Sam Pilgrim Talks Audi Nines 2019

A larger than life character with the ability to throw down on any Slopestyle or Freeride line he is confronted with, Sam Pilgrim is always a treat to watch. Witnessing him session The Audi Nines 2019 courses was no different!
We spent some time with Sam to get his thoughts on this year’s event…

Take us through your week at Audi Nines?
My week was good fun. We had the same courses as last year so I knew already what it was going to be like, so I decided to split up each day into a different bike I brought. I had three different bikes with me and sort of slowly hit each feature, so I wasn’t finished (tired) so early you know. Yeah, I had a good time.

What were your first impressions of the course?
Obviously everything was the same, but the new hip there was ridiculous, that’s a huge lot of work they did for a hip. The skatepark section was pretty cool. It’s basically the same but obviously it was awesome last year and it was super fun this year as well.

Which is you favourite feature, and why?
I really like the Freeride line cause it’s scary every time you hit it, super fast with loads of airtime.

Take us through your bike and setup for this year’s event?
I actually have the weirdest bikes in the world, like normal people wouldn’t be able to ride them. My suspension and tyres are all really stiff, all the time, on all my bikes. I don’t have to change it cause I make my bikes for this style of riding. So no changes but if you rode it you’d die.

Take us through your Audi Nines dream run?
[Laughs] I did by best line last year, so thing year I just didn’t do anything. Because it was the same as last year and I didn’t ride the Downhill bike once last year, I really rode the Downhill bike most days this time. I was really more focused on bigger jumps just because it made it different and more exciting for me. It was really scary to hit that line and that made it epic.

What tricks impressed you the most?
Standout tricks for me… Tom Isted’s life is weird, he loves to go… Tom Isted went he highest on the hip, he went the biggest on the airbag but without landing it, still the sickest thing I’ve ever seen, the Triple Flip attempt.
We’ve also got Nicholi (Rogatkin) with his huge tricks, as we already know he’s one of the best riders out there. Max Fredriksson, I’ve been doing a lot of videos with him and he’s been doing some bangers; Flip Double Whips mid run and stuff like that. And, obviously everyone else has been sending it, so its been amazing watching everyone and I was stoked to be around all these cool guys.

How would you best sum up Audi Nines in one sentence?
Audi Nines is the dream!