It might be regarded as the world’s biggest mountain bike spectacle but to many of the people who were in Whistler this weekend the Red Bull Joyride slopestyle is just a casual sideshow.

Right as the finals were going on we walked around town and asked people their experience of the event and what drew them to Whistler. Some couldn’t care less about the biking, some didn’t even know it was on, while others were simply awed by the feats of athletic daring on display.

This is just an alternative angle to one of the most media saturated events in mountain biking from the perspective of the uninitiated.

Interviews by Seb Kemp
Photography by Dan Barham