TOVA by Caitlin Lomen

Cocktail Recipes Luke Kirby

IDEAS FOR THE

may/ june

features

34 A PLACE OF OUR OWN

A week in the life of a twenty-one year old squatter in New York City. by Stacy Wakefield

37 GET CAMPING—IN STYLE

Our guide goes glam with great gear, gourmet recipes, and the West’s top 25 destinations. by Nicole Gelb

42 MINIMUM RAGE

Generation Y is stuck in the service sector—and in denial about it. by Nona Willis Aronowitz

54 FREE-SPIRITED SAN DIEGO

The once-sleepy beach town is the coast’s new “It” city and we’re taking it upon ourselves to show you around the best of what it has to offer. by Caron Golden

64 ONE THING LED TO ANOTHER... Bicycle racer Tina Brubaker talks about how she fell in love with her bike and what keeps her coming back season after season. by Heidi Swift

in every issue

05 EDITOR’S letter 06 CONTRIBUTORS 07 YOUR letters 10 EVENT calendar

food / drink

style / beauty

12 BERRY mania 17 BUY or DIY Tis the season for picking and preserving; where to start and what to make.

Yes you can make a caftan! We swear.

14 BEAT the heat

and beach coverups to flatter your shape, plus our picks for sunscreen and after-sun stuff.

Tova’s editors share recipes for their favorite summer cocktails. Let the fun begin!

15 BALLARD’S best Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood houses some of the city’s best food, get the lowdown!

16 FAST and fresh

Linguine with clams, stuffed mini peppers, steak with avocadoonion salad, and strawberry salad.

19 BEST swimsuits

life / love

24 LUKE Kirby

of Take This Waltz fame has women talkin’. See what’s up next for the hearthrob.

26 BOOKS

Reviews; plus the best new reads in modern motherhood.

20 TOVA test team 30 MOVIES puts conventional and natural sunscreens and self-tanners to use to find you the best.

22 INSPIRED by

Zadie Smith’s debut inspires this month’s roundup of awesome stuff to lust after.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Hysteria, and Your Sister’s Sister.

31 HOT Dates

Fun stuff to try in May and June.

this month on

tovamag.com BOOKS Check out our extended summer reading list, and add your own, for hours of happy beachside relaxing.

MUSIC Don’t miss the Tova Festival Guide, our comprehensive compendium of Pacific Northwest summer music and arts festivals. Artists, video and audio streaming, ticket and venue info is all in one place for your travelling pleasure.

FASHION Like what you see in the print edition? If you click through the digital TOVA, all you have to do is click an item to be taken to its source and put it in your shopping cart, it’s that easy! FOOD Tova.com is a great resource for planning your summer yard parties, with hundreds of food and drink recipes, why not try something new!

4 | May 2012

t OVA MAY/ JUNE 2012

editorial EDITORIAL DIRECTOR / Nicole Gelb MANAGING EDITOR / Carrie Craven SENIOR EDITORS / Faye Ehrich, Maryanna Krafft,

publishing SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT / Emily Affolter ASSOCIATE MARKETING DIRECTOR / Olivia Corrado BRAND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR / Emma Hardman Rebecca Kvamme, Betsy Shuman NEW YORK ACCOUNT MANAGERS / Laura Hayes ASSISTANT EDITOR / Sarah Borch-Jacobsen CHICAGO ACCOUNT MANAGERS / Lucy Hawkins CONTRIBUTING EDITOR / Elizabeth Okey LOS ANGELES ADVERTISING DIRECTOR / Nell Entrikin WEB PRODUCER / Jessie Allen SAN FRANCISCO ADVERTISING MANAGER / Eula Scott DETROIT ACCOUNT MANAGER / Jasmine Jackson art SOUTHEAST MANAGER / Alaina Caldwell ART DIRECTOR / Tara Nichol MARKETING MANAGERS / Sarah Lambo, Michelle SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER / Lindsay Perlen Krause, Mariposa Stormer DESIGN APPRENTICE / Dawn Yanigahara ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR / Melissa Gaeto MARKETING COORDINATOR / Andrea Kravette production LOS ANGELES SALES ASSISTANT / Maya Newman DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION / Kristen Dallum MARKETING INTERN / Pooja Raval PRODUCTION MANAGER / Margaret DiJulio GENERAL MANAGER / Siri Longaker AD TRAFFIC MANAGER / Rebecca Krebs ADVERTISING BUSINESS DIRECTOR / Luci Lucarelli INSIDE SALES AD TRAFFIC MANAGER / Amber Cate BUSINESS MANAGER / Alisha Boyd PREPRESS MANAGER / Elizabeth Kaselitz CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR / Hana Parkman PREPRESS COORDINATOR / Erin Wehman ADVERTISING OPERATIONS MANAGER / Piper Long ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION DIRECTOR / Victoria Worm marketing AD PRODUCTION DIRECTOR / Ingrid Hergert CIRCULATION DIRECTOR / Katherine Raynor SENIOR PUBLICITY MANAGER / Genevieve Case READER SERVICE MANAGER / Kaylee Kanning PUBLICIST / Petra Thompson MARKETING MANAGER / Erin Galloway CREATIVE SERVICES ART DIRECTOR / Anne Christoph

SUBSCRIPTION ORDERS, INQUIRIES AND ADDRESS CHANGES P.O. Box 421751 Portland, OR 97214-3214 (503)555-1212 cutsomerservice@tovamag.com

EDITORIAL OFFICES 535 SE 27th Ave, Suite 200 Portland, OR 97214 (206)555-1313 fax (503) 444-1414 www.tovamag.com

COLOPHON tova magazine in produced in Adobe InDesign on Apple Macintosh computers. Body text is set in Adobe Caslon Pro. The display faces are Bebas Neue and Univers.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Spring has Sprung!

Here at tova, we are always up for a chance to gather our closest friends, set an inviting table, and catch up over a shared meal, a bottle of wine, and plenty of laughter. With

spring

full

bloom—warmer

weather! longer days! blossoming flow-

ers!—the season of entertaining is upon us. This time of year brings with it a sense of re-

newal: an opportunity to reset and reevaluat

priorities, to rearrange everything from your belongings to your schedule, and to reinvigo-

rate old friendships. Entertaining is such an enriching part of life. It’s the perfect chance to

slow your pace and to savor the ximple pleasure

of nurturing old and new connections alike. Though a timeless art, there is a welth of new possibilities for creative entertain-

ing for those who seek it. With this issue, we hope to introduce you to new ideas for your

next gathering as well as inspire you to create them as a reflection of who you are. In a world where so many of our interactions happen online (and of course we adore our vir-

tual friends!), we sometimes forget how much an intimate real-world setting feeds out souls. So we encourage you to peruse our digital pages, then close the comput-

er for a while. Whether you’re hosting your own party or attending as a guest, our hope is that this issue sparks new ideas for gatherings and reminds you that

above all, entertaining is really about connecting with the people you love most.

NICOLE GELB Editor-in-Chief nicole.gelb@tovamag.com

OK, now talk to me! Whatever concerns you, tickles you, or ticks you off about tova, I’d love to know. Bear with us if you don’t hear back immediately.

tovamag.com | 5

GOINGS ON

May & June

To-Do List

Jamming and camping at the Gorge, pigging out on pizza in Ballard, and deciding who to cheer for at Jeld-Wen. EDITED BY FAYE EHRICH

BALLARD PIZZA CO. opens in Seattle, stuff your face with gourmet pies and pints until last call.

113

All-Girl Retro Dance Toupes are Flaunting Their Inner Flappers

23- 25 116

5 MONETS/ 100 DAYS opens at the Portland Art Museum, don’t miss this rare opportunity to view these works.

MOVEABLE TYPE brings it’s traveling print show to SE Portland’s Em Space Book Arts Center.

Get Into The Swing

THE BEATLES’ HELP ends it’s run at the Seattle Children’s Theater, taking with it it’s mop-topped teen stars.

SASQUATCH MUSIC FESTIVAL takes over the Gorge at George for three days, melting faces and blowing minds.

TOWNSHENDS TEA CO. opens a third retail space on Portland’s Division St., bringing chai blends galore to the hip street.

JELD-WEN FIELD hosts the Seattle Sounders for a regional battle against Portland’s beloved Timbers.

Have you ever watched an old movie and wished you could join all those glitterclad chorus girls dancing in intricate formations? Well you don’t need a time machine to enjoy that kind of excitement and glamour. Today, all-girl dance troupes in cities across America are reviving the routines of the past, and are performing them regularly at local variety clubs and national dance events. The modern-day chorus girls in groups like Sister Kate (Seattle), the Diamond Dolls (Denver), the Basin Street Buttercups (New Orleans), and the Atomic Cherry Bombs (Orange County, CA), draw inspiration from the freewheeling flapper era of the 1920s and the MGM chorus girl decadence of the 1930s. Some of the troupes’ highenergy performances include traditional jazz routines like the “Shim Sham” and the “Tranky Doo,” as well as the boisterous Can-Can, complete with flouncy skirts.

Best of the West

ndie music darlings Best Coast have had quite a year. Not long after they formed, the LA band whipped up Crazy for You, which landed on the Billboards charts after the album’s release in July 2010. Next up, the lo-fi outfit brings it’s sticky-sweet garage pop to Outside Lands. Singer Bethany Cosentino took a few minutes to chat with Tova about old-school country and Mexican food. — NAN KRAFFT How does success feel so early in your music career? I wake up daily and remind myself that this is my job. It’s so exciting when you find out a band you really like likes your band. I’m still surprised how lucky I’ve been. Is there a new music genre you’re dying to try out? I really relate to old-school country—like Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline—because the sings deal with the same sort of topics I write about.

10 | May 2012

What San Francisco bands are you into? i really like Hunx and His Punx. They’re got that fun, simple pop thing, just like us. I also love Shannon and the Clams—Shannon Shaw has an amazing voice. Which has better Mexican food: SoCal or NorCal? I have to side with SoCal because I grew up eating it. But I used to be obsessed with Pancho Villa in the Mission. I used to eat there every time I visited San Francisco.

Katie Rodgers

TRADE SECRETS

ILLUSTRATOR

I use artist’s tape to anchor whatever it is I’m working on, and I love the different colors it come in, this red is my favorite!

I’m loyal to Winsor & Newton watercolors and just buy the tubes to refil my palette. Make sure you don’t clean your palette too often, it gives it a bit of character!

I destroy delicate pen tips like nobody’s business, so Copics are perfect for me. I like the .01 weight, and the brush pen for getting various line weights.

I am a HUGE fan of this paper, it’s perfect for creating clean, smooth illustrations and is super easy to scan.

I use a few different types of brushes, but I usually stick to angular shaders. They’re great for covering large areas as well as getting small details. Illustrator Katie Rodgers has been captivating with her delicate watercolors since 2009. After graduating with a BFA in Industrial Design and dabbling in fashion, Katie found her true calling in watercolor illustration and hasn’t looked back since! Paperfashion, as Katie calls her work, has been commissioned by companies such as Cle de Peau, Kate Spade, Coach, Dolce & Gabbana’s Swide Magazine, OlsenBoye, and Lucky Magazine, just to name a few. Here she let us in on her trade secrets and favorite tools. Be sure to check out the rest of her beautiful work at paperfashion.net. tovamag.com | 11

FOOD / DRINK

Summer Harvest

Every sunny backyard should have a berry patch of some sort. Just a few highbush blueberry plants will guarantee lots of muffins and pancakes studded with large, plump berries. A small strawberry garden will produce berries to top yogurt or cereal for a month and ensure sweet something for strawberry shortcakes. A trellis of raspberries—red, yellow, or purple—can produce delicious sosft fruits for cobblers and tarts for three months or longer. At my farm in Bedford, I have

12 | May 2012

gone a bit berry-crazy, planting so many bushes and plants that my freezers are still full of frozen currants, blueberries, gooseberries, and raspberries through the following April. All those fruits should have been consumed before then—turned into jams, jellies, sorbets, and desserts way through the new

season could begin. This overxealous planting is the result of the growing techniques we’ve insituted at the farm. When I designed the vegetable-garden complex about 10 years ago, I laid out extensive soft-fruit gardens around the large greenhouse. I have seen similar plantings in England at some homes.

What’s in Season...

BERRIES!

Make the most of this season’s sweet offerings by adding berries to every meal, they’re not just for dessert any more! Berries at their peak ripeness add something special to any meal.

Raspberry Streusel Bars YOU WILL NEED: 2 cups + ¼ cup blanched almond flour ¾ teaspoon celtic sea salt 2 tablespoons + ¼ cup coconut oil 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon water 1 cup raspberry fruit spread 2 tablespoons light agave syrup 1 cup walnuts, chopped ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut DIRECTIONS: 1. Pulse almond flour, sea salt, coconut oil, vanilla and water together in a food processor until dough forms a ball. 2. Press dough into an 8x8” Pyrex baking dish. 3. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes.

4. Spread raspberry fruit spread over warm crust, set aside.

5. For your streusel topping, pulse oil, almond flour, agave, and salt together in a food processor until creamy. 6. Briefly pulse in walnuts and coconut, so they are left coarse, not pulverized.

7. Sprinkle streusel topping over raspberry fruit spread.

These raspberry streusel bars are vegan and glutenfree, not to mention totally delicious!

8. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes.

9. Cool for 10 minutes, then refridgerate for 2 hours to set up. 10. Serve!

tovamag.com | 13

INSPIRED BY

Zadie Smith’s

Martha and Hanwell brings together two of the acclaimed authors’ short stories in one volume, not to mention a killer cover.

TEA TOWEL, $14, surlatable.com

PIGGY BANK, $32, fredflare.com

NECKLACE, $48, anthropologie.com

WALL CLOCK, $65, etsy.com/uncommon

22 | May 2012

illustration by Caitlin Lomen

BOAT SHOES, $78, jcrew.com

DRESS, $44, modcloth.com

WATCH, $74, swatch.com CHAIR, $498, anthropologie.com

PITCHER, $28, mjolk.ca

tovamag.com | 23

Top-ranked cyclist Tina Brubaker takes a fast corner in 2011â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Franz Bakery Criterium in Portland, OR.

ONE THING LED TO ANOTHER Tova chats with Cyclist Tina Brubaker By Heidi Swift Photos by Dave Roth

64 | May 2012

wo years ago on a cold day in January, I found myself on a team ride climbing a steep, quiet road called Old Germantown. Up ahead a very fast, impossibly light Cat 1 climber was pinning a pace that could only be described as obscene. When she reached the top, she would turn around and descend, passing me with a smile on her way to do another repeat so she wouldn’t get cold waiting. I hated her. Next to me, Tina Brubaker rode without sound. She had fallen back to ensure that I did not die without a witness. Brubaker had a calm intuition about my suffering (perhaps because she shared a small part of it) and didn’t pester me with encouragement. The only words that came out of her mouth a few minutes later were, “Look, it’s snowing.” I hadn’t noticed and I didn’t care but I smiled anyway. The tiny climber passed us

Champion, Oregon’s Best All Around Rider (three times), State and National TTT Champion and has won a long list of regional races that is too extensive to mention. Perhaps more impressive than her victories is the sheer volume and diversity of racing that she manages to do. From downhill and Super D to marathon cross-country mountain-biking and cyclocross, she’s got the offroad scene covered. On the pavement it’s road races, crits, omniums, stage races and time trials. Somewhere in between is the West Coast Rapha Gentlemen’s Race which her team, Veloforma, won in 2010. And then there’s track racing… Raised by her grandparents on a goat farm in Scholls, Oregon, Brubaker has the kind of down-to-business work ethic that suits a serious cyclist, but it’s balanced by a personality that owns you from the start. It’s

finish. On Sunday in the downhill race she suffered a mechanical but held on for sixth. She finished fourth overall in the AllMountain World Championships classification. ABOUT FINDING THE BIKE A neighbor of mine randomly invited me on a mountain bike ride one day. I’d never really ridden mountain bikes before but I must have had somewhat of a knack for it because he said, “You need to come with me to our next bike race.” They were doing downhill races at Skibowl. I went up there the following weekend having ridden a mountain bike about three or four times and did a downhill race in tennis shoes, shorts and a tank top. The crowds, the people that were there—I just felt immediately at home. I think I won the beginner’s race at that

“SHE RACES WITH AN URGENCY THAT MAKES YOU THINK SHE NEEDS IT TO SURVIVE, BUT FINISHES WITH A JOYFULLNESS THAT LETS YOU KNOW SHE LOVES IT.”

on her second run to the top. Then Brubaker looked at me, observed the constant stream of drops coming off my nose onto the bars and said, “My god, Heidi. How can you be sweating in this cold?” I smiled again and we were quiet until we reached the top where I worked hard to control my urge to kill the skinny mountain goat girl. After that day, Brubaker called me Waterfall—or sometimes Juicy Fruit when she was feeling frisky. Next to her nicknames—Earthquaker and Rump Shaker to name two—mine seemed a little pitiful, but I accepted them happily. Over the next two years, I had the pleasure of getting to know this little racing firecracker (she is listed in my iPhone as Man Breaker–First name: Man, Last name: Breaker). Though she’ll deny it, Brubaker is a bit of a racing legend in Oregon—and with good reason. During her years in the saddle she’s been a State Cyclocross and Criterium

big. Somehow fittingly, at 5’3”, Brubaker is not. She is also outspoken, straightforward, hilarious, generous, infectiously upbeat and fairly fearless. Her daring may have something to do with a curious childhood hobby: Hungarian-style horse vaulting. Whatever the case, she brings aggression, happiness and intensity to the bike in a way that I’ve not seen from many others. She races with an urgency that makes you think she needs it to survive, but finishes with a joyfulness that lets you know she loves it. I caught up with her last week just before she left for Downieville to chat about preparation for the 2011 West Coast Gentleman’s Race, cyclocross, nicknames, lining up to race with Jeannie Longo and whether or not men of the world should be afraid of a tiny woman named Man Breaker. Two days after this interview Brubaker went to Downieville and hit the podium in the cross-country race with a fourth place

time and I was so excited. I just did downhill races that summer and I was really no good —I was just thrashing around out there. I could barely ride gravel. ON GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT HAVING FUN One thing led to another and I eventually started racing ‘cross for Fat Tire Farm in Portland… in the 90’s there were very few women and they wanted to get more women into the sport so they asked me to ride for the shop. That was a huge honor at the time. Rich Slingsby was running Fat Tire farm and when he asked me to wear their jersey it changed my entire focus of riding. It immediately clicked from “this is for fun” to “wow, this is serious business” because I was representing someone and that meant a lot to me —I wanted to do well. Their whole approach was always “go have fun out there, Tina… don’t worry about results.” so I was kind of brought into cycling with that mentality. tovamag.com | 65

HOOKED Downhill led to cyclocross which led to cross-country mountain biking… then I started road racing. One thing just kind of led to the next and it became one big spiral. Every facet of cycling I’ve ever tried I’ve loved incredibly for different reasons. Cyclocross always has a special place in my heart because I just love the energy. But when I go out riding mountain bikes on single track and it smells like pine needles I couldn’t think of loving anything more. Same goes for road racing and we’re all in a paceline and it’s so efficient and fun and fast… I love them all. It gets sweeter as the years progress. ON TRAINING I have a lot of miles in my legs, a lot of years of fitness, so base miles are something I only do for a short part of the season, early on typically. Once I get into race season, I just race into fitness. Frankly for me, no matter what kind of training rides I do, I always go harder in a race scenario so I use it as my intensity training. For me it’s very hard to go out alone on a bike and just watch a power meter or watch a heart rate monitor and do efforts. I just do better when I have the race carrot. I don’t have a strict training regimen like a lot of people do. If I’m feeling like I need to get a hard effort in, I’ll go ride with people that are faster than me. That’s always what I recommend to people. If you want to get faster then you have to ride with people who are faster, you have to be pushing yourself all the time. I’ve never had a coach but I’ve solicited the advice of a lot of people whom I consider some of the best in the sport. Certainly I ask a lot of questions, I read a lot, I process a lot of data and I’m always looking at things like that. I’ve only ridden with a power meter once and I think it was interesting to

see the numbers… those tools are critical to people who are getting paid to ride, but I’m just doing it for fun and those things aren’t that crucial to me. I just like to ride my bike. ON WINNING THE 2010 RAPHA RACE The most trying part of that day was discovering at mile 10 that we had one person who was significantly less fit than the rest of the group and immediately realizing that we had a problem. The unique thing that the Rapha race presents is trying to mesh six different personalities and have everybody maintain a level of stability when you’re being pushed beyond what your known physical capacities are. We had people cramping, as did everybody that day because of the heat, and here we were on a lot of the climbs pushing bikes for girls who couldn’t ride and walking up things—fixing flats and just mentally losing our marbles—thinking we were last. There was no one around us, no one in sight - we really had no clue what was happening. We were like, “Did they stop the race? Where is everybody? Why hasn’t anyone passed us?” Little did we know that everyone else was having the same amount of catastrophic failures as we were. So it was completely shocking when we got to the first checkpoint and they told us we were the first team through. We just looked at each other like “this is not possible”. Once we heard that, immediately we got an injection of adrenaline. We got this new rush of excitement, everyone started screaming. I have this tendency to go into military mode and start barking out commands. The one thing I kept telling everyone on that ride was that they just have to keep moving forward. I don’t care how slow you’re going—you just keep walking or you keep riding or whatever—you just keep moving, nobody stops because once you quit in your

head it’s over,you’re done. Really, as every year has shown, it just takes teamwork. You yell at each other like sisters and curse and have moments of joy but there’s no other race—even road races —that you do where you have to take 6 and finish with 6 and meld all those abilities together and try to gel it together into this unit. It’s trying - and I think that’s what the appeal is. It makes people work together. Preparing for the 2011 Gentlemen’s Race Our biggest challenge this year is trying to select six riders because we have a lot of talent on our team and knowing which six will be the most efficient together, who’s got the fitness and who’s got the ability to put in the training time. Not only that, but riding gravel for hours at a time takes a certain amount of finesse to not flat or flat minimally. Right now everyone is training. A couple of our girls are going to race Cascade Classic Stage Race and I think that will be a checkmark in their training box. I think we’re also going to pick one or two girls that are new this year who haven’t done the race before and that’s going to present a whole other set of variables. At some point you don’t know how people are going to react in certain situations. It adds a new element of challenge and I think that’s what it’s all about. I’m most focused right now on Super D’s and crits and all kinds of other short, 45 minute races. I like to call it having a lot of critness, not fitness, and I have a lot of it right now. It can be hard to put in the long rides [in preparation for the Rapha event] when most of my events are just 45 minutes races but they’re big efforts, they’re all out. I know that the base fitness is there. I’ve got my favorite gravel climbs that I do here at home and I try to get one or two 5 hour rides per week when I can.

“I love the ability to watch everybody suffering so deeply and the fact that we all know exactly how everybody is feeling because we’ve all either just done it or are about to do it.” 66 | May 2012

LINING UP WITH LONGO, LIVING THE DREAM For me, racing is just about being the best me I can be and bettering myself. I try not to gauge myself against other people. I think the year that I got to line up with Jeannie Longo at the Mount Hood Cycling Classic was one of my proudest moments. She was my 30-second person in the TT and I think Kristen Armstrong was 30 seconds in front of me and I remember thinking, “I have arrived. I don’t have to do anything else on my bike ever again and it will be ok.” I’ve done so much more with bikes than I could have ever remotely dreamed - traveling and touring all over Europe and New Zealand and even just touring up around the Mt Adams wilderness area. Every year it keeps evolving into something more than I could have thought. It is pretty amazing when you are actually living your dream— and I think that I am. ON WOMEN AND RACING I’m glad we get to talk about this because this is one thing that’s really close to my heart. When I started and there weren’t very women around I would think, “Man, how can they not love this? It’s such an amazing thing, it gives you such independence, it’s such a feeling of accomplishment.” I want to get more women into racing, so I always suggest to women to try it, to see if it works for them. You might not enjoy that nervous energy you get before a race, it might not work for you. But if you’re a little afraid, that’s good. You should be. You’re challenging yourself mentally and physically but, you know, isn’t that what life’s all about?

Above: Brubaker tackles a technical ‘Cross course, Below: Crossing the line first at Kruger’s Kermesse.

I still get nervous when I race on the track at Alpenrose, it’s scary to me. No brakes, women all around me that are twice my size trying to fight for a wheel… and it’s fast! So fast! I love the track, don’t get me wrong, because I love that nervous jittery feeling that I get with it because it doesn’t happen a ton for me anymore. ON BUILDING COMMUNITY I want women to feel comfortable in this cycling community and I think Oregon has a fantastic group of women, we all want to help each other. It’s the same core group of women every Saturday lining up to race each other - you’d better like each other or be somewhat kind to each other. Not that I’m saying that when the start gun goes off we’re not all racing as aggressively as we can. We are. I think fostering growth and helping new riders is what we’re obligated to do. And yes, I say obligated because it’s the future of our sport. And look at what it’s become now, it’s so much more than it ever was and it’s exciting! When I do clinics or when I’m teaching beginner road racing or cross clinics, the women come and they’re a little nervous. You want to share the enthusiasm with them and let them see what a wonderful opportunity it is not just to push yourself physically but to meet a whole other group of rad women that are like-minded and have the same passion. There is a bond that grows. It’s a very difficult thing to put into words. OVERCOMING BARRIERS I think with road racing women might be fearful of pack etiquette or doing something wrong or not knowing what’s appropriate.

There are so many fantastic women’s teams now, bike shops, clinics, coaching and things that are being offered that never used to be available, people just have to tap their toe in the water. I think it’s much more approachable than it used to be. ON CYCLOCROSS I’ve always loved it. It’s wholly different from mountain bike racing because it’s so interactive, you can see almost the whole loop, you can cheer for your friends. It’s also short, it’s not like you’re committed to an 8-hour day to go race your bike. It’s fun to rip around in the mud flying sideways on corners and screaming at your friends. I love the ability to watch everybody suffering so deeply and the fact that we all know exactly how everybody is feeling because we’ve all either just done it or are about to do it. I used to bring girlfriends with me to cross races to watch and invariably they would leave saying, “I have to do this! This is so fun!” It’s such a contagious energy - you can’t help but get pumped when you’re there. LET’S TALK ABOUT NICKNAMES We don’t need to talk about nicknames… I think Man Breaker was a dirtier version of EarthQuaker. They’re all deviations of Brubaker, obviously. I always like to think that EarthQuaker came from my sprinting prowess. Rump Shaker was from either Carl (Decker, her boyfriend of a little over a year) or Quick Draw (Laura, a teammate). I don’t know what they say about me, that I have a really big ass?

tovamag.com | 67

in this issue: SAN DIEGO CITY GUIDE

TINA BRUBAKER, CYCLIST RECIPES GALORE SUMMER SKIN DESIGNER ERIN STOCKDALE