Thursday, October 16, 2008

Memoirs of a Superfan

My career as a Superfan began at an early age. Norba Nationals Traverse City MI 1994. My goal was to get as many autographs as possible. Film the best action possible and hope for the biggest crashes possible.









I came away with autographs from Tomac, Furtado, Wiens, Juarez, Grewal, Hans Rey, Lopes, King, Carter, Giove. It was awesome...if only I could find some of that video footage at my parents house you could see what it was all about in the mid 90's.


Luckily I had some great Role Models from the beginning. My dad and Lou Reeves were some of the best Superfans out there as pictured below on a brisk fall morning at the Boyne Downhill State Championships in 1995.










10 years later they were still at it, but now they had perfected the look.(brim on hats getting bigger)










They would scout the best areas for photo ops, they would photo every technical section of the course to help us pick our lines. Rain or Shine they were at the start line, in the woods, on the descent, and back to the finish religously.










Here is a famous section of trail in Mt. Snow.
Below are some Superfans lining the descent in Snowshoe!













Look how fast these superfans had me rockin' this section.













After I started racing pro I didn't completely give up on my career as a Superfan. I just had to be smart about it....

In Mt Snow towards the end of the lap the old race course went under a bridge. Instead of hiking up 4 miles to the best part of the course we figured if 2 of us yelled as loud as we can under the bridge it was really loud! Like a rock concert loud. We had so much fun we stayed for hours even though we still had to race later that afternoon. By the end of our Superfan session we were handing out dollar bills to confused racers who were baffled out the decibel level from only two Superfans. The transition from light to darkness in the tunnel and then to light again made it difficult to focus on the $$$ hand up on the other side of the bridge. One thing not to forget we were still poor bike racers so we made sure we handed the dollar right close to a pothole, so the racers had a difficult time taking the money we needed to eat Ben & Jerry's with later that night











If we were done racing...it was back to being a Superfan ASAP as pictured below in one of the many Short Track races that were ended a few laps too early.









6 comments:

cjsbike said...

I remember the early years! Your parents were a common fixture at all the races back in the day! Retro Ranch, Pando, Ruby, Cannonsburg, and the Nationals at Schuss Mountain.

You need to crack out the superfan video from the years past!

Do not forget! I will be in Superfan mode at Broomhead Road for the pro race for Iceman.

-Chad

velogrrl said...

Keep up with the old SuperFan stories!! Those are great!

I was at the Snoqualmie and the Traverse City NORBA nats, too (and many of the Sleeping Bear Classics in Traverse City) though I never made it to Mt Snow. And I totally missed the uh, scenery, on the downhill course at Snoqualmie!

the fat guy who rides said...

for the next UCI race of yours i make, i am bring more cowbells. i am not sure i can yell much louder, but ill try.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX3S1f_7dI4&feature=related

SUPERFANS (twins)

Anonymous said...

lots of nostalgia keeps me coming back to this here blog of yours!

where are the photos of cecilia potts and skyler kissing in the back of the van?

T.

Anonymous said...

And you looked damn good in that Hayes jersey too...

Tiny

a.k.a
John L.