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View Full Version : #5 - Glen Jacobs (Part II)


demo man
24-07-2006, 09:47 PM
Sorry about the delay (again) - i am in the middle of swapping computers - it got a little messy tonight trying to find and move the Word file this one came from. oh well, better late than never!

so, once again, i am proud to introduce, Glen Jacobs!

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a184/demo_man/813086869_l.jpg


14. What is your favourite part of building mountain bike trails? Is it seeing the smiles on rider’s faces as they hit up your stuff, playing in the dirt, or maybe something else?
I love it when everybody finishes a ride and cant stop talking about what just happened. It’s my personal passion to push towards our sport into the future and raise the profile of the sport through exciting and innovative designs. This is my favourite part. Developing a professional and sustainable future for all our athletes. We have some of the best riders in the world, and everyday I see riders who I know can end up standing on an international podium. If I can help in anyway to push the sport forward through challenging tracks while making everybody a better athlete I love that. A track must be so challenging on every level, while delivering absolute quality and fairness to all who ride it. Multiple options with excitable variety! It pains me to see a riders career shattered because of amateurish course designs, unfortunately there are too many under achievers out there without course vision or just trying to bring the sport down to their small way of thinking.


15. What are you working on at the moment?
Our company MVA, have 18 projects running at the same time all over the world, the main ones are mt stromlo and mt buller. Mt Stromlo is one of the first MTB Parks in the world, which is close to a major city. I think the exciting thing about stromlo, is the huge mountain bike culture in the city of Canberra, the clubs, the passionate riders and of course on the worlds first professionally designed bike specific destinations. I can wait for the National Championships in January 2007. At the moment we are working on the Cross Country trails, these trails have multiple options, skill levels and routes. August we start on the Canberra’s first International Downhill design. This Dh will be designed as a World Cup course, and will take months to construct, with crews working around the clock on its completion. Then around November we start on Australia’s latest professionally designed 4X – MTX course. This huge monster is soaking up close to 180 thousand tonne of soil. It will have the latest ‘D.O.S. System” technology (the future international standard) paving the way for Canberra and Australian riders to compete and train on a ‘state of the art’ professional course, similar to Hobart and Newcastle.

16. You travel the world quite a lot for various reasons, how does the Aus. MTB scene compare to others?
It is so far ahead in design style, creativity and rider professionalism (just look at our riders world cup results) Unfortunately we are years behind in government awareness and media awareness, hope it changes soon. The most positive vein in all of this is that the more professionally designed venues that are built, the more platforms are available for our athletes and national series to evolve. The better the sport is, the bigger the sponsorship and the better the future is for all involved.

17. What are your tips for people trying to succeed in the MTB industry?
Do everything you can to make it better for everybody, do it all for the right reasons, listen to those who have gone before you, and don’t make the same mistakes someone else has. Most of all, when you aim for something, think big, pro and then double it. There is a huge positive future in mountain biking if everybody steps it up, instead of a piss weak “that will do” attitude. I see it this way, if a football club had to go set up a site every week before a match, bring in toilets, tents, bunting and cut the grass and put up goal posts, that footy club would stay very small, because members would gradually get pissed off doing repeat work with no results. But if you had a pro vision of our sport, with a permanent site linked to nature, a major meeting area with cafes, bike shops and facilities capable of handling huge growth, then the sport and industry could only grow with opportunities for all involved. Again, don’t think small; our sport is one of the best activities in the world, at so many different levels, so approach it with a professional attitude. It doesn’t matter what part of the Mountain Bike industry your involved in, think of an exciting and positive “end result”. This approach will reward you and us with an amazing future and lifestyle.

18. Describe your riding style:
Safe and smooth

20. What would you change about your riding style?
Remove safe.

21. Last time you were approached by the police was:
Last week at a nightclub in Canberra, a friend of mine who joined the police force, asked me what I wanted to drink, she didn’t wear her uniform until later that night.

22. Last car accident:
Years ago I put my ute in a creek doing doe’ees and silly stuff with Sean McCarroll and some mates. It started raining hard, and a flash flood came, we got all our bikes out of the back, but lost a lot of cd’s, gloves and goggles from inside the car when water flowed through and over the car. We eventually towed it out, drained it and drove home. I did the same thing once trying to drive to a deserted island off on one of the beaches in north Queensland, when I drove through the water in my 4x4. I thought it was shallow enough to drive to the island, and ended up driving off the end of a reef and sinking my car, luckily I had my jet ski in the back and we rode back to shore and waited for some friends to come and re-float my car out.

25. Most foul food ever eaten:
Taco Bell in the US, and Sheep balls in Slovenia, they weren’t that bad, just the thought threw me.

Dozer
25-07-2006, 07:44 AM
Nice follow up there Sam and Glen. The Stromlo project sounds bloody awesome.....good luck.

Cletus
25-07-2006, 12:38 PM
i definatly cant wait to see the finished product down at mt stromlo, it should definatly be worth the 2 1/2hour drive.
dh and 4X on the same site is going to make for some great weekends away, though........ you could'nt have built the place in wollongong could you glen:confused: :(

just a thought:rolleyes:

scblack
25-07-2006, 12:40 PM
........ you could'nt have built the place in wollongong could you glen:confused: :(

just a thought:rolleyes:
Nah, he built it in a place where some people actually want to be.........;)

I-AM-TEH-FASTEST-11
25-07-2006, 12:42 PM
cool interview.. but I think you've already sold out the idea of "meet the farkers", considering jacobs has posted all of 22 posts on here...
annnnddd the fact that his words are readily available in any number of magazines spanning the last 10 years or so.
Don't get me wrong, I dig reading his stuff.. but I thought the idea was to shed light on the wierdo's lurking on this site... (haha) not to go out and interview the same people we are reading about every month in magazines.

just a thought....

Cletus
25-07-2006, 03:09 PM
Nah, he built it in a place where some people actually want to be.........;)

:eek: damn, that hurt unky:p

Cletus
25-07-2006, 03:13 PM
cool interview.. but I think you've already sold out the idea of "meet the farkers", considering jacobs has posted all of 22 posts on here...
annnnddd the fact that his words are readily available in any number of magazines spanning the last 10 years or so.
Don't get me wrong, I dig reading his stuff.. but I thought the idea was to shed light on the wierdo's lurking on this site... (haha) not to go out and interview the same people we are reading about every month in magazines.

just a thought....

hmmm... good point,

scblack
25-07-2006, 03:16 PM
:eek: damn, that hurt unky:p
Yep, sometimes the truth hurts.:p

scblack
25-07-2006, 03:18 PM
cool interview.. but I think you've already sold out the idea of "meet the farkers", considering jacobs has posted all of 22 posts on here...
annnnddd the fact that his words are readily available in any number of magazines spanning the last 10 years or so.
Don't get me wrong, I dig reading his stuff.. but I thought the idea was to shed light on the wierdo's lurking on this site... (haha) not to go out and interview the same people we are reading about every month in magazines.

just a thought....
Yes, it is a good point.

MrPlow
25-07-2006, 03:48 PM
Last week at a nightclub in Canberra, a friend of mine who joined the police force, asked me what I wanted to drink, she didn’t wear her uniform until later that night.
Gold,
But I-AM-TEH-FASTEST-11 is right, this is about farkin regulars getting exposed I thought. Some sort of criteria should be met: Joined Date, quality / quantity of posts / real world farkin related contribution. Something like that anyway.

Dan.
25-07-2006, 05:45 PM
21. Last time you were approached by the police was:
[/B]Last week at a nightclub in Canberra, a friend of mine who joined the police force, asked me what I wanted to drink, she didn’t wear her uniform until later that night.


Absolute Gold!!!

Bodin
25-07-2006, 09:54 PM
cool interview.. but I think you've already sold out the idea of "meet the farkers", considering jacobs has posted all of 22 posts on here...
annnnddd the fact that his words are readily available in any number of magazines spanning the last 10 years or so.
Don't get me wrong, I dig reading his stuff.. but I thought the idea was to shed light on the wierdo's lurking on this site... (haha) not to go out and interview the same people we are reading about every month in magazines.

just a thought....

I also think this is a fair point, but I'm stoked that legends of the industry are part of Farkin and maybe we can consider their contribution to the sport as some kind of replacement for the whole posts/contibutions-to-the-site issue. Without guys like Glen, we're still just kids mucking around on bikes. Having said that, though, I agree that Farkin's (in)famous and shady weirdos should still be the focus point for this part of the forum...

Moral of the story: never leave home without a jet ski.

No Skid Marks
25-07-2006, 10:55 PM
Yup move it to the legends of the sport section and keep this for the farkiner lifers. I felt it tooooo.
Good read regardless of where it was.

Jordy
26-07-2006, 12:33 AM
I thought that Glen guy was just a myth ?

Good interview.

julianwisbey
28-07-2006, 06:12 PM
I also think this is a fair point, but I'm stoked that legends of the industry are part of Farkin and maybe we can consider their contribution to the sport as some kind of replacement for the whole posts/contibutions-to-the-site issue. Without guys like Glen, we're still just kids mucking around on bikes. Having said that, though, I agree that Farkin's (in)famous and shady weirdos should still be the focus point for this part of the forum...

Moral of the story: never leave home without a jet ski.
still hes only had a post count of 15 thats not realy much of a member i thought
this meet the farkers thing was to show all the people we know but dont if you want to read about a guy like glen read amb speaking of that theres a article about him in the latest issue

Drizz
28-07-2006, 06:32 PM
still hes only had a post count of 15 thats not realy much of a member i thought
this meet the farkers thing was to show all the people we know but dont if you want to read about a guy like glen read amb speaking of that theres a article about him in the latest issue

Fair point, I propose this forum be rename Meet The PostWhores. :D

peanut
30-07-2006, 02:26 PM
still hes only had a post count of 15 thats not realy much of a member i thought
this meet the farkers thing was to show all the people we know but dont if you want to read about a guy like glen read amb speaking of that theres a article about him in the latest issue

So does that mean if Rowney,Hill, Rennie, Graves, kovarik etc posted on here they wouldn't be "true" members either?,they appear in magazines as much as anyone else.

A farkiner is a farkiner, some members contribute to the whole Mtb community in more ways than just posting on a forum, and i have no problem whatsoever of hearing about them in the "meet the farkiners" section.

Binaural
30-07-2006, 02:36 PM
So does that mean if Rowney,Hill, Rennie, Graves, kovarik etc posted on here they wouldn't be "true" members either?,they appear in magazines as much as anyone else.

A farkiner is a farkiner, some members contribute to the whole Mtb community in more ways than just posting on a forum, and i have no problem whatsoever of hearing about them in the "meet the farkiners" section.

Yes, but the point of this forum was to flesh out the human side of a few of Farkin's more interesting posters, not "meet the people prominent in the MTB community in general". Glen Jacobs is an interesting bloke and he does a lot for MTB in Australia, but there's no shortage of interviews of pros like him in the print media.

Forums can be anonymous places, so something like "meet the farkers" can be really interesting since it lets you see a human side to someone you might never meet in person.

peanut
30-07-2006, 07:18 PM
Yes, but the point of this forum was to flesh out the human side of a few of Farkin's more interesting posters, not "meet the people prominent in the MTB community in general". Glen Jacobs is an interesting bloke and he does a lot for MTB in Australia, but there's no shortage of interviews of pros like him in the print media.

Forums can be anonymous places, so something like "meet the farkers" can be really interesting since it lets you see a human side to someone you might never meet in person.

Fair enough, i understand your point of view.
When i first read the thread it came across as a bit of jelousy in the posts, i naturally defended what i didn't think was right.

Matto
30-07-2006, 08:51 PM
If its an entertaining read does it really make a difference if its a prominent industry type or some schlep on a bike from k-mart?

aday
31-07-2006, 04:55 PM
Glen is a great bloke after meeting him yesterday. He does such a great job for mountain bike community in Australia. Nice one.

Andrew

johnny
01-08-2006, 10:06 AM
So does that mean if Rowney,Hill, Rennie, Graves, kovarik etc posted on here they wouldn't be "true" members either?,they appear in magazines as much as anyone else.

A farkiner is a farkiner, some members contribute to the whole Mtb community in more ways than just posting on a forum, and i have no problem whatsoever of hearing about them in the "meet the farkiners" section.Agreed 100%

I think it's good to mix the industry types up in here. 1) they are Farkiners, so they fit the bill. 2) The section needed to be broken up a bit because it would have just ended up being each person trying to out funny the last.

I think Demo Man has hit the nail on the head and it's good to hear from the GJ types of the industry. It's another reason why Farkin is better than the MTB magaizines, we get the sporting regulars like you and me AND the industry heavy weights taking part and interacting. If I was you, I'd ditch the mags and stick with the web, we got everything, they got jack baby.

McBain
01-08-2006, 10:18 AM
f I was you, I'd ditch the mags and stick with the web, we got everything, they got jack baby.Not quite - as yet I can't read Farkin while taking a dump.

Sure, the laptop has wireless, but not sure I want to do that. :)

scblack
01-08-2006, 10:18 AM
Agreed 100%

I think it's good to mix the industry types up in here. 1) they are Farkiners, so they fit the bill. 2) The section needed to be broken up a bit because it would have just ended up being each person trying to out funny the last.

I think Demo Man has hit the nail on the head and it's good to hear from the GJ types of the industry. It's another reason why Farkin is better than the MTB magaizines, we get the sporting regulars like you and me AND the industry heavy weights taking part and interacting. If I was you, I'd ditch the mags and stick with the web, we got everything, they got jack baby.
I COMPLETELY agree with the highlighted section.

I disagree with you though, and think Meet the Farkers should only be regulars on here, so as to provide some background on those who we spend such valuable work time conversing with on the interweb. We already know PLENTY about industry heavyweights, and since when did guys such as Rennie, Hill, Kovarik etc EVER post on Farkin, so I think it difficult to really see them as Farkiners. We post about them a lot, read news about them, and imagine what it would be like to ride like them, but they are certainly not regulars on here.

If I was you, I'd ditch the mags and stick with the web, we got everything, they got jack baby.
Done and done, I only buy Clict these days (on the odd occasion it is published).

johnny
01-08-2006, 10:19 AM
Not quite - as yet I can't read Farkin while taking a dump.

Sure, the laptop has wireless, but not sure I want to do that. :)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/Johnnylovegod/toiletcomputer.jpg

projectsplat
01-08-2006, 10:39 AM
and since when did guys such as Rennie, Hill, Kovarik etc EVER post on Farkin, so I think it difficult to really see them as Farkiners.

but Glen has posted on Farkin. I think a few people have mentioned that already in this thread.

Rennie, Hill & Kovarik have not been included for meet the farkers, and there has been no mention of asking them for an interview. Glen has been included, and Glen is a member of farkin, who has also posted (albeit not a lot).

I think Sam is doing a great job here, and it is a pity to see this devolving into a dispute over who and who not to interview.

In the words of some obscure Python sketch "get on with it!".

Dozer
01-08-2006, 11:47 AM
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/Johnnylovegod/toiletcomputer.jpg

You told me your computer desk had a golden seat !:confused: :confused: I didn't realise you meant that type of throne.

I reckon it is good to have MTB industry people on farkers because (like Johnny said) it breaks it up and keeps us guessing. I reckon it is working really well, good on you Sam.

hubbie
01-08-2006, 03:17 PM
I propose this forum be rename Meet The PostWhores. :D

I await my interview. After all that's why i spend my non riding / studying life on here. for attention

Jon
01-08-2006, 04:33 PM
Just a mention about the fact that Rennie ,hill et al dont post on here,with the faceless environment of the web and chat boards in particular, who is to know who we are.Maybe the mods and admin might know but if they do then I'm sure they're not going to divulge someones real name and details.It's a bit like singles chat rooms,every body is beautiful and normal until it comes to the crunch,then they're all weird and got a head like a beaten egg:D :eek:

Point is no one knows who lurks in these virtual dark halls......

cheers Nathan....














nah just screwing with ya mind......:D

Bodin
01-08-2006, 04:45 PM
It's a bit like singles chat rooms,every body is beautiful and normal until it comes to the crunch,then they're all weird and got a head like a beaten egg:D :eek:

Speaking from personal experience? :p (just jokes...)

Seriously though, my whole problem with this "don't interview famous people" attitude is the question of where to draw the line. There are really famous people, fairly famous people, sorta famous people and those people you recognise from somewhere, but can't remember their name. Who do you decide not to interview?

I agree that it's going to be really important to maintain the whole irreverent nature that "Meeting the Farkers" displays and it would be a tragedy if it got dominated purely by information we already (mostly) already knew about famous people. It would be an even bigger tragedy if it got used for industry publicity.

However, there are degrees of fame and fame is not exclusive to irreverence. If someone famous happens to be a member of this site, has some interesting things to say directly to us and is a bit of a funny c^&t at the same time, then bring it on!

I still think Glenn and his affinity for having a handy jetski during moments of trouble makes him the MacGuyver of the MTB world...

Jon
01-08-2006, 08:38 PM
I agree whole heartedly that the idea is to interview members that have some significance to the site or something interesting to say provided 1.the same stuff is not readily accessible elsewhere and 2.Its not used for commercial promotion.
Glen Jacobs is a excellent example of someone making a living out of something they love .However of late his dial is popping up everywhere,not a bad thing but not typical of most farkiners.
Just take a look at our desire to be individual with our bikes,rarity equals bling factor.So In that vein maybe we could hear about farkiners that are obscure and not so well documented.
What I want to know is how do people get time to ride their bikes doing 3-5 posts per day , maybe I'll give up work and just trawl the internet all day,be like the comic book guy on the Simpsons.....:D
cheers jon



ps no singles experience just 22 happy years of marriage :o

hubbie
01-08-2006, 08:43 PM
What I want to know is how do people get time to ride their bikes doing 3-5 posts per day

farkin for me is during study time, riding is during my over-extended breaks. so basically no study gets done.

demo man
01-08-2006, 11:00 PM
okay then.

I think i get it - Glen was okay, but don't do it again for a while. Make sure that MtF is about Farkers first and foremost, and keep the industry types for occasional stuff only - to break it up a bit.

Well, my unfaithful Farkers, that's exactly what i had in mind. as Johnny suggested, this was to break it up a bit. i'd appreciate it if people were to wait and see how things turn out before complaining too much.

having said that, i have had a few good ideas come through my PM inbox - those are fine! just try not to turn this into a bitch fest (not that this is yet).


I appreciate that you all care enough about this section to try and make sure it gets done right, and thanks for the Kudos from those who gave it.


I'll leave the thread open for now, but the padlock will come out if people get their nickers in a twist...