Told Ya I Got Skillz (Clinic)

Yep, this one is actually me. While most people celebrate Halloween doing scary things like begging strangers for candy that could be poisoned or laced with razor blades, I prefer scary mountain bike things. I mean, every time I get on my bike there is the possibility that I will scare the crap out of either myself or some random observer. If I don’t frighten you with my super-fast racing ability, I’ll get you with my propensity to crash for no apparent reason. Couple these ridiculous things with the Introduction to Freeride Clinic, and you have one scary Halloween.



First, I would like to thank the Tarheel Trailblazers and Mark from The Cycle Path for putting on this clinic. I attended this clinic last year, and it was great. While I have somewhat mastered most of the skills they teach (yeah, right), Lunchbox and I wanted to support this event and also provide our assistance. This ride is similar to our bi-weekly kids rides, so we wanted to help out the little ones in attendance.



We started out in the grassy field by the parking lot, where the guys had set up some structures. They had a bar set up for bunnyhops, a few jumps, a skinny, and a teeter totter. The adults gave a brief demonstration, and then everyone was given a chance to try each obstacle (with spotters of course.) When it came time to try the teeter, Lunchbox was ready to show everyone how it’s done. He was confident, surprisingly since he went over the bars on the exact same obstacle last year.

Lunchbox likes to play on the seesaw.

We played around on the obstacles for a bit, and then it was onto the trail. The trail at Fisher Farm Park is a little over 4 miles, and the difficulty ranges from Green (easy) to Black Diamond (difficult.) We stopped on the most challenging trail features to assist those that needed assistance (just like on the kids rides.) The trail was a little slick from rain the day before, so some things were a little more difficult than normal. I didn’t get any good photos from the trail, so please, use your imagination.


We had a great time, and no one really got hurt. That’s a good thing, since I didn’t bring my first aid bag along for the ride. I figured that the trail was short enough and I could easily make it out to get the necessary medical supplies if needed. I hope that we can combine the skills clinic with some of our regular kids rides in the future, especially since children are our future. Believe it.