2014

New Year. Keep being adequate.

Wirral 10k

Mandy and her mate Helen did their first ever 10k run. In a practice training run they did 10k in 1hour 15mins so it was a huge surprise to me when I saw Mandy trot home in 58 minutes and Helen come in a few minutes later and in her excitement just run right past all the medal/t-shirt people. It was an even bigger surprise for me to hear the name Alan Cross on the tannoy and I thought as if it was going to be the king of racanteurs.......it really was.

3 Peaks 2013

This is my fourth year at the 3 peaks cyclocross race and I've never raced it yet, probably never will, I'm not even sure if I'm strong enough and good enough to complete it. I go as the support dude for Yani. It's getting to be sort of routine in parts for us now, we set off early, yani needs a shit before we arrive, we park in the same sort of area, yani starts at the very back. This year the weather was sunny, bright, dry but pretty windy which made it slightly chilly. Yani rode awesome and didn't seem to struggle even after catching his bollocks into the chainstay bridge and also losing his garmin at some point. It is an incredible race, it is just so raw and untouched by over the top protocol. Yorkshire bred and raised, gnarly as fuck.

Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain time trial rolled into Knowsley Safari Park. It was a very wet day. the road surface was soaked and it was cold, so it must have been freezing in a skinsuit.  It was good getting to see how fast a person can go and amazing how close they are to the public. Mark Cavendish rolled past inches away from me. Bradley Wiggins was the favourite and he killed it. The school kids cheered and got hyped even in the rain.

New Bird birth

And so it begins.........

A cold and wet winter day. The first ever photo of the first layer of concrete on the first section of New Bird.

New Bird. Concrete sculpture by hand. Motorhead.

A few years ago I started helping out building New Bird skatepark. There was a constant and fairly regular crew building and paying for it. At the time I was so stoked just doing it and the more it seemed like people wanted it to stop the more my positive vibes towards the whole DIY idea grew. I'm sure one of the hardest days graft I have ever done on anything was at New Bird. There have been various events held at the park since it was (completed) and I'm sure there are a few mixed views on this but it is a good acknowledgement of what a few can achieve with hard graft and determination. This is the Vans demo and is by far the most populated the park has ever been. I think the park has fulfilled it's purpose to be skated and get skaters stoked to skate. I know and appreciate every person that moved bricks, cleaned up or 'got another mix on' and I'm stoked to know that my sweat and piss is bonding that concrete together.

Mash it in the summer

It was sunny for a few weeks but that it a very distant memory now and it's all back to normal with the weather. Nothing says British Summertime like having to wear arm warmers.