FIM Hard Enduro World Championships

The FIM Hard Enduro World Championships

Produced for Red Bull TV, Red Bull motorsports You Tube and Social channels.

Dead Sea, 40 Deg C, very hot and very dry!

As part of a dedicated crew traveling with the tour for the entire season, Red Bull in conjunction with 27Km produce a 26-minute highlight race recap for each stop. This job requires covering various aspects of the race, from interviews to action highlights. To capture the action, we use 4x4s and dirt bikes to leapfrog the race course, allowing us to film the top competitors as they hit each section then to move fast in the mountains, forrest or desert to reach the next good camera spot.

The highly experienced race director and camera team position manager Eric Themel plots the optimal times and best spots for us to capture the action throughout the course as a team. This timing often requires on-the-spot adjustments as we move between camera points. During the race, I use GPS coordinates with Map Out to coordinate with my driver to get me close to my designated spot. From there, I hike at full speed with all my camera gear (FX6, FSB8, lenses, batteries, monitor, walkie radio, water – totalling over 20kg) to reach my filming position.

Watching the trackers, I predict how long I should stay in one position before running to the next spot, and finally to the finish. This type of shooting demands physical fitness, the ability to set up quickly, assess the spot, choose the best cinematic angle, understanding rider movements to ensure safety while staying in the action, and confidently handling my camera gear and technical decisions.

I thrive on the energy and excitement when the race starts. A typical hard enduro race can last around four hours, and some extend over multiple days. Romaniacs, for example, is a six-day rally covering about 60km per day with a total vertical altitude comparable to climbing Everest! You can imagine how my legs feel after chasing this race for a week with a 20kg camera pack. its pretty normal theses shooting days are 16 hours with getting to and from race spots, Broll, paddock shooting and BTS shoots for the documentary.

Season 2024 is taking a slightly different approach by our team where we will also produce a new documentary series about the sport, it's history and the main riders throughout the season. I love this type of work, documentary, fly on the wall, finding the story beats that are going on, getting into the dirt behind the scenes and really showing how this crazy sport is different to anything else. Fingers crossed it makes it to one of the large streaming platforms for Hard Enduro to be showcased to the world. Such a niche sport but so much stories to tell within the races, relationships, world title races and the drive to be the worlds best. I look forward to sharing this next year.

Here are some of last years highlights:

Try to not shake as 30 riders charge straight at you.
Wales, 1st stop of 2024
Hixpania finish bowl, Spain
Traveling the world following these races is truly amazing, feel very honered.

Links:

Follow the races here:

Redbull TV Hard Enduro page

I Ride Hard Enduro - The wolrd championship website for all the rankings, updates, live timings on race days and more.

BTS from my Instagram reel for some fun with our great crew:

Romania

Canada

Serbia