If you have been following our blog page over the past few months you will already know that one of our riders Jon Ritchie has made the trip over to spain for the winter months with a few of the other uk guys.
We asked him to keep us up to date with the goings on over there, here is his 1st report back to keep you guys in the loop.
Hey everyone,
It’s been a month pretty much to the day since I docked in “sunny” Spain. To tell you the truth, my time here so far has been somewhat up and down. The first week here was warm with perfect conditions to ride but unfortunately we’d yet to get permission to ride the local freestyle park. The following week the weather turned on its head with heavy rain for a few days causing flash floods and pretty much writing off any chance of riding ramps for that week. To help pass time, I joined a local gym as well as spent a few hours one afternoon hiking up a nearby mountain.
BELOW: View of the local town during the guys hike up the nearby mountain
Fortunately we were able to get out and ride a couple tracks toward the latter part of the week. The local councils own and maintain the tracks out here and the cool thing is that most of them are open 7 days a week and the added bonus, if not as little as £10 to ride they’re usually free.
BELOW: one of the many local tracks in the town they guys visited
The next two weeks put us back on track. The weather was really good at times and allowed us to get out on the ramps for the first time. The first private facility we rode at was a basic ramp to dirt setup where the ramp is set at 22m. There’s no pushing ramps closer here in Spain, you ride it as it is. At times you here the phrase, Go Big or Go Home… there was no better time for that to apply. Jumping 22m isn’t a big deal once you’ve got the first jump out the way but it took a little while to get comfortable enough to start doing any decent tricks.
BELOW: Jon sticks one of his signature “dead bodies” over one of the Spanish ramp to dirt hits
The second facility which we’ve been given permission to ride consists of 5 ramps, 5 landings and a few others interesting obstacles… The first ramp we rode was at 20m which is pretty similar to what I’ve been riding in the UK so I felt comfortable and was able to trick it pretty much right away. The other 2 ramps tell a slightly different tale… the 22.5m (75ft) ramp is kinda tricky to judge, the landing is high and its just a gnarly looking hit. Long story short, I OJ’d the first jump, foot slipped off the peg and ended up crashing. Not good for confidence but the only thing to do was get back up and give it another go right away. Now that I’m comfortable on that ramp, its a really good jump and I can see why the other riders seem to favour it. The next hurdle was the 24m (80ft) ramp. Had someone said to me this time last year, that in a years time you will be lining up to jump an 80ft ramp, I would have never believed them. Just like deja vu from the previous ramp, you guessed it, I went LONG!! Fortunately for me, I got off lightly with only a tweaked right shoulder and pulled muscles in my back and neck.
BELOW: A birds eye view of the second facility
Since that little incident I’ve had a few days off the bike to recuperate and will be back, ready to ride tomorrow. I’ll let you know how I get on in my next blog…Have a good Christmas and New Year, and I’ll catch you all in 2012.
Jon
We’ll keep all you guys informed of Jons latest blog when its posted along with plenty of other news regarding 2012 in the new year
After a long wet winter building the new portable landing and take-off ramps, the good weather finally arrived and it was time to quickly test the new equipment out and hit the road to the 1st show of 2011 organised by our good friends and long standing clients at Ace Café on Brighton sea front. We all arrived a little nervous as the new equipment had only been previously tested by Jon R for an hour or so the week before.
Our next event meant a return trip down south to Dunsfold Park, the place where the BBC program Top Gear is filmed for the “Dad’s day out” charity event organised by the Children’s Trust, we performed there last year and kindly got asked back again for 2011.
Next stop on the calendar was the British FMX championship at Rougham airfield, the guys had a few weeks to prepare for the competition which was organised by Andy Godbold and Bolddog team.
Once the Bolddog championships had been and gone it was the start of the Air Devils arena tour, we had been hired to provide the pro FMX segment at each venue of the tour which was financed by Scott May and his Daredevil Stunt Show.
Last week we were back working with the Ace Café at Brent Cross Shopping Centre for the Street Fighter event. It was another brilliant fun event with all the familiar faces of the Ace Cafes event team, we also had the chance to experience the Street bike Freestyle Championships which was pretty cool to see.
