Had Friday off and went to Big Bear for some lift served riding. Was an awesome day. Beautiful sunny day, no lines, 9 runs, 20ish miles of DH riding, berms, chunk, jumps and a couple of crashes. Lot's of fun; but holy crap they made almost all of the jumps on Westridge much more difficult in my opinion.
Last year by midday I was comfortable enough to clear a lot of the jumps. I think I managed to not case only a few of the smaller ones on Fri. The lips have been made quite steep sending one more upward than outward. Towards the end of the day we stopped mid run to watch and see how many others were actually clearing some. I'd say 10% of riders were cleanly landing the medium sized ones. Lot's of people landing less than 50% of the way across the table top and a lot of people riding around the jumps.
Very few people on Miracle Mile. Lots of fun chunky steep sections to contrast with Westridge.

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It is not enough to fight for the West; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. -Edward Abbey

What I noticed last year after having trouble with one in particular, it came down to line choice on the previous set of turns to give the rider enough speed. In my mind, those builders are professionals who know what they are doing with each obstacle. If you have the audacity to ride as they intended then you should have no problems. There are a lot of people that are not comfortable once their tires leave the ground.

I didn't think there would be anything in this thread that applied to me, but there it is.

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

Yeah, I'm the first to say I'm not comfortable jumping; especially on local jump lines (typically gaps and why I like the table tops at parks). The jumps at BB this year simply had a different character, compared to last year, that my friends (better riders than myself) and others we talked to noticed as well. I wasn't familiar with the committing trajectory one was launched at and was coming in too slow/not committing/trying to absorb the steep angle. People clearing the jumps were getting really high in the natural arc. Most blue runs I've been on have jumps with 'forgiving' launch lips that are not as 'poppy' as those at BB this year.

Found the chunky technical stuff on MM (black) much easier than the majority of jumps on Westridge (blue).

IMO they made the easiest line down the mountain (excepting the fire road and the not yet open green run) too difficult for 90% of the riders to cleanly ride. Playing Devil's Advocate, when was there ever a gap or cliff jump on a blue ski run?

Still had an awesome day riding!

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It is not enough to fight for the West; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. -Edward Abbey

Currently BB cannot please the masses from the beginner to the pro. You are correct in that the jumps are a little different this year, somewhat of a dirt jump feel to them. It takes quite a bit of effort from me to clear all the jumps on westridge with my DH bike.

I think overall although the features are nice and fun for an intermediate to advanced rider I just wish they wouldn't have added so many to westridge. I always viewed westridge as a beg to intermediate trail but now it is more of a black. In a growth aspect for BB, I would think attracting beginners to the trails and having them come back would create more revenue than a person with a season pass that can shred the mountain. Granted I know many factors play a role in what they do, especially not being able to build the amount of trails they wanted this year. I know and have seen many people that aren't too happy when they leave BB just because of the jumps and it also effects other riders because the flow of traffic.

Just my 2 cents.

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"You're like a mountain biking version of a mall crawler."-24v

I wish they would remove the trees. Or just one particular tree.

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going up there on monday if weather permits. Its the only day I get to go all summer so if that storm hits BB I'm SOL....

Try letting off the brakes…. those jumps are tiny!

the lips were steep but i hit them all anyway. landed right in the middle of every table but still had a ton of fun. it was raining that day so the dirt was amazeballs. one of the best riding days of my life.

not to self: ride park in the rain more often.

They have a BMX kid shaping the lips up there this year. Even a lot of the pros I talk to are not stoked on them. Can't hit them with speed unless you plan on over jumping them by a long ways.