Friends are Family
Raman knows I would enjoy Whistler, so he puts together a weekend trip. Raman knows that I suffer from fear deficiency so he takes me down b-line first even though A-line looks more fun to me. He keeps me on technical trails for almost a full day and don’t reveal Crank it up until I am ready. Because Raman knows I enjoy jumping and would probably never try anything else had he showed me Crank it up first.
Nate takes Mark, Raman and I down Schleyer and Dirt Merchant, stopping at each major obstacle and walks us through how to do it. Shows us the way to do it and then turns around and hikes his bike back up to have each of us follow him over the drops.
And like two older brothers Nate and Clinton go explore a steep rock roller and let me come with them up, and when it’s my turn to do the roller, they look away muttering ‘this won’t end well’ but it does and they are proud of me.
And sometimes it does not go well. Sometimes my lack of fear is matched by my lack of skills and I try to use a boulder like a jump and end up on my head and shoulder and Tina quits the ride and get me to a hospital and later when I need surgery and my wife cannot drive me because she just gave birth to our son four days earlier, Tina picks me up well before dawn and get me to the clinic and back again.
The project 529 manifesto says ‘Friends are family’. I don’t think those are just empty words. I think that is Project 529.
-Christian (VikingBalls)