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Practice shots from Dark Fest
NEWS

A few questions with Sam Reynolds about Darkfest

Feb 272018

We had a quick chat with MTB star and course builder Sam Reynolds about the huge track for Darkfest 2018.

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your time.

Week 2 Build and construction of the 2018 DarkFEST course.
    

I just like it here

Why did you choose South Africa as the location for Darkfest?

Well I’ve been to South Africa for the last 5 years to ride bikes and hang out with friends. When the weather is crap in Europe it’s a nice place to come, but the main reason is I don’t have time in the summer to spend 6 weeks making jumps, because there is so much going on and the weather here is nice, The second is I just like it here and there are not a lot of places where you get a farm like this to do whatever you want and here we go so it’s worth flying over and staying here a month.

Week 3 of building and testing at the DarkFEST farm.
   

You can certainly go bigger, but that you have to find a steeper hill

1. Every year the course seams to get bigger and bigger, do you see a limit in size of the jumps and if so are we close to it?

In terms of a line of jumps yes, we are getting bigger and bigger. We have one here that is 30 meters and if you go far you can get to 35. The problem is there is so much air resistance with that speed that the hill has to be so steep to carry that speed. You can certainly go bigger, but that you have to find a steeper hill.

Thursday images from Darkfest in South Africa
         

to be honest it’s not a problem to work, because that’s what we love to do

2. You spend a lot time working on the track in some pretty tough conditions. Do you get tired and how do you recover for the event when the time comes?

Ye, super tiring actually. There’s 3 of us, we all get up at 6 every morning and go straight up there and work till lunch time. Sometimes we have 3 machines, sometimes 2 and one of us dose the hand work. It gets super hot, around 35 degrees some days, so yes we get tired, but just the pure motivation of riding the jumps and everyone arriving to a good course is all the motivation we need as course builders. We also have some days of and we go surfing and take it easy, but to be honest it’s not a problem to work, because that’s what we love to do.

DarkFEST 2018 Build Update - Week 1
      

We just want to make huge jumps

3. How do you compare this event with 9 knights?

This is very similar to 9 knights, but it’s organized by professionals and we are not professionals. We just want to make huge jumps, but we’re not so good in the rest of the event organization like 9 knights, but we put all our effort all our budget in building the course to make it the best ever, maybe that’s the difference I can’t really say.

Week 2 Build and construction of the 2018 DarkFEST course.
     
Practice images from Dark Fest
             

A few of my friends used to go to Bulgaria and race downhill

4. Have you ever been to Eastern Europe? There is a pretty big MTB seen and some good DH tracks.

Nice ye I’ve definitely seen videos. A few of my friend used to go to Bulgaria and race downhill and that looked super cool, but I can’t say I’ve ever been myself. I’ve been to Check Republic and Hungary if that counts as east, but I’d definitely love to do a trip there if there’s any jumps or something cool I’d love to come.

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