Becoming a Bandito- My first year of Downhill
As I stood at the top of Bopeep hill, surrounded by some of the fastest skaters in the country, I had way too much time to think. I was shaking a bit. It was cold, but not that cold. I put my fullface on; A 661 from chain reaction cycles. The strap was more difficult than usual to tie. I pulled one glove on, then the other. Looking up at the quickly thinning crowd ahead of me, thoughts rushed through my brain. I hadn’t been from the top in the dry before. Thanks for putting on such a great event Liz. Crash and Burn is going to be a massive success. The organisation is superb, the atmosphere fantastic- but I’m about to die. Sorry about that. Apologies for the inconvenience.
What the bloody hell was I doing here?
Tuesday, October 26th.
It was evening, and I’d just finished eating dinner. I think it were pork chops, although I can’t really be sure. I was talking to my parents about how I desperately wanted to get into skating some hills. I mentioned to them about the Lush forums, how I’d been posting there for a while and about this amazing skate scene I’d uncovered. I suggested that I could make a post asking about where people skate, and maybe find some people to skate with. They agreed it would be a good idea.
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hi
Iv'e been spending far too long recently searching everywhere for decent places to slide in sussex and the surrounding area. the best iv'e managed to come up with is a path too narrow to slide, and a carpark only clear on sundays. i've heard of the (terrifying looking) Eastbourne Firle Bostal and Bopeep, but does anyone know of any hopefully car free spots more at my level? i know people are going to be reluctant to give away places to skate, so i'd appreciate anything.
cheers for the read.
will
Iv'e been spending far too long recently searching everywhere for decent places to slide in sussex and the surrounding area. the best iv'e managed to come up with is a path too narrow to slide, and a carpark only clear on sundays. i've heard of the (terrifying looking) Eastbourne Firle Bostal and Bopeep, but does anyone know of any hopefully car free spots more at my level? i know people are going to be reluctant to give away places to skate, so i'd appreciate anything.
cheers for the read.
will
Some suggestions rolled in. At last, some ideas! And then a message.
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Dave Martin-“I ride with the Southern Banditos. You are more than welcome to join us for a session.”
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Holy shit. Southern Banditos. I’d heard of them. Southern Banditos means…. Bopeep. My god, what was I getting myself into? That’s a 50mph hill. And I was invited to the Sunday session. Oh dear. A few more messages and Dave reassured me that it was just going to be a chilled skate, and that I shouldn’t be concerned. I was still concerned. The hours ticked by until Sunday came around.
But Sunday had other ideas. Rain specifically. And rain did indeed stop play. I think I was glad.
But then a few days later;
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Dave Martin-The Banditos will be at Bo Peep on Sunday from about 11ish.
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Here was another chance to skate. My heart hoped it wouldn’t rain again, but my brain had other ideas. Waking up on Sunday morning, I was absolutely dreading it. Anticipation and fear were building. I felt sick. The entire drive down there I was terrified out of my mind. And then we pulled up to Bopeep Lane.
It looks innocent, like any other quiet lane in the countryside.
It is not innocent. It is not like any other quiet lane in the countryside.
We turned in, and the contours of the hill immediately became clear. This was bigger than any other hill I’d skated in my life! Fear gave way to wonder and amazement! This was going to be awesome!
We continued driving, and it levelled out a bit. Then some more steep dips and drops. Things were getting a bit gnarlier now. This hill was fantastic!
We drove a bit more. And then without warning, the road began to rise. Steeply. My spirits crumbled as I slowly realised that everything until now was just the road leading to the actual hill. The gradient increased. It increased a bit more. As we rounded the bottom corner things just got worse. Up the straight, and trees loomed over a narrow menacing bit of road. More gradient, as we pulled up on what I now know to be Carnage Corner. This was the most intimidating thing I had seen in my life. A brutal left hand hairpin that gets worse and worse the further round you go. Clearing the hairpin we pulled up to where a bloke was standing. This was Dave. He was friendly and reassuring- I was still shitting myself. He said that there was a carpark at the top, so we began to drive again.
When you make the final ascent, you begin to realise just what Bopeep hill is all about. It’s a monstrosity. It’s evil and wants to kill you. The gradient at the top quarter is so horrendous and pictures cannot do it justice. We eventually made it to the carpark.
It was cold up here. The wind was chilly and the fear built up again. Padding up I grabbed my setup. It was a regular shortboard deck with Indy style trucks and some bullets. At the time I couldn’t slide anything else. I began the long walk back down.
Stumbling down back to where Dave was waiting I realised how ill prepared I was. My introduction to downhill was going to be brutal. After a brief chat with Dave about how mind-blowingly terrifying this place was, he said to take a run into the corner from wherever I was comfortable. With that, he pushed off from where we were standing and slid a toeside into the corner. Now it was my turn.
I walked down a bit. Then a bit more. I put my board down in front of me, and pushed off. The first thing that hit me was how quickly you accelerate due to the gradient. The second thing that hit me was the road. I went for a Coleman and my board shot away from me, leaving me bouncing off the tarmac and into the undergrowth. I was a bit bruised but miraculously I had survived my first run!
That first run lit something within me. From those few seconds, I knew- this was what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life. I had found downhill skateboarding, and from that moment onwards I could never let it go.
After a couple more attempts I managed to find a large quantity of dog turd lying landmine-style right where I crashed. That took a while to clean up…
Things were going quite well. I switched to my spooky deck, now confident of at least being able to get the board sideways. I had to resort to a pretty weak two handed Coleman. Oh well. I could stop when needed. And nobody had managed to scare my parents so far.
Oh how things can change so quickly…
Far away down the hill, there was a noise. It was a car horn. Who, or what, was this? It grew louder as a car emerged from round the corner. Dave quickly identified it and sprinted down, jumping onto the bonnet of the vehicle. My suspicions about the occupants of said vehicle were proved correct when some confused looking weirdo’s fell out of it. This was the rest of the Banditos.
Dave made the introductions:
“This is Will”
“HI WILL!!!!”
“This is Wills mum and dad”
“HI WILLS MUM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Oh dear.
Soon after, Will Stephenson quietly parked up. Or did he? No, Will drove up revving the bejesus out of his motor, smoking the tyres and painting a massive eleven on the road.
Looking back now, I realise how these two events could have influenced my parents to come to the conclusion that this downhill skateboarding thing wasn’t actually a very good idea.
But as it was, they looked concerned, slightly worried but in no mood yet to leave. That left me to spend the rest of the day skating with the Banditos. It was amazing. I had an absolute blast just doing the one slide I had managed. Go along a little bit, do a slide, get the board back under me, repeat. By any standards I wasn’t going fast, but it didn’t matter. I was skating Bopeep with the Southern Banditos.
And Christ, they were mad. That day, they did as they always have done and will do- go fast, kill wheels, smash corners-and laugh whilst doing so. Like I said, mad.
Eventually, the day drew to a close. I had done what I had longed to do for so long- skate a proper hill. This was the beginning of something special.
Some other winter days
My first Bopeep skate had been superb. I got along to more winter sessions there. One session was on sheet ice, where it was a physical impossibility to walk more than halfway up the hill.
Another was a dry road, and my introduction to sliding soft wheels- and that there is little gain in downhill without a fair bit of pain.
And then, there was the Mud Skate. It started as a facebook event. A number of people confirmed their attendance. It was shaping up to be a good session. And then, hours before it was about to go down, the rain came. Now, ordinarily the sheer quantity of water that fell from the sky would be grounds for calling off the session. Not this time. We had guests coming down, all the way from Bristol. We couldn’t back out now.
Turning up at 11ish, I expected it to be wet. I expected it to be pretty horrific. I didn’t expect the mud. It was everywhere. It got on your gear, on your clothes, in your face, eyes, ears, mouth. I had a fair few runs at the corner, and was enjoying skating with some new people. I finished one run with my usual Coleman, and turned to walk back up the hill. As I did so, I heard the Dangerous Decks van pull up behind me. Will Stephenson was driving. He offered me a lift- to the top.
My mind did not want to go from the top. I’d never done a full run before, and in these conditions? No way. But we had downhillers from the other side of the country here that day. My bravado overruled my common sense.
“Yeah, ok”.
I walked around the van and climbed in the side door. I sat there in the dark with adrenaline pumped faces opposite. I wanted to back out, but there was no way I would let myself now. This was it. The whole bumpy journey to the top I was filled with dread. Eventually the gradient levelled out, and it became obvious we had reached the summit. Stumbling out of the van, I was so disorientated that I was looking the wrong way, with my back to the road. This took a while to become clear- as soon as it did; I turned to face the terror.
All too soon, it was time to go. The guys ahead of me began to push off. I pushed, and almost instantly began to footbrake. This proved to be a good call, because the gradient at the top corner is something spectacular. Rob Borek ahead of me signalled that he was going to slide. He put in a toeside. Looked easy enough. I thought I’d have a bit of that. Lifting my foot from the ground, I began to accelerate. I went for the slide-CRASH.
Picking myself up from the ground, it was evident that everybody else were now miles down the hill. Great. On my feet again, I went for several more slides that didn’t work out very well. The van wouldn’t be waiting around at the bottom of the hill. At this rate I was more than likely to meet it on its return up. The run down to carnage corner was better. I managed a slide that worked- finally. And I was able to Coleman down the final straight. Realising that I was going to make it after all, I triumphantly went for a big slide on the last corner. However by that time, exhaustion had sunk in, and whatever I had went for didn’t work out. I ended up sliding for ages on my knees into the gutter, the operator of the vans horn beeping their amusement. But I had made it, and I was stoked.
After that now legendary skate, there was a fun gathering at Crystal Palace Park. Then, there was a new mission; getting 30mph for the first time. We made the long journey up to Hog Hill for the task at hand.
Hog Hill was an amazing sight to see for the first time. The scale of the place was immense, and the hill managed to intimidate the noob within me. I was on an 09’ Spooky with Sabres and some borrowed Cult Death rays. Time to rock and roll!
We were on the back hill- me and Toby, being new to the place; were foot braking a fair way down before getting into our tucks. We got in several fun runs, before I thought I’d try going a bit faster and practicing a new tuck. Mistake.
Following Toby down, things were going quite well. I felt a little more aero and a lot faster. And then, the wobbles began. I’m told that at this point, those watching from the top turned away. The board began to violently shake underneath me. Instinctively and without thinking, I got down into a drop knee position. At one point, there was glove down. At one point, there was a knee down. Still accelerating down the hill, I done all that I could to control my board. It was terrifying, but after an eternity, the road levelled out and I began to slow down.
I was so scared, my body just wouldn’t respond to me, and it took ages to just get back up to standing on my board. My legs were nothing and I was still in a state of shock. When I made it back up the hill, I just didn’t know what to do. I had a bit of lunch and sat around. I felt terrible. Dave gave me some green Sabre bushings to put board side in my trucks for extra stability, and so began the process of rebuilding my confidence on the hill.
I managed to find a tuck that felt comfortable and fairly stable. I was still scared that the wobbles would return, but gradually some speed came back. I borrowed a GPS. 26. 27. 29. 29. 29. I knew that the 29mph runs could well have been 30 or more, but I wanted to see the three and zero appear on the screen. I had another break. I said “I’m going to have a cup of tea, and then I’m going to do it.” I couldn’t go home without achieving my goal.
The tea was drunk. I pushed as hard as I could, and tucked as tightly as possible. I felt fast. I was. Looking down at the GPS at the end of the run, I had done it. Yes!
The road to Crash and Burn
Soon after that day I got hooked up with a Dangerous Decks blank. Me and Dave fashioned it into a monster of a board. 35” Wheelbase, drop through. The “Beast” was born. It didn’t really turn, but damn, did it drift! With that board I learnt so much about hooking up slides. Coleman’s became second nature and I had the confidence to begin to push my skating. And then Crash and Burn came along.
I was so excited for that event, but more than a little nervous. I volunteered to marshal during the race. But my nervousness got the better of me, and for a while I backed out of doing the freeride. I don’t know what it was, but I was making excuses. I’d get in the way I told myself. I’d have to slide too much and take everyone out. There’s a family thing happening that day anyway, I’ll just go along to race day. It took a while for me to come to my senses.
This was the biggest event happening in U.K downhill for years. Right on my doorstep. At Bopeep- OUR bloody hill! How dare I not at least do the freeride? It would be downright ungrateful not to.
I signed up.
Freeride
Anticipation built from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning. It didn’t let up, not for the journey there, not for the signup, not in the uplift van as we ascended.
As I stood at the top of Bopeep hill, surrounded by some of the fastest skaters in the country, I had way too much time to think. I was shaking a bit. It was cold, but not that cold. I put my fullface on; A 661 from chain reaction cycles. The strap was more difficult than usual to tie. I pulled one glove on, then the other. Looking up at the quickly thinning crowd ahead of me, thoughts rushed through my brain. I hadn’t been from the top in the dry before. Thanks for putting on such a great event Liz. Crash and Burn is going to be a massive success. The organisation is superb, the atmosphere fantastic- but I’m about to die. Sorry about that. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Everybody ahead of us had dropped. There was no more crowd to hide behind. Me, Toby and Dave reluctantly stepped up to the start line. I was frozen with fear, but found myself pushing off with them. And into the first corner we went. Predictably, we all crashed. And for the next slide that needed putting in, CRASH. The acceleration from the top half of the hill caught us all out. I struggled down the hill, and piled into the hay a little way past the jeering John on the megaphone at carnage corner. Eventually, I made it to the bottom and back into the van. After a few runs, things began to get better. I was still crashing, but beginning to enjoy myself.
And then there was one run that stopped things going my way. My slide at the top corner ended up with me hitting the hay there. The hay barrier was strong, I bounced off it with my board shinning me pretty nicely. It was preferable to going off the cliff, but still hurt! Later on, I was tired and not concentrating as I rounded the bend going down to carnage corner. I carved the board into my braking foot, and ended up in a heap. I was on the floor for a bit, with John shouting up “Will, are you alright?” I gave a thumbs up and leaned against the bank. Things weren’t going to plan. I felt fairly battered and needed a break. I spent some time filming and relaxing. After a while I felt like giving it another go, so I got back into the uplift van.
My perseverance paid off, and I began to have fun again. I was getting faster and more confident, able to put a regular Coleman into the top corner (a right hander) and wind it all the way back round to blast down the hill. We got in so many runs, and I have to thank Liz for a truly spectacular day. Eventually, the last run of the day came around. In the van up, I was debating with myself what to do. Should I go for it? Or should I play things safe.
I decided that if I wanted to be a true Bandito, I shouldn’t play it safe.
I went with my usual run, until I got near to the bend before the run in to Carnage Corner. I got into my tuck, and went for it. As I picked up more speed than I had ever known before, I felt completely free. More speed, the wind began to sting my eyes but I didn’t care. I came hooning into the corner, and managed to put in a massive great drift. I gripped up right by the hay. I was so pleased, but I wasn’t expecting the reaction of the spectators. Suddenly a big roar went up for what I had done. It was an amazing feeling.
At the campsite afterward, I was smiling. I’d put in a respectable performance on the home hill of the Southern Banditos. I could be proud of that.
Race Day.
I returned to the hill on race day. I helped to prep things and then got into my morning of marshalling race heats. It was good fun; I had a very quiet corner with few incidents and only one instance of walkers on the road.
And then in the afternoon, it was time for the stand-up racing. At Carnage Corner, I had a great view with my video camera. Highlights were the Penman-Borek “race from the hay” and seeing Bandito Toby overtake and go on to win a close race against Kami San.
The other Banditos were doing well too, but inevitably an inter Bandito race heat was revealed. Oli and Aaron. That was always going to be a close one, with nothing separating them in terms of skill. A cheer went up as some people in the crowd must have spotted Oli coming down to the corner. But it was clear something was wrong, because people began to call for the medical team to get up there. Spectators cleared the barriers and the van went up. Then there were a tense few minutes, waiting. I stopped filming at that point, because things seemed to be very serious indeed. The ambulance came down and drove to the hospital- we were reassured that Aaron was ok.
It later emerged that after pushing like mad from the top, Oli saw Aaron just ahead of him come off his board and ragdoll along the road. A crash that must have been almost 50mph. Despite wearing a Bell “Drop” fullface helmet, Aaron was still out for a couple of minutes. Showing incredible sportsmanship as well as respect for the safety of another Bandito, Oli slid out to go to his aid.
Later on, the racing got underway again. And the remaining Banditos put in a great performance. John got third, whilst Oli got a well-deserved first race win. That event was a very good thing for the U.K scene, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it.
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Since then, a great deal has happened. As my first year of Downhill Skateboarding comes to a close, I have started skating topmounts and began a foray into techsliding that has already proved fruitful. I’ve been to H.I.T.S twice, raced hog hill, faced Aaron in a Grudge match Death Race, learnt 2 hand 360’s, developed a better tuck, push, predrift and so much more.
Thank you to my fellow Southern Banditos, and everybody I have skated with this year. I’ve had the time of my life, not just being here but LIVING on the edge with you all.
Thank you, and bring on 2012!
Bandito Will
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