Well, What a Weekend !

The James Lampkin trials school was held at Frank Rains Park last weekend with Saturday concentrating on lower to middle class and Sunday on middle to upper class !!

Saturday

The day started with an informal greeting from James with a small talk on what was going to happen and what some of James' achievements have been ( let me tell you as an ex-UK rider, they are pretty damn good !!!!! ).

So off we went to a small bank / hill climb and some basic turns and positioning—then some figure 8 bike stance lessons, and all of this was put together in a nice gully section later in the day. It was a very good drip-feeding of information throughout the whole day, culminating in a really huge hill climb which surprised everyone as to their ability after the correct tutoring.

At first sight they all thought it couldn’t be done—but Jim quickly corrected that by riding it clean on a 280GG then again (just as impressively) on Mandy’s 125 Gasser !!

Then to finish the day, we had a small competition at the hill climb — who could get the furthest clean? Well, everyone tried (yes everyone!) and the winner was John Haaker on his 4rt, blasting the closest competition, John Towner, in a run off!

By the end of the day everyone was feeling tired and well worked — we returned to camp for a general chat with questions and answers from everyone.

Sunday

Sunday was for the the middle to upper classes —same thing as yesterday— a chat and then off to the park to ride!

The day saw some expert/master level riders, some of whom thought they knew everything! Ha! How wrong they were!

The day started with a look at their ability to position themselves, read a section, and then ride it. Many were soon realizing that a lot of basics had been forgotten or “skipped” !! So back to basics it was, figure 8 and bike/body stance, and then try again. Then on to the river where this was all put together.

As an observer myself, and coming from the UK where technique is a MUST, I think the riding here in CA seems a “lazy” kind of style. Dry rock riding with 100% grip is everywhere, and many have never ridden in the mud let alone got their feet wet in the river. This tends to make the rider just ride bigger and bigger stuff, bypassing the basics, and it never hurts to learn (or re-learn) a bit of basic technique sometimes !

A stop for lunch, then some more riding and tutoring, this time on logs, holding pressure and drop offs. The day finished with a competition on a small hill with a rut in it for about 50yds. Looked easy they all thought ! Well, it sure wasn’t as easy as it may have looked, taking marks form everyone !

Then back to the camp for some questions and answers....

What a great weekend !
THANK YOU JIM!