We live in a sick place! Yeah, yeah, every other nation prides themselves on their unique and spectacular geography. Fair game.
From surfing point of view it's easily argued that we actually live in a pretty shit place. At the bottom of the world we don't have delicious coral reef passes. We don't have a stable continental climate. It is cold, it rains...a lot, it's fricken windy. But when it's good, it is so fucken goooood.
But what about from non surfers' perpectives....say Mountain Bikers? Well apparently we live in goddam Eden. Hence the title of Nick Stevenson's first foray into book creation.
That name sound familiar? It should, in a previous life Nick was the founder and driver behind the Aotearoa Surf Film Festival. Nick helmed the beast for its first decade. Surfing remains a passion for Nick. But the pull of the mountains and trails saw Nick and his wife Candice move to Wanaka.
The book Eden, I'm not a Mountain Biker, but I am a booky, a photographer and a bloody proud Kiwi. I also was privy to the production of Eden. And not a lot, but a little mentoring and steering Nick in the right direction. Early on he smashed through some of the working PDF's. I wanted to add constructive critique. Honestly, from day one I thought the design and the calibre of photographers was on point. The best advice I could give was, you're nailing it, don't let your non-endemic publisher wash down your vision.
And with Eden, Nick has not wavered from that concept; to showcase timeless the beauty of Aotearoa. The spirit of DIY and having a go. A thread that separates and defines the Kiwi Mountain Bike culture.
Not being a biker, I was totally enthralled with the stories and profiles. Frothed on the epic landscape photography...that happened to have a bike in it somewhere. This is an excellent Kiwi book.
Eden is oversized A4 portrait, hardcover with 274 beautiful pages. The RRP is $90.00 NZ and you can check it out via all the links in it's name in this post.
And Deeeeeen...
Well, it can't be a book post without pushing our own product! Rambo Estrada's Unbound Vol 1 may well be more to your liking if you can't see beyond the end of your surfboard's nose. It's a year old now AND in it's second print. we did it right, the public have spoken. Dunno what the hell I'm writing about? - Here's the link.
