FOTO / VIDEO STORY

The mountain bike world has become a culture of constant creativity.  As cyclists or mountain bikers or however we identify, riding bikes for so many of us is far more than just a recreational activity, it is a passion that embodies our lifestyles.  It connects us to our surrounding environments, our communities, and a much larger global community of riders.  The vision of one rider, videographer, or photographer can be shared across the world on a daily basis, be it through social media or our favorite websites on a never ending stream of content.  This ability to share, inspire and connect with one another is greater than ever.  This creative connection enables our culture to grow, and enables us all to explore boundless opportunities that ever redefine our sport and our passions.

Last spring and early summer, Box Components, SR SUNTOUR, and Lone Wolf Productions joined forces with mutual sponsored athletes, James Doerfling and Eliott Lapotre to create something unique in a video edit.  Matt Brooks of Lone Wolf Productions had the vision, James provided the location scouting and local knowledge, and Eliott a youthful and excited energy coming in from afar.  For Box Components and SR SUNTOUR this was not only an opportunity to create an interesting edit, but also to test and showcase new products, like the Box One drivetrain and SRS Rux and Auron forks, and TRIAiar rear shocks, on this spectacularly challenging and beautiful terrain with a couple of the world’s finest riders.  

We take a deeper look into the perspectives of the riders and videographer, to gain insight into how these projects come to life, and learn a bit more about these individuals that make it all happen.

We asked James and Eliott for their insight. 
Finding these zones and lines that are far into remote areas must be difficult, what is your process?
James: “I put so much time into finding lines and new zones. But, I think it's the funnest part, exploring so many places and then finding that one perfect line that makes it all worth it, is priceless.“
Eliott:  “Finding zones like that takes time.  At my place, I have a trial motorbike, to help me to find more quickly and more places to ride.”
Are there any specific riding technics you use on big lines like these?
James: “Every line is different in my opinion, but I just trust my natural abilities and let’er rip! Surf it out!” 
Eliott: “Every time it is so different.  But to imagine the big lines grip, I feel the dirt, if it's pack or not, if it's dirt or sand.”

Matt Brooks is a videographer and one helluva rider himself.  Hailing from Kamloops, BC, Matt is no stranger to filming big lines. 

What was your inspiration for this particular project? 
Matt: As for DUALITY, the Netflix series ‘Stranger Things,’ played a big part in how I shot this, especially the intro. I really liked the the style of that series and wanted to pay homage to it. The entire concept of the ‘Stranger Things’ series is the idea for DUALITY.  I felt that it matched up with what we were going to do; bringing in a rider (Eliott Lapotre) from a completely different part of the world to ride terrain that looked to be “other worldly”. With that in mind, I sourced a soundtrack that had that dark 80's synth sound to it and shot an intro that made it appear that Eliott was kind of transported there through an alternate reality or a duality in space.” 
With all of the coordination, logistics, budgets, scouting, travel, editing...etc a ton of energy goes into projects like these.  In the end we create a small piece of mountain bike culture to share with our boarder, global community, to inspire more to explore and ride bikes.  And between all this hard work are incredible experiences and memorable connections.  As we look to the next projects we continue to build upon what been created, to seek something new, to define our passions yet again.