In the midst of chill vibes and a wave of shitty electronic music, five heroes collaborated to shake the corporate bullshit and bring punk rock back to mountain biking.
Their long-needed contribution to MTB was Pure Darkness.
Since its inception, Pure Darkness has grown to the point of utter insanity. If it was a human it would be stabbing people to death, storing their bodies in freezers, eating their flesh and wearing their skin.
Just how mental has it become? Well, Andreu Lacondeguy — one of the craziest people to ever ride a mountain bike — has said the jumps are the gnarliest he’s ever done. Matt Macduff almost fucking killed himself riding the Loop of Doom. Sam Reynolds sandbagged himself testing a jump last year and luckily only broke his wrist. This place can chew riders up and spit them out a messier than a Pablo Sandoval dip wad.
Equally mental — at least in the mountain bike world — has been the badass soundtrack that has accompanied this evolution. Judas Priest, 3 Inches of Blood and Skull Fist have pounded metal back into the mountain bike scene as Reynolds, Macduff, Nico Vink, Adolf Silva and more shred the bike equivalent of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton guitar solos.
Reynolds, Macduff, Danny Pace, Ben Lyon and Jacob Gibbins should have a monument of their faces erected in the stone cliffs of South Africa. They didn’t create the greatest country on earth, but they sure as hell deserve recognition for creating the greatest freeride event in mountain biking.
