About

Just in case you don’t know who we are then let us enlighten you…

Jon Beckett (Owner/Editor)
jon@descent-world.co.uk

Having raced BMX since 1979 and DH now for more years than he would like to admit, Jon was a little fed up with the lack of Scottish action in the mainstream mtb press, he then decided to start doing repos and results for the Scottish DH series.

Since then the site has grown steadily and with a very active forum, descent-world has no doubt grown one of the best dedicated downhill websites in the world.

Jon still races now and again, but he prefers now to be behind the camera at the big events.

Doug Cook (Features Editor)
doug@descent-world.co.uk

He first jumped on a bike soon after being able to walk he messed around with rugby through his early teens before knee injury forced early “retirement” and a chance to focus on racing rather than just riding the bike on a Sunday after playing with balls on the Saturday, as with most bike mad teenagers he also blagged himself a job at the local bike shop on Saturdays where he ended up staying for 7 years, in the end looking after a certain popular Edinburgh bike shop.

From 1996 onwards a XC racing career of very vague promise (ie. once finishing 4th in a Scottish Series race) gave way to a downhill career of glittering mediocrity when a year living on (or at least near) the Vancouver North Shore in 2002 made him realise that the gravity side of things was much more conducive to a student lifestyle.

After several years punctuated by various knee problems he can now most commonly be found behind the camera or with a notepad in hand at race events and concentrating on riding away from the race scene. Work too is away from the “scene” with a certain well known Dutch brewer where he indulges in his 2nd passion……

Doug stumbled into helping out with Descent-World after inadvertently finding himself hosting the “World Premiere” for the first DW film “True North” in Vancouver in 2002 and has done a bit of everything for the site since then and is still the main man behind most Descent-World interviews in the off season and a stalwart of the last few years of Fort William World Cup coverage.

James Porteous (Photo Editor)
jp@descent-world.co.uk

James has been involved in Downhill and descent-world since it’s inception many a moon ago. A former racer and regular of the SDA circuit, James then turned his eye against the view finder and started getting some great results, along with awards too. His photos are now published everywhere from National newspapers, Dirt Magazine to here at descent-world. If it’s a Nikon he’ll like…but we get him on to a Canon soon.

Fraser Waters (Back End Administrator)

Family Man, Fraser is our back room boy (so to speak), he sorts out our back ends when they need tidying up. Having stopped racing DH a few years back, he’s still riding as hard as ever on his Santa Cruz Heckler, ripping up the 7 Stanes… Maybe he’ll get a DH bike again soon but you’ll see him more often in his Range Rover… fraser@descent-world.co.uk

Our other main contributors include:

Alan Milway – Fitness Guru and Euro ski resort whore. He ran his own Chalet in Morzine for more than a few years. Alan is so well connected out in da Alps..if he’s not riding with Orange’s Steve Wade he’s ripping down the trails talking on his mobile via bluetooth arranging tons of Pro Moto Cross rider’s personnel training. A talented rider and damn nice guy…catch his articles every now and again! www.mxfitness.co.uk

Ian Linton - A man of many talents, of course non that we have seen yet except for his photography. Ian is the man when it comes to race photos, see him at every race with his 1D cocked and ready…and then browse them all at www.ianlinton.com.

Craig Henry – Long time SDA regular, based in Edinburgh he loves riding the lastest and rarest machines he can get his hands on…from the sublime to the bizarre, you can bet Craig has cocked his leg over it so to speak! craig@descent-world.co.uk

Jonathan Carr - aka Our man in Japan, JC always seems to have his fingers in all the sushi pies, you can bet he’s seen or heard something weeks before anybody else, he doesn’t keep it all to himself though…share and share alike…but it’ll be on the forum first! jc@descent-world.co.uk

Others include Gary Millings, Allan Doyle, Russel Dunkley Mike Marsden and many others, thanks to one and all.

Contributions are always welcome.

Here’s how to contact us…

Postal Address: Please contact jon@descent-world.co.uk for any postal enquiries.

All Enquires: 07977 432631 [Cell/SMS]

Please note also that we only report on the racing, we don’t actually run them…try www.sda-races.com