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The day began with the kind of noise that rattles straight through the ribcage, a feral chorus of engines kicking awake beside the dormant hulks of carnival rides. Salt hung in the air like static. Sand sprayed in sheets as riders carved lines into the beach, less like a race and more like a ritual, a fever dream of petrol, sea, and steel. Amid the roar, the warmth of camaraderie emerged. Quiet, human and unmistakably Malle.

Malle is a brand not built on products, but on people, on dreamers and dust-covered rebels who believe that motorcycles are something closer to poetry than machine. Malle is stitched from adventure and contrarian charm or, in this case, an improvised racetrack carved into the margins of the English coastline. Their world balances heritage and mischief, craftsmanship and chaos. They design for the bold, for the curious, for those who don’t just chase freedom but insist on looking good while doing it.



“motorcycles are something closer to poetry than machine...”




When long time collaborator and moonvault. co founder Saxon White and I set out to experience and document the Malle Beach Race we had to answer a looming creative question: How do you capture spirit without taming it? How do you honour the culture and the chaos of this unique event and the characters taking part while still producing something composed, intentional, and artful enough to echo Malle’s own DNA? Traditional film making and studio style portraiture wouldn't work here - Malle is not a brand that waits for the camera to catch up. Instead we dove in to the deep end, embraced the Malle attitude with both hands, stripped down the kit we had brought with us to its bare minimum and threw our storyboards into the sea. In short, we got mobile. 

Rather than scheduling interviews with key organisers, race winners and sponsors we trusted our collective guts and captured the Malle beach race as it was intended to be experienced, in the thick of it. Stripped back rigs, natural lighting, two rolls of film and a wireless lapel allowed us to make something cinematic and beautiful while keeping up with the people (and the bikes) that make Malle what it is.



the portraits.


The film portraits revealed the beautiful absurdity of the event, each frame an editorial moment suspended between grit and grandeur. Riders interrupted wrestling their bikes across the beach and stood suddenly statuesque, mythic, almost regal. The film stock ate up the harsh light, breathed warmth and added that touch of heritage that the Malle embodies. The portraits form an anthology of chaos framed as high fashion, the everyday elevated, a celebration of the values of the Malle brand.

While Saxon setup his shots it was my job (as well as acting as a human light stand for the off-camera-flash) to chat to our subjects, at first to get them comfortable but as the day progressed we realised that the interviews were giving us startling insights into the passionate and peculior people that were the life blood of the Malle Mile.

I am very glad that we decided pre-shoot that the easiest way to keep track of names for publishing purpose was to record these interactions







The heart of the project revealed itself not in the cinematic montage of motorbikes, but in the people, storytellers, wanderers, engineers, outlaws, thinkers, first-timers and veterans alike. Together, image and word created something greater than highlights—they became a memory etched in motion, a portrait of a culture in full roar.


There was John, the metal detectorist, who spoke about centuries-old harbour coins but was most proud of the lost wedding rings he had returned to strangers. There was Laura who suited up as Bat Girl at her three-year-old son’s request, another who described a quiet hero on a Yamaha who sacrificed his one spare bike chain so a stranger could ride.

Then there were the veterans like Ian, here since day one who swore the more inappropriate the bike the better and, of course, Bruno, the self-proclaimed ‘loud drunk’ with “dashing good looks” who insisted he hates crowds, noise, and motorbikes, but loves free drinks, and therefore loves Malle.

They spoke of the privilege of riding on a British beach, about bikes big and small, childhood dreams, and how something once terrifying becomes the most natural thing in the world. These stories revealed what the Malle brand is truly about: nostalgia, rebellion, and the wild, unpredictable joy of motorbikes.


What emerged from the project was more than documentation, it became a piece of world-building for Malle. A visual mythology that retained the wild folklore of grit and generosity, that deepens the brand not with slogans, but with people, not with posed models, but with truth. My sincere thanks to everyone who lent us their stories, bikes and passion for this project and to Malle for welcoming our cameras into their world, and for creating a culture where mud, madness, elegance, and adventure coexist so beautifully.

- Ruari