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When Philip and I arrived at the Trailer Trash trails in Vlissingen, we only had 30 minutes to spend. Getting to a dirt spot you normally need some more time to prepare yourself so we weren't even sure if we were going to unpack the bikes from the van. We checked out the lines (which looked similar since the last jam there) and were on the bikes withing a few minutes. A few minutes later we made it through the line. Did that a couple of times and then rushed back to the car to grab the camera. "2 runs each!" is what I gave the locals and 10 minutes later we had to leave. The BBQ was waiting. We'll be in Zeeland all next week and plans have been made to get back to the dirt spot for some more riding, and a few more shots. If there's some rain coming down soon we can even work on that new hip to the left.
Trailer Trash, we'll be back!

By lack of a better name, we call the dirt spot that is being build in Waterfall, South Africa, the "Waterfall Trails".  Maybe a new name will pop up some day and if it does, please let us know. (Pinetown trails it is). It was a bit of a hike to get down to the bottom of the valley to see the progress of the trails that Colin Loudon and a couple locals are building. They've been working on it by hand for 7 months now and have not even ridden one single jump. It's getting the soil in place, packing it, and hopefully it will run smoothly once they've baked

How many places do you know that have concrete parks at the beach? How difficult can it be to have more spots like these? It’s the perfect location. Who doesn’t want to go to the beach? Durban’s concrete park was closed for a year because of the World Cup that came into town last year. Half of the park was taken down to create space for whatever they needed it for. Probably some drinking terrases for the Orange squad as Holland played in Durban a few times and was based there. But the park is back open and has a new section on the North side with a quarter to bank, a roller to half bowl and a sloped flat section to get speed for the rest of the park.

The view to the Indian Ocean is superb. Palm trees, clean beach sand, clear water with waves, the whole nine yards. Every now and then a shark sighting will disturb the swimming pleasure but that doesn’s happen all too often. How cool is it to go ride the park, then go for a swim, dry up, and continue riding. 

Every year camp Woodward builds new things, and revamps some things in their existing parks. They will be covering a bunch of the construction and new things for the 2011 summer. Cloud 9 is going to be one of the first areas to get a little face lift. Stay tuned to campwoodward.com to see exactly what new designs are to come.

A little over a year ago construction started of a new dirt spot in Helmond. The name chosen was "The Flame Trails". The spot is less than a kilometer from the house which is excellent. We were given a year to make something out of the spot. If it wasn't going to be used properly after a year, they were going to tear it down. The year is now over and it looks like we're going to have a permanent spot

Has the tough winter left your trails spot feeling dishevelled and unloved? Fear not as Red Bull Backyard digger returns to the UK for the second year giving you the chance to revamp your trails for the summer. This year, Red Bull Backyard Digger is looking for applicants who already have a trails spot and are looking for some expert help to prepare for the riding season, which will be provided in the shape of legendary dirt rider Kye Forte and his crew. In addition to giving the trails a makeover, the winner will also have the opportunity

Digging trails is a lot of work. A lot of hard work. But on "volunteer day" we received some welcome help from the SWH crew in Helmond Noord. Stichting Welzijn Helmond had put a team together to help us out at the trails from 10am-12am followed by a lunch. Tons of wheelbarrows full of fresh dirt were placed at the right spots. The "experts" had it easy as the hard work was done by the SWH crew the first two hours. Two here, three there, one more on top here.... so good.

It takes time for kids to realize what goes into building a spot to ride. That counts for a concrete park, the local indoor park but also for all the trail spots out there. It takes time for them to understand what it takes to shape that perfect take off and lines that have flow to it so you don't need to pedal in between. Because they're outdoors, most of the time you need to take a shovel in the hand before you can actually ride your bike. During the wintertime there's not much riding going on, but still it's possible to get things ready for spring.

It's always nice to pay the Meker locals a visit in Middelburg. Philip is always looking forward to it because he likes to ride with his hero Vladdie de Koning and he gets to stay up late because the hall opens when it is normally bed time for him. We arrived just after 7pm yesterday and practically had the place to ourselves for the first 30 minutes. One other rider joined us during that first thirty minutes but later Vladdie, Niels, Colin and a few others joined in. The place had received some welcome changes since last time we were there.