Pura Vida: Waves and Downhill Singletrack in Costa Rica

You are descending on a big freeride bike with the jungle zipping past your full-face helmet. The ground beneath your tires is moist and rooty with natural hits coming at you at every turn. You feel like your bike is an extension of your body; you are dialed today. While going through a puddle you hear the distinct sizzling sound of water hitting red-hot disk breaks and vaporizing. Or was it in your head?
Either way it’s time to take a break as your fingers ache from 10-plus minutes of solid descending. After stopping, you let out an uncontrollable euphoric giggle and bend over like someone was tickling you. In the far-off distance a Mantled Howler monkey calls out and startles you while 3 bright red Scarlet Macaw parrots fly past an opening in the tight forest canopy. You put your helmet back on, smile to yourself and continue descending…knowing that you will be diving into a cold beer and the warm ocean in less than an hour. No, this is not your Xbox and this is not some magazine with glossy pictures that you can only touch. This is Costa Rica and Whistler-based Big Mountain Bike Adventures is inviting you to come ride paradise this winter.


Picture a tropical heaven with a crystal-blue ocean, steady waves lapping its shores…mist-shrouded rainforests with peaks as high as 3820 meters littered with long and tasty singletrack. Paulo Valle, a local Costa Rican mountain biker, trail builder, former national XC and DH champion and riding legend will be guiding the trip. “How can I describe the riding here?” he asks in his broken English with a broad, warm smile, “in the morning we can be freezing as we hop on our bikes, looking down at the Pacific on one side and the Caribbean on the other from 3500 meters…and then be paddling out for a surf or chillin’ on the beach with a cold beer under a hot sun in the afternoon. With bikinis everywhere!” He describes trails that descend from craters of active volcanos, through coffee plantations and beautiful national parks.


Paulo talks about his country’s singletrack with fondness and excitement, like he’s describing that hottie in high school…the one that got away. Joining Paulo on this trip of a lifetime is pro mountain biker Dave Watson. Yes that’s right, the man behind Sombrio Racing, the guy who leaped over the peleton in the Tour de France, the North Shore legend, pro freerider and super nice guy. What does Watson have to say? “Everyday and every ride in Costa is a unique experience: we would shuttle up through town and see local kids and families hanging to catch a glimpse of our steeds and wonder where we were headed for the day. Pura Vida is the gospel in Costa Rica, where else can one have the experience of flowing trails and pristine surf exploits all in the same day? The locals were friendly and the riding community small and passionate about life.”



Oh yea, and Alvaro Solano, the 2004 Costa Rican surf champ will host us at his private surf camp – for lessons on its famous waves. Paulo, Alvaro, Dave and Big Mountain Bike Adventures on a dream trip that you will never forget - a trip that you definitely cannot book through your travel agent! Grab your big bike and come south this winter.

More info on Big Mountain Bike Adventures a nd the Costa Rican Pura Vida trip: www.ridebig.com

Photos: www.gibsonpictures.com

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