Only in Marin… only in Marin California can you deface a public sign (as long as it’s PC) but get arrested for riding on a trail that you can do anything on, other than ride a bike…
If you live in Marin and have ridden the Tenderfoot Trail, you have probably looked up and seen good old Chief Tenderfoot (or whatever his real name is). You’ve probably enjoyed Mill Valley’s only little spit of legal singletrack and been more than challenged by a few of its quirks. Yesterday, on Superbowl Sunday, Jiro held Bikeskills’ first Tenderfoot Tune-up. Read about it and check out some funky [as in bad] pictures…
Chief Say: “Scalp George Bush!” While the chief is still fuming about GW, Jiro’s mission was more humanitarian; help a small crew of Mill Valley locals get a bit more out of their home town trail. Here Jiro is pointing out a “sucker line” close to Tenderfoot’s Root Canal section. The trail looks good but this line puts you too close to the trees resulting in some Bark-Busting – not to be confused with Bear-Blasting.
Looking it Over… First… How many times do you scout a line… before you ride it? Or, here’s another question: how many times do you look over a line or obstacle you didn’t or can not ride and then think about it, try new approaches? If you’re like most people – including everyone in the Tenderfoot Tune-up clinic- the answer is: not very often. One of the many good things about taking a clinic is that there’s no way out of having to do so! Here Jiro points out that there are not only several lines on the infamous Root Canal, but that the easier ones lead to outcomes – like a little Bark-Busting – that aren’t so good… Taking the higher, initially more difficult line Jiro is pointing to sets you up for an easy line through the trees and “gottcha” root burls ahead. (if you are thinking that the Root Canal doesn’t look so hard, with conditions like Sunday’s you’d be right. Toss a bit of rain and moss on them roots and it’s another story…)
A Common Paradox: “I Could Probably Do it… If I tried….” Or, is that an oxymoron? In any event, Tenderfoot is full of those little challenges where people tend to say A) it’s easy and faster to just get off my bike B) I can/could do it, but if I don’t make it the consequences aren’t worth it C) I usually do it… but my tires are worn… my gears need adjustment… I don’t have my contacts in D) I’ve never seen anyone do it… Jiro rolled, hopped, and jumped his way down the root drop in to show that one of Tenderfoot’s toughest challenges is as much a challenge to conventional wisdom (can’t be done) as anything else.
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Coming down the Canal. Jiro demonstrates a quick “cross-over” line that will set him up with lots of room and options headed down the Root Canal. Notice how the roots ahead of Jiro are at a diagonal to his path? That’s what makes the Root Canal so tough when it’s wet and slippery.
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Walt and Ray Hammering the final sections of the Tenderfoot Trail heading for home. Ray and Walt swore up and down they will never see Tenderfoot in the same way again. Nor will they use lame, worn out, excuses to get out of doing what their uber capable, expensive, mountain bikes were designed to do in the first place: ride over, through, on stuff! And even if they do fall-off the wagon, they can always take another, Tenderfoot Tune-Up!
How to Take Better Pictures with Walt Densen
One way to take better picures is to do what Walt did: go to photography school for four years. Then be a photographer’s [slave] assistant for a few years. Then starve in commericial photography for a few years, and then finally, maybe, become a real live professional photographer. Any questions about where Walt ended up are answered real quick like by going to: www.waltdenson.com
While we’ll be back with a whole series of articles – even clinics – from Walt on “how to get the shot” in action sports, here are a couple of things Walt fired off to us during the Tenderfoot Tune-Up as he was being tuned:
- Bring your camera’s operating manual. Today’s Digital Cameras are as much computers as they are glass and shutters. There’s a good chance your camera has a setting for what you’re trying to accomplish be it taking pictures of bikes on low-light trails, or skiers on flat lit snow. But your chances of finding those settings, without the manual, are about nil
- Know where the sun is. Sounds simple enough but most of our Tenderfoot photos were bad because we apparently did not know where the sun was
- Use a telephoto lens to compress distances to make things appear more dramatic. While this is a bit complicated to get in to here, the real take-away is that even “happy shooter” little cameras have zoom lenses and a zoom lens is in fact, an automatic tele-photo lens
- Most digital cameras have an ISO setting that’s easy to change. Many action sports shots are either in low lighting, or, have high speed subjects or both. Changing the ISO setting from “auto” to high, or other settings might be all you need to avoid a worthless, blurred image
- Shoot in the largest “file” or image setting you can. With memory being so inexpensive, take pictures in the largest, highest definition setting possible. Not only will the entire image be better, but you might find that the quarter of the frame that’s good can be enlarged and cropped in to a pretty good image… as long as the camera’s setting was “rich” enough to begin with.
All good advice and looking back at some really bad images we took that day, many of them could have been a lot better. So check back for more “Getting The Shot” with Walt Denson.
A Couple of Walt’s Images:
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