The sun disappeared on Friday the 24th February, the lights turned on, and the people arrived for the 5th annual Monster Energy The Night Harvest, and they arrived in full force. With a crowd of over 1500 stoked spectators, this marked the biggest Night Harvest yet. With the best of the best professional Mountain Bikers and BMXers from around the globe descending on the unsuspecting town of Hout Bay, along with local shredders bringing the heat, the massive crowd was treated to a multitude of tricks that have never before been seen on African soil.
Photo credit: Sam Clark.
The contest began with a mountain bike jam of 45 minutes. This gave riders the chance to throw down their best tricks in order to impress the judges, in as many runs as they could fit in. Following the mountain bike session, was the BMX jam that took on the same format. The judges had to choose the top 10 riders from each respective discipline to throw down in the final. The boys were not holding back in the slightest, with everything from double backflips, to cash rolls, to 1080’s. And this was just in qualifying.
Style master Nico Vink with a beautiful toboggan over the first jump. Photo credit: Eric Palmer.
The Night Harvest facilitates an incredible platform that brings the top professional athletes from around the world to South African soil where they compete head to head with the best dirt jumpers that South Africa has to offer. Local Capetonian MTB riders Justin Novella and Cornell Swanepoel certainly didn’t disappoint, throwing down cheeky barspins and sending backflips at every opportunity. They faced some stiff competition in the form of the two Canadians Matt MacDuff and reigning Night Harvest Champ, Nick ‘Tricky Nicky’ Clarke, as well as the likes of Sam Reynolds, Adolf Silva, and Lukas Skiöld.
Head of The Trails Crew building team Justin Novella cracking a one-foot table. Photo credit: Eric Palmer.
While The Night Harvest is a competition, at the end of the night, the riders were just stoked to session the jumps and send it for the crowd. As Tricky Nicky put it, “These people paid money to come see us, so we’ll give them a show”. With 720’s, double truck-drivers, and double backflips being thrown down in the mountain bike category (to name just a few tricks), it needs no saying that the MTB boys brought their A-games. At the end of the finals, it was once again Mr ‘Tricky Nicky’ Nick Clarke that managed to defend his title on the top step as The Night Harvest MTB champion.
Nick Clarke was stacking up the craziest lines all night. Photo credit: Eric Palmer.
The BMX final then followed up the intense mountain bike final, and things only got more heated. With even more rotations and bigger combo tricks, the BMX final turned into one for the history books. Malcolm Pieters and Murray Loubser, the two local legends in the BMX certainly brought their full arsenal of tricks for the perfectly prepped jumps, giving the international riders such as Pat Casey, Kenneth Tencio, Declan Brooks, and Brian Fox a real run for their money. At the end of a final that saw massive combo tricks such as backflip tailwhips to late barspins and 360 double downside whips, it was Declan Brooks from the UK that had won over the judges claiming the top spot.
Declan Brooks was killing every jump-huge 360 toboggan over the first. Photo credit: Eric Palmer.
To round up the evening, riders then moved over onto the big trick jump line, where the shredding continued, and the hype peaked. For this portion of the night, BMXers and MTBers alike would send their biggest tricks on the jump line battling it out for the title of Best Trick. From the mountain bikers, we saw the insane Spaniard Adolf Silva going head to head with the loose legend Lukas Skiöld. It was Skiöld, however, that managed to top Silva’s superman seat-grab to barspin with his own no-look backflip tailwhip to late barspin for the win. The BMXers then saw madman Tom Isted taking the big W with his signature trick – the double barrel roll (a type of off-axis backflip). It must also be mentioned that currently, Tom Isted is the only BMX rider on the planet to be landing double barrel rolls in competition.
Lukas Skiöld sending a clean flip whip to barspin to take the best trick title. Photo credit: Eric Palmer.
This marked the biggest and baddest Night Harvest the city of Cape Town has seen. The Trails Crew put an incredible amount of work into the perfectly prepped jumps, and all of the riders brought out their big guns to put on a show for the massive crowd.
Photo credit: Sam Clark.
Results:
MTB:
- Nick Clarke
- Sam Reynolds
- Lukas Skiöld
BMX:
- Declan Brooks
- Pat Casey
- Brian Fox
Best Trick:
MTB- Lukas
BMX- Tom Isted
Spank Best Whip Off South African Champion:
Sam Reynolds
Photo credit: Sam Clark.
Photo credit: Sam Clark.
Photo credit: Sam Clark.
Photo credit: Sam Clark.
Photo credit: Sam Clark.
Matt MacDuff is back on his bike after his huge slam out of the loop last year.Eric Palmer.
Brian Fox brought a new trick to Night Harvest soil 3 rotations aka 1080 over the last jump. Eric Palmer.
Declan Brooks was slinging his bars all over the place-working this double truck.Eric Palmer.
The crazy Spaniard Adolf Silva has a huge bag of crazy tricks and pulled a rock solid out for best trick. Eric Palmer.
The fact that Tom Isted was the only BMXer to go for best trick didn’t hinder him from going mad with this double barrel roll Eric Palmer.
When you have fun you ride better and Nick Clarke was having so much fun he earned himself first place. Eric Palmer.
Man this was fun to watch. Slopestyle in South Africa is often overshadowed so its great to see events like the Night Harvest and Pure Darkness keeping the flame burning. With vibrant support to boot. You could spectate any race you want but nothing comes close to seeing guys like these throw down. Respect.