After flying home I went immediately to Whistler to coach with the Camp of Champions. Going to camp, even as a coach, is always one of the most fun weeks of the year. It poured rain almost everyday and I caught a cold that felt like a sub-strain of Swine flu, but as always, I had such a great time riding in Whistler and sleeping in Camp of Champs bed sheets. It’s always sad to say goodbye to my camp family...but I’ll be back again next year. They even had a Vitamin Water vending machine at camp headquarters. If that isn’t a sign that our stars aligned I don’t know what is.


On the horizon is a weekend in Whistler to ride for...wait for it...fun, followed by the Norco global media launch of the 2010 bikes in Vancouver. Seems as though this is the year of zei Deutsch because I have been called back to Germany to do a photo shoot for the cycle passion calendar. My last trip got me enough frequent flyer points to earn Star Alliance elite status so I really look forward to being one of those smug people who get to board first and take up all the overhead baggage space.


I’d like to send out huge props to Alex Lavigne for making a sweet little web video from our trip to Hornby Island last month (and thanks to Jer for the amazing bbq while we were there)...you can see the video here: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/86759/


Also, my friend Walid Azami does all sorts of amazing things like take photos of celebrities that common folk like myself will never meet, but for all you photographers out there, his blog is quite entertaining (and actually offers useful information). Here’s a link to his website: http://walidazami.com/


Last but not least...for those who don’t know already, I am going back to school to do a master’s degree in communications. I’ve been thinking a lot about my thesis lately (approximately 2 years too early), and a few months ago I decided I wanted to do a film on how the extinction of languages is extremely detrimental to traditional knowledge, culture, tradition, environmental conservation, and traditional medicine. Well, in my research I discovered that some other guys made the exact film that I wanted to make! The downside, it’s back to the drawing board for me - the upside? The film is awesome!!! The guys who made it have PhDs in linguists and did an absolutely fantastic job. They lended their credibility to the topic much more than I could have ever done, so even though I’m out of a thesis topic, the world is a better place because of this film. Check it out HERE!


I should go because my dinner is burning, but happy summer to everyone and enjoy the sunshine!


Darcy