After a summer of missing all of the Track Dropouts events, I put my food down at home and made sure that this was my first alleycat, with the check points set at various cemeteries around Bristol. Myself, James and Christian joined Ed for a warm up/soaking on Friday night with a ride to Bath and back, but I felt fine by Saturday evening. Getting down to the water front, I was pleased to discover that not too many other folk knew where they were going and there was a lot of map/iPhone/hand written routes being discussed. As the start point of St. Andrew’s Park was announced I realised it completely fucked my plans so I kept a look out for who set off with the most conviction and followed them. It all started to get a bit of a blur as the hills began to ruin me. Apologies to Ty for getting us lost on the way to Canford Cemetery, and thanks to one of the planters in the town center for their floral offerings! Super thanks to Kieran for organising the day, full set of pics over at our Flickr page. /A

Check out my shots from the day at the Dam on FlickR. Such an epic place. Can’t wait to get a new bike and get back down there. Although that will probably be next year now, I’m going traveling for 1o months from next week! /R

Had an epic day with two of my good mates up at the Dam in my local town of Ripponden. I got up pretty early and headed out by myself riding down to the base of the dam with a yard brush, shovel and skateboard strapped to my back; to get in some early clearing before the other two came up after they finished work. A few hours sweeping and clearing later, I’d cleared 2 decent sized runs, but after being in the baking sunshine, I was a bit too dehydrated to actually ride them. But after picking up Tom and Pete and getting some lunch, we all headed back up to ride for the rest of the afternoon.

The surface is fucking gnarly. Fine for the bike, but we all needed much bigger wheels to skate effectively. Pushing as hard as we could, only to lose speed fairly quickly. We nicked a road sign to bridge a lip, in order to skate the flat bank section; and managed to get in a good session. We’ve got plans to get a bag of cement and lightly skim the surface of this bit, as the angle is perfect – our very own Pontus Alv style skate spot.

I’ve got loads of footage from the day, which will all be going into the second 44/16 Mixtape (if I can get it done before I go travelling!) which really gives you a sense of how small you are compared to the surroundings. These photos were all taken by Tom Dewhirst (which I’ve uploaded to our FlickR) so thanks for them Tom! I’ve got some shots from the day too, which are currently being developed, which are more of Tom and Pete skating so check back for those.

I love days like these, having to spend time to make a spot, riding it, changing it, developing it, realising new lines, slamming on it. I’m going to miss days like these. /R

Just seen the MixtMeat blog a found that Ric has had a bad day! He’s off traveling next week (hence I’m doing this post) and this was his last session. Disaster stall on the volcano ending in a two piece Charge Plug. Gutted for you man. Pics from Trev’s Flickr. /A

I’ve been in Brizzle for 6ish weeks now and I’m starting to take on a few of the hills. I’ve dropped my gear to a 42/16 which has made the blast up Park Street and Whiteladies a little easier. However, after getting to the top of the downs last night I bumped into Ed on his beautiful Bob Jackson and tagged along for an extra 12 miles around Horfield, Northville, Filton, Southmead and Westbury On Trym from which I have drawn two conclusions. 1/ I have discovered a need for a fast bike. 2/ I should probably eat more before going on longer rides. Needless to say I took my burning legs to the excellent Magnet Fish Bar for a well deserved supper safe in the knowledge that I need to put some more miles in. /A

Sam is from Canada. He’s visiting Bristol for a month and with him he brought his bike and rather pretty Bronica Sq-ai. 50mm 3.5 camera. He’s only a young’un, but has already got a really good handle on his camera and is getting some tasty results. Here’s a few shots he got of me and Roly riding the other night. More after the jump and check out Sam’s Flickr page here. /A