Chatel Video

While I was staying in Morzine Tom Richards and I went out and filmed this, good times all round!

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Gravity advert

Back sometime in summer Stefan Haworth and I got up very early and hiked/ rode up Ben Lomond to try get some sunrise shots.  This is what we came up with...

Plus a few extra, head over to Stefan's blog to check them out - http://tappednz.com/conor-macfarlane-in-gravity-components-advert/#!prettyPhoto

The advert

Stefan also caught a few clips on his Sony Action Cams and made a short edit with the footage...

So, Europe...  This place is awesome!  There's so much to see, so many places to ride bikes and so much fun to be had.  I started off with a few weeks in Morzine smashing out laps then went to Les Duex Alpes for Crankworks.

Chalet Tacot.  Photo: Reuben Shaul

I won the amateur qualifier which got me into the main event which meant that had another qualifier which I missed a big trick on each run which was disappointing as was only a point or two qualifying for the finals but that's the way it goes.

Les Duex Alpes Quali

After Les Duex Alpes if was back to Morzine for a week packed week of riding and photos than decided would be cool to go to Andorra and watch the World Cup.  I ended up racing and have to say it was one of my favorite tracks I have ever ridden, steep, tech, loamy and just all round fun!

First jump and one of the few on course.

After Andorra I was going to go back to Morzine but got the offer of going to Pila to hang out and watch an IXS round. On the way there we stopped on the Mediterranean coast which is an amazing place with the warmest ocean I have ever swam in.  Just be careful where you order a steak on the Mediterranean coast as it might turn out to be a meat pattie similar to a McDonald's one...  Pila was an awesome place with an amazing view and some sick DH tracks including a 13 km long track down into the town of Aosta.  Also got to witness Matt Walkers horrific crash of the final jump during his quali run (at the end of the video below).


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Pila below the lake and Aosta down the bottom of the valley

So I'm back in Morzine now with about a week until I roady to Ireland with an old flatmate from QT to go see my cuzzies and hopefully ride the first set of DJs I've ridden since leaving NZ.

Morzine, France!

I luckily left good old N Zeeland a day before the snow hit for my extended summer.  I flew to London and chilled out there with some of my cousins for a few days while seeing the sights which was cool, love old architecture.

My first experience in a non English speaking country was a slight shock to the system, I knew basically no French but luckily I met the right people and managed to get to Morzine.  I ended up finding a room in Chalet Tacot which many a biker has stayed, its filled with a good bunch of people including another kiwi.  The number of kiwis in Morzine is off the hook, there has been a few times I've been walking down the street and I've bumped into some kiwis which is awesome.

Photo: Tom Richards

I happened to bump into Russ, an old flatmate from two summers ago in Q-town, up with a photographer shooting some photos and videos for Bike Morzine which he has set up and managed to snag a few photos of my self on the new Super Morzine trail.  Stoked on banging out some unturndowns and whips on the DHR!

Photo: Tom Richards

So far Chatel is my favorite place to ride, big jumps with consequences if you come up short which just makes them more of a rush.  Queenstown bike park take notice!  Not the consequences part necessarily but big jumps!  The mountain style course is still half covered in snow but you can tell its a lot gnarlier in the flesh than videos show, respect to all the riders which have killed it there!

Photo: Tom Richards

You can't just rock up to all Gold FMB events and ride unfortunately so I have to go to a pre quali event next weekend so hopefully that goes well and can get into a big event over here in Europe, bring it on!

Into The Arrow

Another collaboration with Tim Pierce, this time enjoying some of what Arrowtown has to offer whey you are after a bit of a pedal.  I really enjoyed filming for this, just ripping up and down an awesome trail without putting my body on the line like you do in a freeride/ dirtjump edit.  The colors and sound in this one are amazing!

During the months of March to May the southern hemispheres landscape is transformed by the second season of its year. Conor Macfarlane embraces Autumn, ripping leafy, loamy, loose single track under an incredibly colourful canopy in Arrowtown, New Zealand. Supported by Teva, Discover Arrowtown and Mons Royale. Shot on the SonyFS700 and Canon 5DMKII.

Getting ready for Europe

I'm already missing summer, or good weather at least, so why not go over to Europe and  try to catch some more sun...

The lads at WideOpen gave me this puppy to take over and shred; race machine!

I don't do that many races but if the chance comes my way while I'm over the other side of the world I may just see how I can compare to some euros.

And on the topic of racing I entered my first enduro a week ago at Bluff hill and had a ball, so much of a ball in fact that I may just do a few more next summer.  I managed to beat Buzz, one of the Queenstown locals this summer, by a whole 3 seconds over the 3 stage race which placed me second overall behind the unbeaten Ryan Cull.  Ever since I gave up competitive xc racing 5 or 6 years ago Ryan has won every club race he has entered and it was no different at this race so hats off to him! 

Cover of Spoke Magazine!

I've been pretty lazy on posting this one up but I've finally got around to it!

While Tim and I were filming the web video 'The Quiet Achiever' we shot a bunch of pics and hit Caleb over at Spoke up to see if he was interested in running a story on it.  I didn't have a clue what the story was going to be about/ like until I got the magazine but was pretty stoked on how it turned out.

The article consists of 8 pages with a bunch of photos scattered throughout it.  It's well worth a look, the whole mag that is, so go check one out.

The Quiet Achiever

Pretty darn stoked on this!  A short film that Tim Pierce and I collaborated on with some dirt jumping the morning after farm jam and some freeride lines that I spent over 40 hours making, but all the hard work was well and truly worth it!  Check it out...



A big thanks to Teva, WideOpen, Spoke, Marzocchi, BlackMarket, Gravity, SDG and Atomlab for supporting us.

Hopefully we'll make something bigger and better next summer!!

Diaries Down Under

Got the chance to have a wee ride with the Diaries guys, turned into quite the epic but was so much fun!  Got to go in a heli again which is always an awesome feeling, ride some old 4x4 tracks from back during one of the world wars when they used to mine shelite on the hills around Glenorchy plus some of the best local trail rides.

Check it...

Teva Slopestyle official clip

Here's the official event highlight video along with the best trick highlight reel, enjoy!

Mons Royale

A few weeks before the Teva Slopestyle Hamish from Mons Royale hit me up about riding for Mons  and you cant say no to that!  It ended up being perfect timing as he was sponsoring the Teva Slopestyle so was good to have another rider in the event along with Elmo. 

I’d like to thank Hamish for the hook up, so if your in the market for some sweet merino gears check out Mons Royle.

Teva Slopestyle 2013

Teva Slopestyle went off this year!  I don't have anything bad to say about the event, the course worked perfect, judging was fair, crowd was twice the size of last year and all the riders had an awesome time.  I had popped in over the week before the event took place and watched/ helped a little as the course took shape. By Tuesday the course was ready to test out, everything worked perfect first go and nothing had to be changed, pretty good if you ask me.

First hit on the stepdown so excuse the terrible looking style.  Photo: James Clark

It was good to get a few tricks out f the way on the Tuesday and know what the course rode like so I could think about what I wanted to try the next day.  Practice on Wednesday was sweet, it was more of a big session with all the boys throwing down which always makes it easier for you to throw down as well.  I managed to get most of the tricks I wanted to try out of the way including learning flairs, stoked!

Flair with the boys looking on.  Photo: Caleb Smith

Thursday was much the same as Wednesday during the day with some sweet sessions going down.  As 6 pm rolled around the crowd started turning up and we were herded up the roll in ramp.  We got to watch the amateurs show their stuff which was pretty impressive, some were doing runs as good as and better than some of the pros runs which was cool.

Flip during practice, almost under-rotated this one hence the posture.  

My first run went perfect apart from washing out on the flair at the end which was annoying but I cant complain about that with only learning them the day before.  On my second run I went for a 540 on the quarter to play it safe and get a good run under my belt.  The run went as planned so the next run I could throw more into it, I tried a t-wip onto the fruitbowl which I had been doing in practice but slipped a foot so was run over.  My second run was enough for 3rd which I was stoked on!  Going into the comp I was thinking I would be stoked to make it into the final with all the international and homegrown talent that were going to be attending the event so 3rd was awesome!

T-wip during practice

1st Sam P, 2nd Thomas, 3rd Me, 4th Chad, 5th Sam D

I'd like to thank all the people who helped put the event on and made it run smoothly, cant wait for next year!



2013 Teva Slopestyle Finals Day from firstfloor on Vimeo.

Rider Profile

Check out this Teva Slopestyle rider profile on Bikeland.  They're dropping a whole bunch of them leading up to the event.

http://bikeland.co.nz/2013/03/mtb-exclusive-teva-slopestyle-2013-rider-profile-conor-mcfarlane/

Things are starting to shape up, course design is sorted, rider list is growing and and I'm getting excited for one of the best events of the year.

Farm Jam 2013

So, Farm Jam 2013, awesome!  This year’s jam was far by my favourite, the weather played ball, the jumps were the best they’ve ever been and the company was as good as it could get; all a recipe for a good time!  I knocked off work at 5 on Thursday and picked up Nick Dethridge, Chris Beverland and Justin Roy and headed down to the farm for a chilly night in the tents.  I woke up to my first frost for the season and the sound of cows... 

After a morning of digging and putting up signage the jumps were opened; session on.  I must admit, I rode the worst I have ever ridden at the farm and had a bunch of silly crashes doing tricks which I had done many times before on the same jumps.  I decided to call it quits early and go home to Invers for a good shower, feed and sleep. 

Saturday morning at the farm was a chilled out affair with a bit of practice, some digging and some relaxing; just the way the farm is supposed to be.  Once the motos started firing we headed over to watch them, highlight for me was seeing Callum Shaw, a guy I went to school with and used to live down the road from me, flipping dirt to dirt hits and throwing supermen and Indians whilst upside down, don’t even think he could flip this time last year, progression!  As 3pm got closer the mountain bikers started warming up then it was straight into the 45 min jam.  Although I had been riding terrible on the Friday I felt not too bad, I tried to ride all the lines during the jam for a bit of variety along with some tricks.  For me I was most stoked on the transfer jump into the big line from the hips line.  When we were building it I knew it was going to be an awesome feeling jump and I wasn’t disappointed!  The saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ definitely applied to the jam as within no time (35 min to be precise) we got the 10 min to go call, where had all the time gone...  After the jam was done we watched the BMXers KILL IT.  So many tricks, some I had never even seen before, and not to mention a few of the most steezy riders I have ever seen ride.

Transfer/ hip flip thingy which is what got me 1st= best trick

I didn’t have a clue where I would end up and was surprised and stoked to be called up in second place and first equal in best trick somehow.  It was sweet being on the podium again and still being the tallest thanks to a small Spanish man beside me.

This is my favorite web clip to come out of the farm yet, no point putting up the 'official MTB highlights' as it contains hardly any highlights so heres Red Bulls Farm Jam - The action. 

All in all it was an awesome weekend and is a pity that it is over for another year, bring on Farm Jam 2014!

Aaaand, Tim Pierce and I are currently doing some filming... Here is a photo to wet your appetite, its going to be a bangers clip!

Tim Pierce Instagram

X-Up Freeride Festival

It’s been a week or two since I went over to Aussy for the X-up Freeride Festival and as you may know the weather didn't end up playing ball for us. 

I flew out of Queenstown on Thursday, put my bike on the plane beside Mcgazzas and when we got to Sydney my bike didn't show up, and his did.  Not ideal when your whole trip is only five days long and revolving around riding your bike but it’s all part of the game.  Shorty, one of the course designers and builders, picked up us and drove us 1.5 hours north the event location.  Riding the course on Thursday arvo was out of the question for me so I just chilled and checked out the course.

All photos stolen off the X-up facebook page.

After many a phone call I couldn't find anyone who knew where my bike was so decided to go back to Sydney with Jacko and a few others.  Ended up being a good choice as it ended up being around 47 degrees!  It was some sort of record I think, hottest day since 1990 or something along the lines of that, so we spent the day at the beach and I went for my first surf in four years, good times!  I used to surf almost every day before I discovered how much fun biking was so was good to do it again.

On Saturday I managed to track down my bike and get it delivered to the course, quickly built it up and did three jumps of the best whip line and then it started to hammer down with rain so had to can it.  It did end up clearing up later and managed to do two jumps then the whole course once before it got to wet to ride again. Twelve jumps for my whole time there as Sunday was a wash out and the event had to be cancelled unfortunately.

I’d like to thank all the guys who helped put the event on and to Nick for helping us out when we were there; it made it so much easier!

Wide Open Roady

I finished work on the Monday and cruised over to Bannockburn to stay the night and halve the drive to Alexandra the next day.  I met up with Kelly, Caleb, Brett and Mike Hopkins the next morning and we trained it to Alexandra where Dogboy and Scoulsy were waiting for us at one of the local bike shops.  A quick feed then off for some DH Laps and time to set up my new bike.

After a few laps we went and checked out the 50 footer that some of the Alex boys built (John and James Pollard???).  A short pedal then a set up jump then a chute into plenty of airtime!  It was awesome fun to be sending it and watching Hopkins do his thing, sideways and flat every time.

On the second day we got showed around Naseby by Kela.  A trail ride in the morning and some jumps in the arvo.  I ended up re-shaping the old Drop-In hip and doing a few downsides which I was stoked on as I haven't don't many of them before on a proper jump.  The day was rounded out by a thunder storm and a short rain session by Kelly and Mike.

All in all it was an awesome trip and I wish it could have gone for longer but it was off home to pack for X-up Freeride Festival.

I didnt take any of my own photos but check out Mikes Website and Spoke Magazine1 and Spoke magazine 2.  There will also be an article coming out in the next spoke I think so keep an eye out for that.