MAY 21FREERIDING And THE FUTURE
MAY 21FREERIDING And THE FUTURE
Richard J. Cunningham
I was influenced by three events that prompted me to reconsider my views on freeriding and how it could change the direction of mountain biking.
We were working on photos for Red Bull Rampage. This was our third consecutive freeride feature story. The images featured some of the most amazing stunts we have ever seen. The thing that struck me was the lack of trails at the contest. The point of the Red Bull event is to ride as big as possible in places that no other mountain biker has ever ridden before. And there we were choosing photos for our magazine that best displayed both these aspects.
Red Bull events are legally run with permission from the landowner. The producer also restores the site after each contest. Southern Utah is a remote area, so once the Red Bull magazine hits the streets, where will the big-drop riders who want to learn their tricks? Is it legal or okay to ride off-trail down steep slopes and high cliffs? You can count ten locations in North America. Based on an illegal activity, a professional sport was created.
While I was watching the Neil Sanders video, Superheros III, my second wake-up call came. It was a pleasant surprise to see that the majority of the footage was shot in legal or acceptable areas. This was clearly intentional. Superheros are real. There are plenty of illegal turf jump-and-runs, but Sanders is the best. Film is the most offensive freeride shocker in recent history.
I was able to tell from the movie’s pedaling style and position that only a few of the stars were cross-country mountain bikers as I watched it. It must have been a lot of people who started out in the sport as freeriders or BMXers and had not had much exposure to multi-use trails or sustainability.
This was after I had tried out a freerider that made a lot of money at a park high above Los Angeles. Although the park will not be named, it is representative of many open-space wildland areas surrounding densely populated cities. These rocky peaks are home to a network of singletracks as well as fireroads that can be used by a variety of passive users such bird watchers and bikers. As I was pushing up a series switchbacks, I was shocked to see them all destroyed by cyclists who rear-brake-skidded down a new route. They used the existing trail for a series of jumps. Over a period of three months, they had completely hacked the switchbacks that had stood unaffected for ten decades.
I’m the first person to admit that cutting switchbacks is vandalism, which was originally developed by hikers. However, this time the damage was clearly and flagrantly done by mountain bikers who just wanted to find a more difficult way down the mountain. As I continued my ascent, I found that the trail crossed a popular freeriding route. It became apparent that mountain bikers who had been careful not to cut switch-backs had made the wrong choice and destroyed the hillside.
Freeriders and downhillers were not allowed to create the freeride route. They needed a harder descent than those on the established trails. Because it diverted downhillers from nearby hiking trails, park managers ignored it. Evidently, the builders were right. The builders had better bike handling skills than the average downhiller. Later, less experienced riders rode around the stunts and carved out alternative routes around the boulders and big-drops of the original trail. It was a network of parallel earthen scars, which swept down an once-pristine sandstone slope.
The big-traveller descenders arrived at the intersection with the hiking trail full of adrenaline, their consciences already compromised by riding off-route and in an area that was off limits. It was amazing.
It wasn’t too far when some people found the hiking trail too difficult and decided to just straight-line the last quarter mile to the parking lot.
IT’S ALL ABOUT JUDGMENT
Madness takes time to grow. No one wakes up and says, « Hey, I’m going to stop bathing, put all my stuff in a shopping bag, and sleep in alleyways. The rest of my life will be spent shouting psychological advice at passing motorists. » By making a series a poor judgments, we choose the path to our own destruction.
Magazine editors, cinematographers and product designers, as well as downhillers and freeriders, didn’t come together to make mountain bikers outlaws. We made some important decisions along the way that led to self-destruction.
Mountain biking has a place for freeriding and downhill. Not all big-travel bikes are a problem. Freeriders and downhillers would not be able to ride dangerous stunts without heavy, highly-specialized hardware. Both splinter sports are dangerous because they do not make passive use of natural resources. They also cannot be compatible with non-motorized users groups such as hikers or equestrians.
Our first bad call was when we established downhill racing as a professional sport, then ignored the fact that most gravity-pros-in-the-making did not live near established downhill race courses. The second mistake was not creating and enforcing a code for gravity sports ethics early on. It was obvious that many of us were « training ». Multi-use trails or illegally carved out of public land. Industry insiders and prominent riders say, ‘There is no way to stop these guys from riding stupidly. They’re going to do it anyway. ?
When freeriding became mainstream, we lost another chance to avoid danger. Few mountain bikers outside North Vancouver knew that freeriding started as a group of talented cyclists scooting around the forest. The man-made stunts they created were originally designed to route singletracks over fragile greenery, over the bogs, and twisted logs of the forest floor.
We celebrated the sinners of freeriding, while we ignored its soul. We could have shared a more balanced story when we all discovered the sport. We were so excited to get the word out and sell big-travel bikes that we forgot to mention that freeriding was just as exciting as regular mountain biking. Instead, we painted a picture of freeriding being an extreme sport whose brave heroes risked their lives to accomplish impossible feats.
DO NOT BLAME IT ON CANADA
I’ve had the pleasure of riding with North Shore freeriders, and I can tell you that they know what I mean. They don’t chase multi-use trails and avoid passive forest users. The Canadian park service granted de facto approval to any unauthorized trails that freeriders create in the forest. We could have avoided our losses if we had translated the message from the beginning. We instead sold freeriding at its extremest form and then created bicycles that allowed less-than-talented riders ride above their heads. This implied message was that only sickest stunts were acceptable, and that anything in between singletrack and sick is acceptable mountain biking. Customers can’t blame us for selling them what they want.
FREERIDING IS A GOOD Thing
You may have guessed that I dislike everything related to downhill and freeriding if you’ve read this far. I enjoy freeriding and downhill skiing with my friends. Nothing beats being able to go flat-out on a bike capable of handling any terrain I set my mind to. I usually test freeride bikes by either going to an OHV area nearby and being scared silly or driving around new housing developments looking for the latest discovery: miles of underground drainage pipe.
Mountain bikers rarely have the time or energy to train for the three days per week it takes to be in top shape. We ride only on weekends. You don’t need to be a professional rider or have a lot of experience to enjoy downhill and freeriding. Friends with different levels of skill and fitness can still ride downhill together, as all the climbing is done in a truck or chairlift. Cross-country situations are where groups quickly become a series of individual experiences.
Freeriding is a combination of both cross-country and cross-country riding. Freeriding is a cross-country riding experience that involves pedaling all over the place. Everyone stops for a while when a group spots a drop-in or ramp. It is possible to ride heavy bikes around the woods at a slow pace without being beaten by cyclists with lighter gear.
In the best sense of the word, freeriding is mountain biking at its best. It’s inclusive, moderately-paced, social, and a mix of the outdoors with elements that can be dangerous and challenging. It is the exact same activity as the first off-road bikers, but they called it freeriding.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
In the middle of the biggest land grab since the Mississippi settlers arrived, the mountain bike was born. The Wilderness Act, and custom-made legislation were used by groups such as the Sierra Club to steamroll across public lands in an attempt to ban any user group they considered unworthy or dangerous. Active? was the top-ranked user group. Recreationists such as motorcyclists, hang-gliders, powered-boats, and 4X4 clubs were high up on their most-wanted list. We became the public enemy number two as soon as the first cyclist rode into the woods with fat tires. Mountain bikers have been fighting to be allowed to share the backcountry since then. However, the pendulum is starting to swing in the opposite direction.
For over two decades, politicians and wilderness groups have pressed land managers to comply with their demands. Their list of demands and restrictions grew with each subsequent trip to the bargaining tables, until both local and federal agencies had enough. They are tired of being bullied at every level by environmentalists and zealots and refuse to comply with their harsh demands, from the local to the federal. The U.S. Forest Service, BLM, and other land use decisions have recently opened up many areas for limited motorized use. Mountain bikers are now being accepted by the U.S. Forest Service as a low-impact, non-motorized trail user.
What’s at stake? All trails in the country. At the moment, we are considered legitimate trail users and fall somewhere between hikers or equestrians on a negative impact chart. Importantly, mountain bikes can be coexisting with other passive users on the same trail network. This is what has enabled us to win land access.
Freeriding and downhill are not suitable for traditional trail users. They also have a negative impact on the environment. You can also see that land managers and mountain bikers are in a collision course when you consider that the majority of freeride and downhill routes are located on public land. Mountain bike access groups are in a difficult position right now because of freeriding. This happens at a time when most people are looking to gain the most. And suddenly, we might lose everything.
FREERIDING – EMBRACE IT THEN PLACE
Freeriding is here for the long-term. Freeriding emerged from mountain biking, and has been the fastest growing segment of the sport. Freeriders are mountain bikers who should be embraced as such. The tip of the mountain biking arrow is freeriding, but if it hits the wrong spot, it will take us all with it.
Freeriding must be done in areas that are not likely to cause conflict if it is to thrive. We must act quickly as an industry and individuals to remove friction from multi-use trails and to distinguish high-impact mountain biking activities from sensitive or off-limits areas. However, throwing freeriders out the woods won’t solve the problem if there aren?t enough riding options to fill the gap.
Freeriders and downhillers require legal places to ride. We must convince land managers that freeriding is a sustainable way to use natural resources. This can only be achieved if freeriding is described in a way that is understandable and does not depict it as an extreme sport. BLM and the Forest Service are responsible for maintaining highly-technical trails for motorized offroad use.
The Slickrock Trail, Moab, Utah was specifically designed for motorcyclists. If we have a convincing proposal, they can do the same thing for mountain bikers.
There are no reasons why dedicated freeride parks shouldn’t be established. This is a precedent already. The precedent has already been set. Skiers, motorcyclists white water kayakers, hang gliders, and other on the edge users have all established areas on public lands specifically for these activities. What is the key to defining freeriders? defining their needs and then working with park planners in order to find suitable sites.
There are at least two stories that have been successful and can be leveraged: Whistlers, a ski-area freeriding area north of Vancouver in British Columbia, is just one example. The singletracks that surround the ski area were designed to give freeriders of all abilities a command experience. Brent Thompson’s successful attempt to get Las Vegas casinos, Nevada to fund mountain bike trails near Boulder City, Nevada, resulted in a downhill and freeriding area that has become an international destination. Two parks is just the beginning. Freeriding must be accessible to all areas of the city in order to divert mountain bikers from passive recreation areas.
GETTING PERSONAL
One sentence can sum up the freeriders code: You are not free to ride wherever you like, but you can ride however you please. Outdoor activities on public land must be shared. It is our responsibility to leave the land in the same condition we found it so that others can enjoy the same experience. We are responsible for allowing other users to have the same resource in totally different ways. In return, we have the right of expecting the same. This is called?compatible usage. ?
Freeriding must be made an acceptable activity on public lands if it is to become accepted. This requires common sense and self-control. It is just stupid to shut down hiking trails by using downhill bikes. Hikers and horses don’t appreciate when someone with a shovel makes a series doubles on their favorite trail. It may be acceptable to ride down every hill and jump off every boulder if you’re riding in a motorcycle zone. You shouldn’t ride more than a few feet from established trails in an urban park.
You don’t need a PhD to understand the backcountry, but you will need the self-control of a master kung fu practitioner to refuse to ride any off-limits stunts that your four competitors have done. Cross-country riders have learned to control their bikes and are the main reason mountain bikers can ride on public land. It’s time for downhillers and freeriders to take the reins.
SINGLETRACK SHUTTLING TO FINISH: DEATH OF A SINGLETRACK
l Stage 1: A road with an auto-accessible entrance leads to a popular hiking trail. Mountain bikers use this road to coast down and up the singletrack. Most cyclists treat the trail well and there is a period of tension between riders and equestrians.
Stage two: Mountain bikers train the trail until everyone can ride it at maximum speed. Groups of people who travel together start to race for fun. Passive trail users such as mountain bikers abandon the trail. They are either too scared or tired of speeders and the trail.
Stage three: Mountain bikers start to shuttle the trail, but they never come across hikers or horses. They believe the trail is a’mountain bike-only’ route. route. They curse hikers for not getting off the path when they do finally meet them.
Final Stage: Mountain bikers have driven traditional trail users off their trails. They are driven mad and rally together to get bikes removed from all local trails. Not just those that can be ridden.
HARD CHOICES TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST US
Mountain bikers have been abusing public parks lands in certain areas far beyond what peer pressure or stern warnings could stop. We must be ready to take legal action to prevent mass land closings for mountain bikes in cases like these. In nearly all cases, the problem is caused by downhillers who car-shuttle hiking trails or by unauthorized trail construction. These are difficult choices that all of us must make.
To work with land managers before public outcry forces them to act?to close trouble spots like illegal trails or overrun singletrack shuttles to keep all other trails open for mountain biking use.
Professional athletes use B?Write language? Contracts that punish them for riding in illegal areas or training there.
C?Be open to cooperating with law enforcement authorities in order to keep idiots from passive use parks or trail systems.
D?Refuse images of mountain bikers doing illegal stunts or riding out of bounds.
E?Stage competitions are held only at locations where freeriders can legally ride year-round.
F?Establish a code of ethics for freeriders and downhillers that will be displayed on all bikes sold.
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