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JOHN COWAN'S REPORT ON THE CLUMP'S SO. CAL SUPER TOUR

*See the video of John Cowan, Paul Bas, Andreu Lacondeguy and Cam McCaul jumping in Cowan's back yard at www.konaworld.tv

The snow is melting and the boys of the Kona clump team are healed, rested and ready to take on anything thrown at them in 2007.

Myself and fellow Clump riders, Paul Basagoitia and Robbie Bourdon have been hanging out in my back yard learning new tricks, trying out our new bikes and getting ready for the 2007 season of slopestyle comps and filming the 8th instalment of the New World Disorder series.

After a few days of getting the bikes dialled in, some killer jumping sessions and attending a supercross race in San Diego, the boys and I headed out to tour around Southern California with the main goals of visiting some bike shops, team sponsors and Magazines, and most importantly hitting the good riding spots along the way.

The tour kicked off in my backyard where we had a full afternoon of back to back tricks. Hanging out there was like watching live a New World Disorder highlights.

From there we headed north to San Juan Capistrano to hang with the Boys from “Buy My Bikes” or South County Cyclery as they are officially named. Thanks to their super skilled mechanics, my bike was saved from a potentially life ending mistake when I tried to rethread my bottom bracket. The boys at Bike Mag were playing hooky while the boss was away, but came by the shop to hang with the Clump and talk about the state of freeride, slopestyle comps and the future of it all.

When our stomachs started growling, we knew it was time to head to Laguna Beach to get some food and the new Crank Brothers Pedals that we would be putting to the test on the upcoming Clump trip to Argentina. We got a tour of the Crank Bro building and got to check out how all the Crank Bros products go from ideas to the shipping dock.

Just in nick of time the boys and I dodged all the OC traffic and made it by “the Path’’Bike shop in Tustin. We autographed just about everything in sight and while there was still light, slipped away and still had time for a killer session at hidden valley trails With Trond, Carter, Big mouth Sage and all the boys.

Day two brought us further north to Century City to hang out and talk trails with the boys at “wheel world”.

From there we kept the drive alive and headed up to Valencia to pick up some forks and tour the new Marzocchi headquarters. While in town we hooked on over to the offices of Decline Mag to make sure Hart and the boys were keeping it real. With the sun setting over the hills and a long day under our belts we headed into the sunset and off to Santa Barbara to hang at “Velo Pro” and hopefully get a ride in at the famous Santa Barbara down hill spots.

Day 4 started early and with a stop off at the Laguna Seca Race way so I could hammer out some particulars on the Sea otter jump comp.

From there we spent the day at “Fox Racing Shox” where Mark Fitz spent his whole afternoon teaching us how the shox are built, tested and the best way to set them up.

With a few miscalculations of drive time we still managed to get to “Calabasas Cyclery” before they all were at home in bed. We arrived in the nick of time and still managed a few photos, autographs and learned about this central Cal shop with a lot of history.

Day 5 started at Giro helmets were Paul and I Stocked up on gear fro the new year. We then headed down to Cameron McCaul's to ride his back yard contraption and wish him a happy 21st birthday. Cam has an on off box in his back yard that drops into his pool. It's no wonder why he's got so much game off drops. After a few hour session I had 3s off the thing and PB, and McCaul were 3 tail wiping, double tail whips, Flips, etc., there seamed to be no limit. Then, with the freeways backing up the happy, but really tired clump headed on to their last stop at “Hank and Franks” bike shop in Lafayette Ca. Even though we were late as usual the kids stuck around and we were stoked to arrive to a packed shop. The kids out there were great.

The boys would like to thank every one who came out and all the shops and sponsors who took the time to help put it all together.

-JC

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