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.
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