2021 is about to call it quits and it’s time to look through the rearview mirror, spread some poetic nostalgia, and probably exaggerate our adventure stories a little. Many of us traveled farther than we did in 2020. These travels brought us community and refreshed our longing for something new. But they also brought us home to the trails and friendships that our wheels love to ride with.
For this year-end story, I asked my fellow Ambassadors to share their single most memorable photo of 2021. Here are the moments they chose. –Josh Rizzo, Kona Ambassador
Name: Heiko Krause
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Why I Chose This Photo: A friend and I got the chance to go out in the woods of Squamish with Clint to shoot photos between races this summer
Photo Credit: Clint Trahan
Name: Tim Wiggins
Location: Isle of Wight, United Kingdom
Why I Chose This Photo: This shot was taken at my Wight Prestige event, riding the Kona Sutra Ltd. Over a fantastic long weekend at the end of the summer, I showed a group of friends old and new the trails of my home island—the Isle of Wight. The 20 riders stayed in yurts on a local farm and got to experience three days of amazing locally sourced food and beautiful hidden trails.
Photo Credit: @wightprestige
Name: Jorge Toledo
Location: Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
Why I Chose This Photo: Fuerteventura is a Desert in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Nice place to get lost and cycling.
Photo Credit: @jorgetoledo.74
Name: Pierre-Luc Arseneau
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Why I Chose This Photo: Josh sent me a message that morning asking if I would help him get a dream shot, I said yes, why not? So we spent about 3 hours on the same spot on the trail doing the same move over and over again following him on a bike with his camera jerry-rigged to his frame.
Photo Credit: joshmcgarel.com
Name: Don Brockett
Location: Whitefish, MT
Why I Chose This Photo: This photo is of my first ride following a 3 month recovery after surgery, donating my left kidney to my wife who had polycyclic kidney disease. My wife was also on this ride, and also riding a Kona!
Photo Credit: Erin Brockett
Name: Mark Overby
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Why I Chose This Photo: This photo was taken as part of my first Ambassador piece submission about the Process X. I just really like the shot and it was a fun day.
Photo Credit: Jared Harber
Name: Alasdair McAlley
Location: St Just, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Why I Chose This Photo: Since relocating from London to Cornwall in February 2021, it’s been a joy to ride my trusty 1997 Kona Hot, eating up the trails and turning heads. Here we’re perched high at Tregeseal looking across to Lands End, the most south-westerly point of mainland UK.
Photo Credit: Alasdair McAlley
Name: Gretchen Leggitt
Location: Bellingham, WA, USA
Why I Chose This Photo: This image features me riding my Kona Dew E past the “Salmon Run” mural I had recently finished. The process of creating this mural was featured in WTB X Kona’s “Paint the Town” short film.
Photo Credit: Evan Skoczenski
Name: Josie McFall
Location: Chesire, England
Why I Chose This Photo: Racing my first British 4X National in over two years, due to a year out with injury followed by a year out due to covid. The time off during covid really helped me train and get strong to go on and win the overall national series title in elite women, my first overall title.
Photo Credit: Nick Bentley @Man_Down_Media
Name: Jacob Mullen
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Why I Chose This Photo: Here is a photo @devondbudd took this summer, on my local trails in Prince George, BC. This is one of the new hidden gems at the Pidherny trail network. The light gave us a little treat on an evening ride after work. Truly a piece of art from some great local builders.
Photo Credit: @devondbudd
Name: Ratapol Waitayangkoon
Location: Denton, TX United States
Why I Chose This Photo: Northshore Trail in Texas is the first trail I ever rode as a child. It still remains the trail that I always go back to no matter how many trails I explore.
Photo Credit: Ratapol Waitayangkoon
Name: Sandra Beaubien
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Why I Chose This Photo: This picture was taken at a lookout point on Lord of the Squirrels in Whistler. It was my first time riding that trail and I have wanted to ride it since it opened so it was a really special day for me to finally ride it this September!
Photo Credit: Mike McGuire.
Name: Dean Liebau
Location: Monkton, Vermont
Why I Chose This Photo: This year, my wife and I participated in a 263 mile race across Northern Vermont’s most rugged terrain. As the only couple to participate in the multi-day race, we were posed with the unique challenge of lifting each other up through the toughest moments.
Photo Credit: Peter Cirilli @cirilliphoto
Name: Erkki Punttila
Location: Kiilopää, Finland
Why I Chose This Photo: This photo was taken in January in northern Finland. We were shooting a fat biking film for Kona and Suunto and spent the night by a wilderness hut in tents. It had been snowing all day with temperatures around -20°c but during the night the weather cleared up and the moon gave a magical light over our camp.
Photo Credit: Jaakko Posti @jaakkoposti
Name: Henry Cruickshank
Location: Peebles Scotland
Why I Chose This Photo: This picture depicts me on my way to achieving a year-long goal of finishing a triathlon and, despite a laughably bad swim and sprained ankle, a lifetime goal of a podium at the national level. All at a venue, Aviemore, in the Scottish Highlands, that has a special place in my heart, a venue where a wide-eyed teenager saw Mountain bike racing for the first time.
Photo Credit: Triathlon Scotland
Name: Chip Woodley
Location: Tokul, Snoqualmie People’s land
Why I Chose This Photo: Blurring the line between dream and reality, this photo shows us the GreenZone and its myriad promises.
Photo Credit: Grant Hindsley
Name: Josh Rizzo
Location: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Why I Chose This Photo: For Father’s Day in 2020, my wife gifted me a trail-a-bike for pulling our oldest son. He couldn’t reach the pedals so we voile strapped some wooden blocks so he could reach. Now we’ve gone on so many fun adventures together flying through farm country and the wooded north. This photo is from when we biked to a burger farm for supper earlier this year.
Photo Credit: Josh Rizzo
Name: Peter Wojnar
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Why I Chose This Photo: Zanny Venner, Joel Ducrot, and I set out to ride a long loop through South Chilcotin Park one day last summer. It’s terrain we’re familiar with and trails we’ve ridden before—but linking them up in a single day was an enormous ride. Here we are roughly in the middle of the route, checking our headlamp batteries and laughing about how far we still have to go.
Photo Credit: Peter Wojnar
Name: Johannes Seehuber
Location: Germany, Upper Bavaria, Chiemgau region
Why I Chose This Photo: Golden hour, low lying sun, loamy trails in the fresh-looking green woods. These are my favourite conditions at home. Just some after-work laps on trails like this and my mind is satisfied.
Photo Credit: Johannes Seehuber
Name: Laura Killingbeck
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Why I Chose This Photo: On a mission to make my own snack attack pack on the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail.
Photo Credit: Laura Killingbeck
Name: Isabella Roeleveld
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Why I Chose This Photo: A misty day on the Shore is a mountain bikers equivalent to a blue bird pow day. They are rare but won’t be soon forgotten.
Photo Credit: Dave Smith @dasmith
Name: Kathryn Dove
Location: Snoqualmie, Washington
Why I Chose This Photo: This photo was taken at the last NW Cup downhill race of the 2021 season in Port Angeles, WA. I like it because it reminds me that life is kind of back to normal with returning to bike racing and it was my first race on my Kona Operator!
Photo Credit: Erin Brockett
Name: Ben Gerrish
Location: Lake District, UK
Why I Chose This Photo: The only chance of late I have had to leave the country, courtesy of Kona (UK). A whistle-stop trip to the Kona head office in Monaco, we obviously managed to sneak in a couple of days riding. Getting guided through the Maritime Alps by 1001Sentiers was a dream, an entire day of mind-blowing trails. This rock roll was a stand-out feature.
Photo Credit: Nico Le Carré
Name: Sydney Schumacher
Location: White Salmon, WA
Why I Chose This Photo: This photo was taken by Oliver Parish during Hangtime 2021. Hangtime was an all women’s freeride event hosted by Hannah Bergemann on Bellingham’s Blue Steel Jump Line. This photo and the whole event were very special. It captures the beauty of the jump line and the uniqueness of the event.
Photo Credit: Oliver Parish
Name: Tim DaCosta
Location: Grand Junction, CO
Why I Chose This Photo: Every year we go do this crazy fun artisan (50 people) enduro race in the Abajo Mountains. This year I pedaled donuts to 11k’ at the top of stage one.
Photo Credit: @Lightbulbmedia
Name: Thomas Silva
Location: Camargue, France
Why I Chose This Photo: It was taken in Camargue, in the south of France. First two days bike trip with my new bike. I rode in the region and took some stunning bird pictures.
Photo Credit: Thomas Silva
Name: Elliot Smith
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Why I Chose This Photo: In another year of more COVID and another lockdown, trail builders still managed to revive some iconic Wellington tracks. Me Sampling the freshies.
Photo Credit: Caleb Smith
Name: Ryan Gardner
Location: Oakland, CA
Why I Chose This Photo: This photo was taken in North Conway New Hampshire during a few-month trip back east to see friends and family and rip my favorite trails. This might be my favorite shot of me riding taken over my 12-year career.
Photo Credit: Brooks Curran @brookscurran
Name: Ulysse Daessle
Location: Italy
Why I Chose This Photo: While following and covering a race, we are focused on the ride, the action, the immediate results. But sometimes it’s great to stop for one minute and enjoy the nature and its fragile instants. I took this shot when I was shooting at the EWS of Canazei, riding with my Kona Remote 160 to be able to follow the different stages. I’ve stopped on the trail before the start of the first stage to take this picture.
Photo Credit: @ulyssedaessle
Name: Chad Cheeney
Location: Durango, Colorado
Why I Chose This Photo: Collegiate cyclocross season makes for the best group learning situations. Not to mention the awesome storytelling and jokesmithing moments.
Photo Credit: David Curry
Name: Jon Strom and Stevie
Location: Lexington, Kentucky
Why I chose This Photo: In 2021, the City of Berea, Kentucky, and KYMBA Bluegrass opened Silver Creek Bike Park—the first locally-funded, professionally-built bike park in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky! It’s perfect for helping riders progress, building community, and showing other landowners the benefits of investing in mountain biking. #ButtsonBikesYall
Photo Credit: Courage Media
Name: Kate Strom
Location: Lexington, Kentucky
Why I chose This Photo: This year we helped open a new bike park through our local trail organization and city council of Berea, KY. It has taken root as a place where beginners can learn and thrive and area riders can progress, all within the beautiful landscape of rural Kentucky. Coaching clinics here has been an undeniable bright spot this past year, and not to mention, the trails are super fun!
Photo Credit: Courage Media
Name: Alex Luise
Location: Veneto Region – North East of Italy
Why I Chose This Photo: I’m a photographer and I love to discover new locations, trails, or spots with my bike. Every ride can be an emotion or a new adventure. This is a photo of me and my friend Filippo, last summer for the trip, Venice to Cortina D’ampezzo, from the sea to the alps.
Photo Credit: Alex Luise
Name: Riley Seebeck
Location: Miguel, Portugal
Why I chose This Photo: Missing a year of travel has been hard. During the heat of my photo season, I got the opportunity to shoot the Trans Atlantis Enduro on the Azores Islands off the mainland of Portugal. The lush, overwhelmingly green volcanic terrain was a new flavor of slick I thought was a step up compared to the NW. It was an opportunity to slow down and enjoy island life. Immersing yourself in another culture is good for your health.
Photo Credit: Joao Fanzeres
Name: Clara Cendoya Ibáñez
Location: Spain
Why I chose This Photo: The pic was taken at La Fenasosa Bike Park in Alicante, Spain. I think it is interesting because it is one of the most important bike parks in Spain, well known and famous around the world.
Photo Credit: Clara Cendoya Ibáñez
Name: Jakub Kocjan
Location: Poland
Why I chose This Photo: Once upon a time we railed berms in Leogang
Photo Credit: Jakub Kocjan
Name: Colin O’Halloran
Location: Ireland
Why I chose This Photo: The photo was taken at the 2021 Lake Lander gravel ride in Ireland. It was 105km/65m in distance and 1834m/4540ft of climbing. This photo was taken around the 85km mark and I was struggling big time. I was just staring at my front wheel hoping for the finish line. One thing about this spin is that no matter how hard it got, I never walked my bike. I stopped plenty of times to take a breather but I cycled every bit of it.
Photo Credit: Unknown
