Outdoor Central Oregon Issue 12 | July/August 2019 | Page 6

6 JUL/AUG 2019 7 NEWS| WOODWARD WRECKTANGLE OPENS IN BEND The Woodward Wrecktangle is an outdoor, ninja-style obstacle course built for kids and adults and designed with an edge only Woodward can create. Serving up ten unique and fun-filled obstacles, it’s impossible not to have the best time ever as you’re compet- ing with your friends to make it through. Progres- sive course options allow participants to choose their own route to match their ability level and improve with each run. Use skill, strength, creativity, and determination to com- plete the entire challenge. Wrecktangle is open seven days a week at the Old Mill. SENIOR RUNNER BRUCE ANDERS BATTLES BACK FROM SERIOUS INJURY, PLACES 2ND AT NATIONALS P: David J. Hood Three years ago, both of Bruce’s Achilles tendons snapped almost simultaneously. Even as a person who has broken lots of body parts in various accidents and bad decisions, it was the most sickening feeling. Bruce had two surgeries, one on the left, immobilized for months, and then on the right, again immobilized. His goal was to be recovered enough to get back on a track and compete in the 2018 Oregon Senior Games. Each state has biennial Senior Games where 50+ athletes converge from every corner to compete in a host of sports. On 50 tracks across the country in June 2018, ex-Olympians, ex-Division I and II college athletes, and recreational beasts all would convene, gunning for a podium spot, which would earn them the right to represent their state and compete at the 2019 National Senior Games the following summer in Albuquerque. Bruce felt barely ready to compete in the Oregon Games by June. Amazingly he won the 400 and 800 meter races. Not only had he achieved a monumental goal, but he had earned the right to join Team Oregon at the US National Senior Games competition in Albuquerque in June 2019. Bruce placed second in the 400 meters with a state record 58.40 seconds. From the moment he entered the care system, he was encouraged, challenged, beaten down, built back up, and eventually, rehabilitated to the point where he could run competi- tively in the sport that has sustained him all of these years. Bruce cannot thank enough the caregivers who empowered him to strive and heal. UPPER DESCHUTES WATERSHED COUNCIL HOSTS RIVER CLEAN UP River Clean Up is hosted by Upper Deschutes Watershed Council and is on July 27th. There are two events planned for this year. One is PADI’s Women’s Dive Day Elk Lake Clean Up on July 20th, 2019 and the other is the River Clean Up on July 27th. PADI’s Women Dive Day Elk Lake Clean Up is an annual clean up in July at Elk Lake in their main day use area. This event is open to any certified diver. The River Clean Up is hosted by Upper Deschutes Watershed Council and is on July 27th. Last year there were 28 divers in the water with divers starting at Bill Healy Memorial Bridge and getting out by Tumalo Creek Kayak Shop, they pulled out roughly 2000 lbs of trash! A customer requested they look for a wedding ring in a specific section of the river and one of the divers actually found the ring. If people want to help, the council is looking for additional help. WOODWARD MOUNTAIN PARKS, THREE NEW LIFTS, RENOVATED SUNRISE LODGE, MORE PARKING COMING FOR 2019-2020 SEASON Woodward Mountain Park, a thoughtfully planned and animated network of Woodward-designed featured terrain zones that leverage the unique terrain and flow of each mountain and offer a fun and intuitive on-mountain experience, is coming to Mt. Bachelor this winter! On the heels of bringing the Woodward Wrecktan- gle to Bend this summer, Woodward Mountain Parks are also an extension of Woodward, an experiential action sports company owned by POWDR along with Mt. Bachelor, and are built to empower and inspire the next generation of action sports and stoke the passions of the most passionate athletes. The Mt. Bachelor Woodward Mountain Park will consist of different themed on-mountain experiences that vary in difficulty, include featured terrain offerings, and focus on inclusiv- ity and creativity, therefore welcoming guests of all ages and abilities. The Mountain Park will have a base area learning zone and the park will work its way down the mountain through artfully constructed routes. You can choose your own adventure and set your own pace based on skill level or interest level. As conditions allow, the Mt. Bachelor Woodward Mountain Park will be open every day, to all guests and is included in the price of your regular lift ticket or season pass. For the 2019-20 season, along with Woodward Mountain Park also comes expanded learning terrain served by three new lifts, significant updates to Sunrise lodge, and improvements to parking and guest access to the mountain which will make it easier to enjoy winter adventure at Mt. Bachelor. Check our Facebook page and follow @mtbach- elor on Instagram or @mtbachelor on Twitter for details CHRIS HORNOR JOINS NBC AS COMMENTATOR FOR TOUR DE FRANCE Chris Horner, the only American Grand Tour Cham- pion of the last 29 years, will make his Tour de France commentary debut with NBC Sports next month. Horner, who became the oldest Grand Tour winner at the 2013 Vuelta a España at age 41, will be part of NBC Sports’ traveling studio coverage of the Tour de France, hosted by Paul Burmeister, with retired American cyclist Christian Vande Velde reprising his role. Bob Roll will move from the studio to call the action with Phil Liggett for the Tour that starts July 6. Liggett’s longtime partner, Paul Sherwen, died Dec. 2 at age 62 after being involved in 40 Tours de France. Horner made his NBC Sports commentary debut for Liège-Bastogne-Liège on April 28. Horner, a 2012 Olympian, competed in seven Tours with a best finish of ninth in 2010. His Grand Tour career ended at the 2014 Tour, but he still rides, having done the Cascade Classic in his native Oregon three weeks ago. BRIMSTONE BOULDERS CLIMBING GYM TO OPEN IN HOOD RIVER JD PLATT CONTINUES INNOVATION BY RE THINKING SUP Hood River finally gets the climbing gym they deserve. Brimstone Boulders will be located at 616 State Street. The church is under renovation and will soon house the gym in the historic Asbury M.E. Church, originally built in 1896. JD Platt is always thinking about how to improve fun. His whole adult life has been about having fun and bringing others along for the ride. JD took his athletic skills and style from the breakdance floor to the ski slopes as a racer. Once snowboarding caught his eye he never turned back. As he continued to progress the sport with others he came up with his own trick, the “Lean Dracula”. After a sixteen year career as a pro snowboarder, JD was looking to reinvent himself again. JD grew up with dogs and loved being around them. His next move was to build an entertainment company based on athletic dogs, The K9 Kings Flying Dog Show was born. To this day JD entertains crowds all over the US and often can be seen in the Central Oregon area. Climbers, founders, and visionaries Conor Byrne and Jen Altschul are the team behind the new facility. Conor started climbing in college at Central Washington University, while he earned a degree in flight technology. He never turns down a trip to Smith, Yosemite or City of Rocks, but when he’s not climbing, Conor flies small, fixed-wing airplanes, teaches other people to fly, skis, and mountain bikes. Jen started climbing and skiing at age ten when a femur fracture meant she couldn’t run, or play soccer or basket- ball. Jen competed as a member of Stoneworks Junior Climbing Team through middle school and high school, then launched a nine month climbing road trip around the states out of the back of an ‘88 Volvo wagon. Jen moved to Seattle to wrap up a Bachelor’s degree in creative writing, then stayed in the big city another six years to work as a producer for The Dirtbag Diaries podcast Finally, she lured Conor to Hood River to start a climbing gym. The new gym will open in the Fall of 2019 and will be a bouldering only gym. The gym will have plenty of kids programs after school, summer camps, birthday parties, and a youth climbing team. There will be a small assortment of traditional fitness equipment (cardio machines and weights), yoga classes and aerial classes with Arwen Ungar of Empowered Movement Aerial. “Looking to have fun” and keep his fitness up JD started paddleboarding. Sure enough as JD got more into paddleboarding the ideas started to flow. JD went for it, and started JD SUP three years ago with the intention of innovation from the get go. First, he decided on all inflatable boards. He designed a dog “paw perch” so that dogs or kids have some- thing to grab onto and sit higher for a better view. The board models consist of K9 Tour, Expedition, Freestyle, and Yoga. Other unique features include retractable fins, ergonomic shapes for functionality to paddle however you please, core technology for high wear- resistance, and fusion technology for lightweight boards. Now, the innovation continues, bringing people together on the water with the one and only connection system of its kind. Great for yoga class, the connection system keeps the boards connected and stable. The system can actually let two people paddle together attaching two or more boards together. All these products are available at: jdsup.com or @jdsup on Instagram. ALEX MARTIN COLLEGE OF IDAHO TYLER JONES 2018-19 GREAT NORTH- SCHOLAR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR WEST ATHLETIC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Tyler Jones spent his Western Oregon career as a key player on some of the Wolves’ biggest successes in cross country and track and field over the last four years. The senior from Bend, was a success both on the track and in the classroom. Conference athletic directors have recognized that combination with the selection of Jones as the 2018-19 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Jones is the first Western Oregon student-athlete to be selected to receive one of the conference’s top honors for student-athletes and it is the latest award for an athlete who will graduate in June with a 4.00 cumulative GPA as a double major in business and mathematics. A Second Team Academic All-American in 2018, Jones stands a solid chance of repeating that honor when the 2019 team is announced on June 26. Jones earned all-conference honors by placing fifth with a time of 24:53.0 over 8,000 meters on his home course at the Ash Creek Preserve in Monmouth, Oregon. Two weeks later, Jones earned All-West Region honors with a ninth-place finish at the NCAA West Region Championships in Billings, Montana. With a time of 31:12.85 over 10,000 meters, Jones was one of six GNAC athletes to place in the top-10. The placing at regionals earned Jones an individual berth to the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. He went on to place 60th with a time of 33:56.8, which ranked fifth among GNAC competitors in the race. On the track, Jones was a point-scorer for the team in both conference meets. He finished seventh in the mile at the GNAC Indoor Track and Field Championships, clocking a time of 4:19.69. He advanced to the NCAA Championships as a member of the Wolves’ distance medley relay team, which finished in ninth place. In addition to being just the first Western Oregon student-athlete to be named GNAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Jones is the fifth cross country or track and field athlete to be named the Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Bend’s Alex Martin is College of Idaho Scholar Athlete of the Year for the 2018 NAIA Cross Country season, as announced on Thursday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). On the track, he recorded his third All-America honor of the season, placing fourth in the finals of the 5,000-meters to lead the College of Idaho on the final day of the NAIA Men’s Track and Field National Championships. Martin, a Junior, was in the lead pack throughout the race, finishing with a season-best time of 14:45.67 – adding his first outdoor track All-America honor to a pair of cross country and an indoor accolade. Martin finished fifth at the NAIA XC Championships this past November. It was a strong season for Martin as he also finished third at the Cascade Conference Championships and fourth at the William Jessup Warrior Invitational.