The MOMAR has teamed up with FEAT Canada to bring you 9 dynamic speakers in an electric atmosphere.  You will experience 40 years of climbing, extreme skiing, mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking, freediving, cycling and hiking all in one action packed night of adventures and expeditions.  Join us on Sunday, February 12th, at Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver for one inspiring night of speakers.

Click on the link to get your tickets and use the discount code FEAT3G7 to get 25% off the door price.

Do you like BUFFs?  If so, click here for you chance to win one.

Cumberland’s Colin Angus is taking his Amazon River Show & Film on tour starting this Thursday in Vancouver.  The journey sounds amazing and nothing short of inspiring.

Here’s what it’s all about (taken from www.angusadventures.com):

Colin Angus and his team were the first to voyage the entire length of the Amazon River by raft and only the third to navigate it by any means.  Meet Colin in person as shares his story of this epic adventure and screens the award-winning National Geographic film Amazon Extreme. 

His journey takes you to Brazil, Peru and Columbia, exposing hidden wonders only revealed when travelling on the most off-the-beat paths.  Delve into the depths of the Amazon jungle and find out what it feels like to raft treacherous class 5 rapids, be shot at by terrorists, and run out of water in the desert. 

The Amazon River begins as a maelstrom of whitewater high up in the Andes Mountains. From eighteen thousand feet, it cascades down to the Amazon Basin below through deep fractured canyons. It wasn’t until 1986 when the first team, led by Piotr Chmielinski, was successful in voyaging the Amazon’s full length. That adventure was written about in Joe Kane’s bestselling book Running the Amazon. The Amazon’s upper tributaries contain some of the word’s most dangerous whitewater. Before Chmielinski’s success, three teams had attempted to run the world’s greatest river but failed due to deaths in the whitewater.

In 1999 a multi-national team set out to run the full length of the Amazon River once again. Colin Angus of Canada, Ben Kozel, Australian, and Scott Borthwick, South African began their attempt in September. As well as their goal of voyaging the world’s largest river, the trio also wanted to cross South America from one side to the other under their own power. Since the 6,600-km length of the Amazon almost spans the South American continent, they decided to hike the four hundred-km from the Pacific Coast to the South American Continental Divide and the source of the Amazon. From here they would follow the river all the way to the Atlantic, rafting the Amazom River from its source to the sea.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Vancouver, BC
When: Thursday, April 7, 2011
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm)
Where: Hollywood Theatre, 3123 West Broadway, Vancouver, tel: 604-738-3211

Nanaimo, BC
When: Thursday, April 14, 2011
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm)
Where: Nanaimo Museum, 100 Museum Way, Nanaimo

Victoria, BC
When: Friday, April 15, 2011
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm)
Where: David Lam Auditorium, University of Victoria

Campbell River, BC
When: Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm)
Where: Outdoor Addictions, 1980 Island Highway

Parksville, BC
When: Thursday, April 28, 2011
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 pm (doors open at 7:15 pm)
Where: The Chrysler Theatre, Parksville Community Centre, 132 East Jensen Avenue, Parksville

Courtenay, BC
When: Saturday, April 30, 2011 Â
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm)
Where: Stan Hagen Theatre – North Island College, 2300 Ryan Road, Courtenay

We are excited to announce a new partnership between the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club (GVOC) and the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing Series (MOMAR). 

The GVOC will be designing and managing the orienteering stage at the Burnaby MOMAR.  Led by Canada’s National Orienteering Team coach, Magnus Johansson, this stage is guaranteed to be both challenging and fun. 

The MOMAR will also be partnering with the GVOC on presenting two Why Just Run events.  These events are ideal training opportunities prior to the Burnaby MOMAR.   The first Why Just Run event takes place on Sunday, March 20th, at the Watershed Park in North Delta. The second event takes place on Sunday, May 8th, at Rice Lake in North Vancouver. Prior to each event, the GVOC will feature a “Tips from the Pros” session with Magnus and National Team athlete Louise Oram.  The events may offer an option to participate in teams and/or on bikes.  Mark these dates in your team’s training calendar.

Also look for orienteering specific clinics taught by Magnus to be offered as part of our MOMAR Clinic Series.  We’ll be posting the clinic dates in February.

MOMAR racers are encouraged to spend time practicing their orienteering skills and the GVOC offers many other orienteering events throughout the year including thier Wednesday Evening Training (WET).  For more details on the the GVOC and the Why Just Run events, go to www.whyjustrun.ca.

We are very excited to announce that Dave Norona will present his feature documentary “The Iditasport Impossible” as part of the MOMAR weekend in Cumberland.

In the year 2000, Kevin Vallely, Andy Sterns and Dave Norona attempted to Cross Country Ski from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska following the 1800km Iditarod Dog Sled Trail. For 33 day they fought their way through minus 65 degree temperatures, insane storms and pushed themselves further than they had ever before. The Iditasport Impossible film was mastered by Chris Wilberg of Barney and Oscar Films and captures the beauty of Alaska as well as it’s harsh winter environment.

I have seen this film and it is nothing short of inspiring. You will be amazed by their perseverance and dedication to the end goal.  Seeing this film will be all the motivation you need to get you to the finish line at the MOMAR!

DATE: Thursday, September 24th & Friday, September 25th
TIME: 7:00pm & 9:00pm (doors 30 minutes prior to each show and no late admittance)
LOCATION: Reel Films @ Frelone’s, 2781 Dunsmuir Ave, Cumberland, BC
DURATION: 78 minutes film followed by a Question and Answer session with Dave Norona
TICKET PRICE: $15 + online ticket processing charge

All proceeds go to the Cumberland Community Forest Society. Tickets are very limited (35 per screening) and are sure to sell out quick.

BUY TICKETS ONLINE NOW:
7:00pm – Thursday, September 24th
9:00pm – Thursday, September 24th
7:00pm – Friday, September 25th
9:00pm – Friday, September 25th
* Please note that tickets will NOT be mailed out. Your name will be on a list at the door.

Long time MOMAR volunteers and supporters, John Crosby, Thomas Howard, Clifford Cunningham and Tom Skinner have teamed up and are now the team producing the Mud Run Ride event.  Formerly known as the Muddy Buddy and then the Mud ‘n Run, this is a super fun race in North Vancouver where you and a partner team up and run and ride over a 10km course. You only have one bike though so it’s a leapfrog concept.

I’ve done this race four times over the past five years and its always a great time especially at the end when you have to crawl under a cargo net and through a mud pit just before the finish line.

The race runs this Saturday, August 29th, at 10am from North Vancouver.

For more information and to register, go to www.mudrunride.com.

Coast Mountain Sports have invited us to their Friends and Family Spring Event this Wednesday and Thursday.  Save big on all your gear for your next big adventure!  Click HERE to download the PDF that you can print out and bring into your nearest Coast Mountain Sports.

Gavin Fletcher (front) at the MOMAR Cumberland 2006. Photo by Tony Austin.

The trail running season is well underway and the first notable race on the calendar (in my opinion) is the Fletcher’s Challenge on Good Friday, April 10th.  This Nanaimo based race is in memory of the late Gavin Fletcher who lost his life in a tragic car accident back in December 2006. Gavin was a sports writer for the Times Colonist paper in Victoria and only a few months earlier took on the MOMAR in Cumberland.  He wrote an inspiring and humorous account of his race experience which you can still read online.

The Fletcher’s Challenge is a ~10-12km trail run around Westwood Lake.  You can register online or at Frontrunners.  Cost is $20. For more info, click here.

It was great to have Greg and Francis (photo right) from Schick Xtreme3 on site during the Shawnigan Lake MOMAR. Here they are on the boat as the official starters of the race. I’m sure everyone went home loaded with a new stock of blades.

Remember that Schick Xtreme3 is sponsoring the Grand Prize trip for two to Hawaii. We will draw for this at the Cumberland MOMAR during the awards ceremony. To enter you simply have to make a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of BC during race weekend.

And you can look for Schick Xtreme3 this week up at the Kokanee Crankworx.

Today marks the start of the BC Bike Race — a seven day mountain biking journey that starts in Shawnigan Lake and ends in Whistler. Over 225 teams of two will travel over 580km filled with copious amounts of epic BC single-track.

Day 1 (Shawnigan Lake), Day 3 (Cumberland) , Day 5 (Sechelt), and Day 6 (Squamish) all feature sections of trail that have been used in past and current MOMAR’s.

Last year, I was the Course Designer for Day 1 & 2 but due to my new job with the City of Surrey, I had to resign my position. The BCBR was an amazing event to be a part of and I’ll miss being there this year. Good luck to all the teams participating and to the crew managing the show.

Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR are there on the start line despite having bike and injury issues in the days since the Test of Metal. I’m sure they will race strong and make us proud.

Keep checking back on this blog as I’ll be trying my best to post daily reports from Gary and Todd’s journey.

For those of you that are missing the Pemberton Music Festival for the MOMAR Shawnigan and need your music fix, then check out Surrey Canada Day! I’m part of the organizing team that is putting this monster together and we have Loverboy and the Payola$ headlining this year. Did you know that this event drew over 90,000 people last year making it the biggest Canada Day festival outside of Ottawa?

Now we don’t have the $5 million talent budget that Pemberton has but we did manage to also book in some great indie talent like Wil, Aliqua, and Five Alarm Funk. We also managed to bring back Rymes with Orange for a reunion and for you Beat listeners, you’ll want to check out Elise Estrada. Who knew that there could be this much fun in Surrey?!?!

Anyway, I’m sad to be missing the Pemberton show because I would love to see Interpol, Death Cab, and Wintersleep but I’ll just have to wait until next year. Oh, and check out the DCFC “I will Possess Your Heart” video — it should make you an instant fan.

Even I know that there’s more to racing than the MOMAR.  As we head into the summer months, there are lots of events to get involved with either by racing or volunteering.  Here are some that I personally recommend:

Sunday, June 8th — GutBuster Trail Run in Nanaimo
The third race in my old race series takes place in Nanaimo, BC.  This course features an 8km and Half Marathon course through the trails around Westwood Lake and into the Abyss.  Go to www.gutbustertrailrun.com for more info.

Sunday, June 8th — Edge to Edge Marathon in Tofino/Ucluelet
I was the event director for this race in ’06 and ’07.  In that time we added the half marathon and increased registration numbers by 110%.   I’m not organizing it anymore due to my new job with the City of Surrey but Danielle Stothers, the new event director, has a good handle on things and things should hopefully be as smooth as ever.  A few spots are left for this race. Go to www.edgetoedgemarathon.com for more info.

Sunday, June 8th — ALS Adventure Challenge in Deep Cove
This is probably where I’ll be on Sunday.   This is a sprint adventure race with mountain biking, kayaking, and trekking.  Total distance is 20km and 175 people will be on the start line in Deep Cove.  Lisa Richardson and her team have raised over $445,000 in the past four years for ALS and they hope to have another big year of fundraising.  You must raise at least $350 to race.  For more info, go to www.alsadventure.com

Wednesday, June 11th — Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club in the Delta Watershed
Who wants to join me for some orienteering training?  The GVOC’s WET series comes to the Delta Watershed on Wednesday night and I’ll be there. The session starts at 6:30pm.  AND if you want to meet for a XC mountain bike ride before the race, send me an email and we can meet up at 4:30pm. For more info, go  to www.orienteeringbc.ca/gvoc/

Thursday, June 12th – MEC Big Chop Summer Paddle Series presented by Helly Hansen
The 4th race in the 10 race series takes place off the shores of Vanier Park.  Come out and experience the fun of the Big Chop by paddling the 4km or 8km course. This is awesome training for the MOMAR and one of the best ways to spend a Thursday night.  The prize table is LOADED with schwag and you even get a free smokie and lemonade with your $8 entry fee — It’s the best deal in town.  Boat rentals are available.  Go to www.bigchop.ca for more details.

That’s all for now. I hope to see you out there, somewhere…

Cheers, Bryan Tasaka

Unfortunately, due to some technical delays, the final results will not be posted until late Monday night. However, Tony Austin, official photographer of the MOMAR, has posted his photo gallery online. Go to www.pbase.com/autie to view and purchase. Other photo galleries will be posted as they go live. In the meantime, here are a few great shots from the weekend!

And a Happy Mother’s Day to all the MOMAR mommies with a special shout out to the Chilliwack Yummy Mummies who were the winners of the Denis Fontaine Spirit Award presented by Keen Footwear (see photo below)…

The above photo is of Rozee Hyder at last year’s GutBuster Trail Running Series on Mt. Tzouhalem in Duncan. Rozee is a regular at the GutBuster and you might get to see her this weekend (Sunday, May 4th) when the race returns to the Cowichan Valley.

If you haven’t heard yet, I sold the GutBuster to Mark and Nick at the Frontrunners Westshore store. It was a sad day for me to have to give it up but living on the Mainland and organizing a race series on the Island was a bit much for me. In October, I landed a dream job with the City of Surrey in their Filming and Special Events Department. Our department is in charge of all the signature events in the City including Canada Day which drew over 90,000 people last year. I really wasn’t looking for a ‘real’ job but I just happened to find it late one night while surfing the web so I decided to apply. Everything happened really quick and a week later I was offered the job.

So, things had to change and thus I had to sell the GutBuster and resign from my big contracts with the BC Bike Race and the Edge to Edge Marathon. BUT lucky for all you adventure racing enthusiasts, I was able to keep the MOMAR going with a full three race series (please note that because of this, I’m sacrificing time with my family, weekends, evenings, and my training (as witnessed by my performance at the Suburban Rush… ;0) ), so please be grateful! ha ha). My true passion really lies with the MOMAR, putting on a quality race and, most of all, a killer after-party so it’s all worth it.

Anyway, this blog post was simply to plug the GutBuster race this Sunday in Duncan! I guess I got on a bit of a roll. Sorry! The Tzouhalem course is legendary and is probably the one that people love to hate. It’s a big climb to the top (500m) but after that’s it (almost) all downhill through the most flowy singletrack trails that I have EVER been on. I wish I could be there to Bust-A-Gut with you but I will be running a million errands and hammering away at my mile long TO DO list in preparation for the MOMAR Squamish! At least this blog post was on the list so I can cross it off and go to bed!

Goodnight and thanks for reading! Cheers, Bryan

Today was the 4th annual Suburban Rush Adventure Race out in the Port Moody area. It’s the first race of the AR season and features a 30km course of mountain biking and trail running. I’ve done this race every year since it started and it’s always a great time. This year was no exception especially with the incredible weather. Over 200 racers were on the start line and it was great to see so many familiar faces both racing and volunteering.

My partner for the day was Aimee Dunn. Aimee and I did this race last year and we have also done a few Muddy Buddies as well as the inaugural Navigate the Streets. I always look forward to racing with Aimee because she’s a solid racer and we always have a lot of laughs together.

The race started with a 35min run (hike) up the steep trails to our bikes. It was a bit of a ‘gutbuster’ and my inconsistent/non-existence training really had my heartrate up. Lucky for me, Aimee is a postie so she’s used to haul around heavy bags of mail all day. So, she didn’t seem to mind me hanging onto her backpack for a bit of a tow up. Once on our bikes, we continued the arduous climb up up and up. Race Director, Dean Wutke, used a lot of the same course from 2006 and I quickly remembered that we were in for a BIG ass climb to the top of the mountain. It was a bitch but unlike 2006 when it was a downpour, today’s sunny skies gave us an incredible view over Buntzen Lake.

Of course what goes up, must go down, so Aimee and I hammered this section and made up a ton of time on a bunch of the teams that passed us on the trek. Aimee is a wicked freerider and it was a challenge for me and the Berg to hold onto her wheel. The downhill sections were awesome. It was technical and fast and we soon found ourselves at the next trekking stage. This 4-5km stage required a bit of navigation skills around Buntzen Lake on some really nice trails and viewpoints. Then it was back on the bikes and more downhill to the finish line.

We finished in 3h 14min and I was pretty wiped. Gary Robbins and Todd Nowack of Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR entered this race and they were the first to cross the line. The girls from Chilliwack were there too and two of their teams finished in the top three in their category. Of course the day ended at the Golden Spike Pub with beers and burgers. It was a great day overall and I would to thank Dean Wutke, Shawn Leclair, and all the volunteers for organizing the race. Results and photos will be posted on the website in the coming days: go to www.suburbanrush.com.

Lina (left) travels through the Sierras Pine Forest. Photo by Jacqueline Windh

It sounded like one heck of a race down at the Baja Travesia. DARTnuun held the lead for most of the 400km course before making a grave navigation error that cost them six hours and put the other DARTnuun/NW Kayaks team into first. With only a few stages left, it didn’t seem likely that Jen’s team could make the comeback. But in the final trek, the did just that and the teams decided to race to the finish line together.

Lina’s team the Yoga Slackers had a sprint finish with ExtremeSports.dk and after 80 hours of racing, they out sprinted them on the final 200m beach run. Crazy!

Suburban Rush’s Dean Wutke is still going strong on the course and sitting in 11th place.

Check out Sleepmonsters.ca for more detailed race reports, full leaderboard, and photo galleries.

Way to go guys! We are very proud of your accomplishments!