For me one of the most fun things to do in mountain biking is photo shoots. I think that most riders would agree that every shoot, has its own adventure. The purpose of this little photo session was to grab some photographs for the upcoming Norco catalogue. The idea was to get some street shots. Well, we definitely got a few pretty banging shots, but as always we have to keep the best ones under wraps for the actual catalogue. None the less here is a little re-cap of how the adventure went down.

Meet photographer Margus Riga at around 8:30pm so we can get some evening shots. I met Margus up at my university campus and was stuffing some Chinese food down my face because I had yet to eat that day. I knew of a few cool lines that might bear some fruits: banks, rails, stair sets and that kind of thing.

We decided to warm it up on one of the bank lines; it offered some cool framing options and a cool view of the sun setting. We shot as much as we could on the bank line and then moved on to a cool arch to get some manual shots and a few life styles, but at this point we were confronted by security. The security guard did his best job to shut us down… kind of. He said, when we were done, if we could stop riding on campus, it would be appreciated. Well I figured that meant when we were done shooting which could definitely be a little while.

We proceeded to go get a sick shot with this hand rail and staircase -that was awesome! I was super stoked because we were having a little trouble getting what I saw in my mind initially. It was a night shot though so it had to be flashed of course. But every time I did it, when the flash would go off I was basically blinded. So I was bunny hopping a full sized hand rail, of a full flight of stairs at night and blind. It was definitely sketchy for me and I kept hoping and praying (even though I wouldn’t consider myself a religious man) that I did not hang up my back tire on the railing. After around 20 tries we got the shot! I felt so good; nothing feels better than when I tee up a line and have the photo to prove it.

We decided to try and shoot one more shot, an underground wall ride, but it was getting late. Margus has a great eye, and found a super cool artistic shot, using the underground lighting. We were giving it on this one with a bit of an audience of the cleaning staff at the university and they were super cool with us throwing down. The funniest thing of the evening though, is we were busted by the same security guard. It was about 2.5 hours since we were initially busted so I kind of expected him to get a little ticked off with us, but all he said was “Not done quite yet?”, and cruised on. Shoot successful!

Mace Renegade D30 Knee and Shin Pads:
I’ve been Running all different types of knee pads over the last 10 years of my riding career. The Renegade pads use the D30® armour changes molecular density when subjected to impact. This allows these pads to be really thin but so stiff when I get smashed by my pedals or the concrete. I wear a slimmer cut pair of jeans most of the time so they don’t get caught in my chain. The renegade pads are hardly noticeable under any type of jean, even women’s jeans, lol.  Being so thin and porous they also breath better than any other shin or knee pad that I have ever used. Riding this rock threw me to play in the dirt at the bottom a few times. I smashed my knees into the ground and into some rocks with out a problem. I’ve been riding these pads now for about 2 months and my legs feel normal! My shins and knees are really chewed up from the years of pedal bites and crashes. Finally learning my lesson and without my Renegades I won’t ride. This D30 stuff is hands down pretty incredible!

-Ben