Extreme is one of the more abused words in the English language today.
But it applies to offroad motorcyclist Marty Halmazna’s exploits at the Red Bull Sea to Sky extreme enduro-motorcycle event in Kemer, Turkey. Spanning three days, the event saw 213 contestants from around the world ride their machines over some of the most daunting, and extreme, terrain on the planet.
“I rode on a lot of what I thought was lava rock. It was purple in colour,” Halmazna recalls. “Then there was a section I want to describe as burnt poplar trees, like a forest fire. But the ground was solid, white rock. I was riding on solid, white rock and every tree around me for a kilometre was burnt to a crisp.
“I would call it a ghost forest.”
The lone Canadian at the late-September event, the 40-year-old Cochranite, sponsored by Cochrane Floors & More and Bow Ridge Sports, was one of 60 riders to finish the three-day test, earning a gold medal in 36th place. Day 1 was a prologue on the beach, an event designed specifically for spectators, featuring endurocross-style obstacles made of logs and tires. Day 2 was a 65-kilometre woods race.
The first two days determined a racer’s starting position for the gruelling Day 3 mountain run – 60 kilometres of nastiness straight up Olympos Mountain, the highest mountain in the Kemer region. The elevation gain was 2,365 metres. And the terrain was . . . extreme.
“There aren’t too many people who can beat me on downhills, or really extreme descents on mountains,” says Halmazna, who trains on single-track trails designed, constructed and maintained by regional offroad motorcycle clubs at McLean Creek and Ghost/Waiparous. He also had to re-install his drive chain, which had derailed and jammed into his Husqvarna TE300’s counter-shaft sprocket, and still finish Day 3 in less than the required seven hours, doing it in 5.5 hours.
