photo by Jared Souney
Okay, Here’s my quick explanation for my mega ramp tirade this past weekend.
Being the “Old School” jam I was in more of a casual riding mood, so I thought I would half step to it and feel it out. Then I would decide if I wanted to max this ramp out. I didn’t have brakes because I thought it would make it more of a challenge, therefore making it more fun to have a casual session on it, and I wouldn’t push maxing this ramp out first day. Also, the next day I was booked for some interviews with Danny Way for his new biography film that’s coming out called “Waiting for Lightning”. …which I was dreaming of blasting some airs with Danny that day and the possibility of double airs with Danny was in my head!!
Well, first lesson was you can never half step to a Mega Ramp. And the second lesson was I shouldn’t have charged the 70-footer without brakes, first hit. My problem is that my brain didn’t even see that there were any other launches there but the 70-footer…. I was MEGA blinded by the gnarly apple dangling in front of the 70-footer.
Anyway, so I slammed on my first 70-foot gap attempt and jacked up my knee. I looped out. I ignored the pain and continued riding and kept casing the top of the landing. I was trying to convince myself I could learn to finesse it when I cased in a way I could use it as my brake and then slowly build up speed until, or if, I decided to max this ramp out. Put the power and force was too strong. So I decided it’s time to put some brakes on…
When I was in Florida with Voelker, the day before, I told him about the dreams I had for the Mega Ramp, so he called Xavier Mendez to see if he could source out some brakes for me, just in case. He called Jeremie at HB and rounded up the gear. Unfortunately the 990’s mounts were the wrong size for my ride, so I couldn’t use brakes. Chad Kagy was there and he had just broke his hand pretty severely, so he wasn’t riding. He saw me case again, barely pull it together before I hit the vert ramp and I had to still blast because I had no brakes to stop me, so he stopped me, shook me out of my trance, and shut me down.
Thanks Kagy…. but I’ll be BACK!!