F1234K
Likes Dirt
I thought about this topic the other day, so here are my thoughts:
Freeriding in my opinion is riding without the rules of style. What I mean by this is that in XC people generally ride up and down and technical sections, but there are no doubles or drops or airtime of any sort.
In 4X it is pump track action and doubles or tripples over a set track.
In DH it's speed and doubles with some drops etc, all going down.
etc. etc. You will notice each discipline has it's own set of things that make it what it is. Freeride in, my opinion, is the throwing away of such things and saying "Do whatever you want to".
A dude on his XC bike hitting water bars like doubles and launching of the rocks but then pedaling up some tight uphill sections is freeriding in my opinion because he is not sticking to the "rules" of XC.
Also a DH'er that pedals uphill and rides a skinny bridge is doing freeride.
Most of the time a compitition forces the "rules" of the discipline and you won't find any DH'ers riding that skinny bridge.
None of this means you cannot judge freeriding since all freeriding is is a discipline which says: "Do Whatever".
If you and your buddy's are out at the local hitting all your favorite trails which has some doubles, drops, tight corners etc. on it, don't you compare yourselfs to each other? One of you might be able to hit that 20ft gap and the other cannot, but then you might be able to blast through the corners at high speed and the other cannot. So you all look at each other and try and get better so that you can be as good as the other guy at whatever it is that he does well.
A freeride comp will be something similar in my mind. You are judged on how well you ride in a more generic sense. Just being able to go fast isn't going to win you anything. Just being able to go big isn't going to win you anything. Being able to ride really well is.
Imagine a DH comp where you get 2 seconds taken off your time every time you pull a sick trick over a double? So speed and style are equally important...
Anyway, I feel like I'm babbling so let's have some more opinions
Freeriding in my opinion is riding without the rules of style. What I mean by this is that in XC people generally ride up and down and technical sections, but there are no doubles or drops or airtime of any sort.
In 4X it is pump track action and doubles or tripples over a set track.
In DH it's speed and doubles with some drops etc, all going down.
etc. etc. You will notice each discipline has it's own set of things that make it what it is. Freeride in, my opinion, is the throwing away of such things and saying "Do whatever you want to".
A dude on his XC bike hitting water bars like doubles and launching of the rocks but then pedaling up some tight uphill sections is freeriding in my opinion because he is not sticking to the "rules" of XC.
Also a DH'er that pedals uphill and rides a skinny bridge is doing freeride.
Most of the time a compitition forces the "rules" of the discipline and you won't find any DH'ers riding that skinny bridge.
None of this means you cannot judge freeriding since all freeriding is is a discipline which says: "Do Whatever".
If you and your buddy's are out at the local hitting all your favorite trails which has some doubles, drops, tight corners etc. on it, don't you compare yourselfs to each other? One of you might be able to hit that 20ft gap and the other cannot, but then you might be able to blast through the corners at high speed and the other cannot. So you all look at each other and try and get better so that you can be as good as the other guy at whatever it is that he does well.
A freeride comp will be something similar in my mind. You are judged on how well you ride in a more generic sense. Just being able to go fast isn't going to win you anything. Just being able to go big isn't going to win you anything. Being able to ride really well is.
Imagine a DH comp where you get 2 seconds taken off your time every time you pull a sick trick over a double? So speed and style are equally important...
Anyway, I feel like I'm babbling so let's have some more opinions