After bloody Sunday almost two years ago, I just had a déjà vu.

I went back to this spot not having been there for almost half a year. Even though I spent time practicing other things. These gaps felt so much easier than last time. I also lost some of the fear I had doing the second gap. :)

Again, haven't been riding a lot lately. Actually, today was the second time this year as the weather wasn't quite for trials. During the dark days I went to the gym though and did a mixture of upper body strength, deadlifts and squats. I also lost the 3kg the last christmas cookie weighed. I also changed my diet in order to lose some more weight as I got some pounds more than I like.

This, and the new frame I got, made me get up my preferred sidehop wall better than ever. Even though I haven't been riding, I get up easier. I still have to get the technique done though.

I also began to practice sidehops off both wheels as I think that I can learn the basics of it more and faster and also get away with the bad habit of not letting open my rear brake long enough after the pedal kick.. Anyhow... here's the video.

Over the last couple of days I've had some time to practice as I'm on vacation. I've made quite some improvements even though I think it wasn't the practice itself but the continuity that made me make two things I wasn't able to do before.

The first is the milestone as I like to call it. In April 2014 I managed to get on it for the first time but since then haven't managet to get back down again being afraid of the static hop to rear and the drop after it. The funny thing is that I've always tried to get onto the stone with a Pedal Up and now I found out by accident that rolling onto it, is much nicer and easier.

The second is dropping down from heights higher than 1.20m. The wall in the video is about 1.75 and I have been practicing this pretty much every day, progressing a lot by taking heights step by step. The technique isn't very nice but it was more about overcoming the fear of this height rather than the actual impact on the ground, which is very rough. I think once the fear is wiped away, the technique that I know on lower heights, will also apply for higher ones.

Two videos w/o many words. Have made some improvements when it comes to Up To Fronts and am very happy with it. Gaps are better as well even though very hard to do sometimes (second video) :).

Hurt myself a bit but the bike was hurt more. Broke off both of my brake levers. :D So happy that I didn't buy the Avid Ultimate levers.

This is what I've done the last couple of weeks. I've gotten as far as this:

Probably not as high as one should jump when practicing this move* but I think moving up a pallet every other month or so will bring some results.

Right now I'm at a point where I still have to visualize the move before doing it so that the technique still isn't quite right. For example, I should lean more over the handle bars. I think it's like everything else in trials. Practice x1000.