As many of you may know on Saturday June 20th I made the call in to announce my exit from the race and my intentions to take in everything the Great Divide route has to offer. After completing over 1,100 miles in the Tour Divide Race, averaging about 130 miles a day, I began to learn a lot about myself. Most importantly was realizing that my race pace was not allowing me to experience the Great Divide as I intended. Yes, I was achieving my goal of challenging myself and was on pace for my intended 3 week finish, but I was certainly falling short of my intentions by passing up countless opportunities to take in the majestic scenery and experience everything the grand tour of mountain biking has to offer. Paying little attention to scenery, wildlife, great people along the route, and knowing I was leaving someone at home sleep-less and in tears every night made the transition from race mode to touring mode an easy one…




While racing though I was really pleased with how my body was able to handle the routine. 16 to 18 hours a day in the saddle, a mere 5 hours of sleep, and consuming somewhere around 10,000 calories of junk food a day. Of course keeping this pattern going is amazingly tough on the body, especially on the knees and achilles for me, but the mind has a way of blocking/dealing with the pain to keep you going. After the first week (just past Lima, MT) my body was not only dealing with the pain better, but it was actually getting stronger. Now after a week off the trail (still riding everyday of course!) the swelling in the legs has decreased, the overall pains have now subsided, and my tongue is no longer discolored and ulcer covered from the abundant sugar intake, but the pains will certainly not be forgotten as they were all part of the remarkable experience.





I have far more thoughts, words, and feelings on the time I spent out there, but that would mean rambling on here way more than most care to read. For those of you who I am lucky enough to see I look forward to sharing the experience with you in more detail. Thanks again to Princeton Tec, Fuji, Mountain Hardwear, Wingnut Gear, Steri Pen, Ergon, friends, family, and internet followers for all their support in making this amazing adventure a reality. I would call it a once in a lifetime experience, but for me it is not. The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route is truly an amazing place that I have a yearning passion for. I will surely return to complete the route properly as time and money permit. For now it will have to wait until next year though as the budget can only take so many unpaid weeks off.


For me, life is about enjoying the ride–not racing to see who gets there first. For Matthew Lee, Jay Petervary, Chris Plesko, and those still out there pushing their limits – Best of Luck and keep on pedaling!

As part of my campaign to get out of the office an hour early this summer, I am rewarded with spending several hours being eaten alive by what I can only assume are mosquito’s, although they look like flying badgers. While this may sounds like a nasty evening, it was quite the opposite. Also being my first cold water of the year (for first DOTY entry, click here), I was motivated and the rest of the gang who showed up was as well. The tiny bit of rain came and went before the night got going meaning a ton of people showed up for the Wednesday night dive at Dutch Springs. I managed to sneak in a dive before the crowd arrived, with my dive buddies Chris (aka, the Intern) and his father. What did we do? Capture the known underwater image of a Princeton Tec Sales Rep and Intern holding a Ptec Banner. Ah, the triumphs. We hung around underwater and played over by the submerged fire truck, then to the school bus, and ended the dive cruising along the 30+ foot wall that drops straight down. A small boat is sunk somewhere along the wall. There are pictures somewhere, I promise. We also managed to hide said Ptec Banner somewhere along the path, so first to find it this weekend will win a prize (which will be more than the free Steaz we were giving away last night).

 

After we got back from the dive, we lent out a bunch to the many night divers. It’s a good feeling to know that people, who already own dive lights, prefer our Shockwave LED and Miniwave LED over their primary light. But that’s what we’re here for, help you realize the obvious: we are effing bright. Next chance to play in the pool with our cool toys: July 8th.

As I start the beginning of my fourth week as an intern at Princeton Tec, I find myself getting more and more excited about the products PT manufactures. The contagiousness of excitement is all around the office. You can tell that everyone here is really passionate about their job. However, the coolest thing is not the excitement in the office, it’s the excitement that we find in our customers. Two weeks ago, I was able to go on a demo night at Dutch Springs with Kalen, the dive guy. Being a diver myself, who has always used PT lights (thanks, Dad!), it was only natural for me to show the night divers how awesome our Shockwave LED, Miniwave LED, and other lights were, especially compared to their own “non-PT” dive lights (I won’t name names).

**sadly, this photo was not taken at Dutch Springs

 

But the best part of the story is knowing that our message really stuck with these divers. On Saturday, my parents took a day trip up to Dutch Springs to get their Drysuit Certification. Naturally, my Dad had his Shockwave LED with him. As he was gearing up for his second dive of the day, a fellow diver approached him and immediately began talking about the Shockwave. He had been at Dutch Springs on our demo night, and he could not say enough great things about the Shockwave. He mentioned how superior the light was, and how he couldn’t wait to get one of his own. When I heard this, it made me realize that I am on the right path. Knowing that Kalen and I turned this guy into a PT fanatic is a great feeling. Although, it’s not that hard when you have an excellent product.

The next dive demo is this Wednesday night at Dutch Springs, I can’t wait to get in the water and show some people the light!

- Chris the Intern

‘Grizzly’ Adam Lisonbee, one of our sponsored athlete, and Team Fatty team will be competing in the Livestrong Challenge and joining the fight against cancer. We have partnered with Team Fatty to add a little incentive to the team’s cause by raffling off a sweet lighting package: Switchback 3, Corona Extreme, Apex Headlamp, RF6 Rear Flasher.

How it works:


Every donation of $5 to the Livestrong Challenge buys you a raffle ticket that will go into the drawing for the sweet light package. Team Fatty is looking to make Livestrong Challenge history by donating more money than any other Livestrong team.


Cancer sucks. Join the fight and donate at Grizzly Adam’s page on the Livestrong website.

Trauma (Justin Lichter) sent a note in to let us know that he is moving well and doing ok in his hike through Africa.  

I have attached a photo with the new light.  This is nearing the summit of Mt Kenya, about 17,000 feet.  Cool area less than 10 miles from the equator but it snowed on me and there are glaciers.

That new light is the REMIX headlamp… Look’s like a Fuel, feels like the Fuel, but has penetrating power AND area light (1 maxbright LED and 3 Ultrabright LEDs) think Fuel meets Eos.


 More on the Remix coming soon!  And hopefully more updates from our friend Trauma. 

Justin called in last night to let us know how he’s rolling. I can sum it up, but it might be better for everyone to just listen for yourself… for a nice write up, you can check out Beth - she. write. good.

Here’s the voice mail:

d64dcfa30e17442aa0942fdd074948a31.WAV
 

Justin is in Banff warming up and/or icing up for the start of the Tour Divide. He will be calling in periodically to let us know how things are progressing and we will post those call ins as they come. He is kicking off the race with some, er, pains, so the call ins should be interesting.


In the meantime, you can follow his movements on the Tour Divide website courtesy of a Spot Satelite Messenger… CLICK HERE .


Our buds at Dirt Rag are following Justin and they are also following our good friends Jay and Tracey Petervary . You should follow them too - they are riding TANDEM!




So, keep checking in…

While the dive season opened at Dutch Springs the first weekend in April, the warmer weather and need to experiment with the new lights prompted the first of many PTec Night Dives. I brought Chris, our new intern, along to show our new 400 lumen Shockwave LED, along with the Miniwave LED, Torrent LED, and other marker lights. While impending doom, aka, massive thunderstorms threatened to ruin our first dive event of the season, Mother Nature cooperated and our evening was quite successful…if you ignore the bugs. We demo’s a bunch of the shockwaves, to which the response was generally the following:


1) Diver see’s our Shockwave LED
2) Diver get’s their own light
3) Diver compares our light to theirs (often followed with “holy s**t, that’s bright!”)
4) Diver demo’s our light
5) Divers exits dive talking about how awesome are new Shockwave LED is (often with less profanity this time)


Shockwave LED – 1, Competitor – 0.


As attention spans fade, suffice it to say we had a blast and you can join us all summer long. For more information email kpascal@princetontec.com

For the second year in a row I had the opportunity to circumnavigate Manhattan Island, NYC via kayak as a support vessel for the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim.




The race consisted of 25 individual swimmers, two 2-way teams, four 4-way relay teams, and two 6-way relay teams competing in the 28.5 mile loop around Manhattan. The 34 swimmers in the water were supported by close to the full roster of 69 kayakers, and approximately 40 power boats with crews, swim trainers/coaches and race officials.





Unfortunately the swimmer that I was assigned to was pulled from the race early on. When we hit Hellgate, the opposing current was making his progress nearly impossible. At 5 knots and rising, he was literally swimming in place for 45 minutes….very sad to watch him get disqualified. 5 swimmers behind us where also pulled out of the water and escorted back.


The tidal current change of this area is quite abrupt and intense. Had he hit it 15 minutes earlier we would have made it through.


I had now become a free agent so I proceeded through Hellgate into the Harlem River to see how everyone else was doing. Approaching Yankee Stadium, I noticed one swimmer that only had a single kayaker who lacked a VHF radio so I offered my services to escort. This was GREATLY appreciated by the team. Antonio Argüelles a solo swimmer of Mexico. Antonio was the underdog when I picked him up but once we entered the Hudson, he put his rocket boosters on and flew! We passed quite a few swimmers after the GW bridge and He ended up placing 12th.





As always, this was an unbelievable paddle! the 9 hour, day long journey around Manhattan is unlike any other. Incredible landmark scenery, paddling through three famous rivers and the excitement of the race make it an unforgettable experience.