Squeaky Bum Time – Rampage 2023!

Not sure about the environmental impact though with smashing the rock faces and smoothing off pinnacles etc.

Presumably they (Red Bull) have permissions from the relevant state authorities etc.?

I’m currently in southern Utah on holiday – I was in Virgin the other day and went to the Rampage staging area (though not to the event area) as I was camped literally less than a mile away.

There are literally millions of acres of land like this. When you first arrive, the red rock and massive cliffs and weird landscapes seem novel and unique but when you drive for HOURS and see the same type of rock formations all over, then you’d appreciate that such man made alterations aren’t even worth thinking about. Also, any reasonable storm system re-shapes the soft rock fairly quickly.

The Rampage site(s) are on BLM* land, so Federal rather than State owned. And the BLM are responsible for licensing oil and gas exploration, mining and that type of industry on their lands so unlikely to be the slightest bit bothered by some minor landscaping by mountain bikers.

* Bureau of Land Management

Top tip: of all the land management agencies in the US, the BLM seem the most “user friendly” meaning it’s easier to get trails built AND you can wild camp for free in a lot of places

That’s a win!

I guess it’s slightly better than death !

Maybe the plan all along is to rebuild him out of Atherton bike tubes and lugs ?

That other insta of Brendan doing the gap jump worried me too. He was wearing full race kit. That just shows the sponsor pressure is already on, and actually a good crash would be good for publicity 

Most other extreme sports all the prep is done off camera and only the main event do they get suited and booted etc.

You could see the terror in his dig crew mates as he approached it and the absolute relief when he got over

No, he’s wearing full race kit because he’s a professional, and knows this video, and his sponsors, will get a lot of exposure.

That’s my point useless. In most other high risk  sports , the first drop, testing etc is done off camera with no pressure

This just shows the pressure from sponsors, and almost the pressure that failure is worth more to the sponsor than success

Gee has had the most expose so far than any other competitor based on the fact he got injured, he’s almost making a career of it

Decent crash from Bienvenido Aguado too… overshooting his big gap.

I’m sorry, it’s not. Is IOM TT practice filmed? Of course it is, most first hits are filmed in any sport, if nothing else, when it goes wrong, you can work out why. And as for pressure from sponsors, it’s his job, and ultimately his choice. You know he can quit rampage and lead a quiet life in Surrey making silly videos with Olly any time right.

It’s not like there’s a big camera crew there’s right now on the hill filming, it’s camera phones and the like. Also if i built stuff like that you can be damn sure I’d have someone filming every time. Imagine you ride it and then get hurt on something else. I’d want to be able to show my mates (and at their scale the wider audience) the crazy shit I’d done…

I’d want to be able to show my mates (and at their scale the wider audience) the crazy shit I’d done…

That’s the root of the problem isn’t it?

Ride for ourselves, not to show off to someone else.

Ride for ourselves, not to show off to someone else.

Everyone’s different though eh,. Some people get a kick out of performing in front of, or for, others. FWIW I’m not one of them, and I’m not really good at anything so would probably be a bit sad if I was…

That’s the root of the problem isn’t it?

Problem ? It’s not a problem.

Since the begining of time of man, we’ve always wanted to show off

“look dear i caught a brontosaurus”
“lads, i made fire”
“Look, i invented electricity”
“ooooh here’s a bath full of water, look what happens…..”

etc etc… It’s how society learns, grows etc.

Decent crash from Bienvenido Aguado too… overshooting his big gap.

He’s still hoping to manage a full top to bottom in practise too. Are these guys made out of something more malleable than the rest of us?

Are these guys made out of something more malleable than the rest of us?

Do you work for YT? 😆

In most other high risk sports , the first drop, testing etc is done off camera with no pressure

It’s not though is it? It’s 2023. People film themselves getting out of bed in the motel and driving to the venue. Absolutely no way you wouldn’t film the first hit on a bit feature.

Absolutely no way you wouldn’t film the first hit on a bit feature.

Especially in ski/snowboard freeride vids. Banger trick into an untouched powder landing = gold.

FunkyDunc

This just shows the pressure from sponsors,

Brendan, like most of these guys, makes a lot of his money from social media, and he’s posting this stuff for his own benefit, on his own channels that he monetises for himself. This kind of content is gold for him, no way he hit stuff without sharing, and if he crashes, he still shares it because it gets just as many views, maybe more

Hahaha, remember his lockdown videos! Crashing trying to jump onto his house.

Christ, Brendan even posted a vid of himself after a crash at a world cup, off his tits on pain meds😁

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyTdha0qJBX/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

That’s nuts, hope he gets the score for it.

It’s even more nuts that he’s not the one doing it, and they both have ridden it now too – https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyTbkc_uXhu

Damn, looks like it’s going to be too windy to ride all day today. Which means lots of lost practice. Tomorrow is looking the the wind should stay down all day, but there’s going to be a lot of people who haven’t had as much practice as they’d like stringing features together. Wonder if they’ll push it to Saturday to add in practice tomorrow?

The wider shot made that look almost tame, then the rider shot made me almost sprain my arsehole with clenching.

Damn, looks like it’s going to be too windy to ride all day today. Which means lots of lost practice. Tomorrow is looking the the wind should stay down all day, but there’s going to be a lot of people who haven’t had as much practice as they’d like stringing features together. Wonder if they’ll push it to Saturday to add in practice tomorrow?

That’s a pity, spose pushing it runs the risk that it ends up being windy on Saturday and then they have to push it to Sunday.

The wider shot made that look almost tame, then the rider shot made me almost sprain my arsehole with clenching.

Genuinely made me laugh.

they should do it over a week, so theres a good day to do it with no wind.
Otherwise its a waste of time

Gee is out and about and wandering around Rampage!

Good to see, but either the injuries are ‘relatively’ minor as he said, he’s stubborn as hell, or he’s just nails.

Suspect it’s more of the last two than the first.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyT6ML2sq1k/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

walking and talking and doing the PR thing!

 Wonder if they’ll push it to Saturday to add in practice tomorrow?

As luck would have it, there’s a solar eclipse on Saturday which affects a huge swathe of the mid west, including the Rampage site.

Annular Solar Eclipse: October 14, 2023

So, what lights for sixty foot drops off cliffs?

It’s irrelevant, they shut their eyes on take off anyway

Watched Ben Deakins latest vid last night, the whole vid was full of stuff that was nuts, the exposure looked nuts at the top

https://youtu.be/o-iJEjG7QpA?si=4OenXLAFsRw0ijiv

I give up trying to get this forum to work!

Brendan only just making it on to the top feature. On this vid the exposure looks non existent compared to Ben’s

Watching that video what scared me more  than watching brendog doing the canyon gap was when he was running in and stopping on the take off. That video also does a good job of showing all the camaraderie between riders and diggers.

It’s all just bloody amazing isn’t it… i mean like REALLY incredible how they do it.

You start looking at some of the features and thinking “meh, it’s not that big” later in the video but the reality is, even they are HUGE !!!! you can count the seconds they’re in the air for…. you should never be able to count for that long in terms of flight 😀 😀

Got a huge soft spot for the Brendog team. Genuinely goosebumped when he landed the canyon and Ben and Ollie explode with relief and excitement 😊👌🙏🤘👍

So good to see the camaraderie such an extreme event brings. So bad to see any injuries so let’s hope they’re done with.

Got a huge soft spot for the Brendog team. Genuinely goosebumped when he landed the canyon and Ben and Ollie explode with relief and excitement

Absolutely. 🙂

Last time we were in DMR HQ for the day we were chatting with Mark the main man and he introduced Ollie as the ‘tea boy’, obviously i knew who he was but Mrs Weeksy was looking confused and was tempted to ask for a tea i think 😀 😀

I did explain who he was when i got a chance.

For some reason we always end up parked near Deaks at races in FoD and have a bit of a chat and banter as we’re often at the top together with not many other adults if i’m racing too. But he always comes over as friendly, polite and just really enjoying himself. So seeing the bunch of them clearly having fun and a proper proper group spirit is absolutely brilliant.

I think I got more nervous when Brendan was testing the run up and warming up for the jump by pulling up short on the ramp. It would have only taken a brake fail or a bit of a slide to just plop over the edge into oblivion.😳

Gee back on site…

It’s honestly just mind-blowing, that feature.

So, what lights for sixty foot drops off cliffs?

Magicshine 12,000 – “hold my beer”

LET’S GO!