Heusden trails jam. Staying warm by participating. Pics by BDJ/Ruud Knepper

Nov 14, 2013

Written by Bart de Jong

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Standing on the sidelines at an outdoor event this time of the year sucks. It starts with getting cold feet, then cold hands and then your nose starts running. Organizing an outdoor BMX jam at the trails in the fall is risky. It had rained for 10 days straight prior to the Heusden Trails jam but the message of calling it off never showed up on Facebook. Dimitris Araouzos had made sure the lines were all good to go and on arrival several riders were riding the jumps. Indeed it was kinda soggy, but there was no mud and there were no puddles so the

show could go on. Actually more and more people started showing up giving this jam a good vibe.

The secret to stay warm was to ride or do some jump maintenance. Cold Bavaria's (no coolers needed) don't warm you up much. Not having a starting hill means that you had to sprint towards the jumps on man power and after doing 20 of those sprints from the street into the woods there were no complaints any longer about being cold. People rode, did their thing while the music was blasting out of the speakers. It was mellow, but the vibe was good.

Just before it got dark the "Highest wallride" contest needed to be taken care of. Both Bart Mol and Dimitris Araouzos gave it a few tries before it got too dark to even pedal around. Bart Mol was the "big winner" of a cold 6-pack but

the day wasn't about winning or being competitive.

Instead of spending a day indoors, we were riding outside and had a good time doing so. Riders from age 4 - 46 enjoyed a good afternoon at the Heusden trails. Thanks to Dimitris for putting it on. We'll be back.

BdJ