The Woodyard is maintained by Andrew Thomson in the UK and this place is epic!!!
Trails are awesome. But some spots definitely elevate the game. Woodyard in Cambridgeshire, UK is one of those that elevate trail building to an art. Lots of people first see Woodyard as the place with the white dirt. But when you look at the layout, lines and art you can see how truly awesome this place is. We hit up Andrew “inch” Thomson who is the main man behind the Woodyard for our latest Trail Digger Interview. Check out the story behind the Woodyard and Andrew’s thoughts on the trail scene below…and make sure to follow him on Instagram at @andrewinchthomson …
Whats the name of the main spot you work on? Woodyard
Where is it located? Cambridgeshire, UK
Is it public or private? Public but preferably like to be asked to come visit
How did you get involved digging? Well there has always been trails In my local village ever since I was a young kid, so I guess I kinda just got inspired from the get go from all the older guys. Woodyard has been going for about 5 years now, however it’s the last few years that I’ve really been devoting my time into changing new lines and maintaining stuff.
Whats your favorite type of feature to build? Berms or transfer landings
What is the key ingredient(s) to successful trails? To just be motivated and persistent. If you have an idea in mind for a line and can look at the bigger picture in advance, then keep at it, devote your time to building and achieve the project. Also, to be very picky with what can be improved, a lot of the time your going to build something that may not be quite as perfect as you’d initially imagined, so that might involve tweaking particular things to make it better. You may have to build something 3 or 4 times to get it to how you want it, but It’ll feel that much more better when you get it right! We’ve recently this year added summer tarps to the Woodyard, which we have nailed into the back of every lip, landing or berm which has helped us no end. It has certainly allowed us to ride way more because after any rain the only thing we have to worry about sorting out is the flat botttoms and only very occasionally layering everything else.
What challenges do you have at your spot? (Bad Dirt, No Water, RC Cars etc) The only challenge we really have to deal with is wind as we are in an open field and don’t have the luxury of canopy being the wind breaker. We mainly leave it til the evenings to ride when the wind has died down.
Digging is an art form, Where do you draw your inspiration from? Just from other peoples spots, the best thing about trails is that every spot is different and has it’s own unique style. Inspiration usually comes from seeing or riding something sick somewhere else and getting an idea of how we can adapt it into the Woodyard. Inspiration also comes from the desire to top what we’ve already done and keep progressing year after year! Do you build lines more for flow or tricks? I rarely ever do any tricks, so when I build something I just think of how sick it’ll be to just roast into the corner or how good the lip is gonna feel to pull up on. Not saying that the lines we build aren’t trickable, I just try and build something that flows good and is generally fun, if you can do tricks then that’s a bonus I guess.
What tips do you have for working on Trails? Helps to have a water supply, we’re lucky enough to have a hose. Tarps, good drainage and a good pit of top soil for layering stuff (which we sieve). It’s also good to put the extra bit of effort in to making stuff look good! Take pride in what you do!
What trail rules or etiquette do you enforce at your spot? Woodyard is formed as a club, which is insured yearly so we ask whoever comes to ride to pay either a yearly fee of £20 or £5 a session to cover insurance. To also give us a hand getting the line watered, tarped and untarped and to not just turn up uninvited and expect to ride.
Here’s a sweet instagram shot from Woodyard. Make sure to follow Andrew on INstagram @andrewinchthomson
Do you enforce “No Dig No Ride?” If so how? We’re pretty lenient I guess in comparison to other places. It’s nice to have a bit of help once in a while however it is nice sometimes to go down on your own and do what you want to do! people will always have their excuses though!
Whats your advice for someone showing up at a trail spot for the first time? Be friendly, don’t ignore the locals who put all the hard work in, offer to help out, have a good time!
What is the Funniest thing you have seen at your spot? Thats a hard one, so many funny things happen all the time but one moment that comes to mind is the time Bentley hit the first jump in the transfer line a couple years back, he hit the lip so fast, pulled back way too hard and got stuck in a near no hander position, threw his bike from so high up and just disappeared behind the landing, as he landed shouting “I’VE BROKE MY LEG!” in the funniest agonizing voice. Both me and Damo at the top looking at each other wondering whether to laugh or be serious ran over to him as he’s crawling out the bomb hole in pain. From where we we’re standing it just looked so funny him 8 feet up to disappearing behind the landing winding the windows down! Turns out that he hadn’t broke his leg at all and he was back riding 5 minutes later!
Do you feel the trail scene is dying, growing or staying flat? I don’t know really, I think from the amount of good people we had visit the Woodyard this summer proves that it certainly isn’t dying and after going to the La Source jam this year it definitely showed that there are so many good dudes from all around the world maintaining there own spots and the trails scene is strong! I just think for kids nowadays there’s so many skate parks at their front step and are so spoilt with what they have that they feel they don’t need to build a spot, which is a shame because they’ll never grasp onto the fact that ‘you get out what you put in’, instead they’ve just had someone build a skate park for them to ride and won’t ever have the feeling of appreciating something they’ve put dedication into! Each to their own but I would way prefer riding something that I’ve put time and effort into.
How can we grow the trail scene? To just keep having fun, I have met some of the best people through riding trails, the scene will grow with positivity!
Do you think Trailbuilders get the respect they deserve? Why? Yes and no, Jeremy Muller walking back into the La Source Jam after party with cast and crutches after messing his ankle up on the jam and the applause and appreciation he got was incredible! So I think trail builders get the respect they deserve from other trail builders, there’s this mutual respect for one another which is what you don’t get with BMX in general, I think others do not understand the time and dedication it takes to hold down a spot. I could be wrong I don’t know! ha ha
What Bike do you ride at the trails? Cult/FBM Chase Hawk
Any shout outs and thank you’s? First of all to my friends and family, Bentley and Dave King for such commitment to years of trails building, also to Chris Herrell for sorting Woodyard all out to becoming a legit insured site in agreement with the council.. Couldn’t of done it without them!
Andrew doing some riding on his own spot. Throwing a nice kickout at Woodyard BMX trails.
And in case you missed this when we first posted it a week or so back check out Andrew’s 2014 edit from the Woodyard…
