Nothing’s For Free (Except This Movie Night)
‘Nothing’s for Free’ Movie Night at Oskar Blues Taproom
I’ve taken on the Director of Marketing and Communications position for Austin Ridge Riders Mountain Bike Club, alongside my friend Clint Newman. These are volunteer board positions as ARR is a nonprofit organization. We are both going to be maintaining the website, keeping the social media channels up to date, and creating some content along the way to help promote the club and build membership.
One of our first tasks was working alongside Stephanie Martinez, ARR Director of Events, to plan a movie night at Oskar Blues Taproom and show the new ‘Nothing’s for Free’ documentary. This was ARR’s third free movie night, and they have all been very popular with over 100 people typically in attendance. This time around, David and his staff set up the taproom with row seating instead of tables which was the way to go. Huge shout out to the team at Oskar Blues for the help.
ARR partnered with Freeride 512 for this which made sense given the subject matter, so owner Rob Stepnoski showed up with plenty of swag and merch. I reached out to friends and asked for their best freeride related clips and reels, and made a short montage combining what they sent along with some FR512 videos. We had this playing in the background as folks arrived, Stephanie and Rob gave a few short introductions and then we started the film.
Freeride mountain biking is ultimately about finding or creating lines and features that challenge the limit of what you and your bike are capable of. It is exciting, dangerous, and helped push the sport to become what it is today. In return, the athletes who have given so much received very little despite life changing injuries. Despite this, our human nature does not let us give up and these moments just inspire greater determination. The next generation conquers what once seemed impossible, and we see one rider who - thanks to technology - is able to experience trail riding again. This story pulls no punches, nothing is censored.
One of the more emotional stories in the film is about Brett Tippie and his life, and we also get to know a bit about the legend that is Josh Bender. There is candid commentary from Kyle Strait, Brandon Semenuk, Paul Bassogoitia, and Tarek Rasouli to name a few. The content is pretty much PG13, it isn’t really for kids but it’s definitely one of the best mtb films I’ve seen yet. Runtime is about 1 hourr and 45 minutes. You can watch it now if you are an Outside + member!
If you are not yet an Austin Ridge Riders member, please consider joining! In addition to these free movie night events, there are group rides and work days, and your membership helps advocate for trails in Central Texas.
The next event coming up for ARR will be Take a Kid Mountain Biking, followed by Cranksgiving in November.
