Myles Hillier takes you on a mountainboard road trip

The journey was pretty simple thanks to TOMTOM and we arrived about 10 minutes early. We waited a while but no sign of JC! He finally arrived at 11:30ish, by this time me and Jack had already begun riding. We started off by riding the spot Breakers, this was immense fun and where we spent most of the day, finding new lines, jibbing older ones and enjoying the original. We then made our way over to Ws and the bowl, hitting other lines on the way. Ws is a fast straight line down a descent over a small hill then into the bowl at the bottom. We had a couple of runs down that then me and Camel Licker jibbed at the bottom. After watching the BFC film 'Like This' me and Licker decided that Steve Cownie is a nutter but we would try backflipping the little kicker anyway. We then went back to the car for some lunch (not dinner JC!) and met up with an old WXer Tristan Gardener, who now lives in Cheltenham and Chris Seymour before heading back up the hill for more riding.

After a sweet days riding Tristan invited us back to his for some grub, a game of poker and a place to stay. Jack the little sly shark just beat me for first place in poker bagging himself a massive five pounds. We then got up had a Tesco breakfast and made our way to bugs mountainboard centre.

We arrived at the centre to be welcomed by the resident pikey Rhys Crilly and his MBS team mate Matt Brind, who had been living in caravans at the centre for a while. We spent the day chatting about recent times of mountainboarding, catching up and riding the sweet foam pit.

The next day Matt Brind had to go and meet his contact to acquire a fake passport. So Jack offered him a lift into cheltenham with Rhys. While Brindy was getting his passport Rhys and Jack did a tour of the coffee shops in Cheltenham and Me, Camel Licker and JC Chilled in the sun, and a bit more foam. When the boys got back we all went freeriding in Ledbury Woods. Ledbury is a sweet spot with a sick bowl/natural jib park and some speedy fire tracks and gullies. We then went back to Bugs and had a late night foam pit session while Jack and Rhys had a sweet hip session on the beautifully groomed World Freestyle Kickers which are looking amazing. The photos below don't quite do the size/perfectly groomed nature of these jumps justice, Fat Face Night Air is definitely going to be epic, especially at a centre where every feature, new or old, seems perfectly well kept.

Wednesday we were knackered and it was amazingly hot so we decided not ride during the middle of the day. Luckily Tristan had come to visit us the night before and stayed at Bugs. He works in fitness first (Cheltenham) so we were able to get a free trial in their swimming pool, sauna and steam room. It was so relaxing and enjoyable we decided that after all the hardship of chilling out it would be rude not to reward ourselves by topping up on beer on the way back to Bugs. When we got back to bugs we met Tuai Lovejoy, Ollie Bomber Morrison and John Burton who were chilling by the mini ramp and having a little skate. We were then joined by Tom Kirkman before a late night foam pit session using big candles and car head lights when the sun had gone down. Unfortunately Tom and Tuai were injured so couldn't join in.

The next morning most of the gang had to go to the MBS demo in oxfordshire, so we made our way to Court Farm where we met Simon Andrews and Tom Donaldson before going freeriding with Simon in the local woods.

More on how to deal with a scotsman later...

Big thanks go out to Tristan (and all the other at his gaff which we invaded), Rhys Crilley, Matt Brind, Bugs, AJ, Bugs Boarding for being a sweeeeet centre and the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham for good coffee and free WiFi.

Words by Myles Hillier, Photos mainly by Jack Beezer, hip session by Chris Horsely.