Trailblazing with Matt Konings  – Mountain Life

Creating the proper mud leap is thirsty work. Phrases & pictures :: Colin Self-discipline. Article sponsored by Rally beer.

With an individual like Matt Konings on an issue, you already perceive it’s gonna occur. He isn’t afraid of working arduous. That’s merely the type of man he’s. And although he builds trails and dust jumps for a dwelling (he’s the highest builder/designer and all-around guru of the entire objects that occurs at Horseshoe Valley Bike Park), guess what he does on his time off? He builds trails and dust jumps.

Whereas my intention for the day was to cowl from the warmth all through the basement, his concept was to go scout a spot we’ve been discussing for years. We wished a path with an epic sundown, with Georgian Bay all through the background. We wished a leap positioned so I may get a shot of him silhouetted in opposition to the sky. We knew the placement, and we knew July was the time to get it carried out. We’d been speaking about it for 2 years. So we agreed to scout the placement one different time earlier than committing to shoot.

After we acquired to the spot we realized it wouldn’t work. The distinctive path was all through the mistaken place and timber had grown over the previous few years and blocked the setting. So we would have liked a mannequin new path and a mannequin new leap. And Matt was determined to shoot one issue instantly. So like all good actuality TV present, we had a really quick deadline: two hours earlier than the photograph voltaic went down. Prior to I knew it, Konings began digging. Then I acquired into it. We often called a buddy: “Wanna come dig with us?”

We wished a leap positioned so I may get a shot of him silhouetted in opposition to the sky. We knew the placement, and we knew July was the time to get it carried out.

We’ve each been establishing mud jumps and trails since we had been children and different folks a couple of years of expertise paid off. We knew what was potential. And Konings’ experience is top-notch. We didn’t waste time making an attempt to assemble one issue that wouldn’t work. We used what we had—shovels, lumps of grass and a few outdated rotten logs. Then our buddy Jason Bayens caught as rather a lot as us. He launched a shovel and a noticed. Improve! We constructed the run in, and had a really gentle leap stacked inside an hour.

Matt positioned on his gear and poured what remained of his water current onto the leap to assist pack all of it in. His first try was fairly ugly, nonetheless on his second try he nailed it.

Sadly the sundown we hoped for didn’t come by the use of. Clouds settled on the horizon, blocking any chance of an epic light present. So as rapidly as a result of the photograph voltaic was down and the helmets had been eradicated, it was time to have pleasant. We didn’t fairly get the shot we wished, nonetheless we had been shut. We put all through the hassle. Good photos don’t occur throughout the event you don’t strive. And likelihood is you may’t say we didn’t strive.

Fortuitously we had one issue better than Gatorade alongside for the experience: Rally beer. Created as a post-session beer, we had just a few cans of the appropriately named Path Blazer. Brewed with purposeful elements sourced in Canada, black currant and artisanal sea salt assist to refresh post-sweat.

Chilly and crisp, this was the proper beer for the day.

Rally offers a bunch of assorted beer kinds together with a light-weight IPA and their Dry Run non-alcoholic pale ale that’s actually tasty. Rally has flip into part of the native way of life; light, tasty beer that enhances an brisk way of life.

It’s the proper beer for path establishing.

As for that elusive shot? We’ll get it. We’re rescheduling now, the leap is already there and it’ll merely take one different session with a cooperative sundown to get it carried out. And likewise you already know Matt Konings is up for it.

Have a look at the ML Podcast!