Slopestyle or Dirt Jumps?

I recently accidently stumbled across some decent dirt jumps in Liverpool whilst on an XC ride, With the brakeless BMX boys making it look so easy to get at least 5' off each jump with 1 handers, tabletops, turndowns etc I was feeling a little inspired so I dropped the seat and had a go. The first thing I noticed was the need to 'pump' and although I understand the principal from my skating days, it is slightly different with a MTB between your legs! But some guys turned up one on a Norca and one on a NS! :D showing me its possible! So I'm returning there this weekend to learn some skills and to get some pics for you.

Im mentioning this because I have similar plans for my new location which is flat, I've come to realise that I prefer the old location, mainly because it has a slight downhill gradient, meaning faster speeds with less effort, Is this slopestyle or lazyness?

Anyway, the new location hasn't changed much, I've added some wooden pallet's to the drop in

filled in the middle of the first jump, well sort of, with no near water source its difficult to compact the dry, sandy soil

cleared the landing, so that I can test the jump without getting tangled up in brambles or getting impaled on tree stumps

I dont know how banked jumps go down with the general public but I like the idea, it was one of my favourite type of transitions in skating so hopefully it will be similar on a bike, this one is big!

So plenty of work to do! my essay will have to wait its turn!

I got Gas

Got what I needed to do in the studio done, so I headed over to the new location to get started, first task, Clearance;


The dreaded bow saw cleared the trees up no problem,
the roots were fairly easy to remove, soil is soft and loose


run to 1st jump cleared, onto building a jump!



add some steps to start ramp, throw on a found rug, people can be so nice!


My Gas roller! much like a steam roller, just not as good, in fact it was poor at its job, oh well!



thought i'd bury it instead and make the 1st take off



My vision is to make this jump, into another, landing just before those 2 trees, big 180 berm to the left and utilise them mounds for further jumps :D



Extremely flammable! unfortunately they're all empty :(



The beer keg is empty too, but makes for a good seat :)



The soil here is very exciting, it changes colour and texture as you dig deeper!
brown dirt
yellow sand
black coal
red clay stuff

I could get really arty and colour coordinate the trails....but I'll leave that for another time!

Well, sun is going down, Im hungry and tired, same again tomorrow :D

Relocation

Google maps can be so handy!

I spent an evening scanning my local area for potential NON-PUBLIC places to build some jumps, several spots looked ideal, and are actually very close. Narrowed down;

1. about 300 meters from my house is a bit...sorry a large wasteland behind a wall, there is access via a small gap and its right by a police station too!, the spot is superflat but no building materials so it'd be digging, I swung my pick into the ground and sparks came out...Yeah lots n lots of rubble :(

superflat, very exposed and someone will eventually buy the land

2. 400 meters away from my house is a small industrial estate, part of it is quite possibly a car park with the odd tree sporadically growing from it, but on the other side are more trees, so I went to take a look, there is a low starting ramp in the form of a disused railway embankment, on the other side of that there is an abandoned garage/warehouse, tons of building material.

The ground is fairly soft with very good rich fertile soil, in fact I may take a few barrow fulls home for the garden! lots of overgrowth but very easy to clear, in fact I cleared the start ramp in around 20 mins this morn before breakfast!

I will be building my new jumps here, see how longs these ones last!

There is also a small plot of wasteland...(I just live in the centre of a giant wastleland! Mad Max anyone?)...at the back of my house, and with the new alleygates just been erected, it won't be the junkies hangout, may pop a tabletop here just for the hell of it!

I'm off to the studio now, which is pointless, I know I'm gonna be thinking about and planning the trails instead!

DISASTER!

I thought I'd leave the studio early today and get a dig on in the last bit of sun, when I arrived I discovered such a tragedy....



The Deposit: only someone decided to make a full withdrawal

Old Mans Welly got a good kickin!

the second jump... well, the hard compact, concrete like dirt saved the majority of it!

I was pretty speechless when I arrived with pick n spade over my shoulder, I was hoping to complete the deposit and have a little session, puts phase to that idea!!!

please have a few moments silence....

I managed to compose my distraught self and aimlessly collected some of the scattered logs, my thoughts were to pile it up and begin the rhythm section I have talked about, no point leaving them laying around.

It seems that the piles of dirt can't be vandalised too much with bare hands, since I have packed them down hard and soaked them with water resulting in solid jumps. However, where the bare bones of the structures are revealed, they can be tore apart, dont forget, I didn't nail Old Man's Welly together....

There's for building jumps in a public space, where most people seem happy with the project.

Since a lot of hard work went in to those features, Im debating wether I continue to build or find a new spot...

New feature on the way!

So I went out today with pick, spade and the dreaded bow saw :) It rips through trees like a hot knife through butter GET ONE!!!!!!!!

I didn't know what to work on, maybe I should complete features, but instead I decided to start a new one!!!!!!

After riding Cwmcarn with the Jackrabbitt boys I learned that I like drops so Im putting one on Bold Freeride Park (since now it is beginning to resemble one!)



The Deposit: well what else would you call it since it drops into a bank?




For those of you familiar with the progress so far, this is situated just after 'Old Man's Welly' and you'd have to skip the welly, go around the back of it to get to the drop...I want to give you choices on this park :)

I highly recommend insect repellant as I was attacked by a whole army of strange bugs who wanted to chew on my sweat and swinging around with a spade just doesn't look good!


I'm gonna see how this one rides before making bigger drops!!

Updates

Check out the page: The Pinnacle for latest work

However here is a second jump I built, just after the pinnacle
I'm aiming for kickers so that the jumps can be tricked off!


I know that some people recommend having trails a little closer, but I like the more open feel so I can ride them fast...