Do People Ever Do Natural?

[Ducko]

i couldnt agree more,

i find all these street videos tend to get a bit repetative, but most natural at this time of year is a bitch to ride and is almost imposible to make a good vid on!

[Waynio]

you just cant get people to "understand" how hard things are naturally, as the size and stuff is like dressed down due to their being so many larger obstacles on natural yet on street "cos one wall stands out and none next to it" thats one big move to go at, with natural its different. i think natural is much more pleasurable and brain soothing, much more fluent, i like to ride natural to flow more get used to manouvering my bike while its rocky and bumpy and keep it moving but then throwing the big movesin there too. but if i rode a section near to where i live people wouldnt understand how easy/hard it was or see how big it is. hence why im trying at the mo to make a bit of a natural vid BUT more street orientated. so a natural pile of rocks but physically ride faster at things and make it look different to a normal natural video. i think at a guess people dont like natural videos cos the moves are slower, they dont come across as "flashy" or as impressive. when in theory in my personal opinion its sooooooooooo much harder to ride a section than it is to go bash up a wall or ride street. 2 different styles of riding but its each to their own. i prefer it but i couldnt NOT do street cos that just gives me a buzz when i try something new or something big. its weird. but i wouldnt ever sacrifice either of these 2 diciplines of riding for each other or for anything else.

Waynio............................

im with Iolo and ali c. AND deffo watch Iolo Au natural vid!!!it is just soooooooooooo awesum funny, exciting and a good laff to me it comes across a bit of a streety natural vid

Edited January 9, 2006 by Waynio

[DeeZee]

Cool, thanks for the replies, I'm going to track down some of the vids mentioned, and have a good watch of em.

Like I said before, watching people ride natural, just looks better to me. But I can appreciate how dull it might look in a video.

[Ducko]

get iolo's video it is soo good and near the end there is some nice camera work!

[hugh_b]

Was my topic so I deserve first post lol

I believe that it all depends on where people live. I currently ride 80% natural 20% street because I have 3 miles of sea defence, just over the road. Whereas people in hugely urban areas find it really dificult to go anywhere near natural terrain.

I find natural great because as you said, its an endurance thing more than a sudden burst. The only drawback I've found is that I really limit myself on the rocks because normal things (ie 3-4ft drop) scare the sh!t out of me

As for the no vids thing, there are great videos, but its much easier to edit and create gob-smacking street vids than long natural ones. As it happens Im planning a natural video next, so Ill PM you when its done and Ill show you what I mean.

Ive got a few big moves so far, craig D sidehopping on a stupid angle, large gaps etc. but its still tricky

Anyway im done...

Thats what it's all about no matter the weather you get on and ride it. especially at competitions, i fell in a bloody ice cold river in andorra at world champs on first few sections. it's part of it. Slippery,rounded, uneven edges-not like street-all just square edges and flat surfaces

[MesaMan]

Mad made sea defences natural are they? (But I appreciate the definition)

In regards to making a decent video, I agree street looks more impressive (to many) as anyone is used to seeing brick walls and thin rails etc so are instantly impressed when seen ridden. The human eye (and brain) is used to seeing streets (etc) and can instantly get a sense of scale and height and relate that to how hard it may be to ride. Riding natural however throws much of this "scale" out the window. The intricacies of the shape of the rock (etc) along with "invisible" amounts of grip don't feature in the mind of the viewer.

Also regarding the difficulty of filming natural - no offense intended to anyone on the forum but 90%+ of all vids on the forum are very poorly filmed and not very well edited. Shaky hands, shadows, poor lighting, dodgy graphics and cuts are very, very far from a "professional" standard. (When watching any "professionally" filmed natural riding it's clear that it makes a much more enjoyable viewing experience). If filming man made produces this quality I can imagine how hard it would be natural.

Just my opinion anywayz.

[Dan-Walker]

i wana ride some decent rocks but dont know where i could go i live near portsmouth.

Any key places that are good that you could name.

dan

[Jez]

I'll throw my 10p in: I reckon that natural stuff looks good on vid as long as it's not comp or someone practicing for a comp. A good example is the last Sydneytrials vid - it's mostly natural stuff, but looks awesome (although the scenery is awesome which helps, and it was also edited in a kinda streety way - move, cut to next move, cut to next move, and so on) - but that's the nature of video. 'Exciting' stuff always tends to be cut fast; with street this always means cutting from one drop/gap/whatever to the next because the moves are relatively short in duration - it lends itself to fast editing. Natural however...I think to get it to work you might need multiple cameras - that way you could cut between the different angles according to what looks best for the next bit of the section. That'll give you fast editing, yet retain some of the flow of what natty's all about. Should keep the interest of the viewer too. Has anyone thought of doing rider's-eye-view vidz yet? Ok, so headcams are probably a bad idea, but somewhere up there with the rider maybe? I dunno, just an idea.

And I would like to point out that there are some longish sections to be found on the streets...you just have to spend forever finding them (or find a decent skatepark)

I agree that natural is more dangerous though. If you fall off doing street, you just hit the pavement, and there's always gonna be someone nearby to take ye to hospital if you stack it majorly. Not always the case with natty. Plus, how much moss/algae/other slippy stuff do you really encounter doing street?

As for me, I'm pretty much 99% street, but I have massive respect for riders who can pull off the natural stuff well. Doing eneourmous gaps/drops on the street is impressive and skillful...but compared to doing comps? Child's play (Not that I would really know...). There's less pressure when doing street I think as well.

[yoyoyo]

There isn't anywhere accesiable near me so i don't get the choice.

I think thats the problem with most people.

[Greetings]

I was looking at some fella's post (sorry I can't remember who by) with regards to the kind of riding people like to see in videos. You hardley ever see anyone linking a few moves together over a couple of obstacles (what I consider trials riding).

Videos are all the same kinda, 1 scene, 1 obstacle... next scene, but I think thats urban riding for you. So how come I never see anyone doing vids of natural riding? Do people ride natural? and if so, why are there no good vids?

I'm just getting tired of seeing the same variation of sidehops onto pallets and pedal kicks off railings.

Natural riding is no good for vids, unless you really know that what you see on a monitor is 10 times more difficult to do. I actually think that natural riding is no good for videos, I just get bored with it. It's ok to have a look at a video and just envy the people who get to ride in a good location.

I love natural riding myself, but it's once a year I get a chance to really do so on some rocks in the mountains (and that's 300km into the mountains, which is a long journey). Poland is no good for natural riding. There is no decent spot within at least 100 km from my home.

[F-Stop Junkie]

'Exciting' stuff always tends to be cut fast; with street this always means cutting from one drop/gap/whatever to the next because the moves are relatively short in duration - it lends itself to fast editing. Natural however...I think to get it to work you might need multiple cameras - that way you could cut between the different angles according to what looks best for the next bit of the section. That'll give you fast editing, yet retain some of the flow of what natty's all about.

But why does it have to be a street video on rocks? Yes, you need coverage, but with careful setups you can get around this.

Natural has a lot of potential as I said, but it needs care to shoot. It can take a lot of different styles of editing, and really have a flow all it's own.

Simon, MSN me, I'd love to chat more with you on this...