Video: Jeff Kendall-Weed & Kirt Voreis Search for Creative Lines
Video filmed by Logan Nelson // words and video editing by Jeff Kendall-Weed
“29ers can’t do barspins.” “Mountain biking is serious business.” “You should always go as fast as you can.” “You need to be a rich kid to get into the sport.” “There’s only one way to be a pro mountain biker.”
Kirt Voreis has been a staple in the sport of mountain biking since the mid-1990s. Over the last 25 or so years, he has proven all these cliches wrong--and in turn, he has really improved our sport. Kirt has an interesting story, very different from my own. Since I was a kid, I’ve watched his career closely.
Kirt and I both have downhill, slalom, 4x, and enduro racing backgrounds, as well as childhoods steeped in BMX.
Kirt and I have very different backgrounds, but I do believe he helped pave the way for content creators like myself.
With my own background in racing, I always thought of Kirt first and foremost as one of the top racers in the sport. He’s stood on world cup podiums alongside some of the best racers of all time. While I saw that when I was at a formative age, and it’s forever burned into my own psyche, we tend to best remember the winners when it comes to racing. And while Kirt has won plenty of races, he hasn’t won a world cup* (yet- it’s too early to count Kirt out) or big championship. When he was seemingly at the height of his racing career, the crash of the US bike industry in the early 2000s, followed by the crash of the US economy in 2008, meant racing opportunities for US-based racers were few and far between.
I really enjoy Kirt’s videos, but I never dreamed that we’d be able to get together and do a little collab. It was honestly your comments here on PinkBike that inspired me to approach Kirt about making this happen--thank you!
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Fantastic sequence from Mike Albright @ThreadKiller from the 2014 Oregon Enduro Series race at Cold Creek. Kirt won, and I finished fifth. Clearly, racing is serious business.
This is how most people crash. For Kirt, it’s a warm-up.
South Mountain, located just south of the Phoenix Metro area, is considered sacred by the Akimel O'odham and the Kwevkepaya band of Yavapai. The park is the largest municipal park in the United States. Petroglyphs and other artifacts can be found throughout.
But Kirt wasn’t just a racer. Ironically, Kirt got his first big break when he sent a videotape of himself jumping and stunting to the former owner of Yeti. Through that, he was able to hit the race circuit with Yeti’s support. About a decade later, when he tired of racing and went more full-throttle into freeriding (for lack of a better term) the timing was spot-on. When other racers had to find jobs, Kirt created his AllRide tour.
I’ll never forget when Kirt mentioned he had watched and enjoyed one of my own videos, one that Elliot Wilkinson-Ray put together. I had actually been a bit embarrassed that we had filmed that stuff, as it wasn’t anything too crazy hard. But that was some serious validation. Now that I’ve spent a few years making content full-time, and logged over a decade in various white collar sales jobs, I appreciate Kirt’s tenacity and perseverance more than ever. The dude is an absolute legend on and off the bike. These days professional riders often dominate a specific field, but Kirt blends good skills in a bunch of fields. He crafts together a whole new genre, done with a signature style that can’t be beat.
I feel like this rock is a great example of how different our styles are. I really like to use the brakes for a little added control, to take my time, and find the line I want. Kirt didn’t even pause once he got to the top of the rock: he just dove right down the backside. I’ve noticed that kind of fluid balance comes from years of skateboarding, and I kind of wanna try skating some bowls now!
This video was a lot of fun to put together. Our ideas and lines were so different! I haven’t done a barspin in well over a decade, and don’t really plan on doing those again. However, I don’t mind coming to a halt, using the brakes to control something, then trying to smoothly ride away. Kirt has the skateboarder balance and looser vision of what’s “clean,” which is pretty cool!
I know I always hit that play button when I see a Kirt video, and you know what? You should too!
Follow Jeff on his Instagram, subscribe to his YouTube, or follow him on Facebook. Hope you enjoyed this video!
MENTIONS: @jeffweed / @voreis / @loganpnelson / @jensonusa / @pnwcomponents / @IndustryNineOfficial
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Member since Nov 14, 2012
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On an aside, how boring would the internet be without comments?
+1 on South Mtn trail system being super duper fun! To think that just 20 years ago cleaning the waterfall was a challenge.
Mag. I think I saw several different shots, including a night ride long exposure with a strobe at the end. And I always thought it looked gnarly back then!
Just picked up on JKW a year or so ago when I got back into riding. I’m an old schooler from the days before suspension to the first decade of free ride hucking. Took some years off from serious broken bones and getting life in order. Back to vacationing in Moab etc to get my old man stoke burning again. JKW travel videos got me dreaming of hitting the lottery and riding the world over for fun.
Have always been a Kirt Voreis fan. Seemed to be having fun racing and not stressing sponsorship. Paid to play. Not slave to results and corporate demands. At least I hope that was true. Brett Tippee and Josh Bender just couldn’t hang riding with the stress. Brett took the office job and partied it away and Bender probably still rips his backyard for fun with no cameras clicking. When the fun becomes a job, it ain’t fun no more. Hence creating alternate lines for fun.
Great video! Two wild men doing their thing!!
I still have a bunch of Ibis bikes and do ride them often. I’m not limited in any way as to what bikes I can ride, but I try to use primarily brands that are available through one of my best sponsors, Jenson USA.
ba dum bump