who you know and contacts get you a long way! also for a press pass you genraly have to be shooting for someone and have proof that you are.

just post pics up on here and on photog sites , work to the crit and improve , if your shots are good enough adn stand out people will start wanting them. if there not people wont.

as for getting stuff published if you find out let me know because i cant seem to get my stuff in mags eitehr haha

Be the best and shove yourself down the throats of the places you want to take your shots. As has been said, every man and his dog has a DSLR, so you're going to have to be at the top of your game to get in print. Shoot every event you can, if it's something the publication doesn't have a photographer at, you might be in with a shot.

The biggest thing, in my opinion, is to look in the magazines, and ask yourself, honestly - are my shots as good as that? Because that's what the people that work there will be asking when they decide whether to pay cash for photos. 

EDIT: Just to add - your have some good shots in your folio, but you haven't got any of DH races at all... why would a magazine pick up photos of your mates riding? The best way is to sell photos of an event they want covered, not to convince them to commission you - that's a much bigger risk for the publication, as they have no idea whether you're reliable or not.

Sorry if any of this sounds harsh, but it is SUCH a hard part of the industry to do well in. There are so many established guys on the scene that you really need to work your ass off to get known.

hahaha well said

uni is not an excuse .....

Uni is not an excuse as has been said.

I'm filming for my video Foot Out Flat Out and as I'm doing this in my gap year I have to juggle full time work Monday to Friday with travelling the length and breadth of the country. This is from CORNWALL!!! So basically it is 3 hours to get to South Wales and up to 12 hours to get to Fort William (19 hours in a coach). You really do have to want to be doing it and put everything into it. I havn't ridden my bike for weeks.

I'm going to Uni next year and as long as I can still afford it what with rising fuel prices I will be doing a sequel. I'm pretty sure I'll have more time to film.

As for photos, send them to everyone and like has been said, go to races and other events that a mag will want to cover!

God no! I just like to know what I'm working towards.

Good luck with it man, last year when I was taking a lot of photos etc (not events, out on the trail) I got a fair few photos published in photography magazines, not MTB ones but I got published three times last year and one of my images was used by samsung, also had a fair few in Wideopen and Edge, all I did for that was just keep on submitting photos to pretty much every magazine and eventually someone will take note. Hoping to get into a lot more though this summer.