Summer's coming through the clouds

Weird weather we're having. The Garden Route is practically washed away. The South Easter is already cranking up, wheezing between out of season rainfall and the odd Cape Doctor. Weird weather everywhere. Not exactly motivating another ride. The times are changing for sure, but I'm not convinced that Al Gore has all the answers on this one and I don't think a diet of beetroot will improve my immunity (or my fitness).

Now the kids are on holiday at the end of November - earlier than I ever recall. Heck when I was at school (oh hell I'm sounding like my grand father now) I seem to remember only about 3 weeks of Christmas holidays and now they're lining up for 6 weeks or so. Life's good if you're a kid with a bicycle (or a teacher), particularly one you can do some dirt jumping with like we did on our BMX bikes back in the 80's and mountain bikes since then... Every spare moment was spent building jumps and shaping tracks to ride away our time. We rode dirt jumps, BMX tracks, half-pipes, walls and over each other. If they weren't there, we built them for ourselves.

I chuckle to myself when I hear the crew talk about "trails" like it's something new to the naughties or riders complain about how "they/others" must build new places to ride. I wonder how many are planning building trails this summer holidays or buy a new PS3 game? I keep telling my kids - learn to bunny-hop for real, that's a real life skill to have. Never mind the shin burgers you get from slipping pedals trying to master the skill - it's all part of the progression. If you can't bunny-hop you'll never do a 360, and you won't get there without some reminders we weren't born with a bicycle between our legs.