Currently in the throws of moving house, which means that internet access is a bit spartan. Lots of exciting pictures of Moelfre, Trampolines, Downriver Freestyle and more to come….
Wow! I must have been busy, it’s ages since I last wrote anything on here.
Over the Easter break myself and Jon Davies lead the Flowfree trip to the Massif Central mountains of France. We had a rocking time and I can’t wait to get back out there. Read more about that on the FF Blog - http://www.flowfree.co.uk/ff-blog/
I’ve been boating a fair bit, hanging about on the streets with my longboard, flatwater squirting, BBQing, and riding my bike downhills. All good fun… not much work left now until the holidays and Norway!
The Collective - Pic by Mitch
Chris G at Cherry Pie
BBQ (note the uberlow Ystrad)
Moelfre Uplift weekend; Dusty! Pic Chris G
Moelfre’s Final Step Down. Pic Chris G, HDR TL
Means of Production is being re-released on a with the mighty VAS distribution, who also stock such mentalness and CLAIM - Greatest Ski Movie Ever and Black Book - A day in the life of some bloke from South Africa.
All very exciting as I feature for the best part of 2 seconds! Woop. I was on the “Shoot” or “holiday” if you prefer to Italy a couple of years ago. Here’s one shot from the trip that really sticks in my mind…
Chris Eastabrook, Cave Drop, Semenzini. If you’re gonna get it wrong, you might as well get it really wrong!
Means of Production, a Film by Max Bilbow, Starring the Voice of TV’s Tony Bilbow, and Oscar (wilde) Nominated Actress Tom Parker goes global in just under a month. Check it at http://www.mopmovie.co.uk
If you want to help make MOP the greatest British Export since the Crusades and Domestic Violence, get yourselves over to the site and watch the trailer!
5 Days, 5 Trail Centres, 2 kilos of pasta, and countless tubs of pesto…
A small group of us abandoned snowy Wales for a jaunt up to the excellent 7 Stanes mountain bike centres of Southern Scotland. What follows is a brief account and plenty of pictures.
(Pic Matt Derry)
Day 0 - Head to Mabie. Arrive, it gets dark, we ride the Mini X and Skills tracks. It is a balmy 12 degrees and we all ride in shirts and shorts! Winner!
Day 1 - Mabie’s red route; at about 19km it’s manageable on silly bikes, and has some enjoyable sections of North Shore. We discover Chris is a secret expert! Ride the Mini X again in the daylight. Drive to Dalebeatie, ride the taster loop, it gets dark as we finish!
Me tackling one of the higher sections of slippery log “North Shore” (Pic MD)
Day 2 - Dalbeatie, Red route; 30km but pretty flat. We’d already ridden the taster loop so were excited. Most of the good stuff was in the taster loop, but there were a couple of awesome slab features. We made a day of it and took sarnies. I discovered that single ply Maxxis tyres really really suck. We drove on to Ae, and rode the Omega man as it got dark.
The Slab - beware of a much harder lead in! Pic MD
More slab action, Pic Mitch
Day 3 - Ae is all about downhill! We hit the fire road gap before breakfast, and I spent the morning then sorting out my MRP which I had adjusted while coming up short. Cheers to the chap in the Ae bike shop who took a power drill to it! After a second lap of the DH track we drove to Glentress and rode the freeride park in the dark (spot a theme here…)
Road Gap at Ae, Pic MD
Chris G dropping the box at the end of Glentress. Pic TL
Day 4 - Glentress. Neil took his new steed and Mitch his new forks for a lap of the Glentress Red. The rest of us hiked up the fireroad to the top of Spooky woods, hammered down through that, grumped that Super G was shut, and found a shortcut to the Ewok Village, a hillarious section of North Shore on the Black route. The descent from that was one of the best sections of trail centre trail I’ve ever ridden, raw and rocky. We then rode the dirt jumps and wall rides of the freeride park well into the dark.
SeeSaw in the Ewok Village. Pic MD
Flowy tabletop action in the freeride park. Pic Chris G.
CameraPhone multiflash action. That’s me, twice, in one exposure with no photoshop Pic Chris G, Neil and Matt!
Day 5 - Innerleithen Downhill. A long push to the top and a great blast down “Make or Break” the jump riddled route (We can get steep rooty muddy DH in Wales anyday!). Fast, flowy and with some pretty big step downs and hips it was a good way to round off the trip before the blast home.
Stepdown on Make or Brake. Pic CG
Matt in the open middle section. Pic CG.
The team was … Tom Laws, Chris Georgiou, Matt Derry, Neil Bridgestock, and Carl Mitch Mitchell.
The major casualties were Chris’s back falling of North Shore at pace, my elbow for falling off a tabletop in the dark, Mitch’s forks, Neils iDrive (and then wallet!) and untold numbers of trees! Cheers all.
Someone once said they didn’t think there was any decent downhill biking in North Wales… they were wrong.
Making the most of the extra free time I’ve had, I’ve been out biking and boating quite a lot. On Friday me and Mitch picked a route at random from www.ridetheclywds.com, a modest 30km. It was a pretty good route, a few wasted descents and not much singletrack, but epic views.
Pics by me and Mitch Carlell
Its been a long time since I updated this… anyway, here are a couple of links that should fill you in…
Lowri’s Update on the Christmas Holidays
I’ve mainly been spending the last week or so scoping out the biking around my house, I’ve found more within half an hour than I though imaginable, I just need to get a new spade for those digging days!
Today I was at the Dee while some FlowFree coaching went down, and took the time to play with my radio flash stuff.
Coming up - biking, boating and maybe a trip to the Massif Central - Details here…
Made it to half term and not died. Bonus!
Teifi Tour in Llandysul. Normally an opportunity to get riotous and not paddle anything good. Luckily it rained loads and we managed to hit the middle Tawe and the Mellte at “classic” levels. Nothing too pushy but plenty of fun, and in the sun to boot.
Hiking to the “cheat’s” puton. Photo by John “Perfect Day” Vincent
Keeping my eye in for SlopeJam 2009…. Maybe. Photo by Mike “Classic Burning Man” Moxon
Lowri resurfacing from some sort of sketchy pitony thing. Photo again by MM
Hopefully some more fun before the week is out!
A few weeks ago I helped the Lowri and the FlowFree gang host the first of many of the revived WCA Freestyle Development weekenders in Llandysul. A great time was had by all despite terrible water levels, and the boundless enthusiasm of so many young and not so young paddlers was great to see! On the second day there was small competition through one of the rapids, with a chance to show off the skills they had been learning and developing from making eddies, busting tailies or going for the elusive Loop…. I took a load of photographs from that, which I have now got round to hosting. You can check them out, and also order prints at www.digibug.com/tlphotography
Youngest on the water, slickest into the eddies, James Cooper gets an end to impress the judges…
Keep an eye on www.flowfree.co.uk for more info on the next weekender!
I’ve moved house, started a new course, and done lots of work, some play, and some photography.
Lining up for the Falls of Falloch, low water. Pic - Lowri Davies
Chris G heading for a faceplant. Classic waterfall fun.
Love my F4 L Series!
Chris Eastabrook runs the Gnorway Weir on the Ystrad.