LAST WORD
MONSTERS EVERYWHERE
Paul Ingpen thought he was cool and liked beer and steep descents. But as the only one drinking
tea (from a Monster cup to fake fi tting in) at 6:45am, he knew he was a puppy running with wolves…
Clockwise from left: Upside down,
round and round; lunch break
tattoos; Ryan Franklin hanging
out; Ike Klaassen, our next Greg
Minnaar?; locked and loaded.
Clemens custom-built another
insane DH course with 30m gap
jumps, 20m lips and career-
ending step-ups you simply have
to see to believe. Diminutive
mini mullet, 15-year-old double
DH world champ, Ike Klaassen
was also there. He grew up
on the Hellsend family farm in
Pniel, which is now a see-it-to-
believe-it bike park off ering all
day shuttle runs up and down
We w an n a h e ar ab out your #radride, email paul@electricink .c o. za
178 | MTB | rad ride
IF YOU DON’T KNOW GUYS
like Sam Reynolds, Graham
Agassiz, Andreu Lacondeguy,
Nico Vink, Clemens Kaudela,
Adolf Silva, DJ Brandt, Brendan
Fairclough, Jordie Lunn, Matt
Macduff and Hartbeespoort-
crowned SA DH champ Theo
Erlangsen, it’s because you
wouldn’t last 24 hours in their
company. They ride trails you
wouldn’t bum slide, they drink
beer by night and energy drinks
by day, they wake up and brush
their teeth to max volume thrash
metal music and they’ll get a
new tattoo during a lunch break.
Welcome to the underworld of
the appropriately named riders
of DarkFEST.
Supreme Saff a shooter, Eric
Palmer, and the funky crew
at Monster Energy invited the
magazine to hang out with them
for a day. Host Sam Reynolds (the
guy who bust his back doing a
720° backfl ip over a 70-foot-high
jump) and his cohorts Nico and
insanely lekker fl ow trails.
Sam hosted the best and
wildest riders in the world from
Canada, America and Europe to
risk the bucking and contorting
yellow bitch road to hell his
crew created. Part One of a FEST
Series, the riders pushed the
boundaries of freeride mountain
biking. Sadly, Sam smashed his
wrist test-jumping the gnarly early
phase “Rocket Launcher” hump,
but we did get to witness Spanish
psychopath Adolf Silva throw a
double fl ip on the same demonic
dirt – said to have been one of the
biggest double fl ips ever landed!
Next time I see a two-foot gap
jump I’m not taking the B line…