Redbull Rampage Finals

We got to the site before the sun, Kelly was feeling awesome, and we were all amped to see what the days events were going to bring. There was one huge problem.....It was super windy!!!
Not sure what was going to happen, we headed up the mountain and Kelly got warmed up anyway, we polished up his lines, and at 9am went to the riders meeting.
The wind was still blowing, and all riders were losing confidence quickly, especially the ones on the far right ridge & the guys hitting the gigantic Oakley Icon Sender as it was the most exposed of all the lines.
We all thought the day would be postponed to Monday, but at the meeting all they said was to be careful and that they hoped that things would calm down and the sun heats things up.
Thankful for the practice earlier that morning, finals began, I said my last goodbye to Kelly and he headed up to the top, again he was the last to drop in, which was a huge advantage.

Unfortunately with Rampage, you have to prepare to see you friends have horrific crashes and break themselves right in front of you. Its all part of the deal, by competing in Rampage, there are huge odds that you will crash and crash hard, and if you are not scared competiting in this, then you shouldn't be competing at all.
It wasn't long before the crashes began, thankfully in the first run, there was nothing too serious, however there were some top riders who didn't make it to the bottom on their first run.
There were huge expectations from Cam Zink, who had said he was going to back flip icon sender, something that would put him in the record books for, however at the same time was a trick that had the most consequence.
His girlfriend Amanda, who was due to have her baby in 2 days was at the bottom watching, and I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to be in her shoes.
Cam nailed it though and it put him into first place, but another previous winner of the comp was up next and with an awesome run top to bottom, including a huge no hander off the sender, got put into first place, with Cam in second.
A few other riders went but none of them came close to the top spot, and then it was Kellys turn.
I found an awesome place to watch from and with my new friend Ashley, we held onto each other and held our breaths as he dropped in.
He nailed the hip flip up the top and continued his run down to the canyon.
The crowd around us was wondering what he was going to do, I could hear 'Is he gonna flip it?' and 'Whats he gonna do?' all around us. After watching all the other runs I knew he was going to do it, and when he began his run it it was obvious he was.
It was possibly the most scary/exciting/nerve wracking moment of my life.
When he landed it the crowd went insane, Ashley and I screamed so loud for so long that I'm pretty sure it sounded as though we were being murdered.
The rest of his run was awesome, he held it together and pulled one more flip at the bottom, but unfortunately lost speed and couldn't make the last small jump at the bottom, but was still on his bike and was an incredible run.
I ran so fast down the mountain, rolled my ankle, but kept running. Surely that was a winning run, he was the first person to ever flip the canyon gap and did two more tricks in his run than Kyle.
Unfortunately, it was .75 of a point behind 1st, he was in a solid 2nd though and there was still the second round of runs to go and although I didn't want to put ideas in his head, I knew he was thinking of something else for that canyon gap, involving leaning forwards this time.
People everywhere swarmed around Kelly at the bottom, asking for autographs and photos, but there wasn't much time to soak it up as they didn't stop for lunch and all riders had to go straight back up the mountain.
As Kelly was running last, he didn't rush back up, we grabbed something to eat and slowly made our way up to watch the other runs. No one was coming close to Kelly score wise, top riders were crashing out and he remained in 2nd spot.
A local rider, had a go at flipping the sender and horrifically crashed and compound fractured his femur.
The next guy up was Kyle, the guy in 1st place just ahead of Kelly, wind started to pick up at this point and Kyle decided he wasn't going to ride until the wind calmed down. So we all waited, and waited, and waited. Basically, the guy that was in lead, when it was his turn, refused to ride and instead of having a riders meeting to get a vote from the 9 other riders who still needed to ride to make a decision on what to do, they just waited for Kyle to drop for so long that they had to cancel the whole rest of the comp. So 9 other riders, didn't get their second chance to improve their score, including some incredible riders who had small crashes and didn't get to the bottom on their first run.
I felt that it should have been run like it was at the X-games, where if you wanted to ride you could and if you didn't want to ride (maybe cause your line is affected by the wind) then you didn't have to and your first run would still count, but unfortunately it played out that the dude in the lead refused to ride which stopped everyone else from riding.
One of many things being said was that if Kyle had crashed on his first run and was in the same position as many other riders, then he would have for sure done his second run and the comp would have played through as it should have. However, he was in first place, with 9 more riders still to do their second run and there was a very high possibility he could be overtaken by someone else.
Eventually, they had to call it, the comp was over and the final result was taken from the scores of the first run, many riders who did a safe run in their first and threw down in their second ended up being placed significantly lower than they should have, and Kelly stayed in second.
It was a bitter sweet result, Kelly was pumped and ready to throw down for the second run, so to not get that chance was heavily disappointing and the way the comp came to an end was a bit of an anti-climax.

Massive thanks to all of Kellys sponsors for their support, especially Diamondback who sent Verg as a mechanic & digger, he kept Kellys bike in tip top shape, which took a massive weight off his shoulders so he could focus on his riding.
Also to our dig crew, Paul, Ashley & Jeremy, you all worked so hard and moved some serious dirt over the past week and helped to carve a line into that mountain to help Kelly get to where he did.

Kelly came 2nd at the Redbull Rampage 2013 and more importantly was voted by over 80,000 people 1st as the Peoples Choice Champion.

Proud doesn't even begin to describe what I felt, seeing Kelly standing on the podium with his two trophies towering above everyone. He deserves this result so much, this is his type of competition, its what he is awesome at and this kind of result at Rampage is long overdue.

Redbull Rampage - The Final Preparations & Qualifications

The last day of practice & building, got completely called off in the end and the whole comp got pushed forward by a day. So with a day to kill, we went on a wee tiki tour of Zion National Park with Mike & Arnie. However as the government still had all national parks closed, we officially weren't allowed to stop or take pictures!! But we did of course :)
The guys really needed a day off to recoup & rest tired muscles, me included!!

Friday was meant to be qualifiers, but now it was the final day of practice & building, so we were up at the site at sunrise to make the most of each precious minute we had. The major goal for the day for Kelly was to clear the canyon gap, the 73ft monster of a gap that if caught short would send you down about 30ft to the bottom of the canyon.
3 other riders had a go that morning before Kelly tried it, they all came slightly short but still made it over, then it was Kellys turn and I watched through my camera lens as it makes it a bit more easier. He made it, but only just, I think my blood curdling scream as I thought he was going to fall down the canyon reverberated around the entire mountain! He needed way more speed if he was even going to start thinking about tricking it.
We broke for lunch and after being fed and watered our awesome dig crew continued perfecting is line while Kelly practiced his run ins, including a corked back flip over the top hip.

As the sun went down, Kelly had to give the gap another go to try more speed, this time I couldn't watch at all and turned my back, I'm glad I didn't watch cause he crashed hard, went down, and stayed down for a while. Luckily the paramedics were watching him do it so they were right there with him, and I ran down the mountain to see if he was ok.
He was sore, but ok, he smashed hard on his right hip and had an immediate hematoma and big graze, I'm so glad he was wearing his spine protector.

We knew what we had to do to his line to create more speed, so the morning of qualifiers, we made the adjustments and Kelly gave it another shot, this time clearing it with no trouble.

Qualifying began, Kelly was last to go cause his line was the furtherest to the side of the mountain, with a super clean run without any tricks, Kelly made it to the bottom for the first time in four Rampages, which was an accomplishment in itself.
He added in the hip flip at the top for the second run, was clean the rest of the way down and qualified for finals in 10th position. Also stoked to see our mate Mke Hopkins make it through with an epic run.
We all were so excited, Kelly had finally made it to the finals of Rampage, something that should have happened a long time ago.

In the remaining daylight hours, Kelly & Mike & our teams worked together to add some extra features to their runs for finals the next day.
Absolutely wrecked from digging, my good right wrist was packing in, I could hear & feel it creaking as the tendon was so inflamed and my bad left wrist was actually feeling better!!
Kelly was feeling good for the next day, he knew he could flip the gap, and was feeling good on the bike.
25 of the worlds best riders were scheduled to ride the next day, some huge names had some super scary lines and plans for the finals, it was going to be a super tough competition but Kelly had already reached a new level making the finals and I was so proud of him.

Lucky number 13....

Redbull Rampage - Virgin, Utah: The preparations

We rolled into Virgin on Sunday night and headed straight for the old site of Rampage for the guys to practice in the last couple of hours of sunlight.
We had a hotel booked but were considering changing to the RV park close to the new Rampage site, however after checking into our hotel we knew we made the right decision as contending with the desert dust for 7 days while trying to prepare for the biggest comp of the year probably wasn't going to be too good.

Digging on the new site was closed until Tuesday, however we were allowed to walk around the new site on Monday and Kelly tried to pick out his line and make plans of attack for the following day.
Walking around the site isn't easy, you have to clamber your way around cliffs standing on dirt and rocks that can give way at any moment, but by early afternoon we had a line figured out.
In 2012, Kelly broke his leg 2 days before qualifiers, so he never got to ride the line he built last year, so this year he is going the same direction down the mountain which includes a jump over a canyon that is 8ft longer than last year, bringing the distance to jump at 73 feet!!

After lunch, we headed back to the old rampage site where pretty much all competitors were practicing, it was a great session and the sunset that night was incredible. The sky looked like it was on fire and made for some wicked photos.

Kellys bike for the comp

Tuesday - Time to start digging!
We had planned to get to the site at sunrise to start however we were told by officials that we weren't allowed to start digging till after the riders meeting at 10am, so we were pretty gutted when we arrived and found out there had been some riders digging since sunrise.
But we got on with it, grabbed some tools and hiked to the top where we were later joined by the rest of that days dig crew who had driven through the night from Winterpark Colorado to be there.
It was hot, dry & dusty, but by the end of the day we had created an awesome feature in Kellys run that added creativity and fun to an otherwise gnarly ride down cliff faces.
Super successful day of digging and we were wrecked but happy with our progress, Kelly contemplated hiking back up the mountain with his bike to make the most of the good weather but with only 30 mins of sunlight left he ran out of time.

Video from Redbull about digging Kellys line

The weather for Wednesday was scheduled to be super windy, with chances of rain in the late afternoon, so it was an early rise to get up the mountain and finish as much of the line as possible so Kelly do ride as much as possible.
Kelly managed to ride a lot of his line, except for the big features including the landing of a big drop, which is shared by a few riders of which one of them decided to hack away at to make their landing better but in the process destroyed everyone elses.
My nerves leading up to this competition are ever increasing, being apart of the building process this year means that I truly know what Kelly has to ride down, and it absolutely terrifies me.
There were points where during practice runs he would have to ride down a cliff and some how magically stop before another, as that next part wasn't built yet. I think if I knew that the next landing was built and he was just going to flow onto the next part I would be ok, but the sight of the person you love ride down a cliff to then know that if he doesn't stop cleanly before the next one will fall off an even bigger cliff makes my stomach churn. Coping mechanisms for such things include, looking through a camera lens instead, or just turning my back and blocking my ears.

Rain was forecast as we could see if brewing across the valley, but it kept getting blown in the other direction. Thunder started rolling in the distance, and it wasn't long before it was a mad scramble to the bottom of the mountain, whilst getting sandblasted in the face and soaked from the downpour. On our way back to the hotel we just hoped that it would rain overnight, then clear up the next day for another full day of practice and perfecting lines.
Wasn't to be unfortunately, waking to more rain and word from Redbull that the venue was closed due to the access road being unable to be driven on.
Watching the hours tick by as we waited and waited for further word on when we could get up there, we took some solace in that Kelly was one of the few riders to have ridden any of their line at all, although his big features are still left untouched.

Santa Barbara & Brian Head

After our couple of days without driving, we had to get back on the road if we wanted to quickly check out Santa Barbara before we headed inland.
Santa Barbara was so nice, palm trees lined the path along the beach, the beach volleyball courts were packed and as an added bonus we got to have lunch with our pals from Teva Shoes.

Before lunch we braved the chilly Pacific Ocean for a quick dip, it took a lot of convincing or more like pressuring from Kelly for me to get in but felt great for it afterwards.

Catching up with the awesome guys and gals from Teva is always a heap of fun, but unfortunately we couldn't stay long and we were on the road to the desert right away. With a 9ish hours drive to Virgin, we wanted to at least get as far as Vegas that night.

Having massively overkilled uptown Vegas in the past 12 months, we decided to go for a wee gander down at Old Town Vegas as although we had been there before there is always great people watching to be had plus the hourly show on the biggest TV screen in the world.
By the time we rolled into town, we were both hangry and tired, so we powernapped in a hotel carpark for 45mins before braving the crazy world of Vegas.

We were in luck as there was a Harley Davidson convention in town, and the streets were packed with your steriotypical americans who drive those hogs, so plenty of people watching to be had for sure!!
Pretty disappointed with the show on the big screen, just happened to be the exact same show we saw last year, so our next mission was to cure our hangriness....

Our meals that evening we not made with any love whatsoever, we both ordered chicken salads and I barely stomached the chicken and just left the rest. Those salads were definitely made with the attitude of 'I hate my job, minimum wage sux, these people are probably drunk and don't care about the food anyway, so I'm going to try my hardest to put as little amount of effort into this meal as possible'.
And on that note, we bailed from that insane city, and kept driving inland to find a spot to camp in the desert.

Not long after to leave Vegas, heading towards Utah, you go through an incredible canyon, which pretty much skims you through Arizona from Nevada and plonks you into Utah. Utah onwards is spectacular, if anyone ever has a chance to visit the USA, you HAVE to get to Utah, it is one of the most stunning states and I never get sick of the views.

On the way, we got in touch with some friends who work for Brian Head Resort, the highest mountain resort in the USA, at about 9,000ft up. They just so happen t have a gigantic air bag with about a 60ft jump into it for bikes, so we skipped the turn off to Virgin to cruised up the mountains for Kelly to get some vital practice for rampage in.
There was quite a crew up there when we arrived, so I shuttled them all to the top of the mountain, 11,000ft, for a warm up ride before hitting the jump,
Talk about a change of temperature! After 3 summers in a row, I'm not so great with the cooler temps, and with it getting down to 4 degrees while the boys were training my body went into shock, my hands were frozen from filming and taking pics and eventually had to retreat to the van to thaw out.
Lucky for us, our friends managed to wangle us a sweet hotel for the night, complete with indoor pool, hot tub, steam room & sauna, so we made the most of it!

The following morning was filled with more training, then on to Virgin for practice on the dirt at the site of past Redbull Rampages.
Our mate Chris, who is also competing this year, took us a back way to Virgin from Brian Head, up onto the high plateaus of Utah, along a road lined with Aspen trees of nearly every colour you can think of. Also we stopped to look over a valley filled with hoodoos so bright with vibrant oranges, reds & yellows, you could stare at it for ages in awe at it.
Our journey was made significantly longer by me constantly making us stop so I could take pictures!

Eventually we came out the other side of the mountain range and down through a small part of Zion National Park, and into the familiar stunning sight of the Virgin landscape.
We were here, the scene for the Redbull Rampage, where we will be for the next week, digging dirt, moving rocks, and carving a path down a cliff for Kelly ride to what seems impossible, it completely blows my mind.