With construction on the slopestyle course now complete, Canada's own Darren Berrecloth was on hand in early July to test the track from top to bottom. Experience the thrill of slopestyle mountain biking first hand and ride along with Darren for a look at the 2015 Red Bull Joyride course here.
The reason they kept the course like last year was because most of the athletes loved that course and actually wanted to have the same course again! They always build the course with the athletes and this year no changes were made minus some small ones!
No real changes to the Crankworx course for the first time ever? No Bearclaw invitational this year because he couldn't get the support? I'm kinda starting to get the impression that things are starting to taper off in the world of slope? I'm hoping not, but there seems to be a lot of things lately pointing in that direction. This sport that we love has certainly been crazy over the last few years. Everyone just seems to be reaching, looking, clawing for that one thing that's gonna stick and be the norm for our sport. Until then, the wheel is literally just gonna keep on getting reinvented.
What drugs are you on? Comps. have come and gone regardless of how the sport is doing and Crankworxs, while changing, usually keeps a number of the same type of features around year after year. The course adapts to the evolving sport of slope and its starting to find that happy spot. Ya know, that special lady part. Relax a bit you insane f*ck.
Just wanna draw a bit more attention to pbrider & Andy-Grant's comments. Both are right.
@ExiTwelve. Taper off? Pointing in that direction? You mean like Rotorua? Or $75,000 Triple Crown prize for Crankworx? The beauty of our sport is there is no "norm". Evolution is a slow & gradual process, but it's also continuous. I'm sure things will taper off & slow down eventually but we got a long way to go.
I'm sorry, but with the FEST series and other big freeride/slopestyle events around the world, Whistler needs to be more creative and forward-thinking than this. The original Crankworx is seriously starting to lose luster and appeal.
I disagree - crankworx and other slopestyle courses are about trick progression and quality of spectator experience. You'll no doubt notice that joyride regularly produces the highest level of competition. The minute that slopestyle competitions start following the mold created by fest and others is when it starts to lose its appeal. While it's progressing the sport in its own way, there's a reason that fest isn't producing the high level of trickery and technicality that crankworx does: it's simply not built for that. Beyond that, having been to both a fest event and joyride, I can honestly say that the spectator experience doesn't even compare: joyride was amazing, suspenseful, and had a great atmosphere. Fest was cool for about 30 minutes, after which time it lost its luster. They are different types of event, and built for different forms of riding and gaining exposure.
Not much of a change this year. There's only so many log cannons and whale-tails that you can watch before it gets boring. I'd love to see more technical difficulty, or some new features.
I'm personally really glad the course
Isn't too technical with skinnies or weird features. I know some people will complain but I never like seeing professional riders get hurt, something that tends to happen when riders are forced to trick funky stuff they never hit. I like the consistency so riders can focus on boosting and tricking rather than worrying about dying. Let's keep em healthy.
the course might be the same as years before and not as big as fest series. but when your standing next to those jumps when the boys are boosting its like no other. not to mention being on hardtails and dual suspension bikes stiffer than me when i see your mom
pretty disappointed that nothing has changed in this year. especially the last part of the course with snail-bern, medium size drop and so on looks poorly for such big event.
@ grfreeride totally agree man, slopestyle is getting boring lately, and if they dont change the course and are not creative about it, it will become even more!!! Especially in whistler where u have everything you might need!
I'm personally really glad the course
Isn't too technical with skinnies or weird features. I know some people will complain but I never like seeing professional riders get hurt, something that tends to happen when riders are forced to trick funky stuff they never hit. I like the consistency so riders can focus on boosting and tricking rather than worrying about dying. Let's keep em healthy.
Maybe consider the riders. They are the ones who are there to compete on this course and they seem to enjoy it better than the John Cowan step up teeter totter bullshit from other years
I have to say i think creativity in freeride courses has gone down hill since 3-6 years ago. I want to see courses like 2010! mad new and crazy features, with huge hits. This course is sick don't get me wrong, but i think it looks much closer to a big dirt jump course than the freeride courses we used to see.
I am sure it rides fantastic, looks great...But, it is nice to see a variation in the course each year, maybe we are just spoiled? Maybe we are reaching a point on that hill where they just have it dialed and it should not be changed much? Think about the myriad of crap that has made up the joyride course over the years, we have seen a lot.
I really loved the NZ course vibe up in the trees...
From the article about the bear claw invitational I got the impression from the comments that Red Bull had stopped sponsoring him.... But he has red bull on his helmet and its on the red bull website? can someone explain to me what's going on?
He can be sponsored by Red Bull and them not find his event to be commercially viable. The bearclaw invitational was always one of the smaller events in terms of coverage despite having an awesome course and the top level of riders. To get top level sponsorship you need to pay that money back in terms of exposure for the brand. From what I have seen of Bearclaw (I don't claim to know the man at all) he seems like the kind of guy who would feel weird selling himself and his event to the media.
Yeah or Mt Washington wasn't the best venue for it. The claw couldn't pull together his event in such little time in a new venue so he bagged it this year. Haha silly to play along with the assumptions that redbull dropped him. He may not be riding as much as he used to, but Darren still does a lot for the sport.
Great course.And its will be good, if pinkbike can tell us about the size of jumps - how high is drop and another features,how long is gap on dirt jumps and etc.
Hopefully. Don't care who wins as long as the two of them place...which by the looks of it they will. What a great performance so far and some seriously awesome riding.
I'm not much of a fan of the rheeder vs semenuk competition... not because they are not great, they're the best out there, but every contest they both take place on becomes boring except for their runs... You know it's going to win either rheeder or semenuk and the other riders are one or two steps behind... last year's joyride felt really long (too many riders waaaaaaaay to far even from the 80's scores) except for their runs and maybe peat/messere...
the guy in front is so much more stylish than berrecloth in this video. Darren cased the 2 big doubles... and it's cool that they are the builders but they actually didn't have anything to do since last year ..
@ExiTwelve. Taper off? Pointing in that direction? You mean like Rotorua? Or $75,000 Triple Crown prize for Crankworx? The beauty of our sport is there is no "norm". Evolution is a slow & gradual process, but it's also continuous. I'm sure things will taper off & slow down eventually but we got a long way to go.
Plus I'm just happy to see some footage of The Claw again, hasn't he been hurt for a little while?
I really loved the NZ course vibe up in the trees...
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