So a year ago i bumped in to my then next door neighbor, Russ Clark. He mentioned some wood near by that he rode at, which had some fun lines and some big doubles, and that i should go ride them sometime. Sounding like the sort of thing i'd like i planned to go, however it was about 6 weeks before i managed to head down there, as my Giant had been stolen from me just up the road from where i lived and so was preoccupied with that. that a side i managed to get a sunday off, and got my ass up to the local woods on the Trek Session.
Not knowing what to expect, but i had been here some 10 years ago when i'd just got my Orange Patriot. i remember a wicked Dual Slalom Line which has since been reworked. So i get there about midday, the suns out, it's probably the first warmish day of the year about 12-15c it's February after all. i'm riding along this bit of single track which looks like dog walkers use it to, so i know its not the main trail, and out of the corner of my eye i see the start of a line with a wooden drop just sticking out the hill. i realize at this moment but this isn't going to be Sherwood Pines. I keep going along the single track until i can hear voice, under a low branch of a tree and out in to an opening with a fairly big 4 set of dirt jumps. Plus there was loads of people up there, Russ was filming with a friend of his that day if i remember correctly, and there were some other people who i'd get to know in due course (Brian, Maks, Sheldon, Anthony plus maybe some others i cant remember). Russ showed me the DH line which has two Doubles on it, neither of which i did that day, but went round them instead. I remember being totally shocked at just how big all the jumps were and how fast and high Russ was hitting them. I left after only an hour or so, feeling humiliated by the fact i couldn't hit any of the jumps but determined to come back and have a proper go at it.
I know i went back the following weekend and probably the weekend after that, with different tires, pads and my full face helmet, and slowly one jump at a time conquered the two doubles on the DH line and rode the old DH line which was loads of fun too.
Sometime in March i went to Woburn and Chicksands with the Lads (Russ, Brian, Sheldon) for the first time, we traveled down there in Bri's van, it was bloody cold. the ground was frozen. Having not been there before, there was a crazy amount of lines going on i such a small patch of hill, with jumps and stepdowns over one another, it was mental, didn't really know where to start. Bri had been the summer before, so he showed the way. i had a great day, and tuck a lot of ideas back to Nottingham with us.
Having Decided on the way back from Woburn that we needed to do some serious digging back at the local woods, we meet up there the following weekend and got started on a new line. this was the point at which i started to become a regular to the woods, and so helped out with a bit of digging, which soon turned in to a lot of digging. With the weather getting better and longer days, we were meeting up after work and in my case before work to get on with digging the new lines we had thought out. before we knew it we had some really good lines, which are still used every weekend with out fail.
The end of March i went to Cannock Chase with the lads, i drove there with Russ, getting there nice and early, we hit the red run full force, this isnt to technical just flat out, big berms, a double stepdown, and some badly made kickers in to berms. but there's some cool northshore, a fairly big drop in to a massive blown out berm into a big tabletop (which isn't there now, just as well because it wasn't that good) and pumptrack which come back to. It was great to be on a flat out trail, reminded me of the alps, blasting down the Les Gets red run. then we had a go on the pump track on the way back up, which isn't my cup of tea, basically because i suck at pumping the bike (note to self, get better at pumping the bike). The third time round i lost it on a berm, front wheel went over the top and hit a tree stump and i went over the bars, and whacked my ribs into the bars, winded myself badly, but walked away, back to the top and another go at the red run. Something didn't feel right, but kept riding all day. Later that week it would turn out i'd broken at least one rib. So that was my first bad injury of the year/last 10 years.
I then set about building a small northshore gap on the new line at the local woods, the same day we were celebrating the clocks going forward, it was finally spring and the sun was out we had a BBQ on the go and it looked like it was gonna be a great year of riding. My riding had come on leaps and bounds since that first day i'd come down at the end of feb, all intimidated and scried. i was now hitting the same doubles as Russ and Bri on the DH line, and hitting the new line we'd built as fast and hard as the others. I was proud of pushing myself every weekend and setting myself new goals each week.
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