By David Snow

First of all, what comes to your mind when you see the word Florida?  Beaches?  Warm weather?  Palm tree swaying in the wind?

How about throwing in a bicycle into the picture and enjoying all of the above?   If yes, here is an opportunity to participate in a 40-mile bicycling and/or racing event for a worthy cause in St. Augustine, Florida!

A bicycle-awareness, two-day event, Velo Fest: Movement of the People will be making its debut on 13 April 2012 in St. Augustine, Florida.

This event might be almost a thousand miles away from where you are, but as bicyclists, we are all united as one in this goal:  bike safety on roads.

The 13th day of April will mark 1-year anniversary of a tragedy that has profoundly touched the cycling community.  It was the day when a cyclist, a young and well-liked man, was killed in a hit and run.

I wrote an article about this tragedy shortly afterwards on my work website.  Details of this accident can be found here.  Unfortunately, to this day, the driver of this hit-and-run tragedy remains at large.

In the article, I mentioned that even though statistically, Florida is one of the leading states in bike safety, St. Augustine remains one of the worst cities.   We have had numerous cases of vehicle-related bike accidents.  But it was this hit-and-run incident that was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”  It prompted one of St. Augustine residents and a cycling enthusiast, Heather Neville to launch a city-wide campaign.  Check the website she developed to promote Velo Fest.  Everything you need to know about this event is on the website, including links to its Facebook and Twitter pages.

The reasons I am posting about this cycling event in dVELO are:

1) I am a dVELO member.

2) dVELO might be DC Metro-based, but everything I have read or heard from other members,  several of you have gone to other states and other countries to be involved in cycling events.  If you were willing to go that far, why not Florida?

3) Good publicity for dVELO to be seen around other cyclists at St. Augustine and knowing that the Deaf cyclists are just as mindful about safety as any other riders.

4) As I mentioned at the beginning, this is an awesome opportunity for you northerners to get down to enjoy some balmy Floridian weather.  You can even make it a vacation!  Is there anything that would be more fun than to come down here with your bike to show your support for bicycle safety?

Interested piqued?   I sure hope so!  As I mentioned earlier, everything you need to know about the Velo Fest event is on its website.  There is a link in there for you to register as a participant.  One event is the Wrigley Ride (named after Bryan, the hit-and-run cyclist).   It is a great for any avid cyclist to be a part of.   The other one is the Old City Crit.  This event is for the race-oriented cyclists, but it is great for anyone to watch from the sidelines!  With such a huge purse for podium finishers, it should draw big-time competitors.

Again, I do hope some of you will be interested in coming down as dVELO representatives to this inaugural festival, the Velo Fest: Movement of the People.  Not only would you have great fun, but also it would be great to show that the support for bike safety is not limited to locals.

If you have any questions, please email me.  If you plan to register, please let me know as well.  Hopefully we can get together to share the fun as a group of deaf and other sign language users.

By David Snow

You know what they say about March…that it comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

Well, there is some truth to this proverb.  Here in Florida, the “lion” is all of those super-strong and howling winds we’ve been having!

One out-of-state visitor and cyclist who got the opportunity to ride with a group remarked that our winds were “Florida hills.”  Very true!  We may have flat roads, but fighting against head winds is just like going uphills.

And that is not all.  Try throwing in dry weather and freshly-plowed fields in with the high winds.  I was out there on the saddle when this mix happened.  See the picture of my head after I took my helmet off at the end of the 2.5-hour ride:

Cool, huh?  I had posted this in my Facebook page and made this comment:

That is what I call Florida’s mark of March!

In this video, Ralph Fernandez uses international signs concerning the addition of mountain and women cycling events to the next Deaflympics and whether it would be feasible or not due to the main focus being on securing a host site for 2013 Deaflympics.   For more details, please refer to the letters from the ISCD President and from German Deaf Sports Federation.

Letter from German Deaf Sports Federation – 25 January 2012

Letter from ICSD President – 30 January 2012