This is the personal blog of Paul Petch a self professed outdoor addict, reformed graphic designer, picture taker & IT geek living in Christchurch NZ. While you are here why not subscribe to my tweets, Flickr, RSS and Vimeo?


Finally we got our Wings on AV8R at Woodhill

The weather here today was fantastic for winter… Clear skies and a crisp wind. We (Momentus, KB, Whafe) were doing more of a play jumpy ride today. We had some interesting times on some structures.

As we were heading back to the carpark, we rode up and checked out a jump called AV8R. It has caused us to have our balls in our backpacks for quite some time. We all knew we were capable of doing it, but it was still fuc$ing with our heads. I’m sure you all have some jumps like that….

Anyway, some shots.

Related posts:

  1. A stunning Winters day at Woodhill
  2. Woodhill mountain biking. North Island trip. Ride one.
  3. Weekend of mountain biking at RotoVegas (Rotorua)
  4. Road bike FAIL :D
  5. Heli biking at Taupo – North Island

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 7:38 pm and is filed under Bike Rides and tagged with , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

12 Responses to “Finally we got our Wings on AV8R at Woodhill”

  1. Paul says:
    June 23, 2009 at 6:40 am

    You guys have balls of titanium. Good to see that you have conquered it! I hope to meetup with you all over Summer- and ride some of Woodhill……but not that thing :D

    Zane…would you ride this kind of stuff?

    Reply
  2. spencer says:
    June 24, 2009 at 8:56 pm

    Kudos. AV8R is huge. I’ve stood on the end for a look and got dizzy just standing there. It’s a *big* drop.

    Woodhill is really cool for progression. I started to hit quite a few of the 4X jumps out there before I left Auckland early last year after working my way up through the one, two and three Xs. I figure you’d need to have all of Woodhill’s 4Xs under your belt before even looking at AV8R.

    It’s good that you’re riding with like like minded people. Having a couple of buddies to ride with the skills and balls to hit that must be good for pushing the skills. Do you guys hit the big line on Ho Chi Min?

    Reply
    • Whafe says:
      June 29, 2009 at 7:29 pm

      spencer – it is one of those jumps that once you hit it once, you say “sheesh, why did I not do it earlier”

      I find some of the X’s to be odd in rating, for sure some are very good, others not so great….. AV8R is for sure a head F%$&K of a jump…

      Agree that Woodhill is great for progression…. There is for sure many structures / features that are at the real difficult level, but there is getting to be far more intermediate type stuff….

      Reply
  3. Antoine says:
    June 30, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    Big balls indeed and thanks for the photos.

    I ride at Woodhill with my kids and in the 20 or so times we have been there we have never seen anyone tackling the bigger structures, not even the jumps by the gate as you drive in. I was starting to wonder how often they actually got used.

    I have the excuse of being old and chickenshit with a stuffed ankle so I can ride past those things without feeling too much guilt. I sure would like to see some of them done in person though.

    Reply
    • Whafe says:
      July 1, 2009 at 7:25 pm

      have to agree somewhat Antoine, many stunts / structure do not get ridden that much. As I mentioned above, it seems that there is very little intermediate stuff… Goes from pretty small and easy to Whoa type stuff…

      Hard for progression…..

      Way out the back there is a great trail that is almost complete, it is I would say true intermediate stuff, very much helps with peoples progression… Go and find the jump AV8R Junior, it is great….

      Reply
      • spencer says:
        July 1, 2009 at 9:11 pm

        There are a few intermediate tracks out there. I guess Ironhorse was the track I learned to jump on. Each time I’d ride it I’d hit another jump or two until I was riding the whole lot. Before I knew it I was hitting it all smoothly and at speed on a XC bike. Shortly afterwards the XC bike evolved into something a bit more Trail oriented and my bikes have been getting heavier ever since:)

        The easy line on deadman’s corner was pretty good for learning to jump on too. I’d always try to hit it a few times each time I was out there.

        I’m sure AV8R is 90% head f*ck, but jeez, the consequences of failure are look huge. The fence jump was my boogie man. Next time I’m in Auckland with my bike it gets ticked off the list for sure:) Think I’ll leave AV8R to you guys though. I’ll also use age as an excuse:)

        Reply
  4. Fenton Hazelwood says:
    July 6, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Was rather stoked with myself, not an arrog way, but we did the AV8R jump on Sunday in the rain and wet, was a little pucker up feeling, but was all good. Think the sand that sticks to the tires helps stick to the down ramp, wouldnt want to hit it on an angle though…..

    Bring back the dry weather, more stunts to hit up….

    Reply
    • Paul says:
      July 6, 2009 at 8:22 pm

      So you should be mate! That’s an epic effort in the dry, never mind the wet. One of my worst fears is riding in the wet and slippy stuff when there is a price to be paid for a mess up…..

      Once it dries up- you will be launching off everything!!!

      Here….have a virtual beer!

      Reply
    • Antoine says:
      July 6, 2009 at 8:28 pm

      Ha, I was there yesterday too riding around on my lonesome. Still didn’t see anybody jumping anything but I rode past a few groups (probably you) of riders with bouncy-bikes and armour. Say hi next time when you see the skinny guy on the fat bike and I’ll take some pics of you breaking bones ;^)

      Reply
  5. Fenton Hazelwood says:
    July 7, 2009 at 9:49 am

    Antoine, say hi to the skinnyish fello on the camo coloured Nicolai and we will jump it for you, and when I break bones you can help me to the doctors…. :)

    What time are you normally out there?

    Reply

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