This entry comes a day late for various reason, so this may not be as detailed or memorative.
We hit the quarry jumps at Roseberry Topping, I’m not sure of the exact name of the place but if you went to Roseberry Topping someone could easily tell you where to go. Now we have previously hit the Topping for some freeriding action, but I can’t remember much more than thin, long paths with a big fall to one side, the perfect track as far as I’m concerned!
Anyway the jumps, we arrived early in the morning which was great as for a long while we had the course to ourselves, even later all we had was a man upgrading some of the jumps and some little ripper kids on mountian bikes.
As you may see from the Google Maps link, there is a lot of choice at the place. Of course with the course being built for and designed by bikers, a lot of the place requires pedals. As any dirtboarder knows, you just have to make the most of these situations and so we used the rear of some of the ramps (the back of a long bank about 5ft tall was particularly great) as starting off points.
With the choice of jumps and bumps(for pumping on for speed) you can create a lot of cool lines if you get a little creative, we found a few and I’m sure a few more trips will see some more cool stuff.
A special note most be made of the +/- 10ft drop. Jesus Christ that was scarey to stand on top of*, but after dropping in it’s not so bad, if you have your basic balance down you can always do more than you think on your dirtboard. This drop in also opened up a few extra lines but with the scare factor I didn’t want to touch it much. I should add a video on here soon which so a couple of the attempts of this, but sadly not the one where I bit off more than I could chew, landing with a chest/shoulder slide and my legs arcing over the top of me which I’m sure many dirtboarders are accustomed too. Aside this there was only one other big fall, by backside 180 extraordinaire Martyn. Very similar in a it’s execution and also not resulting in anything more than a scratch or two.
This was our first trip to a site simply for jumps, and it showed. Wereas previously we’ve done freestyle first then hitting the jumps making us too tired, broken and thirsty. This time I felt I wanted to try harder and do my best, in the future it’s probably best to only freestyle or jump, simply so you can still stand at the end. After about 2 hours we were still going strong, not wanting to leave but having other responsibilities. In the car traveling was another matter entirely though, feeling desparately sleepy with the lack of adrenaline, surely a testement to the amount of fun we were having!
I’d also like to mention me and Martyn found a way to turn part of the jumps into a race track, my favourite discipline, our course was highly advantageous to one rider but hella fun all the same.
Overall these jumps are the best local(ish) jumps to be found and further trips will be taken to get a better grip of the flow. The are freestyle option the the very local terrain, but when you have jumps there you want to make the most of it. Also as mentioned briefly at the top of the post, Roseberry Topping has some great and scarey freestyle.
*I don’t know how you guys do it, but on a regular hill I get in my board when it’s perpendicular to the gradient, then pop a 90o to go down the hill. Whereas when on the top of a peak I rest my board in the middle of the peak then climb in like a boardslide and pop into it. Standing on those big drop in’s is scarey when you may inadvertantly go backwards.
