Video: Bernard Kerr's Wet & Wild Final Practice Run from Red Bull Hardline 2023 by edspratt

14 Comments

13 0

mtntech (Jul 22, 2023 at 18:47)

Bernard Kerr. Unofficial winner of Hardline 2023

10 1

briceshirbach (Jul 22, 2023 at 8:32)

Zero vis upon entering the trees...glad the put the rider's safety first by cancelling. Hats off to BK for this run!

mcharza (Jul 22, 2023 at 10:48)

That was insane, hats of BK

22 22

stevede (Jul 22, 2023 at 11:22)

I felt like Bernard came across as a bit of a whiney spoilt brat this year at hardline. Absolute respect hitting it all in those conditions, that takes huge skill and guts. He was pushing to go ahead with the event as he felt like he had a real good chance to win as most weren’t keen. As the man of the people, the voice of the riders - he seemed at odds to the majority over the weekend. The majority voted against going ahead fortunately - I genuinely believe there would’ve been some major injuries if they had gone ahead and totally agree with the call to cancel the race, despite it being my favourite race of the year I was glad it didn’t go ahead in those conditions.

17 0

flaflow (Jul 22, 2023 at 12:32)

I chalk it up to his stoke. The man was set to race and obviously feeling confident.

12 0

Saseba (Jul 22, 2023 at 12:48)

Hardline is basically The race for him, and after the crashes and missed opportunity at last year's Hardline, he was stoked for redemption.
Watch his race run video from last year until the end to see how much this means to him.

I feel like e tried to "will" this race into happening despite the conditions.

TET1 (Jul 22, 2023 at 17:11)

I think he showed that it could be done, and done well in those conditions. I think they should have let anybody race who wanted to race, and those who didn't could have happily watched. BK is the best!

MikeGruhler (Jul 23, 2023 at 2:34)

@TET1: Exactly, nut up or shut up! Conditions were definitely not favorable but hard not to believe a lot of freeriders were not stoked about the conditions. Seems DH'rs were more keen to take to the hill regardless of the conditions. Make it a full DH roster next year so we can have some proper racing and some tighter times on the clock.

Ensminger (Jul 23, 2023 at 7:13)

He certainly was the loudest guy, yelling “house beer” the entire time. While Gee, not so much.

ChrisLanaway (Jul 23, 2023 at 9:42)

@MikeGruhler: There were quite a few core DH'rs not keen to race, the overall consensus from the riders was that it just wasn't safe. What wasn't seen on the cameras was the gusts the started again not long after BK's run... Not to discredit BK at all, it was genuinely incredible that he made a full run given the conditions. 100% the right call from the riders and organisers to cancel, if they went up then not everyone was coming down...

Aksel31 (Jul 23, 2023 at 15:14)

@TET1: Man, BK is an incredible rider, even more on such a hard track ! But let's keep it real, He probably went down during the only window where the wind was "calm" enough to be safe (see the wind sleeves on the 90 footer)... Some guys have posted videos shortly after his run and it was a hell of a gust fest. The rain was not the major issue from riders' feedback, it was mostly the wind and more specifically the unpredictability of the gusts. It could have been 1 rider fine with the wind, and 1 taken out seriously because of a gust at a wrong time during the finals. Better be safe than sorry to be honest, even if I can understand BK's frustration (it must have felt quite OK for him when he went down).

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