The Green Pulasky Award

We're all here because we love to ride bikes. But to make riding bikes much fun as opposed to just fitness, it takes good trails. Trails that are well built and fun to ride. Hopefully we've all done our part to make such goodness happen, but there are some people who go far above and beyond their part. One of those people is my best friend Eric Zellner. And for this I have made him The Green Pulasky Award.

Eric grew up in coastal New York State I assume riding BMX. After High School he moved to Manhattan bike messengering and falling into the Central Park trials crowd. Then he moved from Manhattan to the high Sierras of all places where he got thoroughly into mountain biking and trail building. Then in the late nineties? he moved down to sea level in Santa Cruz which is when we met.

We first met at the DeLaviega dirt jumps, me probably on a black Chameleon and he on a Standard Co. BMX. He was always willing to lend a hand building and never one to lean of a shovel. I only knew him at the jumps but apparently he also spent a lot of time walking his dogs on the Highway 9 trails and doing trail work. I'm not even sure if he had a mountain bike at that time. Just digging for the love of it.

Then one day fifteen or so years ago, he and his friend found a house for rent in rural Aptos on forty acres, encompassing a grassy valley topped by an old apple orchard and the oak covered hills on either side. Things started slowly with a practically straight line short downhill on one side and three table tops made out of some volunteer piles of dirt. Since then things have progressed on a grand scale. Luckily his aging landlord rode bikes as a kid and is a bit jealous of our dangerous fun. His kid are freaked out over the potential for lawsuits, but as long as it's for "Skill Building" (His term.) he let's it happen.

Now the Freedom 40, as it's come to be known, is a foundation of the local BMX and mountain bike freestyle scene, perhaps second only to the Post Office. Though the Deer Camp has stolen quite a bit of it's thunder of late. We've got a world class set of dirt jumps which most of you have seen in videos, built by twenty and twenty six inch riders side by side. There's actually been quite a bit of crossover in both directions. The ridge on the West side has that original DH trail that morphed into a stunty shore type trail built with left over wooden bridges from Sea Otter. It also has the Hill trail that runs down the ridge, and the Gully trail which drops off of the ridge into and through a small gully. The other side of the valley has been sort of adopted by the neighbor Devon Kaejr, a talented young ormer MX and BMX racer who is taking quite well to mountain bikes. His latest creation ends with a forty foot gap out of the trees and over the dual slalom track, which Tyler McCall had a huge hand in. The newest main feature is the beginnings of a sweet slope style course at the top of the meadow. It all started with a trick jump built by Ryan Nyquist for one of his web shows. Now it's a step down off the hill to a nice contest sized ramp jump followed by a quarter/hip to a boner log and ending for the time being with a massive whale tail. A massive berm to step up back up the hill are in the works.

Without Eric none of it would be possible. And that's why I made him this Green Pulasky Award. It started when I was helping him clean up a friend's failed farm in the meadow. We were cleaning up the tools and such when I spotted this beauty. I asked him if I could have it, and after a long thoughtful look he said no. I guess he too spotted it's graceful art deco lines. So I stole it. But with good intent. I had it sand blasted then polished the blades and masked out the design. I decided on green because he's a professional landscaper and I figured his tool should match his green thumb. I also took a rasp to the old moldy handle to clean it up and gave it a good soaking of linseed oil and the added the grip. Finally I hand filed the two edges near razor sharp so it's ready to go. He can hang it on the wall or take it out tomorrow to cut new trail. I'd be honored either way.

Eric is my best friend and he's my Trail Boss. And he knows now how much I appreciate everything that he's done for me and the riding community as a whole and by whole I mean world wide. There's been a steady flow of local talent, but over the years there's also been a host of traveling pros from the very top of the game. Nyquist, Semenuk, Andreu, Maads, The Athertons, freekin Van Homan!, Vories, I'm not sure if the Syndicate has been there, and list goes on and on. I call on all of you to send him a message of thanks if you still have his number or just toast him with your next beer. Further more, I'd like all of you to do something good for YOUR Trail Boss. Polish and engrave a shovel, gold plate a chainsaw bar, buy them one of those really nice OG McCleods that are what fire fighters actually use, one up me on another pulasky, or if you're not handy at unique trophies, just show up at his/her trails with barbecue/veggie burritos and beer.