And so it comes to my final daily report from Sea Otter 2008. This particular missive comes from a delightful, if unscheduled, room at the Regency Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco Airport, the net result of a slightly arrogant and not entirely correct attitude as to the leniency of United Airlines check-in staff. And to think what I did to that poor Kia Rio to even get it as close as I did. Still, lesson learned… probably.

The day started slightly fuzzier that normal after a night out at the Kranked 7 movie premiere (which incidentally left me minus one brand new Sombrio jacket, the act of searching for which resulted in the aforementioned plane seat absentee-ism) but I trundled my way up to the top of the hill all the same, praising the Weather God’s decision to abate the face-abrading winds of yesterday. A quick check of the race schedule confirmed the day’s plans – shoot the downhill race in the morning, time for a nice sit down at lunch then on to the all-new and exciting Dual Stunt event in the afternoon. Perfect.

The downhill course at Laguna Seca is one of my favourites, from a spectator point of view. It’s short and there’s a handy path running alongside it at every point, so you get to see the whole track with minimal fuss, all the time riders swooping past at crazy speeds on the buff trail. At one point a couple of kids were taking best guesstimates at the speed of each rider, by the time I’d moved on they proudly announcing each passing bike as going “at least 70mph”. Possibly, it did seem bloody fast. The event was predictably uneventful, Melissa Buhl took the top ladies’ spot and Greg Minnaar managed his second win in as many days. I packed my gear away and went for some lunch in the Media Center.

At around 1:45pm I reappeared, fresh and ready to go document some of the brand new Dual Stunt event, the start of which, according to my race schedule, was 2pm. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was actually three hours late, everything was over and the course was being dismantled. “Oh yeah, it’s over, it was great”, proclaimed one passer-by I quizzed them as to this apparent anachronism, “you should have seen it”. Yes, I should’ve, and while thoughts of Photoshopping in stock photos of riders over the top of static course shots came to mind, I couldn’t bring myself to it, and opted for this strategy of being honest and hoping the delightful people at Bikemagic.com don’t frown too heavily. They can’t be too harsh, I’m still of a fragile disposition from the whole missed flight debacle.

So that’s it, my coverage from the long weekend. Event-wise it wasn’t a whole lot different from last year, but traces of those little incremental upgrades in gear and races still made it a fitting start to the season proper. Roll on 2008.

A lot of the DH course is like this – super fast and buff, with some nice scenery… not that you can see it at Mach 5.

Full racing tuck was the order of the day on such a fast course.

Crowds lining up for the infamous ‘log drop’ – more of a gentle roller by BC standards.

The lovely Darcy Turenne hanging out with her new bike, the brand new Norco Five, a 5in ‘slopestyle’ bike that’s light and tough.

Minnaar powering his way to his second win of the weekend.

Melissa Buhl kept it low and fast for the win in the women’s race.

OK, confession time, I screwed up. Apparently my schedule saying ‘Dual Stunt Finals: 2pm – 3pm’ was out of date, and I arrived 3 hours late. Here’s an idea of what you (and I) missed.

Riders were totally pinning it on skinny ladders over the water here, probably.

I’d imagine these guys put together a sick event.