Llangollen BDS!

Well, last weekend was round 3 of the Halo BDS in Llangollen, in Wales. The weekend started off at around 4 on Friday, when I picked up Chaz (from Juice Lubes, check out their site at www.juicelubes.co.uk) and Jacob Gibbins (www.jacobgibbins.co.uk). It was awesome weather, and we packed up the car and headed over to pick up Dom. Thinking we'd have plenty of room in the boot for everything, it ended up spilling out into the back seats. No biggie, just a little bottom out of the rear suspension over every bump.

The journey up was awesome. Plenty of banter and some interesting (or boring, depending on how interested you are in every single detail about the wheel) stories, and some funny jokes about an Indian Restaurant that was coming soon (does that mean they're on their way over from India?). We got to the track at about 7.30 ish, and because I thought we were special enough (well, we did have a Team manager, World Cup photographer, a sponsored rider and err... me) we parked up in the pit field, under a nice big tree. Awesome, lots of shade in the day so I thought! We pitched up the tent, and headed out on a track walk. The first part of the awesome weekend! That track was nuts even before it started getting mashed out!
Headed back down and met Adam Price and his mate Joe Taylor. Sat down and watched Follow me, where Adam and Joe consistently went on about how 'they'd been there' every time some North American bike park came on ;)
Then, the decision of pitching up under a tree came back and bit me when we realized that the bumpy ground with all the tree roots wasn't especially comfy to sleep on.
Saturday morning rolls around and I was up early to get on an uplift and head up to the top. The uplift was the right idea. Just a bit poorly executed on the saturday. It was awesome weather all day, and I got some pretty cool shots. Seeing Brendan and Gee and the top dogs on that sort of track really blows you away.
Saturday evening me and Dom headed in to Llangollen and got some food, then went down to the river for a little wash. Really nice place when you're in the town center! Got back and watched some Travis Pastrana DVD's, and went to bed about 11.30 ready for racing the next day.
Sunday I headed up on the hill as early as possible to try and get the pro's on the spot I hadn't shot all weekend and got an awesome shot of Brendan that I was stoked on!
Then back down to the Juice Lubes tent for the start of qualifying, then up to the last few corners for the Senior/Expert/Elite qualifying.
Back down to the Juice Lubes for a massive media quids and riders chillout. That place was where all the action was going down with Rich Thomas coming over for a long chat along with a load of other guys. A bad crash on the last step down meant everything was delayed for an hour so we just chilled in the sun!
Up to the final step-downs for race runs, and Brendan took the win by a second after being 4 seconds down in quali. Results of the weekend go to Al Bond in 5th and Rich Thomas in 6th. Wicked rides from both of them! Also massive props to Brayton coming into 8th after smashing up two fingers in half on the saturday and riding Michael Jackson style on the Sunday!
Best weekend of the year so far, and another funny drive home hearing all Chaz's funny stories from the Royal Mail.
Anyway, here's the vidder!

Halo BDS Rd 3 - Llangollen >>

Lots of new happenings.

It's been a while since I posted on here, which is pretty bad (or is it? Not sure if anyone even reads this!) but I've been doing loads of cool stuff recently.

The most significant of which was a shoot with Will Soffe and Greg Hampton for a piece of college work for which I had to produce a short documentary. Obviously I chose downhill, as I've got pretty easy access to some really quick guys, so I thought I'd really be able to show what it's all about to some people who don't know really know what downhill is. The plan was (or so I thought) to shoot Will, and Ash Mullane (who is now back on a bike! Great news for the south west.) at Tavi woodlands. But after a little misunderstanding, I ended up going to Swansea to shoot just Will and his friend Greg instead.
The forecast wasn't looking great at all with torrential rain forecast all day. Anyway, got there at about 10 in the morning, met Will and Greg and headed up to Kilvey. Then, after about an hour, the sun came out and we had an awesome day of weather and shooting.
In my opinion this is easily my best video to date, and I'm super happy with it.
(Photo's courtesy of Sam Davies)

And then of course, here's the video!

Will Soffe Bio - Kilvey >>


Also, the weekend before this, was the Southern champs. I haven't ridden for ages, and I haven't raced for even longer so it was really cool to see everyone again and just have a nice day out. Track was awesome and I had two shocking runs and smashed up my shifter leaving a lovely single-speed race runs. Anyway, Will Soffe won, over World Cup racer Harry Molloy making him Southern Champion!

Llangollen is next weekend and I'm so excited to see that place, and see the World Champion and a load of other top guys kill it on it.

I've also had a look at next years WC schedule and decided I'm gonna try and get out to all the Euro rounds including the World Champs!

Next update will include the video from Llangollen to keep posted for that!