Here’s what happened. Ariel picked me up in the dump truck for the drive out to Tractor Supply to pick up an 8′ wide stock tank to turn into my post run/ride plunge pool. It’s an odd sort of errand, and I didn’t know Ariel, but it’s a 45 minute drive out to the Tractor Supply so we had time to chat.
Ariel is the son of a British father and Jamaican mother who run a pineapple farm in the Jamaican countryside. In the winter, he goes home to help on the farm. In the summer, he works with a gardening/landscaping consultant local to me. Thus the dump truck and the stock tank pool, and the two of us talking about football (soccer) and bikes and life on the way to the exurbs on a hot summer’s day.
Turns out, Ariel loves mountain biking, and the riding in Jamaica is killer. He tells me he needs to hook me up with his friend Tony King, who is a Jamaican forest ranger and mountain bike guide. I start following Tony on Instagram. Most of what Tony posts is ripping little phone videos of him in the deep, lush forests of the island. Sometimes he decides to ride a wheelie through town. Tony’s videos make me happy, and I think, “Man, you need a good way to share Tony’s riding with the people.”
Then I’m YouTube and I come across the video below. There’s Tony, ripping it with high production value. I’m a little sorry that Scott didn’t think it was worthwhile to credit him and his buddies in the video notes, although they show up in the rider list at the end. I mean, come on guys. Credit the locals, the guides, the rippers. Do the right thing.
But still, check it out.