Video: Sealskinz and Traharn Chidley

Kudos to Sealskinz and international Gravity Enduro and Downhill rider Traharn Chidley for this excellent – and moving – edit that details how mountain biking (along with fell running and marathon running) has transformed Chidley’s life.

Can’t see the video? Click here

As you might expect from a waterproof clothing brand, the film features lots of lovely shots of misty moorlands, mud, puddles, rain and drizzle. There’s slow-mo singletrack action too, of course. Alongside that there’s wet hair, rain smudged mascara and enviable legs that look like they could run for miles and miles. Other brands take note: this is an engaging, authentic and inspirational watch.

But that’s not the end of the empowerment message. For the voice over details Traharn’s experience as a victim of domestic abuse, and how mountain biking has given her the strength to move on.

‘I felt for the first time in a long time that I was free… it gradually gave me the strength that I’d been missing,” she says. It is an important and brave statement.

Using such issues in advertising is, of course, a cause for debate: but it is good to see acknowledgment of the fact that we all – women and men – ride for many and varied reasons, as well as highlighting the power for good that mountain biking can be.
The film is part of Sealskinz ‘I am endurance’ campaign – which explores what endurance means by focusing on ordinary people who have overcome extraordinary challenges to reach their sporting potential.

You can share your experiences or thoughts on the campaign via #iamendurance on social media.

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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