give him the opportunity, if he so chooses, to become a singletrack samurai like his father. I am giving him the chance to enjoy and cherish the joy of off road cycling and touring and the special unique opportunities that it manifest for the participant.

I feel deep passion for the task of cycling. The whole reason I started single speeding and fixed gear shredding was to refine my skills. And I can tell that Kai Tai sees that. He asked me one day, when was he gonna start riding a fixie. I told him, soon enough.

We train Dragons in my house. AND the first epiteth of Dragon training requires a rider to prove mastery of one chainring and one cog before even bothering or attempting to master 18 or 27 or 30(goodness we are up to that many gears on a bike now arent we).

The ethos runs deep. The dedication unique. And I think Kai is learning to appreciate what his adventurous Daddy does for FUN. Like 200 plus miles over a Saturday and a Sunday.

SO it came to pass that another glorious weekend had reached its maturity and I didnt have any ride plans made so I decided Kai Tai Needed to go work on his tech skills. Afterall to be a true Singletrack Samurai you have to be able to ride anything, and comfort zones are meant to be explored and dominated all the while avoiding injury, cause injuries are not allowed.

The plan was to ride Santos, Edward, Kai and I, and work the yellows, then the blues and then some reds. Not a long ride, but a skills ride, a confidence building a ride, a ride to learn to find the flow.

And thats what we did, we had a lot of fun, I had to hold my breath in some moments as I would look over my shoulder and suggest to Kai that maybe he should dismount for the sake of safety, but NO, he was rolling some insane stuff that day. They both were. Edward caught the brunt of a couple of good NASCARESQUE crashes, which he shook off but definetely raised his awareness level.







Enjoy the clips!!!

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN