Live To Ride BMX: the "TRIP" concluded

After lunch the MegaRamp was opened up for sessioning. Most people headed up on the hill to at least watch what went down. After filling out a seven page waiver you could set foot on the massive new structure. Safety was a big concern and those that looked too squirrelly were cut off. Boozedawg was one of those booted after blowing off the pedals on a sketchy attempt. Shad gave it a few tries but decided it wasn't for him and was content to watch. My first run at it I think I was almost half way up the roll in. I wasn't sure how the lip was going to feel and wanted to feel it out. It felt good and so on following runs I slowly worked my way higher till I was landing on the top right before the "box" started angling to the landing. Shea Nyquist was the first person to clear it after pedaling about six times down the roll in. He overshot by quit a bit, but it was then I realized I would have to pedal at it to make it. Lance Mosley wasn't down with tagging so he went for it first try and got bucked by the lip and ejected. After seeing him, Matt Mardesetch, and Ryan Nyquist bail it was even harder not to be nervous. I tried not to look down the roll in too much while waiting my turn and on my next try I took three pedals thinking it would be enough to clear but not overshoot. Wrong! I cleared the flat on top for the first time but hit a small slant a bit over a bike length long before the landing and then bounced a ways down the landing. Oooooohs from the crowd watching and an increased heart rate. Scary! I was determined not to let the opportunity pass me by to do this and headed back up for another go. More pedals this time and I made it to the landing but pitched forward a bit too much and landed foot down. More OOOooohs and heart pounding! Next go I stuck it clean and was content to call it quits. All and all there were about seven people, including myself,f that cleared it. Check that off my bucket list! I headed back to down the hill to ride with Marcus and missed all the big tricks. Mosley flipped it, Birdwell superman seat-grabbed it, and Ryan Nyquist 360'd it.

Not sure who took this pic but you can check out more here.

Damn that looks big! Cell photo Scott Hagnas.

The rest of the day we spent riding ourselves into exhaustion. Riley worked on some backflips and got some on the resi ramp. I finally sacked up and 360'd the box jump. I was probably more stoked on that then the MegaRamp. It's something I should do without hesitation but over the past few years my confidence with spinning has been at an all time low. Thanks Woodward for the confidence boost.

After the session ended there was an after party in the lodge. Free food, free beer and bmxers is always a great recipe for good times. Dave Nourie, Anthony, and a couple other flatlander's put on a show in the bar. Dave is quite the showman. When the two kegs ran dry and the bar closed up a group of us moved on to one of the rooms. The room stay was short lived after the occupants realized that if they wanted their room to be inhabitable, the party better continue elsewhere. The whole first floor of the lodge was awoken by everyone looking for someone else's room to wreck. I don't think a door or window was missed by someone banging on it. No more party animals, so we hung out in the parking lot where Jeremy and Boozedawg kept us laughing with their drunken antics. Ben Ward gave me another reason not to have a facebook by posting pics of Jeremy DRUNK on his, resulting in an angry voicemail from the wife wondering why he wouldn't answer the phone when she called to check on him. Too funny. How no one knocked one out Boozedawg is beyond me. He was sac tapping or thumb in the bumming everyone within reach. Quite a few people will remember him after that night for sure! Needless to say we didn't make it up and get on the road by eight as was "planned". We left Woodward around 11 am. The Portland bunch of the crew got home around 5 am the next morning. Quite an unforgettable road trip. Check out the pics below and links for more event coverage.