When listing the top 10 brain-melting moments in the history of freeride mountain biking on your fingers, Josh Bender’s four jumps off the infamous Jah Drop cliff near Kamloops, British Columbia, should be counted first, with both middle fingers, before raising each hand to the sky.

Bender hit the 55-foot drop once in 2000 and three times in 2001 but could never ride it out. Between 2000 and 2009, Freeride Entertainment released 10 movies in its “New World Disorder” (NWD) series. Josh Bender’s repeated, determined attempts at the Jah Drop in NWD 1 and 2 shook the cycling world to its core. It was huge. It was scary. We couldn’t look away.

Since then, the Jah Drop has become to mountain biking what the 100-foot wave is to surfing. Bender’s four shots at the Jah Drop and his style of riding ushered in a new era for mountain biking that saw the rise of Red Bull Rampage and other big mountain freeride contests. Still, the Jah Drop stands alone. And dormant.

That was until May 11, 2023, when a young Norwegian set out to try one of mountain biking’s biggest monuments. With a squad of cameramen in tow to shoot last-minute footage for Freeride Entertainment’s latest film, “Nothing’s For Free: The History of Freeride Mountain Biking,” professional rider Brage Vestavik traveled to Kamloops to pick up where Bender had left off 22 years ago.

“I had been thinking about Jah Drop for around four to five years,” Vestavik said, who hails from Mysen, Norway, and is 24 years old. “I’ve been a fan of Bender and his vision of mountain biking and was really inspired by him, so I wanted to step into some of his old territory and ride where a mountain biking legend had.”

Vestavik is a friendly Viking. He’s tall, exceptionally sturdy, and has a long, red beard. He smiles a lot, and his laughter can quickly lift the spirits of those around him. But he can also be reserved and quiet when he wants to be. He likes to listen to the harshest metal music known to humanity.