Video: Harrison Mendel - Still Dreamin'

Harrison Mendel is a precocious talent. The kind of kid who 360'd the drop at Goatstyle as a fourteen year old. The kid with effortless style, huge whips, barspins, and suicide no-handers at an age when most are struggling with bad acne and getting their driver's license. It helps that he's a giant (seriously, he's like 6'3 and he's only 16) and if it weren't for freakishly bad injury luck* he'd probably be drawing comparisons to Tom van Steenbergen or Anthony Messere, two kids who seem to embody the future of the sport. Thankfully for the egos and eyeballs of Pinkbike users everywhere, Harry has put his focus into filmmaking this year. He teamed up with Dustin Gilding for ''The Revealing'' series, and then with Bas and Tom van Steenbergen to produce three of the year's best shred edits.



I had the pleasure of working with Harry at Crankworx this summer. If you liked a shot in one of the event videos, there's a good chance it belonged to Mr. Mendel. I'd call him talented, but that doesn't do him justice. Plus, I think talent is a grossly overused word; you aren't born with these types of skill... you get them through hard work and a love of the sport. Rupert Walker named this video ''Still Dreamin,''' mainly because Harry is riding Kelowna's legendary Dreamland trails in it. However, the name brings up another salient point - which is this: dreams by themselves are worthless. Without execution, they're just fantasy. Harry's got ambition and skill, but he also executes his vision. If he dreams big enough and keeps working hard, then there's no telling how far he'll go.



Video by: Rupert Walker
Words: Scott Secco
Stills: Matthew Butterworth

*Harrison is tough as nails. He's suffered: one small foot fracture, a second broken foot (into 30 pieces, while filming with Nic Genovese), a spiral fracture of his tib/fib growth plate, and multiple concussions.