Advanced Rider Training at Puekohe

Two weekends ago I went to the Pukekohe racetrack for the Advanced Rider Training. I've been meaning to get to the race track. I've always figured that it would be good to test my bike in a safe(r) environment. What I didn't think/realize was that I would have a farkin blast! It was so fun. And so dangerous at the same time.

Here's a video of me passing on the inside, bout three people. Though I was in the novice slow group, I was passing a lot. Though, I probably could have ridden in the next group up, I opted not to as I didn't need to push it. It was a learning, not racing day.

I don't think I'm going to go to the race track again for a while. It's dangerous and I should probably stick to hobbies that don't burn a bunch of fossil fuels or can get me killed instantly.

ANZAC Trip around the East Cape

Adam had a couple of gigs in his band so I took off for a motorcycle ride around the East Cape of New Zealand. I didn't know anybody who was into distance riding.

View Larger Map
ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, and ANZAC day is a public holiday (yay!). It's the last three day weekend at the end of summer. Adam and I were going to go to the Great Barrier Island but the music thing was something Adam is really into at the moment (somebody ask him to post his song, it's very 'poppy polynesian').

So, about the East Cape, very very similar to the Oregon Coast except they have some bad ass natives (as compared to oregon coastal crusties).

From the New Zealand website encyclopedia, the area is pre-eminently a farming district, with very little industry and few alternative avenues of economic development. It has, however, a large and rapidly growing Maori population requiring in the immediate future increased opportunities for employment. The East Cape offers the social scientist a remarkable field of research; for its Maori community, having experienced the shock of a new culture, is in the process of adjusting itself to modern civilisation in a largely agricultural economy where population growth is rapid.

However what they don't tell you is sometimes the Maoris shut down the roads in protest. Anyhoo, I pulled into a gas station that was hidden behind a dairy (gas pumps are few and far between). I was hopping on my bike and turned and saw this heavily face tattood Maori guy pull in and it totally scared the crap out of me, as its intended. I was told that face tattoos are supposed to scare you, but this article gives the history of the Maori face tattoo, basically it's the person's life history on their face.


Photo from eyeteeth on flicker Read more about this Maori activist Tame Iti

Pukekohe Park Raceway on my SV650

My first ever day on a race track on my motorbike. I was scared shitless the whole time! It was an open track day, which means that anybody can show up and ride some loops for $90 bucks, everybody together.

I was invited by James who gave me a pre lesson on the track and curves. I didn't remember a bit of it. One guy on the track told me to think about gearing but I couldn't remember even that. On the first run I was just concentrating on holding a steady line on the track so that people could predict my movement and race around me.

On the second run I did a little bit better. During the break I took a mini nap and decided that the only thing I wanted to work on was counter steering and counterbalancing my weight on the foot pegs.

By the third run I knew all of the corners and how they should feel in the curves. I was confident to push my speed limit and went up to 170km on the flat straight stretch. This means I broke my own personal boundary of going over 100mph.

Later I was sitting on the guard rail and another biker came up to me and told me I was really brave for getting out there. I was thinking either that or really stupid in my head.

Somebody ask James why his bike is so dirty, I thought that enduros were for off-road?





That is my blue SV650 in the back.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day

Easter... when Jesus rose from the dead... and we all know what a person is when he rises from the dead...

Next year we are having a zombie themed party on Easter. Maybe we will make some brain shaped easter eggs and have a "Zombie Jesus Day Brains Hunt".

Good Friday Run in the Auckland Domain

Last Friday as the sun started to fade I had to kick start my lazy, pms bitchin', cranky ass and go for a bloody run in the Auckland Domain. I did a couple of rounds around the domain before it started to get too dark (map). I usually run up and down the grass hills to save my knees from pavement pounding

There were numerous 'unofficial' games of soccer and rugby going on. As I was running up Pukekaroa hill the full moon popped over the hill and a rugby team started to do a haka chant.

The Pukekaroa hill is famous as two warring Maori tribes came to a peace deal so the new European emmigrants set aside the land (very nice of them to do that). Here's a picture of the totara tree commemorating the first Maori king Although the concept of a Maori king is a European construct as the Maoris didn't have one leader until the Europeans came, anyhoo...I've digressed from my run story.

I guess the moral of the story for me is; I guess it's OK to pop pms induced candy-coated ibuprofen if I have my period on a full moon, which has been occurring quite regularly, makes me feel healthy and connected to the stars... And it's OK if I get to see a bunch of cute Maori rugby players doing the haka under a full moon in the Auckland Domain...just for themselves (and me!).

Shot of Americana

We met Margaret and Darren via the blog, they moved to NZ just after us, and we've been hanging out since. We went to the cheesefest together and they've blogged about it as well.

There's something about hanging out with americans that is comforting. Out and about in Auckland on a day to day basis its a myriad of internationals; south africans, pommies, irish, asians, indians, eastern europeans, and a few token kiwis.

There's a lot of nice people in New Zealand, it's a great place to meet other internationals, but sometimes it's fun to hang with other americans.

We just bought our tickets for a mega trip back to the states from aprox. June 24- July 11th. I suppose we'll get a major americana shot in the arm then.

Crybaby!

 

Adam took this picture at the fair. It was so funny and terrible at the same time. The evil carnie just kept the ride going and going and everybody was watching and laughing. Luckily she caught on stopped crying and the carnie let her off.

Strummin' the blues with my Ukelele

I'm nursing a hangover this morning. Although I shouldn't talk about drinking too much, cause then my mom sends me a stink eye, yet nicely worded e-mail.

Went to see Iron and Wine last night and it totally sucked, which totally sucks cause I really like all of their albums (except for the opera one). Adam aptly described it - they usually travel with an eight piece band, came to NZ with six piece band and didn't fill the gaps very well.

On that note here's my ukelele! I didn't want to talk about my beautiful $50 ukelele, cause I wasn't sure if I would like or even be good at playing it but I think I have potential??! I've been learning new songs with Adam. I think I'm OK with it, but I need to start learning how to sing. I need a lot of work there. It's kind of fun playing depressing songs on the happy sounding ukelele, though proly not suitable for serious blues tunes.

 

Auckland Cheese Fest more like Auckland Snooze Fest

I need to say that I really enjoy most kinds of cheese. Soft cheese, hard cheese, mold ripened, flavored cheese, blue cheese, pump cheese for nachos at Circle-K. You name it, I will eat it so when I heard that there was an Auckland Cheese Festival where you pay $35 and eat as much cheese as you want I got fairly excited.

The doors opened at 5:00 and we thought that we would get there early to beat the crowds. At 5:00 the place was already packed as it looked like they oversold the venue. It was so packed that you would have to push your way to the front to get a couple chunks of cheese and then scamper off to a quiet corner to nibble on it like a scared mouse.

Another huge problem that I had with the cheese there was that it was all mid-level supermarket cheese quality. There was one whole table that was just Fontera cheddar. This is the basic utilitarian block cheese for burritos. I taste that every day. The brie was below average quality. There was some decent hard goats cheese but I kept coming back to the fact that the cheese tasting table at the French Market in Parnell was substantially better quality and selection.

The $70 that Roberta and I paid to taste some grocery store cheese was completely overpriced. All 5 of us should have spent that money on cheese from the French Market and had a party instead.

The only good part of the night was that Darin, Roberta and I went to the casino and put $40 down on Roulette and came out $70 ahead which dropped the overall price of the night to a much more acceptable level. Roberta picked the winning number of 21. We are going to be dragging her back to the casino against her will.

Wow, my first real rant post. It feels good. Expect more of these.

Strategy games...

I took an onliine personality test online. I got it from linkfilter but I lost the link (first i've taken since college). Anyway, it said I was a strategist. We've been having thursday night strategy board games, with some competive types. We've been playing all those games that are based on city building: Carcasone, Settlers of Cattan, El Grande (one of Adam's new favorites). Sometimes work is kind of like ok, "a city will go here and we will connect it with this". Just more crap to process in the real world... anyhoo...!

I just couldn't believe all of those games had wiki pages?!? Gamers are nerdy bunches...

3 Year Old Girl - Oldest in Africa

I love the Ted Talks series. Adam and I don't have TV so if I get bored I'll go to Ted Talks for something interesting to watch.

This latest one is about an archealogist in Africa who found one the oldest human species in the Badlands in Africa. What makes it interesting is that he draws parallels with what Africa is going through now. good stuff...though it is twenty minutes..

American's Cup Sailing Trip

We went on a sail trip and we got to go sailing on the boats that won the America's cup. I had a good time practicing pirate speak when the let me steer!

Of note, the family of Sir Edmond Hillary were spreading his ashes in the Auckland Harbour while we were out on the Spirit of New Zealand training boat. I feel like a local now.

From the AP:
In his book "View From the Summit," Hillary wrote that he did not want his final resting place to be in some crevasse on a mountain, observing that he had "been down too many of them for that to have much appeal."

Instead he wanted his ashes to be "spread on the beautiful waters of Auckland's Hauraki Gulf to be washed gently ashore" on the beaches near his birthplace.

"Then the full circle of my life will be complete," he wrote.

Auckland botanic gardens

Roberta and I left one morning for an exploratory drive south of Auckland. We had a general goal to head out to a beach but nothing more than that. While heading south on the motorway we saw a sign for the Auckland Botanic Garden and decided to stop.

Auckland Botanic Garden
The buildings were very modern and it was a surprise that entry was free. The grounds are huge with many different areas of interest. You can tell that it is a heavily kid oriented area, it was all the screaming that gave it away.

My favorite area in gardens is always the succulent section. They seem like the type of plants most likely to have come directly from outer space.

Aloe Polyphylla
We would highly recommend going to the Auckland Botanic Gardens if you have a spare weekend day.

We need a happy cat picture!

Lot's to say

Back in December that post about my first outlanding in Matamata was picked up by Soaring NZ via an e-mail list. It was pretty cool. On the opposite page there was an article about Richie McCaw (All-Blacks captin NZ rugby team that just lost to France). I was feeling pretty 'world-famous' in that not-so-famous NZ saying kind of way.

Unfortunately a month or so later, the same instructor that I was flying with had a fatal accident. I was pretty torn up about it but I'm OK. Here's a picture at the Lake Taupo relay I participated in. I think I'll stay on the ground for a while.

We are now surrogate Kiwis!

We got a letter today from immigration and they accepted us as residents in NZ. This has been an interesting process that wasn't too difficult at any one point. It was just a lot of small hoops.

Here is what we had to do to get residency here:

• Fill out the online Expression of Interest form to get scored to be able to apply for residency.
• Wait
• Get accepted to apply for residency. They then send you a big packet with information and more forms to fill in. There is also a big list of documents they need to process the application.
• List of documents:
• Comprehensive medial check with X-ray(for TB) and blood work
• Background checks in all countries lived in for more than one year
• This included getting fingerprints here and sending off the application to the FBI
• Proof of qualifications which included certified copies of our diplomas.
• Detailed work history
• Current contract for work in NZ
• Our current passports
• And more.

Now we are returning residents which means that we can come and go as we please but we are not permanent residents yet. If we are in the country for 6 months out of each of the next two years then we will get permanent residency. Once we get that then we can come and go as we please without restriction.

North Island Regional Gliding Competition

Recently I got the opportunity to fly with an experienced pilot in the North Island Regional gliding competition. The concept is that there is a week of flying and there are a few classes based on the type of glider you are flying and your skill level. You obviously don't want someone spending $250k on a glider duking it out with a $20k glider. We flew our Twin Astir in the Club Class which has a broad array of different planes.

Each morning there is a briefing at 11:00 and they hand out a list of tasks for each class. A task typically involves flying to certain points on the map within' a certain radius. The person that completes all of the tasks and makes it back to the airstrip first wins and gets points for the day. If you land out then you are scored on total distance flown. So if you land in a paddock that is 100 meters closer to the next turn point than the next guy then you win.

Usually they have a time associated with the task and if you come in under the alloted time then you devalue the task for everyone even though you win the most points. So the goal is to complete all the turn points and get back to the field at time+1 second.

The first day I showed up and the sky was looking grim and everyone waited around for a bit grumbling about landouts. Finally the tasks were handed out and everyone raced down to the end of the field and got prepped for flying. There were about 30 gliders lined up on the vector 3 wide and 3 tow planes yanking then into the sky. Supposedly all the planes can get in the air in an hour.
Our turn came and we went up and on tow we saw planes at 3000+ feet circling around happily. We, on the other hand, got dumped into a heap load of nothingness. We hunted around and found that still air was not conducive to joining the other planes at 3000+. We looked and looked and couldn't find anything so we ended up landing back at the field. This isn't the end of the world since you can get another tow.

The second tow was slightly better but we ended up getting down to 900 feet near the field struggling to gain height. They opened the start gate but the best we could do from 900 is make it back to the field. Finally we hit on a little luck and got up to 3000 and off we were.

We headed towards the first turn point using the 3 GPSs we had on board. I spent more time poking at gizmos than flying. We made our best attempt but finally got down too low and started picking paddocks at 1500 feet. By 1300 we had a number picked out. By 1000 we had chosen one. By 800 we were on a quick downwind to a tight base and finals and in. It sure seems easy when you have an experienced pilot at the helm.
After drumming up support for a retrieve crew via phone we waited around and talked about the day. Crap, crap, more crap, and a thermal or two. Tomorrow will be better, it has to be. The weather report said otherwise.

The results for the day went up on the board and we got 3rd out of 7! Not bad for not even making the first turn point and landing out.

The second day was supposed to be a shitter but turned out to look very nice. Huge Qs with what looked like good lift scattered nicely out to all our turn points. The task was handed out and everyone was off.

Open this file in Google Earth to follow along: Second Day

For how good it looked it sure took some effort to get up. We got off the ground, found some good lift, and we were off. Our goal was to stay high as it looked like the thermals were small near the ground. We tended to stay about 2000 feet and were making good progress. We made it up north to around Paeroa through the first turn point and then it was off south for a long push to around Arapuni. The thermals weren't as strong as they seemed but with a little effort we made it and then it was off a little further south to the next turn point at Tokoroa and then it was an easy push back to the field for a victory dance, tell some stories and call it a day, or so we thought.

When we started our push back north we started to realize that the sky was no longer working and that we weren't really all that high above the ground. We started the process of picking paddocks again. We quickly realized that we were in more mountainous territory so the pickins were slim. We chose one that was our best option and then found a sliver of lift which allowed us to move on a little bit. We started getting low again and recognized that we were in worse territory but started picking some anyhow. We got another sliver of lift and made a little more progress but finally we realized that we were beaten and had to pick something. Looking around I couldn't see anything landable.

Robert picked a paddock and said "We are going there". I didn't see it. Downwind I asked him to point it out and I still couldn't see it. It might have been denial because when we turned onto finals I still couldn't believe where we were going to land. It was a steep upward slope with a big hump right at the beginning. Our finals was clean but I had my hand on my straps release and the canopy release because I didn't want to be in the plane as it rolled backwards down the hill. Robert flew accurately and touched down right over the fence. This caused us to hit that hump on the start of the paddock and get launched back into the air. He had full airbrake on and we came down hard on the second bounce. As soon as we hit the plane spun to the side and started sliding on the front two wheels up the hill. I thought we were toast for sure.

As soon as it stopped digging a trench with the wheels I popped the straps and jumped out. There was no need to as Robert had perfectly landed it so that it wouldn't roll down the hill. I checked the wheels and there was no noticeable damage. A quick high 5 and a much needed pee and we were off to find the farmers and share our drama.
The retrieve involved hooking one end of a rope to Robert's truck and the other to the glider and lowering it down the hill to the trailer. Trevor Atkins was there and kept saying that this was the start to a great story. Luckily it wasn't and we were able to get the glider down the slope and onto the trailer with little drama aside from getting covered with cow poop.

Lessons learned:

Start picking your paddocks before it becomes imperative.
Gliders stop in short order going up hill on a steep slope.
Picking a paddock close to a major road is the last concern.
Fly accurately and turn tightly in small thermals to maximize lift.
Competition flying is something that anyone can do(with a little training).

After flying in the competition this year I am committed to fly the PW-5 next year. There is no magic to it, you just need to be ready to land in a paddock if necessary.

Enjoy these pictures and see you at the regionals next year.

Motorcycle Trip to Napier

Napier is about 5 hours southeast of Auckland on the east coast in Hawkes Bay. I attended a conference on push biking in New Zealand. Luckily I had a free ride via my employer, though now I'm going to have to produce some work out if it... blah blah work blah.

I can split the ride into two parts, there and back. Easy enough.

Getting there entailed packing up and getting the appropriate gear together:


I'm riding on a Suzuki SV650, 2005, with soft side packs, and a waterproof german push bike carrier strapped to the top in green.

Getting there was an easy five hour trip with a halfway point in Taupo where I took a nap beside the Taupo River after eating a risotto stuffed potato at a yummy cafe hmm:



NOTE TO TRAVELERS: between Taupo and Napier on the second half of the journey through an isolated Eastern Oregonish stretch of terrain there is a stretch of road with nary a gas station to be had. I'll leave the untold fun to your imagination but needless to say, I made it...

The ending point was a top floor room overlooking a beautiful NZ coastline, totally worth it. I was exhausted, promptly fell asleep and awoke the next morning to this beautiful sunrise.



The next three days were spent listening to very active bicycle advocates orating freely. Luckily the wine of the region flowed generously to dull my senses. During the day I 'went on site visits' to check out the local bicycle infrastructure on free bikes. There should be more free bikes.


OK now the journey back was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was a physically demanding ride from Napier to Gisborne to Tauranga to Auckland. It took me a week to get the feeling back in my ass. Ok, here's the route on Google Maps:

View Larger Map

All in all the return trip was over 700k on very windy roads, through some of the best road conditions for motorcycling. My favorite stretch was between Napier and Whakatane, it was incredible for the scenery and complete lack of traffic. It smelled like fragapinis the whole way, which is a lot better than somebody else's exhaust.

Enough typing, here's some more photos:

My First Glider Outlanding

Last weekend we went to Matamata for the extended labour day weekend. Thanks unions!

The Piako gliding club flys out of an airstrip just north of Matamata. Saturday the first day was packed, there were a lot of gliders on the field and there were some vintage aircraft pilots that were showing off.

For most of the day I was duty pilot, which means I write down the names and times of everybody else gliding. The Kaimai ranges just to the east were pumpin' and nobody wanted to come down. I don't blame them. Towards the end of the day the bad weather started rolling in and most people were putting their gliders away.

It was obvious that I wasn't going to get up in our club's Twin Astir MW, so I was unlikely going to go up. The Piako club invited me to go up in their PW6 with one of their instructors. I initially said no because I wanted to continue training in the glider I knew with an instructor from my club. Screw that, if it meant getting up in the air, I might as well give it a go.

They attached the tow rope and off we went before I knew it. The PW6 has a notch trim so I set that forward. It was heavy cross winds but the Pawnee powered us through the wind (as opposed to the tired old Cessna DML). I did most of the tow. I think at that point I remembered that the Taupo club has a PW6 where I had previous experienced with this same plane. It is much easier to fly than our club's Twin Astir.

We released at around 2500 feet and headed straight to the nursery hills. I'm not used to flying faster than 60 knots at Whenuapai so the instructor took over and we headed straight for the ridge at about 70-80 knots. When I say straight, I mean literally straight for the range, in what felt like a crash course trajectory and at very high speeds. You can hear the wind going much faster and the plane feels 'tighter'. About 1000 or so meters before the ridge the winds pick us up and send us up as it should.

We experienced some turbulence, but overall it was smooth upward sailing. We cruised over to the waterfall. I told the instructor that I was pretty happy just doing turns around the waterfall. We practiced emergency turns with air brakes, for getting out of cloudy conditions and losing height quickly. This is usually not a problem in Whenuapai, where we are typically eaking out additional height on fleeting thermals.

The weather was picking up, meaning more clouds were coming in and starting to 'sock-in' the range and the cloud base was starting to drop. We were told that we probably should not leave the range for the return flight at any height under 3500. Having reached cloud level we came off the range just short of that, hoping to pick up height on the way back. Unfortunately the cloud base was starting to drop clear across the valley.

All the while the instructor was chuckling in the back, 'the gps unit is no good when it's in the car, haha' Whah? I'm thinking as we are continually doing 'practice' emergency breaking through the clouds. The instructor takes over and we head back to the range to get more height and travel north along the ridge, closer to the field.

We get some more height and our bearings, we had passed north across the railroad crossing and tunnel. These landmarks are of course no use to me because I didn't check out a map before take-off. So I just kept telling the instructor every landmark I saw in hopes that he would remember how to get us back home.

We left the ridge the second time and headed back. I *think* we left the ridge at 3000 feet. We quickly lost a lot of height avoiding clouds. The instructor was no longer chuckling. At about 2000 I started getting worried. There was no airfield in sight and the clouds were dropping quickly.

At his point I was starting to get nervous. My instructor seemed to be doing the best with the conditions that rolled in but I still didn't know his skill level and if he had ever outlanded before this flight. I was mentally preparing myself to take over control and land the glider in the paddock if anything went wrong. All I could remember in my head was Adam mentioning it was best to land on the west side of the river because it's less bumpy.

We were losing height and at about 1800 feet I knew were were going to outland. Luckily, last weekend at Whenuapai, our instructors had devised a simulated out landing using toi tois as a fence line. I wasn't at that stage in my instruction but I was certainly glad I had eavesdropped.

We were now on the west side of the river getting into flat territory. Still no airfield and I think at around 1500 feet the instructor made the decision to outland. We circled around and found a cluster of good looking paddocks. The instructor and myself were both communicating, agreed on a paddock and both confirmed there were no wires or fences. We did a full circuit and landed.

It happened so quickly, I'm glad to say I didn't have to interrupt the instructor to show him my newbie landing skills. It was a very smooth landing and we only took up half the paddock. Though I do remember the fence getting a lot closer during the landing than how far it actually was upon ground inspection. I'll have to remember that for next time.

The instructor starts chuckling again, muttering how his wife was going to kill him for having this happen again and the club was not going to let him live it down. My heart was beating fast and I was very hot from the adrenaline. I physically felt the same way I did after I almost drowned while rafting the Upper Klamath River in Oregon. During that experience I recall thinking my mom would be very upset if I drowned, likewise I was thinking about how worried Adam must have been.

We had lost radio contact with the Piako club shortly after leaving the ridge the second time. The speaker in the front seat of the PW6 is very weak, but I do recall the instructor making numerous attempts to inform the glider base of our predicament. We got out of the glider and the paddock turned out to be quite bumpy and full of cowsh1t. I couldn't figure out how the landing was so smooth. I think my brain is just remembering a smooth landing as one that doesn't end in a crash.

We tried to radio again to no avail. We didn't have any tie down pickets so I was left with the glider to make sure it didn't blow around. I hopped in the back seat to be near the radio. I made another attempt to radio contact. That's when I noticed how little the instructor could see from the back seat. I was imagining how hard it must have been to navigate with that small view window.

At that point I noticed water dripping down my pants. It seems as though I sat on the mouthpiece to a camelback. Uggh, wet cold jeans, who knew how long it would take for my recue. Piako Club called again and I responded, at which time I was able to let them know I was OK. Luckily I just got done with my FRTO training so I sounded real legit. Matamata traffic Glider Papa Kilo.....

The instructor was able to phone in the location at the nearest farm house, because at the glider I was unable to tell anybody where I was. Next thing you know a farmer and all his kids pull up in a pick-up wanting to take a look at the plane. So I acted cool and showed the kids the glider. They assured me that help was just a few minutes away. Nevertheless it was freakin' cold at this point so I hopped in the glider again waiting for support.

Adam had hitched a ride with an advance crew and walked in to give me a beer. The Piako club didn't make me derig the plane in the rain but sent me back to the clubhouse where I had to tell the story to everybody a number of times. I was so amped this wasn't a problem.

It wasn't until five more beers that I was able to have a reasonable nights rest. I usually don't drink but my adrenaline was not going to let me sleep easily.

I had to get my rest for the next day, just in case the ridge was pumpin' and it was. The following day I had a few runs along the ridge and we soared close to 8000 feet (3500 is our limit at Whenuapai). Adam was afraid because of the outlanding I would never want to glide again, luckily it had the opposite effect and I am now anxious to go solo. I was getting distracted by motorcycling but I'll have to focus on gliding now that the weather is going to get better for soaring.

More Photos here

Ride Right Ride Safe Motorcycle Class

I took a motorcycle safety class for intermediates last weekend and somebody was taking a few pictures. Here are a few of mine.



A few differences between US style classes and Kiwi classes
a) You can have a drink if you know what your tolerance limit is vs. the US where they taught no drinking and motorcycling. Not that I would ever drink and ride, cause I'm a little paranoid about these things.
b) The instructors where riding wheelies up and down the runway, whereas in the US the instructors would only ride super conservative during the course training.

Overall I enjoyed the Kiwi class a lot better. The instructors where volunteers and everybody was having a really good time. Except for some of the hog riders who had such big bikes they kept knocking over all the cones. haha none of my cones went down!