I learned to Jump at 40 years old

the spark, have you ever wanted something so much and can't get it out of your head? I'm not talking about a possession but a feeling, that was me the day I saw this

jump

in my local area that my neighbor had come across. When I was walking down the path he told me vaguely where to find it, he said it was quite big, so I wanted to see it myself, let's just say it was a lot bigger than I was ready for the Local Legends that were there tearing it up. I stayed sitting there. and I saw that he was quite jealous to be honest.

I just wondered if he would ever be able to hit something like this one day. I mean, he was 38

years

old at the time. I mean, I wouldn't consider myself a young man, but I'm not over the hill yet I have a wife I have kids I have a house I have a career Should I even try trying things like this? That's where this story begins. Trip. I had just bought my first Enduro mountain bike. Kenyans drive a 29er. with 160 and 150 millimeters of travel because at this point I was determined to learn to

jump

on my own I started exploring For jumps in my local area Google and YouTube were my biggest allies I found a couple more places.

He went pretty much anywhere he could. I progressed my skills wherever I could find features that would help me improve one step closer to my goal and then I started meeting other cycling friends. Phoenix was a good place during the winter because there were people building amazing jumps and features you could see. I was making progress, but it was taking so long. I thought to myself: can the big leap ever be achieved? Crashing along the way was discouragement every time I moved forward and failed, progressed, then failed, progressed and then just failed. I wondered if this is the price you pay to get better.

I'm not even sure how much of that I could handle, but after all the crashes I was still determined to get there, even if it took longer. The obsession after three

years

of trying to perfect this skill of learning to jump. to the place that started it all, but this time I came with my YT Capra, they never look so big on camera compared to what we see in real life, in your own eyes it's huge, but for all your friends who see the video is not that big. I might be right, it's a quick drop and a steep lip that sends you pretty high and it's not just a step up, I'm five foot seven and this thing towers over me, but now it's time to see if the skills are over.

It has been worth the last three years to get over this jump, luckily there is a small practice jump on the left side so I thought I would do it a few times before attempting this one. Before this endeavor, I was never lucky enough to have the ability to jump anything with two wheels. I just decided I wanted to do it. I figured if I jumped off enough times I'd get used to feeling the speed, learn the ropes, and finally be able to commit to the jump I've been waiting for. because after all these practice runs I felt good, I felt comfortable, I felt confident, I felt like I could definitely achieve this goal, it was definitely faster than I thought it was going to be, you just feel like you're going really fast and that lip It comes on so fast and before you know it you're right at the top, each run was getting more comfortable than the last and I thought now is the time to commit, it wasn't the prettiest by any means but I was just happy to having achieved it for me this wasn't just about a leap, this was something I worked hard for an achievement that took me three years to achieve and I just want to continue developing my skills even better after this.

I'm 41 and I feel like this is just the beginning and I can't wait to see what's next, the conclusion as we part ways. I'll leave you with this, it doesn't matter when you start, you just need to start because you never know. how far can you go until you try