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Moorland Build Day - Gap Step Down

Wednesday, 03 December 2008

Last Friday me and a mate took the day off to do a bit of building up on the local moors. Paul's been building up there a while now and with stuff of his work being featured in previous Freeride Junkie posts. Obviously we took our bikes up there as well as it was such a nice day it would of been rude not to. Also, Paul had not yet done the gap step up that he had built a couple of months earlier...so he wanted to try it today whilst there was someone there just in case anything went wrong!!

First off Paul took me way up the hill to show me a new feature he had built. He told me it was his tribute to stainburn. If you check the photo below you'll see what he means. It is an extensive technical stone 4ft high wall balance ride with a right had turn and a steep exit then straight onto a 2ft rock drop. Sweet as!

Wall Balance Ride

Anyway we grabbed the tools that were up there and took them lower down the hill to the main area, affectionately known as the Stone Yard due to the amount of stone still left there from old ruined farm buildings. On the way down we discussed a few ideas about linking the upper and lower sections of the trail and what features we could incorporate using the natural lay of the land to help us. A large double and a hip jump should be in the pipeline soon...

Down at the Stone Yard we sessioned the existing features and Paul manged to nail his step up! Didin't manage to get footage of Paul but here's some of yours truly...not the cleanist run as I over shot the step down landing. It really is a great combo though as the speed generated from the step down sets you up perfect for the step up...unless you really overshoot the drop...but you'll definitely know if that happens!

Anyway, after having a play we got to work on the reason we were here - to be build a 12ft by 6ftish step down.First job was to move a huge stone slab, weighing probably nearly 1/4 ton, about 5 metres up to the top of the landing transition. You can see the slab in place on the picture at the top of this post and also our vision of the feature. We figured that it would be ideal for if you came up short on the landing and it would also hold the landing transition perfectly in place after repeated landings. We reckon it will take about 4 weeks of building and settling before the feature is rideable. This also includes time needed to build a small stone walls to hide the take off ramp from passers by!

Next stage of the build will be building up the landing transition and then once this is complete we will move onto the take off. This will be the tricky bit...but to help us with our maiden launch we will be putting in a temporary north shore ladder just in case we come up short!