Martha Hucker radtastic photoshoot and huck-fest

As there are more and more sunny days the riding in the Port Hills just gets better and better. On Thursday after work I headed up to Flying Nunn. I knew I was participating in the “Martha Hucker radtastic photoshoot and huck-fest” on Saturday and I was feeling pretty intimidated by this. Martha Hucker is a brilliant website featuring the world’s best downhill and freeriding chicks. So when Martha asked a load of us to get together to model her new t-shirts I couldn’t say no. So I headed up to the Nunn to get my confidence up and to tackle the corner that’s been my nemesis once and for all. It was a perfect day for riding, the track was dry, but not dusty, the sun was shining brightly and the Nunn was sheltered enough to protect from the howling wind. I wanted to get used to riding with my seat waaaaay down. I’d discovered that dropping my seat right down felt really weird and threw me slightly off balance. I found the whole not being able to sit down thing a pain, too much cross-country seat up the jacksy!

Three clean, fast and fun runs of the Nunn and I was over the moon. I nailed the rocky corner that I hate every time. Sometimes it’s all about confidence, the confidence to go a little bit faster and trust to bike, and on the Nunn this is really the case. I was so stoked and was feeling a bit happier about the photoshoot on Saturday.

Saturday was perfect. Hot, still and sunny. Michelle picked me up and then we grabbed and Anna and we headed up to Brake-free. Yep, the place where I broke my arm. This would be my first attempt at really jumping again and it would be fair to say I was pretty nervous. Especially about riding with people who really knew what they were doing. My first run and I just rolled everything, but pumped through all the berms. The bike felt good and my next run I started getting a weee bit of air. Each run was better and better and while I wasn’t getting big air I wasn’t casing everything and didn’t feel like I was making a fool of myself. We even attracted quite an audience. After all, it’s not every day you see 6 chicks in matching t-shirts hitting jumps with a photographer. Very funny.

After Brake-free we headed down Sesame St. With the seat down I found I was able to go much, much faster through the corners and then I hit the wall ride. I was right outside my comfort zone and kind of mucked it up, but my bike did its job and I was fine. I hit it again, slightly better, but still messy and then the fear grabbed me and I decided that I wouldn’t push my luck any further with the wall. With so many people watching, we’d got more audience at the wall, I just wasn’t keen on hurting myself.

We continue down and hit the big jump at the bottom called B-Line. I’ve never tried to hit anything as big as that and I was pretty rubbish at it. Need more brave! I gave it a couple of goes, but just wasn’t feeling confident so let everyone else show me how it was really done. Then more photo-posing silliness and it was over. We pushed back up to the top and headed to pub. Wedges and beer all round and we were very happy girls. Back to my place for coffees and utter silliness. V-10 tries to eat road bike, brilliant fun.

I’ll post up some photo’s of the day once we get them from the photographer.

Today was a spin to Rapaki, up it and then across the Traverse and for the first time ever I cleaned the whole thing without taking the nana lines. Yes!!! Then a run of Brake-free and down Sesame St. Both felt not-so-good on the cross country bike and then I my lovely husband showed me how to hit B-line. As amazing as it is riding with the girls, and it is amazingly fun and the best way to learn, riding with my husband is the best. Doing the thing I love most with the man I love most. Win!!