Watching trials champ and extreme enduro rider Pol Tarres do impossible-seeming tricks on a stock Yamaha T7 in The Seeker short film was one of the best things to happen in 2020. In addition to showcasing Pol’s mind-blowing skills, it was a work of art. So richly structured and filmed it raised the bar on what a motorcycle thirst trap could deliver. 

Well, after a long wait, The Seeker 2 is here, and we’re excited to say it’s even more impressive and meaningful than the first film.  

One of the things that was most impactful about the original The Seeker film, was its relatable storyline, the solo rider quietly rolling out at dawn to spend a day with his beloved adventure bike, really brought it home. The Seeker 2, with Pol’s now modified T7,  also tells a story, but this one is deeper, and of very personal significance to Pol and his team. 

It’s about a friend of the champion rider, Gerard, who had endured a very difficult life and, like so many, turned to drug use to cope. Pol’s father gave him work, hoping that a sense of purpose would help him fight his demons, and Gerard subsequently became one of Pol’s best, and most trusted friends. Until one day when Pol says they unknowingly said their last goodbyes. Gerard did not make it to see the next sunrise. 

“Authentic and generous, he marked all our lives, so we are dedicating this project to him,” says Pol of The Seeker 2.

The film opens with Pol’s friend Gerard, embodied by another friend of the rider’s, actor and comedian Ahikar Azcona (Money Heist), alone on a desolate beach and hopelessly stuck, with his own T7 sunk in deep sand. He calls Pol but the phone dies before he can explain where he is. The rest of the 17:48 minutes of the short film is a visual feast featuring 28-year-old Pol doing unthinkable things on his adventure bike as he searches for his friend. 

There’s slaloming through dense forests at diaper-wearing speeds, gap jumping of roads and never-ending wheelies as Pol races through accidental playgrounds that include mine shafts, derelict houses and an abandoned factory. It’s always breathtaking to watch Pol make any bike dance, even more so, when it’s ballet with a 400-plus pound adventure bike. Capturing these feats on film also has its challenges too. “Most of the scenes were not possible to repeat because of the risk,” says one of The Seeker 2’s creatives, Javi Echevarría. 

We met Pol’s latest T7 early last summer, a bike he went on to use for the short film, A Thousand Ways To Live and raced in the Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro, coming in 18th in a field of nearly 200 riders. Unlike the bone stock T7 he rode in the original Seeker video, this bike has had some work. Pounds were shaved by removing things like the stock ABS system and a full Akrapovič exhaust system was added. Outback Motortek supped its stock T7 crash bar system and created a custom aluminum skid plate with linkage protection for the bike, and by the time it headed for the Romaniacs rally it had also received a new fork and rear shock built by Italian off-road specialist, Boano Moto. Pol prefers to use aggressive Mitas knobbies (Terra Force EF/EF-07) and a rally-style seat. 

While Pol’s incredible stunts on the T7 are the magic we see on the surface of The Seeker 2, it’s the Echevarría brothers, Javi and Mito, also known as The Who, that bring the work to life. Filmed in The Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost region, famous for its beautiful Atlantic beaches, the backdrops alone are compelling.

The stunts in The Seeker 2 get more intense as the film progresses, culminating in a bum-clincher cliff climb toward the end, where Pol coaxes the T7 up sheer cliffs in order to get a bead on his trapped friend. Pol says this last stunt sequence was his most challenging to date. In fact, he almost didn’t do it. “As I stood at the foot of the almost vertical wall, I said I wouldn’t do it, even for a million dollars.” 

The drive to tell the story of his friend Gerard’s struggle, and how far Pol would go to save him if given another chance, got him to the top, where he says he screamed with joy. “I always feel insanely happy when I discover a new personal high. I am just sorry I didn’t have a flag to mark the greatest adventure of our team so far.” In the outtakes Pol says in Spanish the achievement wasn’t him alone giving his all, it was the passion of the entire crew, the “visionary tribe” behind the film. 

So, being the gifted and passionate rider Pol is, he did the whole death-defying cliffside climb over again just to give the camera crew extra footage. “When you shoot extremely challenging stuff, you will always feel a bit frustrated because the camera won’t ever be able to capture all of his greatness,” says Javi of Pol’s cliffside scenes. 

After literally climbing up a mountain, Pol is able to spot his desperate friend down on the beach, and in the perfect world of filmmaking, is able to ride to his rescue. 

“To be honest, we kind of hope that after watching the movie you’ll think about the true meaning of life,” says Pol of the project. “If I think about what really counts in life, it amounts to a very few things.” It’s family, he says, and friends and the adventures you have together. 

While the original Seeker movie left us with a message to chase life, the sequel reminds us to keep our friends close…in the highest, and the lowest of times. “Call a friend,” says Pol. Because the best of adventures are those we share.

Photography by Javi Echevarría

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.