Just a question about novices on flow trials like Copperhead - not racing, just riding for fun.
This came up as I took my brother in law up to Buller for a few days of riding, while he is a competent XC rider - jumps, higher speeds, slippery gravel means he is a little cautious / slower than the average AM/DH rider, but still having a lot of fun. He didn't say so but he was really apprehensive about holding up faster riders and would veer of the track as soon as someone caught him.
Copperhead is a fun track (especially the lower section) for both novices and fast peeps on DH bikes. I understand and agree that in a race sense slow riders need to let faster riders pass, when safe for both parties to do so, but on a trial like Copperhead which is the most novice friendly DH trail at Buller and directly aimed at that segment of riders, in my view the slower novice has right of way on this trail.
So basically I ran interference behind him - to stop people tailgating him and we stopped at a few set points (abom connection, top of fire road, bottom of fire road - before pump section) to let people past and that was it. This seemed to work out pretty well, enabled him to at least get some rhythm going before we stopped.
Does this make sense?
On a side note when we were off track having a chat or watching other peoples lines in various sections, the majority of people slowed down and yelled out if we needed any help with anything, great reflection of the MTB community as a whole.