Well what an event that was.......full of action, spills and thrills, we arrived at 0630 to help Manny B/Colin B/Simon B and others from Witley to set up the final bits, the whole area of Weavers Down was still completely covered in snow and in places over 12 inches deep and any areas that had been driven on were solid ice, as the competitors arrived so many were getting stuck in and everyone seemed to be helping everyone, its amazing how we bond in such adverse situations.

I was luckily enough to view the course which was just a tad over 12 miles and the conditions were hard and challenging with many climbs and bogs that were proper bogs and you had to be so committed to get through due to their depth, the very steep climbs were great if you had clear run but that did not happen often and the carnage on the hills looked like a battlefield from old. The hardest factor was simply the ice where it had compacted and as the event wore on the ice got worse and was the downfall of EVERY rider at some stage.

330 riders were due to sign on with many more in reserve waiting for the opportunity for non arrivals, sadly one of the big guns failed to make the start James Giddings but the A list was of excellent quality with some top MX and Enduro riders in the mix like Scott Elderfield/Dorren Coutts/Jack Turner/Aaron Smith/Richard Ely/Jack Twentyman/Dan Beaven/Zac Blackwell .

The start was the Witley trademark Le Mans style of running to your bike and go go go.........

Part 2 subtitled (What an old nail)

Subtitled - Not the sharpest tool in the box.

Done and dusted:

• Calendar now has new layout with dates showing in year list, the plan is to add more categories to cover most of the race series around the South. I would like to go further out but doing dates is tedious, I could do with some help (registered members can add dates).
• New video component has been added ‘FTJ TV’ name lacks imagination me thinks. Guests can now add videos from 21 video providers, don’t worry if there is no category that fits your video, I will add to them as I see fit stick them anywhere you like for the time being. Registered members get a new video profile tab with their submissions. Latest videos are displayed on front page if you haven’t noticed.
• The Links have been expanded with more categories and navigation cleaned up. Got an interesting link? Signup and add it!
• Forum now allows Guests to make threads and post, we will see how this goes with spam.
• Venues updated and with more categories.
• Added a My Comments tab to profiles.

On the to do list:

Secretary of the Meeting? I must have been having a brain seizure when I volunteered for that one so my mother reckoned, you see she still comes round most nights to bring me my dinner, bless her, and for the last couple of months my dinner table has been my computer desk as I was constantly working on entries or trying to get the riders list and result table to format properly often frustrated and left to sleep on it waiting for that lightning bolt to strike, boy do I hate JavaScript with a passion now but getting better at it. I was a bit disappointed that the online entry form could not be used because a PayPal account could not be opened, maybe one for next year.

My first event of the year was going to be Normandy’s MCC Warsop Trophy Hare & Hounds only a couple of weeks away and not even ridden a bike since the Inter Centre Enduro (marshal) or done any major bike preparation since the middle of last year it was time to man the battle stations and get my arse in gear, as Simon Beken was in the same boat as me with little riding time due to injury we decided to enter Reading’s H & H but got turned away as entries had already closed, which suited me fine, I really wanted to finish preparing the YZ 125 and not ride it as is.

A graded Canada Heights coupled with a ripping Maico 320, can life get any better? Well sure it can, haven't seen this video in a few years it was cheesy them and very cheesy now in a 90's kind of way, but I must warn you watching will take 25 minutes from your life, I dear not edit it in case I might spoil the ambience. There's some half decent action to watch and around the 15 minute mark you can see one of the Jones boys (Trevor?) hitting the dirt hard. Edit** I have decided to do a short version for upload to YouTube "Manny's Cut" 3:33s long set to a rocking track.

After a couple of weeks reading reviews and visiting forums into which helmet camera and lens would be the most suitable to get a decent looking video I settled for a Pro 520 Essentials kit with suction mount from www.dogcamsport.co.uk, also on my shopping list were 8 X Vapextech AA 2700mAh rechargeable batteries which will run the camera for 10 to 12 hours, like anything else on the internet when buying and not sure if you are dealing with a reputable company I will send them a email with a few questions on the product, if I do not receive a prompt reply walk away it's not worth the risk.

As I did a lot of research before buying my helmet camera setup though I'll pass my findings on. The most important thing is to work out what kind of film quality you are after because this has the biggest impact on what type of helmet camera you will buy and there are many available, the second thing is to take into account is the environment you are filming in, the more detail the scenery and the faster you travel the better the recorder/encoder has to be to keep up with the information fed by the camera.