Deus Slidetoberfest 2019
As a big fan of Deus Ex Machina (like everyone), I decided to extend my stay in Bali once I heard that the 4-day Slidetoberfest event would be held just after my initial trip would have ended, and boy am I glad that I did. I only attended three of the days, but man were they good fun.
DAY 1: SWANK RALLY
Day one of the event was the Swank Rally. This is around a 2km track which they set up at Pasut Beach. It starts with a challenging weave through the thick bush and then a quick blast along the thin concrete pathways before the riders bounce down the steps and onto the beach. Then they’re faced with an area full of wet sand and mud where they will be sliding between palm trees and bouncing over washed up driftwood. After this they have a rocky section which goes up into the nearby fields, around the back, and then back on to the sand for a long straight along the harder sand and through a few little streams. They slide back on the saddle of this and just hold the throttle wide open all the way. Then just before the finish line is a few berms, a couple of big drops, and several small river crossings - followed by the last one which was bloody deep! Then it’s the home straight where they just pin it and fly over the finish before grabbing a beer.
This is a timed event so it’s only really one rider on track at a time, but in good old Deus fashion, it was pretty much a free for all.
This day was followed by a movie night at the Deus Temple where we grabbed a bite to eat and watched over some of the classic Deus Short Films.
DAY 2: SURF COMPETITION
This is the day we skipped. There were no motorbikes as they were hosting the surf competition this day, so we decided to grab our own bikes and go get lost amongst the jungle instead. None of us surf, but we all live to ride, so I guess it was the only way to go about it.
DAY 3: MOTOCROSS
This was probably my favorite day from the event. It was held at Uluwatu motocross track (which I didn’t even know existed) and it was a scorcher of a day. There were several heats for the 3 different categories; the 150cc, the retro class, and then open class (250cc+).
The track is pretty big and holds some quite gnarly sized gaps, so realistically you can’t ride a 150cc bike on there, but yet again in good old Deus fashion, they did. They supplied twenty 150cc CRF/KLX dirt bikes and as long as you had a pair of boots to wear, you were allowed to ride. I was pretty tired and half hungover from the night before so my camera stayed in her bag during this race. But once the retro class came out, I quickly found a bit of life and managed to get some shots of that.
It was crazy. We were given full access to the track and could go literally wherever we wanted during the race. I kept my shutter speed pretty slow so I could capture the movement as these guys were hooning past and sliding around berms (literally) a few inches beneath my feet. It was just madness. Getting pelted with rocks and suffocating from a mixture of dust and two-stroke fumes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. These guys were going hard on the old machines and as you’ll see from the photos, they absolutely flew through the air, crashed to the ground, and just snapped to pieces in a lot of cases.
Then came the open class with the 250cc+ big bikes - besides little Kelana Humphrey. He was riding his Husqvarna 65cc two-stroke, but his little wheels and custom suspension gave him what he needed to keep up with the big boys. These guys go HARD and were just absolutely killing it. You’ll see from the images that the track would quickly dry up in the sun, leaving it in a crazy dusty mess, but it looks awesome. These guys enjoyed just kicking the back end out at every chance they had!
Kelana actually ended up taking the win for this. That kid can RIDE!
We sank a few beers and got absolutely destroyed by the sun throughout the day, so once the checkered flag was flown, we decided that was us and we headed home, but the temple did host an art display that night too.
DAY 4: FLAT TRACK
This was a pretty awesome day, but the white chalky ground and the harsh sunlight convinced me to leave my camera in the bag and just enjoy the day for what it was. We ended up just chilling in the sun and again, in good old Deus fashion, sinking a generous amount of beers, whilst the odd few guys got up and went for a good slide.
These guys were riding customized KLX 150s again, but given the size of the track, that was more than enough for this to be excitingly dangerous. It was a few hours of these guys just sliding in to each other, in to the fence and trying to get around that track at full throttle.
Awesome fun to watch. Nobody got (too) hurt and little Kelana came away with another win for this event crowning him the overall winner for the Deus Slidetoberfest 2019.
I’ll surely be arranging my 2020 schedule to get back over there and experience that all again!
