Dustin Gilding is a murderer. And while he doesn’t have a freezer full of carefully packaged human remains he does have a yard filled with mounds of dirt that have been treated with a similarly pathological level of care. A trail shaped militarily – masochistically – with a chunk of steel and wood until every molecule is angled perfectly. Simply put, Gilding kills it with a shovel.
Gilding is probably best known for his segment in DH Productions’ ‘
Here We Go Again' and his legendary backyard dirt jumps. However, those that think of him as a pure dirt jumper are sorely mistaken. His style exists somewhere at the intersection of motocross and BMX. Gilding smashes whoops like James ‘Bubba’ Stewart in an AMA sanctioned event and then rails s-berms that wouldn’t look out of place at
East Side trails. You can see the influence of Vanderham as well as Chase Hawk and Bubba. It really is pure mountain biking - a combination of MX and BMX that couldn’t be ridden on any other vehicle.
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 Whipping out on the 40 footer |
Most riders I know would kill for the opportunity Gilding has. Twelve acres of land in Abbotsford British Columbia and a 14,109lb (6,400kg)
Hitachi EX-80. But having these resources and actually utilizing them are two very different things. The trail didn’t build itself. And you'd need vision to see the trail for the forest. And the perseverance to execute. And the skills to ride it. So it's not quite as simple as it would seem: forest + machine ≠ trail.
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| S-berms for days |
 | There's no better feeling as a builder than people saying they appreciate what you've poured so much into to create. - Dustin Gilding |
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| Ride what you dig isn't a credo, it's a lifestyle |
After one year of digging, Harrison Mendel journeyed down from Kelowna to shoot the beast. It took two afternoons. That kind of effort/reward paradigm would seem totally asinine to most people but Gilding isn’t most people. ‘’ I am my own biggest critic, so to ride what I've built and love every bit of it is all so gratifying, it makes it all worthwhile.’’
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| Dustin and a tiny glimpse of his handiwork with a shovel |
Video -
Harrison MendelPhotos -
Bryce PiwekWords -
Scott Secco
Is this a Video of the Year candidate? The best trail ever? 
You may only live once but you can stuff up many times over.
