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Cowpats, Curries and Corked Fives The closer we got the worse it became. What started as a few spots of rain when we were 20 miles away turned to continuous drizzle as we were ten miles away. By the time we drove through the gates of Haredown Mountainboard Centre at about 4pm on Friday afternoon the drizzle had turned into a downpour and the hill was obscured by mist. A quick U-turn and we went to the pub, unsure about whether choosing a contingency date in the middle of October was a good idea and whether any competition would actually happen. Once in the pub, between a game of Monopoly and discussions about all-weathering mountainboard tracks, the Internet weather reports were checked and some relief was felt that the rain was due to clear and Saturday would be OK. Meanwhile, back at Haredown more tents were finding spaces between the thousands of huge wet cowpats as more riders settled in for the weekend around campfires, including the big one from which regular explosions were heard and various bodies were seen diving for cover.
Once the practice gave way to timed runs the riders began to take it more seriously, learning which line was fastest, how tyre pressure affected their run, and whether nine inch tyres gave an advantage. Down at the bottom, we picked out teams for Fantasy Mountainboard League (well done Milly for winning this one) and sat down to watch. The excitement built as riders rushed into the ATBA tent after each run to check their time and see who they wanted to beat. Lawson David held on to the top spot for the first two runs with a fastest time of 50.784 secs, until Pete Tatham put his twelve inch wheels on and nailed the track in 49.012 secs. Then JC proved its not all about the inches by getting down in 49.408 secs on eights giving him second place. With Round One of the timed runs complete we stopped for lunch and for a mass descent of the still wet and sticky main BX track to assess its fitness for racing. As it was obvious that no one was going to be racing on that track any time soon, Raph had to decide whether to hope it would be dry enough to race on on Sunday morning, or make the best of it by giving the riders more timed descents on The Blue Run and call it a downhill comp. The riders voted to ride and up they went for two more runs with the knowledge that their two fastest times from the morning and afternoon combined would give them their placing for an event that could have so easily been a rained-off failure, but was turned into an exciting mix of downhill riding on a BX track. With the problem of how to race on a wet BX track solved, thoughts turned to how to jump on a wet freestyle course. But the freestylers were way ahead. Whilst the racing had been going on, Joe Dickson, Ben Rye, Josh Maddocks' Dad, and lots of others got together to build a jump out of wood and hay bales, including re-skinning a six foot kicker and nailing together some sheets of ply for a landing. With the jump finished it need testing, which quickly turned into a sunset session with Brindy putting down backflips and switch backflips. Stu Lugger, Kynan Goggin and Josh Maddocks nailing 540's, and Jamie Johnstone showing us some huge 360's. We were also treated to some synchronised riding with a shifty-train from Max Rye, Sam Frost and Adam Cooke, and a tweaked-grab-train from Leo Gorman and Andy Brind. With darkness setting in, a bit of Ray-Mears-fire-wood-gathering meant everyone had a campfire to play with, jump over, or sit around. The catering tent served chicken tikka. Then of course there was the Saturday night party in the huge party tent with bands, beat boxers and a DJ plus a massive beer tent, it was set to be a good one. Everyone gradually emerged from their various fires after dinners had been eaten and the dancing (or fighting, hard to say) lead by Steve ‘on the floor' Birkbeck went on until no one was left standing
The freakstyling got under way with each rider having five runs, to go big and put in some solid runs to impress the judges. The Under-14's included little Josh Lincoln doing 180's on the dirt jumps with Caitlin Leach in the Ladies, Ryan Bunting, Adam Cooke, and Joe Leonard doing backflips in the Under-18's, and Mark Peck stomping 180's in the Masters. In the Seniors Joe Dickson went for a huge frontflip but slid out at the bottom of the landing, much to the amusement of Andy Ramsey who shouted, "You should have built it bigger! You've only got yourself to blame." The crowd also enjoyed Simon Neck's backflip to 50-50 grind down the edge of the landing. As the rain set in during the third run, some of the riders called it a day leaving only the hardy to continue including Joe Dickson and Josh Maddocks, both going for some really nice fives. With five runs completed we broke for some lunch (or dinner if you're Scully) and to give the ATBA time collate the scores to find out who would be riding in the Elite Jam. The weather confused things for a while but once the landing was carpeted, the kicker moved back, and the kids removed from the top of the jump, the Elite Jam got under way with the crowd providing "Oooohhh....wwweeeee" sound effects for each jump. We saw backflips, fives, cork fives, and sevens from Brindy. We saw Simon Neck ride away from his fourth backflip attempt. And we saw some huge laid-out backflips and huge fives from Jamie Johnstone. Zac Hearne fived, Josh started corking his fives, and Brindy added cannonballs to his corked fives. Then the kicker was moved back again, leaving the riders with a 17 foot gap to clear. This was too much for Simon who hooked up his trucks landing a backflip, ripped the truck from the deck and left himself hanging upside down by one foot from the side of the jump. Obviously lots of spectators rushed to help him, but only after photos were taken. Joe continued to impress with his first backside corked five stalefishes. Kynan caught the cork bug and began corking his fives, but the real trick of his to watch were his super high and tight 720's. The Elite Jam ended with a 180, 360, 540, 720 train just as the sun started to peak through the clouds. Where else can you get this kind of entertainment for free? All that was left to do was pack up, and gather round for the prize giving. Steve Birkbeck got on the mic and said a massive thanks to all the ATBA and especially Raph La Roche, all the Haredown crew, and everyone who made the final of the ATBA National Series 2009 work so well in such difficult conditions. As the final competition in the best series of mountainboard competitions in the world, Haredown '09 did not disappoint! First place results are as follows: Downhill Freestyle
words by Roger S :) pics by The Dirt Monkeys |
