November 15, 2008

I’m on my way back home to Canada and currently sitting in the lounge at the Dunedin Airport in NZ. This city is a college town and is very beautiful, just like everywhere else in this country. The last 5 days have been really great, as I have gotten to spend time with the BikeNZ crew and all the key Coaches and High Performance Sport Medicine Personnel that we have. The first 2 days I was here, we had 10 hrs/day meetings to discuss the future and where we are going. I’m really pumped about the future here in New Zealand as I have a lot of support staff behind me to really push our sport to the next level. My whole life I have been on my own, doing my camps and personal training to the best of my ability. Now I have a whole team behind me that is nothing but supportive and excited about me getting to NZ. In addition to coaching my HP team I will be working to develop the up-and-coming Junior riders, which in turn, will produce more coaches for the country. To say I am thrilled is an understatement.

The last two days I was taking part in the Sports Medicine Conference, where I had 10 hr days of listening to some of the top Sports Scientists, Drs. and Coaches giving speeches on different topics. My brain is on overload from all the valuable information that I’ve learned, which I will be using in addtion to my training. I will be doing these types of conferences more often, as well as taking a variety of different courses to further my education in training and coaching. It’s great to be part of an organization that will help me increase my knowledge in order to do a better job. With the support I am getting in a few years, I will be twice the coach I am now.

I also had the pleasure of hanging out with Jacques Landry, who is the new Chief Technical Officer for the CCA. Jacques has been the NZ road coach for the past 5 years, and he was a part of our meetings in helping us plan for the future. I think he is going to do a great job in Canada and the CCA is lucky to have someone like him in the top office. We had some good talks about BMX and I gave him my views on a few different things. (although my opinion really doesn’t matter!) However, you Canadians are fortunate to have him back. I guess the kiwis just swapped one Canadian for another. ☺. Good Luck Buddy!

Here is an old school picture circa 2005, gettin’ my pull-down the first straight in Nellis, Nevada. That’s 4 time UCI Champion Dale Holmes next to me.

Some picture of beautiful Dunedin New Zealand.

November 10, 2008

I’m currently sitting in LAX, one of my least favorite airports in the World and just got off the phone with the police. Apparently, a 14 and 15 year old stole my truck and took it for a joy ride. Turns out that they lost control and rolled it a few times, totaling it! Thankfully the kids are ok but I hope their Dads whoop them when they got home after being arrested. I don’t get kids these days, when I was a kid, and still today, I never caused trouble because I was scared of my Dad, never mind the police.

Anyway, I’m about to get on my 14-hour flight to Auckland, the first of 4 flights back and forth in the next 2 weeks, awesome!

November 9, 2008

I have had a few pretty crappy days lately. It started when Jenn, Avri and I flew out to Victoria last Thursday to visit great Grandpa. The visit with him was great, as its always good to see him, however, our accommodations on the first night where pretty shady. We decided to cash in on some travel points that I have been pilling up and stay in a nice Bed & Breakfast Resort and Spa. Well, it was anything but! It ended up being a big house that they rented bedrooms out of, not a resort whatsoever. The furnace didn’t work so it was 13 degrees in our room during the night. Due to the cold, Avrianna had to sleep with us and decided she wanted to use my face as a speed bag all night. The Jacuzzi tub, yeah, that was taken apart along with half the lamps as they ran out of light bulbs for all the lighting. On top of that, there was no food or beverages around and we were out in the middle of nowhere. The next morning breakfast consisted of a box of cereal and frozen bagels, not impressed at all.

Jenn took care of the situations and we ended up getting a refund, that night we stayed at the Delta Ocean Point, which was incredible and made up for the previous night. It was great to hang out with the family out in Victoria and get to see them all one more time before we head out to New Zealand.

The day we left to the airport, we were running a little late on the way there, so we parked in the $25/Day parkade right at the airport. One would think that this would be the safest place to park as it’s lighted up and there is plenty of security patrolling around. Well when we got back to Calgary and went to get our truck, it was gone. I knew exactly where I parked it and new right away that it was stolen. To make sure that I wasn’t wrong though I went up and down every aisle of every floor looking with my keys trying to set off the alarm, no go. Gone! I couldn’t believe it; I felt and feel so violated.

Anyway, I went to find a cop and finally found one after some time. By this point I was running around the parkade for 45 minutes and was sweating my ass off, so I took off my jacket. When I told the cop my truck had been stolen, he looked at my tattoos up and down, and then looked me in the face and said, “ha-ha, maybe you should go look again and try a little harder this time, cars don’t get stolen out of here!” I couldn’t believe it, this police officer who is suppose to “serve and protect”, laughs at me when I tell him my truck is stolen while my wife and 2 year old daughter are crying behind me.

To have the cop be such an ass was almost worse then having my truck stolen, I’m disgusted with my experience with the police officer and am going to file a complaint.

So this morning I get a call from the police that they found my truck about 1 hour north of my house in a town called Beiseker, they said it was “un repairable”. Some idiots obviously took it for a joy ride and beat the crap out of it, which is so disheartening as I babied that thing. I haven’t actually been able to talk to the constable that found my truck, so I don’t know many details; just that it’s probably a write off.

To make matters worse, I can’t deal with it this week as Jenn is flying, she’s a flight attendant, and I am flying to New Zealand in the morning. I’m going to Dunedin for the week to attend the “New Zealand Sports Medicine and Science Conference”. We will be having a lot of meetings and lectures on training and talks on what we have done right and wrong over the past 4 years. Most importantly we are going to plan out the next 4 years leading up to the 2012 Olympics in London. I’m really excited to go to this although its going to suck flying to the other side of the world for 4 days, fly back and then pack up and move two weeks after that. Fun.

Here’s Avri trying to tattoo her arms like her dad, I think I’m going to have my hands full, ☺.

November 6, 2008

Here is an interview that Marc did with a New Zealand Car Magazine.

November 5, 2008

Vehicles for Sale!!!!

2002 Mazda Protégé LX 2.0
125 000km-Silver color
Auto, 4door, A/C, AM/FM CD, Power Locks, Alarm, Sunroof, Spoiler, 2 new tires, 4 new tire covers, new front struts, new windshield, cheap on gas, runs great, lots of pep for a small car. This was the last year this model was made.
Asking~7,999$

2003 Chevy Avalanche
160 000km-Dark Charcoal
2-wheel drive (this helps cut back on fuel)
Quad Cab, new breaks, new routers, new tires, excellent shape, great body, good on gas, pretty much loaded. Handles smooth, safe, great family truck.
Asking~15,900$

November 2, 2008

Had a pretty chilled out day today and watched a bunch of football with my Dad. Watching NFL is going to be one of the things that I will miss the most when I move to NZ, however, they have Rugby, which I’m sure I will become a big fan of.

I didn’t mention this last week, but I want to congratulate Jimmy Brown of Airdrie for becoming Canada’s next AA pro. Not many people in Canada have done this, myself, and an old Schooler from BC who I don’t really know of. I have a feeling that Jimmy will have a good run at AA, it may take him awhile to get those extra HP’s behind his bike, but with his commitment and work ethic I think in a few years he will be the first Canadian AA to make an impact.

When Jimmy isn’t on the track battling with other racers, he’s a weekend super hero that battles the bad guys!

October 28, 2008

Today is my little brother Greg’s B-Day, so happy birthday buddy. Tonight we are going to the Calgary Flames hockey game which should be a lot of fun since Calgary has been on a roll the last few games. Greg’s girlfriend Dana, has great season tickets thru her work that she usually uses when she takes out customers. Tonight though, the three of us along with an old buddy from Airdrie will be going.

Over the past week ,I have been dealing with a lawyer regarding my contract and some Camp Cools stuff, and it’s no cheap thing! This lady, who is great by the way, charges $400 per hour, crazy!!! So all you kids who waste your time playing video games, put down the controller and grab a book! I would love to be lawyer at this rate$ but I guess I’ll make due being a BMX coach…!! Maybe one day I can charge that much for training as well, yeah right, in my dreams!

Most of you probably have already noticed that Swatch Watch out of Switzerland now sponsors me and my camps. They’ll be hooking up my trainers and I with watches that we’ll be wearing at all races and camps. I will also have a bunch of posters and stickers that I will be giving out at coming up camps for all the kids.

Another sponsor whose logo that I don’t have up, but always hooks me up is New Era Caps. Drew Van Iderstine out of Cochrane BMX is the man behind it all and has always been really good to my crew! Thanks Buddy!! I will have to post a few pictures of us looking good in the 59fifty lids but for now here is a picture of Marc Willer’s pride and joy.

And my pride and joy, diggin for gold!

October 22, 2008

Well it’s official, yesterday I signed my contract and am now the High Performance BMX Coach for New Zealand for the next 4 years. It puts me thru ’till just after the London Olympics in 2012. I’m pretty happy with everything and am really excited to get my family moved to Auckland and start helping out the country with some good coaching. I will be in charge of all the BMX stuff for the HP team and will also be working with BMX New Zealand on a few different things as well. Our arrival date into NZ will be the first week of December, a few weeks later then we first anticipated.

Separate from my job with BikeNZ, I will be running my Camp Cools training camps throughout the country to make training available for everyone. If you are a track member and would like for me to come to your track, please email me so we can get the wheels turning.

For the faithful Canadians who have supported me over the years, I will be in Canada for about 6 weeks in the summer where I will be doing select High Performance camps as well as my usual Training Clinics. I will only have a few weekends open so it would be a good idea for tracks to RSVP me ASAP.

Last weekend I went fishing with my Dad, Greg (brother) and one of my dad’s engineers, Adam. I took them to the spot that I went a few weeks ago and again it turned out well, all of us caught a fish. My Dad was the biggest of the day; I guess that’s what you get for being Dad.

Greg and Me, with my fish!

My Dad and Adam, with Dad’s fish!

Pool of fish we found.

October 13, 2008

I’m sitting in the Frankfurt (Germany) airport having a bite to eat in the lounge, not a place I want to be right now. My flight here from Nice was delayed for 2 hours due to the fog and I missed my connecting flight to Calgary. So now I have to spend the night here and fly out tomorrow afternoon. I’m taking advantage of the free beer and Internet before I head out to the hotel, sometimes it pays to be a frequent flyer and have Gold Card status! Haha. This is a bummer as the whole trip has been awesome, probably one of the best BMX trips to date. Both Marc and I had a great time (in more-ways-then-one..) so I guess if one thing has to go wrong it can be this.

Racing went pretty good for Marc; he rode well all weekend and had some pretty good laps. He breezed through his mottos and his quarterfinal but then didn’t make it out of his semi, but just barely. Marc was sitting in 2/3 for most of the track but going into the last turn he cased one of the jumps and slowed down a bit, enough to let Mikey Day catch up to him going into the turn. Mikey then gave Marc some love into the turn, putting him over it and slowing himself down enough that Arnaud Dubois (Belgium) took the last spot away from both of them. It was good racing though and unfortunately Marc got the short end of the stick but overall was pretty happy about the day. No one was disqualified, reprimanded or slapped on the ass… the way a race should be called, just leave it on the track.

David Herman won the race from the outside, the kid killed it in his main with the fastest gate of the weekend; had about a half a bike lead on everyone by his 3rd pedal. Herman is a great kid and is the only rider to win two super cross events this year, the other being Adelaide Australia. Pretty good for a 20-year-old kid from Colorado! Cisar also looked good all day (he never doesn’t look good) but also didn’t make it out of the Semi finals. With 90 fast guys racing, it was pretty tough to make the main here, there were lots of fast Jr. Euros here who I have a feeling will make their mark in the next couple of years.

Overall, the race and the venue were awesome. The track was a bit easier then they’ve been and this allowed for it to flow, making for great racing. The track was located just off the beach, which made it a bit windy at times but not so bad that it caused much of an issue. I really hope that they hold this race here again next year; in my opinion there is no place in the world that is more beautiful than the South of France.

While we were here, Marc and I hung out everyday with Steven Cisar and Nadia (Swatch Lady), which was great and very helpful as Nadia is from Switzerland and was a great translator for us. It was a great crew to hangout with at dinner and at night when we went out as we had some funny stuff happen to us.

Last Wednesday before all the BMX stuff started, Marc and I headed down to Saint Tropez, one of the more ’shi-shi’ locations on the French Riviera. Apparently Puff Daddy and Jay Z both have yachts in the harbor, those are some of the craziest boats I have ever seen. There is so much money in this place that you have to experience it to believe it, there’s no such thing as a fake Louis Vuitton bag here. I have seen more Lamborghinis, Ferrari’s and Massaraties in the past week in person then I have seen on TV my whole life. You don’t just see these cars, you feel them when they drive by you and, of course, most of them have a fat old dude driving them with a young super model in the passenger seat. Figures…

Usually at these races I’m always on the first plane home, but this time Marc and I decided to stay one extra day since we were already here. Yesterday, we drove up the coast to Monaco and then to Monte Carlo where we spent the day on the beach. We ended up at a restaurant that backed up onto the beach, fully equipped with everything you need to have a good day on the water. We felt like ballers all day, being served as we lay out on the beds sun tanning and taking the occasional dip in the Mediterranean Sea.

It was an awesome trip but I’m happy to be on the way home, back to my girls, even though it’s now delayed for a day. The supercross season is now over and doesn’t start again ’till April. It’s sad that there will be such a big break but I’m glad I don’t have to leave my girls for a long time; next year I hope to bring them to this race, Jenn would love the shopping here I’m sure.

Saint Tropez

Out for lunch, L-R (Marc Willers, Robert DeWilde, Mikey Day, David Herman, Kyle Bennett, Donny Robinson, Jerry (BMX Mania) Landrum, France Swatch Rep and Nadia (Swatch)

Beach next to the track

October 8, 2008

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