Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128391
~~Happ~ening5~in Mo-,-------torcyc~ling Ride to the Hills A contest of friends and freeriding - with a twist The green, rolling hills in this lush Pacific Coast valley calm the soul. Cattle and horses graze in the distance. A few turkeys cross the two-lane country road, seeming to dare cars to pass. The vineyards that dot the area are testament to the gentle passing of one season to the next. It's not difficult to see why the Chumash Indians settled in the area centuries ago, an area today that is not far from the California coastal city of Santa Barbara. And it's also easy to imagine why, in 1837, British sea captain Benjamin Foxen acquired over 8000 acres, a vast rancho called Tinaquiac, from a Mexican government land grant. Today, 168 years later, portions of that rancho remain the property of Foxen's descendants, including jack Kraus, who enjoys riding his dirt bike through the hills. Freestyle motocross was born in the hills. Maybe not these particular hills, but few areas rival it as a setting for riding. When racer-turned-freestyler Doug Parsons first visited a couple years ago at the invitation of Kraus, he remembers, "I came out and rode, and I was just completely blown away." Parsons dubbed it "jackpot Ranch," a reference to both Kraus and the pot of gold from a potential riding standpoint - that the venue promised. It's diametrically opposed to a manmade stadium where most freestyle contests are currently held, perhaps a sign that the young sport is ready to return to its roots, also known as freeriding. "The first time I came out here, there was so much untouched land, just rolling hills; they had all the jumps built. I was, like, 'Man, it doesn't get any betterl'" Nevada freestyler Drake McElroy exclaims. "If you're put into an element where you just get good vibes from it, you get comfortable, you get some adrenaline in there mixed with what [tricks] you can do and what everyone else can do - it just pushes the level more and more." That sparked the idea in Parsons a couple years ago for the Red Bull Ride to the Hills, a freestyle contest with a decidedly freeride flavor at jackpot Ranch. He'd put together a field of 10 top freestyle athletes, get a film crew and photographers to document it, and instead of inviting observers to determine a winner, he'd have the riders themselves do the judging. While steel ramps are certainly out of place at a freeride site, a few carefully constructed dirt jumps to take advantage of the natural terrain are de rigueur. In fact, they The overall "best of "RIde to Hills this Image won the C m Ada ory "B serve to enhance the flow of the riding and generate greater lift, which only yields better tricks. It took Parsons and film crew director jay Schweitzer five solid days of tractor work to prepare for the inaugural Ride to the Hills last year, and they doubled their effort for the second edition in 2OOS. "This year, I spent probably another five days in tractor work, but I've been up here countless times and jay's [Schweitzer] been up here countless times [since last year's contest] and put in tons of hours," Parsons reveals. ':.\11 in all it's hard to say, but pretty much since last year we've worked on it until this year. [Essentially], it's our full-time job; I've sacrificed probably 80 percent of my riding to make sure this goes down good." The elite I0 invited to compete also looked forward to the event, though many insisted that they didn't see it as regular contest. As Honda-mounted McElroy said, "It doesn't seem like [a contest]; when you're riding it, you're just riding with your friends. Everyone's a little competitive, but it's more of like seeing someone do something crazy; you go, That's awesome!' High-fove them or whatever. It pushes you to be, like, 'I wonder if I could pull off this?' And you're kind of supported by everybody. It's not like you have anybody going, 'I hope he doesn't make it.' Everyone's pulling for you. It's cool." "It's not really much of a rivalry at all, unfortunately," KTM rider Ronnie Renner adds. "We all get along pretty good and can joke around and can respect each other's riding abilities. It's too dangerous to get too competitive with it. If you go down on one of these big hits, it's going to be ugly. You've got to kind of not put too much fire under anybody's ass, because you don't want to see anybody get hurt trying to pull off something crazy."