Interview with Derek Westerlund: The last action film by the cult filmmaker

FREERIDE: The New World Disorder series, Rad Company, Where the Trail Ends - it's been a while since your last bike films. Why a new film now?

Derek Westerlund: We are now in the fourth generation of freeriders. Brage Vestavik, for example, was not even born when the first NWD film came out. I want to give these people an insider's perspective on how freeriding came about in the first place. It's a story that needs to be told, and my film Nothing's for Free tells it.

To celebrate the freeride pioneers?

Yes, that too. I wanted to celebrate the people who brought the sport forward and laid the foundations for what's happening today. Because: We started this shit (laughs).

You were there right from the start. Which moment in freeride history comes to mind first?

When I saw how Brage Jah-Drop that Bender jumped over 20 years ago. Back then, it was Bender who showed what was possible in freeriding. Today, it is Brage who is pushing the boundaries.

The Jah-Drop! That's a sensation. How did it come about?

The whole endeavour was crazy. It felt like we were trying to catch Osama Bin Laden. We didn't have any permits, went out in the dark like bushwhackers and had to enter Native land to film the stunt. We broke all my rules of behaviour - but in this case it was worth it.

Who came up with the idea?

He - Brage!

Your reaction?

Well, if anyone can do it, it's probably him. I watched the Jah Drop last year. For the first time in over 20 years. I was quite surprised that the landing had become steeper and hard as concrete. But when we got there this year, the ground was strangely soft again. The erosion, the weather - I don't know. Brage wanted to do a hard landing and the drop without changing anything. But now we had to compact the landing, otherwise he would have got stuck like a fence post.

Did that work?

The impact was so violent that he still sank in. Afterwards he was thrown upwards, but he managed to stay on the bike and somehow ride it out. A wild move that showed me that I'm too old for this shit.

You mean you almost had a heart attack?

Yes, far too exciting! I would have had a heart attack if I had seen him drop. But I was standing next to him at the top of the jump and had to hide so as not to be in the picture. So I only saw him disappear over the edge. That alone was awesome.

After all, anything can happen.

Exactly. After a lifetime in the action sports business, your nerves become frayed. I can no longer watch people get injured.

Is that what Nothing's for Free is about?

Yes, we ask the question of whether the risk is worth it. In the past, when the industry was flourishing, we thought we had found a business model that had the athletes' backs. But today, nobody seems to consider the enormous risk that athletes are taking. It's all about numbers, the athletes are interchangeable.

Rampage riders do so much for the sport, but they are treated like disposable items. Yet they are the true heroes of the sport. - Derek Westerlund

What was Brage like just before the drop? Because his risk seems incalculably high during the stunt.

He seemed calm, had his headphones in his ears and was listening to Norwegian black metal stuff. And at some point he said: Go Time!

Pretty bad-ass!

And the worst thing: he had no run-up. Bender had a few wheel lengths before the drop. But the erosion had eaten everything away. Brage could only do a Hans Rey jump, more or less from a standing start, and then he tumbled over the 17-metre cliff.

And he was gone!

After that, it felt like five minutes. It really did. I huddled in the bushes up there and listened. A nerve-wracking silence and then that nasty thud. A crash? But then everyone down there cheered and I knew: he'd actually made it! It wasn't until later that I saw the crazy rodeo ride of the landing. Absolutely crazy. You have to see it.

When you think of all your New World Disorder films, what top 5 stunts come to mind?

1. The Jah-Drop, of course. It is the epitome of a freeride stunt.
2. Hell-Track. When John Cowan and Timo Pritzel did ten-metre jumps and took dirt jumping to a new level.
3. When Wade Simmons jumped the Moreno Gap. Which, by the way, Dylan Stark recently repeated.
4. Bearclaw, who was the first to make drops.
5. Robbie Bourdon's flatspin. That was simply crazy back then.

In the past, freeride heroes used to swarm all over the place. Which rider fits your definition of a freerider today?

Clearly: Brage. He has the right attitude. If the Rampage was still like it used to be and not a slopestyle event, he would win everything. Or Jaxson Riddle. What impresses me is that Jaxson does his own thing and doesn't care much about anything else. His style is very unique. Unfortunately, this individuality has been somewhat lost. And of course Semenuk. Semenuk seems to hover over everyone.

Guys like Semenuk have shaped the sport. What about films. Which three films come to mind?

Kranked. New World Disorder. And Where the Trail Ends. For me, WTTE is one of the most honest mountain bike films ever made. The Collective may have had a whole new aesthetic, but I don't think the film has influenced the sport.

Now the time of big films is over, it's Insta-snippet time.

Ha ha, of course, that's what my film is about. Back then, the risk was still worth it, you could build a career with it and make a good living. But in the instant media thing, it's completely different now. I spoke to Tom Van Steenbergen about it.

He said he could do the craziest stunts, but everyone just wants to see his crash. Nothing seems to matter anymore. I hope that my film will open people's eyes to this aspect.

Attention is dwindling, it feels like you've seen it all before - so it seems almost naïve to make a film that people are supposed to pay for.

You haven't seen what I'm showing you yet. Guaranteed. The story is blatant. It's shocking that the athletes risk everything for salaries that they would also earn at McDonalds. And it's shocking to learn that the athletes are pretty much on their own if they get seriously injured.

The world needs to know?

Hell, yeah! For all action sports types, this story needs to be told. I experienced the development from the front row and was a bit like Doctor Frankenstein. I fuelled the development myself, which I didn't really realise at the time. When I look back now, I'm shocked myself. The message has to get out. Maybe the message can sensitise people and make sport better.

Can this development be influenced? Hard to imagine!

Yes, I can imagine a rebirth of freeriding. Maybe the film works like an anthem that reunites the sport, the athletes and the industry. Think about it: the Rampage gets more views than the entire World Cup, even more than all bike races put together. But people don't know that, even big names in the scene like Specialized boss Mike Sinyard don't know that. In short, the Rampage riders do so much for the sport, but are treated like disposable items. Yet they are the real heroes who inspire kids to take up mountain biking. The bike industry doesn't realise how important freeriding is for the sport, they still only have racing in mind.

You produced action porn with New World Disorder. Your film Nothing's for Free is a documentary. Which documentaries impress you?

I was struck by The Defiant Ones, the documentary about Jimmy Lovine & Dr Dre. Less the documentary itself, more the editing and the visual realisation. That's the benchmark, and I orientated myself on that. I wanted to break the rules and do something different. Or the documentary about Shannon Hoon, the singer from Blind Mellon, which uses a lot of original recordings. We also used a lot of original recordings, which seems raw and old-school, but gives the film a special effect. It remains to be seen whether the film will work out in the end.

I was moved by the documentary The Alpinist, a film about the climber André-Marc Leclerc.

A Red Bull film. I have also made many films for Red Bull. The Alpinist is their best.

You've said that Matchstick's ski films inspired you. Why did your bike film A Biker's Ballad become so meaningless?

The guys from Matchstick should do what they do best: Ski films. They're the best at that. That's the reason why I stopped making bike films: If you're the first and the best and you've set the benchmark, then you shouldn't mess around. Then why all the stress if I can't improve?

Which of your films are you particularly proud of?

On Where the Trail Ends.

And which film production was the most fun?

Presumably NWD 9 and NWD 10. Because back then it was all happening, freeriding was at its peak, Semenuk was just taking off and we could do whatever we wanted. Good times! That was also the reason why I didn't end up at NWD 23 now, because it wouldn't have been any better. On the contrary, now I would have to make do with a third of the budget. The industry no longer invests in cool projects, it wants to be rewarded straight away. Red Bull were the only ones to do this in the last decade, but they too have now turned into a social media house. There are no more big film projects. Thank you, dear Internet!

But the film projects also became more and more extreme.

I agree with you there. Partly. Take North of Nightfall, for example. When we were making the film and Jeremy Grant had finished the third edit, I thought: This is a great film, so cool, so different, we're revolutionising how people experience sports films. And then 20 edits later, under pressure from Red Bull, it was just an ego trip by a handful of white rich kids travelling to places where nobody else can go because nobody has that kind of money. To me, that was the prime example of how a shot can backfire. You could have done something sensible with the money. But Travis Rice's principle of making a snowboard film for seven million dollars has ruined action sports. We don't need a seven-million-dollar snowboard film where rich kids fly to the far corners of the earth in helicopters. That shit has perverted the whole genre.

What a great insight! I wouldn't have expected that from you.

Yes, that's how I see it. Maybe it's because I've been in the business for so long and have witnessed the whole development - the meteoric rise of action sports. And now almost its end. All the risk, all the commitment, but at what cost? I can't even look at that any more.

What do you mean, you're not watching it?

Of course I watch the clips from Fabio, Danny and Brandon, because they put so much time and energy into it. But the long time in the business has made me jaded. Unfortunately.

Will Nothing's for Free be your last freeride film?

Yes. The film is my final chord. Unless I make New World Disorder 11 after all (laughs).

New World Disorder

The Alpinist

Where the Trail Ends

New World Disorder 9

New World Disorder 10