Sea Otter Classic: Laura and Mia set to take over the world (or at least a male-dominated bicycling sports event)

Laura after first mountain bike ride

Blog written by Laura Brennan, Momentum's new Bay Area Account Manager. Email Laura at laura(at)momentumplanet.com

 Context: Sea Otter is a sports event in Monteray, CA.  The Momentum crew went to see what this sports event was all about, and to make contacts with cycling brands to ask them what they are doing in the transportation cycling world.  Here's the story of our adventures...

Mia arrived at my gate at around 9:30 on Wednesday, April 15. I had not seen her since the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, that was in Indianapolis at the end of February. She was toting gear for two and a half weeks of SF livin, two thermarests and a bottle of Canadian whiskey that was part of our payment to Dirt Rag to let us stay with them at their Sea Otter campsite. Thanks Maurice!

The original plan was to jump on BART and head out to the East Bay for movie night with the Broakland/Montanovelo boys, but plans changed and we went to the Homestead to meet up with Kate and Sean from SFBC and the infamous (with love) Gary Fisher.

After a couple drinks we got Gary to agree to come down and camp with us at the Sea Otter Classic and forgo his fancy hotel and extra bicycle. He also promised to teach us to Mountain bike. Woot! Woot! We thought to ourselves, this is like Obi-Wan Kenobi teaching us to fight with lightsabers!”

Thursday morning… Gary is waiting outside and Mia and I are running around like crazy ladies trying to get ready. She makes it down stairs first. I finally make my decent with my hands full, holding a sleeping bag with my teeth. After an intense game of car Tetris, we were ready to fun our 4,000 errands before actually leaving SF.

About an hour and a half later we were pulling out of the Rainbow Grocery parking lot stocked to the gills with delicious snacks and other things we would need to survive a weekend of bicycle industry madness… like beer.

We decided to save the scenic root for the ride home, and hauled it down past San Jose. Gary kept telling us tales of Dex, the Viking like demo bike gatekeeper for Trek/Fisher. We imagined an Adonis-like bicycle mountain prince, with bulging calf muscles, glistening blonde hair and a fleet of exceptional bicycles that he guarded with a pedal wrench that made thunder when he pounded it against the ground.

All predictions were right.

We arrived at our campsite around three. We said our hellos to part of the Dirt Rag crew, and met their amazing “den mom” Robert and his unbelievably beautiful family.

Thursday night pretty much consisted of sitting sound the camp swapping stories, drinking and eating amazing food courtesy of den mom Robert, his lovely wife Laurie and their younger son Liam, who can chop veggies like nobody's business.

The Dirt Rag folks, led by the infamous Maurice, were so nice. Thanks for letting the Momentum team crash your campsite!

Friday was quite possibly the best day ever. Gary took Mia and me for our first official MTB ride ever! Since most of my experience riding is being on pavement with skinny tires, this was quite a switch. Luckily all my years of dodging cars in traffic felt similar to the single track trail that Gary took us on.

Besides shredding in the hills we spent the rest of the day wandering around Sea Otter saying hello to all of our friends and laughing… a lot. Despite the fact that Sea Otter is a very sports-oriented event, there were a surprising number of companies displaying city and electric bikes – yet another sign that the bike industry is following suit with the growth of the bicycle transportation culture in North American cities. The highlight for me was visiting with the folks of Nuvinci and testing out their new internal-hub gear – although the dirt pile was probably not the best testing grounds for a great new city bike!

Saturday was on par with Friday. We spent pretty much all day at the event fraternizing. We spent a good chunk of the hottest part of the day hanging at the Ride SFO and B.Spoke Tailor booth kicking it with Nan, and having spontaneous dance parties.

Sunday was our last day at Sea Otter. Gary and I went on another mountain bike ride while Mia charmed exhibitors out of hour and home (beer).

We packed up camp early and stopped in Capitola on the way home and had an exquisite Italian meal. We also pulled over just at sunset on a beach somewhere just north of Santa Cruz to watch the sun set.

The rest is history. Next year maybe we can convince the organizers of Sea Otter to move their event to SF so no body has to drive so far to get there! A city biker can only dream.....