July 2024

Shreds with the best of them

Life at the Lab

Gary Tham

Optical fabrication technician, Laser Systems Engineering Operations,
NIF & Photon Science

Learn about NIF & Photon Science at the Lab

“I saw the opening at the Lab, and it looked like a great opportunity. I had never made optics before, but I had a ton of experience in manufacturing, and I figured that I could produce optical components. I had grown a little tired of the turnover of jobs in Silicon Valley. It also didn’t hurt that I got to reduce my commute from two hours each way to five minutes each way. I think in general that it’s exciting to work on cutting-edge technology for fusion ignition. Not only do I refurbish optics for NIF, but I also fabricate optics for laser systems around the Laboratory.”

On a recent afternoon, Tham uses his skills on the downhill at Pleasanton Ridge. During the pandemic, Tham decided to return to mountain biking. (Photos: Blaise Douros/LLNL).

Early on during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, LLNL’s Gary Tham hit upon a bright silver lining amidst the cloud of the rampant disease.

After a more than 25-year hiatus from a sport he had pursued in his younger days and had grown to love, Tham decided that it was time to go back to mountain biking.        

Now in his late 50s and an optical fabrication technician at the National Ignition Facility, Tham was introduced to mountain biking by his roommate at San Jose State University in the late 1980s.        

He enjoyed the sport for about five years, from 1988 to 1993, until he traded in his mountain bike for family interests and golf clubs, partly because several of his fellow bikers had stopped, too.

“The freedom of the outdoors and the exhilaration of mountain biking had both appealed to me when I took up the sport,” he says.

By 2020, Tham hadn’t gone mountain biking for about 27 years and his bike sat in his garage gathering dust. But as the fall came, Tham decided to resume mountain biking again, in large measure because of the pandemic.

After a more than 25-year hiatus from mountain biking, Tham resumed the sport in the fall of 2020 – and has been riding strong ever since.

“I had continued to golf during COVID because golfing was allowed in California,” he says. “As a result, the golf courses were flooded with people who wanted to golf and, consequently, the golf courses started hiking their fees.

“I thought, ‘how can I get outside and enjoy myself?’ I recalled that I used to go mountain biking when I was younger and that I could just dust off my bike and get going again. So, that’s exactly what I did.”

One of the things that Tham noticed when he returned to mountain biking in the fall of 2020 was that there were not not only more trails but more technical and diverse ones.   

After enjoying rides on his old bike from the 1990s, he purchased a new modern bike to take on the more challenging trails. Supply chain shortages in the U.S. led him to search for bicycles in the United Kingdom. It was easier, more available and cheaper to buy a bike from the UK, so he purchased a Nukeproof Scout from Ireland.

“It’s amazing,” he says. “Mountain biking was in its infancy when I started. While I was golfing, the sport was progressing.”

One Saturday in 2021, as Tham was mountain biking in the El Corte de Madera Open Space Preserve near Half Moon Bay, he pulled into a rest stop. There, he came upon a group of 10 other mountain bikers, one of whom had a Nukeproof bike, manufactured by a now-defunct Irish company.

It’s the same brand of mountain bike that Tham has and it’s rare to find one on the West Coast. Tham started talking with members of the group and soon was invited to join them on future rides.

All systems are a go for Tham as he bounds over a log.

Now, three years later, Tham has joined the group of Bay Area mountain bikers on nearly 150 different rides. The riding group has about 15 members with about six to seven core members.

“It’s been fun,” Tham says. “There’s been a lot of group camaraderie. We look out for each other and make sure that everybody has a good and safe ride. Mountain bike riding by yourself is enjoyable, but, it’s even better riding with a group and with people who have become your friends through the years.”    

The group’s mountain biking adventures have taken them to Downieville, Santa Cruz, Soquel, Half Moon Bay, Fairfax, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Fairfield, Napa and Pacifica, where they have ridden on single and double black diamond trails, such as the Triple X, The Crack, The Mile and the University of California, Santa Cruz steeps.

Tham usually goes out biking one to two times per week, except in the summer when he hits the hills and mountains a little more often. Locally, he bikes at Brushy Peak in Livermore and does 10-mile trips at the Pleasanton Ridge and Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland hills.

Tham also volunteers with Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, an organization that maintains and builds new trails in the Santa Cruz area. “It’s paying back for using the trails,” he says.  “It’s a great feeling knowing you are maintaining the trails for the enjoyment of the entire mountain biking community.”

In its essence, mountain biking consists of riding on trails in the hills on a rugged bicycle. While it can be extreme, it doesn’t have to be.

Tham has only competed in two competitive races – the Sea Otter race in Monterey and the Evian race going 3,000 feet uphill at Mount Diablo.

“Those were the only two times I dabbled in competitive racing,” he says. “I’ve generally done mountain biking for the pure enjoyment of it.”

Even without sanctioned competitive races, Tham still manages to get his competitive juices flowing in mountain biking on his own.

“We have younger guys in our group, and I can take them,” he says, with a smile. “Mountain biking is normally a young man’s sport and not for old guys like me, but I can shred with the best.”       

Although he’s cracked a rib and had his share of sprains and bruises, Tham hasn’t broken any bones. And he hopes to keep riding.   

“I hope to keep mountain bike riding for as long as my body holds out,” he says. “The other day, I saw a mountain biker who was 72 years old and still riding. Maybe I can go that long, too.”

— Steve Wampler

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