Monster Energy invited some of the world’s best freeriders out to SA for The Night Harvest, but local athlete manager Ryan Franklin and the Garden Route Trail Park’s Rob Dormehl had a surprise in store for them too.
The Monster Energy riders, Sam ‘Ren’ Reynolds, Matt MacDuff, Danny Pace, Dylan Stone, Blake Samson and I arrived at the Garden Route Trail Park after dark and Rob guided us up the mountain to the cottage that they would be calling home for the next few days. On the way up we couldn’t help but noticed the massive pile of earth about 500m away from the house and went to go check it out by torch light…
Our jaws were on the floor as we realised the magnitude of what was about to happen!
Needless to say we were up early to get started shaping the mountains of earth into the world’s biggest dirt jump. We still couldn’t quite get over what was unfolding in front of our eyes, the excitement and nerves were at an all-time high.
We still couldn’t quite get over what was unfolding in front of our eyes.
Matt instantly transformed into site foreman, showing the digger drivers the ropes and teaching them how to build transitions correctly and making sure everything was going according to plan. Once the lip started to take shape, everyone dived in to shape and get the run-in cleaned up. While we were all busy with the dirt, there was a team of guys building the 10 meter tall roll-in tower. No corners cut, that thing was built more solidly than most houses in SA!
By the next morning the jump was starting to look like a jump and the run-up, roll-in and landing needed a bit of attention. After a hard day’s graft there were some hopes we’d be able to hit the jump that evening, but the sun beat us to it, so we headed down to “Black Snake River” for a swim in the relaxing Coca- Cola coloured river. After the swim it was back to work, with the guys working long into the evening to clear up the run-in and landing. Matt wasn’t content to let it wait until the morning though and took a few hard pedalling runs from the bottom of the unfinished roll-in tower to check the angles.
He didn’t have nearly enough speed to clear it, and had to make a few spectacular ejects, but… he made it look possible!
Day three at the mound was business time! After a few last touch-ups the boys were ready to throw down!
Ren was up first with everyone following suit. The first few trains consisted mainly of some spectacular ejects, while Matt tried to flip on his second go. It didn’t take long for the guys to make friends with this massive beast of a jump and the riding got turned up a notch. The height and airtime was ridiculous! The smiles were some of the biggest I’ve ever seen; despite someone trying to be a carrot and plant themselves into the landing head first every now and again.
With the guys boosting 15 meters into the air, the wind soon became an issue − a breeze picked up and forced them off the jump until later in the afternoon. With a few hours to reflect on the jump the guys knew what they were up against in the afternoon session and started to pull Superman seat grabs, flip whips, flip bars, flat 360 one-handers, a frontie, and Sam managed to stick the slowest double flip perfectly.
The next morning we had to head back to Cape Town for the Night Harvest and the guys were pretty sad to leave. But we couldn’t stay away long, from the GRPT’s Mound of Doom.
Someone trying to be a carrot and plant themselves into the landing head first every now and again.
We managed to sneak in a full day of riding before having to ferry the guys back to Cape Town and the airport for their flights back to the US, Canada and the UK. The footage was in the bag though and you’ll be able to see it in glorious HD in Pure Darkness 2.
To what it on Pink Bike click here.
[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” width=”500″ ]Freeride MTB Freeride mountain biking is the big wave surfing of mountain biking, you don’t have to know anything about the sport to appreciate the courage, skill and often, the borderline stupidity of the athletes involved. To find out more listen to an interview by Dustin Schaad for Behindthepassion.com with Matt MacDuff.
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[author image=”https://fullsus.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ryan-bio-pic.jpg” ]Ryan Franklin is a downhill, freeride and dirt jumping mountain biker. He’s passionate about growing the MTB tourism sector in SA, by showcasing the amazing gravity driven riding available in Mzansi. He’d also like to extend a special thanks to Monster Energy, Steadi Drone SA and Rob Dormehl for making the Garden Route Trail Park Project possible![/author]
All photos by Eric Palmer.
