MTB Photography at Llangollen British Downhill Series

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Last weekend I successfully managed to combine my interests in mountain biking and photography with a drive out in my MR2 – the third round of the 2022 British Downhill Series was in Llangollen and I drove over to spectate/photograph.

I started early, and rather than going straight to the race I drove past Llandegla and over the Horseshoe Pass to Llangollen, stopping for breakfast at the Ponderosa Cafe at the top of the pass. Most of the other customers were motorcyclists, but the breakfast was good (and sensibly priced) – somewhere I will be returning to! After breakfast I called in to the Oggie Shop in Llangollen to pick up some Oggies to take home. Oggies are like Cornish pasties, except the filling is organised in layers, rather than mixed together. For over twenty years I have associated Llangollen with Oggies, because of the Oggies Shop, so could not pass without stopping.

When I got to the race I did not know what to expect – would there be five spectators? Or five thousand? it seemed fairly busy, with spectators lining the whole track, but not such that it felt crowded. Spectators could walk up one side of the track, but it was steep and rough! Walking back down the hill at the end of the day, it was actually easier to walk down the track. Whilst the riders were doing their seeding runs, I walked the length of the track and scoped out a few viewpoints to shoot from. I settled on a series of tricky corners towards the top of the track to watch the race runs.

The timing of the race was such that the junior categories came down first, with each category getting faster and watching all of the race runs from the same allowed me to see just how much faster the elite men were. A lot of riders in the lower categories were struggling with the loose, blown-out corners, with some pretty spectacular crashes. However, the top elite riders made it look so easy, I was particularly impressed with Ethan Craik”s (no relation!) sneaky line down the grass, although he crashed later in his run, missing out on what was likely a podium spot.

For me, a real highlight was seeing Steve Peat, a true legend of the sport, returning to racing. He was in the “veterans” class but still put in a good time. It was a good day for his Santa Cruz Syndicate team, as Laurie Greenland won the elite class, setting the fastest time of the day.

Photography-wise, I loved being back out shooting sport, especially as access was much better than when I used to shoot motorsport. However, I did miss my old kit – the autofocus on my Fuji X-T2 and XF-55-200 lens, is no match for my old Canon 1Dmk2 and 70-200f2.8 lens, and I lost quite a few shots dues to them being out of focus. I also found out that one of my batteries has died. I think that there will be some changes in my camera bag in the coming months, as I definitely want to do more MTB race photography going forwards.

Race Report: Ready2Race

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Henry has not had as many opportunities to race his balance bike as Owen did, so I was excited to hear that his balance bike club, Ready Steady Riders, were setting up a race over the Easter weekend. I was unsure if Henry would want to ride his balance bike after getting a pedal bike for his birthday, but he has not mastered it yet, so was happy to ride his balance bike.

The race was held on a spare asphalt area at Via2 Riding, a motocross track in Birmingham. The simple track was ideal for Henry though. He was a bit reluctant to do any practice laps, but once he had done the first he got stuck in, getting faster and faster each time. He had a solid second place in his first heat, but then had a bit of a break until his next heat and rode off, so it was a bit of a rush to get him back to the start line, but even then he managed another second place. His third, and final, heat was immediately after, so I had to rush him back to the start line. I think this unsettled him, as he was looking around for us as the gate dropped and finished fourth.

Pleased with his racing, Henry demanded more Easter eggs, and was actually sat in the back of the van, stuffing his face with chocolate when he was called to participate in the five-rider final! It was another rush to the startline, and another slow start for Henry, but he had his race face on and managed to pull back a place on the middle straight and finished in fourth place, just off the podium – Team Craik’s best ever result at a balance bike race! We celebrated with ice creams and a picnic out of the back of the van. I had been a bit concerned that Owen would get bored, but as it was a small site, he was able to do his own thing and cheer for Henry. He also got to ride the track on his BMX after the balance bike racing had finished.

Although he did not get a trophy, Henry was very happy to get a medal, as Owen has a few from his races, and Henry was yet to get one. On the way home, we stopped to get the boys some new shoes at Resorts World, Henry really was living his best life!

Montezuma Beach – Throwback Thursday

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This photo, taken when we visited Montezuma in Costa Rica (ten years ago!), recently won third place in a “seascape” themed photography competition. So I took it as a good excuse to share it (again) on my blog.

It is crazy to think how much our lives have changed since we went to Costa Rica – shortly afterwards Jen and I started renovating the house where we now live with our two boys. And I have not been abroad for over three years, nor do we even have any foreign travel plans for the foreseeable future. Although it would be nice to take the boys over to Costa Rica…

Henry’s Third Birthday

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The baby of the family is no longer a baby – Henry is a proper little boy now. Although he will insist that he is a “big boy”! We had a pretty quiet day today, with a trip to the zoo whilst Owen was at school. The main celebrations happened yesterday, with visits from grandparents and extended family. Henry loved seeing everyone and getting presents. Henry is an independent and resourceful little boy, so after the celebrations had stopped he snuck off upstairs to where he had already identified his main present to be hidden, then came downstairs with a big smile on his face and his new toy in his hands. Luckily for Henry, he manages to be incredibly cute when doing this sort of thing, so usually gets away with it.

Two has been a great age for Henry. Since his last birthday his speech has really come on, and he has become a right little chatterbox! He also has a great memory – remembering things that have been said to him weeks ago, or where things have been left. He is also great at recognising cars, especially Renaults (like Nanny’s). We seemed to mostly avoid the “terrible twos” with Henry – of course, there were a few tantrums, especially when he was tired, but he is generally good-natured and likes to be helpful. As I wrote in my recent post after our visit to Adrenaline Alley, Henry’s confidence has improved in the last few weeks – he is getting much more confident around other children. With all of the lockdowns over the last two years, he has missed a lot of the opportunities to socialise that Owen had, so it is good to see his social skills improving.

Henry showed some signs of turning into a “threenager”, but a lot of it was probably down to tiredness after a busy day, and me not understanding Henry’s vision for his outfit. Hopefully, he will continue to be his good-natured and loving self as he navigates being three. It should be an exciting year – moving to the pre-school at Owen’s school, potty training, holidays and hopefully learning to ride a pedal bike.

Henry and Daddy Day

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Since changing jobs and working full time again, I have missed my Fridays off with Henry, but we ended up with a Saturday to ourselves and made the most of it! We started off with the Ready Steady Riders Super Saturday at Birmingham BMX track. It has been a while since Henry last went, and both his riding and attitude have improved considerably. He was happy to just keep doing laps of the balance bike track, the only wobble he had was when the bigger kids went for their session on the full-size BMX track – however, once we had agreed that he could do the big track session on our next visit he got on with riding the balance bike track. With only three other riders it was a good session and they all rode well together. Henry only stopped to pester me for snacks! At the end of the session, they were invited to join the group on the big track, who were being filmed for the Commonwealth Games, Henry looked a bit nervous at the top of the big ramp, but did not hesitate to drop in, in fact, he did not even wait for his name to be called! As the light was good I brought my camera kit along and got some nice photos.

After the bike track, we went to Sutton Park to meet my friend Partho, and his dog Otto. Otto is a miniature dachshund and Henry’s “favourite dog”. Henry often asks to see photos of Otto on my phone. Otto seems to like Henry too! Henry was so good holding Otto’s lead, they looked so cute together walking through the park – everyone walking past commented! After a solid hour of riding and a long walk, Henry was starting to flag towards the end and needed carrying, but it was nice to be out in the park. Then, having worked up an appetite we grabbed some lunch at the pub. Henry was flagging by this point and even got to the second stage of tired toddler – the mad half hour. Otto loved having an excitable Henry to play with and it was so cute watching them play together, however, I knew it was time to get Henry to the van for a nap. Before we left, Henry had just enough energy to get into Partho’s car, sitting next to Otto. He asks to do this every time he sees Otto in the car – Henry is a stickler for routines and sitting in the back of Partho’s car with Otto is another one of his favourite routines.

By the time we got out of Sutton Coldfield, Henry was fast asleep in his car seat after a very busy morning! It has only been two months since I started working full time, but he seems so much more grown-up than when we last had a Daddy and Henry day out. It is hard to believe that he will be three next week!

Half-term Bike Rides with Owen

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Owen has been off school this week, so I also took a few days off work, with the plan that we would get out to ride bikes together. We had planned to ride at Cannock, but the trails were closed due to fallen trees from the recent storms.

Hicks Lodge

Hicks Lodge, was actually our “Plan C”, after Cannock Chase and Snibston Colliery Park, which we drove to first, only to find the trails also closed. Hopefully, I will get to complete that trail one day! Fortunately, it is only a short drive from Snibston to Hicks Lodge, so Owen did not even bother to take his bike kit off. The route took us past the end of the road I lived on in the late 1980s, so we took a quick detour to see where I learned to ride a bike.

Hicks Lodge is a safe choice for riding with kids if a little tame for Owen now. The trail was a bit damp, but we were just glad to be riding. We only did one lap but repeated some of our favourite sections. Owen was taking it easy, so when we re-rode the last section I asked Owen to ride it at top speed and pretend it was an enduro stage – it worked, he rode much better and said that he enjoyed it more too!

417 Bikepark

The plan after this ride was to drop Owen off with my parents, so 417 Bikepark on the edge of the Cotswolds was the obvious choice. It is also Owen’s favourite place to ride. We started off in the “barn of dreams”, the indoor pumptrack. Owen was on his BMX, as his mountain bike was still muddy from Hicks Lodge. There was another little boy there on a BMX too, so it was nice watching them riding round together.

Before Owen tired himself out, I dragged him away to swap bikes and get goggles on to hit the downhill trails. We started off riding the lower portion of the blue graded “Cheese Roller” trail, which featured a steep corner that Owen was too nervous to ride on our previous visit. It was the same on his first run, but he walked around it and continued to the bottom of the trail, slowly. We pushed our bikes back up to the bottom of the steep corner, but this time I put Owen’s bike into a harder gear, which seemed to help him on the way down, as he was able to carry more speed, especially over the four big tabletop jumps at the end of the trail.

After pushing up it was time to let the bus take the strain, so we jumped onto the uplift bus to the top of the hill and rode back down the blue graded “Blue Racoon” trail – Owen’s favourite. He was going well until we came to a(nother) steep right-hand corner and pulled up to the side of the trail. I rode it first, then coaxed Owen down – he did so well. It must have given him a confidence boost as it took me a little while to catch him back up! Owen enjoyed the trail so much that we repeated the bottom section before stopping for lunch.

Fueled on confidence and tuna sandwich Owen was on fire after lunch – he rode the tricky corner on “Cheese Roller”, claiming he did not even realise that was the corner! He also rode the bottom section much quicker than in the morning. There was a queue for the uplift, so we pushed back up and rode the lower section of “Cheese Roller” again, but faster. Then we got another lift to the top – Owen was getting into the swing of it, waiting to hand his bike to the driver, then for me to put my bike on the trailer and collecting his bike at the top and going to the top of the trail whilst I unloaded my bike. His second full run on “Blue Racoon” was faster, and the scary corner was despatched with ease.

At this point, we had to buy more uplift tickets, before continuing down “Cheese Roller”. This was Owen’s fastest run – he even got the tiniest bit of air over one of the big jumps at the end of the trail. He was buzzing when we got to the bottom. Then we got in the uplift queue behind YouTuber Ben Deakin, who was doing some coaching. I gave Owen the choice of another run down “Blue Racoon” or attempting a full run of “Cheese Roller” – he chose “Blue Racoon” and set off quickly – looking so much more confident than he had in the morning! At one point he had a bit of a wobble out of a fast berm but managed to hold on to it and continued down to the bottom of the trail. After such a good run we decided to call it a day on the downhill trails as Owen wanted to do more laps of the pumptrack, although it had gotten busier.

I was so proud of Owen, especially how he conquered his nervousness about the steep corners and how well he rode after lunch. He was also by far the youngest rider on the downhill trails but rode (and behaved) sensibly – queuing for our last uplift he told me that it was “the best day ever”! I also had a great day, it did not matter that I was riding at Owen’s pace, it was just nice to be out on the bikes together. And after a wet and windy start to the year, it felt like Spring was starting to arrive – the sun was out and we even saw our first lambs of the year on the drive across the Cotswolds to drop Owen off with my parents.

Henry at Adrenaline Alley Skatepark

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Hen at Adrenaline Alley

Henry’s balance bike club, Ready Steady Riders, organised a trip to Adrenaline Alley in Corby, the biggest indoor skatepark in Europe – I knew Henry would love it, so put his name down straight away. Since telling him about it, every weekend he has asked if we are going to “the big skatepark”. Because the skatepark is indoors, two-year-old logic means that Henry thinks that his coach must live there!

The trip just happened to be arranged on the stormiest weekend of the winter, so I was not bothered about missing my usual Sunday morning ride, and was actually quite looking forward to a road trip in the van with Henry! As a special treat, I moved Henry’s seat to the front, next to me – which he loved. He gets a much better view out of the front of the van than he does in my MR2 Roadster, so was excitedly telling me all the things he could see.

Henry at Adrenaline Alley

We were in a different part of Adrenaline Alley to when Owen and I visited back in 2020, and it seemed like a better set-up, with a good viewing area/grandstand for parents. Henry got stuck in and did some good riding, only stopping to pester me for sweets after each lap, because for some reason Henry seems to associate skateparks with snacks. At one point there were some races and Henry won his race against the other smaller boys, he also did a good job of waiting patiently before and after the race. Henry did not want to try riding down the roll-in, but made use of the quieter track to do some more laps, before declaring that it was “time to go home”. Fortunately, I was able to convince him to ride some more after a rest and some more snacks. Henry did some of his best riding towards the end of the session, so I am glad he went back out. It was also good to see him jostling with the bigger boys to get to the front of the queue – obviously, normally I would not condone that sort of behaviour, but Henry can be really wary of other children, likely due to lack of opportunities to mix with other children over the last few years, so I am glad to see him getting more confident.

Then it was time for cake, as the trip was a belated sixth birthday celebration for Ready Steady Riders! We all went to the cafe, via a tour of the skate park and gatecrashing a YouTube video. Again Henry was really good in the cafe singing “happy birthday” and helping to blow out the candles on the cake, then when it was time to leave he gave his coach a big hug. He managed to stay awake for most of the drive home, counting the wind turbines, albeit missing out the numbers three, four and five. He also told me that he will be six on his next birthday.

It was great to have a bike trip with Henry, as it is usually something that I do with Owen. Henry did some good riding but I was most impressed by his attitude and behaviour. I am going to try to build on this by taking him to more Ready Steady Riders sessions, at least until he starts to ride the pedal bike that he will be getting for his birthday next month…

Back on the Snowboard

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Back in the days before I started blogging, snowboarding was my life. I rode loads but had reached a plateau and grown-up life took over. I then discovered mountain biking, which gave me the same buzz as snowboarding, but with much less hassle and that became my sort of choice, and I have only snowboarded a handful of times in the past ten years. Although I had made a point of watching all of the snowboard competitions at the Winter Olympics.

Part of the story behind me getting back on a snowboard was that Partho and I were booked on a mountain bike “jumps and drops” course with Skillsloop, which was cancelled due to Storm Eunice. So we happened to be at a loose end when Rich asked if we fancied going to the SnowDome with him – sometimes these things just come together! Fortunately, the snowboard fashion of the noughties was for baggy kit, so it still fitted!

Walking down the stairs to the changing area at the SnowDome felt familiar, but it was not until I was at the top of the travellator and ratcheting up my bindings that I was sure the muscle memory for snowboarding was still there. Dropping in for my first run, with a traverse on my toe edge into a heelside turn, felt completely natural. Like I had never been gone. You could say “like riding a bike”! I had a slightly nervous wait at the bottom of the slope waiting for Partho (on skis) and Rich (also on a snowboard) to finish their runs – but when they joined me we were all smiles. Partho was noticeably faster on his second run, beating me to the bottom, but ending up on the deck to avoid taking out someone at the bottom. Resisting the temptation to spray him with snow, I went back up the rope tow to try to meet Rich halfway up the slope, but he was also quicker on this run.

We spent the next few hours doing laps of the slope. If I got a clear run I would hit the small kicker ramp and try to get some air, but was generally taking it easy and just enjoying being back on a snowboard. Strangely it felt like some of the best riding I have ever done, maybe it was a combination of no expectations and a familiar slope or the fact that I am a lot fitter these days, thanks to regular mountain biking. I would be interested to see how I fare on a real mountain with much longer runs.

It was especially good to be riding with some of my oldest friends, in the old days snowboarding was something that I mainly did with my brother, so it was great to be able to chat with Partho and Rich on the lift or to watch them riding down. Afterwards, we also went out for lunch, which felt like an extra treat in the week!

I am certainly not going to leave it another five years before I get back on my snowboard, especially now that my best friends are keen to join me. Maybe it could even lead to a trip to the Alps, which is not something that I would have been expecting to write even just a few days ago…

Top Five from 2021

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As is now customary, the PistonHeads.com Photography Forum had a thread to share your top five photos from the previous year, in this case, 2021. As I had selected my five photos I also decided to share them on my blog, as I have done for 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2012.

Henry got a bubble machine for his second birthday, in March, and although not technically perfect, I love this photo of him experiencing it for the first time. He looks so babyish compared to the proper little boy that he is now, eleven months later.

Another shot from earlier in the year. Owen and I had a week of bikes during the Easter holidays. This was a lucky shot whilst Owen was riding the skatepark, but I really like the colours. It was my phone home screen for a while too.

Chesterton Windmill is a bit of a cliche for photographers in Coventry, however, I was yet to visit with the camera. I had planned a silhouette shot backlit by the sunset, but this shot was from an initial scouting trip, one summer evening when I just needed to get out of the house. I am sure that the sun would be better positioned for a dramatic sunset in winter, but the sails were removed for maintenance in the autumn, so I will have to try again another year.

An early morning blat to the Elan Valley with my friend Partho was one of my highlights of 2021. As well as the drive, we also spent some time taking photos of the cars and this was my favourite.

I love the colours of this lorikeet from one of our many visits to Twycross Zoo. I am especially impressed as I was with both of the boys at the time and this was a quick shot.

Henry’s Christmas Holiday 2021

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At the end each term, Henry’s nursery set him (us) homework, to share a few photographs of what he has been up to over the holiday. Owen also had this homework when he was at nursery, but I did not think to share the photos on my blog. As it is a nice recap, I have decided to start sharing them.

On my last Friday “Daddy day” between finishing my old job and starting at the new one, Henry and I went to Cannock Chase. It was meant to be a Little Rippers Meet, but that did not quite work out. I thought that Henry would really enjoy the new play trail, but he had his own agenda. I did get him to do a few laps of the “Butterly loop”, including riding this skinny. Technically, the photo is not great, but I like his expression.

On New Year’s Day I took the boys for a welly walk in our local woods – it was so muddy, but we needed to get out of the house. Henry likes posing in this tree.

Henry enjoyed sitting at Jen’s piano, he would play us a tune (well, some random notes) and sing along. He is really starting to show what his particular interests are. Hopefully the piano/music is something that he will continue with.

Henry and I had a few rides out in my MR2 Roadster, he seems to be turning into a right little petrolhead at the moment and made a few requests to “go in the sportscar” and who was I to argue?