Worlds Best Mountain Biking: A World Odyssey – by Dan Gindling
“Would you be willing to go where no man or woman has ever gone before?”
Passion for bicycling comes in different forms. Some people are passionate collectors of cycling memorabilia. Others are passionate about the number of miles they pedal each year. While still others passionately outfit their bicycles with the latest in two-wheel technology. Some, though, have turned their bicycling passion into a profession.
San Diegans Mark Schulze and Patricia Mooney fit into the last category. They’ve taken their love for bicycling and transformed it into a living. Not working a bicycle shop or leading bicycle tours, but producing bicycling videos. Their latest video project – “Full Cycle: A World Odyssey” – has taken them literally all over the world in search of the planet’s best mountain biking.
While they both hail from Illinois they took different paths getting to San Diego. Mark and his family moved here from India when he was eight years old after his father accepted a teaching position at San Diego State University. Pat, meanwhile, hitchhiked first to San Francisco in 1979, then moved to San Diego.
Valentine’s Day
They met on Valentine’s Day, 1982, and four years later loaded up their newly-purchased camper and set off on a 9-month, 25,000-mile road trip. It was during this trek that they came in contact with their first mountain bike, outside of Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon.
“I thought it was some kind of strange machine that glides in the water,” Mark remembers. *(The rider) was deep enough (in the water) so all I could see where the handlebars. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen in my life. You didn’t see any tires or anything, at first. It sort of lifted out of the water, and I thought, “What kind of bicycle is that?” And sure enough we went into a local sporting goods shop to buy some fishing equipment, and they were selling mountain bikes.
So as soon as we got back (to San Diego) we spent what money we had left in our bank account and bought our first two mountain bikes.”
Wedding on Wheels
In 1987, they got married, entered their first mountain bike race, and produced the world’s first mountain biking video, aptly named, “The Great Mountain Biking Video.” Then after three more videos – all on bicycling – in three years they set their sights on loftier goals.
“What would be the most ambitious project we could ever do?” Pat wondered at the time. And the answer was traveling around the world with their mountain bikes.
The World Odyssey – Worlds Best Mountain Biking Documentary
So for over two years they pursued sponsors and shrunk the globe into nine countries. Finally, with everything in place they packed their equipment and set out for India, in late October, 1993 where they became the first people to ride mountain bikes through the Himalayas of North Sikkim.
Pat comments, “We had to question (the cameramen): ‘Would you be willing to go where no man or woman has ever gone before?’ They all said, yes.
Next, in February, 1994, they traveled to Costa Rica where they not only bicycled underwater but also inside a semi-active volcano. “Going into the volcano took four takes,” Mark laughs. “I went over the bars a couple of times.”
They then journeyed on to Australia where they mountain biked through the oldest mountain range in the world – the Flinders Range — before flying to Tahiti to pedal the island country’s jungles and beaches.
After re-grouping in San Diego they met nine-time World Trials Champion, Ot Pi, in Greece where they shot spectacular footage of him performing some of his greatest stunts around historical landmarks in Athens. Pat and mark then traveled to Switzerland where they bicycled the Alps before pedaling the rolling moors of Great Britain.
In addition to North America, they shot mountain biking footage in San Diego, Los Angeles, Marin County, Whistler, Canada and Moab, Utah. And to get the best possible images they filmed from helicopters and airplanes, and used Betacam SP.
“It was a $150,000 project,” Mark says. We’ve spent a lot of personal money, and all of the sponsors’ money. We shot with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. It’s the highest possible quality.”
Post-Production of Worlds Best Mountain Biking Video
With seventy-five hours of footage they had plenty to choose from as they worked hard from August to mid-September, 1994 on producing a thirty-minute video to preview at the world’s biggest bicycle trade show: Interbike in Anaheim.
Pat says, “We’ve been showing (the 30-minute video) to people who have no interest in bicycling. But they love the tape because it just takes them to places they’ve never been, and they’ll probably never go.”
That completed they are now in the process of putting together a two-hour piece both for the home video market and national television. And as always Mark will perform the eidting duties, while Pat writes the script.
“The longer piece will go more in-depth,” Mark comments. “You’ll see Ot Pi doing more stuff. The interviews are longer. You’ll get the environmental (footage). You’ll also learn more about the countries themselves, and see more. It’s not just biking, but it’s got a lot of biking in it.”
“Every country we went to we have an environmental slant. We talked to the locals about their (environmental) problems. In Costa Rica, for example, there’s still a problem of deforestation despite the fact that they’re one of the best countries in the world to keep their National Forests (intact).”
“Even if you’re not a cyclist you’re going to want to watch (the video). And if you are a cyclist you’re going to have to have it.”
In addition to the spectacular visuals and action, both the 30-minute video and the planned two-hour piece boasts an original music score.
And where would Mark and Pat like their video endeavors to take them.
“Hopefully, if it takes off we will do a series for national television. We’d go to different locations using the cycling as the tool to getting around those places.”
