Red Bull Night Shift 2010 Recap

Looking back at the insane night race that took place in November 2010. Better late than never.I got off work at Chick-fil-A on November 13, 2010 at about 5 o' clock, stopped at home, changed clothes, grabbed my camera and tripod, waited on my friend Logan to meet me, hopped back in my Pathfinder, and drove 50 minutes East towards Clemson, South Carolina as the sun was setting. After picking up my brother and a friend at his apartment in Clemson, we headed to the Clemson freeride course. In my backpack was my HD camera, tripod, and gopro, all fully charged with memory cards empty. My plan was to film what would become the most incredible night I have ever experienced in the middle of a forest.

We turned off the paved road onto the dusty gravel road that leads from the edge of the Clemson University Experimental Forest into the interior, where the freeride trails are located. A half-mile from the end of the trail were parked a few ambulances, which would most definitely be needed as the night progressed. As we got closer to the trail, the sides of the road became littered with dusty SUV's, lifted trucks, and station wagons with burly downhill bikes on the roof. As soon as we stepped out of the car in the pitch black forest, we heard Bassnectar blaring from Red Bull's International big rig cab-turned-dj-booth, parked near the end of the course.


We walked up to the final drop of the course, completed only a week before the event took place. It was lit up and people were crowded around, but the practice runs had ceased. A Gator-like utility truck with a stretcher on the back was pulling up. As we got closer, I saw a bunch of rescue workers under the wooden landing ramp. A bike was laying in between the drop and the landing. The rescue guys had a guy on a backboard, and were lifting him out from under the ramp. Turns out one of the crew was setting up some lighting in the middle of the drop when a rider flew off and nailed the guy. The guy flew down the hill and ended up under the landing, breaking a support beam of wood clean in two. My first thought was: "This night is going to be nuts!" I was right. We started walking up the trail towards the top.



About halfway up the course, near the huge wooden wallride, there was a belligerently drunken redneck crowd scattered along the side of the trail, which was partially lit by red spotlights. One guy was already passed out on a sleeping bag. After standing around and talking with a few drunkards, who all said something to the effect of "HELL YEAH THIS SH*T IS SICK, MAN!!!!," or "Have you guys seen my f*cking cooler?" we saw a speck of light coming down from the top. I started filming as the rider ripped by on the wallride, hit the following jump, and disappeared into the darkness down the trail. We spent the next three hours walking all over the forest in complete darkness, getting lost, finding a section of the trail, and following it up and down, with me stopping to film at jumps and drops.




It was almost a magical feeling, wandering through a forest at night, hearing cheers from the crowd farther up the trail, and seeing a tiny headlamp grow larger and larger until a rider ripped by, hit a jump, and disappeared. Awesome. And when it was all done we went back to my brother's apartment and "celebrated" until 3 in the morning. What a night.

Here's what I was able to put together from about fifteen minutes of raw footage.


Written by Josh Darling