1) Freeride Mountain Biking – Gobi Desert

Mountain biking is all about hitting the wilderness, burying your iPhone under a mound of dirt, setting that mound of dirt on fire, and finding freedom in the awesomeness of nature. But, for many of us in the UK, that’s not always as easy as it seems. Sure, there’s loads of open space, cool trails, and, in Scotland especially, some real epic stuff on offer.

That being said, no matter how far you trek from the beaten track in this green and pleasant land of ours you’ll never be as far from the beaten trek as the absolute mega dudes who go Gobi Desert free-ride mountain biking in ‘Where The Trail Ends’. This environment clearly took a lot of effort to get the most from, but the thrills and spills on the way down were plainly worth sweating for. This is 200% epic. No. 300% epic.

3) Iceberg Wakeboarding In Patagonia

If you’ve seen the 1997 film ‘Titanic’, you could be forgiven for thinking that icebergs are only famous for interrupting passionate love affairs between people of differing social standings and sinking cruise ships. However, as wakeboarding legend Parks Bonifay discovered in the waters of Patagonia the bad reputation of icebergs is a tad unfair.

This, it’s fair to say, is wakeboarding like you’ve never seen it before. Kickers? Who needs ’em when you’ve got huge sloped chunks of solid ice floating around on the water like frozen cubes in a glass of 7 Up? This spot, which clearly took some effort to get to, is in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares in Argentina.

4) Cody Townsend’s – Legendary Alaskan Line

If you’ve never seen this, what have you been doing with your life? We’re not even joking. Seriously, what have you been doing with your life?! This line from big mountain skier Cody Townsend, in the Tordrillos Mountain Range of Alaska, pretty much set fire to the internet in 2014…in a way that Kim Kardashian’s oily bum could only dream of replicating.

Townsend’s descent through that near-vertical chute has been etched on our eyeballs ever since we first saw it. Sure it’s made driving our cars slightly more difficult than it used to be and we do occasionally find ourselves shouting things like “holy moly…how the hell has he done that?” and “flippin’ ‘eck…that’s bloomin’ outrageous” at inappropriate moments but, other than that, watching it has greatly improved our lives.

Thanks Cody. Thanks for making the effort, and giving a gift to the world.

6) Danny Macaskill – The Ridge

Danny Macaskill is, arguably, the closest humanity has come yet to producing a proper wizard. We’ve yet to see him play Quidditch, defeat a Balrog, or grow a long white beard, sit at a roundtable, and call himself Merlin. But, putting that to one side, we have seen him do an almost unquantifiable amount of genuinely implausible stuff.

The Ridge, which features Macaskill returning to his native home on the Isle of Skye, is a death-defying and awe-inspiring thrill-ride from start to finish. The climb, riding, and descent of the infamous Cuillin Ridgeline is made all the more emotional by the beautiful spine-tingling music that plays over the top. This is one epic mission that might just bring a salty tear to your eyeball. Lovely stuff.

7) Jeremy Jones – Shangri La Spine Wall

Jeremy Jones is, it’s safe to say, one of the ultimate kings when it comes to big-time backcountry snowboarding. We could, if we’re being totally honest here, have just turned this piece into some good old fashioned JJ fanboy-ing but decided that wouldn’t be fair on all the other superb action sport mission videos that the world has to offer.

Our favourite Jones moment, taken from the secret JJ-dedicated box we keep under our desk, is when he dropped in on the Shangri La Spine Wall in Nepal. This was absolutely huge on so many levels, and Jones basically rewrote the definition of epic with it. Anything that involves a 21,500 foot drop-in in the Himalayas, preceded by climbing footage that’s this astonishing, has to be considered an epic mission.

8) The Cyclops Wave – Australia

Cyclops is located seven hours from Perth, Australia, and can only be accessed by chartering a boat. When you factor in that Australia is a mere 24 hour plane-ride away from the United Kingdom, it’s fair to say that surfing this spot falls comfortably into the ‘serious mission’ category.

Cyclops is known for having massive chunky lips that swell up from deep water, and break onto a bed of extremely sharp coral. The uniqueness of the environment gives Cyclops both its unique shape, and its name. Watch the video below and see how the awesome wave nearly collapses in on itself, making it almost look like a solitary eye…sort of.

10) Unreal Mountain Biking On A Glacier

If you’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to go mountain biking on top of a giant tub of vanilla ice-cream, in the middle of nowhere, this footage from the UnReal film production in British Columbia is an absolute must watch.

Not only does this cracking video score an eye-popping eleven out of ten on Mpora’s thermostat of awesomeness, it also shines a light on the epic lengths people are willing to go to go mountain biking in places most people would never think to go mountain biking. Go humans! Go team! Gooooo mountain biking!

The Indestructibles, a new TV show sponsored by G-Shock, is coming soon to Dave.

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