Well it does when the members of your peer group are 15 and they have no fear! Yes on Saturday I let myself get bullied into spinning off the big kicker at Warmwell, and for someone with a kicker fear that’s no mean feat.
Having survived the Halifax leg of the Westbeach Snowflex Freestyle Championship in one piece (and first place) despite this minor hiccup
I arrived in Dorset raring to go. Well when I say raring that may be a slight exaggeration as I’d had to get up at 5am to get there, I was still pretty enthusiastic though.
Having a catch up with Sam Rogers before warm-up we spotted Rebecca Cullum and started debating who would be against her that day, we soon realised that it would be me and considering Becca rode with the UK Junior Squad this season I jokingly said I’d give spinning a go in an attempt to beat her.
So the session kicked off and everything was going well, I was going pretty big off the kicker (for me) with a range of grabs and shifties when they announced that the jam session would be ending shortly……..so up pipes Sam (all 15 years of her) “You said you’d spin! You’ve only got one run left to do it in”, so after a cheeky “I’m saving myself for the final” I dropped in. I have to admit that as I dropped in for the kicker I was planning on just doing a melon grab but all I could hear was Sam chanting “Spin, spin, spin”….well what else could I do, I got to the kicker and thought “DO IT” so with a turn of my head and shoulders I span a backside 180. I have a feeling my eyes were closed but I landed in one piece and although I scuffed out I’d managed to do it.
Speaking to Sam after her run I was still shaking with adrenalin and she was in shock having not really meant for me to give it a go. Still I was one step closer to eating the fear.
The girls final didn’t start well for me….my 32 year old legs were suffering from girlyness and I sat down on my first 3 runs, the fear was back and although I wanted to spin I wasn’t going to do it until I nailed a basic straight air…finally I got my legs back and stuck a few (thanks to Charlie Clark for the encouragement). So here I was, nearing the end of the session, I tried a BS180…..landed but not clean, I went up for a second attempt, dropped in and thought I’d give a FS180 a go instead, I span, landed and rode out, then it happened…..the dreaded heel edge catch! OUCH! So I’m typing this with minor whiplash but a satisfied feeling that although I was beaten in to 2nd place by a sponsored rider who stuck some 3’s and tried a 5 I managed to come one step closer to being able to spin off a kicker properly!
Well done as well to Sam who nearly stuck 5 and learnt how it feels to be beaten by someone half your age (as I feel when I get beaten by her) and she was shunted into second place in the under 16’s by Katie Ormerod, who at all of 3 foot high landed some clean 5’s and generally went huge for her diminutive size!
I have to say I’m glad I’m in the over 16’s otherwise I’d have no chance of placing anywhere
Sam gets kinky
Me, with a courage building indy
Katie Ormerod goes way to big for her size!
