Today was one of them days that just go down in history as epic… Epic beyond all comprehension.

We all hooked up for some fun on the trails at the forest of dean. My lad on his fairly new CUBE and me on the Parkwood. From the get-go my lad was cracking on and riding really well, Taff showing us some cool trails. We stopped at a little skills section with some northshore type drops and sections. Now they may not look as epic to you as they were to me and him, but as soon as the adults had ridden them my lad looks at me “can i do it daddy?”…. Sheesh… it’s 12-14” vertical drop and quite easy to bash your cranks on a small bike, go over the bars and be in a world of trouble.

We looked over it, discussed the riding style, bum back a bit, jump off it as you would a kerb, keeping pedals level… etc.. He attacked it… Woosh… no problem… “again again”….. So he did it 3-4 times.
Lots of laughs and jokes and he’s having a ball.

His hill climbing is still great, but since getting the new bike his confidence has gone up by tonnes… he’s now hitting stuff and i’m thinking “Damn, are you really doing that ! ! ” Proud doesn’t do any justice to how i felt.

We ended up at a Bombhole and Taff and his lad do it… my boy looks at me “ok?”…. Why not… he’s then launching the jump, trying to get his position right and get some air time… Just awesome…

We did Blues and Reds, reds are normally above his pay grade, but he absolutely made mincemeat of them… a couple of crashes on wet muddy roots didn’t put him off, just attacking trails and as soon as he saw something he could launch off, he was on his way…. He did a proper tricky red around Spooky Woods with some Northshore and then a small (but scary for 8 years old i bet) rock garden like they barely even registered as techincal ! Just flying through it and cracking on with laughs…

After we’d finished he went out with Taffs lad, came back laughing “we did some more reds daddy….” sometimes all you can do is smile and feel the warm glow of happiness.

Brilliant day out and great to make a few new friends… Just epic !

Crust launching

Fraction too late on the camera for my lad

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=902hM37ZjDs[/VIDEO]

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XrGdroiIjI[/VIDEO]

😀

Whooooop!

grand!

Likes 😀

Good lad(s).
I re-vamped my lads Hotrock over Xmas, 10spd, set of Sids, proper grown up tyres. He was like a mad terrier this afternoon. Drops me on climbs, he’s 11. 😕

Ha. Best thread for ages 8)

Enjoy it while you can, you’ll not be able to keep up soon and will just be driving the uplift vehicle ! You won’t be able to keep him away from Morzine for too many more years, nor should you.

By the way you can put this in the Bike thread.

My mate smashed his entire nose in on an innocuous rocky chute today. Why? Because he fell off, your kid rolled it all and totally in his stride. Fair play. Oh to be young again…