Our favourite event of the year is always the Trans NZ. The week long enduro race held by Megan Rose every year features some of the nicest trails in the lower south island and has the perfect balance of relaxed fun vibes and race pressure to make for an absolutely incredible week.
This year I asked Megan what she thought about brining my boy, Jasper to the race. Jasper is only 12 years old and I did worry he would be too young, but we decided he could come and ride day by day, knowing we could always skip days if he felt like it.
It made for a very special 'boys trip' away, as we rode together, raced each other, hung out and socialised with all the riders. It was nice to introduce Jasper to this other side of this sport. In the end he did just fine and it was me that suffered more on the final days. For the record I did still beat him, but he did beat me on the last 2 days... So quite likely my last time I'll claim these honours :)
One of Jaspers main goals of the week however had nothing to do with the event. He was desperate to see Dream track and see if he could do the first jump. We ended up at a Wynard Wednesday jam with friends Ronja and Robin, plus others. And he managed to do the jump which made him happy and me very relieved !
For me my favourite part was seeing Jasper come right out of his shell, and mingle with all the adults and become one of the crew. This is such a wonderful event for all riders and I strongly recommend doing it if you can in the future!!
I'v added a bunch of photos below. Mostly of him of course because he's my son and I'm a very proud dad :)
Kashi
