March 9th, 2009

On Friday March 6 we were treated to a visit from mountain bike movie magnate and original Klunker creator, Billy Savage. In town to promote the viewing of his ‘origins of the mountain bike’ biopic, Klunkerz at the SLO International Film Festival, he stopped by VAS to say hello and grab a bite to eat.

As soon as you meet Billy and shake his hand you realize that there is no one more stoked than this guy. You can’t get by the pleasantries before you realize you have struck up some sort of related tale of Billy’s historical and sometimes epic exploits. A true salt of the earth classic, you get an instant sense of  Billy’s goodwill, positive vibe and sheer history emanating from his curly salt and pepper locks and handle bar mustache.

Ben Bryan, Mike Troy and Myself headed down to Gus’ Grocery with Billy to grab some tasty sandos and enjoy them under the sun on the patio. For 45 minutes or so we seemed to travel the world both historically and geographically listening to Billy regale with stories ranging from the original, improvised equipment of the first mountain bikes, to working in the same building as animation god Seth Macfarlane (Family Guy, American Dad, Cleveland Show), to sketchy late night meetings with colorful Guatemalan locals, to dealing with the aftermath of being at the wrong end of a whacked out LA hit and run driver. It seems there is nowhere this guys hasn’t been and well, lived to the fullest.

We eventually had to come back to earth and go back to work to process all of the stories. I was strangely compelled to pick up my copy of Klunkerz, and watch it again for the Nth time. See for yourself.

Keep rolling Billy! Come back anytime.

>geoff tutko

Official Klunkerz Website

March 6th, 2009

4:45am Saturday, some of the VAS crew slowly pull into the parking lot.  Cranking out some early morning phone calls to the East Coast or overseas for an upcoming major release you might ask?  Getting in some overtime cleaning out the many questionable items in the sales fridge?  Nope, we were headed 4 hours north to the tiny ski hill Sierra Summit in the VAS van.  Got to be first chair!

I don’t think many people know that most of us here actually participate in the sports we sell.  There’s a resident expert on practically every genre somewhere in the office.  We’ll pretty much try anything and it gets rowdy if we’re all doing it together.

So when the chance came up to do a day trip to the mountains Karen and JC decided why not try snowboarding for the first time.  It was a shock to hear that neither of them had ever been on a snowboard.  Even me, Reebs the 2 planker till death, has ridden a snowboard.

We figured by the end of the day, the two would be bombing the hill.  Geoff, Mike, LP, and I already had their video all planned out.  Geoff billed it as the next THAT’S IT THAT’S ALL.  Karen said no it’d be more like that’s all that’s left!  Mike would splice the first scene of the movie and then cut to Karen and JC racing down the bunny slope.

My money was on Karen.  Sorry JC, but she can eat her oatmeal while Indo Boarding!  Turns out it was JC who was the one coming in hot almost taking out a little kid and his dad just to take the honors.  It was like a sponsor god whispered in his ear and said, “Go fast.  Take chances.”

So how my giant bobble head made it on to the “video” cover is beyond me but look for the video at a retailer near you.  And keep an eye out for our next adventure.

Rebecca the Reebskis Delekta