Reminiscing about the newbie days…

Priscilla and I were up late talking about the video I posted with the Vholdr. I was explaining to her that as a beginner, parts of Rockit and Lynx I was terrified. I had only really been mountain biking less than a year when we headed out to this trail and all I could remember was, I was scared. Much like this kid…

On Lynx(the last part of the video), I remember being the 3rd person in a line of riders. Somehow I got stuck in between some of the faster riders of our group. The group we were with were all decked out with expensive bikes and gear, while here I was along with a few of my buddies, including Moe had lower end bikes (except Moe-thus the Bling Bling name). Anyhow, as we’re rolling down the trail, my hands are burning from all the vibration and the death grip I had on my brakes. My legs were on fire too! I had a hard tail and I kept using my legs to absorb the punishment of the trail. About mid way through the trail, I lost all strength in my arms and legs. I remember just feeling like I just kinda let things go. You see I couldn’t pull of to the side since there really isn’t much room for me to do that and there was another guy right behind me…about 3 feet away.

At one point, I decided to let go of my brakes and sat down on my saddle. All I knew was, if I follow the guy in front of me, I’ll be ok. This gave my hands and arms to rest a bit. It felt like this trail went on forever, it actually does. Well not really, I read that Lynx is a mile long, so for a newbie going down hill, that is forever.

Once we got down, everybody in our group was hooting and hollering, and honestly I wasn’t sure if I really liked mountain biking at that point. I thought it was way too hard and dangerous.

When Priscilla heard me last night talking about these things, she was shocked. She’s always thought that I’ve always been riding the way I ride, I’m not a climber, but I’m a bomber. So when I told her I was scared, and was on the fence about mountain biking when I first started, she was actually pretty relieved to know that she isn’t the only one that sometimes feels that way when it comes to technical sections of the trail.

I think throughout the years, I’ve gained some skills that I was only able to learn from other riders that were better than me. I have to give credit to my buddy Scott Finch for most of that. He’s the one that essentially got me into mountain biking and has helped me with my bike handling. Oh and videos such as New World Disorder, Kranked, The Collective and of course ROAM has helped since I have seen those videos a million times.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well its simple really, its ok to be scared, ride with people that are better than you, it helps you understand how to handle your bike and the terrain. Oh one more thing, if you’re going down a technical section, don’t go too slow. You’ll crash. Just roll through it.