Feb 23, 2003 – The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival is concluding last week after a successful week and a half of film festival fun. Mountain biking features were only one aspect of the festival. Over 200 attended the 6th Annual Mountain Biking XXXTravaganza. The evening was MC'd by Alison Sydor (Trek-Volkswagen) and Robin Coope.
The night got off to a good start with a fun and playful presentation by the Norco Factory Trials Team and commentary by Robin Coope. Following the trials, Santiago Yanez presented an hour's worth of slides and dialogue about a 16-month bicycle ride he took from Argentina to Alaska. His presentation was entitled “I just went for a Bike Ride!” and was full of beautiful slides and lots of humor!
Following the first half of the show was intermission and then the screening of three short films. Before they began Alison Sydor spoke to the audience about the merits of the mountain bike. Here are some excerpts from her presentation.
“No matter how you define mountain biking, which obviously is defined in many ways right now, there's some constants for all of us. It's a good sport for the heart-both physically as we all know, but also spiritually. It's damn fun, one hundred percent of the time- well, except for that one or two percent of the time when you're upside down and flying through the air wondering where you're going to landS And I don't care how old you are, who you areSwhen you get on a mountain bike you feel like a kidSI tell youSthe mountain bike is the true anti-aging secret.”
“The mountain bike brings us into the nature around us and allows us limitless opportunities to explore our own and nature's own, boundaries.” Following Sydor's warm words the show began. Mike Kinrade's film “Riders Anonymous” was well received, followed by Maros Kocan's European trials film, “Rock N' Trial”. The evening concluded with Kris Holm's film “WhiteTrax”. “WhiteTrax” was made one day when Holm, after being confronted with bad skiing conditions, decided to ride his unicycle down the mountain, in the snow! The theatre roared with laughter and fun was had by all. For more information www.vimff.org