Zensky

The Tour de Felasco. A rite of passage in the North Florida mountain biking scene. A 50 mile off-road eco tour featuring single-track, double-track, horse and hiking trails. And a really good time…

Me and Fred have known about the Tour for a couple of years now and this was the first year we manned up for the ride. Our boss Alan has done it each of the 6 previous years and he ensured us that it would be an enjoyable experience. The $50 entry fee ensures a spot in the pack and a nice long sleeve shirt… if you can get them to take your money. Luckily for us we spotted the registration form the first day it was available and got it into the mail the very same day. Good thing too, since Registration was closed after the very first day. That is how popular this ride is.

Read on for the story, pictures and a GPS of the trails.

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Behold readers, for today is a glorious day. The V1.0 launch of the Villin Cycle Works Flash redesign is upon us. Click the pic or otherwise head over to http://villincycleworks.com and check out the new web presence. All feedback is welcome as the site is still very new and will be further improved.

This website marks the first active website I have deployed in Flash. I learned the language just for this project and am satisfied with my abilities. I am brainstorming some cool Zensky projects in Flash, although I doubt I will have the main Zensky site in it. Maybe the BMX Database I’ve always wanted to do could have a flash front end. Certainly would give me more options with the UI. Hmmm….

Have you tried it yet? Elbow Jousting? Oh, it’s just the gnarliest, most intense, manly sport ever. And now it’s on the internet. That’s right, the official site for Professional Elbow Jousting has gone live.

Read up on the latest victories… and DEATHs. Keep checking back for information regarding local tournaments. This thing is gonna be huge boys and girls. Get your elbows ready and charge!

A little over a week ago my girlfriend Ryan moved back to Gainesville from Jacksonville.  This had been something I had wanted to happen for years and now that I’ve got the pimped out house it made sense.  To celebrate we had some friends over to the house for BBQ, alcohol, and a little Guitar Hero action.  Here you can see Anthony’s girlfriend Molly with Ryan at the beginning of the night.

Click through to continue reading or check out the Gallery of Pics From the Party.

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Golfing is the jam. Beautiful courses, tasty beverages and good friends. In fact, I don’t know why it took me so long to take up this hobby. I have had some old clubs for a long time but just finally got serious about golfing. To get me going Nick set me up with his spare set of clubs and just recently Stan (Molly’s mom’s squeeze) fatted me out with a really nice set of drivers. I am not the greatest (yet) but really, being good at golf isn’t what golf is about at all.

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A few days ago Anthony, Nick, Matt and I drove out to hit the dirt jumps.  This was only the second time I have ever been there and the first time for Nick.  Last time we came I didn’t get too brave so I would just hit some speed runs around the park and a few of the smaller bridges.  This time I was feeling good about how I had been riding the past month and was ready to get ballsy. I started out by learning how to hit a double.  These jumps are pretty large and narrow for someone trying to learn but after a few tries I was able to nearly clear the entire jump.  By the end I was still casing my landing but was always able to ride off clean.

Click through to continue reading or check out the Dirt Jump Picture Gallery.

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So last weekend the Zensky crew converged on Hanna Park in Jacksonville. Hanna Park is a government run park which is located right on Jax Beach. What this means is that not only can you camp, but the beach is only about a 5 minute ride away. What already seemed like a killer combo was made even better when we discovered that Hanna Park was littered with mountain bike trails. It didn’t take long after finding all of this out for Jon to decide that this was where he wanted to have his birthday celebration.

With the camp sites reserved weeks in advance and a crew of 14 we knew the trip would be good and we weren’t let down. Check out the pictures in the Hanna Park Trip Photo Gallery and click through to read more about the weekend:

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The Gainesville MTB scene just keeps getting better. About a week ago me and Brian discovered that the new advanced section of Bridges was up and running. The new section features the two largest bridges yet and some tough terrain that will have you walking up at least one hill.

All in all the new section brings the total number of bridges to something around twenty. The trail isn’t super long but its a great candidate for the ride one way turn around and ride it backwards gig. Yesterday, Fred went on his inaugural in-town ride and we gave it another go. These shots are of the two new bridges. They are definately the most fun of them all and I am eagerly awaiting the day I get to see someone plunge off the side into the creek.

Check out a couple more photos and the GPS after the break:
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So I went over to Fred’s last night so that we could do a little exploration on the bicycles. It turns out that Fred lives only about a quarter mile from some San Felasco trails and we wanted to find a way into the park. It ended up being an easy task. We didn’t spend much time exploring San Felasco, though, because there was something Fred wanted to show me. At the back of the neighborhood a dirt road boggs off into the woods. There, in a secluded spot behind several no trespassing signs we found this trailer. Fred had found it before but was too scared to get close to it. I peered inside and checked it out. It reminded me of that movie the Hills Have Eyes. Just coz it was scary looking and I assumed there was some mutant inside. There was also some crazy shit like a rope hanging from a tree (I assume for lynching chumps) and bullet holes everywhere. All in all it was an enriching experience. I think I might go back out there and camp in the trailer.

GPS of the trip after the break:

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So me and Mike decided to hit up San Felasco last night. We hadn’t been in a long time due mostly to my inclination for in-town rides but I was excited to head out there. It seemed to be much less busy than normal but I didn’t think much of it until we reached the top of the big climb. There, blocking the entrance to the second-half of Tung Nut and a big portion of the park’s trails was some yellow tape and a stark warning informing us that we should not pass under ANY circumstances. Apparently there was a controlled burn that day and we weren’t allowed to ride. We didn’t see any fire though, so we assumed it was safe. We rode probably one mile before we first found the fire. It wasn’t so much a raging forest fire as a very widespread low brush fire. The trail did many zig-zags over the fire and we often got to ride right through flames or near huge burning trees. The smoke was pretty bad but no worse than a downtown bar. All in all it was an amazing experience. The atmosphere was so varied. Sometimes it was just beautiful nature, other times raging fire, and the rest of the time a smoldering wasteland. I’m definitely looking forward to riding through my next forest fire.

Check after the jump for the GPS and Elevation data for this ride.
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