Today I booked in to see the shoulder specialist to see what is wrong with it this time. I am expecting some kind of operation and that combined with crap weather means I will probably have less riding in the coming months.

So rather than sit doing nothing I decided to start the campaign for a more extreme biking area in Southampton. We have the Southampton Bike Park which is great but limited in the technical stuff we can put there as it is open to all and free to ride.

My current plan is to take over the left side of the hill where the ski slope is and build a set of trails, drops, seesaws, balance beams and generally silly fun stuff.

I will be setting up a petition soon so please keep an eye out for it but this is really just to log Day 1.

Remember it took over a year to get permission for the Southampton Bike Park and I designed funded and organised the labour for that. This one will be bigger and need proper capital funding and the organisation for ‘Pay to Ride’. Current thoughts are use the existing Ski Hut to do the admin and tickets so not too much investment there. I was thinking somewhere between £5 and £10 per day with some kind of monthly ticket.

Let’s see how Active Nation respond. I will try to keep this thread updated as and when there is progress.

WCA

Fantastic, I’m local and would be happy to help in whatever way I can. Whilst there’s obviously riding in lordswood, a proper mtb skills area/ trails would be great. Less likely to be hit by a stolen motorcross bike. Early days but could the thought process be for all weather trails like the blue at qecp or moors valley. Be great for a local option after heavy rain

I want to make it as all year as possible and with as much variety as possible, this of the existing Southampton Bike Park but with bigger stunts and no little pink processes on balance bikes