Midweek Mini Movies

The middle of the week; a small mountain each of us needs to scale to descend to the sweet, sweet pastures of the weekend. Here to get you over the hump are our selection of riding videos…

Matt Hunter has been heading off into the woods again. There’s no fighting with bears or catching his own dinner this time, just good, all fashioned all-mountain. Ride up a big mountain, ride back down…

This is quite heartwarming. Legendary framebuilder Brian Curtis and mechanical enginner Andrew Denham came up with an idea to start The Bicycle Academy. It’s going to be a place where people will have the facilities to learn to built frames under Brian’s tutelage. As part of their learning, the first frame they produce will be one specifically designed for use in Africa. They’ve been funding it using the power of the crowd and it’s been a massive success. If you’d like to pledge then head here…

Riding like a girl? Totally. 14 year old French rider Laurie Cappeli shows that’s a good thing…

http://vimeo.com/29948623

Ahh, summers gone. Roadtrips, dust, cheese and ham baguettes, the smell of week old riding gear in a small van; heady memories indeed. These guys took in some of Europe’s best riding spots – Bad Wildbad, Pila, Verbier, Les Gets – and some of Europe’s least reputable campsite.

Brandon Hoerres, George Boyd, Andy Martinez, Matt Roe and Justin Simpson of Mutiny Bikes took a little roadtrip to Battle Los Angeles. Amazing BMX riding, stunning filming, what more could you want?

http://vimeo.com/31260570

Being rad is all well and good, but how can you tell who’s the raddest? What you need is a scoring system that includes the difficulty of what you’re doing as well as taking into account extra ‘factors’. For skiers Gaffney’s Numerical Assessment of Radness or GNAR provides such a rigid framework for the dedicated ski bum to work within. Ski a hard line? Well done. Ski it naked? Even better. Tell any pros you meet they suck and you’re totally better? Much more like it. Good old puerile fun (with a bit of man-nakedness, may be NSFW depending on how offensive you find white bottoms). The trailer for the film is below – a full version is available here…

There’s loads going on down South Wales and Cognation  is behind it all, with Afan Forest Park, Cwmcarn, Brechfa and Brecon Beacons National Park getting new trails, skills areas and extensions to current facilties. With plans afoot to build a new bike park in Gethin, Merthyr Tydfil, the Valleys are going to be ringing with the sound of freewheels. Here’s a little edit that shows what’s going on – not entirely sure that doing skids on a posh house’s carpet is going to help things along but still…

http://vimeo.com/28009344

Here’s a bloody big wave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyBzYCEyUlE