Review: Rich Oliver's Fun Camp (by Fresno, CA) - Amazing!
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 4:43 am
Like I said, Rich Oliver's Fun Camp is AMAZING!!!!! It's called Fun Camp for a reason -- it's FUN. I was at the old facility, which was Rich's front yard and a side area with sand. I know he now has a fancy new facility that is not in his front yard, but I'm sure it's even more awesome. I can't make it this year, but I'll post up next year when we go. So Rich starts you out stretching, learning about what your body and eyes physically need to do this right. They feed you healthy, amazing breakfasts and lunches. They provide new Yamaha 110 dirtbikes (they have a couple larger ones for the tall people), and you can rent any gear you need (And they will wash it overnight, which is brilliant).
He starts on a figure-8, tiny circles to teach how to push the bars down and turn with your knees, etc. We move to the slalom course in the sand, which is SO MUCH FUN. There are some racing drills to force you into a quick start, rush toward a left turn around a tire and back, but mostly slalom back and forth around a tire course, which was pretty fun. I landed on top of a tire with a cone under my bike, so everyone used me as the turn point.
the best part is that Rich and all of his coaches are having a blast -- they are laughing through their slides, laughing when you fall, just making it fun. This is about fun.
Then we did a bunch of configurations of different TT tracks, to the point where we were begging for mercy while hooting in our helmets having a great time. Sure, you crash. Sure, it hurts, but the fun is SO MUCH fun. You go home, shower, barely get dinner in your mouth, crash out.
Day 2: Do some slalom course drills, which are fun, so who will complain? =D Go to the TT track course and practice race starts. They teach you how to do a race start and time you, then you learn where you lie within the group. It was scary the first time, then it was SO MUCH FUN. Then we started 5-lap races in all the different track configurations. They mix up the race start positions so it makes it more interesting... sometimes they put slower first, sometimes fastest... you just fight to see who can pass who and you already know each other pretty well, so you talk shit between your helmets. SO MUCH FUN.
Basically, the whole second day is race after race. It forced me to go faster and I won a race, and almost won another, but crashed. You can see it here (I'm in white, and you can see my little crash that lost me the race): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8QNj2 ... e=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8QNj2JuZU&feature=youtu.be
Yes, it's California, but it's easy to find a hotel in Fresno and just GO DO IT. Amazing. I had so much fun that we signed up 6 weeks later to do it again.
He starts on a figure-8, tiny circles to teach how to push the bars down and turn with your knees, etc. We move to the slalom course in the sand, which is SO MUCH FUN. There are some racing drills to force you into a quick start, rush toward a left turn around a tire and back, but mostly slalom back and forth around a tire course, which was pretty fun. I landed on top of a tire with a cone under my bike, so everyone used me as the turn point.
the best part is that Rich and all of his coaches are having a blast -- they are laughing through their slides, laughing when you fall, just making it fun. This is about fun. Then we did a bunch of configurations of different TT tracks, to the point where we were begging for mercy while hooting in our helmets having a great time. Sure, you crash. Sure, it hurts, but the fun is SO MUCH fun. You go home, shower, barely get dinner in your mouth, crash out.
Day 2: Do some slalom course drills, which are fun, so who will complain? =D Go to the TT track course and practice race starts. They teach you how to do a race start and time you, then you learn where you lie within the group. It was scary the first time, then it was SO MUCH FUN. Then we started 5-lap races in all the different track configurations. They mix up the race start positions so it makes it more interesting... sometimes they put slower first, sometimes fastest... you just fight to see who can pass who and you already know each other pretty well, so you talk shit between your helmets. SO MUCH FUN.
Basically, the whole second day is race after race. It forced me to go faster and I won a race, and almost won another, but crashed. You can see it here (I'm in white, and you can see my little crash that lost me the race): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8QNj2 ... e=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8QNj2JuZU&feature=youtu.be
Yes, it's California, but it's easy to find a hotel in Fresno and just GO DO IT. Amazing. I had so much fun that we signed up 6 weeks later to do it again.