CHOPPER IS TENTATIVELY EA SING INTO IT NOW AND THROWING FULLY EXTENDED SUICIDE NO HANDERS
he’s straight back up, with only a minor dent to his pride. It’s hard to be sure who’s actually the fastest, because soon it all descends into a big group train down the track. One thing’s for sure though, and that’s if it’s being judged on style then Sam’s the victor again. Hanging off the back and bouncing through the rhythmed straights he’s looking more like a supercross pro than a mountain biker, but saying this, he’s not the only one cranking things up. Across on Shakira (named for its hip jumps, if you know your RnB bangers) Deaks and local boy Jake are duelling it out, throwing flatter and flatter tabletops until they’ve got their wheels well past horizontal. The session prompts Chopper – who’s obviously feeling the effects of the painkillers now – to drop in and remind everyone who’s boss with a clicked one-foot turndown. One run of the day so far and he’s nailed it, but afterwards he returns to his bench with a look that suggests it took more of a toll on his back than his casual style suggested.
It’s not the size…
It would be easy to stick around and session these jumps all day long, as we reckon many from the Southampton scene have lost a good few summer evenings doing. But with the clock ticking on and ominous weather on the horizon for later in the afternoon, it’s time to bundle the bikes into the van and head just east of the city to our second stop.
Bike Park Bishopstoke (BPB) is another volunteer-dug venue, but in a more typical MTB setting than where we’ve been this morning. There are another seven or eight trails to keep us busy here, all fairly short but packed with features and options that peel off one way or the other to send a taller take-off or bigger gap. It reminds us of a compact version of one of our favourite local haunts – Wind Hill B1kepark in Somerset. The boys take little encouragement to get stuck right in. Sam is defying the laws of physics on his e-bike,
slinging it fully horizontal and only just getting things rubber side down again on the point of landing. Chopper is tentatively easing into it now too, and by that we mean boosting the park’s biggest gaps on the Sublime Chaos line and throwing fully extended suicide no-handers. Evidently, an ex-slopestyle pro’s version of ‘having a chilled one’ is a bit different to ours. “Get the hands off, Deaks!” shouts Chopper, goading Ben as he pushes back up for round two. “You’ll have Crankworx knocking at your door, mate.” A veteran to the peer pressure, Deaks ignores the bait and instead stamps his own authority on proceedings with a massive sideways whip off one of the big tombstone take-offs.
The Deakinator’s wheels touch down and, at that exact moment, we feel the first drops of rain begin to fall. It’s a reminder that the dry riding days for this season are coming to an end and here at Bishopstoke the park will soon be shutting down for the winter. This annual hibernation period gives the crew a chance to patch things up after a summer of hard riding and translate some of their new ideas onto the dirt ready for the next year. It’s not like we’ve been struggling for stuff to ride today, but the crew behind the park promise us that come spring everything will be running even better. Seems we’d better pay them a return visit then, because right now the sky above the trees has turned black and there are raindrops the size of water bombs smashing through the canopy. Run for cover! Looks like winter’s making an entrance, folks.