Darkfest: Isted sets World Record in Stellenbosch
‘Incredible’ Isted lands a 110-foot, dirt-to-dirt flip
Darkfest is in the history books once again. Earlier this week Tom Isted smashed the world record by landing a 110-foot dirt-to-dirt backflip. The invite-only event combines the world’s best freeriders with the biggest dirt jumps on the planet and it delivered another unbelievable week of progressive tricks that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on a mountain bike.
If you’ve been following you’ll have seen that this year the crew constructed the longest dirt jump yet, measuring in at 110 feet to the sweet spot of the landing. Brit, Tom Isted took full advantage, backflipping his way into the history books not once, but twice. With perfect weather conditions, Tom took off and his backflip of 120 feet, or 37 meters, makes it not only the longest backflip ever landed, but the longest dirt-to-dirt jump ever landed on a mountain bike!
The Liskeard native’s mega 120-foot jump wasn’t his first record of the week. The previous day he dropped in with fellow UK rider Sam Hodgson behind him and both riders did a backflip in a train, one behind the other. Tom landed 106 feet and Sam landed 104 feet, both breaking the previously held record. In previous years, the 90-foot mammoth was the biggest jump on the course and in 2021, Bienvenido Aguado landed the world’s longest frontflip at 100 feet. Darkfest is an event run by the riders for the riders and is a week-long jam format event with rider-voted prizes at the end of the week for all the best moments. The ground-breaking event is in its sixth year and has been held at the Hellsend Dirt compound in Stellenbosch, South Africa for five years. It continues to offer the women and men of freeriding the opportunity to test themselves on a course that’s considered one of the best in the world.
Sam Reynolds, creator and protagonist of Darkfest, said: “Another record at Darkfest! The world’s longest dirt-to-dirt jump on a mountain bike! This is why we build the jumps, and to see the guys pushing each other to go bigger is just an unbelievable feeling!“
| IMAGES: Eric Palmer & Syo van Vliet |