City Jumps Adelaide <- Updated 22nd of Dec, pg. 10

[CGR]

Wow, yet again i'm far too lax with the updates, seems to have been a combination of rain, no camera, lazyness, lack of stuff to show etc. But better late than never i suppose.

First up i should mention we'll be having an informal build day this Sunday (the 12th). I say informal because its not going to be so organised or 'official' as the last one, just show-up, lend a hand, then ride the rest of the day away sorta thing.
Hope to see you there!

Work has somewhat slowed in the last few months, mostly due to the rain, so there's not a great deal of new/exciting/interesting stuff. Its been the wettest winter we've had in sometime and with all the changes drainage has been an issue we've had to put quite a bit of time into to get right. Pity its so important, because its also very boring.

Nigel's been putting quite a bit of work into the start mound hip. You can see here most of the jumps in the background. All things considered they've stood-up well to all the rain we've had, a bit of work on Sunday and they'll be set for spring.

A better picture of the work on the hip. Launch is quite a bit wider, a little further away from the landing, and the pit into it is at least twice as deep. The dirt from the pit has been put on the start mound, which were hopping to get made wider sometime in the near future.

-> Just for a bit of reference; the next two pictures are in the opposite corner of the park, which is the top left hand corner of the first picture...

Photo shamelessly stolen from the LBB website, and very obviously not mine. Shows the hip the bmx'ers built at the build day, sits in between the launch/landing of the other hip into the reverse set. Council aren't exactly thrilled with this arrangement; partly because its in a sort of resting/benches area, partly because we made a bit of a mess, and partly because we didn't tell them we were doing it

I've spent the last few weeks (when its not raining of course ) essentially rebuilding the first of the reverse set into this step-up. We've basically moved all the dirt around to where we want it for the whole set, and so now its a matter of getting them rolling properly. I'm super keen to make these into the biggest jumps in the park, and the plan is for this first one to give us the speed to do that. Was going to give it a shot today but ended up so tired i could barely make it through the set to get to it haha.

Hopefully future updates will be a little more regular.

CGR
Thanks man, reading this thread and riding the jumps inspired me to approach the council about building some legal jumps. I guess I got lucky because now for suprisingly little effort they have agreed to provide dirt and earthmovers to revamp the local bmx track and build a bit of a jumps park.

keep up the good digging

That's soo good to hear. One piece of advice though; earth moving is often only half the work, tweeking by hand and just lots of riding makes an average set of jumps into something decent. Hope it all goes well.

 

[Adurst]

Starter and Intermediate jumps

Any chance of getting some jumps for people who are still learning to jump?
There is a big gap between the tables with no lips and the middle line. I reckon a line of small doubles would do the trick.
More progression at the dirt jumps would be good...Also a pump track couldn't go wrong.

 

[atschool]

I'm not a local but this attitude shits me...

Any chance of getting some jumps for people who are still learning to jump?
There is a big gap between the tables with no lips and the middle line. I reckon a line of small doubles would do the trick.
More progression at the dirt jumps would be good...Also a pump track couldn't go wrong.

Any chance of lending a hand to the people who have worked hard to get these jumps going?
There is a big gap between between people who work hard to get jumps going, and people who make demands on the internet. I reckon picking up a shovel would do the trick.
More participation at the working bees would be good...Also a bit of appreciation for all the hard work couldn't go wrong.

 

[CGR]

Informal build day was today, the weather was pretty much perfect with good times had by all.

Any chance of getting some jumps for people who are still learning to jump?
There is a big gap between the tables with no lips and the middle line. I reckon a line of small doubles would do the trick.
More progression at the dirt jumps would be good...Also a pump track couldn't go wrong.

If we had people digging even half as much they talked we'd have filled the Parklands by now. I (and many many others) have progressed from the intermediate bmx track to the 'expert' jumps in this thread when they were in much worse condition; so i think your pretty much full of shit. Sounds like you just need to balls up and actually jump them before you start making recommendations.

A pump track is something we'd be pretty keen to see happen, but at the moment our focus is the jumps. If your willing to build us one your more than welcome to use our tools anytime; until then your can keep your ideas to yourself.

Any chance of lending a hand to the people who have worked hard to get these jumps going?
There is a big gap between between people who work hard to get jumps going, and people who make demands on the internet. I reckon picking up a shovel would do the trick.
More participation at the working bees would be good...Also a bit of appreciation for all the hard work couldn't go wrong.

^Likes this.

 

[wind ding brutha]

Any chance of getting some jumps for people who are still learning to jump?
There is a big gap between the tables with no lips and the middle line. I reckon a line of small doubles would do the trick.
More progression at the dirt jumps would be good...Also a pump track couldn't go wrong.

Loser. Get off your arse and do some digging of your own or just get a set of nuts. Don't expect others to do everything for you and hold your hand at the same time.

 

[atschool]

Loser. Get off your arse and do some digging of your own or just get a set of nuts.

Barking up the wrong tree?

 

[Raymo621]

Any chance of getting some jumps for people who are still learning to jump?
There is a big gap between the tables with no lips and the middle line. I reckon a line of small doubles would do the trick.
More progression at the dirt jumps would be good...Also a pump track couldn't go wrong.

Thats what the mini's are for through the middle, i'm in the process of learning atm. The mini's are awesome, but you need to get them smooth (for a beginner remember) and after a few sessions on them i'm ready now to want to try the next step. These jumps are awesome, sooooo much thanks to all the guys putting in the work for us all just to rock up and ride. Love it!!!!!!

 

[CGR]

Thats what the mini's are for through the middle, i'm in the process of learning atm. The mini's are awesome, but you need to get them smooth (for a beginner remember) and after a few sessions on them i'm ready now to want to try the next step. These jumps are awesome, sooooo much thanks to all the guys putting in the work for us all just to rock up and ride. Love it!!!!!!

As nice as it is to hear your progressing, i'm going to point out that we put very little work into the mini rhythms because they just get so much use and, to be honest, they're not worth the effort given the size they are.
Oh and we don't do it for you "to just rock-up and ride" we do it because we wanted somewhere decent for us to ride near-by, and we'd like to keep it that way, so next time your down and we're around, lend a hand, or at least repair whatever you fuck-up when your learning to jump the bigger stuff.

 

[CGR]

Waaaayy too long without an update, even for me this is pretty slack haha

So first up, i'll put up a little comparison of how the dry affects this place, apparently its going to be a wetter summer and in these first few days we've had almost our monthly average of rain (its pissing down atm), so fingers crossed...

Taken in spring some time, the dirt is dry on top but still pretty wet underneath

A couple of days ago, even after a bit of rain, the place is bone dry and calling these jumps hard-pack would be an understatement.

Thought i'd put in some photo that are a little more interesting than my own (ie not mine), the down side is most feature Tom, but i guess you can't win them all...

By Louis Maddiford (seen above)

By Ewan Tupper

And back to business.
As you can imagine there's been plenty of work going on, but a lot of it has been done for a while so it doesn't exactly look new and i've forgotten when it all got done in the first place...

Tom and his beloved trick jump (so they could learn to flip to dirt), he built it himself and even had Connor Fearon helping, so its a bit of an accomplishment. He's now made a lip next to it for him to learn how to flair, which i have yet to see happen...

Me and Nige spent some time putting more dirt on the first in the right set's landing, the plan is to make this, and the one after it, much more poppy.

To the left here you can see the third in the right set (its never been quite right) which has been changed into a speed jump. centre of the photo is a pile of dirt (soon to be a hip) that's a bit of side-track idea of mine, so we'll see how that turns out. And on the very right is the 4th in the 10 pack; i've made this landing about half a foot higher as well as recovered the rest of the pack, so they're all running damn well at the moment.

This is what now finishes the right set; a roller/step-up into the berm that carries heaps more speed through to the reverse line. You can also see the landing of the last in the ten pack, which is a work in progress to get it rolling into the berm better.

This is the roller at the exit of the berm and the pit into the hip, into the reverse line. All this has finally started to really work and best of all; flow. Still need to put in a crank or two but i've got some ideas on how to fix that, Nige isn't convinced, but i'll make it work.

On the left here is the first in the reverse line (after the hip above), its changed a bit since i built it (last post with pictures) and pretty much dialled in now. Centre here is the hip and comes off the ten pack and a dead space that sits between this new reverse line and the mini rhythms (roughly three mounds), i've got some pretty big ideas for it that are going to have to wait for the winter.

The rest of reverse line, as they are you can jump them but they're not terribly flowy yet, but all the hard work is done and they should be running something sweet by the end of the summer. You can also see the rest of the dead space i was talking about and on the far left is the landing of the trick jump and the start mound.

Finally i thought it would be worth putting up an edit i came across that has some of city in it (mostly Hackam though) and its just a straight-up sick edit!

[video=vimeo;17186360]http://vimeo.com/17186360[/video]
By Ryan Kennedy

*insert unlikely promise of more regular updates*

 

[CGR]

well we got way over our monthly average in just one day, rain like we had would be notable in winter, let alone summer...

Fortunately the jumps are still draining damn well so they've come out relatively unscathed.

After all the rain i had my one day of the week off, so i decided to capitalise and make some progress on my hip line.

Having now jumped it it definitely needs some work (the lip extension above is over kill) but you come out with more speed than i thought you would so hopefully i can make it work.

Me and Nige also reshaped the landing of the second in the reverse line, but i didn't have the camera handy.

Finally thought i'd throw-up another edit that has parts of city. This one comes from the bmx distribution company Stowaway (so its all bmx) run by Jamie, who's always supportive of our work.
[video=vimeo;16076569]http://vimeo.com/16076569[/video]

Anndd finally one of Ryan Lloyd, also stolen from the Stowaway site, taken by Dave Runinich

 

[CGR]

double post

 

[potato]

awesome video
i wish we had a place like this in melbourne

 

[NS Capital Man]

great work on those jumps, i would kill for those in the melb area.


the music in that edit actually gave me a headache (not your fault)

 

[CGR]

First-up: we're planning to have another 'official' build day on Sunday the 24th of January. The aim of this one will be making to just is mint as possible (squaring things off and smoothing etc.), partly because all the jumps could use it and also because we're to be having a meeting with the council the next day at the jumps (not 100% sure if its to be a simple meet-and-greet or something more...). Anyways, i'll be making-up a flyer sometime later for it, stay tuned.

other than that, not a whole lot to report at the moment; with summer getting into full swing and various commitments getting in the way of things most of the work has been maintenance. Of course with school holidays also in full swing its needed...

Before and after: this is the type of thing we do when i'm talking about re-surfacing and maintaining, it might not look like a whole lot, but you know the difference to ride it. Intentions for the build day are to not only do the actual ridden areas, but also neaten-up/shape the sides more.

as far as real progress goes, this is it, the landing of the last in the reverse line has finally been shaped properly. Big ups to all those who lent a hand over the weekend on this one, we had the whole lot done in 2 hours flat

Not the best picture (as usual) but we can now say the reverse set is up and running, it not perfect and its not finished, but all the hard work is done. Future plans are best summed-up as bigger.

Finally i have a couple of videos of the place:

[video]http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=693746244#!/video/video.php?v=10150127108856001&comments[/video]
By Lewis Wundenberg
Not hugely riveting, but gives a super good idea of how it all works (better than the photos anyway haha).

[video=vimeo;17797099]http://vimeo.com/17797099[/video]
By Ryan Kennedy
Camera whore and all round pretty boy Tom staring in another of Ryan's rad cuts.

 

[dreny]

See you at the build day cal. These jumps are rolling super smooth thanks to all your hard work. They are a joy to ride. I hope you like what Nigel and I did too the back berm.

Nick.

 

[CGR]

Yeah it's short notice, wanna fight about it?

 

[CGR]

Another irregular update:

Build day went well, because of such a late start in terms of getting the word out it was mostly regulars that came, but we still got plenty done, so thanks to everyone who did come.

In other news we've started a club (incorporation of association) centring around the jumps in order to gain a little independence from the council and their mountains of red tape. Basically its so we can apply for grants and make bigger changes faster and easier. We're also thinking about having regular BBQ's (once a month or so) to keep the jumps and the club ticking along.

More recently though we had the bmx flood relief jam on at the park, for anyone that doesn't know; one was held in every state, ours being the only one with dirt jumps. Jam was held on the Sunday and the Friday before-hand it rained pretty much all day, after some initial worries about having to cancel, the sun came back out and the dirt was perfect for building:

Most of the time was spent clearing things-up and making it looks nice for the jam the next day

More work was also put into the final jump of the ten pack, the idea here is to have two berms (for the two lines) merging into one and leading into the reverse line.

Most of the work has been done by Nigel and it already paying off with the reverse set workable without extra cranks, stoked!

Sunday was Jam day, being the dedicated and responsible person i am i had a teensy bit of a hangover and slept through the best part of the day
Anyways, here's a few photo's from the day, so you can see all the fun i missed out on:

the turn-out was 200+

Serious trail style was thrown down all day, with Ryan Lloyd (above) killing it as usual, photos simply don't do this dudes riding justice.

Local support was serious with distributor Stowaway, company Dishonour and dedicated bmx shop Little Black Bike chipping in prizes for the raffle as well as snags and drinks for the punters.
The day was a huge success, with over $2000 raised for the flood appeal.

This is not from the jam, its just typical Kie Ashworth and thus worth the post.


I believe today is the first day of autumn, though it hasn't been much of a summer anyway, that means more rain and thus more building so hopefully i'll have some serious progress to report in the coming months.

 

[CGR]

Once again its been a bit too long, but with a shiny new iPhone in hand, there are pictures for most of the work that's been done.

Amazingly Autumn is upon us and Winter just around the corner... not that we had much of a Summer. But that's fine by us, rain is rain and we’ve already had some decent showers; the whole place is looking greener and the dirt is prime for building.

Anyways, I spent a rainy afternoon building up the corner of the final jump in the 10 pack, basically making it into more of a hip to better keep speed into the berm for the reverse line.

Eventually we want this to turn into a berm of its own, but that’s a way off yet, because its working super well at the moment.

This corner sets you up perfectly to rail the berm; so much fun!

We’ve decided to make the 3rd Sunday of every month a regular build day, and it just so happens that the last one we had was seriously wet.

With the extra hands, and good dirt we set about widening the second of the right set.

After putting too much water into the dirt a landslide was a danger, but its held and dried rock solid, maybe the dirt boobies Nick put on the side are load bearing...

The dirt for that side has mostly come from this pit:

I put Nick and Nigel in there to give a sense of size, we’re still pretty keen to go lower, if you’ve ever seen the pits at Hackam, that’s about what we’re aiming for...

And again, plan is to make the landing (on the right) steeper, but its damn fun now, so thats a little way off.

Also put some love into the third of the ten pack

Finally, and most impressively, is the work we’ve put into the berm at the top into the ten pack.

It took a solid 2 sessions to get it to this point, we moved a hell of a lot of dirt.

Unfortunately I wasn’t part of the final session to get it done, I say unfortunately because this thing is amazing, I’ll let the pictures do the talking;

Excuse the spade; it’s just there for a bit of scale. You come straight from the start mound into a small roller berm (seen above) that sets you up for this bad boy. It pretty much transforms the whole set and its crazy good fun, I honestly can’t rave enough haha.

The step-down has also been beefed-up, the landing still needs some tweeking but it’s still pretty good.

On another note, former caretaker Zoli has made plans to hold a jam at the jumps this month. To be honest there hasn’t been a whole lot of promo on this, so I’m a little sketchy on the details, but its this month, so keep an ear out.

I’m going to be seeing the world for half the winter so I’m hoping I can cram some serious digging into the next couple of months; theres some big projects on the horizon. If you’re keen to help, or at the very least come down and see what its all about, the next build day will be Sunday the 17th of April.

 

[Jordann1]

City Dirt ADL

Thanks Callum for doing this thread it is awesome to see how the place is evolving.
NO Dig NO Ride

 

[dreny]

Great update Cal. I can wait for winter when the dirt is primo to work with. Hopefully we should get alot more done to these jumps. Bring on the Dig Day!!!

P.S. Nigel and i did another night session tonight. The first on the right is now super meaty. Woot!!