Chicksands

Last week I spent an afternoon reliving my teenage years with local boy Michael. We rode around the village doing wheelies and messed around on an Argos kicker ramp for all of five minutes before I got bored and gave up.

So I agreed to take Michael on his first off road experience at Chicksands, Bedfordshire. Chicksands is the perfect place for beginners. All the jumps on the 4x and dual track can be rolled and they're all tabletops so you if you come up short you won't damage yourself or your bike.

We warmed up on the dual track then moved onto the 4x, which Michael preferred. After a while we moved over to the freeride area. It's been about seven months since I last rode Chicksands and a lot of the freeride stuff has changed.

A lot of the original 'chickshore' has been removed. Apparently it's going to be replaced with some new ladder sections. The wooded berm is still there so we both had a go at riding it.

Pushing up from the ski jump I felt something in my back click and I was in agony. Walking, let alone riding was painful and I spent the rest of the afternoon moaning like an OAP.

After lunch we went back to riding the 4x track. Michael had a brilliant attitude towards riding. At the start of the day he was rolling the jumps, maybe catching just a little bit of air, but by the time we went home he was having a great time clearing everything.

Even if he made a mistake and had a near crash he still had a smile on his face and wanted to push back up to the top for another try. Once my backs stopped giving me grief I'm packing him up and bringing him to Aston Hill with me.