If there’s anything better than going on a bike ride on a gorgeous sunny day, it’s going on bike rides between parks to do yoga on a gorgeous sunny day with 60 other happy pracititioners. And if there’s anything better than that, it’s a convergence with a hundred proud Scandiniavians and their allies riding around in very short shorts.
We’ve written about the bike-yoga connection before — and that was the thinking behind the Yoga to Bike to Yoga ride on Wednesday night, organized and instructed by Tasha Danner of Southeast Portland’s Bhaktishop yoga studio.
The well-attended ride went to four parks, with a yoga session in each one. I joined the ride for the first two stops, and took some photos of the participants — folks of all ages and all levels, wearing everything from street clothes to specialized yoga gear.
I left the riders doing partners yoga in Laurelhurst and headed to Piccolo Park, where 20 folks were enjoying a picnic of lefse, aquavit, ginger cookies, and other Scandinavian delights in advance of the Short Shorts Scandinavian Pride Ride. Within half an hour, the numbers had grown substantially, with all manner of shortness of shorts and proud signifiers of Scandinavian heritage, vacations, and fan-dom.
Shortly thereafter there was a tumult as the Yoga Riders rolled up — Piccolo Park was their final stop for a potluck picnic. After some boisterous and not entirely successful intermingling (“Our Scandinavian reserve prevents us from joining you for yoga in our extremely short shorts” deadpanned one rider as a man with a “Yoga!” flag ran through the crowd drumming up recruits), they stopped for a final yoga session, after which several adventurous souls rolled their workout pants up high and joined the flow of riders leaving the park.
Carye Bye organized this ride after seeing a friend show up to another event in short shorts and a giant Danish sweater. The combination may seem counterintuitive, but the 100 (!) people who showed up really got into the spirit. There was a happy, friendly vibe as the crowd of riders streamed at a leisurely pace through the alleys of Ladds Addition and past bemused restaurant patrons on Clinton Street, cheerfully calling “Who wears short shorts? We wear short shorts!”
The ride reportedly ended up at happy hour at the bar Norse Hall, where many toasts were enjoyed.
Here are my captioned photos of the Shorts/Scandinavian ride (including the onslaught of the yogini at the end). Or check out the slideshow below:
Is there a NAME for the Yoga that is BICYCLIST orientated please?
1,000,000 thanks!