Video: Big Lines & Sick Riding in Colorado

The idea of traveling to Colorado to film a video first came to our minds on December 2017. Something that just started as an idea, became what has been the greatest project we have ever created. My name is Juan Diego Salido, I am Mexican mountain biker and this is the story of my latest project with my brother and filmmaker Juan Diego DeLaPeña.

Once we knew the location we wanted to film in, it was hard work from there on. It took us a couple of months to present the project to different sponsors, until we gathered the amount we needed. June 21st was the day of our flight. We packed our bags, bikes and camera gear and started our trip to Colorado. After a four hour flight and two hours on the road, the bus made it to Vail, our home for the next 15 days. Paul, a good friend of mine picked us up from the bus station and took us to his place where we unpacked and prepared everything so that we would be ready to head to the mountains the next day.

The crew at Vail Bike Hub was super stoked with our project and supported us during with everything they could during our stay.

With our bikes ready, it was time to take the lift up the mountain and get a few runs in before we started filming. Juan Diego had never gone to Colorado before, I wanted to show him the trails where we could film before we took all the equipment. Vail has a small bike park with only 6 or 7 downhill trails, but when you put a foot outside the bike park and go Off Boundaries, it is mind-blowing. From high alpine riding to aspen forests, this place has everything.



First days of filming turned out pretty great. Since it was so dry and there were no clouds during the day to block the sun, we were riding the park from 1 pm to 6 pm, and once the sun was down and we had good light, we took out the cameras and started to film. We wanted to get all the shots we had planned for the downhill segment first, so we only rode our downhill bikes the first days. We wanted to have a lot of content for us to show in social media, so Juan Diego crushed it with the pics.


After 5 days of riding and filming in the Vail bike park, we decided to take a break and go visit the Trestle Bike Park in Winter Park resort. Started doing tons of laps when we ran into this wooden jump and my first thought was "Flip it", so told Juan Diego to get the camera out because I was going to go for it. Ended up in a trail called Banana Peel, which is a slopestyle line, hitting the line with our downhill bikes was a bit sketchy but really fun.





Being friends with the bike patrols in the bike park is quite awesome. I met the crew a couple years ago while riding the bike park, and we became good friends ever since. This year I told them we were filming a video and all the crew was super helpful during our filming days. They took us up in a truck to the highest part of the mountain, where we were going to film some enduro on a trail called "Two Elk Pass".

After climbing on top of a rock wall and observing some of the best views we have ever seen, it was time to take out the cameras and start filming. From deer to bears, wildlife in this trail was mind-blowing, being in the middle of the forest surrounded only by trees and animals is a feeling everyone needs to experience. Looking up at the 60-70 ft. tall pines really make you realize the immensity of nature and how small it can make us feel.

The enduro part of the video was super fun to film, but also the most difficult. Due to the lack of clouds, we only had a couple hours a day of good light, and since the trail we wanted to film on is very high in the mountain with pedaling or shuttle access only, we were with the clock on our shoulders. Food and water were a big deal, to keep us on point all day up in the mountain.

We finished filming on the enduro bike two days before the trip was over, this took a lot of pressure off, but there was still one more stunt I wanted to do before we could finish filming. There is a step down in the middle of the forest which I wanted to flip, with no landing and just two or three meters of space between trees where I could land, it was really sketchy but I knew I had to try. Woke up on our last day of riding and the nerves started to get me. We went on the lift and got to where the jump was, shaped the jump and Juan Diego set up all the cameras to get the perfect shot. Finally made up my mind and went for it. It went really bad the first four tries, until I managed to land it on the fifth one. I was so tired that I decided to call it a day.

Transition Bikes TR11 and Patrol were the weapon of choice for this project.


Finishing the filming days with a good Protein and a nice dinner.

Juan Diego and I want to thank everyone that was involved in one way or another in this project, especially the sponsors: Industry Nine, Bike Logistics, Outflow and Birdman, without them, this project would still just be an idea. From the beginning, all our friends, families and sponsors were really supportive of our project which makes us twice as stoked to finally present: Into the Mind