Grosvenor Trails

They're running pretty sweet at the mo!

In all seriousness though, there's a dig day on Sunday, so come up and lend a hand if you can!

Bike Racks

Get one!

Myself and Josh went twos on one a couple of weeks ago. Shout out to Chris Massey for selling us his at a bargain price. It just makes everything so much easier and way less hassle to travel anywhere. Since we've had it, everyones been way more up to travel a bit as you can now get 4 or 5 people per car rather than just two. And being able to ride different places just gets everyone so much more hyped to ride. Especially in winter.

Best purchase ever.

Ramp Nation 2

After missing out on Ramp Nation last week, when we went to Hengrove instead, we made plans to hit it up on the Wednesday. After not really hearing anything all week, I finished work Wednesday night and had a missed call and a text from Josh making sure I was still up for it. Everyone was true to their word and in fact Andy came out of hibernation for it too, which was dope!

With the lack of lights and indoor facilities in Bath, combined with a burning desire to not ride anything that isn't a quarter or a jump box, Andy self proclaimed he was going into BMX hibernation over the winter, much to the disappointment of everyone else. But with the promise of virgin transition and a door to door lift, he was coaxed out.

After having driven on the last few outings, we agreed that it was Josh's turn to drive, being one of the few crew members that has a car. We made good time, and upon arrival the fairly attractive female skatepark attendant let us all just pay the price of an hour, for the hour and 45mins left of the session. The park was way quieter than the last time I went and thus I enjoyed it way more. However, on trying an unluc-e (something I'd never even thought about trying before) I was pretty unlucky. What was a real small fall, I somehow just twisted my "good" knee and it put me out for the rest of the session. In fact 48 hours on and I'm still pretty immobile which majorly sucks. I sat out, watched everyone ride, took advantage of the epic tuck shop, and then turned my attention to being the photographer.

Everyone was killing it. Andy, finally in his element with a decent jump box, showed off his smooth dog style. In harsh contrast John was on a mission to hit the biggest and gnarliest gaps in the place. He must of jumped the box backwards to flat at least 5 times. Which is rad in itself, but after every single one his cranks would slip and he'd have to spend at least ten minutes fixing them again, yet he kept going back and doing it again and again knowing full well what was going to happen, just for the love of it and the desire to go faster and higher. Now that's passion. And Josh, who's pretty dialled at the best of times, was just like the energiser bunny, riding pretty much non stop and doing loads of awesome stuff. Footjam on the sub-box out of the little mini ramp was a serious highlight. However, just to prove he is in fact human, a G-turn over the box just kept evading him, despite getting so so close, and only dabbing a foot on one attempt.

All in all, I'm bummed I got hurt, but it was still awesome seeing all my buds throw down.

Josh - styling over the box

Andy -  X up

Josh - F-jam whip

Andy -  behind the legs seat grab

Josh -  can't really remember what was going on in this little combo, but there was a footjam in it and it was awesome. 

Andy - Turndown

Andy - turndown

John - gapping the box backwards to flat

The gap was so gnarly his belt exploded on landing

John - wallride out of a real steep bank

Hengrove

Bit slow posting this up, but last week Josh, John and I all headed over to Hengrove skatepark in Bristol after work/uni one evening. Originally we were going to head to Ramp Nation indoor park but it turned out there are no bike sessions on a Thursday evening, but Hengrove is in fact closer and is floodlit. The only council run, floodlit park that I know of in the area.

I love Hengrove, I used to ride there loads when I was younger but hadn't been in a few years, because without a car it is a mission to get to. With a car however it was a 20minutes ish drive, even at 6pm, so definately going to head over there again soon. John had just that day gone to the effort of going over to Crucial to get his new, second hand cranks sorted, just so that he could come ride with us that evening, which was awesome. Hengrove can get pretty busy with scooter kids in the summer and at weekends, but on a cold, dark, winters evening it was pretty quiet apart from a small crew of locals, who all shredded, including Scott from Crucial BMX. After a McDonalds, we all rode and had a good time for about 2 and a half hours.

John hopped off the quarter to flat, just feeling it out cos he wanted the three, but on landing his new cranks (odyssey wombolts) slipped, he managed to get them fixed but some little device inside those cranks needed replacing. He was still able to ride all night which is awesome, but there was no point going for that three, but I know he'll have it next time. As usual, photographs were a bit of an after thought because everyone was having too much fun riding. Shooting photos with me is still a bit of a slow process as I get used to my new camera, especially in the tough conditions at night, so I did miss a few shots, and didn't quite to the tricks justice on a few others. Sorry bros.

For anyone wanting to check out the park, you should. Its on an out of town leisure complex, so there is loads of free car parking, fast food restaurants, and the lights stay on until 10pm (despite what the announcement says), so it's perfect for the winter if you wrap up warm.

Josh - Super high toboggan 180 over the spine. 

Josh - Footjam-whip

John was boosting this quarter to bank transfer all night, styling it out and laying some sweet tables too.

Josh - footjam-whip to fakie. Not sure now if he actually got one landed, but this one was so close, he somehow just messed up on the roll out. 

Josh with a fucking rad peg grab. I've never seen him do this trick before and he just busted one out. And I've never seen him do one since. Glad I was ready with the camera. 

John - Could that get any flatter?

This rail is pretty legit for a council skatepark set up. John getting it done, in a race against the floodlights.

And myself on the same rail. The two of us were just going back and forth until we got it done for the camera, scared the floodlights could go off at any second. 

Josh - precision manual across the spine coping

John - styling out this rad spine gap.

Rampnation

Having not rode in a couple of weeks, and in an attempt to man up to my hangover, decided to go and check out the new indoor skatepark in Devizes tonight, called 'Rampnation.' The park has separate bike sessions and on Sundays it is from 5 apparently, so at about half 4 I went and picked up Alex and Reece, a couple of the younger dudes in our crew, and we made our way to the park.

First of all, Devizes is much further than I thought, it took us best part of an hour to get there, but eventually we made it (though on the way back I ignored the sat-nav and did it in half an hour). The park is fairly small, but all the ramps are obviously brand new and at first glance it looks like they've made pretty good use of the space. The park has a 4ft and a 6ft mini, then one wall has a long vert quarter all the way down it and the opposite wall is made up of flatbanks. Then side by side through the middle there is a jump box,  a driveway with an up-down box and an up-flat box down either side, then there is also a long flat down rail and a couple more ledges down a short flatbank.

Unfortunately the park is one of those places where there can't ever really be more than 4 people riding at any one time, and so when it is fairly busy you can have to wait a fair while for your go sometimes. Also the only place to wait for your run is at the top of the long flatbank down one wall, which makes the flatbank hard to ride and the wallride completely unrideable. The 4ft mini is definitely designed with the skaters in mind, for a bike it sucked, it was just far too mellow, and I personally don't like how all the ledges have round coping as opposed to angle iron. It's just my opinion but I think ledges should be square and rails should be round and never the other way round. I am glad to say the flat rail was round though, because square rails are far too common in most parks.

Complaints out the way, we did have a fun time riding, some of the Chippenham boys were there, so it's always good seeing them. Unfortunately after an hour or so, I got a bit cocky on a wallride that I landed perfect first go, then second hit, showing off, I landed real back wheel first in to a steep bank and looped out and rolled my ankle kinda bad, so for the last hour or so I rode super chilled and just watched everyone else kill it.

All in all, it's always awesome to have another place indoors to ride for over the winter. The park does have a few faults but it is definitely worth checking out if you're not too far away.

P.S: Check the park website here: http://www.rampnation.co.uk/

Just stole this photo from their website, but you can see the bank to flat rail with the flatbanks/wallride in the background