'ATCproductions'

The fit one was going to do this write up but I’ve given up waiting for him to stop eating hummous long enough to do anything, so here it is, Europe 09 take 2 by Tom

The Mbs berlingo was completely out of fuel so Ian brought out a can of diesel which I made sure was diesel as you can never be too sure, I can remember my dad filling up with petrol in a diesel van what an idiot. We headed down to Aj’s for a cup of cocoa before setting off on our mammoth drive to Belgium.
10 minutes down the road having filled up to the brim with fuel the van started making some weird noises and then it hit me, the pump was green not black, who’s the idiot now, I had filled up with petrol, An from there on out everything just went tits up. We were next to the motor way in the pouring rain with a ferry to catch no credit on Tuai’s phone and a thoroughly depressed tom. Then by some sort of miracle an AA van pulled up, took us to a petrol station, let us use his phone to call the RAC and reassured me that everyone does it at least once.
Neway I could carry on about this for the whole story but I wont waste your time, all I will say Is some how we had left my bank card by the side of the road about 20 miles away and had to pay a big fat bloke and his two mates a considerable amount of money for sorting out the van.

We got on the ferry with ten minutes to go, vowing to not speak about what had happened for the next few days. The drive to Wanyi was pretty easy except for anywhere that two roads crossed, because that was far to much for Tuai’s map reading abilities, and if we got to a city, shit, we were lucky to make it out in even remotely the right sort of direction, But finally we made it to Wanyi and after saying hi to all the familiar faces we set up the tent and slept for about 20 hours.

I woke to the sound of Joesepe Dickinson and a bunch of other English riders mingling about, this has got to be one of the best things about the Belgium open it always attracts loads of riders from all over the shop, there were a bunch of Spanish riders that I’ve got to say were way sick, they went for it harder than anyone else all weekend, there were the usual Belgian suspects Arno Styne an so on some Dutch an I think even some polish.

We spent the day lounging, skating, swimming, riding and then drinking cold cold jupiler, in the evening Me Ig an Arno sessioned the boarderX together for an hour or so which was sick, I’ve never ridden that track before but it flows pretty good and gets the blood pumping, if you are lucky enough to get out to Wanyi don’t be put off by the looks of the boarderX, give it a go, you’ll love it.

This was the fifth Belgium open id been to but it was still as fun as ever, the under 18’s freestyle didn’t start till 1 o’clock and was a sweet show to watch, all the kids were ripping it Mick and Jamie stood out by a long way spinning of everything with there trademark styles and both landing 5’s Jamie took the win with Mick close on his heels.
The open started at 4 when the weather had started to cool down, yet again I can say I had as much fun in a comp as if I was just riding with my mates (no pressure), this is why I love Belgium, you start when you want, have as many jumps as you want, do what you want and everyone loves it. Garry the wild layed down some mad stuff landing a switch musty flip on his first jump and the saying im gona hit the big one spin as much as I can and see what happens, it was so good to ride with Ig again, one because he was wearing nothing but a but pad, kneepads wrist guards and a helmet, but more because of his attitude, everything he does is for fun and that’s how it should be.
I won’t go through and list all the tricks that went down because im sure you’ll be able to find a video of it somewhere on the internet, but the riding was top class and everyone had a well good time.

After a pretty shoddy viewing of the new BFC video due to a scratched DVD, (maybe the master copy), we all headed into the local village where there was some sort of fate going on, me and Tuai had a couple t-shirts to give out so we all gathered in a circle and the dancing begun, Ig won of course, busting his usual array of epic pops and breaks.
The night ended pretty fast, I wont go into all the details but in the morning there was some split lips and a few Belgians walking about with saw fists, and I felt especially bad, don’t steal a pissed up crazed Belgians ribena or bad thing happen is the motto of the story.

part 2 comin soon