Things began to look better though and slowly the boys started to think about riding and turned to each other for inspiration. “When I first saw the Snake Pit I knew it was going to be nutty.” Chase said. “It’s kind of goofy working with Kyle Strait. It makes me half as stressed but twice as dumb kind of thing. It helps me to forget the realness of it all and makes it fun. Kyle’s got that lazy California style and the ‘charge it’ style all at the same time.”

The first day of shooting had the crew driving in the dark to Ymir from Nelson for a morning session.  Paddy Kaye was already there and stood at the bottom leaning on his rake after buffing the landings one more time. The two riders rode the three step-ups together in tandem to check their speed and both decided that Chase would 360 the bottom jump with Kyle right behind. The boys rode the big line a dozen times and called it a morning. We finally had some shots.

Early the next morning the boys went straight for the rock. After a few warm up jumps Kyle threw down a tailwhip. Chase countered with a backflip. His first attempt saw him come off his bike mid-flight and crash heavily into the ground. It looked like he was hurt. He got up, pushed his bike back up to the top and sat there for a long time. With his eyes closed and mimicking the upper body movement like a gymnast, Chase went through the motions sitting at the top.  Finally he rolled down, flipped off the rock and landed safely as the camera crew cheered. We wanted it as bad as he did. By 10 a.m. the morning light was cooked and the entire crew went back to raking and prepping for the afternoon shoot. As we were packing up the camera gear a grizzled local came ambling towards us. With a beer in hand he stopped to talk as we were sitting on the tailgate of Westerlund’s truck.

“This is the biggest thing to ever happen in Ymir,” he said waving his hands towards the jumps. “Even bigger than the reggae fest last weekend.” With those words he shuffled on down the road and around the corner.

Both riders pushed their bikes to the top of the course then began to ride the bottom step–up in a big way. Backflips, 360’s and barrel rolls were cranking just as fast as the quad could shuttle the boys back to the top. Chase did a dumped 360 that had him flat through his rotation. Just as soon as the sun hit the deck, the session ended abruptly and the Ymir kids charged the Snake Pit armed with their autograph pens and posters.

“Sometimes when people recognize me it catches me off guard,” Chase said afterwards. “The kids here in Ymir were so psyched to see us…sometimes people don’t think you’re a real person. One of the kids said to me, ‘Aaron Chase no way!’ It’s funny. When the people saw this today I’m sure they said, ‘I’ve got to ride my bike more!’” Strait was surprised by all the attention from the Ymir locals. “It’s cool to be able to come into a tiny town like this and have people know who I am,” Strait said still sitting on his bike.

The Red Bull Snake Pit was heading one direction all week long and that was our final afternoon shoot. It always seems to come down to the last day during crucial film trips and this was no exception. The riders knew it. And the guys behind the cameras had the same feeling.

Sunday was all about the three big step-up jumps. Chase threw down the gauntlet with a bunch of lofty barrel rolls then a couple of flip one-foot x-ups. Kyle did a superman seat grab. Then a 360 tailwhip which was out of this world. He did a single tailwhip and landed it clean but wanted more. After another quad tow to the top Strait dropped in and muscled his way over the first two jumps then spun his bike twice around and landed with both feet on the pedals to nail a double tailwhip. Something he’s been wanting for a long time. He was charging.

Soon after the sun disappeared over the mountain it was time to put the cameras away and call it a wrap. The Ymir kids had other ideas as they’d been waiting for this moment all week long. Suddenly the Snake Pit had a pile of young riders from top to bottom. Ripping past their heroes who took a turn watching from above. “This is the most fun I’ve had my whole life!” screamed six-year old Quinlan Thompson as he pedaled furiously down the big bowl on his tiny bike.

The happiest man in Ymir was Paddy Kaye who finally could sit back and enjoy this impromptu mayhem on his creation. “I looked up and the Snake Pit looked like a skateboard park,” Kaye said with a smile on his face. “There was an old school dad… not getting any air but just railing it through. Then you hear what his kid had to say and it makes it all worthwhile.”

Later that night seated at The Rez nightclub in Nelson, Aaron Chase reflected on the Snake Pit and how it all went down. “Everybody in freeriding are friends and we all help each other. Having two of us riding made the Pit busier and kept the motivation high. It made me want to go off! It also takes all the pressure off. The weight was distributed. It went back and forth and it was good to share a few secrets out there,” Chase said. Kyle Strait was happy to finally put an end to his season and his film segment.

This was the final film session for the movie New World Disorder 7: Flying High Again and producer Derek Westerlund looked like a piano had been lifted off his shoulders. The pressure of putting together this film project was compounded by the logistics of building something bigger and better than anybody had imagined.  The memory of something so big going down in a town so small was not lost on him.

“It was killer to see Kyle Strait land his stunts in the crunch.” Westerlund said. “It was great to see Aaron Chase do the back flip off the rock. That was burly. All the Ymir kids came out to watch the best riders in the world. It could have just been a bunch of horses in that field.”

The next day the riders and film crew left for home. Back at the Freeride office there was a movie to edit and new footage to be processed. In less than two weeks the world premiere was set to show in Las Vegas. Down the road in Ymir there were a handful of kids with new dreams in their heads. And the memory of when the boys and their bikes came to town.