Having never been in a skate park in my life I was to say very very nervous, a confined space and a lot of people nipping around not really looking where they are going, it can only really end in disaster..

My first experience was at the East Kilbride skate park one cold damp winter night after work, myself and a few of the guys from FreeFlow Bikes braved the weather when most were focusing on nothing more than getting home with the heating and the t.v on. I was borrowing a friend’s bike as it was my first time and didn’t have one of my own. We turned up to this surprisingly large industrial unit and rolled on it, noticing the clear signs warning NO SKATING IN THE HALL we hopped off our bikes. Once in the main hall the panic started, kids zipping past at 100mph on what I thought had died out in the 90s the micro scooter! Angry looking skaters going backwards hoping on and off boxes and rails, the cool guy BMXers chilling in the corner, every now and then one breaking off and doing an almost lap of domination making sure the others new they were still there, and all I could think was by god help these poor people when I crash, I don’t know if any of you have been involved in a 17st head on collision and 15mph or above………it isn’t pretty, well for the little guy.

First things first getting onto the track, could only be described as entering the motorway at peak time, roll roll roll waiiiit that was close, roll roll roll waiiit, roll roll roll roll ah him bigger!! And I’m on pedal pedal and I’m round up a ramp dodging kamikaze kids down the ramp dodging skaters and regroup, heart racing blood pumping and feeling alert. I soon realised that things where actually quiet organised and that the key was to pick a line and stick to it, after a few laps it was time for a new challenge, pedal from one end of the room and end up at the top of the half pipe, how hard can it be its not that high, famous last words. Andy had suggested I follow his line and keep up to his speed and I would make it no bother, so off we went pedalling like crazy, things where looking good until half way up my bottle crashed and so did my momentum. Andy looked back and must have thought what the hell with the look on my face, terror! As the bike rolled back I went to ground sliding down on my knees coming to a stop at the bottom and feeling pretty embarrassed. Kids still whizzing by me. But the only way is up and back on the bike I got determined to prove that that was a one off. Back to the start pedal pedal pedal and up I went stopping just short of wiping the rest of the guys out, at least I was up and street cred had been restored. Slight problem though getting up was done, now to get back down, it is a lot steeper going down than going up and going up was hard. After some coaching I went in at an angle and keeping my body position more off the back like DHing I was following my line I managed to navigate my way through the masses and reach the guys on the other side feeling pretty good. I had the bug.

First thing Monday morning I was on the hunt looking for a jump bike and there is a lot to choose from, Commencal, Lapierre, Mondraker and many more. I wanted something solid and eye catchy so I picked the Commencal Cromo 2010, an excellent bike with a very high spec, avid juicy brakes and very plush Marzocchi bomber forks this was the one for me. Just a few mods and it was perfect, DMR vault pedals (purple) and Troy Lee Designs grips (yellow).

Where to next? Back to EK or Unit 23. That was the question. Unit 23 I was maybe trying to sprint before I could crawl, a lot of guys who know exactly what they are doing and not leaving much room for error, after a few laps around the hall I decided this was not the place for practice and found myself a little corner to mess around in, watching some of the guys in there was remarkable, 360s, transfers, hoping the boxes and even one guy pulling a back flip, I was encouraged to try and try again, maybe not reaching that level but at least feeling confident enough to tackle the wall ride.

Currently we try and get a group together after work once or twice a week and head up to EK around 7.30pm for a few hours riding and we are always looking for more people to come along, from the very beginner to the most advanced we all started somewhere, advice and pointers are always welcome. We normally put a post up on our forum with dates and times so keep an eye out, or if you feel like going a night that has not been mentioned then feel free to pop up a post and see if anyone else is keen.

Commencal Cromo 2010

Colin
Sales and Marketing manager.

Email: web@freeflowbikes.com
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