Several different people left comments on one of the recent Cinema Sunday posts about how insane and straight-up dangerous freeride mountain biking is. I think RoadWarrior may have put it best: “Looking at the crashes; I think I’ll stick to my technical XC trails, let the kids break their necks.”
Point well taken: freeride mountain biking is a dangerous sport, especially at the high levels, and even if you are taking safety precautions. But I think the insanity of what they do is what makes some of these freeride movies worth watching: we can stare in awe with our jaws hanging open at what these riders are capable of on a mountain bike. The riders featured in these movies portray skills that many of us could only dream of possessing.
Personally, I enjoy getting on the downhill bike and hitting a few small jumps occasionally, but the majority of the time I spend on mountain bikes is riding plain-old XC or AM trails. But if every movie that we watched was of regular guys riding regular trails, and at every turn we muttered to ourselves, “I can do that,” ask yourself: would those movies really be worth watching?
At least, that’s my take on it! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
For now, enjoy the Utah segment of the new hit movie from Anthill Films, “Strength in Numbers“:
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Yep! I couldN’T do that.
Especially the part where he wipes out and then goes back and does it again right away. I need more then 3 weeks to come back from something close to that. That IS some cool landscape.
Awesome. Thats all I can say. Wait, Ill say it again, AWESOME!
Yep; enjoy watching them have fun.
Yes, I enjoy watching movies like that. But will not move to freeride in nearest future. I like to ride “black diamond” trails with occasional jumps and narrow bridges but these guys riding way above average rider’s level. That’s why these movies interesting to watch.
One more thing: 1 GoPro camera is not enough to shoot interesting, quality movie. Most riders prefer riding over filming (including myself).
Although, regular trail video here on ST help me to determine how my next destination look like – rather it worth a ride or not.
So, let freeriders be a movie stars and we will shred our XC/AM trails and have fun on the safe side
stumpyfsr hit the nail on the head with his comment. Yea It would be fun to try but we have to go back to our day jobs in the morning.