For Tyler McCaul, the best projects don’t start with a plan. They start with getting lost.
His latest project with DEITY Components, Desertion, heads deep into the desert — a landscape that has become more than somewhere to ride. It’s a place to reset, explore, build, and find the motivation that disappears when things start feeling too familiar.
After spending the first thirty years of his life surrounded by the redwood forests of Northern California, Tyler found himself increasingly drawn to the exact opposite: wide-open desert, empty terrain, and miles of nothing.
“There is something inside my DNA that craves exploration, and I can’t imagine living without it. In my mind, monotony is not only the killer of creativity but also the killer of motivation.”
That need for something different eventually led Tyler to make the desert home.
But Desertion isn’t just about the landscape. Like many of Tyler’s projects, what ends up on screen is only a fraction of the work behind it.
Long days spent wandering unfamiliar terrain turn into days of digging and building. Lines are imagined, tested, changed, and tested again. Then come the countless takes required to capture a few seconds exactly the way he envisioned them.
It’s a process built around doing things the hard way—and finding something worthwhile in that discomfort.
“The grueling hours of manual labor and the quiet hours spent getting lost before any of it existed are what make it all so rewarding in the end.”
The contrast of the desert is part of what keeps pulling him back. Where the forests of Northern California are dense and enclosed, the desert feels endless. There’s room to disappear for a while, find a new line, and create something from nothing.
For Tyler, that solitude has become therapeutic. And after years of riding, building, and creating, it remains one of the things that keeps him moving forward.
Desertion is the result.
A lot of exploring. A lot of digging. A lot of time alone in the middle of nowhere.
Then, finally, the riding.
Photography by Ian Hylands. Videography by Clay Porter.
Crack a cold one and watch Tyler McCaul in Desertion, a new project from DEITY Components.