Intermediate course 150112

Ah, finally some glorious sunshine and blue skies! A stunningly beautiful day which saw Gavin and Alistair attend the intermediate course to progress their riding further. To add to the excitement there were plenty of ice in certain places which gave the opportunity to teach ice riding. This was the first but not the last time I emphasized the importance of staying relaxed!

Gavin rediscovered skills from his childhood days such as wheelies and bunny hopping and to this added things such as power assisted front wheel lifts and track standing. Same for Alistair who confessed to normally just bombing through things which I have to say isn't such a bad idea even if it occasionally lacks flair and sophistication. For him the emphasis was to learn how to ride things slowly, by staying relaxed and moving your body weight correctly transferring it to either the back or the front of the bike at the right time.

The day saw a few hilarious dismounts with Alistair getting trapped on some roots and falling on top of me having picked a dangerous spot for some action photography and right at the end me unintentionally demonstrating the effects of loosing control of the bike and performing a swan dive gliding through the mud!

Great day and lovely participants! What more can you ask for!

Beginners course 301211

It was nice to get out and do one more course just before the end of the year. I had the pleasure of meeting Lissa whose very cautious approach had meant that she hadn't built up the confidence in riding technical terrain. She was joined by her husband writing a feature about the courses.

As usual we started off with the basic climbing and descending techniques as well as tight turns and it was very encouraging to hear Lissa's verbal feedback that suddenly everything felt so easy and effortless! I very rarely see anybody riding badly as I always make sure people know what to do before they have a go and this was definitely the case with Lissa who straight away applied every technique and rode stuff making it look easy! The instructions of looking further ahead were implemented in all the right places meaning that Lissa felt much more in control and could remain clipped into her SPDs and not as she had done previously un-clip when the terrain got harder. Her increase in confidence also meant she was happy ride much faster and to enjoy riding technical terrain.
Despite the horrid and rainy weather it was a very enjoyable day and a good way to finish 2011.