In 1985 the seaside town of Epecuén in Argentina became completely submerged. Its residents left and the world forgot it was there. After spending 25 years underwater, it's now re-emerged and Epecuén sees Danny take his biking back to the roots of trials riding, lighting up the deserted town with his talent, as he explores the forgotten streets and pushes the limits as the world's premier freestyle trials rider.
Danny's flow and creativity are just ridiculous, as is the filming. I think the most impressive thing about this film though is that it felt very modest and respectful to the tragedy of the place itself. It feels like a film about the place rather than Danny which is an incredible achievement considering the insane level of riding which should really dwarf everything else. Truly awe inspiring all round!
Agreed and in fact I think there is something special about all of Danny's vids that elevates them beyond just a collection of riding clips. e.g. music choice in original inspired bikes vid, storyline in way back, creativity in imaginate etc. I definitely think Dave Sowerby's video skills have gone along way to making Danny interesting to a wider audience.
6:25 they focus on him drinking it but the label is intentionally flipped the other way so you cant see it. is this some sort of display of respect for the the town or something?!
AS much as the video kicks ass I also think that it's just epic what came from this. Even up here in Canada our news isn't doom and gloom and murder murder murder , I had no idea what this place went through and it's fascinating to research something that no one really has an explanation to the phenomenon besides the fact that mother nature can be a hairy c*nt. Danny keep on making these vids cause your riding blows minds and can be somewhat educational at the same time
The final trick was crazy but for me what Danny pulls off on the bench at 3.25 was totally incredible. To quote Greg Noll "Man, that shits impossible".
I know, nowadays the standard of riding is so damn good it's gone from inspiring to demotivating! Check the Aggy fest vid for further reminders of how shit you are!
I dont need reminders of how shit I am......but I could watch Danny's riding all day. It is totally unbelievable and he always has a smile. And the drops on an unsuspended bike-how the f*ck does he sustain that with his back the way it is. And the level of commitment at times (like when he is balancing on that sign so high up) with the potential injury if it goes wrong. The joy and wonderment of his videos is priceless. Thanks redbull. Now if only you could jack up the prize money for Rampage I might go back to buying your product!
I'd love to watch it. Its a shame Red Bull media player doesn't have the same feelings. Its the Internet Exploer, Hyundai, Walmart bike version of media players.
I have reasonably good internet speeds but not always, on the good days I can stream on high settings and on the bad days I struggle to stream 360p which isn't great for full screen. So normally on Pinkbike or Youtube if i'm on a not so good day I start the video and let it load so I can watch the high quality. I don't mind waiting a few minutes if I can watch a nice video in high quality but redbull player will only stream so I either have a video i can't watch due to so much stopping and starting or so poor quality I can barely watch in full screen. This wouldn't be a hard change to make to the player, so please make that change!
If they make a genuinely great video (which this is), I don't wan't to watch some diluted, blocky mess at a resolution that was fashionable 30 years ago, instead of the crisp cinematography of the original. I'm fine with leaving a HD video to load for a half hour and watch it then. I also want to rewind the sections I find interesting.
But the illustrious, Flash-based Red Bull video playeer offers no cache for rewinding, nor does it seem to load the video till the end while it's paused. Someone thought of this retarded "streaming-only" idea for non-live content a long time ago and it makes my blood boil. Of course, the fine peoples of Pinkbike, Vimeo and the like have finally moved to HTML5 (which neither suffers from this idiotic "feature", nor is it forcibly Flash-based), but oh no, Red Bull content is "exclusive". How'd it look if they didn't use a branded player. They don't seem to have noticed that a useless player won't quite serve their marketing intentions when a viewer can't reach the actual content.
Glad I could comment on something utterly irrelevant instead of the video itself. Which was fantastic - the little I've seen of it before my tempers ran short...
It's not that the player is bad, people don't seem to get what we're wanting improved. I like watching high quality videos, the redbull player only loads as it's playing. If the Internet isn't able to load as fast as the video plays, things get very notchy and stops and starts the video constantly which is a pain in the ass and the only other option is very low quality. What myself and I'm sure many others want is to be able to let the video load in high quality for the best viewing experience. Also for the record I am on as fast internet as is available in this area.
I agree with the people above. I live in an area where our net speeds are reduced to 0.1Mbps, if we're lucky. The only possible way I can watch video is by leaving it to buffer for a few hours. Even Youtube switched to a model which buffers videos in 30 second segments, so you have to wait an hour to buffer 30 seconds, then watch it for the next bit to start to buffer.
Yeah, internet speeds are increasing, but mostly only in cities. Rural areas just get screwed.
It's amazing that Red Bull can spend this much money on production and athlete sponsorships, but can't afford to develop a player that actually plays video smoothly for everyone...
Every time I watch one of his films I figure he can't do anything more to make me question what's possible on a bike. I was once again proven an idiot.
Yep I used to find trials incredibly boring to watch with all the hopping on one spot for no reason/no flow show , but riders like Danny , Ryan Leach and Chris Akrigg bring such flow and style to terrain that should not really be ridden.
When M Dennison was referring to the 'banger' with which you end your sick edit - he meant front flip tyre tapping, that counts! Just wow, great effort all involved - an awesome concept and production!
surprised the industry hasn't got him flipping around on 650b, just to show everyone how amazingly capable and radical the new wheelsize is. #24forlife!!
Amazing Riding of Course from Danny, Outstanding Edit by Dave Sowerby. Gave a real feel of the place and the song choice was spot on. Best breakfast viewing in a long time
solely the best freestyle trials rider on the planet I hope when aliens discover us post holocost or whatever 3000 or 30000 yrs from now the only thing they find is a copy of this
He Is the man really!!! Inspired a generation, created a new style of riding, and seems like a humble nice fella.... And for some reason, I always seem to get the idea, that what he does is easy, beacuse he makes it look so easy, so natural...but when you ride, everything goes back into perspective...that stuff he does is simply nuts! It must be such a feeling of freedom to be able to ride almost anything and everything the way he does. I wish I could experiment that... if only I could be Danny MacAskill for a day!!!! AMAZING STUFF, will be stoked for a month.
Freaking Epic-uén. Sublime aesthetics, this is pure art, whoever choose that haunting place is a genius. And about Danny, well one of those persons that should just be immortal.
The impersonal and indiscriminate decay left by nature's reclamation department, showcased by an individual's talents that are largely unrelated, shows this man has the ability to draw an audience in and guide them through something new, though slightly haunting. Danny is not just elite - but a Creative Elite.
Watching Danny progress and seeing his support/increased exposure through Red Bull makes me wonder what would've happened to the sport and therefore, it's mainstream exposure, if Red Bull had supported Ryan Leach and/or Jeff Lenowsky 10 years ago the same way they support Danny now.
Taking what is effectively a dead town and bringing it back to life, if just for a time - chapeau! Every time he stopped and looked around, I couldn't help but imagine that he was wondering where he could get a pint...
Wow, amazing riding from Danny, but Im very interested in the location, hard to believe this used to be a busy town, anybody know a little more about the place? really interesting.
Back in the 80's it was flooded after a long period of drought, it remained under water until a couple of years ago. That's what I interpreted from been there. There's going to be a longer documentary piece that shows this which is going to be pretty good!!
BRIL (completely destroyed the suspension-of-disbelief when he took a sip of the sponsor) LIANT ...ease back RedBull, let it be a work of riding art not a 10 minute commercial
I am really interested to know why Danny uses the old Saints.....
Dont get me wrong, I have a set of those and I love them - but one would think he would riding the newer model
I can't imagine he gets a lot of fade... weird though! Shimano isn't listed as one of his sponsors on his site so maybe he didn't see the point of buying new ones.
why??? why it looks so easy, and i cant do a backflip even with out a bike, or frontflip, or manualing, or everything!!!???? Danny is from another planet.
Every time I watch an edit of Danny MacAskill I think there will never be a better one.. Then a new one gets released and I'm just blown away! His skills are incredible!
Riding amazing. However I would have liked to see an interview or some paragraph about Pablo Novak. Who apparently is the only person living in Epecuén.
Danny Macaskill's videos are probably the greatest pool of content on the entire internet! Every single one just gets better and better! Thank you for the awesome times.
why all the bike movies in recent years have the same shitty music? what the hell happened ? so many musical choices and yet every single movie or video has the same f*cking music like the one before it.
Such a shame he refuses to make a proper, simple, street edit. I would much rather him just go out and ride street, instead of having to make a story out of his videos and try to adapt to strange, foreign surroundings. His best video is still his first (The youtube version, when Red Bull uploaded it and removed “Funerals” it took so much away from it).
Hmm, Akrigg rode in ruins before, so what to make of this. I couldn't help but feel it was boring. Don't get me wrong, Danny's riding is outstanding, but after watching this I immediately had to watch inspired bicycles. I don't know if it's the riding or the filming or just the music, but something that made his first movie beeing so inspiring, this is not. Maybe Danny just has risen the limit so high - anyhow, I expected more.
Danny and Akrigg have totally different riding styles, you just cant compare the two of them! I personally think the both of them are fantastic at what they do
Me too. Unbelievable riding (esp the forward 360 with tap over the sign) but.... prefer the humour, versatility and northern grit of Akrigg over this too-worthy, sombre, over-produced effort.
You both got neg propped for that! No dissing MacAskill! Don't get me wrong Chriss Akriggs videos show what can be done on a proper full suss, But the flow and ease of Danny just edges it for me
Why? It's called an opinion that's all - no need to take it so personally. I just found it a bit dull and pretentious. If its social comment I'm after, I read the Guardian or watch a Ken Loach film - I didn't diss his riding, just the presentation of it.
I am not taking it personally or hard...not sure why that is being assumed. I just don't see why you would bring up liking another rider better on a riders video. It would be like going on a ski website and saying "I like mountain biking better." It is pointless.
i just wonder wether that town just happened to have perfect kickers and skinnys built in to the structures haha or how much of it they had to creativly build themselves
Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but some of these features are clearly modified to fit Danny's purpose. This doesn't make it any less impressive though. Look at the metal structure at 7:15 for example.
Villa Epecuen would have made the perfect location for a post-apocalyptic style zombie chase film with danny and a couple of pro parkour guys.
Easy viral on youtube, 7-10 million hits no problem.
Instead you made a half documentary, half trials video that will likley be forgotten in a week because the riding doesn't start for the first 2 minutes. Next time don't try to ram a culture or story down people's throats, if they find it interesting they can search for the information themselves.
175 Comments
The tricks he pulls are pretty standard for a Jedi Knight or perhaps a lesser Demigod. If he were a mere mortal I would be impressed.
Danny keep on making these vids cause your riding blows minds and can be somewhat educational at the same time
But the illustrious, Flash-based Red Bull video playeer offers no cache for rewinding, nor does it seem to load the video till the end while it's paused. Someone thought of this retarded "streaming-only" idea for non-live content a long time ago and it makes my blood boil. Of course, the fine peoples of Pinkbike, Vimeo and the like have finally moved to HTML5 (which neither suffers from this idiotic "feature", nor is it forcibly Flash-based), but oh no, Red Bull content is "exclusive". How'd it look if they didn't use a branded player. They don't seem to have noticed that a useless player won't quite serve their marketing intentions when a viewer can't reach the actual content.
Glad I could comment on something utterly irrelevant instead of the video itself. Which was fantastic - the little I've seen of it before my tempers ran short...
Nose bump to front flip?
Sublime aesthetics, this is pure art, whoever choose that haunting place is a genius. And about Danny, well one of those persons that should just be immortal.
...ease back RedBull, let it be a work of riding art not a 10 minute commercial
I would much rather him just go out and ride street, instead of having to make a story out of his videos and try to adapt to strange, foreign surroundings.
His best video is still his first (The youtube version, when Red Bull uploaded it and removed “Funerals” it took so much away from it).
Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but some of these features are clearly modified to fit Danny's purpose. This doesn't make it any less impressive though. Look at the metal structure at 7:15 for example.
Easy viral on youtube, 7-10 million hits no problem.
Instead you made a half documentary, half trials video that will likley be forgotten in a week because the riding doesn't start for the first 2 minutes. Next time don't try to ram a culture or story down people's throats, if they find it interesting they can search for the information themselves.
Wasted opportunity / 10