What I learned from crashing on big jumps at Whistler Bike Park

In another video, we talked about how mountain biking can relieve stress. This is only true when you're using mountain biking as an escape—not when it's the actual CAUSE of the stress.

This week’s video takes place at Whistler Bike Park, and is a story about how your mental state can get you hurt on a mountain bike. In my case, feeling relaxed and happy makes me ride great. Feeling pressured and preoccupied to ride certain things almost always leads to injury. This is why so many people crash on their “last lap”. The park patrol medic even called it “the Witching hour”.

In this video, delays on getting footage led to preoccupation, and then to poor riding. Sound familiar?

There’s also a lesson about practice. I haven’t ridden big jumps since last summer, yet I jumped into a bigger trail than I had ever ridden after just a few days at Whistler. As someone with a history of riding poorly under pressure, this was not a smart idea.