RED BULL
WADE SIMMONS
RAMPAGEThe Godfather of Freeride, Wade Simmons, tells us about what Rampage was like back in the day, offers some advice for the next generation at their new site, and explains why he isn’t old enough to go back to Utah yet.
| Things were different then, there was no official invite, we just got all the guys together to ride. |
In contrast to the heavily marketed, cyber-accessible, airspace-navigating event it has now become, the first Rampage was ‘grassroots’ and existed in a time without social media, texting, or live-streaming. “Things were different then,” says Wade “there was no official invite, we were a small community. The organizers just got all the guys together to ride who they thought would make it out alive, and put on a good show.” As with the current roster, in addition to the expected freeride names, there were also racers at the event. Wade explains that there has always been a little competition between racers and freeriders, “racers hate freeriding until they are forced to retire, and if they still love riding their only option is to become a freerider.”
| I'm not really a trick guy, it is kind of about ego. |
When they showed up, that first year, to the original site it had existing lines from filming, but there were no wood features or pre-built structures, “you had to build your own lines, but it wasn’t to the level that they do now.” The Canadian Bacon line had a steep, gnarly entrance that not everyone was into riding, “we, Canadians, are big mountain guys, maybe it’s because of where we grow up, but we like hitting the big lines and going fast!” The early days had very few tricks, there were a few booters at the bottom of the course and canyon gaps, but aside from a backflip and a couple of supermans it was decidedly less slopestyle influenced than today. “I’m not really a trick guy, it is kind of about ego. When everyone is hitting the same jump off the same feature it becomes more about one-upping each other than about being original.” Until a backflip is bigger than Zink’s, it will be just another backflip. Wade’s approach is more of “that’s cool that you’re doing that, I’m going to go do this over here.”
| The true essence of freeride is doing things that other people might not see. |
Wade remembers being impressed by how differently Timo Pritzel saw things, “he would look at a jump and try to use the lip as a landing or double it, he didn't just ride things as they were built.” He hope for the new site is that we will see more improvisation from the riders as they are working with a clean slate, “the true essence of freeride is doing things that other people might not see.” In the advice that he passed along to Gully this year, he said “if you want to win this you have to do something that no one else is expecting, shake the system up!” His sage wisdom goes further, as he explains that everyone, the crowd and judges, already know all of the riders’ tricks, so you have to surprise them. “Don’t practice what you are going to do, just pull it out during the contest, that is what will get you noticed.” Like the Zink's and McGarry's of past years, the big tricks that get the points weren't revealed until the finals.
When approaching a contest like this you have to be intelligent, pay close attention to what everyone else is doing and thinking about how you are going to stand out. And when it comes to the age-old tradition of line stealing he says “you either have to be a blatantly better rider or you have to get creative and find an original way to ride it, the latter should be your goal.” At the very least when it comes to poaching, don’t ride it the way it was intended, be better than that. People feel a great sense of ownership when it comes to, not only their hard labor, but their unique vision when building. While you would hope that there would be a gentlemanly way of dealing with conflicts like these, when the contest happens it all goes out the window, “the crowd is yelling, the sun is beating down, stress is high, and you’re not even thinking about it, you’re just thinking about getting down the mountain safely and as best as you can.”
| Rampage had a big impact on my career, I came out on top of the top riders. |
At the height of his freeriding career, Wade won the first Rampage. Of the win he says, “It had a big impact on my career, I came out on top of the top riders.” The next year he missed out with a broken leg and the third year he narrowly walked away from a terrifying crash. He overshot a double and cased a roll before flipping off a cliff, landing on his back and sliding. Luckily nothing was broken but he compressed his chest badly and remembers that his body just didn’t feel right after it.
After Rampage’s brief hiatus he has only returned to judge, “I don’t like judging, I’m a competitor, I don’t like to watch.” He says that he gets too fired up to be there in person so he observes from the live feed at home, “Maybe I’m not old enough to be a spectator yet.”
“It is an important career step, if you do well at Rampage you solidify your freeride career,” from the man who knows,The Godfather.
Check out all of our images from the Red Bull Rampage 2014 here.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCkknZiKCo
honestly I'm disgusted to still see berms lips and wood this year. They promised raw and I thought it was gonna be 100% raw.
The riding so far isn't next level, not even close.
Next morning 10am Wade was here We had a cup of coffee and we went for a ride together down crazy easy does it. On the top he told me if you are getting further than me I give you my bike!
Then we start racing down swaping the lead very often and laughing this was a dream for riding down a trail with the god father!!! At the point we crossed the big long bridge I knew we will start to slow down a lot. Wade was in the lead I saw him slowing down and stop and I stopped about 1 meter further than him.
This was great and I m very happy to have been able to share some good time with him.
@wade if you read this you still owe me a bike!!
It's still a small scale event that nobody except for us MTB fans knows about. Ask any random guy who's not into MTBing, he'll tell you he never heard of Red Bull Rampage or any of the riders ... It's not like this is NASCAR, geez.
You're welcome.
"The true essence of freeride is doing things that other people might not see."