scruffian

I don’t have Sky, so I rarely get a chance to watch the extreme sports channel, and when I do it’s usually got surfing on, which gets boring after 10 minutes. I know that sometimes it has the x games or other BMX competitions on it though, and there are people who think that these events are selling out BMX to TV to make big bucks. While this may be true, I think it’s important to recognise some of the advantages of having big competitions like this available to the masses.

Generally people are afraid of the unknown, especially old people. Since most of the landowners in this country are old, when they see a group of young people digging up their woods, they get scared becasue they don’t understand what is going on, and they bring in the bulldozers.

More recently, when people have noticed the trails, they have been much more aware of what they are. They say things like “I’ve see this before on the television”. Their attitude is much more positive becasue they undertstand what you are doing and why. They aren’t scared any more, but are encourging instead.

So there is someting good about TV coverage.

There is one guy who has stopped a few times at Hoggs Green. He’s about 30 and he is always on an old mountain bike with his dog, and he always says “ryan nyquist, he’s the best.”

Josh taught me a lot about trails – I have only recently realised how much. He was one of the first people I met that dug and rode trails and he taught me a lot through the things he said and what he did.

I remember one of the first discussions we had was about the difference between dirt jumps and trails. I didn’t even realise that there was a difference until I met Josh. He showed me his jumps and explained how important it was to build jumps well, so they don’t fall apart all the time. Bulky was a word he used a lot.

I learnt a lot of digging skills in the woods with Josh. He taught me the slap/slide method of hitting in, and how to get a strong back and steep sides on the jumps.

Josh also taught me a lot of things without even realising probably. He would go and dig in the rain. He actually enjoyed digging. These were new ideas to me, but I have since realised that he was right. Digging is a creative process which can be enjoyable and rewarding. He usually dug by himself as well, which deserves respect. Seeing this example made me realise the amount of work and the level of commitment that good trails need. He would go digging after work for an hour, or half an hour – until it was too dark to see anything. Every spare moment was spent digging. For Josh digging wasn’t something you did with your friends on a spare Saturday afternoon, it was something that you did whenever you could: something we could all learn a lesson from.

Josh also made me rethink the possibilities of trails. Pieces of land that before I would have thought completely out of the question he would see potential in, and some of these actually worked out well – despite the closeness to the road for example.

Josh loves trails. I hope I can pass on some of the enthusiasm and motivation that he gave me.