Must Watch: Bas van Steenbergen's 'Straight Forward' - Video
 | Doing a project like 'Straight Forward' has been something I've been wanting to do for quite a while now, so bringing this into reality was incredible. In terms of riding style, what I find myself most attracted to is precise, technical lines where I need to be 100% on the ball. In recent film projects, I've been lucky enough to work with great teams to build some really fun trails that cater towards a downhill slalom-style design. For this project, I really wanted to do something stripped down and just show a single, technical line in a more or less uninterrupted sequence. It was great working together with the Big White crew to build this piece of trail that was completely translated from a concept drawn on a piece of paper to reality in a short amount of time. Although short, this particular trail pushed me harder than those previous projects. |
Nose bonk it out
Slice and dice
| Each roller, scrub and bonk was so tight together, it took a lot longer than usual to connect everything into those long sequences. The combination of needing to get the line dialled along with rigging up each long cable-cam system and then having them both come together at the same time was a lot trickier than expected. We had a relatively short window of time to capture what we needed before the snow was forecast to shut us down for the season. Liam and I would set up a cable in the morning of each day, clearing a path and choose the best vantage point which is a pretty fun, but time consuming process. We could then string up the camera and begin testing the shot to hopefully get it at the end of each day when we had a 1 hour window when the harsh "disco-ball" light would drop behind the trees. This meant if either I couldn't get my line or they couldn't get the timing of the cable shot, we would have wasted a whole day and we'd have to try again in our evening window the next day. Although tricky and stressful at times, it definitely made it a lot more gratifying when we did get it. |
Liam Mullany and Harrison Mendel do the math on avoiding Bas' decapitation through the tree gap
Testing clearance...
Threading the needle, head still attached!
Downside on the first jump out of the trees
Bas all smiles on the push up
Whipping through the jump section
Crew:
Riding & Words - Bas van Steenbergen
Filmed by - Liam Mullany, Harrison Mendel
Photography by - Robb Thompson
Additional BTS by - Brody Jones
Titles & Rotoscope - Studio Dialog
Post Production Sound - Keith White Audio
Location:
Big White, Kelowna, BC, Canada
Music:
"The Performer"
Performed by Live Footage
Mentions: @basvansteenbergen / @liammullany / @hmendel / @robb
Author Info:
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That whole line was no bigger then the jump line I grew up riding as a kid yet despite no tricks been thrown it left me feeling like I can’t ride ????
That's what they should be teach kids in school these days.
My experience with digging a berm like that is that it is a huge lot of work and even more to get it right! Beautiful track.
Very few riders in the world would be able to ride this track as he did. The way it was built was also very unique, it all came out of Bas' mind and the whole track worked perfectly.
If you look closely, there is no flat space. Just getting to the end is something hard, now add manuals + nose bonk + scrub + flow + style + speed! Its almost magic in two wheels! You killed Bas!
Also, cinematography is no joke! High level skills operating this cameras thru the woods! Congrats Liam and Harrison! Another piece of art!
motion- perfect,
slomo- too much
IMO
Not groundbreaking. Not a classic. I did appreciate the continuously filmed sections. Would like to see more of that.