So far I have ridden every day of 2023.
Mākara both days, but I have tried new trails both times.
An achievement today: I cleaned Starfish. I had to repeat one segment (a rooty peak after a tight corner and rock roll), but I got it the second time. I was stoked at being able to put together the rest of the trail, and we’ll see if I can keep it up.
I rode North Face today and yesterday, and it is magic apart from a scary as hell looking right hander, which I hope to get around soon. The rest of the trail is fine – it contains a bit more technical stuff than Peak Flow, but mostly rollable drops, a few tighter corners, and some slightly steeper terrain.
I attempted Lower Pōhatu. That was well beyond my current abilities. I guess I could ride 60% to 70% of it, and there were a few bits I walked that I should have attempted. It was not that I didn’t enjoy it or that it didn’t feel safe, there seemed to be enough time to anticipate upcoming features. Nevertheless I was really happy to have had a go and I am hopeful I can improve in future.
A few lessons:
- I need to ride more variety of the grade three and four trails at Mākara and elsewhere. The new stuff is building my skills more rapidly.
- I had the realisation yesterday that once I was on a feature, or something I needed to really think about, I could at a certain point just look ahead, knowing that the bike would handle it. This has been very helpful on rollable drops as I can get established on the roll, and once on it look ahead, and in the case of Starfish and Lower Pōhatu get a read on the upcoming feature.
- YouTube point of view riding videos are nothing like the trail. The best ones show someone riding the feature from different and narrower lens angles, the POVs lack detail of the steepness and texture of the trail. I already knew this, but looking at Lower Pōhatu after today’s ride it was really stark.