Spots >> Carlmont/ DMC
posted 5/15/05

The view from the top.

Below: Checking out the gap. If you think it looks burly in the photo, well, in person it's a bit intimidating. A lot intimidating. It's a blind landing over a 35 foot gap with a narrow landing cut into the hillside. To get speed for it, you have to pedal around the hip jumps, and pin this berm before setting up for it. The locals showed us how to do if firsrt. This kid on a big hit was busting everything. He obviously rides here a lot. He was shredding.

When we showed up, everyone was in the middle of sessioning the gap above while Theo and Chris(?) filmed. I was psyched to step it up and hit it, but I wasn't about to hit it cold; we hit these hip jumps to warm up. They were so fun, we rode them for a while. Here's Ian launching it.

(left) Getting pumped: then going for it. (right) Ian snaps one of the author sessioning the big hip.

After riding the hips and shooting some pictures, I decided to go for the gap. I can't say it was pretty, but I cleared it. After two so-so looking tries, I wanted to go really big, and took it with too much speed. Nice idea, but it only resulted in overshooting the landing and my first crash on my new bike. I collected some nice cuts and bruises as well.

After eating it, and embarassing myself, I decided to take a break and shoot some more pictures. We headed down the trail to another location to shoot and film some more.