One guy, one GoPro camera and one fall season have produced Last chance, a three-minute look at Yeti pro Mike West’s all-mountain riding, which is part of a greater creative work he’s dubbed Super D TV.
The 37-year-old, who’s based in Boulder, just north of Yeti's world headquarters in Golden, Colorado, races Super D and enduro for the storied American mountain bike brand. A self-described jack-of-all-trades and master of none, West has taken the wide breadth of mountain bike skills built up during his 13-year career and used them to post some notable results, at both the regional and international level.
“I started racing professionally in ’98 or so,” West told BikeRadar. “As a rider, I don’t see myself being [really] great at any one thing but being pretty good at everything – so not specializing. Lately it’s become [common that] if you do that you end up being pretty good at enduros or Super Ds.” His highest profile result is second place at the 2008 Mega Avalanche Peru.
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Super D TV: last chance
But racing enduros in the US is hardly a way to make a living. West holds an architecture degree from the University of Colorado but it goes unused; instead, a college internship with a local video production company set his career path. “I got tired of architecture and wanted to do something more creative so I started taking video [production] courses at the end of college,” he said. “I didn’t go to school for it, but after school it went that way and I’ve been doing it ever since I graduated.”
Super D TV melds West’s two passions – riding and videography – into a single YouTube channel. “I’ve always done editing, working at TV stations, but I finally got a GoPro and started picking up footage here and there, and started throwing it together,” he said. “I’m going to try to keep on throwing more stuff on there – some cooler stuff, maybe with more people – and covering the enduro stuff, which is what I love the most.”
West plans to document his 2012 racing endeavors at events like the Downieville All-Mountain race and Ashland Super D, as well as Winter Park’s Trestle All-Mountain Enduro and New Hampshire’s Highland Park OverMountain Enduro. “They’re popping up everywhere now, so there’s going to be a legitimate [enduro scene] in the US,” he said.