Freeride mountain bike festival Darkfest is no stranger to world records and the sixth year of the spectacle was no different. The invite-only event combines the most fearless freeriders with the biggest dirt jumps in the world and it delivered another unbelievable week of progressive tricks that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on a mountain bike.
This year the crew constructed the longest dirt jump yet, measuring in at 110 feet to the sweet spot of the landing and UK rider Tom Isted took full advantage, backflipping his way into the history books not once, but twice.
The Darkfest dirt jumps are some of the biggest ever built, with overall rolling speeds in excess of 75km/h down the track, airing gaps over 100 feet and heights of over 25 feet. With perfect weather conditions behind him, 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!
I couldn’t be any happier right now! It was windy, but luckily I timed it perfectly so I had a tailwind off the jump and managed to travel 120 feet, absolutely smashing the old record set by Cam Zink of 100 feet!
Tom Isted
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.
It was the end of the session and the light was fading. We were the last ones, the conditions were perfect so we dropped in one behind the other, both breaking the previous record!
Tom Isted
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 the 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.
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!
Sam Reynolds
