Motoring
History of freeriding
Take a look at the history of freeriding, some of the two-wheeled creatives behind it, and how it led to the newest Red Bull action sports event - Imagination.
Freeriding - an outlet of self-expression. No checkered flag. Simply the idea of pushing man and machine to their earthly boundaries. While sometimes it’s for the camera, many times it’s purely for the soul. Distancing themselves from reality and delving into their imagination; the freerider sees an empty hillside as a blank canvas and a shovel as their paint brush. While we know that these two-wheeled creatives were inspired by their surf, skate, and snow, predecessors. The question still remains. Where did freeriding truly begin?
In all actuality, you could take freeriding all the way back to World War 1 when the United States and Britain deployed despatch (dispatch) riders or military messengers riding motorcycles. Many of these skilled riders returned home and began honing their skills with friends and relatives after finding a passion for riding. Some even learned stunts and competed in carnival shows such as legendary rider and the first African-American Woman to cross the country on a motorcycle - Bessie Stringfield.
So with all of this stunt riding and progression happening in the motorcycle scene, it only made sense to begin capturing it once the film camera became more obtainable in the late '60s. Videographers began taking their knowledge of filming other sports during that time period and applying it to the motorcycle community. Videographers like Bruce Brown for example, who took his knowledge of surfing and saw that the motorcycle community displayed that same type of camaraderie and passion that was displayed in his surf films “Slippery When Wet” and “Endless Summer.” These riders were devoting their life to the feeling of flowing seamlessly on a motorcycle, and Bruce was there to capture it. This led to the iconic film “On Any Sunday,” and the introduction of the household name Steve McQueen not only as an actor, but as the motorcycle enthusiast we know him as today.
Robbie Maddison and Tyler Bereman
© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool
Once filmmaking was brought to the table in the world of motocross and motorcycling, it was on. Outside of the fame, fortune and pressures of being a professional motocross racer, riders like Danny “Magoo” Chandler would hone their skills off the track. Often there would be photographers and videographers on hand to capture it. Chandler, who was commonly known for being unimpressed by the cookie cutter tracks presented to him, would head for the hills to find bigger jumps that would allow him to express his creativity. This in turn inspired racers like Jeff Emig, Jeremy McGrath, Guy Cooper, and countless others to break free from the monotonous race scene that is professional motocross and head for the desert, dunes, and hills with a dirtbike and a filmer.
Motocross legend Jeff Emig
© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool
With so many superstar racers taking part in freeriding, countless films erupted from the late '90s and early 2000s. "Steel Roots," "Crusty Demons of Dirt" and the "Terrafirma" series are just a few of the films that would define modern day freeriding. These films would also help shed light on riders outside of the superstar race scene. Riders like Seth Enslow, who would regularly make appearances in these films tackling some of the biggest jumps in freeride history.
However by the mid 2000s; with the popularity of X-Games at an all time high, freestyle motocross had taken over what was once freeriding. With Mike Metzgers introduction of the backflip to X-Games in 2002, riders were now forced to step up to the plate and start taking freestyle motocross to a more intense level to compete. Riders that weren’t interested in risking it all learning to double-backflip or 360 in competition, were left returning to their career racing, or stuck at home on the couch.
Ultimately these freeriders wanted and desperately needed an outlet to showcase their skills via filmmaking and make a career of it — similar to the skateboard, surf, and snowboard industries that preceded them. In the early 2000s professional athletes in the board sport realm began making careers strictly from filming projects without ever setting foot in a contest. The freeride crowd saw this lifestyle of traveling the world searching for spots to film and went to work.
Riders like Jeremy “Twitch” Stenburg, Ronnie Renner, and Steve Haughelstine, began filming projects and going on worldwide tours to find unique riding spots. These riders shifted their main focus away from competition results and worked on film projects to build their worldwide fanbase while marketing their brand. By 2010 with the social media age quickly growing, the freeride scene began to have a clear vision of how creating video and photo content was not only going to be profitable, but would appeal to sponsors as well. This would allow freeriders to finally have the chance to get the funding and support to continue the quest for self-expression that they’ve always been seeking.
Tyler Bereman rides at Chocolate Mountain Ranch in El Cajon, CA
© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool
That brings us to 2020. The era of riders like Tyler Bereman, who is a staple in the modern day freeriding community. Coming from a race background with no real freestyle motocross experience - Tyler was unarguably one of the first few riders to acquire the opportunity to make a career solely from filmmaking and freeriding. Needless to say he has taken this opportunity and run with it. “Growing up racing I would always ride down to the riverbed and find jumps. My dad would take me trail riding to all the jumps he knew of, and even when I was doing Supercross and it wasn’t rideable I’d be out finding jumps.” Tyler said. “Freeriding for me is just that - riding and being free. At the end of the day I’m just stoked I get to help take this side of our sport to the masses.”
And as of recently, Tyler has been doing just that. With the introduction of his new event Red Bull Imagination, Tyler hopes to bring slopestyle and jam session events to life in the world of freeriding. “Freeriders don’t necessarily have a platform. So we took inspiration from snowboard slopestyle and Red Bull Rampage style events and created an event to showcase our skill.” Tyler added, “I think being able to have a platform outside of social media and creating a contest that is style and creativity based could give our sport the legs to run…”
But what will be next in the world of freeriding? Could it be jam session style contests? Or will the true soul of freeriding always lie in riding and filming with your friends? With the amount of creativity coming from these freeriders, it’s tough to tell what’s going to come next. One thing’s for sure though. Videographer or no videographer. Contest or no contest. Steve McQueen said it best, "One of the things that make motorcycling so great is because it never fails to give you a feeling of freedom and adventure.” And that in itself, is the true history of the freerider.
