20th Anniversary of Seabright Brewery

May 14th represents the 20th anniversary of Seabright Brewery. Seabright has been an incredible sponsor and host for the MBOSC meetings for many years. Happy Anniversary!

Speaking of Seabright...

MBOSC will have a meeting this 7 pm Monday April 14th at Seabright Brewery.
The Sea Otter is a week away (where did the last 3 weeks go?!) and we arein the thick of preparations. MBOSC will have a booth at the Sea Otter and will be co-ordinating the volunteer course marshals on the Dual Slalom course. The agenda for the meeting on Monday is to discuss the Sea Otter and drink some great beer.

• We could use some additional help with the DS course on Thursday and Friday. We would appreciate it if you could help out. If you want to work on the weekend then we may be able to accommodate that as well.
• Booth duty. If you are interested in hanging out at the MBOSC booth and telling people about the wonderful world of mountain biking then please contact me or come to the meeting. I could use a hand. It's pretty low key work, flexible hours. We're sharing the booth with MORCA.

Hope to see you on Monday 7pm at Seabright!

We have free beer at our meetings courtesy of Seabright.

Jacquie Phelan at Seabright Brewery Sunday April 6th

MBOSC's 10th Anniversary Party at Seabright Brewery

MBOSC celebrated it's 10th anniversary at Seabright Brewery last Saturday. It was an excellent celebration on the patio with great weather, great friends, the old Santa Cruz advocates, the IMBA Trail Care Crew and some equestrians, special guests from the trail building community and Tom Ward from IMBA California.

Everyone had a good time. Charlie Meehan - the owner of Seabright - was on the BBQ grill and offering free BBQ appetizers. He also gave party attendees $5 pitchers of fine beer which was brewed on the premises. The Oatmeal Stout was fresh this week and was a huge hit. The Double Wide Ale was tasty and packed a punch of 8.5% alcohol. I stayed away from the Double Wide. I wanted my speech to be coherent.

It was great to see so many people passionate about advocacy and beer. Charlie made the comment later that this group provided a lot of interesting conversation and were very appreciative and polite to him and his staff.

I gave a speech which recognized the early founders of MBOSC which included Keith Kelsen, Geoff Smith, David Baskin, Doug Landaur, Don Carol, Mark Woodhead, Dawn Weathersbee and Caroline Murphy. Local trail building legends Bud and Emma McCreary graced us with their presence. Bud and Emma are responsible for most of the best legal single track trails in many of the area parks including Wilder Ranch and the U-con trail. We publicly thanked them for their work over the past few decades in building the trails that we all enjoy.

I discussed the future of the club and asked for communityy support to achieve big projects like Coast Dairies. The importance of the work of Tom Ward and IMBA California was emphasized and we gave him a $3,000 check from MBOSC to support his efforts. Finally, I thanked the existing pool of volunteers who help with current events and initiatives in MBOSC.

The party lasted for a while. Lots of beer was drank and many good conversations were had. We went back to our house for the after party where waves of mountain bikers arrived to hang out around the fire pit, drink more beer and talk about the direction and organization of the club.

More pictures from the party here.

We would like to thank Charlie Meehan and his staff at Seabright Brewery for hosting our party. Charlie is an awesome supporter of mountain biking in Santa Cruz and we support him too. Thank you for an awesome venue to hang out, the appetizers and the great beer. Beer is the fuel of mountain bike advocacy.

The future of mbosc is looking pretty good. Stay tuned for the 20th anniversary party...

Seabright Beer in Dirt Rag

I got the latest issue (#131) of Dirt Rag in the mail today. I was really happy to see that they covered the Blur IPA and the Oatmeal Stout in the "Beer Me" column.

Maurice is an IPA fan and he waxes poetically about the Blur: "Blur starts with a burst of malty sweetness, followed by a dry, hoppy twang, and finishes with an aftertaste that lingers as long as you carry on. Nothing like a nice burp ten minutes later to see how the hops are sticking with you. It's a party in your mouth!".

He describes the Oatmeal Stout as: "Toasty, with much of the caramel-y quality of the Blur; I think they are doing something special with the malt in the process. Another word that came to mind was clean."

I guess the Kenny wasn't his bag: "All I remember was, whoa, that's a lotta hops. Anyway, I hear it's a local favorite". It is indeed my favorite.

It's really interesting to see him write about beers that I'm very familiar with. They also give a plug for MBOSC. Thanks Dirt Rag!

When in Santa Cruz come down and experience these great beers yourself. There is nothing better than a killer ride in the redwood forests of Wilder/Gray Whale and upper campus. Finish the ride with a spin back back into town on the bike path. Down Shafer and through Natural Bridges to ride along the ocean's edge along Westclif Drive. Take in the ocean views and watch the surfers, the sea birds and maybe an otter or two. Ride across the Beach Boardwalk to check out the babes in bikinis playing beach volley ball. Over the railway trestle, down a couple blocks to the patio of Seabright Brewery where you can hang out and get a pint of Kenny brewed on premises and a salmon fish and chips. Ah California! Life is good.

Kenny!

It's beer o'clock and I want to do a shout out to one of our supporters.

Seabright brewery is an awesome supporter of mountain biking. The brewery is practically across the street from Santa Cruz Bicycles. The owner Charlie Meehan is an avid mountain biker and a supporter of MBOSC. We have our monthly meetings on the patio at Seabright and Charlie comps us the beer! This makes the meetings fun, lively and increases participation.

One of the best benefits of the holding the MBOSC meetings at Seabright Brewery is that we get to drink the fine beer that they brew on the premises. That would be fine in any establishment but Seabright is a brew pub and it also makes my favorite beer: Kenny!


The "Resolution Red Ale" a.k.a. "Kenny" or "Ken-nay!" is my favorite beer in the world. It's so good that it's always in short supply at the brewery. The story behind the nickname of the Red is really interesting. Charlie sez:

The face on the label is one of our security guys named Kenny Kahn. One of the staff took that picture of him at last years Xmas party and posted it at the Pub. Our graphics guy made a label as a joke and we went with it. (My idea dammit). At the pub the Resolution has become known as simply Kenny! I'll have a pitcher of Kenny!!! BTW, Kenny digs being on the label.

The "Blur" is a delicious Indian Pale Ale named after the Santa Cruz bike. It doesn't need to be very cold to taste great so it's perfect for camping. This was the official beer for the MBOSC road trip to Utica Reservoir.

The Blur, Kenny and Oatmeal Stout are available in 22 oz bottles in selected stores in Santa Cruz County and the Bay Area of California. I know for a fact that Seabright Beers are available at Mission Liquors in Santa Cruz and at the Summit Store up on Skyline Road - convenient location to find a tasty snack and beverage after riding at Demo.

A warning: all these beers have over 7% alcohol so it's not for kids.

MBOSC has it's monthly meeting at Seabright on the second Wednesday of the month. Come out and learn about our advocacy efforts and taste these delectable beers.

Thanks for the support, Charlie!

Late Sea Otter report

Yea I know the Otter was last week but I've been busy... First of all, here are the pix.

I had a fun filled Sea Otter this year. Camping, schmoozing, working the booth and volunteering for the dual slalom course on Thursday and Friday (but not Saturday!). Surprisingly, this is the first year in 8 that I have not raced or even entertained the idea of racing. I guess those days are over for now.

The booth was a lot of fun and was a great vehicle to build awareness about MBoSC/MORCA/ROMP/VO-cal and issues in Santa Cruz County. We had a great view of the DS course and the kids in the air. It was a great place to call home base.

During the heavy rains, a river was running through the booth and we were pinned down under the EZ-up without beer. Fortunately, someone bartered a big Fox raincoat (a popular item during the rain) for some beer that I would retrieve. I ducted taped the bottom of the coat to construct a makeshift set of chaps. Not only was I waterproof but I looked like something that rode out of a German industrial fetish movie. I rode my bike and bob trailer up to camp in comfort to get beer for everyone!

The beer was a huge hit (thanks, Charlie!). I shared it with volunteers, TWW campers, fellow advocates, bike industry types and people interested in our booth. Beer wise, the Dirt Rag and IMBA booths were well taken care of. Local frame builder Craig Calfee of Calfee Design was in the booth beside IMBA and I set him up some of Seabright's Oatmeal Stout. We had a conversation about local issues and he gave me some great contacts. His carbon bikes are gorgeous works of art and he was showing his new bamboo and hemp hard tail mountain bike. What a novel idea! If you get lost in the woods then you can eat and smoke your frame until you get rescued.

Thanks to Peter and the MORCA folks. You supplied the EZ-up, table, table cloth and chairs and most of the personnel. We only brought the beer - the fuel of mountain bike advocacy. A big thanks to Charlie Meehan of Seabright Brewery for all the great beer. There are a lot more riders in Northern California who are aware Blur, Oatmeal Stout and the ubiquitous "Kenny". I'd also like to thank Daryl and Rich for doing booth duty and all of the Dual Slalom volunteers. Thanks to all for helping out.

So many good memories. The IMBA summit, kids in the air, long legged chix, late night scotch, corrupting young minds with South Park on the video iPod, Buell's fire dance, meeting and getting to know old and new friends at camp Wrong Way and the summit...

Whew, I'm glad it's over. I can't wait until next year...