Downhill Series 1; Whinlatter – stuff you might find useful.

The first ATBA event of the 2012 season is this weekend and it’s also the first ever ATBA Downhill Series (I think...), following the success of the ‘Dave’ competition in Wales last year. I’ll obviously be there, seeing how it’s relatively local to me, although I am planning on going to all three Downhill events this year.

I’ve been up to Whinlatter a few times now, so I thought I’d share some of my non-mountainboard related knowledge (...as if I have any mountainboard related knowledge...lol).

For a start, the plan is to camp at Lanefoot Farm campsite. Camping is £6.50 per person a night if you quote “mountainboarding” when you turn up. You dont always need to book, but you can call them to reserve a spot. The Royal Oak pub is a 10mins walk from the campsite and has decent food and diet-coke alternatives. The nearest shops seem to be in Keswick (which you have to drive to), so it’s a good idea to bring everything you need.

Whinlatter Forest is a couple of miles up the road from the campsite. Feel free to try and find a parking spot so you don’t have to pay the £6+ parking fee’s, but they had put double-yellows up everywhere when I visited last month. The visitors centre has food and toilets, but it’s a good idea to bring your own (food that is...).

If I can, I will be in the Lakes from about lunchtime on Friday and I think the KentATB guys are also planning on coming up early – so get in touch if you fancy having a test run of the competiton track.

The plan is to meet at 10am on Saturday in the Whinlatter visitors centre carpark and there will be an uplift ferrying folks to the start line. The track is slightly out of the way of most of the public (yellow line on the map is the competition track) The uplift is going to take a slightly different route (the green line on the map), so there will probably be people milling around between the finish line and uplift pick-up point if you turn up late.

Friday/Saturday night could be a chance to get some night-riding in at the infamous Osprey run that’s nearby. On Sunday there is talk of riding Skiddaw again (I thought it was a hellish nightmare when I did it...but there might be a different route to try and it is good to say you’ve ridden an actual mountain...) or just going back up into Whinlatter and hitting up some of the other firetracks.

If you’ve not already; check out the Facebook event and ATBA site and see you there!

Oh...and don’t forget your board/pads and ATBA membership & entry form (you don’t have to be an ATBA member – but it just makes sense).