LIAM Moss is used to riding on the edge, but during this particular day of filming on a Papua New Guinean crocodile farm, it was his honorary uncle with his arm in the water.

The duo were busy filming a documentary about agriculture on Papua New Guinea when Steve Woodhouse, who also hails from Hexham but has long since been settled there, took the plunge.

Liam, a graduate in cinematography and editing from Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire, said: “We did a lot on cocoa plantations, the peanut industry and vanilla production, but we also went to crocodile farms.

“We went out in canoes and did some croc hunting and had some crocodile for dinner, and then we went into a cage that contained around 20 crocodiles.

“My uncle, who was the presenter, put his arm under water, after the managers said ‘because they are not fish, if crocodiles open their mouths under water, the water rushes in and they can’t bite’.

Liam laughed: “I was saying to him, but your head is just above your arm - they might not get your arm, but they’ll get the rest of you.”

It was all par for the course for the mad-keen mountain biker who’d ultimately like to work in the industry, either as a film-maker on the World Cup circuit or making commercials for bike companies.

“I’d like to tie in with big mountain biking sports teams,” he said. “But for now, as you do when you’re starting out, I’m doing everything, from shooting commercials to making documentaries.”

He was drawn to Papua New Guinea by his connection with Steve, whose mother Mary Whitbread still lives in Hexham.

Liam said: “When he was 23, the same age as me now, he went there on a VSO (Voluntary Service Order) scheme. Basically, he married a New Island woman called Jean and never left – and I can see why.

“It was my first time over there and I immediately loved it. When I landed on New Britain (the largest island in the archipelago), I was completely blown away by its beauty.”

Steve now manages an agricultural supplies business and, with Jean, owns a cocoa plantation and a golf course. “Golf is a big thing over there,” he said.

Liam enjoyed his five months in Papua New Guinea so much that he intends to return there, with ideas for shooting a mountain biking documentary he can send to sporting brands.

“I don’t think anybody has ever ridden a mountain bike properly in PNG,” he said.

“They have huge mountains and lots of volcanoes to ride down – I think of it as a land of adventure.”

This week, this month, this summer, though, Liam is in Canada, in Whistler to be precise. There, he’s co-director and editor on one of six teams filming the Canadian stretch of the Crankworx mountain biking World Series.

The tour has already been to New Zealand and Austria and now the six documentary teams are competing, Cannes style, to produce the best film.

“We have to submit our films on August 1,” he said. “They will be premiered on August 14 in the Whistler Olympic Village, in front of a lot of people, by the sounds of it.

“All the teams are being super-cagey about their ideas and what they’ve been filming. We’re all playing our cards close to our chests.”

One person they’re all watching is last year’s winner, Damien Vergez, owner of the French FastFokus production company. “I remember when I first got into mountain biking and was watching his movies – and now I’m here, competing against him!”

There is the joy, too, of being able to ride in the biggest and best mountain bike park in the world. “It’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember,” said Liam.