What We're Watching — September, 2021

Intro

Things have been busy here at Blister (as always), and while we’ve been hard at work on the upcoming 21/22 Winter Buyer’s Guide, as well as putting out a whole lot of reviews, podcasts, and more, we’ve found time to keep up on a whole lot of the bike and ski media that’s been released too. In this iteration of What We’re Watching, we’ve got some coverage of recent events, a bunch of new edits, and a couple of throwbacks for good measure.

And for even more videos to keep you entertained and/or get you excited to get outside, check out all of our previous video roundups.

Audi Nines Recap

David Golay: This year’s iteration of Audi Nines just went off — and featured women for the first time — and the recap video is absolutely wild. There’s a ton of amazing riding, with everything from double backflip trains to huge Fest-style jumps, some big crashes, and a whole lot of spectacular drone piloting.

The video is also worth watching just to check out the course. It’s a spectacular bit of building, in a quarry in Germany, with an unreal number of different lines and a massive spectrum of features. Put a whole bunch of the world’s best freeriders on that and you have yourself a must-watch.

Lenzerheide World Cup

David: It’s been a great season of DH racing so far, and at the time of publishing this post, I’m up early to watch the Lenzerheide race. World Championships last weekend were outstanding, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and the continued battle for the overall standings. The competition is especially tight on the women’s side, with newly-crowned World Champion Myriam Nicole tied with the woman she took that title from, Camile Balanche. Vali Holl, Tahnee Seagrave, Monika Hrastnik , and Eleonora Farina are all within range too. On the men’s side, Thibaut Daprela has a more commanding lead, but Troy Brosnan, Greg Minnaar, Loris Vergier, Loic Bruni, Benoit Coulanges, and Danny Hart are in a tight battle for the remaining podium spots, and with three races left there’s a whole lot of time for that to change. And for a quick primer on the track, check out Reece Wilson’s excellent POV course preview:

Jiberish — A Walk in the Park Pt. 2 - Sam, Cal, & Pete

Luke Koppa: While I’m still very much looking forward to biking through golden aspens in the coming weeks, it did snow here in Crested Butte a couple weeks ago. I’ve also been spending a whole bunch of time staring at 21/22 ski top sheets while working on our Winter Buyer’s Guide, so skiing has been on my mind.

Given that, it was an insta-click for me when I saw a new park edit from this crew. Sam Zahner, Calvin Barrett, and Pete Koukov are some of my favorite people to watch in the park, and Andrew Mildenberger (½ of the production crew at Strictly) is a wizard behind the lens. Even if you’re not into spins and flips, it’s well worth a watch.

Vinny T — Freeride Les Houches

David: This one’s just a short series of helmet cam clips with fairly minimal production, but that’s a big part of what I like about it — it does a great job capturing a bunch of friends just out for an everyday ride, and having a blast. It doesn’t hurt that Vinny T is reliably one of the coolest people out there to watch ride a bike, but the real magic is just in the camaraderie, crashes, and shenanigans between a big group of friends.

Sämi Ortlieb – Maneuvers

Dylan Wood: Creative spot selection, trick selection, and camera work tend to create some of my most favorite ski videos. Maneuvers has all of that, plus some very brilliant stop-motion animation to make for one of the most unique ski videos I’ve ever seen.

Directed by Sämi Ortlieb and executive produced by Level 1, Maneuvers has various skiers hitting features that seem to appear and disappear as they come across them. I can tell a lot of editing, building, and vision went into this, and it is truly enjoyable to watch.

Jackson Goldstone — Run Bike to Kindergarten

David: This video, originally posted in 2010, was probably a good sign that Jackson Goldstone was on his way to big things on a bike and, well, he just won the Junior DH World Championships (with a time that would have been good for a top-20 in the Elite field). This one’s super fun, not to mention wildly impressive.

Ed Masters / Vanzacs World Champs Coverage

Luke: Unfortunately, Eddie Masters went down hard in Maribor and is out with a gnarly looking shoulder injury. The silver lining of this is that we get more Eddie-with-a-dadcam content, and that’s always a treat. His raw videos from Val Di Sole and Lenzerheide definitely aren’t your best bet if you’re after pristine cinematography, but if you get enough of that and instead want some goofy commentary and B-roll, well, look no further.

George Brannigan — Another Motörhead Queenstown Shredit

David: George Brannigan’s first video of him gapping everything in Queenstown, NZ was absolutely bonkers, and now there’s a follow-up. The format is essentially identical: George riding like a complete lunatic + Motörhead = video gold. It’s hard to overstate how ridiculous some of these gaps he pulls for are — and a whole lot of riders with impressive resumes of their own, including Remy Metailler and Ed Masters have spoken reverentially about what a maniac George is in these. And for good measure, here’s the original: