Quote of the Day...

"I'm not lazy, I just don't like to do stuff."
-- Ryann (age 17)

2012 Highlights

I usually don't write about an entire year like this, but 2012 turned out to be such an unusual year. So many things happened that spanned the entire spectrum, from incredible, exciting adventures, to really scary and life threatening events. So with that, here are my 2012 highlights, fun stuff first:

10th Anniversary in Belize

The year started off with a bang when my wife and I took off for a 10 day Ultimate Kayaking Adventure in Belize for our 10 year anniversary. It was an extremely adventurous trip for my wife… swimming through an ancient Mayan cave, kayaking for miles around remote islands, dropping in on 15 foot waterfalls in a raft, and sitting in the front seat of an airplane… but for me, my highlights were catching a bat with a butterfly net, back-flipping off of 15 foot waterfalls, opening a coconut with a machete, and spearing a lion fish! Basically, stuff you don’t get to do while working behind a desk every day.

Downhill Mountain Bike Racing

I’ve been riding mountain bikes for many years now, but I made my first attempt at downhill racing by entering the Fontana race series in the beginner class and did surprisingly well! I ended up taking 1st place at the Fontana City Nationals. Cool, huh?

Paddle Boarding in Mammoth

Besides getting our camper out of storage only to find it full of black widow spiders, we had our usual fun in Mammoth this year! Our local friends let us borrow their paddle board over at June Lake, our favorite spot. Not a huge deal, but it was our first time paddle boarding.

Wake Boarding in Havasu

Another first for me was wake boarding. The first day I had the hardest time standing up. So that night I hunkered down, did some research and found some good tips on YouTube. The next day was a success! I’d really like to try this again, but would need a good solid weekend to master it. I have no photos, but you're not missing anything... it wasn't very impressive. The rest of the weekend was filled with tubing and jet skiing.

Bagging Mt. Whitney

I’ve wanted to do this for many years, and the opportunity came up when some guys from church organized it. I signed up right away, of course, and opted for the two day version, only because I didn’t know how my body would react above 14,000 feet. In the months preceding, I also did some killer training hikes like Santiago Peak (5,689'), Bonanza Peak in Nevada (10,397'), San Gorgonio (11,501'), and finally the highest summit of the contiguous United States, Mt. Whitney (14,505').

Spinning on my Head… Again!

So, the best opening line to this story is that I was flown into Cleveland to breakdance at the House of Blues. And it’s true! The Progressive Arts Alliance put together a show to honor my old break dancing crew, Project 5 with Grandmaster Flash as the headliner. They also put together an amazing documentary about us, and I just found out it was accepted to show in the Cleveland International Film Festival which will take place in April 2013. So I practiced for a couple months, re-learning the headspin because that was my specialty back when I was 13. I took Tricia with me and showed her the old stomping grounds, and she got to witness me break dancing on stage in front of hundreds of people at the House of Blues. Even the mayor of Cleveland declared August 11, 2012 "Project 5 Day!" Out of all of things I did this year, this was probably the best experience, mainly because it was a once in a lifetime type of event. It was especially great seeing and reuniting with my bros who I haven’t seen in almost 30 years. I just can’t get over the fact that I’m 42 and still able to spin on my head! How crazy is that?

9th Annual Tour de Corona

Every year I host a big mountain bike ride here in Corona and this year, for some reason, was the best one yet. We had a great turnout, a really fun ride, some good UFC fights and decent game of Texas Hold’em, which is also new for me this year. I can’t wait to see what next year brings, because no matter how challenging I make the ride, my crazy friends still show up every year!

Skin Cancer
That’s right, I had a little scare in the beginning of the year with some basal cell carcinoma in my right ear. I’ve always been pretty good about putting sun block on my ears, but never thought about putting it on the inner portions. That’s where it got me, on the inner-upper part, that is in fact in direct line of sight for the sun. So, they scooped it out and graphed me with some synthetic cow skin, and now I’m known as Mr. Sunblock!

Toni’s Survival
Even scarier, my sister Toni has been battling cancer that is much more severe, Ewings Sarcoma. On one of her last chemotherapy treatments, a nurse made a mistake and connected the wrong bag to her port. Toni actually went into cardiac arrest for about 5 minutes before they brought her back to life (CPR saves lives!) She’s still slowly recuperating from that and by God’s grace getting stronger every day. She is my true inspiration.

Work
This year has been pretty exciting at work too. For the last 2 1/2 years, I've been working on a huge website redesign project and this year some of it started to roll out. You can see some of the new pages, including the home page, at Chase.com.

Here's to another adventurous year!

Tour de Corona 2012 (aka The Adventure Ride)

Wow, I predicted an adventure, and boy did we get one. What an awesome day... probably the best Tour de Corona of all.

For the 9th annual Tour, we rode from my house, took Temescal Canyon all the way to the trailhead of Indian Truck Trail (ITT). Up ITT to the Main Divide, and took a right. Most of the group continued up ITT, but a few of us hiked up Upper Holy Jim. We headed down Coldwater, then double backed on Temescal Canyon back home for a BBQ, some tasty beverages, the UFC fights, and a quick round of Texas Holdem. I've now managed to cram my favorite things all into one day!

We started with 15...

Dave (Me)
Kevin B
John
Steve
Dara
Derik
Big Ethan
Skippy
Larry
Adrian
Bob
Joe
Rich
Dean
Tom

...and finished with 10. To be fair, Kevin did 95% of it and Rich did about 85%, but both had to bail due to time constraints. And Big Ethan rode about the same amount of miles because he kept riding ahead, then coming back to check on everyone, then eventually went back with his parents.

For a large group of 15, we managed to stay pretty close together. Rich was pushing ahead due to his time constraint, but overall, the pace was pretty casual. I managed to be in the very back during the climbs, but in the very front on the descends, which is par for the course.

Considering the amount of riders, mechanicals and crashes were minimal unlike in 2004 when we had a flat-fest while riding ITT to Santiago Peak.

14 riders, including myself, had a 10am start time at my house, but didn't hit the road until 10:30, which is pretty normal. The plan was to pick up Rich, who parked near the ITT trailhead. Riding along the road is always interesting, especially when you're on a mountain bike, and especially with a large group. People in cars gave us the right away and even let up blow through stop signs while they waited.

Near Dos Lagos, we saw Kevin's wife and kids driving in their minivan. Kevin was stoked because his son thought it was a race, and of course, Kevin was in front! He scored some big Daddy points with that, and we agreed to go along with it if ever asked.

Continuing on Temescal Canyon Road, we pass a couple bars (tempting!) and Tom's Farm. We make our way over to the new neighborhood at the bottom of ITT, and Rich meets up with us there. The road portion was 9.1 miles.

Heading up ITT was pretty uneventful. We spreaded out a little as we made our way up this pretty easy climb. It was a little warm in some exposed areas, then a little cool in the foresty parts. Overall, it was perfect, early December riding weather; around 70 degrees and clear skies.

We take a break about 2 miles short of the Main Divide. We knew this because Rich and Big Ethan road up together, and Big Ethan road back down to tell us. He managed to do this several times, acting as our communication link between the front and back of the pack because we didn't have much for cell service. Just before this point, John's tire was attacked by a goathead and he had a little trouble finding someone with a 29" tube. He and some other 29er riders had 26" spares for some strange reason.

We lost Dara, Derik and Big Ethan due to time contraints, then continued up the Main Divide. We split off where Adrian, Kevin and I decided to hike up Upper Holy Jim, while the other 9 continued riding up the fire road. we regrouped at the top of Coldwater, and that's where the fun began!

Coldwater started off fast and flowy along the side of the mountain, then tucked into some forest tunnels. I wanted to stop and take pictures, but I was having way too much fun. I seriously couldn't stop. This has to be THE best single track around Corona, and it surprises me why it's not so popular... until you get to the steep stuff. This part explains it all. The end is super steep, loose in some sections, and drops you off in a barbed wired open-pit quary.

At this point we were starting to get concerned about daylight. Rich was ahead of us and totally thought we were trapped in, but after we regrouped we found a gate and pryed our way out.

We continued through the neighborhood and back down Temescal Canyon Road. Rich went back to his truck parked at Vons, and Kevin had his wife pick him up at Tom's Farm. By the time the rest of us got back to my house the sun was totally down.

A few others joined us for the BBQ and UFC fights, and a small group stuck around for a quick Texas Holdem Tournament.

What a great day... I really don't know how I'm going to top this one. But I'll think of something. Afterall, next year will be the 10th anniversary, so it HAS to be awesome! Until then...

Here are the Stats...
Distance: 33-35 miles (shorter for the Upper Holy Jim hikers)
Lowest Point: 889' (my house)
Highest Point: 4643' (top of Coldwater trail)
Total Elevation Gain: 4581'
Ride Time: 5 hours, 25 minutes
Total Time: 6 hours, 42 minutes
Flat Tires: 1 via goathead (John)
Crashes: 3, 4 if you count Skippy's fall while hiking up hill! (plus a few slide outs)
Mechanicals: Broken front derailleur cable (Kevin)

View more photos here.

Responsive Design for DavidGuido.com

I redesigned my site a few years ago with strict web standards, so turning it into a responsive design fully optimized for mobile and tablet devices was a quick weekend project. What it means, in the simplest of terms, is that the site will now automatically resize to fit all computer, mobile and tablet screens (no more pinching and zooming) with specific navigation for the smaller screens.

So go ahead, visit davidguido.com on your device of choice, and let me know what you think.

Mt. Whitney... Bagged!!!

Ten of us make a two-day trek up Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contigious United States. The elevation is shifting, but it was recorded at 14,505 feet a few days prior to our climb. Relentlessly, all ten of us summited! What an incredible and very difficult accomplishment. Thanks to all the guys for an awesome trip!

More photos

10 Year Anniversary in Belize

Celebrating our 10th anniversary, we took a trip to Belize to experience the Ultimate Adventure: 10 days of kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, hiking through ancient Mayan caves and white water rafting through the jungle... And that was only half of the adventure!

Enjoy the photos!

Tour de Corona 2011

For the 8th annual Tour de Corona, we started at my house, rode up Bedford, across the Main Divide, and down Skyline. We started with 7 and ended with 3. The weather was perfect, right around 80 degrees, while the East Coast was hit with a record storm that took power away from millions. There were a couple crashes with a little skin left on the trail, otherwise a great, long ride and a fantastic party with friends, tacos and fights. More photos

Whistler 2011

Dave, Bob, Steve and Craig's trip to Whistler, British Columbia in Canada, September 16 - 23, 2011. More photos

Bombing Down Skyline

This morning I did some shuttle runs up and down Skyline Trail here in Corona, Ca with Patrick and Nick. After the big rain we had last week the trails were pretty rutted, but nice and sticky. I had a great day. I only got three runs in, but they were a blast. I finally cleared that big jump...

This was captured with my camera phone... Man, I need a better video camera for this stuff!

Quote of the Day...

"Never torture a black bear."
-- Ethan (age 7)

Band of Skulls

Tricia and I went to see the Band of Skulls today at the 98.7 studio with about 25 other people. I won this from collecting points on their website, and bidding on this prize. My sister Cathi got me into this, and so far it's been fun. Here's a picture of me with the band.
The show was great. They were interviewed by the local DJ and played 4 songs, including their hit I Know What I Am, along with their upcoming hit Friends from the New Moon soundtrack.

Tour de Corona 2009 (aka The John Hudspeth Redemption Ride)

For this year's Tour de Corona, I decided to repeat the ride from 2007, mainly so that my buddy John can redeem himself. He broke his leg on this ride two years ago and never felt the glory of finishing like the rest of us.

The proposed ride was up Bedford (everyone's favorite climb), across the Main Divide, down the Silverado Motorway, back up Maple Springs, down the Main Divide and back down Bedford.

We started with 12 riders:

Dave (me)
John H (the man of the hour)
Bob
Steve
Joe
Brian
Skippy
Domenick
Patrick
Adrian
John A
Chris (a friend of John H)

And 11 of us completed the entire thing.

A couple of really cool and memorable things happened on this ride. One was that my buddy Dom flew all the way down from Seattle to spend the weekend with me and my Southern California friends. I've been inviting him for years and he finally took me up on the offer. Jeff, who usually rides the Tour and is about the same height as Dom, let us borrow his bike, which was very cool.

Dom is a strong road rider who does about 5-6 centuries per year and this was to be his first mountain biking adventure off road. That made me a little nervous because this is a pretty difficult route that we had planned. I knew he'd do well, and at worst he'd have to simply turn around and wait for us at the house. But my main concern was that this ride would turn him off to mountain biking completely.

We woke up early and drove up Bedford in my wife's Highlander to drop off a big Arrowhead bottle full of water. I did this last time and it was a big relief for everyone. Plus, I thought it was a good idea to give Dom a hint of what's to come. Turns out it wasn't what he expected... at all!

The starting time was 10:00, but as usual, everyone took their time getting ready. Plus, we wanted to wait for Steve who was coming from his kid's soccer game. We shoved off right at 10:30.

The pace started off very casual, which was good. Climbing up Bedford is no picnic, and most everyone knew that. But, just like every year, Patrick takes off like a bullet. I was expecting John to follow him, but John waited in the back with his buddy Chris, who "hasn't done this kind of ride in years." Dom was in the back as well, getting used to the bike and trying to find his pace. We continued up to around 2,000 feet and couldn't see Dom and Chris on the trail, so I called Dom. They were by the main gate and Dom was ready to throw in the towel and head back to the house by himself. I was sort of relieved because I didn't want him to have a miserable time. I called Tricia and told her to expect Dom in a little while.

John A, Bob and I headed up together, and John H waited for Chris. Everyone else was way ahead at this point.

We got to the Main Divide and Patrick has been waiting for about an hour. I can tell he was on a mission... but the rest of us were just looking for a casual ride. We filled up with water, had a snack, and when everyone gathered I get a call from Tricia saying that Dom never made it home. "Oh shit," I thought... "what if something happened?" I quickly call Dom and he picks up panting. Turns out he decided to ride up by himself after all. I didn't like it one bit, but he was determined to at least make it to the Main Divide. The only thing I can do was to call him often, so I did.

The rest of us took off across the Main Divide, then down The Silverado Motorway. It was a little loose, but man, I love that trail! Steve got the first flat somewhere in the middle.

At the bottom of Silverado, we all congratulated John for making it past "the point". Skippy was awesome enough to stash more water for us at the bottom, and man, we needed it. It was a pretty warm day so far.

The ride up Maple Springs was nice and cool though, but holy crap was it hard! My knees were starting to hurt pretty bad, so I just wanted to take my time. Pretty much everyone was in front, but I think Steve was behind Skippy for most of the climb... I'm not sure. I rode a good portion with John A so I was asking tons of questions about his Ironman races. He claims any of us can do it with the proper training, but I don't know. It was inspiring nonetheless.

John and I pull up to Four Corners and see someone with a sombrero in the distance... "What the F?" We get closer and see that our friend Darrell drove up in his car with his two dogs and kindly set up a Tour de Corona Hydration Station. "Want a beer?" he said. "Oh, hell yeah!" That was the coolest thing I'd ever seen!

I get a text from Dom saying that Patrick was already back to the top of Bedford, so they road down together. I texted back "Having a beer at 4 corners!" I learned later that Patrick saw the message and told Dom that I was just messing with him. Too bad Patrick blew through Four Corners and didn't wait for us.

We waited quite a while for Chris and started to get a little worried. John H and Joe headed back down Maple Springs to see what was going on. A little while later they come back up, and Chris was hurting pretty bad. He didn't crash or anything, he just got his ass handed to him on this part of the climb.

When Chris arrived, he enjoyed the last beer that we saved for him. If he didn't take it, it would've been a bloody fight over who got it.

We all shove off together, but immediately, Bob gets a flat and Brian busted a spoke. There were a few more small climbs, and my knees were done! This was the first time I've felt this sort of joint pain. I know, I know... I'm turning 40 next year so I have to expect this kind of crap... whatever!

We get to the top of Bedford and had some guy in a truck take my empty Arrowhead water bottle down to the gate. I really didn't want to drive back up to get it. From the gate, Brian grabbed it and strapped it to his back the rest of the way down.

At home, Dom and Patrick were already cleaned up. Patrick was pissed when he found out I was telling the truth about the beers at Four Corners. That was pretty funny.

More friends and their significant others starting showing up, Patrick took over on the grill, and everyone else helped with the prep work while I fixed the TV. We enjoyed some well deserved beers, carne asada and chicken tacos and the UFC fight on pay-per-view.

The highlights were, of course, John redeeming himself, Domenick actually flying down from Seattle for the ride, and Darrell's awesomely cool hydration station at four corners. Besides Shogun loosing the main event in the fight, it turned out to be the best Tour de Corona so far. This will be a hard one to top. Can't wait until next year!

Here are the stats:
Distance: 31.24 miles
Total climb: ~6,200 feet
Total time: ~7 hours
Patrick's record ride time: 3:52:59 (wow!)
Flats: 2
Busted Spokes: 1
Crashes: none!

Zion & Gooseberry, Utah Trip 2009

I couldn't swing going to Moab with the gang like last year, but I did manage to tag along for a long weekend on the Gooseberry Mesa for mountain biking and in the Zion National Forest for an awesome hike to the "Subway". Here's a picture taken with my cell phone.

Day 1 & 2 Gooseberry
The first two days were filled with some epic mountain bike riding on the Gooseberry Mesa. This is now my favorite place to ride. It was my third time there, so I'm getting really used to the trails.

I blew my back out earlier in the week, so I wasn't able to ride, at all, the entire week. It was still a little stiff on this ride, so I took it easy in the beginning. Before you know it, my back was feeling great and I was shredding like nobody's business. I cleared a couple of very difficult climbs I've never cleared before and found a really cool 6 foot drop that Bob and I rolled.

At night, the wind picked up and was blowing our tents all over the place, and blowing our chairs into the fire. The highlight of the night was when the guys found a huge stump to burn. Everyone pretty much just backed up, stomping on the embers burning everything.

The wind continued through the second day, but that didn't stop us. We powered through an awesome sandy breakfast and headed out. We just didn't get as close to the 1,000 foot cliffs like we usually do. Strangely enough, the wind stopped as soon as we got to "The Point", where it's usually very windy.

Day 3 Zion
We were supposed to hike down from the top, repelling down water falls into pools of water. But with the continued wind and the drastic drop in temperature, we decided to hike from the bottom and stay mostly dry.

The hike was a strenuous 3 miles each way. The entire 3 miles was incredibly beautiful, especially when we got to the Subway. Seriously... words can't even describe it. You HAVE to go check it out your self. But for now, here are a few more pictures.

Gray's Peak - Bagged!

My buddy Patrick and I bagged Gray's Peak today on our mountain bikes. Here's a picture of me at the peak with Big Bear Lake behind me. It was about 3.5 miles one way, all single track, kinda up and down (but mostly up, of course), and not too difficult of a climb. The downhill part, oh man, that was fun!

The downhill from Gray's Peak was like a roller coaster... very fast and smooth. We road down about 2 miles, then shot over to the Hanna Flat campground, which was basically more epic single track. The campground itself was really nice... reminded me of Mammoth... I'd like to take the family there before it gets too cold. Here's an interesting picture of one of the bathrooms. Which door would you choose?


We doubled back and ended up with about 14 miles and very sore legs... only because it was my first big ride in almost 3 months. Overall it was a great ride, about 25 degrees cooler than at home, and only about an hour away. I don't know why I don't go up there more often.

Just like riding off a curb!

Mountain biking in Mammoth was epic this year, mainly because my buddies Patrick, Nick and Craig joined me for two full days of downhill action. The highlight for me was landing the Flow Drop, which Craig referred to as "just like riding off a curb." Yeah, right! Here's a low quality video of me doing it...

I first saw this drop a year ago...
but I was by myself and I didn't want to risk it. So I've basically been thinking about it all year long.

The Drop is part of the Flow Trail in the Mammoth Mountain Bike Park. It's a 6 foot wooden platform, followed by a 5-6 foot vertical drop, followed by a 25-30 foot slanted wooden landing. Here's a higher quality version of someone else doing it to get a better idea of how cool it is.

San Bernardino Peak - Bagged!

Every year, the guys from the church do a series of hikes, mostly for the purpose of training for a larger hike. This year, there are no large hikes planned, but they started off with a doozy... to the peak of San Bernardino Peak.

The hike was about 16 miles round trip and about 4700 feet of elevation gain. It was a little challenging, especially since there were some large spots of snow towards the top. But that just made it more fun! It took us about 10 hours to complete.

The trail was amazingly maintained. A nice even ascend, very clean and wide. Towards the top there was some minor overgrowth, but no big deal. And the views... oh man, the views were incredible. From the top, you can see Big Bear Lake, San Gorgonio Peak, Santiago Peak and the entire IE. I took some pictures with my camera phone, but they're not as clear.





Five of us started, but only Kevin and I made it. There were some flared up injuries and time constraints that kept the others from bagging the peak.

It was a great day with great views and great company.

Kindle2

Tricia's Kindle2 arrived today! So of course, I had to check out what davidguido.com looked like on it. Not to shabby, huh?

Her family and I pitched in to buy it for her birthday. I bought it a month in advance, and of course, it was back-ordered. So for her birthday, I found a picture of a Kindle, wrote a message on it in Photoshop, printed it out, and pasted it to a piece of card-board. It took her about 5 minutes to figure out what it was. But once she realized, oh man, was she excited. You see, this is the first gift she's received in a long time that was entirely for her; not for the family, not for her-and-the-kids...just for her! So she was extremely excited about it.

She wanted it about a year ago when it first came out, but I talked her out of it based on the poor reviews of other reading devices that I've heard. When I started researching it, turns out things like eye-strain, poor battery life and clunky UIs have all been fixed on the Kindle. So I got together with her family and bought it.

After her birthday, and after she told everyone that she's getting it, Amazon announced that the Kindle2 is out. I immediately thought we were getting old technology, so I was kinda pissed. I check my email and Amazon writes that we're getting upgraded automatically for the same price...now that's pretty cool.

We were supposed to get it on March 3rd with free shipping, so Tricia kept asking me to track the package. It ended up coming way early (today, 2/27). Tricia screamed at the post man with excitement when she saw the Amazon logo.

Needless to say, she's stoked...and I'm golden for at least another year!

Skyline Jumps

At the bottom of the Troy Lee trails at Skyline (SoCal), there are a series of three nice jumps that are well maintained. They are much easier to hit on a downhill or freeride bike, but here's a pretty good photo of me hitting the second one with my cross-country bike. There's about a 4-5' gap that's not in the picture. Photo credit goes to my man, Steve F.

Shepard Fairey - Obama Poster

One of the most fascinating parts of the historic inauguration this week is watching the events unfold over Shepard Fairey's Obama poster.

The "Hope" poster got Fairey's foot in the door, then it somehow landed in the friggen' Smithsonian! You just have to see these photos of the guys at the Smithsonian hanging it up with white gloves. There's also the "Progress" poster that's very similar, then he was able to create the official inauguration poster.

Keep in mind that this is a graffiti artist we're talking about. I mean, he's been arrested many times for hanging posters and vandalism. He was even arrested for hanging the "Hope" poster. The fact that he's gained this much notoriety just cracks me up. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the guy. It's just kind of ironic.

Fairey's portrait of the Obama became one of the most common images of the campaign and landed him the title of "Icon Maker" of the year by Time magazine.

They even came up with an easy way to create your own poster, so I made one of our dog, Cooper.

I've been a fan of Fairey's for a long time and went to see him talk in 2005 at OCMA. One thing stuck in my head from his presentation. He said something like "People always complain that I sold out. I didn't sell out... I bought in!"

New Street Art

I love to follow new types of street art and graffiti. Here are a couple of interesting ones...

Check out Aakash Nihalani or watch a cool video of FatBlodded Following Aakash Nihalani.

Also check out INVADER - Binary Code Street Art.