Back in April, Hunt Bike Wheels sought new ways to spread their brand into the mountain bike community further afar from their little hometown of Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK, who neighbor DMR Bikes. What better place to put your foot in the door than one of, if not the most renowned locations on the planet for Mountain Biking, Whistler. Hunt Bike Wheels is a company run by all sort of Mountain Bikers, originally starting for road cyclists, Hunt have quickly grown into a company meeting both needs of those who ride the roads, or those who choose mountain. With so many riders behind Hunt, it’s what makes the company so diverse, enabling them to branch out in ways others may not be able to.
My name is Dom Knight, I’ve worked for Hunt for almost a year now and I relocated to the mountains of British Columbia to work, test wheels, create content and act as a middle man between the brand and new sponsored Downhill and Enduro riders Sophie Tyas and Dylan Layzell. It was here, Whistler where Hunt wanted to bring their name across in supporting riders who we were proud to see represent the brand, looking to seek some solid exposure from our athlete's content and race results.
Whistler has been a dream of mine for over a decade, a place of adventure, beauty, mountains to ride throughout winter and summer, along with the lifestyle it brings, it did not disappoint. This is an insight into how my first summer in Whistler went, the highlights shown through my best content and also an opportunity to be introduced to who Hunt Bike Wheels are as a brand. This is my summer, this is Hunt... Welcome to Whistler.
Train Gap photos by Noah Smith
https://www.instagram.com/shoots4u/After arriving in Whistler in April, on top of the list was the Train gap. I had seen photos of it for years and years wishing that was me! With me not due back in the UK until September, the sensible thing to do, like most, would be to wait until the end of the season to hit the infamous gap, a gap that’s considered one of the sickest features to send in Whistler, if you have the balls... But I couldn’t wait, the way I saw it was, I could wait to the end of the season and run the risk of getting injured a thousand other ways and miss out hitting the gap altogether. So I made a promise to myself to ride the park once it opened for a few weeks, get used to riding the downhill bike again and hitting big gaps, after that I set a date for the 14th of June.
The plan was to hit the gap with the train underneath, however, there’s no schedule available that I could find to figure out when the Trains came through from Pemberton to Whistler. So after a 4-hour wait, we decided to just shoot the gap without the Train. Promising myself to come back at the end of the season and try again.
I hooked up with Photographer and Music Artist Roman Scott, a good friend of mine, to shoot some of my favorite features in the park. We were short for time and didn’t get everything I had planned but still stoked to get the few we have. You can find his work at
http://www.instagram.com/theloser.jpg/ I had the pleasure of featuring in a small section of one of the six films done for Crankworx ‘Dirt Diaries’ this year with Videographers Liam Moss and Paul Cain, in their film ‘Coastal Fires’ below.
Whistler is literally a playground in the summer, as much as I love winter, there's so much more to do outside of the park or trails once the sun melts the snow and the Lakes start to warm (Aside Green lake). Lake Anderson is about an hour and a half out of Whistler, past Pemberton. A hidden gem home to massive rope swings, huge cliff jumps. Even the Lake itself is a perfect playground, if you have to right toys, and of course, are lucky enough to know the right people.
400 [Failed to load instagram embed] https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz__zgaHSAA/?maxwidth=1000&hidecaption=1After an amazing season of testing the prototype wheels I was given, along with Hunt Rider Sophie Tyas bagging the BC Cup overall with the same wheels, plus our British testing with our UK athletes including British Downhill Series overall Elite Women’s rider Becky Skelton, we felt they could handle what Hunt set out to achieve. Called the Privateer Downhill 275’s, which are available now, check the link below.
https://www.huntbikewheels.com/collections/mtb-wheels/products/hunt-downhill-privateer-wheelset?variant=28496619044941You can also catch up with how Sophie Tyas got on with her summer by following her @ladymcsophaloph. Unfortunately, our Enduro rider Dylan Layzell was caught out with injury right at the start of the season, but keep an eye out for him next summer. There’s plenty more content to found on our website at huntbikewheels.cc.
The Whistler Hunt Team | To one hell of a summer, see you next year!
Words, Photography & Rider Dom Knight
https://www.instagram.com/dkniight10/PhotographyRoman Scott
https://www.instagram.com/theloser.jpg/Noah Smith
https://www.instagram.com/shoots4u/https://www.huntbikewheels.com/