New ‘Through The Roots’ documentary on Irish MTB, with review & photos

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A college film project by a group of Dublin students has resulted in one of the best documentaries on any aspect of the Irish cycling scene in recent years.

The half-hour ‘Through The Roots’ piece was shot over much of the past year, during which the makers travelled around the country to speak to many of well-known characters from the off-road scene.

The film outlines the growth of Irish MTB , with a particular focus on filming downhill riders taking in some of the increasing number of trails now popping up nationwide.

The well produced documentary features some great action sequences backed with a vibrant sound track.

One of the three-man team behind the film, 24-year-old Dubliner Sam Crawford told stickybottle that while last year’s freezing winter made some shooting days more challenging that he would have liked, he and his colleagues are delighted with the result.

“We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and we got to meet some really incredible people who all have one thing in common; they love mountain biking. It was a real eye-opener seeing how passionate they are about the sport and how determined they are to make Irish mountain biking better.”

Crawford, from Castleknock in Dublin, is a second-year student in creative digital media at the Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown.

He teamed up on the project with classmates Graham Smithers (20) and Aaron McGrath (21); both from Blanchardstown.

Originally they had considered making the film about the growth of skateboarding; a sport Smithers and McGrath are involved in. However, Crawford had dabbled in mountain biking and this combined with the growth of the sport here saw them decide to focus their efforts on making an MTB film.

“We battled through blizzards for three hours in a Toyota Yaris, of all cars, to get to a location in Galway,” said Crawford.

“As well as that we missed an interview with Richie Byrne in Ticknock because the Yaris got stuck in the mountain roads covered knee-deep in snow. The weather didn’t seem to affect the riders in the slightest; in fact most of them seemed to enjoy it.”

The film includes interviews and action footage with the likes of Richie Byrne, Sean Herlihy, Greg Callaghan, Rob Davis, Dan Sheridan, Ben Kennedy, Luke and Cameron Cornforth and Glyn O'Brien, to name but a few.

Said Crawford: “We filmed for about eight months and filled more hard drives than we would care to mention. Editing took almost a month; we had so much footage it was hard to decide what to cut. We’ve now finally released the documentary and we’re delighted with how it has been received so far. The project is finished but we plan to continue working within the sport and we’ve plenty of future projects in the pipeline.”