Winter Love
Genuinely i don't think the park has
ever looked this good, been this big or this extensive.
To say this winter has been productive puts it mildly, Nick bought us all some head torch's and we've been doing weekly night missions because of the shorter days, i'm actually struggling to remember all the things we've done since the last post so here's a few:
Sheeky floats a nac one while me and Nige shape. This is the park after 15mm of rain in just 2 days: Winterproof
We've been putting some much needed love into the reverse set;
The landing of the 1st of the reverse set is now stupid big. Not sure why this photo is so munted, stoopid iphone
There's now two lines in the reverse set, we shaped-up the dirt for the lip's of the 2nd and 3rd jumps and Loydy kindly finished them for us (far left)
This is the above; its a longer jump than whats next to it and slightly hipped
Changed-up the original lip aswell, so much more fun for it!
Last one (3rd) of the reverse got the same treatment
3rd of the Right set finally got built into a fun jump (see the video at the bottom) and the jump into the berm doubled in size
The jump through the 2nd of Right Set has been changed to a berm-to-berm
[video]http://flickr.com/gp/56674174@N07/6316i9[/video]
^some cool train options
The jump on the left here has always been there, it throws you from the Right set to the Ten Pack, we beefed it up... no-one's jumped it yet
Nige has been putting work into the Mini Rhythms so they're... better-ish
Flip-able at least
We also bulked the hip on the top of the start mound, so much better. (this photo got the hipster treatment, look close because Nige even has an ironic mo)
The biggest change has been building this pre-jump to the right-set, Nigel moved a heap of dirt (over a few weeks) nearby and then we got some crew down to get it all done within a day.
Since then it's undergone a few changes and gotten bigger. It's a little tricky to get the hang of (some people
hated it to start with) but like all new things; time and riding is making it better. Eventually it'll be one big roller because the council don't like sheer edges, but that's a few months off yet.
One night (after a few beers
) me and Nigel were discussing what we'd do with the space in the far corner of the park. We decided on another jump; a third way to get into the Reverse set that we'd build in the future sometime. Nigel came back to me in a couple of days with the idea of making a 'whale-tale' which is essentially a raised block of dirt that you jump-up-onto and jump-down-off.
We both got so excited by the idea of something so different we pulled a 5-hour night session the next day to get it started
It took us 5 weeks to get done and we moved at least 30 ton of dirt (by hand). The high side of the landing (last photo above) is about 8ft high.
Having jumped it a few times now the hardest part is getting the right angle and speed into it, the run-in needs more camber/berm.
The gap is one of the biggest in the park, we've raised it a little over a foot above ground level (eventually i'd like it to be higher), we had to install a pvc pipe to keep the drainage running. The council aren't really into that so they've said they'll install a concrete one instead.
This is the lip out of it, super mellow and high
In the last week or so we changed the step down into the Ten Pack into a very big roller, you can juussstt see on the right. S&M bikes Dean Manson was over from interstate last weekend, so much steeze.
Before i mentioned how much more extensive the park is, this is what i mean, i jumped on Near Maps which is like Google maps but with a back-dated catalog of images, crazy to see how far its come.
Local brand Dishonour and local shop Little Black Bike both ran print ad's in 20/20 featuring the jumps
Apparently Alex Hiam (^) broke his arm a few jumps after this was shot :S
Gus (^) is one of the best dudes we've met at the jumps, always stoked to ride and dig, he put in so much work to have this jump looking mint
Here's some edits featuring the place
[video=vimeo;44786143]http://vimeo.com/44786143#[/video]
Ryan Lloyd killing it
3's that have to be seen to be believed
Sometime in late October/November we'll finally be getting some council help with (heaps) more dirt and a second, waterproof, box that we're super keen for!
Finally; we're planning to hold a jam on the 14th of October.
We've never been big fans of competitions so this is all about just riding for the good vibes with crew, we've been supplied with prizes for both bmxer's and mtb'ers that we'll be giving away to the people pushing themselves, helping others or just having a good time. Anyone and everyone is welcome, we'd be stoked to see some people making the trip over from interstate too, we'll be putting out a little more hype closer to the date.
