The Shakes Sport Shack Story................

This story does not begin with Shakes grand opening on February 27, 2009.

Owned and operated by S. Scott Shake the Sport Shack story begins years ago in Boise Idaho.

As a kid growing up in Boise I was lucky enough (along with my brother and sister) to grow up enjoying the great outdoors any chance we got. With our father working at Bogus Basin Ski Resort we quickly learned our way around the mountain literally growing up on skis and there wasn't any way our mother would let us not learn how to ski on the water as well. With winters full of skiing and summers spent on the lake we had our chances to do it right.

My love affair with the smells of melting wax and p-tex began with McU Sports back in 1987 with the opening of their Highland Store in the north end of Boise. The back shop at that point in time was little more than a counter and not much room to even turn around, for some reason it was just mysterious enough to entice my inner ski shop monkey. The Mountain Bike Monkey came out a few years later when McUs opened a shop close enough to my house that I could ride my bike to and from. Still not old enough to get a job but I rode my bike to the Shopko plaza daily and hung out in that shop saving every penny I had in order to buy my first "real" Mountain Bike. I eventually was handed a broom or a mop bucket at one point and began my illustrious career as a shop monkey before I was old enough to receive any actual paychecks.

I officially landed on the payroll in 1993 when Bogus Basin took over management of McU's Mountain shop and I spent the summer riding up and down the hill clearing out the shop with Gus Urresti and a gang of other guys, every 20 minutes or so we would hear "F*@# Man, Take Five!".........thanks Gus.

The following 16 years seem like an eternity when looking back but I will try to sum it up for ya. I was lucky enough to learn that a clean shop is a happy shop and if you have extra parts you should start the bike tune over (thanks Mike). I learned the value of cussing at your Winterstieger tuning machines (thanks to Fritz and Doug). I made my mistakes and made my breakthroughs. I ended up running the tune shop for the Highland store for a few years before spending a year in limbo (Montana State University). I came back and ran the ski shop and water sports department for Sunset Sports for while before running off to the forest service to fight fire. The forest service is where I met my wife Jennifer and she has been gently dragging me along ever since. While I was fighting fire I spent my winters as a ski instructor and resumed my shop monkey status at Greenwoods Ski Haus.

I moved into my own little zen world of ski tuning when I started with Greenwoods. At that point in my career I had two things to do in the winter ski and tune skis. I worked the night shift at Greenwoods along with a number of other guys that took tuning skis and snowboards religiously. I was able to tweak the tune on my skis and try it out the next day while teaching at the hill it was a perfect situation. I remember floating around on cloud nine the day someone I didn't know requested that I tune their skis, that was great.

In 2003 I left Greenwoods and followed Jennifer to Missoula for her job. We landed in Philipsburg and she still drives into Missoula for her daily commute. I did a brief stint at Bob Wards running the ski shop for them before I was hired as the rental shop manager for Discovery Ski Area. A year after that I also took on the duty of Ski School Director. Discovery brought a number of new challenges to my working career. Juggling eight to twelve shop employees and a gaggle of ski and snowboard instructors was like herding cats. The bright side is that Peter and Beatrice made sure that I remained organized well enough to keep up the good fight.

It was during my annual spring ski trip in 2008 I finally received the nudge I needed to do this thing for myself. Thanks Mom.

It started out as a quiet conversation discussing winters to come when the question was asked one last time...Why don't you open your own shop? Unlike all the other times I have been asked and the numerous times I have asked it of myself, I didn't have an answer this time so, WHY NOT? Thus ensued a whirlwind of construction and a minor bit of destruction. The original opening date was scheduled for November 9th 2008 but we just couldn't get there. We had a few more minor setbacks and reschedules and a small heart attack when it started to rain while pouring concrete for the 1000 sq. ft. floor, but we made it.

I have so many people to thank for getting me to this point. Greenwoods Ski Haus for that final polish on my ski tune and ALL the additional support in this adventure. Black Diamond Sports and Bob Dinwiddie for the help and advice, McU Sports for planting that seed and feeding that inner shop monkey, "You have to learn how to take one and give two" sage advice from Rich Urresti. Troy Wallin, Bill Ballew, Steve Gilbertson, Bill Duckham, Jim Williams, Jim Waldbillig, Rick Umland and a host of others that helped in the construction of the shop. Some of the suppliers like MoonSaddle that have extended me some credit on faith rather than numbers. Bill Dirkes for his help and advice in getting that first supplier account started. My fellow bartenders who have helped me get up out of my beer when I was to befuddled to understand that even if its hard and scary this is a good thing, you know who you are.

Most of all thanks to my family and friends who have provided unconditional support in this adventure although this is not the beginning it is far from the end.

If you made it this far congrats and thanks for reading my ramble.

Thanks and keep believing,

Steven Scott Shake

October update

I didn't get as many miles as i had hoped for October. Shortly after getting all dialed in on the trainer I melted my back tire. It seems that you do need a specific tire for that. That tire is on the way so next month will be more productive. I also have a plan for some cross training as soon as enough snow plants itself up at Discovery. I have three more days to tack on some mileage before pulling my odometer to see how I did. I may take the same approach next month as well dependent on how many miles I get. Which is riding without paying attention to time or mileage just plugging away if I didn't reach my goal mileage i will pay more attention in November.


Anyhow, We will talk at ya later,

Scott

and so it begins

Had the first ride on my new trainer this morning.

I am starting out with a simple plan of some easy base mile rides each morning paying no attention to time mileage or speed. I am going to put base mileage down for one month before paying close attention to specific training goals. The idea here is to work up a sweat, maintain it for a while and cool down in a given ride leaving each ride wanting to go longer and farther rather than completely pasted.

Compete to achieve!!!

In my latest read and study on cycling and how best to go about training I have found nice little gem of wisdom.......

Compete to Achieve instead of competing to avoid failure.

just thought that needed to be shared. let it soak in for a while. I'll be back


Scott

I wasn't ready.....but just you wait.............

For those of you who have followed me this far and still check in once in a while thank you, and thanks for still believing I am going to do what it is I initially set out to do.

I had made it clear to everyone that I was determined to become a riding machine. With grand plans of riding from Philipburg MT to Boise ID in a span of about 5 days. I had even gone so far as to throw in a couple of 200 mile jaunts just as warm ups. Now I know what a lot of you are thinking, "Hes never gonna do that, that's a lot of riding", well you are right about the fact that its a lot of riding and wrong to think that I will not endure to see the end.

At the end of July and for the first week of September I was still frequently riding. My grand plan to get in shape for a 500+ mile bike ride was to hop on a bike and ride ride ride ride ride until I was in good enough shape to push past that much pavement. My legs hurt, my back hurt, my knees hurt you get the picture. I eventually hit the mental "damn this is a lot of riding" wall and haven't been on a serious ride for close to a month. What I have been doing is studying. I have been through a number of nutrition books and cycling books that have not only helped me to mentally prepare for this task but have given me a solid plan for physically preparing for it as well.

I learned quite a bit about how my approach to training for this ride was, well how should I say this, WRONG. Wrong wrong wrong.....I had the perfect diet for a guy who was in the gym everyday pumping iron and putting on some serious bulk but it turns out that that is not the prefect diet for someone who is turning pedals and working on the skills needed for a strong cyclist. The one thing I had right was riding but I had pushed my milage and durations to far to fast.

So in the winter months to come follow along and even ride along if you feel like it. I will be posting my riding and workout schedules so they are easy to follow and then you can join me on the ride. Don't worry this time around we will be starting out slow. I am planning on participating in the Tour of the Swan River Valley in May. The TOSRV is a two day event with 110 miles each day, riding from Missoula to Swan Lake and back, http://www.missoulabike.org/tosrvwest/.

Any how there it is check back often.