Connecting the Dots from Past to Present

A Film by Ian Beaudoux | Words & Photos by Heidi Zumbrun

Ever since 2014, Heath Pinter (X Games athlete and professional car/motorcycle builder) and Ian Beaudoux (filmmaker) have been documenting their travels together, creating a film project called ROUTELESS.

Go left instead of right … always the long route.  For years Pinter and Beaudoux have been riding motorcycles, vintage roadsters, drag racing, meeting up with friends and doing cool shit, always with a destination but taking the road less traveled. As they see it, the idea is very basic, “grab your buddy, ride your motorcycle and check shit out — it’s what people should do, and we’re just doing what we wanna do.”  And what they want to do now is revisit the route that ties all of their history together: a well-known Highway 395.

To Ian and Heath, this project is a slightly different take on their past journeys. Instead of aiming toward an event or people to interview, this was an opportunity to revisit the road that links it all together for them, connecting Southern California to their roots in South Lake Tahoe, where they met snowboarding at the age of 18. Over the years, Ian and Heath have probably traveled Highway 395 more than a hundred times going from sea level to 10,000 feet, connecting the dots of the past to the present. Highway 395 is the lifeline to how it all began for these two, and for six days, I followed them riding up the backroads, revisiting a road that has a rich history for California, combining two of their favorite passions: motorcycles and snowboarding in the Sierra Nevadas.

As with most of their trips, this one begins in the garage. Two freshly built dual-sport Harley-Davidsons with side-mounted snowboards — one 2010 scrambler built out by the talented Aki Sakomoto from Hog Killers, and one 2003 street tracker customized by Heath, both rigged with snowboard racks built and designed by Heath — rolling out for their first rides from Long Beach to Mammoth Mountain via the most off-the-beaten-track dirt roads as possible and filming along the way. 

Here is my photo diary following these two guys out riding on the open road, signifying 20 years of adventures and projects together.