9th April 2017, Opawe Rd, off the Pohangina Valley East Road, Pohangina
I got a ride out to the event with Uncle Robert. I had to get there earlier than usual to help set up. Adrian Walcroft was going to do it, but something came up. I only set section five (5,3,3,2). All I did was copy it from last time we used that property.
My line went up a small bank then right in a sort of uphill corner, down a bit over the other side of the hill, along a bit, a right corner, through a tight squiggly bit of rocks that was way harder than I thought it was going to be, down a bank, round another tight right-hander, then up a bank (where I always dabbed at the top), then turn left along the side of the hill and out.
I rode A Grade in Manawatu for the second time. There was one or two sections that were too hard for me. Seven (3,3,3,5) had an extremely tight right hander that left you parallel to a bank that you then had to turn onto and go up. It had some stuff to ride over (a log, with a rock in front of it, etc) that was fairly difficult and, to finish it off, you had to go up a bank with a vertical rock at the top, then straight away go up another small bank.
Most of the event wasn’t too bad. I even cleared a section on my last lap that Kevin didn’t get all day (section one, 5,5,1,0). As well as that, section one had a tight left hander on some rocks. Kevin made it look hard and I, at least on the first and last lap, made it look easy. It was exactly my sort of corner.
On the third to last section (seven, my five) I fell and bruised my leg and re-hurt my wrist which I had fallen on last weekend. Up to being parallel to the bank I was cleaning it (I think) and I tried too hard to not put my foot down. In retrospect, I should have steadied myself with a dab.
Seven was a quite a major section for another reason. On the second time through the first tight corner I hopped my back wheel twice to the left without loosing my balance.
It was really good riding with Kevin. He seemed to be having quite a good time as well. I wasn’t quite sure sometimes if he was laughing with me, or at me. Section six (3,3,2,1) had a steep bank that freaked me out a bit so I was giving it heaps and wheel-standing over the top, almost flipping it. Kevin couldn’t hide his amusement at that one.
Merv gave me a ride home, as I live only ten minutes from his house. He was going to give Callum a ride as well but his van was getting full and Nick Parkinson was happy to drop Callum off.
Despite the sections being a bit hard for me and hurting myself I had a really good day.