After thinking I got a little bit of air out the miniramp at corby I went to Bay66 and realised I was still terrified and not really doing it right. I've got to a nice point in the skatepark now where some people know who I am and are friendly and encouraging and understand what I'm trying to do and give tips and advice. I was still struggling and got frustrated.
Mongoose fixed me up a little meeting with my new teamie, James Ivett. I was a bit like "woah, I'm gonna have to ride in front of a proper rider" But when he turned up with a big grin and even bigger high-5 I was chilled. James is very cool, fun and funny and took me away from the little quarter to the big section of the bowl "yeah, its scarier, but it's easier" He gave me some tips, and, keen to reward my new tutor I tried to absorb what he said and put it into action. When I head little "yay"'s coming from the boys on either side of the bowl I knew I was getting it. I grinned whilst I was riding. Here's what he said:
- don't jump with both wheels at the same time, it's like a vertical bunny hop, front then back
- don't jump too early, wait to feel the bump of the coping with your front wheel and bounce off it
- don't jump too late or you'll travel forward onto the deck and that's when bad things happen
- Muscle memory will eventually kick in so you won't have to think of these things in the future
Here's what I thought of myself:
- if I did it about twice in a row I would suddenly remember what I was doing, panic and put my foot down the next time
- I looked at the coping to make sure my front wheel went over it, and as soon as it did, turned my head back down looking at the ramp. That meant I didn't see how high (or in my case not high) I went. This is weird, it's good because you don't get to be scared but it's strange because you don't feel that you go in the air so you have to rely on people telling you.
- Once I'd had a few good and bad go's I didn't want anyone giving me more advice, I just wanted to be left alone to practice
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