As usual for us, things have been going crazy around here with a hectic schedule of events to prepare for and to attend. In the last few months we had a solid schedule of schools to fulfill that resulted in lots of traveling and not much sleep, but it certainly was an enjoyable time to get out there and really spend a lot of time with a multitude of students helping them all to significantly increase their skill and safety whilst riding. We certainly get the opportunity to meet and interact with a lot of offroad enthusiasts out there while doing the schools, and some of them have been, I suppose you could say, “unique”. Some people will say that I’m a little “different” with some of the things I do, but I guess that’s why I feel as though I get on so well with all of these students!
Anyway, the start of August saw us come to the end of the first 13 months after opening the Dirt Wise Academy of Offroad Riding schools in July 2007, and in that time we have had over 650 students graduate from our Academy of Offroad Riding. It’s been a heavy work load and hasn’t allowed much spare time for family and other personal interests but we’re committed to continuing the Dirt Wise program as the leader in Offroad motorcycle skills instruction. We are always looking for ways to refine and improve our current programs and the best way to do this is to gain feedback from you on what area we need to do this, so please send us your thoughts, if you have any, on how we can improves things here ultimately for your benefit.
For the last few weeks, and also for the next few weeks we will be working on some new initiatives and projects that will come to life over the next couple of months, and I’m hoping (and pretty sure) that you will be blown away by them. There’s someexciting times coming up for us with the whole Dirt Wise program!
Doing all of these schools recently means that I’ve had a lot of travel time to “space out” on the drive, and a lot of funny memories seem to pop into my head whilst following the white line. On one drive I couldn’t find a decent place to get something to eat and it reminded me of the time I flew to Billings Montana for the annual Hillclimb national that they have there. I was going to compete, and the guys from Dirt Rider magazine had organized a bike for me and all that, so all I had to do was to get there. Anyway, my flight there got delayed again and again and we missed the last connection in somewhere like Sioux Falls, South Dakota (I don’t remember the exact place) late that night some where around about 11pm. So the airline offers the few affected passengers a discounted night of accommodation at a local motel, which we all take them up on. The shuttle bus picks us up and takes us out to the motel which is located outside of the city in a desolate industrial complex. It was a nice motel but I was starving and we had an early flight to catch in the morning. There weren’t any restaurants around and the snack machines at the motel were empty. By this stage I was totally famished and ravenous, plus I was pretty cranky. Without having to call a taxi to go find a Denny’s or a servo to source some snacks the only substitute that I was able to come up with was to eat the contents out of the sugar packets that were situated with the complimentary coffee set up in the room. It was somewhat yummy but I was so bloody hungry that I think I even contemplated eating the empty packets as well. After a small amount of crappy sleep it was back to the airport and on towards Billings. I finally arrived to the “Hill” about 20 minutes before my scheduled run and was told to quickly get my gear on as there was no chance of doing a re-schedule of the run. Hustling down to the launch pad still buckling up my riding gear I got on some guy’s extended swingarm, beastly KTM550 and charged that very daunting site in front of me without even having the opportunity to scout the hill out, and I was probably about to pee my pants with intimidation.
With some excellent instantaneous line selection, and probably a lot of luck I managed to crest the top of the final monstrous cliff only to then have the swingarm snap on me. The adrenalin was certainly at a “high level alert”, which was the same scenario I had when I competing in the last round of the National Hare and Hound Championship out in Lucerne Valley, California back in 2001, which is a story for another time. But I can tell you that those hillclimb guys have big balls, and so do the desert racers!!!
Down to business now. We have just released our fall schedule of the Dirt Wise Academy of Offroad Riding schools which are as follows:
September 20-21 Grantsburg, WI
October 3-4 (Friday-Saturday) Meriden, CT
October 5 (Sunday) Meriden, CT – Condensed 1 day school (8am-5:30pm). Cost is $250.
October 9-10 (Thursday/Friday) Lansing, NY (near Ithaca) Cost is $250
October 11-12 Elmira, NY- Sold out!*
October 24-25 (Friday-Saturday) Warrensburg, MO (near Kansas City, KS) – Three spots remaining!
October 26-27 (Sunday-Monday) Warrensburg, MO (near Kansas City, KS)
November 1-2 Denver, NC
November 15-16 Bybee, TN (near Knoxville)
MORE 2008 DATES and LOCATIONS TO BE RELEASED SOON! We are hoping to soon confirm the following schools in Texas (Dallas area) on Nov 21/22, N. Cal on Dec 13/14, and S. Cal over the Christmas/New Year’s break.
As always, a portion of each student’s tuition fee is donated to the Blue Ribbon Coalition and the RiderDown Foundation.
If you require any info regarding these upcoming schools then please check out our website www.shanewatts.com and send us an email from there.
