Features

SEASONS CHANGE: Trails Favourites Part 1

Words and Photographs: Robin Pearson

We’ve had some fantastic weather here in the UK recently. Enjoying good trails sessions as late as October isn’t often possible, so I’ve been glad to see many of my friends making the most of the late dry spells. But now, inevitably, it seems we’ve turned that corner into days of autumn rain.

As our trails riding season suddenly draws to a close and the digging season looms, I thought it would be a good time to revisit some of my personal favourite trails shots from over the years. While I was searching through the archives for these, it struck me just how varied our trails landscapes can be. From white, moon-like, chiselled chalk peaks to sleeping giants in overgrown forests and everything in between, it’s an incredible range of sculpted earth.

I asked the riders to reflect on these memories, tell you about the trails themselves and share the story behind getting the shot.

MATT PRIEST: Moto, The Woodyard, Cambridge, UK.

This was shot at Woodyard, they are my local trails where we all hang out, build shit, ride, make fires and get pissed! It’s pretty rad it’s made from chalk so it’s all white and solid – pretty scary to ride but it’s fast and good times!

There’s always a small window to shoot photos up there because in the day it can be really bright so evening sessions are normally the best time, but you can pretty much ride even when then sun’s gone down because the jumps are white! Like in this photo. -Matt

VINNIE MAYNE: LOOKBACK, HEATH PINTER’S, RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA.

I remember rocking up to this spot thinking I ain’t ever going to jump this lot. As I unpacked my bike and got into my cowboy clothing (one of the Ride To Glory challenges) I started walking up the hill, I then saw Nyquist chucking the bars over the back hip with Bohan following him with all the style in the world. I thought to myself, I am going to have to jump this lot now, bad wrist or not!

I remember hitting the first three jumps and getting past that lot to be confronted with the ‘shark fin’ that I just could not work out the first couple of times. I finally got to the big hip thinking I will chuck a little lookback in there! Boom, over shot the fucker and nosed in for a mouth full of dirt hah but that didn’t put me off! Straight back up to the top ready for Robin to get this photo and boy how happy I am we got this! To think a boy from South London riding with people I have looked up to most of my life and I walk away with a picture from a good friend! Pretty amazing if you ask me.-Vinnie

DANNY STANZL: 360 table, Chertsey, UK.

I first visited this spot when I was proper young and was blown away not only because of the size of the jumps but it was also a Halloween Jam to raise some funds for Mikey Aitken. Imagine pulling your self through dense woods to see a dude wearing a horse’s head being trained by someone wearing a hockey mask covered in blood, Osama Bin Laden and that guy from Clockwork Orange. I tried the smallest line and ate dirt. I was pretty sketchy then so didn’t come back for quite a few years but was inevitably drawn back.

This was shot on a pretty hot and sunny day (hence the shirtlessness) but the trees always make riding here nice in the summer because of the shade. I can remember this session because we pretty much rode the full day and it was like, last runs in. We were all training each other through the Regal Line (the one in the photo). You start from the top of the hill and do like a couple of step down kickers which land into downhill berms. The second one is a bit of a roller-coaster because it’s blind and you’re racing it. I was following Robin pretty close and he totally hung up that step down, did a roly-poly and I just managed to bail out and miss him by a whisker. Brutal but memorable.

I later landed in a skanky wet hole next to this jump which is now named after me.-Danny

ELLIS HARDESTY & ANDY DRYSDALE: BERM RACE, WEYBRIDGE, UK.

So this was taken at Bombers which is a small, little known set of trails deep in the golden triangle and a stone’s throw from Wisley trails. They’ve been there since the early nineties but were originally located over the other side of the hill from where they are now.

We ended up here by default due to every other local spot being a washout while trying to shoot the ‘Synchronic’ piece for the mag. It took a while to get the jumps running, plenty of leaves to shift but it all came together and both lines ran okay. We tried to ride the whole line and somehow catch each other up before the berm but due to the slippery conditions that wasn’t gonna happen. The light was fading so we winged it and dropped in off the jump before, put in a couple of cranks and railed it like pros! -Ellis

DENNIS ENARSON: SUICIDE DOUBLE TRUCK, FOD, CALIFORNIA.

These are probably the closest legitimate trails to me in SD, so if I need my trail fix when I am home, this is where I’m at. The dudes running the trails are the best, and have always been so inviting since I first started coming up. Shout out to FOD, Matt and Joey Cordova, and Nathan Sykes for all the good times over the last couple of years. I can’t wait till it cools down a bit to go get some more FOD sessions in!

This session in particular had some ups and downs. Right when we got there my boy Blake Peters slammed first run and went over the bars messing up his shoulder really good. Then a few minutes later my lower back started tweaking out so I figured I would be watching the rest of the session with Blake. Luckily the Canadian homie, Corey Walsh, showed me how to roll out kinks in your back with a lacrosse ball. After a few minutes in the bed of my truck with that lacrosse ball I was feeling great and ready to shred, haha. The rest of the day was awesome getting clips for the CeekLife edit, shooting for Ride UK, and just having a good old time with the boys at FOD like always. This suicide double truck was the last thing of the session and felt so great to finish the day with.

I hadn’t done a suicide double truck in a while at the time, so I was honestly a little nervous even though the the jump was really chill sized. This trick does get more comfortable when I am doing them a lot, but if I stay off them they start getting scary again. So I told Robin I would probably only do one for the day since I didn’t want to get too carried away. Like a true pro, he snapped the photo at the perfect time of the trick at the perfect time of the day, and now it’s one of my favourite photos I have ever shot… -Dennis