Air Ya Garn was a revelation. Opening in 2019, the black-rated airflow trail quickly became the most popular track in Blue Derby. And it’s no wonder, huge flowing features, the infamous dirt wave, cheeky passing zones and a dizzying array of jumps — step ups, step downs, hips, and gaps. If you can dream it, it’s probably on Air Ya Garn.
But the reason it became so popular is because World Trail has constructed the whole thing so it can be ridden without leaving the ground, or the jumps could be sent to the moon. Despite its black diamond rating, this attracted a broad spectrum of riders, and the difference in skill levels manifested in the speed at which folks descended the trail.
Watch as our crew of mini-shredders rides the new Hazy Days airflow trail
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“You have pro riders going down Air Ya Garn stressing about beginner riders below them. But it also goes the other way too. The beginner riders may stress about getting in the way of the pro riders,” says Glen Jacobs from World Trail.
And so the folks at the Dorset Council gave World Trail access to the government issue shrink ray to create a minified Air Ya Garn.
Honey, I Shrunk the Trail!
Armed with the shrink-a-fier 9800 XTRAXS, Max Connor and Rhys Atkinson built Hazy Days, Derby’s first green airflow trail.
“Derby really needed this level a trail. It’s super wide with multiple lines of rolling obstacles — so no forced risk —and you’re not forced into something too quick or too scary,” says Jacobs.
Part of the adventure of Derby is loading your bike onto the shuttles, jumping on the bus and getting hyped as you bump and bounce your way up to Black Stump. The trouble is, there wasn’t a green run back down from the shuttle point.
“When entry-level riders enquire or come into the store to hire e-Bikes and ask where we recommend they should ride, it has always been limited to the lower mountain, as there was really no way back down from Black Stump for this level rider,” says Ben Jones from Evolution Biking. “Hazy Days now gives us that green run, and we now can confidently send new riders up to Black Stump for the full Blue Derby experience.”
As part of the Hazy Days build, World Trail is also upgrading the connecting trail from the shuttle point to the junction where Hazy days, Air Ya Garn, and lower Kumma Gutza begin. It will be wider, quicker and easier, making the pedal into Hazy Days less daunting.
Where the trio of trails meet, World Trail is also building a flat hub, so you won’t have to be pressed up into the ferns waiting to drop in. You’ll also be able to access Return to Sender, and lower Kingswall from here.
Something for everyone
When I was a kid, I watched The Simpsons with my dad. I enjoyed it because it was animated, and Bart regularly said, ‘eat my shorts,’ but my dad would laugh at things that I did not understand at the time. This is how I like to think of Hazy Days.
“Ever since we’ve started with airflows, we’ve tried to interweave the different sneaky hidden lines. Everything on the main line (of Hazy Days) is very approachable for a beginner just to roll, and not feel pushed into terrain where they feel uncomfortable, or their skill level doesn’t permit,” explains Max Connor from World Trail.
The crew of kids we took down Hazy Days proved this concept. At 13-years-old, Sid and Angus are already more skilled on their bikes than this writer, who is more than double their age. Ten-year-old Tia, on the other hand, was a freshly minted mountain biker, and with some encouragement from Coach Christa, was smiling and giggling her way through big beefy berms and roller coaster rollovers.
“Blue Derby needed a trail for that beginner, beginner/intermediate rider, but we didn’t want it to be a super flat pack, generic trail. We’re trying to give them a bit of a roller coaster airflow experience,” Connor continues.
And that’s precisely what Hazy Days offers. Looking at this trail through the lens of a beginner rider, the rolling terrain is approachable. There is an ample trail footprint, so folks who are still gaining confidence on their bike have some wiggle room to learn how to make their tyres grip, without the fear of careening off into the ferns. The berms provide plenty of support to help folks gain trust in their bike and begin to harness the power of gravity.
At the same time, looking at Hazy Days as a more experienced rider, it’s a veritable playground. Rollers can be made into doubles. Supportive berms can be slapped with abandon, and World Trail has built-in side hits and hidden easter eggs off the main line for creative riders to find. Side-by-side features and A and B lines make for some explicit passing zones, and sending this trail as a party lap with a group of mates would be chaos — but the fun kind that leaves you giggling days later.
Building in challenging terrain
Hazy Days is a green-rated trail, but it runs alongside the alignments for Kumma-Gutza and Air Ya Garn which are Red and Black, respectively. There’s also the fact that all of the land around Derby bears the scars of its mining past, and has a mind of its own — as evidenced by the recent landslide.
And so, building an engaging, highly sculpted trail while maintaining a mellow gradient in that type of terrain is quite a tall order.
“The natural landscape has been toiled from all the previous mining activity — especially where the slip was. Even before that, cutting through there is a challenge on its own, in the way of exposure, let alone putting in a 180-degree switchback and keeping it very chill. Just getting down through some of the overburden piles (ed’s note: overburden is the rock, soil, and vegetation that is moved to get to the mineral deposits below), they are on like 45-degree slopes,” explains Connor.
While the terrain presented difficulties, the folks at World Trail love a challenge. Connor also says it provides some of the natural shapes they need to create a swoopy descending experience.
“An airflow trail is one of the most moulded bits of trail we do. There is a fair bit of soil turning over, and we can sort of change and build to what we want, but we still try to work with the land as much as possible and not to fight it,” says Connor.
Remembering Derby’s loveable larrikin
Outside of the Two Doors Down Cafe, a bust pays tribute to Derby’s loveable larrikin, Jeffrey Hayes. He was a one-of-a-kind character. His antics and smile were known to mountain bikers around the world, as were his unusual sayings.
He knew how to throw a party, and the stories from the Derby Crack House are legendary. He also supplied what seemed like the whole town with firewood.
Sadly Jeffrey passed away in 2020.
Hazy Days is named for Derby’s loveable larrikin and makes Jeffrey a part of the trail network.
“I know Jeffrey’s dad, Derek, will get quite emotional about it, just seeing the energetic growth of the town, with younger families, people starting businesses, and people coming to town and enjoying themselves,” says Jacobs. “Jeffrey embraced that, and everybody loved Jeffrey. He’s a bit of an icon in the Derby landscape, and now he will be a part of the network.”
Jeffrey left his mark on Derby, and to see him immortalised in the trail network he loved is a beautiful thing. But Jeffrey hasn’t left Derby.
“Not long after Jeffrey passed, one of his mates was out cutting firewood — they used to go and cut firewood together quite often. And there was this Black Jay (Currawong) just watching him the whole time. It wouldn’t leave him alone,” says Buck Gibson, from Vertigo MTB. “He’s gone, ‘it’s gotta be Jeffrey.'”
And that same black currawong can be found at the Two Doors Down Cafe, near the memorial statue — World Trail has also put a currawong on the pictogram for the trail.
“He’s got into the cafe a few times, and he was in the Vertigo shop the other day. Vin was working away, and he was perched on the bars of one of our rental bikes. She didn’t hear him come in, and then just looked up and said “oh, there’s Jeffrey,” he laughs.
So if you see a currawong hanging out at the cafe when you stop for a coffee, don’t shoo it away. It’s just Jeffrey wanting to hear about your ride. Tell him how much fun you had on Hazy Days.
When can you ride Hazy Days?
The lower section of Hazy Days is complete, however, a small section has been cut off due to the landslide.
According to Pete Coleborn from the Blue Derby trail crew, the council received geotechnical engineering advice that stabilising the hill will be no big deal, and the wheels of progress are in motion. Once that’s complete, the sections of Hazy Days, Air Ya Garn and Axe Head affected by the slide will be rebuilt.
The Dorest Council is still ticking a few boxes and is aiming to have Hazy Days open in late January. Stay tuned folks this is going to be a popular trail.
