A little print love in the new issue of Bergwelten Magazine which is a subsidiary of RedBull Media out of Austria.
(Translation of the caption below.)
MountainCoordinates
Flowing Above the Ocean
A narrow ridge lies ahead, crossed by an even narrower strip of trail, with the deep blue Atlantic dropping away on both sides. Oriano Gouveia feels his way forward meter by meter, then flows faster and more fluidly along the trail.
At Ponta de São Lourenço, on the far eastern tip of the Portuguese island of Madeira, the terrain is challenging even for experienced mountain bikers. The line cuts through sharp-edged volcanic rock and dense vegetation perched on cliffs that fall straight into the sea. There is no room to stop and hardly any to hold back.
In the days leading up to the shoot, photographer Tyler Roemer recalls, Madeira’s typical early-summer drizzle settled over the landscape, binding the loose soil and turning the ridge into a grippy line, without taking away its raw character. The exposure above the ocean, framed by subtropical vegetation, is what makes Madeira so special as a bike destination.
Trails like this are the result of years of work by local builders like Oriano Gouveia, who don’t simply impose lines onto the landscape, but instead read them from the island’s natural geography.
We landed on this location originally from a Garmin photoshoot where we covered a lot of aspects of mountain biking for their "Edge" product. This shot basically happened within the first hour of that shoot where Oriano Gouveia who is a guide at 'Freeride Madeira' rode it like nothing.
The caption covers a bit but I want to give props to Freeride Madeira. They are more than just a guiding service. They have spent years building and maintaining a massive network of trails across the island, and they actively reinvest back into that system. Their knowledge of terrain, weather, and timing made a big difference in how we approached each day.
Garmin Producer: Kyle Pusateri
Art Director: Tommy Short
Producer: Chad Parker (Always Outdoor Tv)