Finally another Sunday ride, the first of this new year. It’s been a stressful couple weeks with all that’s been happening and to stay together with the crew only makes things easier to get through everything. I’ve grown accustomed to my fixed family and the friends that I’ve met through riding this past year has made my whole cycling experience more memorable with each ride. To think that a year ago, I was the typical beginner cyclist, still not comfortable with riding on the street, the sidewalk warrior that stuck only to bike paths. My perception of riding bikes has changed and it’s sad that not everyone will experience all the different emotions that come with riding on the streets of Hawaii. All these lazy people who drive cars everyday, who don’t give a shit about cyclist, who feel we don’t belong on the streets with “them”… I just wish they put themselves in our shoes, for just a day, to understand why we ride.

I can’t be more thankful for the friends I have, that take cycling as serious as I do, that care about each other, that don’t start any stupid drama and leave their own drama at home, that I can depend on in times where I doubt my other so called “friends.”

Today we did a leisurely ride and a quick mock-up picnic session at Paradise Park deep in Manoa Valley. I didn’t realize that Safeway has some pretty good poke, I thought it was only Foodland. The weather was pretty nice for once, compared to the last couple weeks filled with heavy showers and flooding. After the picnic a bunch of the group split up to hike the 7-bridges path in Manoa. A few of us opted to just ride around town instead, so we ended up riding out to Sports Authority and in4mation in Ward Warehouse and Jamba Juice in Ala Moana. After riding through the malls, we rode up to Makiki Park to watch some bike polo. It was an all-day event filled with bikes. It’s always a blast, especially when I know I could’ve just wasted my Sunday just sitting a home, zoning out on this computer. Tomorrow the Punani Pedalers Club is throwing its monthly ride, it should be another fun leisurely paced ride. Then there’s TNR on Tuesday. 3 consecutive days of riding to start off 2011; looking forward to this week.

Memorable Moments:
-Sau and Casey expressing my love for cows on the back window of my car
-The debut of John O.’s CHUB x Hplus rear wheel setup
-Watching Daryl ride with his organic riser handlebars
-Grinding some awesome poke (thanks Daniel B. and Mark M.) and PB&J sandwiches (thanks Vance) from Safeway
-Watching Rob demolish his chainring shortly after arriving to bike polo
-Meeting a clipless bike polo rider and a backpacker that came from Oregon