Nine Knights MTB – Behind the scenes with Andi Wittmann

The Suzuki Nine Knights MTB presented by G-SHOCK is over and we’ve had some downtime to reflect on its awesomeness. The clips are taking off on the internet, and for good reason. The action and filming is really epic, if we may say so ourselves. Don’t believe it? Take a minute out of your busy day and see for yourselves in the the latest action clip:



While the clips were collecting likes and the pictures went around the world, the same questions seemed to reach us over and over again. So we asked the host and course designer/builder Andi Wittmann to tell us a little about the things that went on behind the scenes in preparation of the event.

Hey Andi, thanks for taking the time! Building at 2.100 meters above sea level seems crazy. What was the biggest challenge?
Yeah, it was pretty crazy and on some days that fact really gets to you. You just can’t compare it to working in a town where you have a perfect infrastructure, we were in the middle of nowhere with nothing around for kilometers. If you just forget one hammer or a saw or whatever in the valley, that’ll cost you hours to get. You need to hike to the next gondola, take it all the way down to the valley, fetch what you left behind and get all the way back up. And that is still way faster than taking the car. So being extremely organized is important if you want to get things done quickly. And we did!


Andi, your boner log is huge! How the hell did you get it up there?
The boner log building process was a big question mark in my mind for a long time. It's a 10-meter long tree, I really don't know how heavy it was exactly, but it was super heavy. The big challenge was to transport it to the lake without destroying the environment and leaving a trail of destruction all the way there. In the end a small excavator was the right tool for the transport. But it was sketchy as hell in parts because the tree was way too heavy, the ground was soft and the area there is not flat at all – not a good combo. In the end, we just inched our way down to the lake, fingers crossed and with a lot of caution and some luck.


How do you know whether the obstacles are going to work?
It's all about the experience of building jumps I gathered over the last eight years. To me, freeriding is 50-percent digging, so I have built lots of jump set ups in my career. In skiing, they’ve turned to calculating the distances and kicker transitions on paper before they build jumps. We take a good look at the distances and shape the course in our heads, according to what feels right, and what we would love to jump. Usually we are right in the end, luckily! My buddy, Andi Brewi from Austria, helped me plan and build the entire course (as he did last year) and I think we are a great team. If you are working on a project of such a massive scale, it is important that you are able to work well together.


Who is the Guinea pig that tries the obstacles for the first time?
The guy who built it for sure! This year I tried everything first - such a good feeling when everything works out in the end and the mission is finally completed.


For how long and with how many people did you build that course?
In the end it took us about two months all together. The building crew was put together of two head workers and they received huge support from about 15 local helpers. Most of us lived together in a hut for the eight weeks and were up on the mountain by first light and down after sunset. The work was tough, but those were some great times working with great people, love them all!

Where did you get all this dirt from on top of a massive mountain?
That was a bit of a lucky break. The “core” of the main feature’s huge landing is mainly made of dirt I got from another building site on the mountain. I couldn’t believe the coincidence! That meant we only needed a couple of truckloads to transport good dirt from the valley to cover the landing.


Why pick castles and knights as a theme in the first place?
For me as an athlete the most important thing is progressing our sport as much as I can. Creating something unique and producing extraordinary pictures and videos of my sport gets more people interested in it than usual. And, let's face it, insane action just looks that much more amazing in front of great scenery and exceptional obstacles. I want to give the riders, aka knights, a unique freeride playground to have fun on. I think the castle-style freeride features and amazing backdrops really did the trick. I believe that this outcome makes our sport interesting even for people who don’t know it yet.


Other than the castle, what is so special about your event?
The Nine Knights is not your usual contest. It is not about collecting points or getting to a podium and the guys are not under any pressure. We just want to have a week of riding and shooting with the best photographers, filmers and riders and an unreal riding set up. For sure lots of fun, good vibes and tons of coverage for the riders all around the world!

At the end of the week, riders do win prizes for their overall performance, but it is more for fun than anything else. We also have a public day with a competition where the locals come to see what we’ve been up to all week. After a week of shooting, some of the riders want to see who is the number one knight. But even this is really chill, we have a jam format and no prize money, so it is all fun and games.


Why is the Nine Knights not an FMB World Tour Event?
It wouldn't fit into our concept. Like I said, Nine Knights is all about having a good time, an easy going week full of riding and less stress for all the riders after they had to ride so many World Tour events. It's a completely different thing.

What about the environment? Aren’t you leaving a huge impact in the middle of nature?
Keeping the environment clean and not destroying it is a really big and important deal for us. The main aspect for spotting the right location was that it would integrate nicely into the local nature and we wouldn’t have to fundamentally change the landscape like cut down trees or reshape the entire surroundings. So for example the big dirt landing. There already was a natural landing and I just had to make it higher. We have covered everything with the original dirt again and replanted the grass with special seeds for higher altitudes. I am looking forward to seeing the set up next year in nice green colours.

What machines did you use to build the course?
One 7,5 t excavator for all the dirt landings, chain saws, flame throwers and the usual things you need for working with wood. The bigger stuff was pulled together in Neukirchen from a big wood company.

Thanks Andi!