Saturday, March 07, 2009

Bike tricks

Last year while we were in Florida, my cousin Alicia taught David how to ride without training wheels, and he has thoroughly enjoyed riding his "big boy bike" ever since. In the past few weeks, though, both his skill and confidence levels have taken a big jump, and he has spent hours working on new tricks. Watching David has been a flashback for me...my brother Jared used to ride his bike almost constantly and was forever doing tricks. (Childhood memory: I tried Jared's home-built ramp/jump one time, but I quickly discovered that I had neither the strength nor the coordination to pursue the sport. This realization came to me as I lay on the ground, bike sprawled nearby, gasping to re-start the breath that had been soundly knocked out of me when I landed. Umph. That was the end of my BMX career.)
Going over his self-made rampPopping a wheelie (it's in the beginning stages!)Riding with one handRiding with no handsCatching himself from a fall...no guts, no glory!Abigail needed some pictures taken of her, too, of course. Recently, while discussing gift ideas for Abigail's upcoming birthday, Bruce had asked if I thought she needed a new bike. I answered no...she loves her tricycle, and we put away her two-wheeled bike last fall because she wasn't ready for the coordination and balance of it and therefore she didn't like to ride it. Well...what do I know? She tried her bicycle yesterday; she did great with it and she loved it! But as you can see, it's rather small for our long-legged filly. Change of plans!

2 comments:

Delighted Hands said...

Flash back indeed! Love the pics; even your new one on the top of your blog!

cj and family said...

Yikes! It really is a guy thing--Chris and his brother have all sorts of stories about tricks and such on bikes. I figured I was doing well to stay upright with both hands on the handles!