Rynet
Grey Hound
So I rode a little sand today …..….
After raining all night , the skies clear beautifully in time for me to meet my sand coach Kamanya at the deliciously late hour of 8h30 at the Total garage Richwood. He is there on a KTM wiht a see -through tank which carries 45 liters of petrol , wow. Here is a foto of his Katie leaving home this morning .
I am thrilled, and amazed, that Kamanya is so kind as to give up a day’s riding, to coach me sand riding . I am terrified of sand . So is my bike . It is a Geen Sand bike. As we leave the garage, Kamanya pulls out into the road with his back wheel doing a mean intimidating slide on the wet tar . I am impressed, although deeply intimidated. I thought people only did that on dirt . He must ride real well .
Just before we reach zone 7 Kamanya goois a left onto a rubbish dump -looking area ,another left and we are parallel to the N7 again. Suddenly I see a road filled with sand . It is everywhere , deep, rutted, thick, sand on a never ending road.
Kamanya takes off down this road like a bat out of hell doing the most spectacular high speed snakes , turns and comes back on the grass. I am intimidated as hell , I could never do that . Never ever . He decides we will ride next to the side of the road, which is easier as there are grass patches , but the grass also thins out as we progress, so it starts off fairly harmless , but gets worse and worse .
The lighter sandy patches are okay- ish. Then we come to a deeply rutted thick sandy bit going downhill . I stop and turn off the engine . I can’t do this. I am now at a turning point . I am very close to throwing in the towel, and simply going home. Because this is sand ,and it's rutted, and it’s down- hill . And I have a sand phobia.
But Kamanya dutifully and kindly comes along and talks to me very patiently . Lucky for me he happens to be a brain coach , he coaches groups of employees / employers to work together as a team . He asks me what I really honestly think of sand . I admit that I think of the sand as a big evil She-Monster that lies and waits for the first possible opportunity for me to somehow mess up and then she will devour me as her prey . And also I don’t really believe that I can ride this sand, on this bike .
At Kamanya’s prompting I brainstorm a way to change my existing relationship to sand . I decide to change my perception from sand as the monster which I must do battle with, to merely a sand pit of my youth that I can play and have fun in . And I will explore it in a light manner , and have fun with her, and not fear her.
Kamanya also asks me what I am the most afraid of. I admit that I am not afraid of injuries or death , but I am afraid of the loss of control which you have with riding sand, and also the fear of the falling itself. I don’t mind the injuries and pain afterwards , it is the few seconds before falling and whilst failing that terrifies me, that total loss of control.
Kamanya assures me that he falls at least three times on every trip
. Now whilst writing this I smile thinking this might not be so accurate, but it certainly helped me earlier today. In fact thinking back it was probably the one thing that helped me the most , and that was to receive permission to fall .
Lastly ,Kamanya gives me the practical guidelines . I have remember to throttle up, when all I want to do is throw up . And the golden one for me is that I must ignore the ruts . I won’t fall if I leave a rut , this is an unexpected windfall of very good news for me as I was absolutely convinced that if I left a rut I would fall but no it is lack of speed that makes me fall not leaving a rut per se . O yes, and no playing with the clutch , on sand the clutch is merely an on /off switch , no in between.
So at the end of our therapy session I have to decide whether to trust Kamanya . I do , absolutely , but still have to commit to going into this thing , and I have to commit fully, there can be no half measures . If I do this half heartedly then I will fall anyway , to slow down will lead to certain falling . And besides Kamanya has given me a new way of thinking of the sand, as well as tools to do it , so its now or never.
With some last bit of encouragement from Kamanya I drop the clutch hard , leave the starting blocks at a flying leap , jump on the pegs and go for it . It is hard , the bike is weaving and snaking and jumping around and I scream and scream . Kamanya shouts and reminds me to gogogo and to accelerate I do that , every time I feel like falling I just accelerate. I make it to the bottom in one piece , phew . Coming back up the hill ,I am going too slow up the hill, and predictably I run out of steam , and stop . After some prompting, I admit I am scared to go faster uphill in case I wheelie , hehe Kamanya laughs he says not even the good riders can sommer wheelie up-hill in sand . Another lesson well learnt . I am absolutely exhilarated that I managed to break through my fear and do the down –hill, and nearly made the top of the up-hill. I am truly thankful to Kamanya for helping me sort out my mind . I think my sand problem is mostly in my head.
Kamanya encourages me to go down the hill again and I do, this time with a bit of a lead up , and he takes a video . Embarrassingly I scream and whine like a puppy all the way down the hill.
I go up the hill but am again going soo slowly so run out of steam again
No mind, we carry on back on the grassy sandy verge , towards the way we came. Kamanya wants to know if I am ready to tackle the main stream thick sand road . I am , I drop the clutch but we are on grass so I stall the bike three times in a row. Ok…. clutch off slowly , drop onto the deeply sanded rutted road slowly , then pressure, I have to jump onto the pegs straight away , and increase speed immediately , but Kamanya is shouting instructions which help .I go faster and manage okay. My stomach is in knots , Eventually I end up right against the side and the bike stops . I just got a wee bit scared.
We rock and roll the bike again , one two three and I drop the clutch and go , jump onto the foot pegs and go ,full speed ahead ( not on first attempt though ) . This time the sand riding is easier, but I do a little fall , just a tiny little side stand incident . Then rock and roll again and drop clutch and rocket off. My stomach settles down . I watch my throttle , fascinated . I hate the fact that I am so clumsy especially in my hands , I find throttle and clutch control so hard to do , especially whilst standing . Whilst I am still watching the throttle hand and ignoring the sand and the ruts beneath me , the bike was going faster and faster, which I thought was correct. But nooo ,I get to a little incline and the next minute I am hurtled off that bike like a torpedo , right over the handle bars , I am a little winded, but otherwise all right . Kamanya explains that yes I do need to ride fast, but when I see a hill or a whoop, then I do need to slow down . I realize that I was focusing on my hands , and not focusing on my legs , as they are supposed to ride the bike not my hands . We pick up the bike and I ride the same bit again to conquer my fear. And then suddenly I just get it . The sand is still thick and rutted, but suddenly I find it easier, much easier. I focus on my legs and see that sand riding is like skiing , it all suddenly makes sense and I ride and sway and ride and sway .
taking a break
sand riding getting easier
Cant believe I have just ridden through this !!
Oki doki, Kamanya decide that we must go ride some other sand . I wonder what he has up his sleeve. We go back the way we came but near the entrance to the N7 we turn left away from the N7 , and onto a nice little gravel road between the trees , with lots of little patches of mud . Lekker. Then we get to some more sand , but is milder and not rutted, and its becoming a lot easier and I find myself enjoying this long piece of easy sand. Further along, Kamanya interrupts my fun and cautions me to slow down when we get to the whoopsies. The first section is only little whoopsies , maybe shin high , but still, it is a bit disconcerting as I have to slow down to go down them , and then of course the wheels start flapping all over the place so I have to quickly accelerate in my ham -fisted kind of way . But I manage okay . I stay on the road even though there is an exit in the form of grass next to the side of the road . I am having way too much fun here , to leave .
Then the whoopsies become higher, maybe knee high . But oddly enough I am now thoroughly enjoying myself , this is lots of fun. I have to slow down to go down and then the fun really starts , it is just sliding and slipping all over the place and then accelerating and there are just more and more of the whoopsies. Then a wild ride down an adrenaline filled down- hill and I make it an up a high incline ( high for me that is ) to join Kamanya , I am giddy with joy that I made it . Then nearly back on the black stuff. The last whoops are very steep and higher than my bike. Now I am really having fun . But the bike stops dead half way up one hill again, but this time I manage to ride it out all by myself without Kamanya helping me to rock and roll first .
Then we are finished , and not a minute to soon , as I am tired , in fact there is not an inch of my body that is not sore and tired , but I am happy and satisfied and proud and can’t stop smiling . Kamanya teased me that I was chuckling to myself the whole last bit. I can’t wait to come ride here again . We exit at a gate near Melkbos and happily fill our tyres , tanks and tummies at the Melkbos petrol garage and enjoining farm stall . I smiled the rest of today , I can' t stop smiling. I feel like I am in love , I love sand ,and can’t wait to go again . Thanks Kamanya :3some:
After raining all night , the skies clear beautifully in time for me to meet my sand coach Kamanya at the deliciously late hour of 8h30 at the Total garage Richwood. He is there on a KTM wiht a see -through tank which carries 45 liters of petrol , wow. Here is a foto of his Katie leaving home this morning .
I am thrilled, and amazed, that Kamanya is so kind as to give up a day’s riding, to coach me sand riding . I am terrified of sand . So is my bike . It is a Geen Sand bike. As we leave the garage, Kamanya pulls out into the road with his back wheel doing a mean intimidating slide on the wet tar . I am impressed, although deeply intimidated. I thought people only did that on dirt . He must ride real well .
Just before we reach zone 7 Kamanya goois a left onto a rubbish dump -looking area ,another left and we are parallel to the N7 again. Suddenly I see a road filled with sand . It is everywhere , deep, rutted, thick, sand on a never ending road.
Kamanya takes off down this road like a bat out of hell doing the most spectacular high speed snakes , turns and comes back on the grass. I am intimidated as hell , I could never do that . Never ever . He decides we will ride next to the side of the road, which is easier as there are grass patches , but the grass also thins out as we progress, so it starts off fairly harmless , but gets worse and worse .
The lighter sandy patches are okay- ish. Then we come to a deeply rutted thick sandy bit going downhill . I stop and turn off the engine . I can’t do this. I am now at a turning point . I am very close to throwing in the towel, and simply going home. Because this is sand ,and it's rutted, and it’s down- hill . And I have a sand phobia.
But Kamanya dutifully and kindly comes along and talks to me very patiently . Lucky for me he happens to be a brain coach , he coaches groups of employees / employers to work together as a team . He asks me what I really honestly think of sand . I admit that I think of the sand as a big evil She-Monster that lies and waits for the first possible opportunity for me to somehow mess up and then she will devour me as her prey . And also I don’t really believe that I can ride this sand, on this bike .
At Kamanya’s prompting I brainstorm a way to change my existing relationship to sand . I decide to change my perception from sand as the monster which I must do battle with, to merely a sand pit of my youth that I can play and have fun in . And I will explore it in a light manner , and have fun with her, and not fear her.
Kamanya also asks me what I am the most afraid of. I admit that I am not afraid of injuries or death , but I am afraid of the loss of control which you have with riding sand, and also the fear of the falling itself. I don’t mind the injuries and pain afterwards , it is the few seconds before falling and whilst failing that terrifies me, that total loss of control.
Kamanya assures me that he falls at least three times on every trip
. Now whilst writing this I smile thinking this might not be so accurate, but it certainly helped me earlier today. In fact thinking back it was probably the one thing that helped me the most , and that was to receive permission to fall .Lastly ,Kamanya gives me the practical guidelines . I have remember to throttle up, when all I want to do is throw up . And the golden one for me is that I must ignore the ruts . I won’t fall if I leave a rut , this is an unexpected windfall of very good news for me as I was absolutely convinced that if I left a rut I would fall but no it is lack of speed that makes me fall not leaving a rut per se . O yes, and no playing with the clutch , on sand the clutch is merely an on /off switch , no in between.
So at the end of our therapy session I have to decide whether to trust Kamanya . I do , absolutely , but still have to commit to going into this thing , and I have to commit fully, there can be no half measures . If I do this half heartedly then I will fall anyway , to slow down will lead to certain falling . And besides Kamanya has given me a new way of thinking of the sand, as well as tools to do it , so its now or never.
With some last bit of encouragement from Kamanya I drop the clutch hard , leave the starting blocks at a flying leap , jump on the pegs and go for it . It is hard , the bike is weaving and snaking and jumping around and I scream and scream . Kamanya shouts and reminds me to gogogo and to accelerate I do that , every time I feel like falling I just accelerate. I make it to the bottom in one piece , phew . Coming back up the hill ,I am going too slow up the hill, and predictably I run out of steam , and stop . After some prompting, I admit I am scared to go faster uphill in case I wheelie , hehe Kamanya laughs he says not even the good riders can sommer wheelie up-hill in sand . Another lesson well learnt . I am absolutely exhilarated that I managed to break through my fear and do the down –hill, and nearly made the top of the up-hill. I am truly thankful to Kamanya for helping me sort out my mind . I think my sand problem is mostly in my head.
Kamanya encourages me to go down the hill again and I do, this time with a bit of a lead up , and he takes a video . Embarrassingly I scream and whine like a puppy all the way down the hill.
I go up the hill but am again going soo slowly so run out of steam again
No mind, we carry on back on the grassy sandy verge , towards the way we came. Kamanya wants to know if I am ready to tackle the main stream thick sand road . I am , I drop the clutch but we are on grass so I stall the bike three times in a row. Ok…. clutch off slowly , drop onto the deeply sanded rutted road slowly , then pressure, I have to jump onto the pegs straight away , and increase speed immediately , but Kamanya is shouting instructions which help .I go faster and manage okay. My stomach is in knots , Eventually I end up right against the side and the bike stops . I just got a wee bit scared.
We rock and roll the bike again , one two three and I drop the clutch and go , jump onto the foot pegs and go ,full speed ahead ( not on first attempt though ) . This time the sand riding is easier, but I do a little fall , just a tiny little side stand incident . Then rock and roll again and drop clutch and rocket off. My stomach settles down . I watch my throttle , fascinated . I hate the fact that I am so clumsy especially in my hands , I find throttle and clutch control so hard to do , especially whilst standing . Whilst I am still watching the throttle hand and ignoring the sand and the ruts beneath me , the bike was going faster and faster, which I thought was correct. But nooo ,I get to a little incline and the next minute I am hurtled off that bike like a torpedo , right over the handle bars , I am a little winded, but otherwise all right . Kamanya explains that yes I do need to ride fast, but when I see a hill or a whoop, then I do need to slow down . I realize that I was focusing on my hands , and not focusing on my legs , as they are supposed to ride the bike not my hands . We pick up the bike and I ride the same bit again to conquer my fear. And then suddenly I just get it . The sand is still thick and rutted, but suddenly I find it easier, much easier. I focus on my legs and see that sand riding is like skiing , it all suddenly makes sense and I ride and sway and ride and sway .
taking a break
sand riding getting easier
Cant believe I have just ridden through this !!
Oki doki, Kamanya decide that we must go ride some other sand . I wonder what he has up his sleeve. We go back the way we came but near the entrance to the N7 we turn left away from the N7 , and onto a nice little gravel road between the trees , with lots of little patches of mud . Lekker. Then we get to some more sand , but is milder and not rutted, and its becoming a lot easier and I find myself enjoying this long piece of easy sand. Further along, Kamanya interrupts my fun and cautions me to slow down when we get to the whoopsies. The first section is only little whoopsies , maybe shin high , but still, it is a bit disconcerting as I have to slow down to go down them , and then of course the wheels start flapping all over the place so I have to quickly accelerate in my ham -fisted kind of way . But I manage okay . I stay on the road even though there is an exit in the form of grass next to the side of the road . I am having way too much fun here , to leave .
Then the whoopsies become higher, maybe knee high . But oddly enough I am now thoroughly enjoying myself , this is lots of fun. I have to slow down to go down and then the fun really starts , it is just sliding and slipping all over the place and then accelerating and there are just more and more of the whoopsies. Then a wild ride down an adrenaline filled down- hill and I make it an up a high incline ( high for me that is ) to join Kamanya , I am giddy with joy that I made it . Then nearly back on the black stuff. The last whoops are very steep and higher than my bike. Now I am really having fun . But the bike stops dead half way up one hill again, but this time I manage to ride it out all by myself without Kamanya helping me to rock and roll first .
Then we are finished , and not a minute to soon , as I am tired , in fact there is not an inch of my body that is not sore and tired , but I am happy and satisfied and proud and can’t stop smiling . Kamanya teased me that I was chuckling to myself the whole last bit. I can’t wait to come ride here again . We exit at a gate near Melkbos and happily fill our tyres , tanks and tummies at the Melkbos petrol garage and enjoining farm stall . I smiled the rest of today , I can' t stop smiling. I feel like I am in love , I love sand ,and can’t wait to go again . Thanks Kamanya :3some:
