We are very excited to announce that the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing Series was named Western Canada’s “Best Adventure Race,” “Best Post-Race Party,” and “Best Event T-Shirt” for the second year in a row!  Thank you to all the Get Out There readers who voted for us. I share this recognition with all my staff, volunteers, and racers who made the MOMAR part of their lives in 2009!

Be sure to check out the Jan/Feb issue of Get Out There Magazine on news stands today or view the online version.

After working long hours over the past few months on the City of Surrey’s Canada Day and Fusion Festival, I scheduled a nice five day long weekend to the Comox Valley to work on the course design for the final MOMAR of the season.

Joining me once again, were my friends from Victoria: Kris, Michelle, and Kari. These guys are always keen on packing as much adventure activities into a weekend as possible and that’s exactly what we did.

The team… Kris Clarke, me (Bryan Tasaka), Kari Frazer, and Michelle Relf

We stayed at the Riding Fool Hostel in Cumberland which is owned by MOMAR regular Jeremy Grasby.

We arrived in Cumberland on Friday night and went for dinner at The Great Escape. The service is excellent and the food is amazing.

Saturday morning. Liz Tribe joined us for our first ride of the trip. Liz has been awesome at helping me with the course design and time trialing the various route options. She has a killer trek planned!

Michelle and Kari flowing through the trails in the Comox Valley.  We rode for 2.5 hours in the 30 degree heat. It was so hot but fun the whole way.

Immediately following the ride, we did a quick change of clothes, grabbed lunch to go and drove to the Nymph Falls Orienteering Meet. Sarah Seads was helping the Victoria Orienteers organize the race and gave out some race tips.

Here’s MOMAR’s Orienteering Stage Director, Carl Coger.  Carl spent Monday working on the course design for the “O” stage in the Cumberland MOMAR. Be ready!

There were three course options and we decided to do the 4km route. I went solo and Kris, Kari, and Michelle did it as a team.  We had to collect 16 checkpoints and we were given the maps about 30 minutes prior to the start of the race. I had a route all planned out but just before the start, I was told that you had to get the CPs in order. Off I went looking for CP #1. I thought I would find it easy but NOOOOOOOO… I spent the next 15 minutes trying to find it. I finally figured it out and then I couldn’t find #2! NOOOOO…. I slowed it down and by then I was used to the scale and the rest of the CPs were easy.  Still, it made for a LONG day of running/walking/bushwhacking. No results to comment on (and no desire to either ;0) ).  Kris, Michelle, and Kari didn’t have any issues with any of the CPs and put in a good time.

Here is MOMAR regular and orienteering superstar, Hayden Earle, at the final CP.  Photo by Sarah Seads.

Following the “O” meet we went for a dip in the Puntledge River and a nap on the rocks.

A view of rapids on the Puntledge River.

After 5+hours of adventures, we had a well deserved dinner at the Old House Restaurant in Courtenay. We followed up dinner with a trip to the Waverly Hotel where Gary Comeau was playing live. It was a high energy show but we were exhausted and only lasted one set and one beer.

It’s the Japanese in me taking photos of the food with my BB.

Sunday morning and a nice ride scouting some different areas for potential inclusion into the MOMAR. I wonder if any of the locals can figure out where I took this photo?

Sunday evening we booked boats from Comox Valley Kayaks and headed out in the estuary for a paddle out to an beautiful sandy beach on the Comox spit (not sure what the actual name is).

The paddle was incredibly scenic with many wildlife sightings.

Relaxing on the beach on the ‘comox spit.’

Monday morning… Lox and Bagels for breakfast at Tarbell’s. Great food and service right beside Dodge City Cycles and below the Riding Fool Hostel.

Our third and final ride of the weekend was supposed to be a fun and short ride on trails that I wasn’t planning on using for the MOMAR.  Two hours later, I’m now considerng a complete revision to the bike stage…

What a weekend! Four days of fun in the Comox Valley and I’m really looking forward to the MOMAR on Sept 26th. That race will mark the end of our 10th season and we are planning on celebrating in a big way! I look forward to seeing you all there!

The latest and greatest Coast Mountain Sports store is opening its doors on June 4, 2009 at the corner of Yates Ave. and Broad St. in Victoria, BC.

With 8000 square feet of retail space, this new Victoria location will house the prestigious outdoor brands you’ve come to expect from Coast Mountain Sports – names like The North Face, Columbia, Merrell, Marmot, Salomon, Dakine, Black Diamond, Arc’Teryx, Osprey and more. Get ready to explore the new store for a great selection of camping, paddling and electronic gear to technical packs, travel bags, multi-sport footwear and apparel.

Be sure to join us for our Grand Opening events from June 10-15 where you can take 20% off our ticket price on most items in-store. Plus from June 10-12,  if you’re among the first 50 customers in the store, you can receive FREE merchandise (with a $25 minimum purchase).  See in-store for more details and be sure to check out our Grand Opening ad in the June 10, 11 & 12 Victoria Times Columnist.

This is the first Coast Mountain Sports location in Victoria, and it has been built within a beautiful heritage building in this very colourful and historic part of downtown. The renovation construction team took strong consideration to continue to preserve the existing interior brick and ceiling surfaces, keeping the integrity and history of the building intact. The ornate exterior of the building will be cleaned up and improved to fit better into the vibrant Broad Street community.

Coast Mountain Sports is excited to become a part of Victoria’s outdoor adventure community and we look forward to folding ourselves in to the colourful mosaic that makes up this vibrant city.

Wow. That was a long break from Blogging! I was getting lazy and posting updates via Twitter for the past month.  But, I’m back now and a lot has happened since the last update.

The first MOMAR of the season is just a few weeks away and we are all set to go.  We have over 200 racers signed up and ready to rip it out on a newly designed course by Jen Segger.  Over 90 of the 200 are first time MOMAR participants which is a great stat to see as we love having a new batch of weekend warriors give adventure racing a try.

MOMAR sponsored athlete, Gary Robbins, has been running and running and running and running some more.  He’s become the Forest Gump of the North Shore!  Gary was named Ultra Runner of the Year so he gets a BIG CONGRATS.  He’s been blogging his race stories and they are a well worth a read especially while you drink a milkshake and eat a cinnamon bun!

Last weekend was the Suburban Rush and Aimee Dunn and I had a blast in our third year racing together. It was actually my fifth time doing this race and that was enough to get me a nice certificate for participation! They sold out their event with 250 racers and the competition keeps getting better every year.

I also spent time in Squamish scouting out Jen’s course.  The rappel site is so awesome. Freaky as hell. It makes the rappels from the last two years like bumps in the prairies!

The final few weeks will be busy behind the scenes for the organizing team, but we are very excited for the big day and most of all the big PARTY!

More blogs to come!

Bryan Tasaka
Event Director

Photo by Sleepmonsters.com

It is only mid February, but the hardcore are already out racing some big events.

• Gary Robbins put in a solid performance at the Orcas 50km Ultra this past weekend.
• Jen Segger is ski racing down in Colorado competing in a 24 hour ‘rondo’
• Chris Koch and Jim Mandelli are down in South America racing with Team Spirit in the Pategonia Expedition Race. Lina Augaitis is also competing with Team Buff.
• And Dave Norona is ripping it up on the sled in the Chilcotins.

Meanwhile, I spent the day celebrating my 38th by eating about 5000 calories… although I did get a good workout in at the gym (hot tub)…  Living the dream… ;0)

Life outside the MOMAR sure has been hectic.  I have just finished producing the Surrey WinterFest event and that was all consuming. We had over 20,000 people attend and it was big success with lots of fun activities for the whole family as well as a rock concert featuring Eva Avila, Faber Drive, and Thornley.

Now that it’s over, I can refocus on the ’09 MOMAR season and locking in all our sponsors.  Jen Segger has been working on a new course design for the Squamish race and based on preliminary designs, it’s going to be epic!  This Enduro course will feature a BIG surprise section that is going to absolutely rock!

And I’m way ahead of the game for Cumberland.  The course concept is already complete and once the snow clears Liz Tribe will be start the vetting process.  I think there will be a bit more trekking in this one compared to previous years.

Keep checking back for more exciting news in the coming days!

MOMAR’s MC, Dave Norona, just posted a great video on YouTube.  Check it out here.

To coincide with the most popular day set one’s goals for the year, registration for the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing Series will open at 10:00am on January 1st.

If you are reading this blog entry then you probably have the MOMAR on your list of race goals for the year. Great! I promise you will have an amazing experience at Squamish and Cumberland.  For those of you that have never taken part in the MOMAR, we do offer training clinics to teach you how to navigate, rappel, and mountain bike (the schedule will be updated in a few weeks).  And if you need to learn how to paddle or just need an opportunity to train, I suggest the MEC Big Chop Summer Paddle Series that I also organize in Vancouver

Finally, I found this short article that details the S.M.A.R.T. Principle for motivation and goal setting.  Enjoy!

Is it the announcement of the new race course design, the $14,000 in prizing, or the fact that people just want an excuse to party?  Whatever it is, registration has been coming in fast and furious and we only have 20 spots left before we hit our 250 maximum capacity.

If you’re on the fence and still thinking about signing up, you better make up your mind soon!

Remember that the final round of MOMAR 101 and 301 clinics are being offered so be sure to sign up for those if you need help with your navigation!

Right now five MOMAR racers are down in South Africa taking on the 570km Bull of Africa Expedition Race.

Squamish MOMAR Course Designer, Jen Segger, is racing with uge.cyanosis and are currently in 3rd place. The other Canadian team is Team Comor / John Henry Bikes with a roster that includes Adam Smith, Graham Tutti, Adrian Rothwell, and former Team Helly Hansen/MOMAR member, Meghan Rose; they are sitting in 18th place.

You can track the teams on the Sleepmonsters website complete with race reports, leaderboards, and photo gallery. Go to www.sleepmonsters.ca.

The countdown is on until the MOMAR Shawnigan Lake!  I’m here with my sister, Janine, in Nanaimo where we just spent the night at Normon Thibault’s place.

Last night, Norm entertained us with a spectacular fireshow. Armed with a blowtorch taped to the end of a stick and a big can of bug spray, he bravely set off to rid his property of a massive wasp’s nest.  Here are a few photos…

It just goes to show you that it’s not all about working out for this recent winner of the BC Bike Race (coed with Wendy Simms), but they too are just like us! I feel like the editor of US Weekly by saying that.  ;0)

We’ll be heading south to Duncan soon where we will be loading up the Budget van, going to Merridale Estate Cidery, and then for a Safety Meeting with the boys from SARBC, Timonda, and the HAMS.

Oh, and the new MOMAR T-Shirts are SUPER cool!!!

On the Schick Xtreme3 website, you can enter win a 3 week trip to 3 continents for 3 people. How cool would that be?  To enter, simply visit www.xtreme3.ca and fill out the online ballot.  Be sure to watch the winning video from the 2007 Whistler 72 Filmmakers Showdown — it’s super funny!

The new issue of the MOMAR eNewsletter for June just went out.  If you didn’t get a copy, then you can click here to view it online.  In this issue, we touch on everything from the upcoming MOMAR in Shawnigan Lake, to the past MOMAR in Squamish, to the Big Chop, Volunteers, BC Bike Race, and Training Clinics.

If you would like to be on the mailing list, you can sign up by entering your email in the form to the left.

It’s time to size up the competition for this weekend’s MOMAR in Squamish. Over 200 racers will be on the start line for the Jen Segger designed course including racers from Australia, New York, Texas, Illonios, Washington State, Alberta, and from all parts of BC.  Click here to view the list of registered racers.

Can Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR’s Gary Robbins and Todd Nowack continue where they left off last year? They are fresh off a win at the Suburban Rush and last year, they won all three MOMARs. Who will challenge? Frontrunners Normon Thibault should be up there and you may even see Jason Sanquist (although he claims that he is not as fit as he would to be).

In the Team of 4 category, watch for solid battle between Team Player, Mergeo.com and last year’s top team Live to Tell. And in the team of 2 female category, my money is on the Chilliwack Chicks to be on the podium, but the Just Two Cool Chicks could be up there as well.

But this is an Adventure Race and anything can happen. Over the past 24 MOMARs (holy crap, has it been that many!?) I’ve seen it all — from mechanicals, to injuries, to getting lost (the most common) the race is never over until it’s over. That’s what makes this sport so great.

Volunteers are still needed! If you would like to be part of the MOMAR, please go to the Volunteer Page and sign up.

MOMAR in six days!

Happy New Year everyone! Has it really been a month since my last blog post? Not sure why I haven’t been posting aside from pure laziness. A few interesting stories have happened so it’s not like I didn’t have the content, but I guess I needed the break considering how busy ’07 was for me.

So, what has happened lately? Well, Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR won the Beast Winter Adventure Race down in the USA and continued to dominate the regional sprint AR scene. Both Gary and Todd have been busy blogging so check out their sites to read all about their race and many other cool adventures.

Raid the North Extreme has announced their TV premiere for Saturday, January 12th at 9pm on Global. Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR was one of the featured teams so you should see plenty of their antics throughout the show.

Registration for the 2008 season is going really well. I’m pretty sure we’ll see an early sellout for the Squamish MOMAR. Course Designer, Jen Segger-Gigg and Marc Bourdon from the Squamish Rock Guides have scouted out a new and hidden rappel site that is bigger and better than last year. Jen’s preliminary course design also sounds pretty amazing! Sign up quick and get training.

But the one thing that truly motivated me to get off my ass and start blogging was this photo of Frontrunners’ co-owner, Normon Thibault at the Fourth Annual Dave Smart Tribute Beer Mile. Thanks Norm!