About the FilmAt the age of 16, many American kids trade in two wheels for four. Trusty steeds that once gave them freedom to explore on weekends now collect dust in the garage. For a growing number of high school students in Northern California, however, two wheels don’t get dusty, they get dirty. Their lives continue to revolve around weekend rides, but now those rides have a finish line. These are the student athletes of the NorCal High School Cycling League. This is Singletrack High.
The film was produced by
Pedal Born Pictures and funded entirely by Specialized Bicycle Components, with the goal of showcasing the incredible impact of high school mountain biking and bringing more supporters to NICA and the movement. Additional support was provided by Sunnyvale VW and GoPro.
Nationwide ScreeningsSingletrack High will be screening all over the USA in 2013 and beyond. Screenings are being hosted by NICA, NICA Leagues, NICA Teams, and other bike organizations looking to spread the word about high school mountain biking. For a current list of screenings
click here.
Host a Singletrack High screeningPedal Born Pictures and the National Interscholastic Cycling Association have screened Single Track High across the USA to grow the high school mountain bike movement and get more kids on bikes.
Virtually anyone can purchase a license to screen Singletrack High and join the movement. However, first rights are being granted to NICA Leagues and Teams. For more information about hosting a screening at your home, backyard, local theater, school or business
click here.
Purchase the
DVD here and help support the expansion of Interscholastic cycling.
About the National Interscholastic Cycling Association [NICA]
Founded in 2009, NICA is the national governing body that is making high school mountain biking a mainstream sport. With 13 leagues in 12 states and four more scheduled to launch in 2015, NICA is on a mission to bring Interscholastic cycling Coast to Coast by 2020.
56 Comments
My friends and my friends parents and stuff are always asking: "When are you going to start driving then?", and I tell them that I feel no need, I've got 6 bikes and a train pass, I don't need a car. They seem to think that that's funny, and there's some kind of stigma around adults cycling to get places in the UK, like, people think that if you cycle around, you just can't afford a car.
But now I'm getting decent race results I can throw that back at them. I mean, how many teenage drivers are going to compete internationally in driving?
Rant over!
But I didn't just get a car. I bought the biggest, cheapest car I could find that had the biggest trunk (boot for the rest of world) a Golden 75th anniversary Limited edition 1978 Lincoln Continental 4 door!! Everything was gold, inside and out. Best part, paid $120 for it in 1987. No rust, 460ci V8, 21 feet 6 inches in length. And the best part, could fit 3 bikes in the trunk and close it, even with a full sized spare tire.. I've since moved on to pick up trucks as my transporter of choice. Still ride if I don't have to drive. Ride my supermoto if I need to drive somewhere. America doesn't have bicycle friendly roads, so it's safer on a motorcycle, but if could, I could get a 5 mile mtb ride on the way to my 15 mile ride to work. But with roads with no shoulders, I don't trust cars and it's the same stretches of roads where cyclists are killed every year.
I later moved to Portland, Oregon, and the table is surely turned. Bike commuting is at a all time high there, and I was proud to be one of them. Yay for bikes!
I'm just kidding I don't have any friends... :sigh:
The high school mountain biking teams is what I really liked the look of, not so much for the support and racing (although that does look awesome), more just for recognition that mountain biking is a legitimate sport that quite a lot of people are participating in. I went through the last 2 years of secondary school competing at a national level (albeit not very well until right at the end of the 2 years), and I don't think anyone at the school (PE teachers etc) apart from my close group of friends had any idea that I did this. We'd just have a weekly announcement in form about how the football team have lost again.
Now I'm at a 6th form College, there seems to be much more recognition of people's specialities within sport. When I started the PE course they asked everybody what sport they do and what level they do it at, and it was fascinating how many people compete at a high level in relatively obscure sports (there's a guy in my class who does national level water polo).
UK high schools should be watching this film and taking notes.
Basically i ride for fun, not to gain some medal or a comment from somebody. If you are passionate about mtb then you will ride regardless and you will ride for fun. It doesn't matter if there is a structured race schedule in schools because kids will ride no matter what. Having this level of competition makes the sport overtly competitive and thats not what I'm in it for.
Loving the documentary!
Anyways sweet vid