Editor's Note: New Zealand's been one of the adventure capitals of the world for a long time, but has only more recently popped up on the map as a mountain bike destination. Nonetheless, the combination of misty mountains dropping straight to beaches dozens of miles long sounds pretty damn good to us. Oh yeah, also the trails!
After long days of dodging bad weather, the SMITH team headed up the pass through the Southern Alps towards the Canterbury high country, the home of popular winter ski fields just outside of Christchurch and some epic mountain bike terrain.
SEE ALSO: The Smith team gets lost, destroys RV in New Zealand
In the words of Jesse Melamed: “The season doesn’t start til June!” Maybe that’s why we’ve been seeing more of him in British Columbia’s bottomless pow than out on his bike – after all the man needed some rest after his domination of the 2020 EWS season. Well, we’re glad he’s finally decided to throw a leg back over the saddle and join his friends on the Rocky Mountain enduro squad for some off-season riding in the woods around home. It never gets old watching him chase Andreane Lanthier
If the Disney movie and our film had a love child, it would be this edit. Seriously, though. Kilian Bron and Commencal Bikes abseloutely killed it on this one. Not only do they capture some pretty unbelievable riding, but they've also managed to highlight the beauty of this Middle Eastern haven. Between the excellent terrain and the stunning visuals Turkey has to offer, we're not even sure how a place like this is even allowed to exist. Oh, and did we mention how cool the hot air balloons
Just as it does in many sports, fear plays a fairly large role in mountain biking. We see athletes riding trails or doing tricks and think to ourselves "that's so scary, I could never do that." But fear, like many obstacles, is a mental game. Pro mountain biker Remy Metailler walks us through how he manages fear. Metailler doesn't pretend to be superhuman, but rather provides some tips on how he manages fear when sending those crazy rock slabs. Some of his tips include walking the line and
Austin Hopkins
May 13th, 2015
NZ looks rad. Keep up the good work, SMITH!