MONTEREY, Calif. (Apr. 23, 2003) – The Outdoor Life Network will air a one-hour feature on the 13th Annual Sea Otter Classic, powered by SRAM on Saturday, May 3 at 3 p.m. Eastern (12 p.m. Pacific). The week-long spring racing extravaganza and cycling festival was held April 9-13 at the Laguna Seca Recreation Area in Monterey, with satellite events in Redwood City and Santa Cruz.

Thanks to dump for working on getting these photos up as fast as possible.

The Product and expo photos have now been put up. The Racing photos will be following shortly. Click on Features to see the photos from the Sea Otter Classic!

Wow, what a couple of days. Rain, Sun, Wind, Dirt, Mud, Crashing, bad food, frozen fingers, wet clothes, cancelled events, whining and winning. This year’s sea otter had everything. The event was a success like previous years, this one was still just a bit different. For the past 5 years that I have been at sea otter, it has rained every time, if you’re at sea otter, it’s going to rain, if it does not, something is wrong.

Yesterday brought the pro downhill and pro mountain cross. Of course it rained all of early Sunday morning and it cleared up for the start of the downhill event. The pros had a perfect course. It was tacky, not dusty and very fast. I stood at various points on the course and watched the pros come by. About 1/4 of the way down the mountain (or hill) there was a nice big tabletop jump. Most of the pros were going all smooth and just rolling it out to try and stay on the ground to go as fast as possible. But not cedric. He comes flying into the berm and just launches the table HUGE. He threw in a little style like always too. Wade Bootes also aired it out followed by Mick Hannah. Crazy.

Mike king and Tracey Moseley went on to win the downhill event.

Now onto the Mountain cross. Kyle ebbet built a crazy course. A cool 6-foot step down and 3 crazy 15-20 foot doubles with straight up take offs and landings. During practice lots of people were hitting them cleanly. But I guess someone had to complain and the pro course was closed. Pros now had to race on the Amateur side. I was rather pissed, so were some pros that I talked to. But the race went on. Into the race a little while, Robbie Miranda crashed no more than 3 feet away from me and David K. from intense made the same passes three times in a row at the very end. Way cool. There was a bunch of contact and many crashes that made for a fun event.

The jump contest was rescheduled from Saturday night to Sunday, but for some reason it never happened. Bummer. But luckily for me, a couple riders made an informal jump contest for about 30 min. One guy even jumped it on his pixie bike. CRAZY!

This year’s event was fun and it was mixed with everything. Everything that could of gone wrong happened, and it added to the feeling. But it was a good season opener to 2003 and this year will be the year for many teams. From the looks of it many companies are going to debut their new products in the coming months and lots of new no name pros will be topping the podiums this year.

Later on today, over 450 photos that I shot at this year Sea Otter Classic will be posted. Stay tuned!

Chris
Chris@transcendmagazine.com

Rainy, cold, windy and just plain nasty would sum up today.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be even worse than today. Its supposed to be even colder and hail to. The dirt jump contest was moved to tomorrow so that makes pro downhill, pro mountain cross and the dirt jump contest. Its going to be a busy, cold and wet day.

Just one photo tonight. Sorry. =(

Today was perfect. The sun was out, I ran the course good, I took lots of photos, met lots of people, and I was around bikes. Heaven.

Today started off with practice from 12-3, I actually did pretty well, but enough of me. The competition this year has gotten fast, and its going to be a fun year. After practice I spent many hours walking around the pits. Looking at bikes, chatting to people, and looking for that all elusive Sram trigger shifter. I found it! and bingo, I took a photo. (look below) I saw a new bike at the tomac booth. Its their new freeride/dh bike with 7" of rear travel and 7" in the front by a new 7" Manitou Sherman. Yup, they now come in 7". Crazy I tell ya...

Rumor mill: I heard that 2 big trucks from an annoymous bike company are stuck in vermont snowed in. It must be a big company. hmm...

I dont have much time, Supposedly theres a party downstairs and I wanna go... Just about 15 minutes ago when I walked in, guess who was standing in the lobby...? Cedric Gracia. Crazy.

Over n' out
Chris

Quote of the day
"Are you yeti dher?"

Today I arrived at sea otter around 9am. From when I first crested the hill and took a peek at the Whole venue, I knew this year was going to be something else. Even on an early thursday morning the pits were bustling with team mechanics going back and forth from one tent to another and riders getting ready to go pracitce.

I practiced for about 3 years today and I had a blast. The course is WAY better than last year, its almost a real downill course now, not just a slalom course with jumps and drops. Theres lots of pedaling and a couple crazy offcamber sections. I have 2 more days of practice till my race.

I met up with lots of friends and met some new people too. I ran into Kyle Ebbet a couple hours ago. Hes a really cool guy, not one of your stuck up pros that you find, but just a cool guy building sweet mountain cross courses. Yup, thats right. He built the Mtn X course this year. The pro course is CRAZY. 3-4 20-30 foot doubles, massive berms and straght down landings just how Ebbet likes them. He really built an impressive course this year.

Some rumors have been spread already. Brian lopes has a hurt "thumb" which is preventing him from racing the MTN X (which he protested last year) but for some reason hes still going to race dual on saturday while MTN X is on sunday...?! Who knows. Also, Steve peat is no where to be found... Ill find out some more gossip later.

Heres just a couple sneek peeks for you. I took around 75 pics in about my hour of roaming the pits. Lots more photos will be posted around the coming days including a MASSIVE photo gallery in the next week or so.

Ill be back tomorrow night, right now Im pooped and I gotta sleep. Later!

Chris

A buddy of mine told this to me today. He was there practicing today. It sounds WAY better than last year!

The course is all the same until you get passed the double log drops, then you hit the fast section like last year, but instead of a left, you go straight up a slight hill, down a STEEP offcamber chute that is in the shape of an "S" and theres a SHARP offcamber turn at the vevy bottom, then it goes into a LONG slalom type berm to a 1-2 foot drop, then you go AROUND, you cant jump the double, then you take a right after last years finish, to a gravel road then you go to a real fast offcamber hill, then you just go along that till a couple offcamber chutes and it finishes on a grass hill. Duing the offcamber stuff, there are some pedally sections to the FINISH...

See you guys there!

Chris Hanna will have updates and photos live from the Monterey Sea Otter Classic starting early tomorrow. You will be able to get all the latest live here from Transcend.