All About Gravity Mountain Biking: Freeride, Downhill, Dirtjump, Urban and Trials
Fortunately Ignacio Soltero from Brooklyn Bike Riders sent stellar shots of this year’s US Open of Mountain Biking that happened almost in his backyard, at Diablo, because I had the misfortune of missing that comp.
Many of the usual suspects dominated, with Steve Smith, Sam Hill and Bryn Atkinson taking spots one through three on the men’s pro DH podium, and Fionn Griffiths, Kathy Pruitt and Joanna Petterson taking those same spots on the women’s pro DH podium.
First off - I have to apologize for not getting April’s results out in a timely manner.
No excuses…
| April’s Picture Of The Day Winner: We gave the April POD to Carl Warren for his piece “Blind Ambition.” |
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This is a shot of Mike Estes on his new Brodie out at Syncline, WA. The great thing about this photo is how the contrast of the shot brings out the gradation of drab colors, as if it was a painting. These colors also help to bring the viewer into the rider’s mind space. It seems forbidding, yet some how alright. Check out Carl’s galleries on this site: Main Gallery FR Cup#1 Fr Cup#2 |
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| May’s Picture Of The Day Winner: There were a lot of similarly good photos for the month of May. |
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We can’t overlook this picture that Karen Johanson took of Darren Berrecloth at the BearClaw Invitational. More than any other dirt jump or freeride related photo that I’ve seen, this photo shows us that moment when it all comes together. The perfect exposure and focus are the reason we can view the photo ins this way. We see shots like this a lot in trail riding, were the photographer is right in the cockpit with the rider. The photos of the rider nearer to the ground are easier to get. But, in all these kind of shots we can see that “Moment” at it’s finest.Check out Karen Johanson’s portfolio site. | |
Greg Minnaar got the win by nearly a second. I’ll put his 2:11.21 in context. 50th place was only ten seconds out of 1st. The course at Sea Otter lived up to its reputation of being a course that requires pedaling between features in order to put down the good time. There was little advantage to line choice. The greatest gains came from precise cornering, body position and making sure that a single, required pedal stroke was not missed. Basically, perfect execution was rewarded over balls out risk. Continue reading ‘Sea Otter DH Results And Video’
The 08 Sea Otter Classic Dual Slalom went down to the last pedal stroke and lived up to expectations. There wasn’t a dry eye in the spectator gallery. That’s because the wind blew perpendicular to the course all day – through practice, qualifying and the finals. By the end of the event, my eyes were glued together with dust, okay, maybe not glued, but there was way more sand in my eyes than there needed to be. While, every non-goggled spectator and shooter suffered, the riders burned the course up. They seemed to not be affected by the wind. As if their own momentum was more tumultuous then the wind. Continue reading ‘Sea Otter Dual Slalom Results’
So, we have decided to build a collection of the best photos of mountain biking. To do this we are running a Picture of the Day, a.k.a. POD, contest. We have invited the public and photographers to submit their PODs. Each winning POD is considered for the Month’s Best POD. The photographer of that Top POD gets swag and notoriety.
Submit your photos here. April’s winner will snag a Fluidride: Like A Pro DVD and a Bones Over Metal T-shirt.
Submit pix now for Picture of the Day.
If your POD shot is deemed the best of the month’s PODs, you’ll snag a Fluidride: Like A Pro DVD and a Bones Over Metal T-shirt. Next month there’ll be even more cool stuff to win, so submit now!
A few things to consider: Technical perfection (exposure, focus) is just a start. We all love cool shots of our friends, but PODs are money shots that capture those moments of perfection on two wheels.
Check out the POD gallery for examples.
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