Ow! This video hurt to edit- it has a crunching crash which still makes me gasp. At the time of course it was even more horrid to watch!

It was the freeride group with Nirvana today adn I have not done it for ages but need some practice since I did "Jab in the Eye" and "Proper Beau".

We started on the gap jump, Captain Underpants, and then over to Heads roll where we sessioned and sessioned the 2 gap jumps in the middle. 

After Luka came a cropper on Rollercoaster and bust his collar bone we did some hairy descents down deliverance and then 5 of us carried on to Donnie Darko. I did a demo jump and  Anthony and Matt tried it a couple of times. Ed decided "maybe not", but while Gareth was videoing we all did it again and this time we did it better and it looked and felt smooth.

Clearly it was impressive as Ed decided to go for it so I clicked record on the video and ... "oh boy" he decided not to jump it but rather to try a front flip off of it! Unfortunately that turned into a somersault landing on his head and folding in 2- all on video- watch to the end for the entertainment! (My reaction in words says it all!)

Amazingly he was soon up and walking away, a little dazed and confused! Imagine if he did not have a helmet on! Anyway we were done for the day so we singletracked windy willows and home for tea!

So enjoy the video in the knowledge he walked away unscathed but with a bit of a headache!

Shuttling Hurtwood?!

What a glorious February day- spring is surely sprung! 

I met with Mark the rnager for Hurtwood Control as he needed weekday riders to track singletrack routes on GPS and I wanted at last to give something back for all the great trail riding I do in the area.

I threw my bike in the back of his pickup and we unpadlocked the gate in Walking Bottom car park and headed up the bridleways. He dropped me off at all the trail heads and then I rode them all to track them on GPS and download to his laptop. 

These trails will eventually get published on Hurtwood Control forums for all registered users so... if you ride the Hurtwood, Holmbury, Pitch Hill, Winterfold, Farley Green area then you should become a friend (click here) and contribute both to keep the trails maintained and maintain access for mountain bikers and also to get on the forum and get the trail maps.

We tracked Pitch and Holmbury- even one trail I'd never done. The laptop gave up before us and as the sun was still shining I rode back up to Winterfold and practiced my slow switchback technique- see video and then rode Orange Clawhammer jumping through the clawhammer trees.

Next week we will track Winterfold singletrack if I can find it all!

Indoor Climbing

Today I went indoor climbing at Craggy Island in Guildford with Jackie. 

I have not climbed for a long time so was out of practice and shape for it. It was pretty amazing to join the lunchtime special and climb with so few people around- I've only ever been to climbing walls at weekends and evenings before when it is pretty busy.

They've done loads of development there and there are even more routes. I renewed my membership and we climbed for 2 hours mainly on 4+ and 5 as the routes are pretty tough. We did a couple of 4's when we got tired and to get some technique back.

Forearms were pumped and grip strength challenged within minutes- boy will I feel that for the next few days! I actually forgot how much fun it is and so will go do some more now I have a climbing partner.

Jackie's a fair bit better than me but we can keep practicing and working on our technique to challenge one another. Can't take pics of video when climbing as am too busy belaying!

Proper Beau- Done!

Rode with Nirvana again today as I'm a right regular now and need my fix!

Now I'm just one of the boys when it comes to riding, Simon decided I needed to become a "Proper Beau" master. So we sprinted on up to Peaslake and up Pitch and turned onto the "Warm-up" jumps on Proper Beau- the first is a slight downhill onto a small ramp and a tiny gap jump that if you don't clear it you won't get into trouble, the 2nd is a bigger ramp and a bigger gap to clear, the gap is filled with logs so its not too nasty if you land on them but its not that comfy either.

After a few fast and faster sessions over these playing with our speed and technique we were clearing them enough to be ready for the big gap jump no.3. So Simon and Gilles demo'ed the bigger gap jump on Proper Beau - it's about an 8 foot gap but the ramp up looks huge as you roll in fast to it. However if you miss the landing tranny, again, you won't hurt too much but you'll get a jolt.

I gave it a go for my first time and landed pretty well on my first attempt, so next we rolled in as a 3 rider sequence and this time I was faster and flew off the ramp and landed perfectly on 2 wheels on the great tranny- it felt sweet!

We carried on down T2 to the car park and then watched Simon and Gilles drop off "New Values" - a DH roll in to a large drop over roots and a nice steep smooth transition. As usual they made it look easy.... so I rode up to it twice but decided to leave on a high note and save that adrenalin shot for another day. Watch this space....

Nirvana Sunday Ride

Sunday was another great day so I joined the Nirvana ride again and we had a lot of fun as usual. Lots of new faces with an international flavour.

I even rode off "A jab in the eye!" drop off and had a couple of stabs at the big quarry jump but that one still remains a challenge for me to speed up and clear the gap!

I was pretty nervous about that but its good to be getting back into doing drop offs and some jumps.

Above is a quick review of MY ride- a longer video with all the riders on is on the Nirvana cycles blog here.

Plus more pics here

Just the 2 of us!

Well its a long time since I rode with just Pete. It was kinda fun riding just the 2 of us again. After all it was Pete that showed me we had all this singletrack around the Surrey Hills and I have to credit him with being the one rider whose lines I watched and followed for years until I became a much better rider.

He doesn't ride so much nowadays but he is still a great rider and its so nice to ride with someone you know so well -both in terms of riding styles, fitness, skills and technique but also when you have so much history its so easy to chat away in a relaxed manner and giggle about old stories.

We went exploring over Winterfold way and played on as much singletrack as we could find- we really kept on the move not having to stop and wait for anyone else so it was a good workout too, although we had some long stops to chat. Seems I know a lot of local riders now though cos there were quite a few others we bumped into and got chatting to.

All in all we totted up some 30km over 4hrs of glorious sunshine, with a couple of tea stops of course. Hope we both have legs left for our respective rides tomorrow.

Nirvana Wednesday Ride

OK so we all come for the marvellous mountain biking but inspired by the fact that 2 new riders joined us today because they found us on the blog I thought the theme for today would be what brought you to ride with Nirvana Cycles?

Today Chris joined us as he's on leave from the RAF having just got back from Afghanistan and being a northerner down south he doesn't know how to find the great local mountain bike trails that he has heard of via the grapevine. He chanced upon this blog and here he was riding with us and having a lot of fun just having a go at some of the jumps and singletrack we regularly ride. He'd have never found it without us and now armed with his maps from the shop he has a better chance of finding it again. But I'm sure he'll be back for more group rides.

Guy also found the blog and came along as he wants to train for his holiday tour riding across the highlands of Scotland this Summer. He's here to improve his fitness and had not ridden such technical trails before but hopefully he'll be back for more and will not only improve fitness but gain some more technical skills to beat his buddies on that ride.

Then again there are the long termers- Richard used to play Golf but wanting to lose some weight he started road riding until he bumped into an injured mountain biker in A&E and decided that looks like fun. So he came and joined the Nirvana rides. There was no turning back and I'd guess that his mountain biking love has surpassed his Golf nowadays. The bikes have also gradually upgraded from that £100 secondhand heavy weight clunker to a svelte plush 5" travel Turner 5.5 spot- and wow what a difference the bike makes eh?

John and Chris started out on a guided ride with Nirvana and borrowed some demo bikes, John loved his Lapierre Zesty so much he phoned the shop to reserve one before he even finished the ride, now he's a regular weekly rider. And as for Chris- well just look at him on the video and you just know he has the bug!

As for me well I was a competitive netballer always trying to find time to play on my bike between matches (and not get injured!)- but eventually the netball commitment got beaten down by the freedom and thrill of riding my bike when and where and with whom I liked. I bumped into the Nirvana Group on holiday in Morzine in 2001 and was thrilled to find out they had singletrack trails in my backyard of the North Downs- wow!

Whatever your reason for riding- you're welcome on the ride as I'm sure we'll infect you with this bug and convert you to a regular or as a minimum show you some awesome local trails to ride.