Had a great class Oct 11. Kris and Richard were very helpful and knowledgeable. They made things fun and easy going, even while rolling you off the the lunch table bench. Came away with a bit more confidence which I have already put into practice. I really appreciated the review of what was covered in the class in the follow up email. Looking forward to taking the Jan intermediate class at Balboa, hopefully it will be up for registering soon. In the mean time I have a lot to work on. ~Linda Peterson

Taken the 3 day Skills Camp out in Mulberry Gap GA. Outstanding weekend. We had a small group of  about 8 people with 3 Ninja Pro's. Richard and the  instructors were  attentive  and always helpful. The course had you work on your base fundamentals, advanced skills, along with  bike setup,maintenance, nutrition ,This was a very comprehensive course. After learning the skills, we'd hit the trails and the training didn't stop. Instructors would  get to a technical portion of a trail and have us all stop and they would  show us how to use the skills we just learned. Everyone learned at their own pace. So no one felt pressured to keep up with others.  Having fun was always top priority. Arriving back home, I was practicing all the skills i've learned  like an excited  little kid with a new bike.  I hope to take this course again when they come back to this side of the country -- it was well worth it! ~Vic D.

My 14 year old son and I (I'm 43) went to the Intermediate/advanced skills clinic at Malibu Creek State Park. We both race and ride at a very fast pace. Getting faster for us is about making sure our fundamentals are solid and we can continue to use those fundamentals to smooth out our flow to increase our skills and confidence. Richard has a way of breaking down all the information to make it very understandable and usable. My son and I have been to other skills classes before and knew what to expect, mostly. Richard was able to coach us to better form riding high speed flat corners! We brushed up on and cleaned up some less helpful habits. We really worked to understand the how and why behind some skills that we already had but didn't know we that we did. All in all we had a blast! Richard was fun and informative. Taylor was helping Richard out for the day. It was fun to watch her demo some skills at speed. Her input throughout the day was informative and light hearted. It was a fun day on the bike with some great people and coaching. This will not be our last Ninja training clinic! Thanks for everything Richard and Taylor! ~Eric Zubick

I'm a 63 y.o. Road and MTB cyclist.  I've ridden mountain bikes since 1988.  I really wish that I'd taken this course 25 years ago and I might have avoided some of the injuries I received over the years. I took only the morning first intro session at Phoenix and I learned a great deal in a short period of time.  Richard is a very gifted cyclist and coach with excellent pedagogical skills.  The class moved quickly, but covered all the appropriate details needed to handle a bike on technical trails.  Richard had two local expert cyclists who demonstrated techniques while he provided a narrative and answered question. We had one relatively new rider who was very wary of some of the steeper, technical descents.  By the end of the class, you could actually see a significant increase in her confidence using the skills acquired in the class. I'm looking forward to doing one of Ninja's camps and I hope they are able to expand their clinics to my area (Albuquerque, NM). William J.

I have, like many cyclists, been riding bikes since childhood.  Feeling like I hit a plateau in my technical riding skills (because I had), I began searching for a mountain bike skills camp.  I wanted to attend a camp that would push me to be a better rider, but I needed it to be in a great location on actual trails.  After a fair amount of searching, I decided that spending a weekend at a Ninja Mountain Bike Skills camp would be perfect.  It didn't hurt that the camp was in Big Bear. The condensed review: It took only a few hours of trail riding with Richard and Daniel to drastically change my riding for the better. The long review: The camp was broken into morning and afternoon sessions, separated by an amazing lunch on each day.  The morning sessions were, in general, based on technique and riding isolated technical features.  The afternoon sessions functioned more like a capstone; we rode incredible trails, like Fall Line and Skyline, and put our newly-learned skills into action. Richard and Daniel were attentive to both the class as a whole as well as each individual.  The pacing of each individual lesson (I'm a teacher, so I viewed each piece as a lesson) was wonderful.  There were constant checks for understanding as well as incremental assessments of our skills on the bike.  We were never once, all weekend, bogged down in repetition, nor were we rushed through a skill or concept.  I was blown away by the sheer volume of skills that were taught in such an easy-to-grasp manner. Of course, we were not standing by our bikes the whole time listening to a lecture: we were actively riding while Daniel and Richard looked on with critical eyes.  Richard was clear in his introduction...