Aerial Acrobatics at the Night Harvest 2016 - Video and Photos

Feb 16, 2016 at 16:33
by Eric Palmer  
Super Seat Indian

Saturday evening saw the return of the most prestigious dirt jump competition in South Africa, The Night Harvest - a dirt jump event for BMX and MTB. Locals and a load of international pro's made it out to Hout Bay for the evening, which promised to deliver some of the best riding to Cape Town. Riding masterfully sculpted trails into the night with lights set up makes it such a unique event. The crowds swarmed in with over 1500 people absorbing the craziness. As the sun set the BMX'ers and MTB boys warmed up together and even that was a spectacular show, especially knowing that it was just the beginning and it was only going to get better...

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Johnty, The Pastor of Potato Trails Watering his garden. Imagine your back yard looked this good!

THE NIGHT HARVEST - Photo Grant Mclachlan
Kevin Peraza didn't waste time getting to the best Superman seat grabs

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Monster Energy sent only their finest over to compete: Greg Illingworth, Kevin Peraza and Alex Coleborne
2016 Night Harvest - Photo Sam Clark
A permanent queue of amped riders were waiting to climb up the roll in tower all evening...

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Nick Clarke was stoked to be surrounded by mountains and awesome African summer weather

2016 Night Harvest - Photo Sam Clark
They don't get any better than this! Andreu Lacondeguy's textbook Superman in front of an African Sunset

2016 Night Harvest - Photo Sam Clark
Greg had hurt his foot a few days before, but that didn't stop the steeze from oozing out of all of his tricks
THE NIGHT HARVEST - Photo Grant Mclachlan
Sam Reynolds had also hurt himself prior to the event while shooting for Pure Darkness 3, but the man is a beast and shredded with a tweaked wrist

THE NIGHT HARVEST - Photo Grant Mclachlan
Matt MacDuff brought the raditude and his master carpenter, Marshall

THE NIGHT HARVEST - Photo Grant Mclachlan
The Spanish King got lots of love from the fans and for good reason
The Night Harvest
Get out your protractor out folks... Andreu gets his 3's FLAT!

The Night Harvest
Daniel Walsh keeping things moist after practice

The Night Harvest
Big and flat, Andreu likes his 3's how I like my pancakes
The Night Harvest
Greg smashing out a 360 Table on the last jump in the line

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Tricky Nicky bringing the Metal flavour

2016 Night Harvest - Photo Sam Clark
1500 happy fans
The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
No rest for the wicked, Shaun Havenga kept any disobedient dirt in place

2016 Night Harvest - Photo Sam Clark
The Trails Crew at Potatoes take things very seriously and this beautiful berm is more than enough proof of their high standards

With so many amazing riders, the crowd was treated to many tricks that had never been done in South Africa and a few that had not been done anywhere in Africa before.

The Night Harvest
Damion Devlin from the UK getting the arms off to celebrate an epic sunset
The Night Harvest
Never gonna get tired of these 360's...

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Josh Bull getting his legover

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Cannonball's flying over Hout Bay... No pirates around, just Matt MacDuff
The Night Harvest
The wildness went up as the sun went down. Nick flipwhip on the last

The Night Harvest
Andreu taking time off to smile for the camera

The Night Harvest
Potato Trails local shredder, Justin Novella, Xing up this 3
2016 Night Harvest - Photo Sam Clark
Tables are meant to be flat, Kevin P missed the memo and got this upside down

The Night Harvest
Steeze cat Jonty Neethling was thowing beautiful shapes all over the place

In the MTB category, Nick "Tricky Nicky" Clarke, was throwing himself and his bike all over the place, showing fans that he has earned that nickname and took 1st. Sam Reynolds had injured his hand during Pure Darkness 3, but that didn’t stop the wildman from throwing down and earning himself 2nd. Matt Macduff brought his steezy bag of tricks to the party and ended up in 3rd. Andreu Lacondeguy was another crowd favourite & treating them to the flattest 360’s & his trademark textbook supermans.

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Such a stacked line up!

The Night Harvest
MacDuff getting sideways on the stepup
2016 Night Harvest - Photo Sam Clark
Trails, lights and amazing riding... Does it get any better?

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
I'm sure if Andreu found an empty phonebooth he would come out in a superman suit. Such a ridiculous extention

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
I think a few laws in science got broken to get this 3 table this clicked
The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
Damion with his signature sausage roll, underflip 360 intable

After riding the line of jumps, the boys moved over to the big trick jump for best trick. BMX and MTB together and just sending the most massive tricks they could. Tricky Nicky fought hard & managed to tame the beast and landed a flip barspin to tailwhip, but that wasn't enough to take it from Declan Brooks, who did a flip triple barspin.

The Night Harvest
Malcolm Peters whipping out this Super Seat Indian
THE NIGHT HARVEST - Photo Grant Mclachlan
Fans were going mental supporting their favourites

The Night Harvest
Tricky Nicky nailing a flip bar to whip over the big trick jump

The Night Harvest - Photo Wayne Reiche
KP 360 double whip
THE NIGHT HARVEST - Photo Grant Mclachlan
Sam must like SA, back for the 3rd time and loving it

The Night Harvest
1st Nick Clarke - 2nd Sam Reynolds - 3rd Matt MacDuff

The Night Harvest
Best Trick Declan Brooks - Flip Triple Barspin


The Trails Crew & Monster Energy really out did themselves this year & was by far the best Night Harvest to date!

Views: 10,055    Faves: 102    Comments: 7


Edit: Thomas Sandell
Videographers: Thomas Sandell & Kevin Schnider
Photography: Eric Palmer, Sam Clark, Wayne Reiche and Grant Mclachlan


MENTIONS: @ericpalmer



Author Info:
ericpalmer avatar

Member since Feb 6, 2008
58 articles

24 Comments
  • 10 0
 Its great to see more riding being done in South Africa. Now if they can just spread that enthusiasm north to the rest of the continent...
  • 5 19
flag WAKIdesigns (Feb 19, 2016 at 8:43) (Below Threshold)
 Yes... Dirt jumping to solve Africa's problems - this is exactly why there are problems sir
  • 8 1
 That's not what I meant Waki. I lived in Botswana and was schooled in the northern part of South Africa. There are plenty of people across Africa who could and would get into our sport if it were better represented and more diverse. Other off road sports like moto and rally are fairly popular so why not mtb?
  • 6 8
 I find it sad not to see any black faces in the crowd or riding. This is Africa for fs sake and its as diverse as this years Oscars!
  • 6 0
 MacDuff, dang son.
  • 3 1
 The light in those pictures is just amazing, good spot and good timing I guess! Can they still compete for photo of the year please?
  • 4 0
 Love those Photo Epics! Perfect for subtly side scrolling at work!
  • 4 1
 Mmm... leather pants, my favorite!!!
  • 4 3
 i dont get it . Arent McDuff and Reynolds currently shooting for "Pure Darknes 3 " ????? i mean we see daily vids... of i the pure darknss 3 spot in rsa?
  • 10 0
 This event is in SA my man... a 6hr drive from the PD3 site. We finished shooting for PD3 on the Thursday & the event was Saturday evening...
  • 3 1
 Good to see Matt MacDuff is still living it up, whither or not he made 40foot loop just have to wait for that?
  • 2 0
 When a flip bar t-whip doesn't win best trick... must have been insane to watch the comp.
  • 2 0
 WHO ARE YOU IN THE WE DIRTY MANE t-shirt??? yiiaaah
  • 1 0
 Yeah man that's me
  • 1 0
 DAMN...Would love to have been there for this epic throw down. #dirtjumplife
  • 1 0
 Well done Thomas, your vids are CLASS-A!
  • 1 0
 Thanks Joe!!
  • 1 0
 Wanted to see the sausage roll!
  • 1 4
 Andreu by far , the most stylish in mtb ! I dont like " skateboarding " / homeless fashion / or snowboarding type of tight pants / trashy clothing associated with mtb ! Thats just childish stupid and it points out how kids these days tend to change as the wind
  • 2 0
 I hope you're not referring to my sleeveless jean jacket as homeless/trashy fashion......Putting your sponsors logos on a jacket is the next best thing to jerseys in the dirt jump world, and I'm sure it will catch on soon. Sorry its not up to your standards...
  • 2 0
 MacDuff.







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