SCADSON FREERIDE PARK, DEVON
A feature-packed South West trail heaven, within spitting distance of the beach
We’ve been riding with BMX pro turned MTBer Matt Roe twice now and both times he’s been plagued by bad luck. The first time, we rocked up at Wiltshire’s Wind Hill B1kepark together, only for Matt to snap a stem bolt almost immediately. Today, he’s only just managed to make it to Scadson Freeride Park, with billowing black smoke and grinding noises issuing from the bonnet of his van. “I thought it was going to blow up on me,” he laughs, still shaking a little.
The breakdown truck he’s called isn’t far away, so Matt only has a short time window to ride in. This in mind, we forgo the warm-up and dive straight in with a descent of J-Line, one of the park’s four black trails. Within seconds we’re being sent skywards off a series of rhythmed doubles. This is alright for Matt, of course, who can ride this stuff with his eyes closed, as can Cornish slopestyler Tom Isted, who we’ve dragged across the border to ride today. Tom’s mission from the get-go seems to be to find lines that no one’s ridden before – or even considered riding, for that matter. Off a rooty drop into a short, steep downslope, he ignores the scrub option and instead veers right, pulls up and launches towards a huge tree. Narrowly avoiding the overhanging branches, Tom hips the bike and lands into a small patch of dirt between the splaying roots. He stays aboard, but the thud of bike bottoming out on timber and tyres bottoming out on rims
Trail blazers
It’s not hard to find something else to ride though. The woods where the park is built are packed with trails, or the remnants of old ones. Devonshire MTBers have been putting tyres to dirt here for years, but it wasn’t until 2016, when Rob Lister and a bunch of other keen locals formed the club and made Scadson into an official riding spot, that any structured trail building took place. Since then, the guys have shifted some serious dirt. There are currently seven different routes down the hill, but much more is planned, including a fullscale 4X track, a skills area and hopefully – Rob notes with crossed fingers – there’s the potential to expand into the adjacent portion of woodland.
Dan Grant is one of the main builders and he guides us around, enthusiastically pointing out the club’s handiwork. An impressive example is his wooden roll-in ramp, rigged up with an intricate system of tarps and guttering to provide a water source for the trails. We particularly enjoy the
descriptive names for the various trail features too: A & E, Coffin Drop, Butt Clencher, Devil’s Double and Wash Out Corner, named because… well you can guess why. By far the biggest earthmoving job on the hill has been the reshaping of three large jumps at the bottom called ‘Dirty Burger’. Promising the biggest airtime potential, we stop for a play-around, and it doesn’t take long for Matt to stamp his authority on them. He carves a table topped whip off the first step-down, before using the steep face of the second jump to launch upwards towards the tree canopy, dropping a foot, extending the leg and tipping the bar flat. Matt’s BMX days may be in the past, but he’s very much still got that ultra-slick 20in style.
Knock out runs
With limited elevation on offer here at Scadson, the club have had to be clever in the way that they use the terrain. The name of their only blue trail, Training Wheels, may not conjure up images of adrenaline-fuelled berm blasting, but it’s actually one of the park’s highlights – a switch backing descent of well-sculpted turns, which ekes out far more from the small hill than you might expect. We ride it in a train, following Dan and Matt from the club as they bounce from one berm to the next, sliding a foot-off inside on one corner and then popping up onto the outside banking around the next. Threading it around a tree, Matt leans in so far it looks as though he’s about to K.O. himself, but then, milliseconds before impact, he contorts his shoulder, whistles around the trunk and drops back into the main rut, carrying crazy speed. We know we’ve got our work cut out on the next run when he offers to guide us down one of the park’s natural lines – a steeper and more direct route down the hill, with tricky off-cambers and twowheeled drifts through a carpet of leaves.
Good air day
Step Up is the other of Scadson’s steeper downhills, and just before the jump that gives the
A SWITCH BACKING DESCENT EKES OUT SO MUCH MORE FROM THE SMALL HILL THAN YOU’ D EXPECT
trail its name is a bombhole. The line here is to pump in and keep it low over the crest out. Well, that’s unless you’re Tom, who rides it once before announcing confidently: “I reckon I could jump out of that.” The retort from everyone else is, “Jump to where?” Tom points off to one side at a nearvertical banking of grass and ferns. “Down there.” Dan looks at us and shakes his head, and we agree, happy to sit this one out too.
Unperturbed, Tom takes a couple of test runs, before lining up for it properly. Coming in at full speed, he yanks up hard, soars way over the blind lip of the lander and is still 10ft up in the air going past the sweet spot. Touching down on the last few feet of downslope, he slides and wrestles the bike back into line with the trail. For most people, that would be enough, but before we can even suggest moving on, Tom’s already turned tail and is running back up for another go. Three more times he hits it, getting higher and more sideways with each attempt, but never making the run-out look less terrifying. It’s only when he lands almost into the face of the next jump, flips over the bars and sends Gareth – who’s filming it all – diving for cover, that he decides he’s happy to stop. Whoever said southerners were soft clearly hasn’t met Tom.
We’re just over the border in Devon right now though, where they put cream on their scones before jam. They’re also partial to a beer by the beach after a day’s riding, so while we reluctantly pack up the van and Matt prepares for a lift home in the tow truck, the rest of the crew head off to the beach to take in the hops and sea air. If this is just another day in Devon, then life is good here.