The morning after the 2 days off roading and this is my summation of it all. I have never done off roading, well apart from a couple of hours on a mate's 125 on sand dunes when I was about 14... so the 2 day Stage 1 course worked like this:
32 riders split into groups of 6 with one instructor per group. We were roughly divided according to ability based on a 'anyone done off roading' 'anyone have lots of road riding experience' etc. Hardly scientific but I went with the flow. I went into the latter group.
Straight away we went off to the 'training ground' which is a 10 minute bike ride away. The site is a 400+ hectare disused quarry now used for motorsports. The terrain is perfect, gravel, mud, rocks, trees, streams, hills and valleys. The grounds men continually manage the site to keep it in good condition for the various events held there and it showed.
First off the group was on fairly level but rocky ground and went through various basic stuff like how to pick up your bike correctly, how to get on and off without a side stand before moving on to learning the correct standing position for off road riding. As the morning progressed things moved on to understanding how to control front wheel lockup, turning in 4m diameter circles etc. I won't give the whole game away here.
After lunch it was time to head into the scenery and learn skid control and some other beauties.
By the end of day 1 I was feeling pretty confident.
We all met for a complimentary 3 course meal at a local pub before hitting the sack shattered.
Day 2 we could do more trails and introduce some tricky stuff. Hill climbing, how to sort things out if you stall/fall off going up a hill, momentum control, and loads and loads of dirt track riding. I had two big offs. One where the front wedged into a rut and I got launched into a bank of stone. The other was an off nearly at the top of a very steep hill. Could've been really bad with the bike needing 4 of us to extract it from its 'Italian Job' predicament and me saving my arse by grabbing a sapling as I was ejected from the bike, stopping me from a long decent into a rocky dried out riverbed several feet below. The forcefield armoured pants and vest saved me from injury.
By the end of day 2 I had had a brilliant time, made some new friends, and learnt a whole lot of stuff I will hugely benefit from both on and off road. Have I got the bug? Despite the crashes (which most people had) it was so much fun I will certainly be looking at some adventures where the Tarmac ends.
Couple of things to add for if you do the course:
I recommend you drive there and back, you'll be done in if you ride home too, but each to their own.
Rent the boots, gloves, over clothes from the event guys. Your stuff will get knackered up. Take a few underlayers and armour if you have any.
Be prepared for your helmet to get scratched or worse, even though it might not happen. I.e don't take your favorite carbon race helmet lol.
Trust what the instructor says the bike will do.
Enjoy trashing a GSA, my loan bike was in a terrible state by the end of day 2. But it still ran fine, amazing machines.