Dirtopia Looseness

1st to 3rd May in Greyton was a weekend for bikers of all sorts to come & spin their wheels at Dirtopia's bike festival. After last year I was pretty amped for it & went through on Thursday afternoon. After some traffic & roadworks stops I arrived at the campsite to see Buddy strolling out of the BMX headquarters... AKA "The House of Love". I was just in time for a lil jump session, so just got my cam & pods & made my way to the jumps & left the camp setting up for later.

Wayne & the boys have been going up there & putting mad effort into the jumps this yr & it definitely paid off, they were looking mint & had a few more added to the collection. The 1st session was pretty much just Chris Bester, Wayne & Colin & was a good start to the wknd. Colin, one of Durban's finest was just back from a knee injury, but that didn't stop him from getting some super clicked turndowns to get back into things. The sky was performing wonders & Wayne lent me 2 of his flashes, so I could play with a 4 flash setup & it made all the difference. After that it was off to set up camp & the beginning of bonfire madness in the House of Love. The first evening was pretty chilled & a nice warm up for the rest of the weekend.

The next morning brought the twins, Savage & Pieter... needless to say the severe loosness began right there! After a good day of jumping we were back to the bonfires & next to the night XC track was a dangerous combo. In not long there were coals on the track & some grumpies not too amped on it, but some others felt the spirit & hopped them... The rest of the night was a blur & our fire started to attract quite a crowd.

Saturday was more jumping, DH practice & some freeride carnage. Smittie I think lost his balls on 3 failed superman attempts & Johnty Had some good tyre grabs off the big drop, but the jump claimed him on a whip that never came back. Shooting it was quite tricky with all the spectators & constantly had people standing in front of my flashes and me which was a little annoying to say the least. After that we were back to the dirt jumps & a wall was added to the quarter at the end & made for more fun & trick possibilities.

That night was duels & night jumping & was going really well until a lil kid, Stefan, way too amped for his skill level, ejected out of the 3rd jump where I was shooting, went over my head & crashed on my flash & tripod behind me. Needless to say my flash was out of commission & top tube of my tripod was bent flat & had to rip it off completely. The joys of action photography, but at least it wasn't my head that met the bottom of his bike. That was the end of shooting that night & back to the crazyness.

Saturday night could be a post on its own, but I'll just say... Bonfires, water balloons, camper van trance madness, river stumbling, aerosol antics & ending in being bouncers of The House of Love.

Sunday was an early start... not as early as I had planned, but made my way up the DH course with the shuttle & still feeling rather delicate. The sun came out nicely & helped me feel human again & had a chilled shoot, feeling a bit naked with only 1 flash, but managed ok with the good sunlight. After that I was overs & made my way back to the camp to pack up. I was pretty keen to drive back before dark & the hunger, loosness & abuse was catching up with me & didn't want to be tired on the road, so made my way back through the roadworks enjoying the last sunset of a really good weekend. Looking mad forward to the next one & hope to see you there!
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