Must Watch: The Firestarter Crew Are Back With More 2000's Inspired Freeride Goodness in 'Third Degree’

Words: Brodie Bieber

Over the summer and fall of 2024, we produced and released to the world a full-length project entitled INFERNO. It was a blast!

This year, we ran it back. After thousands upon thousands of kilometres, more broken bikes, sketchy camp spots and more McDonald's breakfasts than I can count, FIRESTARTER is proud to present their third full-length film, "THIRD DEGREE".



The approach for this year's film was the same as that of last year... just go out and film shit.

With no real set deadlines, schedules or restrictions, the outcome can be pretty special. Filming a video like this really feels no different than just hanging out and riding with your friends. And ultimately, that was sort of the goal of this project... an introspective look into how mountain biking looks through our eyes, and what real mountain bike culture looks like, not the filtered, picture-perfect culture you see through social media.



I've wanted to do a big FIRESTARTER graffiti piece in a video for quite some time now. I was so stoked to finally make it happen for the intro of this film. I had the first 30 seconds of this intro planned out for a very, very long time. Cutting back and forth between this and Ian doing a one foot table over *REDACTED(watch the video)* was a sick way to start the video and set the tone I think.


I think INFERNO turned out pretty cool, and people really seemed to like the (mostly unintentional) early 2000s imitation, but $50 camcorders will only get you so far. My personal goal for this project was to make something that wasn't just exciting to watch but also had the cinematic points to back it up. I've been super inspired by so many of the cinematic projects I've seen in the past few years, specifically anything touched by Hunter Paull or Scott Robb, "Entourage" and Owen Dahlberg ski films and also some old(ish) favourites. Shoutout to UNREAL, best feature length of all time. Long story short, I really wanted this project to be a significant upgrade from the "dadcam" look, while still keeping with the grungy, raw, energetic post-production. I like the balance that I've struck, but I'm definitely still a ways from where I want the videos to be and still have a lot to learn.



A lot of great times were had during the making of this film. And a lot of ground was covered. Most notably, our trip "up north" from the Okanagan Valley all the way up to Prince Rupert. We met so many legends along the way and rode some seriously cool stuff...




After a couple of thousand kilometres, we found ourselves in Terrace, where we met up with someone Ian knew from way back, named Kai. He turned out to be pretty slick with the photo camera... thanks for the photos, Kai! And thanks even more to his family for the hospitality while we were in town!





Another highlight of the season was spending a week or so in Whistler during Crankworx weekend, and riding some serious chute lines on the way home. A massive shoutout to Hector, of Bicycle Nightmares, for letting us sell DVDs and T-shirts alongside the best of the best in the MTB scene. Shoutout to all the legends we got to meet in this little pop-up store.

Turns out you can stay in Whistler absolutely free for as long as you want, so long as you have a packable hammock, a small patch of woods within the village and a water bottle... until it rains for 3 days straight non-stop. Then you will likely have to resort to a room at the Athlete Center, split 4 ways.




Many more incredible times were had, many more places were visited, and many more cool people were met along the way. A sincere thank you to anyone and everyone who inspired, motivated, helped or supported this project in any way. I am pretty stoked with what we've built just from riding our bikes and filming our adventures.

Last week, we premiered the video in full at Skyride here in Vernon. I was awake until a little after 2:30 AM, finishing up the video and making shirts and DVDs the night before the premiere, because I also work a full-time job during the day, haha. It was all more than worth it in the end, and it was pretty insane how many people we were able to cram into that little bike shop.





If you made it this far, thank you. If you've got some time, please watch the video front to back, and help support independent mountain biking from some dudes who really love it.

Later this month, I'm relocating to Queenstown, New Zealand, for a couple of months to ride bikes and film. Stay tuned for what is to come from that trip, and thanks to everyone who supports us and motivates us to do what we do.

Peace.

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