In his second showing at the Red Bull Rampage, Carson Storch went from being the young gun living his childhood dream to freeride phenom. At just 23 years old, Storch nailed his 2016 Rampage run, securing himself the Best Trick Award and a bronze medal. Those familiar with Red Bull Rampage, know it is the world’s most renowned mountain bike event. What you may not know is how the contenders spend their months and weeks leading up to the biggest event of the year. Most imagine these professional athletes dedicating one hundred percent of their energy, time and focus on training. Fully committed, with an almost selfish, all-consuming drive in their quest for success.

After spending the last two months shadowing Carson around his hometown of Bend, Oregon, we realized that our preconceptions were wrong. Way wrong. When we first came up with the idea of documenting Carson’s countdown to Rampage we envisioned epic days on the trails and mega-sessions filming at the Oregon Dirt Park. It quickly became apparent that Carson spent as much time fulfilling obligations as he did training. In between short sessions at local training grounds like The Lair and Cline Butte, Carson was traveling to movie premieres, attending athlete summits and meeting with countless film crews all wanting their own unique interviews.

Storch is a quiet, small-town kid who prefers to let his riding do the talking, yet his impressive skills and confidence on the bike have placed him in front of the lens more often than he’d like. In his final weeks of preparation from hometown to hucksville we could sense the excitement, pressure and scarcity of time. Balancing commitments and still being confident and prepared for the biggest event of the year is no easy task and while Carson may be young in age, he’s mature beyond his years in handling his business. Despite the shortage of time Carson was able to use one of his flights as an escape to write down some answers for our interview below. We just didn’t feel right having him sit down in front of another camera after watching him squirm in front of so many others this month.