The DUNE
When dreams come true.
A story to describe FREERIDING through my eyes.
It´s about that FREE in FREE-RIDE.
About that FREE to be the most important.
About that FREE that changes everything.
That caught me and even got me into Mountainbiking many years ago.
That feeling to be free to do whatever I want.
That feeling of not having a must or a need in what I´m doing.
In what I started to really love doing.
And it´s that FREE that still keeps me going and still makes me happy.
Makes me happy riding bikes.
Makes me happy exploring new places.
Makes me happy traveling the world on the search for something new.
Experiences.
Adventures.
Feelings.
Emotions.
Memories.
I´ve been riding bikes on some extraordinary places and I loved every bit of it.
I not just loved every bit, but I started to grow a longing for.
I started to grow a longing for special and extraordinary places to ride bikes at.
A longing for that feeling I have while doing it.
A longing to experience more and different feelings on my bike and during the whole process of traveling and exploring.
A longing to feel free.
To feel free to ride bikes the way I want.
The way I love it.
The way it makes me happy.
Powder skiing is one of the best feelings in this world.
I grew up learning and loving it and it will forever be a part of my life.
It kinda even changed my life in my early days.
And I´m still feeling it.
Still loving it.
As biking grew to be my biggest passion and love of life, I also started to travel places with a new perspective.
I started to travel places to ride special landscapes, different undergrounds, numerous lines down special mountains and even volcanos.
Part of all that to try to experience the same feeling, but on my bike.
That free line choice and that soft powder feeling that goes through the whole body and directly ends up putting a smile on my face.
And I think I was pretty close at some point.
No paths.
No trails.
No certain directions to follow.
Just endless slopes free to find and set my own line through.
Free to go wherever I want.
FREE-RIDING that truly felt amazing.
But there was one thing that wasn´t quite as powder skiing feels like.
One thing that was still missing.
That feeling of that super soft and deep underground.
That special powder feeling when pushing into.
When diggin´ deep and kinda floating back out again.
All that with each turn.
Again and again.
Something that you can´t get enough from and that makes you wanna go further and further.
When you just don´t wanna stop again once you´re in it.
And you know what?
I never stopped dreaming about.
Until…
Until I finally found a place to give it another try.
Until I finally had the chance to really do it.
No rules.
No needs.
No must.
Just me and another chance to finally feel what I wanted to feel for such a long time.
What I was hunting for.
What I was looking for on numerous trips and location checks.
Another chance to find out if it´s even possible to also get that feeling on my bike.
And here we go.
At the biggest sand dune in Europe, not knowing if riding a bike on even works.
If it´s even possible to keep my tires up and ride.
To make turns or even start to roll down the hill.
But that´s what I´m here for.
Here to find out.
And that´s what makes it a special experience.
That´s what makes all the memories in the end.
That`s what makes it so exciting.
But how will it be?
How will it feel?
Is it soft enough?
Or even too soft?
How fast do I have to go?
Can I even build enough speed to not sink in?
Can I push into the turns without going over the bars?
Where do I need to put my body weight?
Questions after questions.
All just to be answered by dropping in and trying what I was looking forward to for so long.
It´s time.
Time to give it a go.
I needed couple runs.
Couple runs to find the right speed.
To get the feeling for that totally new underground.
The feeling for the brakes.
For the balance.
For how the tires react.
But man, it works.
Hellyeah, it really works.
Once I got couple runs in and managed to adapt myself and my riding to what I was trying to ride right there, it really worked.
Dude, such a good feeling.
I mean, it´s also getting harder and harder with each run just because of the uphill.
Damn that uphill is tough.
Never ever felt my legs that bad before.
So tiring.
And even harder in the burning sun.
It feels close to 2 steps forward and 2 steps back.
But honestly it´s even worth every single step back.
FREE-RIDING on the biggest sand dune in Europe.
Different to what I´m used to.
Different to aggressive trail riding.
Different to bikepark laps or jump lines.
Even different to every single freeride line I ever had the pleasure to ride.
It´s all about balance and a sensitive feeling for the bike.
A sensitive feeling for body weight, brakes, tires and underground.
But once you got this, once you managed to adapt yourself to, it´s damn fun.
So different but so much fun.
And isn´t it all about that?
For sure my closest try to make riding bikes feel like powder skiing.
Such an amazing experience and for sure worth all the effort.
FREE-RIDING, you´re the best!
Thanks for making life the fun time that it is and thanks for making dreams come true.
A time to remember and a breathtaking sunset on top of it.
CHEERS to riding bikes and CHEERS to life.
#freeride #TheDUNE #artofliving
Pics by Roman Klotz
CHEERS buddy!
