Home comforts for Harriet Burbidge-Smith as Crankworx Cairns looms large

I'm really excited about the event. The courses look amazing – the guys have done a pretty insane job from all the photos that I've seen so far. You know when the courses are fun you're going to have a good week. It's amazing it being in Australia, too, and getting to see riders I don't ride with anymore, like Mike Ross.

I'm keen to see him throw down again. He's been massive in my progression into freeride and slopestyle. Aussie crowds are pretty special, too. I just want to go out there and smash it. I feel like I'm in a good position to do well. If I put it together I'll be stoked with the results.

I'm not super familiar with Cairns, I've only been a few times for BMX races as a kid. I'm from Canberra, so it’s quite far – a day or so drive. I expect it to be pretty hot and humid this time of year. It’s like a jungle, so there’ll probably be a lot of bugs and animals around. There's a lot of dry heat where I'm from and it's usually colder.

From what I can see, the dirt looks really good, though. It's a super clay-like dirt, so I'm super excited about that. I haven't really mountain biked there before, so it will be interesting. That’s the thing with Crankworx, it doesn’t really matter where you're from. They build the courses for the event, so it’s always a level playing field.

There'd be some great spots in Queensland. There's the Kooralbyn Bike Park. It'd be good to ride those jumps, or build up a massive jump line. That'd be pretty sick. You've got that kind of tropical jungle, forest. You don't really get that anywhere else, not even in New Zealand – it's very Australian to get tropical jungle more inland with the trails.

It was really good. My progression was really taking lines from Rampage and applying the skills there. This year in general, all the riders were a step up. I think everyone that goes to Formation pushes each other to try something new and I think the level has definitely just gone up so much, and will continue to go up so much. I definitely felt more confident than I did riding in the desert a year ago.

Turning up with my mates makes all the difference. I always have a great time with Robin Goomes, Casey Brown and Martha Gill! It's 10 times better when you have a group around you that you have fun with and that makes you want to try to do stuff. It's a deal breaker for me if I can't have that group and that vibe.

The people I ride with and hang out with, there’s no competitiveness. I ride to the best of my ability and I’m stoked with the result, and I’m stoked if they do better. It hypes you up. I don't want to do better than someone else, but it's me against myself wanting to do better internally as a rider.