Seats were filled early and dozens of people packed in along the walls of Roberts Creek Hall just to get a glimpse of the new Progression - Kranked 6 extreme mountain bike movie, being previewed by its creator Bjorn Enga.
At best guess 300-plus fans sat or stood, mesmerized by the movie not yet available in stores during last Saturday night's première in the Creek.
There were roof-raising cheers when local trails on Mount Elphinstone were featured on the big screen and never-before tried stunts were completed masterfully by some of the best riders in the world.
The context of this latest film in the Kranked series was riders in search of the ultimate line.
That ultimate line meant different things to different riders, some wanting fast smooth banked trails and others looking for new extreme stunts like the 360-degree wall ride.
Many of those trails were made possible by a local trail building team put together by Enga. The team consisted of Lewis Robinson, Kane Boyce, Jason Ball, Kyle Baker, Dillon Dunkerton and Paul Cooper. They spent months creating three unique trails on Mount Elphinstone for riders Ryan Leech, Ben Boyko, Nathan Rennie and Steve Peat.Leech wanted to bring his trials style to the trail and builders created insanely small skinnies for the skilled biker to navigate as well as some towering posts for tire plants Leech nailed every time.
Boyko mastered some free standing wall rides and big drops with style, while Rennie and Peat were looking for speed and found it on a trail made to show off their abilities.
Enga was so impressed with the quality of trail building done on the Coast he sent Robinson and Boyce to Idaho to create another trail for the movie, and Robinson later went to Innisfail, Revelstoke and Williams Lake to add his expertise to trails being built there for the movie.
"These guys are just super good trail builders," Enga said, praising their work.
Enga is a local Roberts Creek resident and known in the mountain biking circuit as one of the most creative filmmakers in the business. He's been producing high-adrenaline mountain bike films since 1997, and his series of Kranked films has developed a huge following internationally.
After premièring Progression - Kranked 6 in his hometown, Enga was off to Vancouver for a showing and then the film was set to be débuted across B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the Get Kranked World Tour.
On his home turf, people praised the film and its creativity saying it had more of a story line than other mountain bike videos and it gave audience members the chance to get to know their biking heroes more personally.
"I wanted to give the riders a bit more context and give the audience a feel for who they were. They had a hand in creating their perfect trail, either through coming up with the ideas or helping work on them. A couple of the riders did their own work," Enga said.
He felt having the riders make their own creations told a lot about what kind of riders they were, and interviews with the bikers before and after riding their perfect trail gave a glimpse into their personalities as well.
The movie didn't disappoint the overflow crowd in the Creek. After it was over Enga passed out dozens of copies of his previous movie, Kranked 5, to a sea of appreciative kids there for the show.
Adults weren't left out either, with lots of door prizes handed out, some worth more than $200 each. Following the show a dance was held in the hall and fabulous organic food and refreshments were served at reasonable prices.Everyone seemed to leave happy and many wondered when they could get their hands on a copy of Progression - Kranked 6.
"They will be available for sale soon. Right now they are in Salt Lake City getting reproduced. You can purchase a copy online right now though, and they will be sent out as soon as they are ready," Enga said.
The cost for the video is about $32 CDN. The website to check out for more information is www.radical-films.com.Enga is already at work on his next film in the series but he's not giving away any hints as to what it's about."All I can say is it's a crazy different idea," he noted.
