Trikke Trainer Douglass Weymouth had another busy year on the Trikke.
A lot happened in 2012 in the Douguss Amonguss world. For starters, I was invited to contribute to TrikkeWorld in the form of my own blog, where I’d share my videos and explain what’s going on and what led up to making the videos.
From the beginning of my videography endeavors in 2009, I’ve wanted to show Trikke carving from the point of view of a rider, rather than that of a camera stationed statically as the rider passed by. I started with a first generation GoPro camera and have progressed to the HD Hero and HD Hero 2. Now there’s an HD Hero 3 that I’ll purchase at some point to better show the Trikke world as I experience it.
It’s been a challenge to keep up with the deadline of producing a weekly feature. Since I rely on other riders to video, I must have others to ride with. In my area (Santa Cruz, California), there are no other riders I’ve found to ride with. I’ve heard of sightings of other carvers, but have not managed to run across them. I’ve had to travel to find the subjects of my videos. Fortunately, there are quite a few events during the year to keep me busy.
My first blog was in May, where I shared the joys of Sunday Streets San Francisco in The Mission district. This is an event I love and have been participating in since 2009, when we had our largest group rides in Nor Cal. I also shared the rides in Golden Gate Park and along the Great Highway, as well as the Embarcadero ride, which is one of the most fun rides of the season (also the earliest and sometimes affected by weather).
The next ride of consequence was the Buellton Endurance Ride, which covered 35 miles of differing road surface with quite a few hills. It was truly an endurance ride. I learned a lot about preparing for proper hydration and electrolyte replenishment. I always enjoy the hills riding down, but the climbing is more of a challenge.
Although I missed the Trikkenut 100k Endurance Ride in June, I was able to help spur interest with a look back at Trikkenut 100k Rides of previous years. In July, Robert Billing of Trikke Australia visited the states and dropped by San Francisco for a ride through town. I didn’t accompany him across the Golden Gate Bridge but spent some time with him in The Mission District.
Angjelko “Angel” Pancevski
In July, I attended my third Seymour Hill Climb Challenge, which was also a LSM event and featured the largest group on the Seymour Trail in its history. This is one of my favorite rides and marked my first successful completion of the Challenge, which is to not step off during the ride. I managed to complete it twice for the weekend.
In August, I had the first of several visits from folks from out of the area. Rich and Char Goff visited Monterey, and it gave me an excuse to go there, ride with them and discover new trails with someone else. We had a great time.
In September, Mike and Karen Harris visited from the Sacramento area, and we rode through downtown Santa Cruz and along some of my favorite trails. It started as a foggy day but cleared up by the end of our ride. September also saw our largest group to ride the Rosarito Ensenada Ride, which may be the last for Trikkes, as they told us: don’t come back again.
Early October saw the first Open Streets event in Santa Cruz, and I had a great time with my wife Sally, my constant Trikke carving companion through the years. Also during October, Angjelko Pancevski visited both San Francisco and Santa Cruz for some fun times riding our Trikkes. And Sally and I had our yearly visit to Port Townsend to visit one of my best friends since high school and to celebrate her Halloween birthday. We also have a wonderful time of Fall Colors Trikke touring in the Pacific Northwest.
The last visit of the year came from my great friend and hill climbing mentor, and host of the Seymour Challenge, John Goolevitch and his son Adam. I had a great time showing John my training hills and giving both John and Adam a tour of Santa Cruz, which finished off with a bit of rain to make them feel at home. Adam was able to ride a Pon-e for an extended time and they took home one of my Pon-e’s for John’s wife, so that she could ride with him in their local area. It was a great, being able to share my area with John and Adam. It opened my eyes to how great an area I really have in which to carve.
Writing my own blog has been quite a learning experience, as I have enjoyed making the videos and posting them throughout the Trikke world previously, but I had not sat down and put to words what was going on in the videos. I had thought that it was pretty evident what was happening, but I now realize that things need to be explained and made a bit clearer to those who are not part of the Trikke culture. I look forward to another year of showing you my point of view of the Trikke carving experience and hope you come along for the ride.
I’ve selected the most viewed of my videos this year by views. I hope to see you around the next turn on the carving edge, Trikke.
Overall the video with the most views is Buellton Hill Climb Endurance Trikke Ride, with 318 views. This is more of a slideshow than a video, but it captures the group moments during the ride. Some of the other videos associated with the Buellton Ride received more than 100 views each. This short one of Juan Ortega has 140 views. This, the longest of the Buellton videos at 10 minutes has 120 views.
The Seymour Challenge Pre-Ride Friday Evening Downhill is the next most viewed with 170 views; this was a great ride and my first completion of the Challenge in three tries without stepping off. This shows the joy of downhill carving when you have a nice open trail and a couple of great friends to enjoy the ride with.
Rich and Char on the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail comes in next with 133 views and was a great time had by all, I hope they visit Monterey again next August.
Robert Billing in San Francisco on his Trikke garnered 123 views and we had a great time, I wish I had followed him over to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Carving it up with G is the final video in the top 5 it is always fun when G is around. Gildo Beleski is the the most interesting man in the world.
I have been honored to share my videos with everyone and blessed to have a great group of musician friends who allow me to use their music in my videos. I think the music adds quite a bit to the overall experience, please buy some of their music if you like it.
About Douglass Weymouth
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