Video: German Rider Builds Sketchy Slopestyle Course in His Back Yard

Welcome to Chesyland (again)!

This unique area hides beside a small, sub-urban town in south-west Germany. Chesy, the owner and heart of the compound can be described as a mix between Robert Plant and Santa Claus. Despite his advanced age he built various cabins and huts all around the area and created his own paradise there. Max Mey, the most ambitious builder and sportsman I've ever met added various dirt-jump lines and huge wooden constructions. While Chesy has a more relaxed, sometimes chaotic attitude towards his builds, Max is a perfectionist when it comes to his jumps. But most important: They share the same love for this compound. They spend every free minute of their lives there and transformed a piece of land that looks pretty unimpressive from the outside into a magical place. You really feel the dedication they have both put into this area.




Walking around Chesyland it is hard to spot every detail. There are two small lakes, a miniramp in a tent with a chandelier, a dirt-park with two lines, a huge slopestyle line, various caravans, a clay oven that Max built while being injured, a chaotic workshop, a bag jump, a vegetable garden and much more.




The first day of shooting went down in March '18 and from this day on I've visited Chesyland once to twice a month and captured the events there. There was no script, Max just did what he wanted to and I filmed it. I tried to capture the place as good as I could, but eventhough I visited Chesyland frequently for a year I missed a lot.

To some of you this title may be familiar and even some of the shots in the movie will. We first planned this as a webseries of four episodes and already uploaded the first one in summer '18. But while editing the next parts I realized that I want this as one video and not as separate episodes. I tried to create a kind of crossover between a classical sports edit and a documentary portrait and I'm curious what you all think of this approach.


A big thank you to everyone who supported this project, especially to Reed Turchi (reedturchi.bandcamp.com) who lets us use his music for this video.

Cheers
Tim