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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Seeing Sounds

Did a shoot for a local singer/pianist Laurinda Hofmeyr a little while back for a poster for one of her gigs in Stellenbosch. Was good to get away from the action shots a bit & was a good challenge to get something different & the feeling she wanted. We started off in the Conserve in Stellenbosch & shot quite a bit there & then moved up to the Jan Marrais Park for the last few.

Crossing Over with Div

Just in case I didn't have enough pics to work on from Namibia I went out to shoot Div & this time his MTB was nowhere in sight, just a lil green & white BMX.

He stays in Richwood & has fixed up the jumps near his house & has a nice trick jump & I've heard that a quarter & a few other things have been added since, so am keen to go back & shoot the new additions. Bazil & the crew were obviously there to play as well & Phil came through to join in on the fun a bit later on, but didn't have much luck & broke his chain after a few goes.

Was good to see Div on a small bike & kinda miss his MTB in a way, but no matter the size, he knows how to throw a bike around & the BMX didn't stop him from his usual stuntage.
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Crossing the Country & Going Downhill in George

I was asked to shoot at the XC & DH nationals in George by Fritz Pienaar. I drove up on Friday the 13th just after lunch & when I got to the George Tourist Lodge Fritz & Wessel were still a little way away, so I made the most of the few min I had to wait & went to the park across the road called Skatelab & had a lil session which was great after over 4 hours of driving & sitting in roadworks stop points. We then booked into our rooms & went out for dinner to a Mexican place which was really good & got a relatively early night to get up nice & early for the race the next day.

The XC was at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, a really great spot & nice scenic track. Was quite a different experience to the DH that I'm used to... flat track, no big jumps, drops or rock gardens, so was a bit more of a challenge finding an interesting spot to shoot. I walked just about the whole track which was about 5 or 6km & with all my gear it was quite a mission, but fun non the less. About halfway through the race I found Steph Davies... or she found me. I heard someone shout my name in a rather enthusiastic manner & recognised the voice. We shot together for a bit & went our separate ways & met up later again & was good to have a more familiar face around to talk nonsense to. All in all it was a fun & different day of shooting for me & after being in the sun & walking most of the day I was not feeling too energetic & my plan of shooting a bit at the DH after wasn't sounding like such a good idea anymore. I went back to my room to chill, have a bite & watch a bit of TV... something I haven't done in quite a while.

Once I had gotten a bit of energy back I went for another quick lil roll at the park & Smittie & another rider came to the park with no shoes & their DH bikes... was quite interesting to see them in a park rather than on the slopes. Later on I got a message from Matt saying that they were having a braai on the other side of George... a whole 10min drive & invited me to come chill with them. A good evening of chilling & chatting to some great karaoke in the background by some rather inebriated & not very talented visitors of the Lodge. Everyone amped for the race the next day we got another relatively early night to be fresh for the race.

Up early & stop off to get a much needed cup of coffee to pry my eyes open & then to the shuttle for the trip to the top of the track. It's quite nice now that I know a few more of the guys & they know me a bit better, so we can have some time to talk crap on the way up as I just see them flying past the rest of the day. The top of the track is through the fynbos with many small rock gardens that claimed a few tyres. I moved down the 1st part of the track quite quickly (where I met Steph again) during the practice runs & wasn't too amped on all the phone & power lines going over the track. As I got to the 2 jumps before the forest & set up I heard that it was the break before the race & not to keen to wait half an hour in the sun I moved into the forest on search for something a bit more interesting in the shade. There were a few rock gardens & road gaps & a nice rock shoot, but all too crowded for my liking & the candy tape at the rock shoot was not going to make shooting there an easy job, so I found a quiet lil corner that I could have all to myself & with not too much supporter traffic to get in my way, so I was happy there for quite a while before I decided to move on.

For the 2nd race run I went right down to the end of the track to shoot the last jump & berms. This time spectators made my job a bit more challenging & with the candy tape I struggled for a little while before I was happy. After a few long shots I decided to go with the fisheye a bit & some woman in the crowd was not happy with my shooting style & I was getting a touch too close to her little one for her liking & after a mouthful from her I gave up trying to defend myself & explain my position. I got the few shots I wanted there & then went back to the long lens for the last few riders.

Pierre vd Merwe won the junior section by quite a bit & after a rather nasty crash on Friday nearly breaking his ribs I was quite surprised that he managed to ride so well. Prime mista that one!!! Pottie was in the hot seat after never losing a race on this track & Jonty Neethling gave him a bit of a scare, but he managed to hold his title.

After the prize giving I had to rush home to prepare & pack to go to Namibia super early the next morning where I have spent the last 2 weeks helping with the Desertlight Workshop & you can expect a few posts on that in the not too distant future as I don't think I could tackle 2 weeks in Namibia in one post with all the adventures we had.

Top 5 overall
1. Johann "Pottie" Potgieter
2. Jonty Neethling
3. Pierre van der Merwe
4. Gary Barnard
5. Louis Knipe

XC pics still on the way...

Skimming Boards

Chris has been getting into skim boarding lately & him, Charl & I made a mission to get some shots of them playing in the waves.

We made a stop past Ricky's house to have a lil session with him on his mini, was fun as always, just a lil hot, but was a good way to get ready for the beach.

We went through to Camps Bay to find some good shore breaks & it wasn't the best, but good enough for some fun. Was my 1st time shooting any kind of action in water & flashes were obviously a no go, but with the sun setting behind them it was good for more silhouette style shots. Was good to try something a bit different & wont complain about siting on the beach shooting, just maybe a bit too many distractions, but god none the less.
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