Matt MacDuff Takes the 2015 Night Harvest

Mar 14, 2015
by MacDuff Matt  
The Night Harvest 2015

It had been a long week leading up to The Night Harvest for the crew, with the extent of the fires blazing through Cape Town and the builders helping friends and family evacuate their houses in Hout Bay, there wasn’t always that many hands preparing the jumps, however they pulled it off in complete style. When returning to events year after year organizers must always have fresh ideas and change aspects of their show, and that is exactly what The Night Harvest did.

The Night Harvest 2015 - Matt Priest 360 X-up - Photo by Wayne Reiche.

From the roll in (where the riders start from and leads into the jumps), to adding in more jumps, taking the whale tail away and also increasing the amount of international riders was just the beginning. The Night Harvest upped their game again by bringing international sponsor, DMR Bikes, onto the bill. It's great for the sport locally, but The Night Harvest also creates excitement for the sport internationally. They didn’t even stop there, they also invited Catfish back to South Africa just to commentate next to local radio presenter, Kai Linder.

The Night Harvest 2015 - Photo by Wayne Reiche. Malcolm Peters 360 Practice

It was a calm night with the weather gods on our side allowing for some insane warm up heats before heading off to the final rounds.

The Night Harvest 2015

Round one of the Free Style Mountain Bikes (MTB) saw some insane backflips, whips, 360's and even a front flip pulled by Danny Pace. It was insane. The crowds went mental and the riders showed off some insane skill. Among those top riders were 4 local boys who really stood out. Of course the two Neetling brothers, Jonty and Andrew, Thomas Sandel who was blowing the commentators minds and local Potato Trails' rider and builder, Justin Novella, who ended up walking away with the award for Best local rider in the MTB category.

The Night Harvest 2015 - Photo by Wayne Reiche.

The guy they refer to as ZimBlake aka Blake Samson, who was born in Zimbabwe and now lives on the Isle of Wight, also travelled all the way to the tip of Africa to compete. He was extremely glad to be back in South Africa, to be travelling around, filming and seeing what The Night Harvest had to offer:

“It was a little tough on the eyes at first”, he said, “but once they adjusted to the light it became a lot easier to start pulling some tricks for the crowds. Sadly I only finished 4th overall, but it was an awesome night out shredding with my buddies.

The Night Harvest 2015

The BMX riders were up next and all locals were shouting for local, but now international rider, Greg Illingworth. He had a big crash during the night but that never stops him from going big, it's just who he is. The BMX category boasted a lot of local and international talent however no one could keep up with one rider in particular rider - Kevin Peraza, who travelled all the way from Tucson, Arizona to be in South Africa and in his first couple of runs he was already pulling backflips, 360's and 360 triple whips. He was unstoppable. He boasts so much skill and is the most down to earth rider we have ever met and when catching up with him afterwards he had this to say:

The Night Harvest was rad! The combined MTB and BMX session in the beginning was good and the jam format made the event more chill and gave me time to focus on the tricks. Best trick was so gnarly, I just wish the landing wasn't so soft for my small 20” wheels. I was super surprised to see so many spectators, it's always great riding for them, and they even stayed through all the wind. The event was so dialled that you will definitely see me returning in 2016, I love Cape Town.

The Night Harvest 2015 - Photo by Wayne Reiche.

Round 2 for the MTB riders saw riders turn up the heat and start pulling out some big airs and some massive tricks, putting pressure on defending champion Sam Reynolds who would have to keep up. Sam and I were pulling out some insane tricks when mother nature decided to have her say. The wind slowed things down for a while and it was up to the judges to make the call if we were going to wait or move on to best trick.

The Night Harvest 2015 - Matt mcduff Cannonball - Photo by Wayne Reiche.

After five minutes or so the call was made to move onto best trick where only a few riders took part. The wind was still pretty gnarly, but that didn’t stop some of the guys from taking part. Sam Reynolds and I were pushing each other by doing bigger and bigger tricks. The fan's minds were absolutely blown by the calibre of riding that they just witnessed. It's a pity mother nature never held out for the whole evening but as they say - the show must go on - and so it did.

The Night Harvest 2015 - Photo by Wayne Reiche.

Jam Final results:

MTB
1. Matt MacDuff
2. Sam Reynolds
3. Danny Pace

The Night Harvest 2015 - MTB Podium - Photo by Wayne Reiche.

BMX
1. Kevin Peraza
2. Ben Hennon
3. Matt Priest

The Night Harvest 2015 - Podium - Photo by Wayne Reiche.

The Night Harvest 2015
  Best Trick went to Sam Reynolds for pulling an extremely styling 360 flip.

The sponsors must be mentioned as without them something like this could never have been brought to Cape Town.

Monster Energy, XPERIA, Imperial Ford, Cape Frame Work Constructers, The Pole Yard, FOX, DMR Bikes and Cape Audio College.

Photos: Eric Palmer and Wayne Reiche.


MENTIONS: @dmrbikes @mattmacduff @blakes19 @SamReynolds26 @ericpalmer



Author Info:
mattmacduff avatar

Member since Jul 2, 2006
16 articles

18 Comments
  • 26 0
 Great write up matt! When will you treat us to another review bazooka?
  • 7 0
 I'm all out of ideas for breakfast. How about another cooking session?
  • 1 0
 ...look at the pretty ladies...
  • 12 2
 Does anyone else find it funny that theyr hight matches the bikes size?
  • 1 0
 everything's in the size nowadays!
  • 4 0
 Each podium is also the same height across the 3 riders too.
  • 1 0
 Usually a shorter rider would pick a smaller bike to ride. A friend of mine is not that tall, so BMX, but the occasional FR session is also there with a 24" Norco B-Line Smile Not saying that it's Newtons'18-th law or something, it's how it mostly goes amongst the people that I know.
  • 1 0
 LOL, I find it funny that the comment about it got voted up rather than down. I have a friend that used to street a 24" or 26", he's about 5'3" or so I guess. He's BMX now & that's why. Still hits trails on a 26" though.
  • 10 0
 side boob Smile
  • 6 0
 SIDE BOOB
  • 4 0
 Reading this in your accent Matt x D
  • 1 0
 Great article and seems like the event was great too! Hope you guys had some spare time to tour around the area and enjoy the city of Cape Town. Just got back from spending the summer over there myself
  • 2 0
 Hey @oldfaith
I have Ridden with the rise and they Said that there are more in the planing!
  • 3 0
 Looked like a cool event, we need some video footy!
  • 1 0
 Good news MacDuff! Video? Gotta have video to go with the Duff.
  • 1 0
 Seemed like a cool event. Thanks for the nice write up! Smile
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