YETI’S JOEY SCHUSLER made a seamless transition from World Cup DH racing to the brand’s marketing department, where he now manages their grassroots race team, runs their social media accounts and heads up video and photoshoots, as well as flying their turquoise colours on the enduro race scene.
Enduro’s better than DH I find enduro much more entertaining
than DH racing. After watching enough DH races the wow factor wears off a bit.
Enduro has a sense of adventure to it that downhill will never have, and that’s
what I find most interesting – it’s where the stories come from and what makes
each race so unique. Telling the story is harder due to the longer and more remote
format, but it’ll just be a matter of time until the media being produced is on
par with the DH scene.
Adventure beats racing Racing DH for Yeti on the World Cup team
was a dream come true but since then I’ve found a much deeper satisfaction in
undertaking adventure trips. Recently we did an eight-day self-supported trek
through the Peruvian Andes, filming the entire experience. It was by far the most
amazing experience of my life and I’d do that over racing any day.
An exciting time for MTB It’s amazing to see how big the sport is
growing, so rapidly. A few years ago I hardly had any friends who were into
riding, now it seems as if everyone I know has a mountain bike. As a
photographer and filmmaker, it’s exciting to see mountain biking media production
on par with that of any other outdoor sport too – a few years ago that wasn’t
necessarily the case. On top of that, the bikes these days are incredible. My
Yeti SB66c has replaced what would have been a quiver of three bikes a few
years back.
Riders I admire I’d be psyched to film with guys like
Adam Craig, Jerome Clementz and Lars Sternberg. They’re really focused on
racing but also get out there and do cool adventures and know how to have a
good time on a bike away from racing. Not to mention they’re rad dudes and fast
as hell.
The next big thing I couldn’t care less about wheel size.
For enduro 26in and 650b are rad, and 29in can be cool for longer adventure
rides or XC racing. Geometry and sizing are much bigger factors in how a bike
rides. You’re talking to the wrong person if you want to get into it on the
technical details though – I just like riding bikes.
