DIRT JUMPING - Newbie leaps to the top

THE ASCENT of Whangarei's Jared Gover to the top of a relatively new sport makes for a good story.
Gover won the top prize at the national Dirt Jump Open Championships at his first ever attempt, at Woodhill, north of Auckland, on Sunday.
The only reason the Whangarei Boys High School Year 12 student was even at the event was because he secured sponsorship from Transition Bikes, who suggested he attend the event.
If winning the title could be considered fortunate, getting sponsored was a real piece of luck.
"We were on holiday in Wanaka, staying in a camp ground and the guy in the tent beside us was the marketing manger of Transition and after seeing a few photos of me riding, he offered to sponsor me ... it was pretty lucky really," Gover said.
Part of the sponsorship deal was to represent the company at the rapidly growing sport of dirt jumping at the Woodhill event.
First Gover had to sit down and work out what he was going to do. Because the sport is still relatively new in New Zealand, he had to get all of his ideas for his routine off videos and magazines.
"It's the form of mountain biking that is most like BMX riding, you do a set of jumps and tricks like 360s or backflips and it is the rider who does the best tricks who wins it."
Riders at the championships had to complete 10 runs of the Woodhill course - five of which counted for his overall total - and they were each marked on technical difficulty, smoothness of delivery and the height reached in jumps.
The run started with a series of four or five jumps followed by an elevated trick section performed on two shipping containers and a wall section that drops off on to more jumps.
There were 16 people competing for the prize. Many of them, unlike Gover, have been competing in the new discipline for some time.
"There are more and more people competing in dirt jumping and more and more events being scheduled every year," he said.
Gover has been riding his mountain bike for five years now but without the chance meeting with the prospective sponsor, he admits he may never have got involved.
"I'm not too sure why I won it ahead of those guys in my first competition, maybe it was all of my riding experience, I guess."
Gover started racing in BMX competitions at 8, moving on to mountain bike riding about five years ago.
"I've done a few downhill mountain bike events, but now I've won this I think I'll be concentrating on the jumping from now on."