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Archive for the ‘GirlzGoneRiding’ Category
Girlz Gone Riding news for September
Monday, September 1st, 2014
Wendy Engelberg joins CORBA’s Board of Directors
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Wendy Engelberg joins CORBA’s Board of Directors
On Monday, June 9, 2014, CORBA’s board of directors unanimously approved the addition of Wendy Engelberg to the board. We’re more than excited to have her “on board” (pun intended).
Wendy’s life was forever changed when she attended CORBA’s Fat Tire Fest at Malibu Creek State Park in 2005. It was her first introduction to mountain biking, and the start of an incredible life journey for her. She was instantly hooked on mountain biking, and before long was encouraging her friends to get involved. She began riding with the Dirt Chix and the North Ranch Riders mountain bike club soon thereafter, finding her place within the mountain biking community of which we’re all a part.
She became an avid CORBA volunteer, always there to lend a hand at CORBA events and fundraisers. In late 2011, looking for ways to get more women involved in mountain biking, Wendy co-founded Girlz Gone Riding (GGR), an all-female mountain bike club. GGR holds skills clinics, group rides, workshops, day trips, road trips, social gatherings, and an annual fundraiser and CORBA/GGR Membership Drive every October. GGR is non-competitive, and provides a very welcoming and supportive environment for new riders.
What Wendy has accomplished with GGR, all the while supporting CORBA’s efforts, is nothing short of impressive. We know she’ll continue to impress us with her energy, her drive, and her willingness to go above and beyond. She will get more people — and especially more women — out on mountain bikes. We’re also looking forward to working even more closely with GGR to expand our outreach and education efforts.
Also noteworthy is that the addition of Wendy brings CORBA’s board up to fifty percent women.
Social media is one of the tools that Wendy has used with great success to build up and engage the GGR membership. You can follow her on twitter @WendyEngelberg, or on Facebook.
Wendy’s first love is the Santa Monica Mountains, but you’ll often find her in Big Bear during the hot LA. summer.
Danusia Memorial Ride
Wednesday, June 4th, 2014
Danusia Memorial Ride
Last weekend, on the May 31st one-year anniversary of Danusia Bennett-Tabor’s passing, an informal memorial service/ride was held at Malibu Creek State Park. It was a solemn but cheerful event, organized by Wendy Engelberg and the Girlz Gone Riding volunteers, a group that started with Kim Cofield, Wendy and Danusia. Wendy also wrote a wonderful report about the memorial ride with photos by Jesse Ettinger and others. Read it on the GGR blog.
There were many cheerful moments, interspersed with a few tears, as friends told stories about their wonderful experiences with Danusia. Steve Messer made sure everyone appreciated how much she did for CORBA, and how her work continues to guide us.
Recently, CBS did a special report on the cancer and procedures that ultimately took Danusia’s life. Her husband Don told her story in the CBS report on Leiomyosarcoma. Almost $1000 in donations were accepted on behalf of the Sarcoma Alliance, followed by the real celebration: riding.
Thanks to everyone who came to Malibu Creek to remember Danusia.
Girlz Gone Riding News for June 2014
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014
Please keep an eye out for GGR’s new website that will be up in the next few weeks! The website will have the Google calendar of events that matches the Facebook events, the entire line of GGR cycling clothes to purchase, blog, an email sign up to keep up with announcements and events, and the MOST important a FORUM! GGR’s Face Book page is so busy that we needed to create a forum so posts won’t get lost. The forum will be open to all GGR members to post and respond. Threads can be relative to cycling, fitness, nutrition, etc.
The Wenches with Wrenches workshop scheduled THIS Sunday is now cancelled due to Vince from JRA Bikes & Brew breaking his ankle. JRA was hosting the workshop. We wish him a speedy recovery! This workshop will be rescheduled at a later date.
Please sign up for our quarterly ride in Reseda June 21st! ALL LEVELS WELCOMED! Sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/682243968509473/
Submitted by Wendy Engelberg, http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/
Photos from Danusia’s May 31 Memorial and Rides
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014Photos from Jesse Ettinger and Wendy Engelberg have been assembled into a photo gallery. If you missed the event, you can see some of the happenings in the photo gallery.
Join the Danusia Taber Memorial Ride May 31st
Friday, April 18th, 2014Please join us for the 1st annual Danusia Taber Memorial ride at MCSP (Malibu Creek State Park) at 9AM on May 31st. This ride will be to honor Danusia Taber who passed away in May of 2013 of Leimyosarcoma, a rare cancer. This is also a fund raiser ride for the Sarcoma Alliance the non profit that helped Danusia in her time of need. Please donate prior to the ride in Danusia’s Memory here: http://sarcomaalliance.org/donate/donate-now/
You can also bring cash or a check made out to The Sarcoma Alliance and turn it into me at the Memorial site at 9am.
Danusia was instrumental in getting GGR off the ground. She was there from the beginning with direction, motivation and helping with partnerships such as CORBA. She was a CORBA board member, an MBU patroller, a mentor and great friend to many. Before she passed, she approved the Danusia Bell program. These are small bells to place on your bike or pack alerting other trail users you are there. 100% of these profits also go to the Sarcoma Alliance per Danusia. You can purchase your Danusia bells here: http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/ggr_products/
or here: http://corbamtb.com/store/store.shtml.
Danusia riding on the Wood Canyon Trail in Pt Mugu State Park
We will have 3 levels of rides:
• Beginner & Advanced Beginner: Riding to the dam and back: about 8 miles
• Intermediate: Short Bull dog loop & Grasslands: about 15 miles with 1500 feet of climbing
• Advanced: New Millennium Loop & Grasslands: about 19 miles with 3400 feet of climbing.
All riders will meet at the Memorial spot at 9am to have a brief revisit of Danusia’s life and why we are there for her and the fund raising efforts. If you have a story to tell about Danusia, I will open up the area to anyone who does. We would love to hear it! She was a character and we all have many great stories!
Please meet at the SOUTH end of Mott Motorway where the memorial service was held last year: http://www.venturacountytrails.org/TrailMaps/MalibuCreek/AreaTrails.htm#Map. Mott is #7 on the Map.
You can further show your support by signing up for this event on our Meetup group here http://www.meetup.com/CORBAmtb/events/153915552/ and encouraging all your friends to come along!
If you have any questions on the event or ride, please contact Wendy Engelberg: wendy@girlzgoneriding.com
I thank you so very much in advance for supporting this event. GGR Girl and Proud CORBA member Wendy E
Girlz Gone Riding News for Spring 2014
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014GGR is strong as ever and is gearing up for many upcoming events!
This last month, GGR held it’s quarterly ride at Sycamore Canyon in Newbury park with over 30 female riders attending. We had 3 levels of rides, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced with the beginner group being the largest as always lead by GGR girl Michelle Friend who does an outstanding job with our beginners!
Before the girls headed out for their group rides….many of my friends and locals in our cycling community presented my Epic 29r back to me. Too make a very long story short, I lent out my bike to my good friend Jessie while I was recovering from surgery. He decided to surprise me and really bling it up the GGR club color purple. He got another 42 of my friends and community members to help. It was dubbed: Project Engelbling. The entire story will be written and posted soon. It is a heart warming, great story about what a community did to welcome me back to cycling after a horrible accident and not riding for almost 8 months.
GGR has picked up some new club sponsors that we are really excited about! These shops support women’s cycling..please support them too!
- Michael’s Bicycles Newbury Park
- Kramp Krushers
- Loaded Precision Components
- Hero Kit
- JRA Bikes & Brew
- Bike Warrior
GGR has some exciting events coming up too! New rides posted all the time, please check the FB events page! April 26th is the R50 charity ride to support Rwanda causes! GGR will be having a booth and sharing it with our sister club/Race Team So Cal Endurance Ladies! This is an awesome, fun charity event to participate in! http://50mr.com
May 31st: A very special day…Danusia Taber’s 1st annual Memorial ride and fund raiser. All donations made to the Sarcoma Alliance. Donate anytime in Danusia’s name: http://sarcomaalliance.org/donate/
June 8th: Wenches with Wrenches Workshop at JRA Bikes & Brew!
August 9th & 10th: A Celebration of Women on the Mountain..BIG BEAR STYLE! This is a road trip to Big Bear combining both GGR & The Trail Angels for the weekend! Ladies only taking over the mountain! Guided rides, group dinner, a big contest and speed meet and greet. This event is closed, it is FULL!
October 19th MCSP: GGR presents our annual Rocktober event! This is a fund raiser and CORBA membership drive! Our goal this year is to get 200 women at the event! We have some amazing sponsors already set up! Booths with female specific clothes this year too! Take a peak at a just a few of our female clothing specific sponsors so far!
- Shebeest
- Zoic
- Shredly
Until next time….please keep your eyes out for the full story on Project Engelbling!
Submitted by Wendy Engelberg, http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/
GGR News!
Wednesday, January 29th, 2014
GGR: Girlz Gone Riding, is proud to say we have now reached over 500 members! We now are able to attend cycling events and represent with our own booth! The booth was 100% funded by the GGR members. We had an online fund raising campaign to pay for the booth. It’s amazing what you can accomplish as a group when you ask for help! GGR has been attending the Pedalfest series, a local, fun, family oriented race series located in Castaic. The race promoters, Greg and Gina Flanagan have been instrumental with GGR being a partner in their series and we thank them so very, very much for supporting women’s cycling and GGR! This is a fun series and there are still a few races left! Sign up here! http://www.racepedalfest.com/. Make sure you come over to the purple GGR booth and say HI!
ATLXTV.com has recognized GGR! The writer , Sheri Matthews, heard about us at a running event in Vancouver! Sheri talked with Wendy for a few hours and wrote this article about GGR: http://www.atlxtv.com/2014/01/28/women-mountain-biking-changes-honors-lives/.
GGR is so very grateful for our year round supporters and we want to thank them again! CORBA, Cycle World Chatsworth, Kali Protectives, Newbury Park Bike Shop, JRA Bike & Brew. If you want to open your business up to more women, get involved with your women’s cycling community! Contact wendy@girlzgoneriding.com to get your shop and products involved with GGR!
GGR encourages all to wear bells on their bikes! Bells alert all others on the trails that you are there. Our trails are multi use trails and everyone deserves to ride/hike/run and bike them. Let’s let them know us bikers are approaching with a bell! You can purchase a Danusia bell directly through CORBA or GGR: http://corbamtb.com/store/store.shtml OR http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/ggr_products/danusia-bell/.
GGR would also like to remind you to look ahead and be aware of others on the trails. Let’s keep the trails open to ALL by riding safe! Please give hikers and horses the right of way and slow down & smile when you see them! Let others on the trails know that bikers are friendly and welcome sharing the trails with all.
For all future events, please check out the GGR Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/350083721682365/events/
GGR Girl Wendy E!
GGR Holiday Fun Ride & January 2014 Events!
Sunday, December 29th, 2013GGR had our 1st annual holiday ride and lunch December 8th. All levels of rides started at Cheeseboro. We had 30 riders and lots of pictures!
Ride leader volunteers Ojai Ruth, Michelle, Desi and Tamara lead our riders all over the mountain for one fun morning!
We also had the amazing SoCal Endurance ladies team out with us! All GGR members too! Everyone was siked for a photo shoot morning with the LA Times!
The morning starting off with frost on the ground and everyone wearing arm and leg warmers! But by the time all the photo’s were done, the weather was near perfect with no wind! Lots of happy fez’s!
After the ride, we had a fun lunch and cake at Wood Ranch BBQ just a few miles away and did a White Elephant Exchange. The purple cake was good!
So whats new for January you ask?? There are many events already in da books! Please go to our FB page and sign up for the events of your choice! https://www.facebook.com/groups/350083721682365/events/
On January 4th, kicks off a new, fun, beginner friendly cross country race series called: http://www.racepedalfest.com/. This is a fun, non techy course good for all levels of riders including kids! Want to see if racing is in your future? Give it a try! THIS is the course to have your 1st racing adventure on! GGR will be interviewing all female racers on that day at the GGR/CORBA booth!
January 11th is another fun GGR ride at Reseda especially for beginners and intermediates! Sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1400671183510664/
January 18th is the 2nd race for http://www.racepedalfest.com/ AND the 12 hours of Temecula! http://www.socalendurance.net/12–6-hours-of-temecula.html
January 25th is GGR/CORBA Trail work day! We ask all GGR members to participate in at least 2 trail work days per year! At THIS year’s Roctober event, we will be giving out a special award for the GGR girl who participates in the MOST trail work days! WHO’S IT GONNA BE?? You need 4 trail work days to qualify. Sign up here: http://www.meetup.com/CORBAmtb/events/154081722/:
A very special announcement! We have the date already booked for the 2014 GGR Rocktober Gala! October 19th at MCSP! The 1st to sign on the same day as our last event was of course LIV/GIANT! Liv/Giant introduced their entire line of women’s 27.5″ bikes at our last event and they were a HUGE hit! 
On a personal note, I was able to very slowly get on the trainer for the 1st time since my surgery to reconstruct my knee. I am still a ways off getting on a real bike, but I get a tiny bit closer every day AND not giving up on Sea Otter just yet! Injuries are part of any sport. This has been my worst ever and has prevented me from walking on my own now for almost 4 months. The great part about being in GGR is we have the most amazing, supportive, compassionate, yet tough as nails girlz around! These girlz have supported me every step of the way and I thank them! I could not have done it without you! You know who you are!
Until next time..Happy New Year and may the sun shine on the dirt path in front of you and the wind blow every so slightly behind you…..GGR Girl Wendy E
Girlz Gone Riding 2013 Wrap Up!
Monday, December 2nd, 2013Our GGR year comes to another end for 2013. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone and all the changes and challenges 2013 brought on…a few highlights of 2013:
GGR has grown to over 450 members all starting from an idea at happy hour to get da girlz together!
Wenches with Wrenches workshops started with full houses of eager women to learn bike repair and maintenance.
This past GGR’s annual ROCKTOBER event and CORBA Membership drive was GGR’s 3rd annual main event with over 100 women in attendance again! The date is already secured for next year’s annual event! October 19th, 2014 at Malibu Creek State Park.
The 2013, 3rd annual ROCTOBER event at Malibu Creek State Park
Liv/Giant introduced their entire new line of 27.5” bikes at the GGR Rocktober event. Every single one was reserved to demo with a waiting list to boot. Can’t wait to see what demo’s they will bring to next year’s event!
We had our best showing of women on trail work days this year! Keep it up ladies! GGR asks all members to commit to 2 trail work days a year.
We showed an enthusiastic group of ladies what shuttling was at Mt Pino’s and GMR this year and had a blast! This was many of the girlz 1st time ever shuttling!
We have seen our spin off group of amazing GGR girlz join the largest women’s race team! 67 women strong! SOCAL ENDURANCE LADIES TEAM! https://www.facebook.com/groups/313370695434213/
GGR introduced our DH jersey’s and they are a big hit! http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/ggr_products/
Having lost one of our most influential women in our community this year to cancer, Danusia Taber, out of her passing, with her blessing came the Danusia Bell program. Getting bells on your bikes and or packs alerts all others on the trails to your presence. All profits go to the sarcoma alliance to help others with cancer with Danusia’s blessing. http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/ggr_products/. Please look for the 1st annual Danusua Taber Memorial ride and fund raiser May 31st, 2014.
To close off the year, we invite you to join us in our last group ride December 8th. We will enjoy lunch and a gift exchange at Peddlers Fork restaurant after. This is an extra special group ride because the LA Times will be there for a GGR photo shoot for some publicity in an upcoming book written by Roy Wallack, author of Bike for Life. http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-columnist-wallack,0,4376362.columnist#axzz2mG8IDkGX. Sign up for this open ride is required. All ride info listed on the event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/676862972338954/.
On a personal note, as many of you know, I had a bad riding accident in Mammoth over Labor Day and just recently had surgery to rebuild my knee which pretzeled under me when I landed. Unfortunately, I am not able to walk unassisted yet, so I have no clue when I will be riding again, hoping for sometime in the 1st quarter of 2014. It will be a long road ahead. I wanted to thank every one of you that have helped me during this time. I could not have done it without you. I have met each and every one of you through this magnificent sport of mountain biking and I am so very grateful for these relationships. I WILL be back on the dirt soon! I WILL be racing again and I WILL be participating in centuries again. I miss riding with all of you so very much and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support and encouragement through this difficult time for me.
Until 2014 ladies, be safe, have fun and always try and surround yourself with positive people who also live a healthy lifestyle. Happy New Year!
GGR Girl Wendy E.
