Been a long time since.....

Greets again, after a very long break for one reason and another. Not really sure where to start summing up the last few weeks, so I'll just try to sum it up as we go.

The good news is that the social life has finally gone up a gear, starting with a great bar-b in the forest a few Sundays ago.
Luckily for me, I'd had the day off anyway so met the others at the shop after work & we headed up to the Freeride area in the forest,where some of the others had already set up the bar-b and taken up a few jump bikes.

The Freeride area is basically a twisting downhill track with a series of jumps, ramps, hucks and other fun stuff to try and injure yourself on and we all began by taking it turns to ride up to the top in small groups and generally mess around before riding the length of the trail down to the waiting bus, bar-b & beers :-)

Before I go on, here's a series of pics giving you some idea of what the Freeride area is about :

Get the idea? Looks fun eh? Well, yes it is but again the pictures don't really convey how much adrenaline flows when you're actually riding this place, or how high some of these jumps etc actually are!

Anyway, I set off with Nic, Jake & Jim from the Cafe. At the start of the Freeride area, after the first six or so jumps, you can detour off the trail and back to the start which gives you a cool loop to get the feel of things before heading all the way to the bottom.
Things were going well and I was getting a feel for the jumps and how the bike handled. There were quite a few experienced riders up there so it was a bit imtimidating at first, but I just tried to concentrate and was really enjoying myself. Then Emma & Tracy (our bosses and ex-pro riders) turned up. No pressure at all then !!

So we all lined up at the first ramp - me at the back - and took it turns to do the mini-loop. By the time it came to my turn, I had an audience made up of all the others who'd come back to the start. Oh well, can't bottle it now. Off I went, determined not to look like a complete noob, and threw myself into the first 3 jumps with gutso. Hey, this is going well, I thought and feeling confident I powered up the takeoff of jump number 4, took off, figured I was starting to go far too high and also realised I was travelling sideways!

As I started to come down, I quickly realised the track was no longer beneath me - I'd overshot it by some distance. Now for some reason, when you're in the air you sometimes make a grab for the brakes, forgetting how ineffective they are when not in contact with terra firma! So there I was, trying to slow myself down to no avail as my back wheel hit the dirt first, followed by my front. Conveniently, mother nature had kindly put a tree stump in my path, which did the braking for me and launched me sideways off the bike. Ouch!

From the viewpoint of those watching, I'd taken off on one side of the jump, launched into the air and then disappeared at the other side of the jump. I heard a few cheers/laughs as Jake came running over the brow of the jump to see if I was OK. A few cuts and a dented ego, but it was a blast :-)

Tail between my legs, I pushed the bike back to the top fearing ridicule but Emma & Tracy told me I'd been doing really well til I came off. Chatting to Emma the next day, she said I'd looked really natural and it was good to see me really going for it rather than being rigid & over cautious, so I did'nt feel quite so stupid :-)
Thankfully, they missed my second, more spectacular wipeout about half way down the trail where i'd hit the jump, cleared the top completely, got about 20ft of air before landing on my back wheel and bouncing sideways off the track into the undergrowth! Again, Jake came to my rescue and had to physically untangle me from the bike. Lost more cuts, but he said it had been spectacular :-)

I'd been wearing my helmet & arm/elbow pads but my poor lags took a right beating. I've since got myself some knee/shin pads and have fallen in love with the Freeride track, even if I am pretty crap at it :-)

Anyhoo, for the sake of my war-torn legs and with beer & food beckoning, I decided my riding was done for the night. I took a few more pics of people doing it how it should be done (Emma in the first pic) and headed back to the bus for post-ride banter, food and drink.

The rest of the night was a complete blast. We ate lots, drank lots, chatted lots, Jake and I turned the cosy camp fire into a raging inferno by piling on as many dead trees as we could find. People went riding the jumps in the pitch black (loons!!) & jumped over the fire, Jake and I were 'inducted' in the way of Tiny's (cafe Manageress & general mad person) Daiquiri's - strawberry followed by rasperry - and we partied into the morning, somehow getting a lift home with the only sober person for miles at around 3am.
Needless to say, hangovers were the order of the day at work the next day, but it was by far the most fun i'd had since I arrived, so who cares :-)

At the risk of dragging this post out too long, the rest of the last few weeks have been a mixed bag. Been out for drinks a few times with various folks from work, some git made off with one of our hire bikes after using a stolen credit card to pay for it, went home to Birmingham for a few days after hearing my Grandad was very ill (he's doing much better now by all accounts), working hard & learning lots, booked a trip to New York in September for my 40th birthday and am due to start my Level 3 CyTech mechanics course in June......deep breath...PHEW!!

Generally, things are good. The weather has been glorious until recently and we've been donning shrts 'n' T-shirts in the workshop. Last few days have been bloody rubbish though and seeing as I seem to always post exclusively sunny pictures, I decided to take a few pics showing the rainy landscape to balance things out.

So there you have it - my last few weeks summed up as quickly as I could. My apologies for the very late update and to those of you who I still haven't managed to contact since I landed here. I'll do my best to put that right & to update this site more often in future.

I'll sign off with a special mention to my Grandad for being one of the most amazing people I know, and wishing Em a happy birthday for May 22nd :-)

Take it easy folks ;-)

Dean XX