Homepage Forums NJ BMX Racing Racing Veterans PLEASE CHANGE THE "MONSTER JUMP" AT CJBMX!!!!!!!!! Reply To: PLEASE CHANGE THE "MONSTER JUMP" AT CJBMX!!!!!!!!!

#28717
bmiddaugh
Member

I think I have to agree and say that WE should change the first straight doubles at CJ. I’ve talked to Vinnie and he personally has said that he has changes in store for that part of the track and at the moment they haven’t been fully implemented, so I would have to say give them some time.

Now, I capitalized we in that last paragraph. Why… Ya see when changes are made volunteers show up, CJ was good enough to have the input of Phil, Jimmy and a few other top NJ expert riders to build the new stuff. These guys go big and are great jumpers so they of course will give input accordingly. If we had a few more volunteers then possibly the track would have had changes made that were a bit more “average” racer friendly. Which leaves us where we are now.

I’m sure a few people might have noticed that I was missing from CJ this weekend. I got the opporutunity this weekend to do some demos at a local bike tradeshow. I jumped at the chance knowing that I could reach some new kids and parents that might be interested in BMX. I talked up racing to a few families, I didn’t have any NBL brochures to hand out or info about CJ but that will be changed for the next demo I do in April.

My motivating force being 40 and still riding is to bring NEW riders into our sport.

NOW, I talk up how great BMX is (when we do demos we play up the fact that I also race and it’s great for kids..etc.) send them to the website, tell them to get info there, head out to a race and check it out. I tell them it’s easy, fun and you’ll be riding with kids who are at the same age and skill level as yourself. Great, they’re sold,, here’s a responsible adult, clear spoken, has a real job and believes in BMX, says it’s great for kids, let me head out and see what this is about.

They get to the track with their 5-10 year old kid, see huge PAVED turns, jumps that are 6′ tall and (and I know a lot of people don’t want to believe this) the parent or the kid says, no way this looks too intimidating.
It’s true, it’s happened, I’ve talked to more than 1 person who has told me this.

People say the trend AT NBL National events is toward bigger jumps , ABA is more racing friendly as opposed to lips and jumps friendly. We are at the local level looking to grow the sport, you have to make it inviting to new people, “overly” big jumps aren’t inviting. So maybe we should at the very least look to give Vinnie a hand the next time a change is made, and I mean ALL of us. Volunteers are obviously sorely lacking when you only get 10-25 motos at a race.

With that whole diatribe being said, I’d also like to say there are problems at every track in NJ. The quarry dust at HC that most aren’t into, of course with low moto counts easy track care becomes a consideration so they stick with the dust, the controversial jumps at CJ, and believe it or not I am under the belief that EHT could actually use a few LESS jumps to give it a little more racing and a little less pump and jump.

As I’ve said before here, I am going to do everything I can to get new kids to ride and race, when they get to the track we have to make it friendly. Let’s work together.