Ben talks about what he's been up to in his garden
Well its big for a backyard park and in my eyes it takes up very little room but my parents say differently. We have a couple of fields off the back of our house and luckily they are on a hill so it was a perfect place to build on.
First off your setup looks pretty big so it must take up a lot of space. Were is, it doesn't look like it's on your back garden?
Building stuff takes a lot of time and effort not to mention cash if you lucky enough to be able to get a digger in. What was the first thing you made and what made you pick up a spade.
It does take a lot of time and effort and I have been lucky enough to know someone with a digger who lends it to me when he doesn't need it. Well the first thing I made was a small rollin off the side of an old barn, it led up to a 3ft kicker. After playing with that for a while I kind of got bored and wanted something bigger and I think that has been my problem, I always want to build bigger so I had to go out and do it.
How long have been working on your park, what is your setup like at the moment.
I have been working on it for around 3 years. At the moment its at a stage where I feel its not right, it needs something. But anyway it starts with a rollin that is around 10ft high, from here you look down the hill and you have a choice of two routes. Down to the left is a roller into another roller then you have time to set up for the bigger jump which has now had a north shore drop built over the top of it. The route to the right is the main jump, this has been the best jump for a long time now, it gets tweaked most out of them all. After this jump you can either hit the new drop or go straight on and hit another table. This is more of a keep you speed jump, its not really any good for big tricks. This then leads into the last jump, real fun for just messing on with 3's and 1's. I have also got a foam pit but this has been attacked by rain and rats so I am trying to arrange something much cooler which you guys will have to wait to find out about, let me just say no centre has one. Oh year I have also got a jib park, this has a tire stall, fence post and a couple of gas canisters with a rail at the end. This was knocked together in a couple of hours as I was really bored and I enjoyed the one at super bole so I thought why not?
When you started did you have a plan in mind or have just built things as you have gone along.
Originally there was a plan, just one jump but now there is loads and I just build as and when I can.
Dirt parks can be a bit of a work in progress, has it all gone to fairly easily since you started, has anything been demolished for what every reason Most of the things have gone together well, one thing that got to me was I had spent all this time building a nice wooden take off and then needed to adjust the landing. so I was in the digger I had just dumped some soil then I swung round and hit the kicker, I was so angry but what can you do. Things either get taken down or adapted into something bigger/different, nothing will ever go to waste.
Is there a crew of you working on it or just mainly you and your bro.
No crew and no bro, it's usually me on my own. Its great to have help every now and again but I love to go up into the field and just build things or groom the jumps.
There are many ways to build things have you got a preferred method, has much of the stuff been made with plywood.
Yes, I have found the best way to build a jump. You need a digger and a small car (not a nice car as sometimes things go wrong). The digger is used to build the jump, you get it looking how you want it and this is the scary bit. You need to drive up and down the take off and landing with the digger making sure the arm is right out in front of you so you don't tip over. This is so the weight of the digger packs down the soil making it very hard in a short amount of time. The digger will leave tracks in the jump; this is where the small car comes into play. You just drive up and down until it's all smooth and you should be able to hit the fresh jump straight away. Also after a wet spell and the jumps have almost dried out this is a good time to get the car back on the jumps, this will bead down all the bumps and the worm holes making the landings as good as new.
Have you finished building for now or have got some ideas for new features or lines.
I don't think I will ever finish building; I have always got ideas floating around. The next thing I want to but in is a big quarter pipe as that is the next thing in mountainboarding. You get a few riders who are sick in the pipe but most people will through a 1 or maybe a 3 so I think that will be a good feature for the bottom of the hill. I have had the idea of a 4ft step up like the 06 worlds step up and then have a 4-5ft kicker on the top into a big step down landing sunken in a few feet to make it bigger now that would be a super fun feature.
Since you have been building for a while now is there any hints and tips you would like to pass on.
Yeah take your time, I have rushed into things and it has turned out to be the biggest waste of time, anyone who gets access to a digger or has lots of time the best way is to build you park about 1-2 feet under ground level, this is so all the soil you did up it goes straight back into your features. If you look at mine none of it is at ground level.
Watch out for chalk, its great for run-ins but its so hard to get smooth try to get the grass you dig up at the bottom of the jump its such a pain to have to move when its at the top.
and finally have what has been the most fun to build, is there a favourite part of your park.
The most fun feature I have built has to be the latest thing, the other weekend I had the local crew (project documentation) over for a ride and we were in a building mood so I decided to hack down the foam pit rollin and we build a north shore drop. What was so sick was building something together then getting to ride it. We had a sweet days riding and I think there is a video to go with it.
Its all really good but the best thing has to be the first jump, it is the standard jump that you would picture in your head or the jump everyone draws on their school work with a little stick man doing a flip maybe that's just me but it's a sick jump and if your lucky enough to ride it I guarantee you will enjoy yourself riding it.
I would love to have people riding my place as if it were a centre but I just can't do that but I may hold the odd invite comp in the future
Thanks for reading and I hope you can take some of these points and make your own backyard set up for your mates to session.
Here's the vimeo version of Thoe's latest offering and staring Ben most recent addtion to his garden.
http://www.vimeo.com/3642869 |
