DarkFEST, the biggest dirt jump event in Africa has headed to a new location this year. A farm on the slopes of the Simonsberg mountains, just outside Stellenbosch.
Three of the riders arrived in the beginning of January to start building the new course and have been working amazingly fast and have made awesome progress. The course is done and has been tested top to bottom and everything is running perfectly. Now it’s ready for all the riders to make their way to the tip of Africa to ride these massive dirt sculptures.
Event Details:
Date: 10 February 2018; 8am – 6pm
Place: Hellsend Dirt Compound, Vuurberg, Stellenbosch
General Admission: R150
Tickets available on Quicket.
More information available on the Facebook Event page.
A reminder from last year’s event:
Riders:
Sam Reynolds
Sam is the head of the project from UK, a professional freerider that has taken a serious liking to South Africa. He has been coming back regularly since his first trip a few years ago. A personal project with a few friends called Pure Darkness evolved into a bigger project inviting more riders and now we are getting ready for the second year of DarkFEST.
Nico Vink
Master builder and rider from Belgium, started off his career racing downhill but has always enjoyed jumping. As downhill slowed down he got more into doing big dirt jumps and after struggling to get people to build the type of jumps he wanted, he got in the digger himself and runs his own Fest event in Belgium with some of the biggest jumps in the world.
Clemens Kaudela
The Austrian operator, a master ramp builder that builds for many European events including Masters of Dirt and Nine Knights. Not only can the man build perfect dirt or wooden ramps, he can ride them just as well and participates in most of the events he builds for. This makes him the perfect addition to the build team here in SA.
Cam Zink
Zink is a heavy hitter from Nevada. Starting with downhill racing with Santa Cruz Syndicate while still competing in slopestyle events. He has two Rampage wins under his belt as well as a few best trick titles. He is also the record holder for the world’s furthest backflip at just over 100ft.
Ethan Nell
The young shredder from Utah that is quickly making a name for himself, coming third at Rampage last year. He has ridden at Loosefest, DarkFEST, Nine Knights and many other international events.
Nicholi Rogatkin
The trick machine from Massachusetts. He started riding BMX at age five and became professional by the time he was 13. He later switched over to focus more on riding mountain bikes. In 2016, he earned himself the title of the best-ranked rider in the world and is no surprise he has a list of world’s first tricks under his belt. One of them being a 1440 rotation. We’re looking forward to seeing what he brings to these jumps.
Kyle Strait
One of the godfathers of freeride, Kyle popped up on the scene as a young teenager and is the only rider to compete in all nine Rampage events, winning two of them.
Carson Storch
A sender from Bend, Oregon. He started riding at age 10 and has grown up riding MTB, BMX & snowboarding. At the age of 17, he decided to focus on MTB and make it his career. He has had standout moments at Joyride and Rampage. He had trouble with injuries in 2015 and 2016 but came back in full force last year.
Jordy Lunn
The badass of mountain biking, Jordy is known for his no fear attitude and not letting a crash slow him down. He is the first person to land a 360 backflip on a mountain bike.
DJ Brandt
Another young shredder from the States, most well known for riding dirt jumps on his hard tail, but isn’t afraid to throw his DH bike around in gnarly terrain. So much so that he has moved to Utah to ride the infamous mountains there.
Brendan Fairclough
UK downhill rider and general style cat, Brendog made a name for himself as a young lad in the DH scene. He now focuses more on video parts, but still competes on the DH circuit.
Adolf Silva
The young loco rider from Catalonia. Adolf lives life at 100 miles per hour. Skydiving, riding MX, BMX MTB and Skateboarding are a few of his hobbies. He has no fear and once his mind is set to something he won’t stop until he lands it or gets knocked out in the process.
Possible Local Wildcards?
Theo Erlangsen
A local Downhill racer that is not unfamiliar with the podium or big jumps. He’s never had the opportunity to try jumps this size but is quite eager to join the guys and try to complete the line.
Greg Minnaar
This man needs no introduction. A Pietermaritzburg local that has won more world cup downhill races than anyone else on the planet, a legend in the sport.
