Monster Energy – DESERTED Ft. Axell Hodges

It seems like many of the big video projects we see these days have adopted this intent to “tell a story”, even if it’s just loosely based on an abstract idea of a plot line carried from beginning to end. While those projects are always really cool, the storyline thing ends up being more tedious to try to follow than just watching the guys and gals and their rides cutting up doing cool stuff.

This project from Monster Energy goes back to the old school way of just sending a video crew out to the desert with a badass on a bike and another behind the wheel of an insane off road truck and letting them shred for a couple of days. The camera crew is following Axell “Slay” Hodges and Rodrigo Ampudia as the rip the dunes during what is described as a brutal winter storm. I’m sure people from Minnesota and the New England region would argue the definition of a winter storm, but I think the Ocotillo Wells area is pretty temperate so for their to be rain and some chilly temps would probably qualify this as a winter storm.

Instead of setting up huge ramps and staging stunts, Axell and Rodrigo use what’s already laid out before them in the desert to launch some big jumps, while riding wheelies and hitting some other smaller, more technical tricks between catching big air. With Axell on his bike and Rodrigo behind the wheel of his trophy-style truck, there’s no shortage of horsepower and slinging sand, even though the sand is damp and clumpy, which really changes the look and feel of this whole video.

On one of the biggest jumps, Axell lands a bit short of the downhill part of the landing area, causing some major damage to his wheel in the form of several broken spokes. This brings up an opportunity for a little smack talk with FMX legend Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg, who’s on hand to watch the action as well.

Overall this is a cool video, and it’s great to see what can be done with a few cameras and a couple of badass dudes just doing what they do!