Coming back from Troll Wall was an extremely disappointing event. Over the last few months I’ve gone through a whole host of different stages of motivation and am just now beginning to work out what the plan is.
In March and April this year all I wanted to do was local cragging, and I climbed 4 or 5 times a week at our local venues and got right back up to my old grade high-points of E4 and Fr7b. This I assumed was the start of a great summer but just as quickly as I had committed to climbing everyday the desire wained. The good news was that the bikes are always ready and waiting in the garage.
I’ve ridden mountain bikes seriously since I was about 12 and spent all my teenage years riding trials. The simplistic beauty of being able to get the bike out the garage and ride on the driveway for an hour and not get bored has always seemed like a fantastic option compared to having to pack up the van for whichever gear intensive activity was on the cards. Furthermore we found some incredibly fun downhill trails and jumps 5 minutes from our new house and so I have been trying my best to progress and learn a little.
Ph. Kate Rhodes.
The most interesting change has been removing any long term planning from my hobbies. Before, the year has always been structured around one or two big trips and all the hopes and focus piled on these. Currently I’m without an aim or a reason to push it and it has been interesting learning what it is that I actually want to do, what makes me happy in the moment. It feels like a very different mind-set but slowly I am getting round to relaxing and simply doing fun things.
On that note I have fulfilled a goal that I’ve had for the last 15 years. To own and ride a motocross trials bike. You see them on TV riding up giant walls and ridiculous sections but I have always wondered if my bike skills transfer and now, mostly thanks to a great new job I’ve had the fortune to be able to find out. There is a competition next week locally and I’ll be entering the beginner class. Needles to say being at the start of the learning curve again is awesome and I’m learning so much each time I ride. In keeping with my usual approach I’m fully immersed in the pursuit and fully self taught, I’d never ridden a motorbike until a fortnight ago!
So the change in my aims so far has been an interesting one, there are still talks of some pretty interesting climbing trips coming up in the winter with some great people so who knows where the inspiration will be in another 2 months. I’m just trying to enjoy it all as much as I can, and at the moment I enjoy few things more than hitting the big drops on the bikes!