What a perfect weekend for riding trials as a flick over 50 riders who entered on Sunday would attest to. Our 5th event of the year was held at the ever popular Steve Sizmur’s property at Ferny Glen, Canungra and with a few annoying showers hanging around the Coast and Brisbane over the previous few days there were probably quite a few members who were having second thoughts about attending but as I’ve said a thousand times before, never compare the weather west of the ranges with that along the Coast.
Sizmur’s is probably our least challenging property where setting Div Zero lines are concerned but the 14 Saturday Soiree attendees did a great job setting our usual 10 All Division Section loop with enough challenges to take points off everyone on Sunday. It had been nearly 18 months since we last visited here, the last time being our first event of 2014 which was instrumental in us rethinking our future start dates thanks to a particularly brutal late summer humidity laden stinker. In that period the property has had ample time to take back most of what we have eked out of the undergrowth over previous visits but thanks to the Derrick’s slasher we made short work of reclaiming it back, particularly up the back end of the loop, and pleasingly we had all 10 Sections pretty mush set by midday leaving plenty of time for the overnighters to tweak their camps and get in some sneaky practice for the coming day.
With little or no rain to speak of overnight, Sunday dawned cool, comfortable and sunny and by our 8.45am Rider Briefing there were 51 riders, including another 5 or 6 new faces, all chaffing at the bit to get into it. The first four sections were conveniently located within sight of the score tent in the creek, that had been well and truly purged over the previous couple of rain events and in fact to such an extent that it was hard to come up with some creative section setting compared to the ease of other years. Mind you, all you have to do to do Trials riders heads in is add water and they go all weak at the knees and this was no different. The number of riders I saw with long sticks checking water depth was acutely amusing and another good reason for them to consider attending the Saturday Soirees whereby you can see how deep it really is before it’s all stirred up. Section’s 1 & 2, at the lower end of the entry drive causeway, with their now exposed slippery shelf rock contributed to many a riders score and even took a few on foot casualties in the process I’m sad to say.
Once again we were blessed to have all bar two of our Sections fully observed making the day all that more enjoyable for the riders and how good was it to see Marge & Clarrie back keeping us all honest again. There were even a few new Observers volunteering for the first time as well and vowing to return in future reinforcing our reputation gained over the past 7 years. And the momentum doesn’t look like abating anytime soon too just quietly!
Due to the excellent flowing Section setting and long loop, 75% of the field were all done before our 12 Noon lunch break, with the other 25% stragglers following them by 2.00pm, allowing a bit of an expression session to take place in Section 1 with our fast becoming honorary member and Czech FIM licenced rider, Dominik Wunsch, giving the Div Zero boys a master class on how to get out of the creek without the need for all the noise and subsequent crash bang! Whilst this was entertaining some of the masses, and with the rest out pulling in the Sections, it was on with the complimentary BBQ, superbly organised by “Fingers” Van Dijk, and once ready the days Scores were read out to those that hadn’t taken the early mark home. This was arguably one of our more enjoyable events to date, and heavens knows we’ve had a few, and it’s now time to focus on our next event in three weeks’ time to see if we can up the ante all over again. See you then, maybe!