DVD Review: North Shore Extreme: Dirty Dreams
This DVD focuses on mountain biking in and around Vancouver. It not only tackles the natural terrain, but adds some urban tricks from the city to the mix.
"Dirty Dreams" is well-divided into sections that include riding in snow, a unicycle, night riding, skate park, urban riding and lots of extreme North Shore stunts.
Several big names appear like Thomas Vanderham, Dan Cowan & Wade Simmons, but for most of the DVD the star is the terrain. The intricate constructions that carry riders through the rocky wooded trails contain high skinnies and steep drops that would make the average rider crap his pants.
Your stomach will drop when you watch several of the jumps - and a few of the misses too.
On the downside, "North Shore Extreme" suffers from the same symptoms as a lot of extreme sports DVDs. There is a lot of action and absolutely no story. You get no sense of who the riders are, where they came from or what motivates them to risk life and limb for a few seconds of glory.
The opening scene shows a mountain biker riding home through the city to his apartment and going to bed. The assumption is that the rest of the DVD is full of his mountain biking dreams - hence the title. It's rather lame.
If you've never seen North Shore style riding, then this might be a good DVD for you, but don't expect to learn anything about the this famous sect of the sport. If you are just looking for a DVD with lots of action then this one will do just fine, but blends in with dozens of other extreme mountain biking DVDs
If you know of any documentary style DVDs about mountain biking on the North Shore, then let us know about them on our mountain biking forum.
"North Shore Extreme: Dirty Dreams" is available for purchase at Amazon.com.
