12 Dec 2018
Words and Photos by Stu Farnham @againbmx
Back in December 2017 I moved from the sleepy market town of Bury St Edmunds, UK to the (relatively) bustling city of Norwich. I already knew of a few spots and at least one skatepark in the city but I was keen to do some investigating and find some new spots where possible. Now it was just a case of waiting for some decent weather to have a look around and see what was out there.
Eventually, the seemingly endless winter of 2017/18 drew to a close. After a few exploratory missions I found a number of ‘nearly’ spots - things that looked almost rideable but they either weren’t big enough, had no run up/out or various other negating factors. Unwilling to completely write these off, I hit up Joe Embrey, knowing he’s down for a challenge and can always make something out of nothing when the need arises. I sent him pictures of the spots and he was indeed up for it. Having lived in Norwich himself a while back, it’s not entirely unfamiliar territory for him anyway. This is how the Non Spots idea began.
But... owing to having a new baby in my life, about 30 weddings to attend over the summer, plus Joe’s commitments throughout the year, the opportunities to get the pictures were few and far between. We made it out a few times and were pretty productive - we even expanded beyond Norwich for some of the pictures. Joe always comes through so it was easy to get something each time we did manage to make it out. Plus, it was a good time so well worth the effort. Definitely glad we didn’t fall into the ‘nothing to ride’ trap that’s so easy to surrender to.