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Theory: Create a Pro?

April 18, 2009

Thing have been slow, I know! Finals are coming up at school, weather has been amazing, I’ve been finally getting all dialed in with Dig, and Adam just went on a trip to California for 10 days so that means The Come Up needs updating from me. Things will get rolling again soon, I know this!

However, the point of this post. I was talking with Brian Kachinsky about all his recent trips and I told him “Why don’t you get DK and Etnies to sponsor me as a pro for the Summer. That way I can ride all over at the best spots, and hang out with you all Summer.” Then I got thinking, what if that actually happened to me or a random kid who wasn’t pro material… keep reading, you might find this interesting..

So what the hell am I talking about?
Have you ever noticed that a lot of pros who are already good, get even better once all the sponsors come through? Example: Harry Main! The kid killed it before, but look at how fast he has been progressing lately! Check out an old edit, then a new edit of him at the bottom of this for a little proof!

So my theory that I think needs scientific testing to be done is this…
We take a kid who rides decent, sponsorless, and really loves BMX for the right reasons. Hook him up with two or three pro sponsorships for the Summer. Pay check, product, and travel budget. You know, the real deal!
Once the kid is all dialed in, we send him on trips all over with pros to film at some of the best spots all over the place and just live the pro life you know? Maybe even get them into the Dew Tour or something too just to really push buttons.

I am convinced that we could have a kids progression level turbo boosted by something like this happening. I’m not saying BMX is easy by any means. I am just saying that once you get the opportunities to ride all different kinds of spots with people who will push you to try bigger things without having to worry about a job or how they will pay to get to these places, good things will happen.

They need to make this into a MTV show! The kids would eat that right up.

So am I just imagining things or does this actually sound possible? I mean obviously the factor of money to hook the person up is really the only thing holding this idea back, but it would be an interesting thing to see.

Tell me what you think in the comments, and if you are a company who would be into this, lets make it happen! haha

Now for the Harry Main idea, this is his first edit from when he first got hooked up by KHE two years ago…

This is Harry’s new edit that dropped just the other day… Yeah.

Have a good weekend everyone!

BMX Makes You Tough As Nails

November 29, 2008

Have you ever noticed how much BMX can change you physically and mentally? Or that once you get to a certain point, you can’t just quit. It’s addictive, but mostly in a good way… Unless you end up with some nasty injuries. It’s kind of crazy to think about, but BMX makes you tough as nails.

Note: This post was originally from 2008. We’ve updated it in 2017 almost entirely.

How BMX Makes You Tough As Nails

Looking at BMX from a physical perspective, it’s safe to say it’s a full body workout. Everyone that rides has had one of those sessions where the next day you wake up and your entire body is sore. Maybe it’s from crashing or maybe it’s just from keeping your body moving for hours, pulling and twisting every part of your body. When it comes to riding, you’re using pretty much using every muscle from your neck to your feet because of the movements involved that require your body to adjust to keep balance or do a certain move. Your arms, back and chest get a workout every time you pull up or push down, every part of your legs are constantly getting worked from pedaling to helping you hop or keep balance in a manual. Your core gets in the mix for every part of this as well.

Plus, it’s a hell of a cardio workout that isn’t like anything else. It’s kind of funny watching somebody who might be real in shape hop on a bike and see how fast they get winded. Since your body works a lot harder when riding than other sports, 45 seconds can get your heart racing real fast, no matter how long you have been riding. When was the last time you rode in a contest? That’s a perfect example to show how intense riding can wear you out quick. Even the contest guys who “train” are usually huffing and puffing pretty hard after their run.

Along with the physical workout comes the physical pain. Anyone that has rode BMX knows that no matter how good you are, you’re going to crash eventually. Whether is sliding out and leaving some road rash to catching a pedal to the shin or a knee to the stem, rolling an ankle or worse. Nobody is invincible and I think the list of riders who have taken some severe crashes like Mat Hoffman, Stephen Murray, Brett Banasiewicz, Mike Aitken, Tony Neyer, Scotty Cranmer and more can show that no matter how good you are, you can still crash and you can still get really hurt. It seems like it’s frequently the most basic things that you have done a million times that tend to take you out, too. But, over time all those cuts and scrapes, pedals smashing into your shins, body slams on the hard ground, knocks to the head (seriously, you’ll always regret not wearing a helmet when you hit your head) and rolled ankles don’t quite hurt as much as they used to because your pain tolerance goes up a lot. It’s kind of crazy watching riders take huge slams, and instantly bounce back up like nothing had happened. The number of scars you have tend to become badges of honor and oddly enough most of them you will remember exactly how it happened, even if you have a ton.

I don’t want to say that we are superior, but have you ever watched professional basketball, baseball, soccer? The injuries a lot of those guys get where they are laying down on the ground like they just got hit by a bus leads to their sprained ankle, or something that BMX riders usually just get up from. Not in every case is this true, but it was just something I noticed. It’s kind of crazy.

There’s a reason Tony Neyer ALWAYS wears a helmet now. After a crazy head injury that could have killed him, he’s back on the bike and still crushing it. The video above was filmed before and after the crash and you can tell because he’s rocking a helmet in the clips after the accident. Learn from Tony… You won’t regret it.

When it comes to the mental aspect of riding, you’re getting tougher as well. If you don’t think so, think about some of the things you do on your bike now that probably scared you at first or seemed impossible. Many of you probably remember the first time you dropped in on a quarter pipe and remember looking down and thinking that you were going to go down hard, but once you did it a few times it became less and less scary and it ultimately becomes as easy as pedaling on flat ground. BMX also teaches you patience, persistence and perseverance. Ask any rider to name a trick they spent HOURS trying to figure out, followed by hours to get it dialed in so that they could do it consistently. I’ll tell you, I’ve spent countless hours and had thousands of attempts at tailwhips, and I’ve only landed a few (Serious love / hate relationship with that trick). It seems impossible, but you develop a drive that pushes you to figure out how to do something no matter how much work it takes to do it. There’s a reason people celebrate when they pull something off they didn’t think they could do or something that just scared them. I think that mental toughness translates into the real world because it also builds confidence in the rider and it tends to make things seem less scary or impossible. Plus, after all those crashes and seeing a good amount of blood, your minds pain receptors tend to stop working as well, haha.

Another mental aspect that I think Scotty Cranmer has shown in his recovery from his crash, is the drive to get back to health so you can continue to ride. Doctors told Scotty that he may never walk again, but he has proven that isn’t the case at all and he continues to blow people’s minds as he progresses. The biggest drive for him to keep pushing himself? To one day be able to get back on his bike and ride again. That there is some serious mental and physical toughness that is undeniable.

Today marks 6 months since the day of my accident. It has felt like an eternity but it also feels like yesterday that I was riding my bike. I am making progress every single day and I'm so grateful for that! Thank you all for the continued support through out my recovery! #BMX #standwithscotty #road2recovery
A post shared by scottycranmer (@scottycranmer) on Apr 12, 2017 at 4:36pm PDT

There’s no doubt that BMX makes you tough as nails, from a physical aspect to a mental one. There’s a lot that goes into riding BMX that people might not necessarily understand or known until they’ve given it a shot themselves and spent some time working at it to become a better BMX rider. All we do know is it takes a special breed of person to get back up after a nasty crash, shake it off and hop back on the bike to give it another go.

Where did he come from?

November 12, 2008

Since I am waiting on what looks to be about 20 interviews to be returned… ahem… I figured it would be a good time to do my blog post of the week. Oh, by the way I am going to try and do a blog post once a week now. I figure it might just help my writing abilities, and maybe I can spark a little discussion? I don’t know. This time around I figured maybe I should give a little explaination to how or why BMX union came about… I even included some old slightly embarassing pictures…

This is probably 3 or 4 years old now. Local trails that eventually died with the scene around here.

The reason for this is that I actually have been confronted twice this week about how I am doing what I am doing. One, in a positive email and a not so positive one from an anonymous kid on The Come Up Board. So, maybe I can enlighten some of you of what I am all about, or at least what I wish I was about.

If you are firmiliar with web design, HTML, or anything like that, you might be able to remember some of these names I am about to bring up. One of my very first websites was a “crew” website on Expages. It was a free site hosting site that had really easy functions on how to build up a website in a few minutes. This was probably around the time I was in 7th grade. So, I would say about 7 years ago. We’re talking back in the dial-up internet connection days with AOL.

Shortly after that I was starting to teach myself HTML from Web Monkey and HTML Goodies. At that point I started experimenting with Homestead, Geocities, and Tripod. I couldn’t find any of these sites which was kind of a bummer. Then again after so many years I am not surprised they deleted that stuff. After a while I got into Freewebs with a site called BMXrochester. It was a scene website I did with all the local’s from Rochester, Minnesota (not New York, or Michigan).

That site was really the biggest jump with web stuff. If you look at the links and stuff, you can see this was the time when Trend which is now Empire was huge, I rode a Macneil Ruben, and Kyle Stark was doing the Twin Cities BMX site. I don’t remember the exact reason I stopped using Freewebs, but I think it was a mix of a lot of shitty service, and if you notice the template on that site… They had some big outage and lost all the data of my real design that I did all by myself. I didn’t have the code saved obviously, and that was it. I stopped doing web stuff for a few months and then played around with a few other services. After a while I resurected BMXrochester on a Blogger account, but this was right around the time the scene in Rochester started getting bogged down due to people leaving for college, working all the time, dirt bikes, and a bunch of other stuff.

Once the scene started dying down, I was still itching at the website stuff. I started BMXunion in September of 2007 and didn’t really know exactly what I was going to do with it. To be entirely honest, I was taking a Mass Communications class in my first semester of college and my final project was on how blogging can reach people. I got Catfish to do an interview and before I knew it I was at 150 interviews (actually at this moment it is 149.. who will be the big 150? Well, whoever sends theirs back first).

That is what leads me to Adam22 and The Come Up. I am surprised he even talks to me still to be honest haha. I was constantly asking him questions about how to get a website visitors, and asking if he would post my stuff. It had to be annoying as hell. However, he went on a trip which I don’t even remember what it was for but whatever. He asked if I would want to do updates on the site for him. Sure, why not? HA! I never realized exactly how many people check that site, and how quick they will catch your mistakes of spelling or anything. I guess it must have went well because Adam didn’t delete my log-in after that one. I still wonder why he lets me post on there haha. Oh well, it is fun and I really appreciate the oppertunity he has given me.

BMX is really cool because EVERYONE is connected. I don’t care what you say, if you need to get ahold of somebody it can be done at any time. I remember after a few months of helping out Adam and my site, I started getting a pretty dialed in e-mail contact book for people to get ahold of to get people for interviews and everything. Jump ahead to last September, Kyle Carlson and Alex from Give D are telling me I have to come to Las Vegas for Interbike. I was scared to fly, and never really traveled that far before. Somehow I convinced myself to get a plane ticket and just do it. I regret it for one reason and one reason only… Now all I want to do is travel!

It was really fun to go to Interbike and just bump into all these people who I had been doing interviews, getting in contact, and other things through email. I owe Alex from Give D, and Catfish big ups for introducing me to all the people I probably wouldn’t have just because I didn’t want to bother them.

Did I ever expect to be able to do any of the things I get to do today when I started? No, not at all. It is crazy to think about all the oppertunities I have been given because I was into messing around on the computer too much. I am very greatful though, BMX is the coolest thing to happen to me. To be able to be as involved with it as I am today is amazing.
I was talking to a guy who used to ride back in the day a few weeks ago. He was one of the “older guys” I watched riding when I first started. I was always amazed by the stuff he did. He had said he saw a video of me on Youtube and was shocked at how much has changed since I was the little rat at the trails following my big brother all over the place. I guess it just made me laugh to think about how much BMX really has changed.

I don’t know if that could explain how my web presence came into existance, but I tried. I just hope I don’t come off as a dick, or cocky bastard. I didn’t mean to at all. I am just happy to be able to do whatever it is involving BMX.

This would conclude yet another rambling blog.

There used to be this creepy guy who came to the skatepark called “Skunkboy”. He had to be about 30 and claimed to be an action sports photographer. I am pretty sure he was a pedophile now, but I thought it was cool back in the day for him to get pictures of me.

Believe it or not, I used to do hop barspins. I can’t do them for the life of me anymore. I probably landed 1 handed in this.

Thanks to those sponsor me websites, I some how got onto Psykopath back in the day. Once I realized I sucked at BMX, I quit the team and bought an FBM.

The Possibilities

November 8, 2008

I should be entitled to a random blog post every now and then, I think. Right now the thing that is completely stuck on my mind is all the possibilities of BMX. When I say that I mean career/money making potential. I am sure some of you are thinking “BMX is all about fun, not money!” which I completely agree. I am just saying that when a person isn’t capable of pro level riding, but wants to be able to ride for as long as possible these things start coming to mind. This was all sparked by a little interview with Flip on EXPN about judging contests.

Yesterday I turned 20 years old. Don’t get me wrong, I am still young but it is about that time in life when I should be figuring out what I want to do with myself. I am sure a lot of you have been asked what you want to do with your life since “you can’t ride BMX forever”. Obviously, BMX is completely up to you on how long it lasts and I know guys who are older dads who still come out and ride with their kids. I want to be able to do that for sure when I am older too.

The big delima is the question “what do you want to do for a living?” that seems to come up at least twice a week when I am at my school. It just sucks when you don’t know, or feel like the “dream” is unrealistic. That was until I realized exactly how many different jobs there really is that incorporates BMX in daily life. If you happened to see Catfish’s interview on Defgrip he lists off some pretty solid ideas for jobs. Catfish lists off things like an announcer, photographer, journalist, and team manager. That obviously just scratches the surface too.

I started to think of names of people who really influence me when it comes to BMX to get an idea of things I would want to do. These are only a few of the names and why they influence me.

Catfish: For obvious reasons, the guy lives an amazing life. He travels all over because he can talk on a mic. Not only that, he is the team manager for DK. The advice he has given me has been one of the most motivating things for me to keep doing whatever it is I am doing when it comes to BMX.

Adam Grandmaison: Without a doubt, you know who Adam22 is if you spend time on a computer. He is a huge influence to me because he has made a career out of nothing. The guy has a dream job. However, without him BMXunion wouldn’t be what it is today. He has also given me the opportunity to help him with his site. It is weird because I have a lot of fun doing that, even with the shit talkers catching every little mistake I make.

Brian Kachinsky: Pro and well known for that. Obviously I have no chance of going pro but he still influences the hell out of me. Why? because every time I get to talk to him he has something really positive and awesome to talk about. He gets to travel the world and experience so much. I always joke that he needs to get me on the DK pay roll so that I can just go on trips with him all over the world. This is obviously, the biggest of dreams to be paid to travel haha.

Alex B/Give D: Alex is the TM for Give D and The Take and all around good dude. Being a Team manager is obviously a very big responsibility but I think that would be an awesome job. I thought I knew what having fun with BMX was all about until I got to spend a few days with him and the Give D crew. Every single one of those guys are super talented when it comes to riding, and they all pretty much make a living off BMX too. If everyone involved in BMX had the same attitude as these guys, BMX would be more popular than Soccer.

Kyle Carlson: I can think of some pretty interesting things about Kyle that make me laugh. Kyle is a Filmer/photographer/contributor for Vital BMX and Ride UK. One of my biggest interests has always been filming and editing. Shit, I even started the photography class at my old high school. Kyle has always been a very positive force in what I do. He knows the industry well. Being a Filmer, writer, photographer would all be a fun career.

Harrison Boyce: I have only had the chance to very briefly meet Harrison, and to be honest I don’t think he was a fan of me. Harrison has a sweet career in BMX though! He is basically in charge of everything related to design atMacneil and one of the guys at Defgrip. As much as I suck at design it is something I am really into.

Ryan Fudger: I am sure he gets sick of me talking about the influence he has had on me. It is just crazy to think about what he does for a living. Ryan started the website San Diego BMX years ago now, and sadly it doesn’t exist anymore. He then later started working for Ride BMX as one of their writers/photographers/etc. He literally lives a dream of being able to travel all over the world to take photos and write stories about the things that he experiences. How cool of a job would that be?

There are a hand full of other people I could probably talk about but I will save you the pain of my horrible writing abilities.

With the rate of growth of the sport companies out there need a team manager, art designer, product designer, riders, help in some form. Then again it seems like in such a small industry (compare BMX to something like the NFL, MLB, or NHL) there is always room for the next creative idea to start your own company. If that doesn’t intrest you maybe it is more of a free lance thing from photographers, videographers, editors, announcers, judges, and writers you are into.

If you really truly love BMX there will always be room for you in the industry. Over the years I have had friends who would ride every day phase out and do their own things. They liked BMX, but didn’t have the love. I had people always making jokes about how I am such a dork for spending so much time on the computer making little scene websites that have come and gone, which has turned into this site that gets 25-35 thousand page views in a month (which isn’t shit compared to T.C.U, Defgrip, Vital, or Ride BMX). BMX takes time to turn it into a career, I see that… I by no means have a career in BMX but I would love to be able to be a team manager, judge, writer, Filmer/photographer, or something cool along those lines someday.

Maybe after a taste of traveling across the country, and having fun with friends this bug crawled into me. This urge to want to travel the world with the main focus of a bike and friends in it. Sitting in a class room for an hour while listening to a teacher talk about how Shakespear could have been bi-sexual is losing intrest fast. I need to get out there.
That was my random Saturday blog about what was on my mind this morning.