Time Continuum A Norwegian Enters Freeride Folklore
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.
He started riding motocross at age four, encouraged by his dad, Arne, who drove him back and forth to the track. At age six, he got his first glimpse of the freeride movement in NWD 7 and began building dirt jumps—and wooden stunts, or what he calls “North Shores”—in his parents’ backyard.
Vestavik began to compete in BMX and then started downhill racing a few years later. Progressing in Norway’s national series, he joined the Devinci team at age 16, under Gabe Fox’s invitation. He excelled at World Cup races, often placing in the top 10 in the junior category before eventually advancing to the senior ranks. But he felt increasingly hemmed in by competition and kept returning to his passion for freeriding.
“I was just a name on paper between many others,” Vestavik said about racing, which he eventually gave up. “I loved riding my bike too much to sacrifice all the time racing required to get the results, and I knew that was never going to work out. A lot of people saw it as a crazy decision, but I just felt digging, building, and bringing these visions [freeride stunts] to life was the best way forward.”
So he stopped racing, and things began to fall into place. Vestavik connected with the Norwegian production crew Blur Media, and together they released their first film in 2018, “Out There,” featuring his riding. In 2021, Vestavik and crew won the silver medal and Reader’s Choice award in the X Games Real MTB video contest and, that same year, took home Pinkbike’s Video of the Year and Reader’s Choice awards with the same edit. The following year, Blur’s “Sound of Speed” project snagged a second Pinkbike Video of the Year award by a significant margin. The edits all blended Vestavik’s uncanny ability to build and ride one-of-a-kind manmade features with his audacious, slightly unhinged speed. Throughout this period, the Jah Drop loomed in the back of Vestavik’s mind.
“When I start thinking about something, I go a bit crazy and am almost obsessed about it 24/7,” he said.
After meeting Bender at Rampage and enlisting Derek Westerlund of Freeride Entertainment, Vestavik felt his opportunity to go for the Jah Drop had arrived.
“It was really important to have Bender involved,” Vestavik said. “Jah is his drop, and in mountain biking, you respect that.”
“It was really important to have Bender involved. Jah is his drop, and in mountain biking you respect that.”
— Brage Vestavik
Once in Kamloops, though, uncharacteristic, heavy rain threatened to thwart the attempt. The crew waited for days until the landing had dried. On May 11, Vestavik hiked his bike to the top just as the sun began to set. He realized the edge of the takeoff had eroded over the years, which shortened the approach and complicated it with an extremely tight turn at the run-in. Unperturbed, he strapped on his helmet and headed for the unknown, his phone’s speaker playing “Left Hand Path” by Swedish death metal band Entombed from the pocket of his jeans.
In the air, Vestavik remembers thinking that the landing looked flat. He braced for impact by holding onto his handlebars as hard as he possibly could.
“That landing was almost like a blackout moment. My fender and GoPro flew off, my crank and pedals went into the ground, my helmet hit the handlebar and stem, and I broke my seat,” Vestavik said. “I left the ground a second time after the impact, and my feet flew off the pedals. I was just riding down the landing, sitting on the broken seat. I didn’t crash, but in my head, I really wanted to ride away cleaner. At that moment, I did what I could. In the air, I did exactly what I wanted to do.”
The brute force upon landing took its toll. Vestavik sprained his ankle, injured ligaments in his leg, and had bleeding in the bone of his foot. Nonetheless, he’d ridden the Jah Drop and was now part of freeride history alongside Bender.
Today, Bender lives on a remote property in Northern California and drives eight miles into the nearest town to find a signal for a phone call. He understands the cycle of celebrity and the significance of the Norwegian returning to the Jah Drop. He knew it was only a matter of time.
“I’m totally stoked he did it,” Bender said. With how much time he spent at Jah Drop over the years— battling the elements, honing his bike setup—learning of Vestavik’s attempt also struck a more personal note.
“I feel like I’m the old wise man on top of the mountain now and Brage is coming for wisdom, and I’m like, ‘You’re not ready yet, grasshopper—you still have some shit to do,’” Bender said. “The fame doesn’t last forever—you can’t keep charging at that level for a long time. He’s still going to be my little brother; he could be my son—come on! He’s keeping the old school spirit alive, and it’s good to see.”
The gravity of the moment and the sincere recognition from Bender isn’t lost on Vestavik. He sees Bender as a mountain biking visionary who was ahead of his time.
“He is an icon,” Vestavik said. “He did something different from everyone else to be able to really stand out, push the limit, and send it further and harder than anyone else at the time.”
Vestavik is a student of the old-school class of freeride and has a list of riders that inspire him. Josh Bender is one, of course, but he also cites legends such as Robbie Bourdon, Mike Kinrade, Andreu Lacondeguy, and James Doerfling as mountain bikers who sparked his passion for going big. Now, reality has set in for the hardy Norwegian. He’s made his mark on history, but already he’s looking to where he’s headed next. He likes what he sees in Kamloops and British Columbia.
“To me, it’s almost a holy place for mountain biking. It’s the birthplace of the North Shore, and it’s some of my favorite riding,” Vestavik said. “A lot of legends came out of this place. This place has a lot of history and is just gnarly.”
Later in the evening, after his Jah Drop jump, Vestavik laid on a couch with a bag of ice on his ankle and a celebratory beer in his hand. Cameraman Axel Rødningen sat by his side and searched the internet for old “New World Disorder” clips posted on YouTube by a fan from South America. The two Norwegians know each segment, each song, and each location by heart. They share a love for the history of the sport and the days before freeriding became mainstream— when it was for outlaws, renegades, and outsiders.
With his foot elevated and footage of Robbie Bourdon sending huge jumps playing on a big-screen television in the background, Vestavik slumped into a relaxed, contemplative mood.
“You know my crew is Blur Media; they are my best friends,” he said. “We hang out every day, building, riding, partying, and editing. We are living for each other. We are getting ideas from each other. We don’t see it as work. We do it because we love it.”
