MTB

Oct

2025

Sea Otter

After many years of trying to get down under, Sea Otter finally landed in Australia. I went down there to cover the happenings around the Bikes Online marquee.

For those who aren’t aware, the Sea Otter is an expo featuring a mix of international brands and local vendors displaying their new products geared specifically towards the mountain bike market. For my skiing friends, it’s similar to ISPO in Munich.

As it was the first year, there were a few notables missing. There seemed to be an air of uncertainty about it in the lead-up. But the great atmosphere and crowds of day 1 quickly dispelled the doubts.

I didn’t get out onto the trails at Mogo, where the main enduro racing was being held. Aside from a couple of hours on Saturday morning at the botanical gardens to look for some Polygon or Marin riders. It’s not an easy task to identify bike brands through a camera as they’re zipping past. I’m yet to get out on the Mogo trails for a proper shoot. One day….

Will I be back? Definitely!! It was a great event. Rocky Trail put on a great weekend. I can only imagine that next year will be even bigger and better.

Here are the riding shots I did take.

Feb

2024

Mt Buller

I seem to be running around a lot at the moment. A couple of weeks ago I was in Thredbo for Cannonball then back in Sydney for a shoot with Bikes Online, then back south to Mt Buller in Victoria for the Rocky Trail Superflow. Now, I’m back in Sydney for a couple of quick shoots but I will be on the road again soon. Not that I am complaining, I love getting away from Sydney. Maybe though, I should just plan things a bit better and stay away rather than bouncing up and down the East Coast.

Mt Buller is always a favourite. Well, anywhere in the mountains is always a favourite for me. The Australian Alps have a unique and distinct flavour, a remoteness, an easy place to get lost. Even standing in the village of Mt Buller (which isn’t very remote) and looking out across the surrounding hills you know there are a lot of areas where you could get lost and not be seen again.

I even managed to get up one morning and go out to take a few sunrise shots. Not something I do too often these days. While not the most colourful of sunrises smoke from bushfires filled all the valleys around Mt Buller and gave it a beautiful softness and an eerie charm.

Looking up at Mt Buller

Rocky Trail Entertainment Superflow, Mt Buller, Victoria, 2024

Rocky Trail Entertainment Superflow, Mt Buller, Victoria, 2024

Feb

2024

A decade of Cannonball

This year was the 10th anniversary of the Thredbo Cannonball. For us, I think, it was the seventh year shooting the event under the guise of Outer Image. It’s been great to see this event go from strength to strength and has become the premier MTB event in Australia attracting athletes from all across the continent and even from abroad.

It is always a hectic week of work shooting the Cannonball Festival for Gil and me with a solid five days of shooting and doing our best to get the images tagged, edited and uploaded each night after the day’s activities. If we don’t, the stockpile of images tends to grow larger and larger as the week goes on. This year we delivered around 7500 images to the competitors on behalf of Thredbo Mountain Bike.

Below is a selection of images that I took over the week. But the full gallery is over on the Outer Image website.

Thredbo. Cannonball, 2024

Thredbo. Cannonball, 2024

Thredbo. Cannonball, 2024

Thredbo. Cannonball, 2024

Jan

2024

Visiting an old friend

Last week I caught up with Michael Willis, a downhill mountain bike racer and we swung by a local track I hadn’t been to for many years, the Manly Dam International Freeride Zone (MDIFZ).

MDIFZ (if you know you know) is one of the more technical tracks in Sydney with some of the features being high-risk. It is good to see tracks like this still around. It seems a majority of the tracks these days are built with the intermediate riders in mind with many of the jumps having tabletops for safety. While tabletops are always a great feature to encourage riding, advanced riders need locations too where they can push themselves and improve their skills. MDIFZ has always been one such area. Big drops, demanding gaps and small landings require you to get it right.

It was good to see and shoot there again. Michael and I just did one quick pass through stopping off at each feature and shooting along the way.

Mar

2019

Super Enduro 2019

I always enjoy a trip to the mountains. I can’t really say what it is that appeals to me so much but I always feel much more relaxed after a trip to the mountains. Yes there are those of you who may say Australia doesn’t have real mountains but its what we have and they are still very special. There’s a lot of terrain down there that will make you feel really small.

I am up and down these next few weeks as we have a few races on shooting for both Thredbo MTB and Rocky Trail Entertainment with Outer Image Collective. I spent a weekend down there shooting the Super Enduro. Not as big as Cannonball at this stage but it is growing quickly each year. Riders get 2 days on the tracks. 1 day for practice and then the Sunday for racing. They have to hit 3 tracks and get the cumulative best time on all 3. They can do as many laps as possible but only their best will count. It makes for a busy day shooting when you have nearly 500 riders going past with 20-second intervals. It’s good to stay busy though.

Thredbo Super Enduro 2019
Thredbo Super Enduro 2019
Thredbo Super Enduro 2019
Thredbo Super Enduro 2019
Thredbo Super Enduro 2019
Thredbo Super Enduro 2019
Thredbo Super Enduro 2019
Mike Ross, Thredbo Super Enduro, 2019

Jun

2018

Scott Graham: Mountain Biker

I was at the new Trailshare MTB trails on the weekend to shoot some product and some portfolio shots with Scott Graham. Scott is currently leading the competition in State Downhill series and needed a few shots to pump up his portfolio for his sponsors. We thought we should also tie in a product shoot for Tyres and Soles shooting the new AMS bike strap, a silicon strap designed to hold your tyre repair kit and spare tube on your bike.

Front on angle of the new drop
Testing the new drop on the Black run
Steep rocky section on the black run
Despite the drizzle there was still a bit of dust around
Through the beautiful greenery of the Trailshare MTB tracks
Putting the pace on through the ferns
Putting the pace on
Mountain biker Scott Graham at Trailshare MTB trails on the New South Wales Central Coast
Scooting down the Goat track
Leaning into it at Trailshare MTB trails on the New South Wales Central Coast

Trailshare and its cabins

We also had an exclusive tour around the new bike park on the NSW Central Coast called Trailshare. Chief trail-builder Josh Paul Smith pointed out a few of the features on the black trail for us to session. It’s still a work in progress though it already boasts 27kms of trails of varying degrees of difficulty. We spent the day on the Black run but I am looking forward to seeing the Red trail, very picturesque from all I hear. to top it off it has its own set of cabins tucked away in the bush. The trails start right at the doorstep making it the perfect little weekend getaway for riding.

It’s a great area and I look forward to getting back up there soon and checking out some of the other trails.

Scott on one of Trailshare’s raised sections of trail
Trailshare’s chief trail builder Josh Paul Smith testing his berms
Through some of Trailshare’s lush landscape
The trailshare experience is all about time with friends

If you need some images for a portfolio or some new images to upgrade your profile send me a message and let’s see what we can make happen.