Video: How to Get a Roost Shot

 Seriously ...

 It's the same as doing a skid. Less posing and more riding thank you

 I still like them... It just reminds me of the feeling of getting loose on the trail. I know, I'm probably alone on this one. So neg prop me already.

 Less show boating and ride

 Skids are for kids. Keep it in the car park!

 How did this make the news feed?

 What a fail! There's no honor for posers.

 Part 2: how to fix the berm/trail you just ruined being a trail-douche.

 A new level of gay front page material boys.. Right arm!

 Throwing added dirt to a corner to accentuate a shot is just fine and almost every epic shot you see of someone drifting a berm has done it. Taking a shot where the rider has zero chance or the ability to ride outta it is really fucking lame. It's like taking a sequence shot of someone falling over and claiming he's doing a bar drag. This video was dumb and no matter how cool the picture looks, it doesn't mean crap if the rider eats shit a half second later. Also its easy to tell by the rest of us who know how to ride if you can shred or are a complete gaper... such as in the final picture here, he's staring at his rear wheel through the berm. Yeah, cool... total shred bro.

 Ya bro lets beat the crap out of some builders hard work. Look at this hand on his rear brake, he must be a serious brah!

 ^ or you can watch the vid and see his rear wheel locked up the whole time... I can't get over how PB is blatantly supporting gapers destroying berms just for a staged mediocre picture.

 I think I'm going to be sick. If I aim it right I can help fix the berm and puke on the camera man.

 Anyone else BURMED out on these contrived shots?

 All negativity and posing aside looks funn and thats what Im in it for. Enjoy riding fellas!!

 how to get a rooster hot...

 Ever thought it's their trail ? and that they can do what the f*ck they want to it ?

Sure staged ' pow ' photos are seriously lame and pathetic but this hardly looks like a sanctioned trail

 ^ Why does that matter? You can do whatever the hell you want on a trail you built, just don't make a "how to" video and post it on the front page of the most used/biggest mtb website for clueless up-and-comers to watch and think that's the standard. Its one thing to go out and have fun doing absurd stuff with your buds on something you built, its entirely different when you use that footage to promote shitty trail ethics. It really has nothing to do with if its their trail or not.

 doing this kind of thing is where the word "poser" originated from...albeit not sure if they were serious or not?

 From mtbtips:

Disadvantages of Skidding:

skidding reduces bike control and kills your potential for true flow on the trails
skidding offers no traction. Only a rolling tire has traction.
skidding chews out tread climbing and braking blocks and reduces tire life considerably
skidding on sharp and rocky trails increases the chance of punctures and tire cuts
skidding a mountain bike on multi-use trails leaves a bad impression for other users
skidding creates grooves and depressions that spoil the riding line for others
skidding is bad bike handling technique that stalls your development of better mountain biking skills

 To be clear, I'm talking about dragging brake to slide tires. It's for novices. I'm not talking about squaring off berms or roosting some dirt when at the limit of speed and traction. This uses no brakes and is employed by expert riders. One is worthy of respect. The other deserves mocking laughs.

 +1 and an amen brother

 Just look for the tell tale finger on the lever....

 Leave the skids for the kids.

 ...and the skid marks for the pants

 if skids are for kids..........

then i never wanna grow up.

btw...who brainwashed you into believing skids are evil?


skids have been cool since the 1950's and will still be cool in 2050.

faking a shot by raking the berms and creating 'fluff dirt' has always and will always be lame.

 I never said they were evil. I said they were for kids. Ah i think you may have misunderstood my use of the word skid. Rear wheel drifts are part of mtb that i love the most. I enjoy them as much as natural gaps which are my other great love. If these 2 things were not part of mtb then i don't think i would be either.

A perfectly executed scandie is a thing of beauty also and shouldn't damage the trail at all because the rear wheel is barely touching the ground.

As for those skids that cause ruts to form on the inside of corners? Well i quite like them because it makes the fast lines harder to hit as you have to cross over the ruts to ride your lines.

I thought i covered all this when i said., skids are for kids!

 I agree with almost all of your "rules on skidding" apart from that I think sometimes persuading your wheel to travel sideways with a short sharp handful of rear brake really is the quickest way through certain sections. Yes often no brake is required for this maneuver, but occasionally it is.

 ^ but in this case it isn't. A blanket statement saying all skidding is bad means that those people have never gone fast enough where skidding is needed or haven't skidded on dirt roads, tar, etc. where it doesn't affect anyone. However most people are not liking this because its blatant, gaper-esque skidding just to try to fool other people into thinking this rider is faster/better than he clearly is and is promoting idiotic behavior on trails. Yeah, damaging a berm (albeit we don't know if they rebuilt it afterward) to try to look cool in a picture is lame. If the comments were all positive, you can guarantee some kids would be influenced by this and would do the same thing, especially since PB is presenting it as a "how to" video.

And Stacy- you are awesome and I'm completely inspired by you and how hard you rip but honestly, how can you support worthless skidding on trails someone took the time to build? Maybe ripping on bike park trails on a 4 wheeled mtb for the past 20 or so years has softened your perception on how ridiculous it is but it doesn't take much pointless riding to turn a ribbon of incredible single track into a god forsaken, brake bump-riddled, slashed berms piece of junk. Skids are indeed some of the most fun you can have on a bike but there's a time and place for everything. Like sex, but you don't go banging a chick in a middle school classroom.

 Adding on to that... After reading your posts down further (I'm caring too much about this but done care because you are a legend), I'm fully convinced your view of mtbing is f*cking warped. Not every trail is a bike park with a fully funded crew of trail builders. I feel sorry that you're that spoiled, or I'm dumb for thinking that you're being serious. Either way, you're setting a horrible tone for how up and coming riders view mtbing and the people who make it possible for you to enjoy the trails. Lift serviced riding, even as popular as it is now, is not a reality for a majority of riders and it honestly sucks knowing that you're completely ignorant to this in your park rat bubble. It might sound stupid to care so much about something so seemingly little but if your ability to ride relied on the hard work of volunteers and not how much cash you have in your pocket, you'd get a bit ticked off as well.

 100% park rat. off road gravity since 1999.

bmx race tracks, backyard skate ramps, motocross tracks and private vert ramp warehouses before that.
and 100% proud of that fact.

never did feel all that comfortable riding on crown land or illegal trails.
not my style.
not a big fan of shuttles.

mtb has never, nor will it ever be about adventure for me.
its about banging laps and gettin greasy.
give me a chairlift and 3 downhill race type trails and i'm good......for like the next 30 years.
seriously.

skiddin, slashin, roostin, but never fluff and buffin berms with hero poo for a photo.

if the dust is there naturally, then great, if not, deal with it. but the chop and rake thing is so lame.

again, i don't speak for riding on crown land or illegal trails, i don't ride them.


there is nothing wrong with skiddin and roostin in a bike park.

other trails outside of a bike park environment? no opinion because i do not participate.

 adding on to that....... and there are days that my skids feel soooooooooooo good it reminds me of that time i banged my middle school teacher on her desk in the classroom during lunch. it was the 80's man. lol.

 ^ Hahahaha, perfect responses. Niiice! I don't mind raking/fluffing shit up because it doesn't affect the trails and at the end of the day, crazier shit has been done to represent the effect you get in person through photographs (added light being the most common so I don't see the difference between that and some extra dirt) I see where you're coming from. You're blunt and not a pussy when it comes to posting and its obvious you're not spitting some backtracking BS. Thanks for clarifying that while not sounding like you're running for public office. That's a rarity now-a-days.

 You support skidding on volunteer built trails? Most of us don't have a pro maintained park nearby. Consider yourself lucky you can mess up trails all you want, your lift ticket pays to fix the damage. I fix the damage I do with sweat.
This type of thing encourages behavior that destroys trails and gets access cut off. If you don't build trails maybe you can't fathom that.

 i do consider myself lucky to be a park rat.
total independence, no shuttles, trails crews to repair, patrol for first aid, bathrooms, lift access, INSANE trails etc etc.

my opinion on what happens on crown land or illegal trails is completely moot.
i don't ride there.

people who build and ride these trails have all the right in the world to voice opinions and even hell, set up trail use rules.

i just think the staged brown pow berm shot is plaaaaaaayed.

you wanna blast, skid, roost and destroy berms and get a great shot doin so? go for it. just leave some integrity in the act by not chopping up the berm into the consistency of a sandbox.

 I've got no problems with what people are saying. However, as someone who can drift without brakes and always rides with their fingers on the brakes i just want to say that you need a new way to find out if someone is skidding

 @scott-townes
In reply to your reply to my comment waaaaay up there...god yeah, this video is stupid, and the resulting picture is too, just wanna make it clear that i agree with that, despite what I said about brake induced skidding being necessary sometimes. It most definitely isnt necessary here, and tbh every time I see one of those all too common "exploding berms" pictures, I always, almost instinctively now, check what the rider is doing with the rear brake lever. Just wanted to point out that saying a skid is NEVER necessary is not right either.

 ^ I hear ya

 Huh, so your the guy that everyone hates at the park that causes all the braking bumps? Imagine the things that the trail crew could build if they weren't busy fixing all the trails that you keep screwing up.

 you are funny. its a ski resort bike park.

 if skoda was sponsoring this video: Approach the turn at normal speed. Stand on the pedals just incase you thought bars were meant for feet. Drop your outside foot. Steer very fiercly to the side you want to go. Follow the turn. Keep legs straight. Look at anything but the exit. Crash but make sure nobody saw. Then buy a skoda.

 LOL HutchJR )

 clown

 amusingly, the rider in that pic seems to be following that technique almost perfectly. Especially the "look anywhere but the exit" part.

 the same thing is done in skiing... people will just huck a random trick just for the shot and not care about landing it. it pisses me off!!

 I don't think there are rules for having fun, this photo and video were just made for fun, not to have a POD or something...

 What do you know, 'mattwragg'? You're just... oh... ummm... never mind. :-)

 While I don't want to sound like the IMBA fun police, encouraging people to go and chainsaw the top off berms in the name of photos is not good. I'm sure you guys did this on a trail you had permission to do this on and repaired all the damage afterwards, but there are a lot of people in this world who aren't that considerate.

 Last year the "Photo of the Year" was exactly like that, why is everyone suddenly hating on this now?
I mean, I've always hated it, but I don't get why people vote for a photo like that through 4 voting rounds and then suddenly start bashing it.

 Photo of the year last year sucked.

 treesmoker knows.

 @JbLiautard don't worry bro i got the humor in it, I think you all need to chill a little I think the way we treat trails in Europe is completely different to how you guys do over the pond. our trails seem to be able to hold up to a bit of skidding or you just ride it as is I like it that way nobody gets pissy, its just riding in the mud on push bikes when it comes down to it haha. people just need to chill tbh

 Thanks Matt for your comments! Perhaps you can use your influence to get this one off the front page. Not pinkbike material.

 @MTBHammer You're saying "pinkbike material" as if Pinkbike was exclusively for serious high quality content.
A few weeks ago we had a video of a naked chick licking a lollipop.....

 Uhhhm excuse me, a naked chick licking a lollipop is the definition of high quality content.

 www.pinkbike.com/photo/11336983

 One "sand corner" does not make them all sand corners. As someone who volunteers 100+ hours/ year to maintaining my local trails, this sh!t makes me grumpy.

 Never mind it's just one more reason for Gov, Enviro and other user groups to hate on bikers.

 For every "roost shot" take 50 shots of doing volunteer trail work on public, multi-access trails.

 You get grumpy when someone you don't know does a skid on a trail you don't ride or maintain? Excellent

 I get grumpy when probably the most popular mtb site actively encourages it's readership (aka - local kids riding my local trails) to practice crappy riding habits. I get it - it's fun to let the backend loose and it does make for a good shot, but the downside of promoting it far outweighs the 2 seconds of fun or photo "radness".

 Maybe it was his trail he built on his own land. Just throwing out a possibility.

 Still a bad example, that's the point.

 How to drift:

1) Enter a corner so fast that your tyres can barely produce enough traction to turn you.
2) Drift

 Although possibly just a farce, pinkbikes latest news story is teaching kids straight up how to destroy volunteer built trails. This trail berm roost shot has gone too far... http://www.pinkbike.com/news/how-to-get-a-shredding-turn-photo-2014.html

Although possibly just a farce, pinkbikes latest news story is teaching kids straight up how to destroy volunteer built trails.
Like XB said, he's sure this is all a gag and is not meant to take seriously but trails are getting thrashed at the hands of "up-and-coming " local bro sponsored shredders and a handful of irresponsible videographers and photographers.
With 3/4 + of all of the Okanagan's trail work being done by volunteer effort, trail builders are getting ticked off and quite unfortunately stopping their efforts of maintaining trail due to some of these circumstances. Local bike organizations can only manage and build so much trail in a year, with still the majority of work being done by volunteers on their own accord on their personal time, along with in conjunction with efforts from the club.

Something to think about next time you are thrashing someones creation and hard work. Volunteers spend countless hours going back maintaining and keeping all these trails open. If these volunteers would stop doing such work the local bike clubs would be faced with possibly paying for such work to be done and that is less funds that can be put towards new trails and bike related projects for the future. [/Quote]

 cont>



Roosting berms/ corners and scrubbing off lips of features look great in bike parks, but it gets complicated when this trail destructon is done in remote trail areas which take a lot of effort/time to get back to and repair and maintain.

Our riding area is a very maintenance high area of trail to maintain with the quite thick growing underbrush and multiple different types of soil in which some erode that very quickly. Combine this with large shoulder seasons of precipitation and snow melting which is a perfect environment for rotting wood very fast. Any more maintenance / trail destruction put on top of this is a heavy burden on the system.

Please contribute to local trail building efforts through your local bike club and spread awareness of preservation of the trails. With newly adopted trail building techniques taught through IMBA / NSMBA / Whistler Trail Building Codes; trails going forward will surely be built more sustainable and "bomb proof" in the future, but we may as well preserve the more delicate trails in existence out there.

Efforts to spread images / moving images of MTB'ing through pictures videos are great and fun to look at and they all mean well, but that market is super over saturated and easy to get into and fairly easy to carry out. Volunteer trail builders are very limited in number in our area, and it is a very difficult activity to carry out, so we should respect their efforts, help where we can and try not to piss them off out of their roles. Most of the people carrying out this work do the majority of their work unknown to the public, receive no compensation, and seek no gratitude or thanks... Most do out of love for the sport and volunteer in a much needed spot to fill to keep trails open. Please support your local trail builder and local Trail Society's efforts.

Xtreme Builder[/Quote]

 Trail crew doesn't get paid a cent more because you skid, in fact it makes them feel like shit because they're constantly fixing the garbage made by the lowest common denominator in biking. Seriously Stacy, get a life, stop making liftys cry and grow up. Skids are for losers who haven't figured out how to death grip the bars like a man, pull their balls out from inside their body, and drift. Drift = sweet. Skids = lame.

See?

Learn to Drift.
*^%#^ E dick waving nonsense.

 Let's assume, stacy, that your flow of thought is correct: the more skidding you do, the more the trail crew fixes it, the more hours they get, the more they get paid.

You forgot the logical extension of that: ..., the more it costs to ride that park as the price increases to cover the extra pay for the trail crew, the fewer the riders that show up as cost increases, the quicker the park shuts down. Same as when riders skid/roost on free trails maintained by volunteers. The volunteers stop showing up to fix things that shouldn't need to be fixed, then the trail becomes a rutted up, eroded, overgrown, unrideable mess, and closes up. It's happened more than once in my neck of the woods.

 Stacy, do you ever build trails? I can tell you for sure that we who dig, even the people who's livelihood is to build trail centers or lift assisted trails don't enjoy repairing them as a result of mindless skidding and stuff like that. They'd much prefer to not have to and be able to contribute more to the trail system, adding more features and trails whilst also improving the current ones, not repair ragged corners and berms.

 Stacy: this was aimed more at people who actually ride bikes and not bike park hero's that have a limited season like yourself. I was going to start up-selling non-bike park trails but it's ok. stay in the park.

 whew. thanks vernonjeff. i will.

mtb harry........a jobs a job. would they sooner be working in starbucks or maybe something even more wacked?

i see the crew, covered in dirt, fixing old trails, building new ones, covered in dirt, smiles all over their faces......no body is holding a gun to these guys heads, nor are the volunteers. they love their job..........the people that run trail crew are outdooors people, rain or shine types that love swinging a pick and working a trail. how is this so hard for you to comprehend?

i see the crew riding too, they shred and roost....and skid.

 This is why I have legal land to build what I want when I want how I want, and it stays prim and shweet looking, no sweatty nob jockeys to come and tear the place appart and a chill layback environment. I was starting to get worried that one day I would hit someone with a spade too hard and end up accidentally killing them, or having to pay several thousands of pounds for dammage to a car/law suit for abh. For details simply look for my other post in this thread.

Anyhow enough of retarded PB for one night and remember watch your noses lol.

 Stacy, wouldn't you rather that limited Bike Park Trail Crew funds go to create new trails for you to ride rather than just fixing skid marks? I guarantee fixing skid holes is not what the trail crew think of as the best use of their time.

They love their job, guaranteed. As you said, no one is holding a gun to their head, far from it. That said, I doubt there's going to be more money if the trails get more shit kicked. Only a reallocation of the same existing funds, ie, no more new trails.

I think MTB-Harry pretty much summed it up.

 honestly nickel, i believe things have evolved to the point now where they prob have 2 types of crews going on in the bike parks these days..........

rookies do repair and such.
vets and crew chiefs make new trails.

as ya pay your dues ya prob move up.

lift tickets prices and pass prices keep going up, ridership increases, the sport is healthy, the trail crews that work at the parks i have ridden at all love their job....all aspects, including fixing existing trails..........grooming and fixing has been becoming a bit of an art form in itself these days if ya have noticed the trails in the last 2 season around here.

i think new trails are great, but come on man, the last 2 years, being able to rip into an old familiar trail thats been repaired and reworked?.......so many peeps just love that.

the trail crews know it.

they hear the compliments and get the thanks all the time.

and the evolution of bike parks? damn man, we are just coming to end of phase 1(big picture) the next 15 years is gonna be incredible, the global growth of bike parks and lift assisted parks. bike parks are full on family scenes now......just like skiing. mainstream people do it all the time.

i think its great.

the money ain't drying up yet.........these sports go in phases and cycles and gravity lift accessed bike parks is/are just getting started........

 Interesting views. This I can at least get behind. Nothing like ripping a fresh trail. I still disagree about skidding as it just makes that fresh trail ratbagged that much faster, but as a paying customer, i'll agree that you're entitled to ride the trails as you see fit. Just seems silly to me.

It would be like a wintertime mountain user saying "I can slash the lips in the park all I want, it keeps the terrain park crew working."
Or
"I'll just carve all around those race gates and put ruts in the course, there are people who are paid to fix them"

I want my money that I paid to go to something more productive.

 Just let it go bro

 You just have to remove it fastly

 I have tried to stay within the realms of sensible and decent language; the unedited version was enough to turn every freshwater brook, stream, river and lake in the whole of England's green and pleasant land to brine. If people want to look cool, go and learn to whip, just remember the idea is to land both wheels in line and not still sideways otherwise you just look like a mug that’s trying too hard to be cool. At least with the shady whips the only thing you mess up is yourself its like a free spade beating ha ha.

Oh and I missed some letters and words places because of the fit of rage this gave me.

 If someone is landing a bit sideways, they might just be trying to learn. If this is the case just send it.

 So much hate... People need to chill out, especially if its a trail that you built and maintain. Im assuming you fixed the berm after the roost session?

 @jibbmaster I no whats the big deal about

 I like skids. I like wheelies. Fuck the police

 Way to miss the point completely...

 No one is saying you can't do whatever the hell you want to what you build, people are pissed because you made a "how to" video of you doing it and promoting it on the main page of PB. Go ahead and destroy your berms but expect some heat when you promote it as the standard way of doing things on MTBing's biggest website. Impressionable kids can't tell all that from that crappy 3 min. video.

 Promoting douche bag trail ethics isnt cool and I honestly thought the vid was incredibly stupid. I just dont see the need to rip the poor guy apart but I guess thats what happens when you post stuff on PB. Can any user post stuff to the main page? I thought the vids that made it to the main stream were chosen by PB staff. If thats the case then PB dropped the ball on this one.

 But cameraman look pretty persistant, altought his face got smashed with sand few times.

 You re positive that s nice

 I have to, I own one. And riding's (life?) too short to stay negative all the time.

 Right, now you ve got to change your username

 Good one! It's an old college one, stays with me no matter what

 yup...I did not know people were having trouble roosting...