An Expensive Day Out

So we went to Newport. There is no pictures for this update as we (myself and Mark) thought it best to leave our cameras at home, mainly because we would be too stoked on riding to take photos, and also because iv'e heard Newport is quite shady and we weren't willing to get them stolen. Joe took his mini DV camera and took some video clips - thanks for that Joe. So yes, all were riding well, even Matt kept his bail count quite low which is rare! I spent a lot of time doing some nibble on the street course, Mark got stoked on vert walls (again!) and Matt did this gap where he aired over a wedge in a quarter, and to all of our suprise he landed it really smooth. Pete was doing sprocket grinds and 360 taps, he almost bitch-hopped one of them into 540, so close. Brendan is now Mr double peg stall and he managed to peggers on the top of a 6ft+ quarter which looked sweet. I didn't really get to see much of Joe's riding as we were always in different parts of the park, but I think he liked the jumpbox area. Chris didn't ride as much as he could have but I think thats how it is sometimes when people go somewhere for the first time. Like Jim at Radley. Faggott. The highlight of my trip was that when I arrived at the skatepark as some of us had to go seperately on the train (rant about this in a minute...) I was greeted by a massive chocolate cake, kindly made by Brendan's mum, and this was an idea Peter and Brendan came up with. Apparently they even phoned my mum to ask what type of cake i liked! How very thoughtful - thank you! O.K, so now you get the rant about trains and train staff. The trains from Radley to Didcot were all corrupt because they are digging up the track - some of these trains were taking 50 minutes to travel about 6 miles from Radley to Didcot, so I cycled to
Drayton to Mark's house, and we got a lift with his mum to Didcot station. All was good on the journey From Didcot to Gloucester, train was quick and staff were friendly. Then on the changeover at Gloucester everything started to go downhill. The train that would take us to Newport was probably the dodgyest train I had ever seen in my life. As soon as it set off it slammed on the brakes causing our bikes to fall over with a loud crash. The journey took ages and the constant rattling somewhere next to us was starting to bother us a bit. On the return journey we were going to try and cram our bikes into the train all together. But the train guard was being an asshole and wasn't having any of it, neither were Peter, Brendan and Mark who all had a right go at the bloke. Me and Mark couldn't fit our bikes on the train and had to wait an hour in the freezing cold. I hate public transport so as soon as I get my car and pass my test I will drive us places. Although it turned out that we got on the same train on the way back that had taken us from Didcot to Gloucester - the one with friendly staff. The ticket man recognised us from the morning and we also got stoked on bell shaped stampers and discount Bacon rolls which went down very well at the end of a hard day riding!

Puncture count: 3
Matt's Bail count : Unsure but I think it was about 3
Amount of money spent on the trip: Way too much!

Apologies for the essay and lack of photos! Phil xx