(heavy metal music)
- We're out here in the northern Italian Alps,
south Tyrol, Reschenpass, home to some amazing trails,
but of course, Suzuki Nine Knights.
20 of the world's best free riders from around the globe,
from FMB to Fest,
from flip double whip to bar,
to just pure steeze, all laid out on this amazing course,
consisting of two lines, three huge jumps, two hips,
a 60 foot mammoth Big Bertha jump,
a 22 foot quarter pipe that sends to you to the moon,
makes up the most progressive
mountain biking jumps in the world.
So you would think, this is some sort of contest.
The attitude is super relaxed.
The riders judge between themselves biggest air,
biggest whip, biggest trick, and best goPro shot.
I'm super lucky enough to be part of this as a Nine Knight
and compete in Suzuki Nine Knights.
(rumbling and wind whipping)
Heading up, first run.
There's a lot of big jumps up there.
I am super excited, nervous.
I can't wait for this whole week to kick off. (claps hands)
Yes!
You know when you get super nervous
and your mouth goes all cottony?
That's what's happening to me right now.
(sighing)
You brake to that ridge,
then you let off.
(sighing)
Hate this first feeling.
- Dropping in for the trick down.
(tyres screeching)
(groans)
- Well, I hate that first feeling.
Horrible. (sighs)
- [Male Voice] Can you speak?
- Yeah, but, you remembered?
Nice. (exhales air)
(tyres screeching)
(upbeat music)
That was the best feeling, man.
It's so chill.
I just lettin' back, tilt my head,
and it was probably the straightest flip
I've ever done in my life. (laughs)
I need a drink of water. (sighs)
There you go.
(men cheering) Oh! (spurting air)
I'm buzzing with excitement.
Nerves are kind of calmed down.
They're like down here now.
Like the butterflies are just here.
I was riding this last year.
I knew exactly the speed.
Weird, I know.
And then I went in and third, fourth jump in or something,
I flipped it.
That's like a huge accomplishment for myself.
I can give a pat on my back for that
'cause I don't flip big bikes on a big jump like that
and it was so easy.
I don't know what all that fuss was all about.
(upbeat music)
(tyres screeching)
You get two types of riders in event like this:
the tricks and the steeze.
The trick specialists, these guys are pushing the score
of free ride mountain biking and what is possible on a bike.
Take this guy, for example.
Nicholi Rogatkin, number two in the world ranking
and he's doing tricks no one has ever done before.
Like this one, the twister, rotating the bike
one, two, three times around.
What's more insane is, he's doing it on a downhill bike.
That's a world's first.
But wait, what about this guy?
18 year old, Emil Johansson, the number one
ranked rider in the FMB World Tour.
This quiet Swede lets his riding do the talking.
Super technical tricks are his specialty
and he's bagged five World's Firsts
at Suzuki Nine Knights alone.
Blink and you will miss it.
The steeze masters.
On the other side of the free ride coin,
there is the steeze masters.
These guys send it big and make riding
seem totally effortless.
Take Niko Vink, a world class downhill racer for 13 years
turned founding member of Fest Series.
No one matches Niko on a bike.
He is the definition of style and steeze.
But what about this dude, Sam Reynolds?
With a background of technical tricks,
Sam has turned his hand to big bikes in the last few years,
going big, high, and long,
with some of the most sideways whips in the business.
It's great to see both styles of riding
in one place at this event.
Riders working together to make the best project possible.
But, wait!
What is Suzuki Nine Knights?
- It's a one week event for five or six days
and this is what we do right now here, actually.
We just work with our friends,
the photographers, and the filmers,
and try to get the best shots possible
in the sunrises, in the evenings, with helicopters,
with racing drones, with everything that's possible.
And then, on the last day, we have a big competition.
For us, it's really important that it's a full week,
that you don't have to train on a Thursday,
quality on a Friday, comp on a Saturday,
and then party and then leave.
This is why we're here for really six days
and they can decide when they wanna ride
and when they wanna throw down,
'cause sometimes you perform the best when you have live tv
and 50,000 people, but sometimes you're just up here
in the mountain with 10 of your mates,
and then okay, this is my moment now.
I'm gonna try to progress.
- This event is super, super prestigious,
where 20 of the world's best riders
only get invited to take part in this event.
But, they do have a wild card entry,
and this guy, Bienven Venito, won it this year
with his crazy video showing off all his skills.
It's nuts!
There's a lot of riders that send in videos
to have the chance to win a spot in this event,
but Bienven has been killing it.
(tyres rumbling)
(hip hop instrumental music)
It's great that they can give the opportunity
to some of these riders that send in their videos.
They have the opportunity to ride in something
so prestigious as this and with some very big names
that you guys probably look up to
that have sent in that video.
It could be you next year.
So if you're into free ride mountain biking,
send your video in to the next event
and hopefully, we'll see you here next year.
(tyres whizzing)
(hip hop instrumental music)
(crowd cheering)
(tyres screeching)
(hip hop instrumental music continues)
Wow, man, we've had an epic day.
Such, such a hard, hard day
pushing up the mountain.
Some have taken spills.
I like to grab a beer and chill out and look at the view.
Some of the athletes love to sit in a hot tub
and look at the view.
But, after that, you head up into the hotel,
have a nice five course Italian meal, just relax.
Oh, so good.
But actually, wait.
There's someone missing.
Right, I've walked up the road
about a couple of hundred metres into a different hotel.
But I can feel a lot of warmth coming off this door.
And, maybe the person that was missing in the bar
is probably in here.
Let's have a look.
(door squeaks)
Oh my goodness!
(musical beeping tones)
Goodness me.
It's like I've walked into a brain.
Look at, this is the media room.
Got few facts for you.
These guys right here, 11 cameras,
shooting 8,000 gig over the whole week
of this whole thing going on.
These guys in the corner here, goPros.
40 cameras shooting 150 gig a day.
That combined is, that's a lot of numbers.
I can't get it, but they got five photographers
in the corner snapping all the gold.
And you think us athletes work hard.
They're all down there drinking beers, having a good time.
These guys are the first on the mountain,
last off, and they don't get sleep.
(beeps) (crew applauding and cheering)
Thank you.
Right, it is five AM in the morning.
Just literally woken up and then rush down the road,
have some breakfast, get on the lift,
and then go and do a sunrise shoot.
Hopefully, I've got energy to ride a bike.
Ugh.
(mysterious music)
Why the hell are you waking up so early in the morning
to go and ride bikes?
Well, there's a good advantage with this
because a sunrise shoot, the light is incredibly amazing.
It's gold.
It comes out with perfect photos.
It's insane, it's a great opportunity
to get this best light.
Especially with this sight that we're riding now,
it doesn't have the benefits of a sunset shoot,
only a sunrise.
So, we have to wake up incredibly early
to go and catch this perfect pocket of light,
to get the biggest bangers that you've ever seen.
(dance synth music)
(tyres screeching)
(rumbling)
(tyres screeching)
(crowd cheering)
(Chinese zither music)
So, the goPro competition is you got a whole week
to find a crazy way to take a photo
of yourself up in the air.
It doesn't really have to be like on the big jumps.
It can be like on the flow line or something else,
but I won it last year with this picture.
Sick, isn't it?
Big no foot can indy.
I put the goPro on my foot with loads of duct tape.
This year, I'm going with this.
It's the rhino pole.
It's a spinny mount, but I'm gonna do a back flip,
take my hands off, and hopefully that one
is gonna capture everything.
And then I'm gonna enter it to that contest.
And hopefully, the riders like it
and they judge it, and then, vote me
'cause it's gonna be the best photo, obviously.
(rumbling)
(tyres screeching)
- It looked like you had it perfect--
- Yeah, then, yeah.
- And then you just like, second guessed it.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause the old head thing.
- I'm literally staring straight into it
coming down the roll in.
(tyres screeching)
Ah!
(tyres screeching)
Ah!
(tyres screeching)
I hope I got it.
I hope we'll get it.
Let's see.
Should we see?
(rumbling and wind blowing)
With the sun frame.
(chuckles)
That's a pretty good clip.
I wanna get Fischy.
I wanna get a photo of that, dude.
See, does it look good?
- Yeah.
- Should I do another one or is that good?
- Do one, do it vertical.
- Okay.
- So we get more of the landing
and what I'd do is I shoot it
so the spinny is still in the picture
and let us Photoshop out the spinny.
- We've gone portrait on it.
We've gone about half a foot more out either side.
Even more weird.
(tyres screeching)
(groans)
(rumbling and tyres screeching)
(groans)
- Yeah, sick!
Boom!
- Hopefully, that'll do it.
- Come on, come on, come on. (laughs nervously)
- Look at the state of that, dude.
It goes boom in the light.
(slow foreign synth music)
(synth music intensifies)
Oh, dude, I can't believe my eyes.
Big, big, massive tricks like double flip.
There's been cask rolls, there's been double whip to bar,
being thrown about like candy.
It's insane,
but what's this about a kick off?
There's big air on that huge quarter pipe at the back,
22 foot lift.
And last year, C-Dog went to the moon on that thing.
So, I can't wait to see who goes the biggest this year.
(hip hop synth music)
(crowd cheering)
(crowd cheering again)
So, that's it.
What an epic week I've had out here at Suzuki Nine Knights.
Now, it's time for that famous gala dinner.
Time to do a few drinks, few shoes,
obviously to celebrate the whole week
that we've had out here.
Also, time to watch what the photographers
and filmers have made during this week.
Since we had a few categories to vote,
us riders got pen and paper
and the ruler of the week went to Patty Schweitzger
He killed it, no doubt he won that.
And I'm super, super stoked to win goPro Photo Award,
which I am so happy about.
I was not expecting it.
It's my second year on the top, and I loved it.
I am stoked!
I absolutely really do love this event.
It's insanely fun.
But, if you wanna see another video from Whistler,
click right up here.
If you wanna know all about POV
like I've been doing in this whole edit,
click just down here and I'll show you how to do that.
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