Retrospect

"Retrospect" provides insight into the creative vision that Tor Cameron has for trail building and freeride mountain biking on Southern Vancouver Island. At the beginning of 2021, cinematographer Liam Morgan and 18-year-old freerider Tor Cameron teamed up to shoot a video on the trails and features that Tor had been building throughout the past year.

Just days after completing the build of a key feature for the project (a large "trick-jump"), Liam and Tor walked into the forest to find that the feature had been destroyed. A week later a second feature built for the video was found dismantled. Like many mountain bike trail builders on Southern Vancouver Island, Tor is no stranger to discovering their hard work has gone to waste. It takes a lot of dedication and passion for the sport to continue under these circumstances. Luckily, these are two attributes that describe Tor Cameron perfectly.

After losing trails that he had spent months working on, Tor immediately threw himself back into new builds. The dedication he had to push on and complete his vision for the project was nothing short of remarkable. As Tor describes, it is only in "retrospect" that you can see the value in never giving up

"I wanted to showcase not only my riding but my building as well. Building trails is a big creative outlet for me. I love building as much as I love riding, and I wanted this edit to show my passion for them both." - Tor Cameron

"Building trails on the South Island has become increasingly difficult due to unsanctioned trails being constantly destroyed. Prior to creating the first trail shown in "Retrospect", my friend Jimmy and I were working on a trail for 6 months that we were forced to dismantle ourselves or be fined. This wasn’t the only time it happened. Nearly half of this video was to be shot on trails in different locations, all of which were torn down days before shooting. Seeing all of this hard work gone to waste as a result of the continuing development within our building zones is what inspired me to create "Retrospect". It shows the obstacles and frustration that we have to overcome to build freeride trails on the lower island."

"My biggest inspiration in mountain biking is Jordie Lunn. Watching his “Rough AF” videos is what made me want to go out and build/film my own trails. I hope to continue making edits in the future that show my vision of freeride mountain biking."