Girl Power

Part One: the Car Jump

A few weekends back, I met up with some friends for a session at the east bay bike park known as SandHill Ranch. We had a good sized group which adds to the fun and good times, but also makes it a bit harder to coordinate. On this day it appeared I ended up being the anchor holding us back, but we made it out to Sandhill with more than plenty day light hours left for riding.

Normally a session with the bros is all fun and good, but it's not necessarily news material. However, today was a bit different. Amongst our group today we had three riders of the fairer gender. And not only that, two of them were moms. I don't know how many moms you know that ride downhill, but personally, I don't know that many. And until today, I didn't know any that actually jumped their bikes.

Before the ride I promised the girls I would give them some tips on building up their jumping skills. Some people are naturals in our sport. Unfortunately, I have never been one of them. I have spent countless hours (read years) riding and working at building my bikeskills to my current level, so I felt happy to share some of my knowledge with them.

Apparently the girls got bored of the skills drills I sent them to task on and made their way to the freeride section of the park. There are a number of obstacles in this section including some ladder drops, trials-type sections, and two dirt jumps set up with a dead car in between. Personally I wasn't sure what they were thinking, but they really wanted to jump the car. I thought they weren't ready, (putting me in the Yoda position) but somehow our friend Eric convinced them they could do it (impulsive padawan). The lip of the take off is fairly mellow and the landing was equally mellow and wide, and the girls had on a full protective kit, so I crossed my fingers for them and grabbed my camera.

Celia was rockin the eye of the tiger and after a few roll-ups sent it. Can you say hi-five?

Of course, since Celia hit it, Dana had to hit it too. Pretty rad!

The moms went even bigger their second time. I have some buddies that are definitely going to feel humbled when they see this. Celia almost overshot the landing on this one. Boys: This girl is older than you and is a mom. You have been owned.

Part two: getting dropped

With the car jump challenge completed and no injuries to speak of, Eric direct his peer pressure towards the ladders. In the last town I lived the dirt wasn't very good for building jumps so the guys built quite a few ladders and drops on the trails. Personally I'm more excited by jumping dirt and flowing lines. Nevertheless, being able to drop off stuff is an important skill to have. Although usually this skill is learned before one jumps a car.

There are three ladders set up at various heights for those looking to get their drop in on. The landings are a bit flat though and short requiring a bit of finesse to avoid harsh landings.

Tara shows the other girls how its done.

Then Celia takes a crack at it. By the end of the day, every one was wiped out and the moms stepped up a notch in their riding.

Good times.