Quick Release

www.sbbike.org Serving Santa Barbara County We’re a countywide advocacy and resource organization that promotes bicycling for safe transportation and recreation.

How to reach us Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition PO Box 92047 Santa Barbara CA 93190-2047 phone 962-1479 email info@sbbike.org web www.sbbike.org facebook www.facebook.com/sbbicycle

January 5th meeting Join us for our general meeting: Tuesday, January 5th Cody’s Cafe 4898 Hollister Avenue, Goleta No-host dinner 6:00 PM Meeting 7:00 PM

Online email list We sponsor a free online email forum where you can post and read messages about regional bicycling issues. To subscribe, send an email to:

Coalition hires Education Coordinator Our Bicycle Coalition and the Bici Centro community bike project have jointly hired Christine Bourgeois to coordinate our bicycling education activities for youth and adults. She writes, “Parents want their children to be active, stay healthy, learn new skills, be independent, protect the environment, be responsible, and have fun. Riding a bicycle covers all those priorities and more.”

Three schools (Santa Barbara Junior High, Washington School and Hope School) have already signed up for new after school bike programs starting this month. Other ongoing programs include: g Junior Cyclers. For grades 1-3, riding skills, games, and rules of the road. g Super Cyclers. For grades 4-6, consisting of bike handling skills, rules of the road, traffic awareness, and neighborhood rides. g Pedal Power. Junior high students earn bikes while learning bike mechanics and safe riding around Santa Barbara.

Christine Bourgeois. g Street Skills for Cyclists. This 10-hour workshop is offered for those 16 and older every other month. See box at the left.

Street Skills Class Jan 21st & 23rd g Learn Your Bike. This is an eight-week program at Bici Centro for learning basic bike repair.

Our November class filled up with 15 participants. g Consider taking our January 10-hour confidence Mechanics Modules. These are single-evening bike building class that consists of learning tricks for repair sessions at Bici Centro. safe biking in urban areas, then going on the road Volunteers are welcome to help with many of the to practice them. Spread the word to your friends, programs. If you can help, want a program for your relatives, and others who might benefit. Details and organization, or just want to share ideas, contact registration at www.sbbike.org/skills/apply.html.

Christine at cbarreb@gmail.com or 699-6301.

sbbike-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Santa Barbara area featured in Bicycling magazine

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Join our Coalition You can help improve bicycling safety and conditions in Santa Barbara County by joining others in our bicycling advocacy group. See page 6.

Street Skills program The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition offers Street Skills for Cyclists classes. Details at www.sbbike.org/skills/apply. html, or email coordinators at CycleSmart@sbbike.org.

Bici Centro program Bici Centro of Santa Barbara is our community bicycle program, helping people who bicycle. Look at www.sbbike. org/bici/BiciCentro.html, or phone 617-3255.

Quick Release is published monthly by the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, PO Box 92047, Santa Barbara, CA 93190. Subscribe for $25 per year. Issue # 219.

January 2010

Each issue of Bicycling, the country’s dominant bicycling magazine, features an excellent city or area for biking. In their January issue, they selected the Santa Barbara area and published the one-page article shown on the right.

Story writer Kristy Holland gathered information from Ralph Fertig, Chris Orr, Mike Hecker, Bruce Davis, Laura Kath and other locals. She described three prominent rides that cyclists can take—Gibraltar Road, Romero Canyon, and Figueroa Mountain Road. In addition, she reported seven “Best of Santa Barbara” things to do: Healthy food—Natural Cafe Beer o’clock fun—Brewhouse g Winery adventure—Cloud Climbers Wine Tour g Caffeine jolt—Santa Barbara Roasting Company g Insider advice—Hazard’s Cyclesport g Sand in your shorts—East Beach g Reason to return—Solvang Century g g

Bicycling magazine has 2.1 million readers, and its website www.bicycling.com has 550,000 unique visitors each month. This exposure will doubtlessly enhance our reputation as a cycling destination, and attract others here, feeding dollars into our economy and healthy activities onto our roads.

Amérique à Vélo features Santa Barbara ride

We’re on Facebook !

Facebook, started in 2004, is the largest online social networking site with 350 million users. Our Bicycle Coalition has established a Facebook page in order to complement our website, meetings and email services.

Thanks to work by Paolo Gardinali, we now have a site and invite all bike people who have a Facebook presence to become our fans. Go to and sign up at: www.facebook.com/sbbicycle.

If you’re not part of the Facebook experience, you can sign up for free at www. facebook.com. We hope you’ll join the Bicycle Coalition’s group, and share your thoughts about regional bike activities and people.

If you saw a van with cameras sticking out of the side and rear followed by a group of cyclists on November 28th, you saw the Swan Productions truck filming for Canadian TV. They came from Montreal to shoot a network segment on bicycling in Santa Barbara. It will be in one of 13 hour-long episodes of an upcoming series Riders from Santa Barbara join Yvan Martineau and the Swan Productions team L’Amérique à Vélo before filming their ride. that will be broadcast on the French-language Evasion network tain Drive, then past the Mission and back next April 6th through July 5th. down State Street to the Fountain.

The documentary production company The crew was delighted with the vistas came here with avid cyclist and TV host from Mountain Drive, and very pleased at Yvan Martineau who chatted into a microthe 15 or so local cyclists who accepted phone about what he was seeing during their invitation to ride along with Yvan. the ride. The route was laid out by Santa Evasion is a subscription-only network Barbara Bicycle Coalition’s Ralph Fertig to for travel, tourism, and adventure. It curshowcase our area to Canadian tourists. It rently has 1.85 million viewers, a 25% went from Santa Barbara’s Dolphin Founincrease over 2008. We hope that many of tain, along East Beach, up Hot Springs and them will be inspired to visit and enjoy our San Ysidro in Montecito, west along Moungreat cycling opportunities.

Wet Willy Sez Dear Wet Willy: I’ve seen you with loaded pannier bags on your bike and I’ve seen you pulling a loaded BOB trailer with an unloaded bike. So, based on your experience, what is the better way to haul a load? — Gabby Dear Gabby: For me, the pannier/trailer decision depends on (1) what is being hauled and (2) where is it going. Most trailers can carry items that won’t fit into panniers, and the load weight will usually ride lower in a trailer too. This is important when transporting a bunch of heavy stuff like groceries and a case of soft drinks (or whatever).

Trailers can also be readily attached to bikes that have no fittings for conventional pannier racks, like most racing bikes and full suspension mountain bikes, and the trailer wheel carries a portion of the load rather than all of it being placed on the bike. However, some cyclists have experienced downhill bike handling difficulties with trailers attached, so the BOB trailer has a maximum speed limit of 25 MPH and the Nashbar clone specifies 17 MPH. Downhill speed is probably not an issue when haulQuick Release ~ January 2010 ~ Page 2

by Wilson Hubbell

ing groceries from the store, but it could be significant on a long tour.

Most casual cyclists and many touring cyclists don’t need all the space that a trailer can provide, and just transporting a rider, bike, touring gear and trailer to and from a tour can be a problem—particularly if there is an airline involved. Channing Hammond at Old Man Mountain makes pannier racks here in Santa Barbara that will fit any bike, including recumbents and full suspension mountain bikes, so no bikie is forced to buy a trailer because panniers won’t fit.

The bottom line? I really like my trailer and regularly use it for local chores, but panniers tend to work best for me around town and on long distance road tours.

Santa Barbara Car Free 2010 program SB Car Free announced a program that offers discounts on rooms, restaurants and more to visitors who show up by bike. Or alternately, they can get a 20% discount on Amtrak trains coming to Santa Barbara, roll bikes onto Surfliner cars, and still get the other discounts. www.santabarbaracarfree.org.

Our Bicycle Coalition’s 2009 accomplishments

by Ralph Fertig

Each day, week and month, I see our Bicycle Coalition working hard on many projects throughout Santa Barbara county.

However, it always seems that there is much more to do, more places to ride, more bike events to participate in, more meetings in which to speak out for our interests. So it comes as a heart-warming experience when at the end of each year I compile a list of what we did. We accomplished so much! Here is a sample of how we, with your support and actions, made our home community a better, more fun and safer place to bike: g

Launched plans for a whole month of bicycle activities called Cycle MAYnia.

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Spoke out for retaining BMX facilities at Elings Park.

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Asked Caltrans to fund the Goleta slough bridge resurfacing, and new bike racks for UCSB.

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Analyzed new 2008 Census Bureau data that documented an increase in bike commuting for both Santa Barbara and Santa Maria since 1990.

Worked with the Contemporary Arts Forum to put on the “Aeolian Ride” of costumed bicyclists in Santa Barbara.

Offered six successful Street Skills for Cyclists classes.

We advocated for no parking on the newly-widened section of Foothill Road, west of Mission Canyon in the county. Limited parking was later permitted on a trial basis.

Teamed with COAST, Traffic Solutions, the Community Environmental Council and others to promote biking to school through the “Walk & Roll” program, as well as through a “Bicycle Ambassador” program that promotes biking in general.

Met with Caltrans’ new district bicycle person, Adam Fukushima, and gave him a bike tour of the Santa Barbara area.

Cycle MAYnia event

by Ed France

For those of you who made it out on December 3rd, big thanks. We hosted a fabulous fund raiser for Cycle MAYnia and put out a very strong art event amongst the others from First Thursdays. I’d like to thank all those who volunteered (Matt, Lori, Kent, Christa, Kevin, WheelHouse crew and others), Telegraph Brewery for some fantastic California ale, Mark Grieve for offering art for sale as a benefit as well as the memorializing “bubble” wheel arch for the event itself, the IV Food Coop for coming all the way down to bring us yummy appetizers, and the riders from the Sustainable Living Bike Tour.

We had 80 riders on the evening Bike Moves ride, and easily twice that number attending the event beforehand at WheelHouse. We put out a sophisticated, yet goofy, fun energy out on an otherwise cold December night. We don’t yet have a final tally on the income earned from the benefit, but we know that we raised at least $750!

SB history on website

Worked with Team Tailwinds, Cycle Star, and Main Street Cycles to buy “Share the Road— Save a Life” stickers for North County distribution.

Worked through Bici Centro to offer valet bike parking at Santa Barbara Bowl concerts.

Coordinated a Santa Barbara bike ride with Montreal’s Swan Productions that will result in promotion of our area in a segment for the Evision network’s “Amérique à Vélo” series.

Conducted another bicyclist count in Santa Barbara, resulting in 3861 bicyclists passing through 25 intersections. It showed a 16% increase over the average of the prior 4 counts.

We succeeded in adding the Santa Ynez River Trail as an “action item” appended to the Santa Ynez Valley Community Plan.

We advocated for improving bicyclist safety near Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara by making Bath and Castillo Streets one-way with new bikelanes along three extra blocks each.

Discussed bicyclist safety at a UCSB workshop concerned with cyclist-pedestrian-motorist conflicts along their proposed Ocean Road housing development.

Advocated for Carpinteria bikelanes on proposed bridges and a new bikepath along Carpinteria Creek above the high-water marks.

Worked with Caltrans for a safer intersection at Highway 246 and Purisima Road near Lompoc. The roundabout will slow traffic to cyclist speeds and include a separate outside path.

Sent representatives Ed France and Ralph Fertig to the LA Bike Summit in March.

Worked with Santa Barbara’s Parks & Recreation department to offer summer clinics in road safety and mountain bike skills for young people.

Strongly urged Santa Barbara to improve our safety at the intersection of State and De la Vina at two public meetings. The City Council sent it back to Public Works for further study.

Had booths at many events to tell people about bicycling, including Earth Day, Bike to Work Day at UCSB and Santa Barbara, Citrix Online’s “Online of Wheels” event, and Thomas Friedman’s talk.

Our Bici Centro program expanded opportunities for youth, Spanish-speaking people, shop volunteers, and the general public. Hands-on workshops attracted adults and young people.

This is a vintage postcard used to illustrate the history of Santa Barbara. It shows Fiesta dancing at the Courthouse lawn.

A brief history of the Santa Barbara area is now on the Bicycle Coalition’s website, with vintage postcards from Ralph Fertig’s collection. It was written for the participants’ Program Guide at the Pro Bike/Pro Walk 1998 conference that we hosted in Santa Barbara, attracting over 500 people to our community. Read it at: www.sbbike.org/region/history.html.

Lance Armstrong’s SB tweets December 18th, Santa Barbara: Well that was rockin’! 750 books in an hour! Thanks to you all for coming out. Love this town.

December 19th, Figueroa Mountain: Epic ride, 115 miles, 6.5 hrs, 10k ft climbing. Sunny and 70 most of the day til we finished in the dark.

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January bike events and meetings January can be a time of pouring rain or brilliant cool bike days. Our website has ongoing updates, more event details, and live links at www.sbbike.org/meet/meet.html.

January 5, Bicycle Coalition General Meeting, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition. This is another evening meeting, Cody’s Cafe, 4898 Hollister Avenue, Santa Barbara. Nohost dinner 6:00 PM, meeting 7:00 PM.

Lompoc “Dirtbags” bring wheels to 100 kids Since 2006, the Village Dirtbags mountain bike club has worked with Steve Miller at the Bicycles Unlimited bike shop to bring bikes to children. On December 19th, they gave over 100 bikes to deserving kids from Lompoc and Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Earlier this year when club members were

January 7, Bike Moves, unsponsored happening. Join Santa Barbara’s First Thursday events with an easygoing ride that obeys traffic laws. Meet at the WheelHouse at 7:30 PM, 528 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara.

Over 100 needy children received new bicycles in Lompoc.

January 11-March 1, Learn Your Bike Adult Class, sponsored by Bici Centro. This is an eight-week class which focuses on in-depth troubleshooting and diagnosis of bicycle repairs. Mondays 7:00-9:00 PM. 601 E. Montecito Street, Santa Barbara.

January 17-20, Women’s Winter Bicycle & Spa Tour Package, sponsored by Santa Barbara Wine Country Cycling Tours. Includes Santa Ynez hotel, bike & helmet, rides each day, sag support, spa treatment, most meals, pick up from Santa Barbara airport.

January 21 and 23, Street Skills for Cyclists Class, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition.

Learn how to cope better with traffic in an urban setting. At the Granada Garage Bikestation, 1219 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara.

January 26, COAST General Meeting, sponsored by the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation. Meeting at noon, Community Room at the Santa Barbara Bank and Trust building, 1021 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara.

January 26, Bicycle Coalition Board Meeting, sponsored by our Bicycle Coalition. This meeting for our Board members and Advisors will take place at Dave Bourgeois’ home, 7:00 PM. January 30, Family Bike Trip: Butterfly Preserve, sponsored by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The ride starts from Goleta Beach or Isla Vista School. For those 8 years and older.

January 30, Poor College Kid’s Road Race, sponsored by UCSB Cycling. This race starts on Zaca Station Road north of Buellton. It’s a 17-mile out and back race on quiet country roads with rolling hills.

January 31, Mothballs Criterium, sponsored

by Echelon Santa Barbara. Races are held along a 0.65-mile Goleta loop course. Information at www.echelonsantabarbara.org.

Quick Release ~ January 2010 ~ Page 4

Vietnam veteran Jim Daniels received one of the three hand-cranked bikes.

UPS delivers by bike After trial bike delivery during the holiday season in 2007, and an expansion in 2008, UPS delivery by bicycle has come to our Santa Barbara region. They used eight bikepulled carts that can carry about 20 packages per trip. Not only does it take trucks off the roads and eliminates air pollution, but it provides exercise and, not incidentally, saves UPS about $13,000 per bike deployed.

In the South Coast area, UPS bike delivery started in October and ran though December. Although it’s only for their seasonal workers, perhaps UPS and other delivery services will expand the service and become environmentally responsible year round.

Bici Centro hours Our Bici Centro community bike program is expanding their services. Below are hours for various groups. Info at www.bicicentro.org or phone 617-3255. g Monday, youth only, 3:30-6:00 PM g Monday, “Learn Your Bike” classes, 7:009:00 PM g Tuesday, volunteers only, 5:00-9:00 PM g Wednesday, Spanish-speaking only, 4:007:00 PM g Thursday, open shop 4:00-7:00 PM g Friday, Mechanics Modules, 6:00-8:00 PM g Saturday, open shop 1:00-7:00 PM

talking after a ride, they began thinking of injured war veterans. It ended up with buying three hand-cranked trikes manufactured

by Tim Brummer at Lightning Cycle Dynamics in Lompoc. Dirtbags founding member Roger McConnell said it’s their way of thanking not only the folks at Vandenberg, but also those who have suffered defending our freedoms. Read about the bike club at http://villagedirtbags.com.

Coalition requests new UCSB bike racks

Students next to the Music Building search for parking among hundreds of other bicycles.

Our Bicycle Coalition urged Caltrans to fund needed bike racks for UCSB as part of California’s Bicycle Transportation Account.

We wrote on November 27th, saying, “About 42% of students, staff and faculty choose the bicycle to access and move around the large campus. This means that 10,000+ bicycles need short term storage every school day.” We noted that the University is growing, and new students will increase demand that already outstrips current supply. The University is requesting racks for 2000 bikes, to be installed at Davidson Library, Music, Snidecor Hall, and Harder Stadium.

We thank our active members

Please thank and support these Bicycle Coalition business members: g Bicycle Bob’s, Santa Barbara g Nett & Champion Insurance Services, Santa Barbara g Pedal Power Bicycles, Santa Maria g Dr J’s Bicycle Shop, Solvang g Hazard’s Cyclesport, Santa Barbara g Chris King Precision Components, Portland, Oregon g Santa Barbara Pedicabs, Santa Barbara g Santa Barbara Bike Repair, Santa Barbara g WheelHouse, Santa Barbara g Santa Barbara Bikes To-Go, Santa Barbara g Tailwinds Bicycle Club, Santa Maria We welcome new members: Betsy Weber and Tailwinds Bicycle Club. Plus, we appreciate those who renewed their memberships: Marcia & Otto Engelmann, Steve Morris, Dottie McLaren, Richard Lambert, Lee & Anita Carter, Woody Wilde, Robert Rainwater and Brigitta van der Raay.

Kids & Bikes delivers 650 bicycles Goleta businessman Lou Ventura has, since 2004, organized bike purchases for needy children through South Coast charities.

This year, Ventura and his nonprofit Kids and Bikes About 400 volunteers turned out to assemble the 650 Foundation man- bikes in Goleta on December 5th. aged to bring 650 bicycles to local kids. Bikes, he says, give today’s kids the freedom and independence that many of us discovered after past Christmases. New this year are 650 helmets that accompanied the bikes.

They were donated by Citrix Online, and the Santa Barbara city and county fire departments. We’re hoping that in the future, bike safety education can be added. Learn more at www.kidsnbikes.org.

Don Lubach leaves our Board

Don Lubach, smiling as usual.

Don Lubach has served on our Bicycle Coalition Board of Directors since February 2004. He has brought an enthusiasm and experience that have helped shape our course of success. Although he resigned last month, he promises to keep biking to work at UCSB, and to encourage others to choose the bicycle whenever possible. We thank him for his great contribution.

December Coalition meeting topics Our December 1st monthly Bicycle Coalition meeting was held at noon in Downtown Santa Barbara, with 17 participants talking about these topics: g Thomas Matthias reported that the November Street Skills class was a success, attracting a record 15 participants. g Ralph Fertig described the Swan Productions TV crew’s successful bike ride with local cyclists, to be aired next spring on the Frenchlanguage Evasion network.

Lori La Riva said that Traffic Solutions is going to reprint the Santa Barbara County Bike Map in early 2010. There will be a workshop to gather suggested changes some time in January.

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Ed France reported that the committee to select an Education Coordinator considered 5 applicants, and they expected to announce the result soon.

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Opportunities to create events for Cycle MAYnia are ongoing. Traffic Solutions is offering mini-grants to help individuals or groups organize them.

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The annual Santa Barbara Holiday Bike Ride will take place on December 19th. All are welcome. Bring cheer.

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Quick Release accepts advertisements. Circulation reaches about 500 people. Ad details and an order form are available online at www.sbbike.org/QR/ad.pdf .

Sarah Grant reminded people of the educational “webinars” each month. The next one, on December 16th, is about health and bikes.

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Quick Release ~ January 2010 ~ Page 5

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Application for Membership Yes! I want to help make bicycling better for all of us in Santa Barbara County. ❏ Individual, 1 year $25 ❏ Student/Senior, 1 year $12 ❏ Household, 1 year $40 ❏ Individual, 2 years $45 ❏ Student/Senior, 2 years $22 ❏ Household, 2 years $75 ❏ Business, 1 year $100 ❏ Business, 2 years $180 ❏ Lifetime $1000 name _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ address _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ city, state, zip _______________________________________________________________________________________________ phone ___________________________________ email _____________________________________________________________ ❏ New membership ❏ Renewal membership ❏ Email me Adobe PDF files of Quick Release newsletters instead of printed ones.

Make payable to Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition. Mail to Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, PO Box 92047,

Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition President, Ralph Fertig, 962-1479 sb-ralph@cox.net Vice President, Wilson Hubbell, 683-1240 wilsonhubbell@aol.com Secretary, Mark McClure, 967-5031 mcclure606@yahoo.com Treasurer, David Bourgeois, 899-3728 daveb@alumni.caltech.edu Director, Judy Keim, 687-2912 jkpedpad@aol.com Director, Ed France, 617-3255 edfrance@bicicentro.org Director, Michael Chiacos, 284-4179 mchiacos@cecmail.org Director, Erika Lindemann, 569-1544 eglindemann@gmail.com

Advisor, Dru van Hengel, 564-5544 dvanhengel@SantaBarbaraCA.gov Advisor, Matt Dobberteen, 568-3000 matt@cosbpw.net Advisor, Lori La Riva, 961-8919 llariva@sbcag.org

Road repair contacts

Caltrans www.dot.ca.gov/maintform.html Carpinteria Charlie Ebeling, 684-5405 x402 cebeling@ci.carpinteria.ca.us Goleta Bob Morgenstern, 968-6869 morgenstern@cityofgoleta.org Lompoc Larry Bean, 736-1261

l_bean@ci.lompoc.ca.us Santa Barbara City Dru van Hengel, 564-5544 dvanhengel@SantaBarbaraCA.gov Santa Barbara County Matt Dobberteen, 568-3576 matt@cosbpw.net Santa Maria David Whitehead, 925-0951 x227 dwhitehead@ci.santa-maria.ca.us Solvang Brad Vigro, 688-5575 bradv@cityofsolvang.com UCSB Dennis Whelan, 893-7009 dennis.whelan@planning.ucsb.edu

Member discounts Bicycle Coalition members benefit from discounts. It’s another reason to join. To get your discount at a shop, take your copy of Quick Release to the shop and show them your address label or cut out the label box and take it. Discount details are online at www.sbbike.org/SBBC/who.html.

Bicycle Bob’s 250 Storke Road #A, Goleta 15 Hitchcock Way, Santa Barbara Bicycle Connection 223 W. Ocean Avenue, Lompoc Hazard’s Cyclesport 110 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara Lighthouse Bicycles, Santa Ynez phone 688-6385 Main Street Cycles 311 East Main Street, Santa Maria Open Air Bicycles 1303 State Street, Santa Barbara Pedal Power Bicycles 1740 Broadway, Santa Maria True Flight Cycle Works 416 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara VeloPro Cyclery 633 State Street, Santa Barbara 5887 Hollister Avenue, Goleta Momentum Magazine, save $5 www.momentumplanet.com/ node/4258.