This year saw the 10th Dirtopia Festival where BMX, FR, XC, DH, Trials & Night Duals are all packed into one awesome weekend! This year was my 3rd Dirtopia & I was amped as hell for it. A weekend with constant riding & partying is as good as it gets!
Whole story and a lot of pics inside,The festival starts on the Friday & loads of people arrive quite late after work, but by Saturday morning the campsite & trails are full of bikers.
It started a little earlier for Wayne Reiche & I. I met him there on the Thursday afternoon to get some shots before the masses appeared & this year as well as the last I got some of my favorite shots on the 1st afternoon.
After that a chilled night around the fire & some dialed boerrie rolls, (SA's champ version of a hotdog) a good way to end the day! Chris Bester also joined us that evening to get an early start the next day.
The Friday was pretty quiet too & was nice to shoot without too many people around again. We got to work putting a wall on the quarter at the end of the jump line & making sure everything is smooth & perfect. Colin & Brad pitched up & the session was on.
Colin was killing it as usual with flip turndowns, 3 lookbacks & a flip ET
Brad was struggling a bit to get through the line at 1st, but wasn't long before he was getting all his tricks dialed & got some good shots of him. Was amped coz I haven't really gotten any of him before.
Wayne was trying flairs & getting so close, but just not sticking them & decided to take it easy & get back on them the next day. He was really getting shit done with sweet 3 tables, a frontie, a few backflips & tricking just about every jump.
After a good session we headed back to the campsite to get the fire going & have some fun. The infamous twins, Savage & a few others pulled in & the vibe immediately went into 5th gear although it was a bit more controlled than last years madness.
Saturday morning was tough for some & tougher for others. With just about everyone there breakfast was big & then off to patch up the jumps.
Then a good session with everyone getting used to the jumps.
At about 2 the Freeride started, got some food & made my way up. With only 4 riders it was a bit quick & Smittie broke his seat post & was out. I missed a lot of the better stuff because of people walking in front of me & not noticing a huge 70-200mm or me shouting at them. Was cool to watch, but a bit of a mission to shoot.
Straight back to the jumps for the afternoon session & everything was going so well until Wayne had a frontie go wrong & ejected upside down, landed on his ass & back breaking his coccyx & knocking him out for a bit.
Not even 2min later Blaze nose bonked the 4th & went straight to flat on the side of his face & got quite a solid concussion & bit of amnesia.
With 2 riders off to hospital the vibe did chill a bit, but the stunts were still rolling & Malcolm was there killing it as usual & Stu Loudon doing the most stylish 3's
Most of the guys chilled, but Brad went on into the night with a few lights set up for night duals & jumps.
I was keen to try something out again & wanted to get a mid curtain sync, so took my wizard off my cam & slowed my shot right down, click the cam as he left the lip & use the wizards test button to set the flashes off at the right time. After a few goes we both got what we were after.
Duals next in the pitch black besides the few lights. After quite a few runs Darryn Stow managed to claim that as well as the Freeride, so was a good day for him.
Back to camp to chill & get ready for the rest of the nights madness. They decided to have an official bonfire so we didn't have any madness right in our campsite. By the time I got there it was going solidly with quite a few guys enjoying the warmth & helping it grow. I'm not quite sure how, but I managed to get some shots of it.
After that I put the cam away & got a little loose, but ended up in my own tent, so couldn't have been too bad.
I think Sunday morning was a bit tricky for everyone. I had to convince myself that going to shoot DH was a good idea while everyone sat & made breakfast. I took the shuttle up & started my walk down looking for something to shoot. It's quite a tricky track to shoot with not many jumps or drops, it was corners all the way for me. The switchbacks up top look good, but it's one of the slowest sections. I did manage to get a landscape shot & one of the campsite, jumps & HQ between riders just for the record.
For the 2nd run I went down to a new little rocky corner & was working quite well. After all the riders were done Meurant (the organiser) came down to tell everyone it was over.
I made my way back down, grabbed a well needed Red Bull & went back to the campsite to say the goodbyes & pack up all the mess.
Just want to thank Meurant & Arina for keeping this festival going for 10 years now! It was awesome as usual, the weather held out & had some of the best light I could have ever wished for! I hope they keep it going so that we can all get together next year again!
Check out
THE RIOT for more pics & a web Edit.