49. Kelly Bolton - Former Professional BMX Athlete/CGI Artist

Originally from Venice Beach, California, Kelly Bolton is a former professional BMX athlete who rode for Eastern Bikes and DC Shoes. Now, he owns and operates Dumont Creative alongside his wife, Angela, creating CGI, motion graphics, and design work for clients such as Paramount, NFL, Starbucks, NIKE, and more. 

In today's episode, we dive into Kelly's early years growing up in an era of Venice Beach and the South Bay area that was quite rough, splitting his time between his mom and dad, how bikes become part of his life, becoming a professional BMX athlete, the struggles of the industry (both mentally and financially), how and why his time with Eastern Bikes ended, starting Dumont Creative with his wife, and so much. 

This was a really wonderful conversation with so many stories about Kelly's personal life, his BMX career, and more. A part two is absolutely warranted as there was so much more to get into. I hope all enjoy and thank you so much Kelly for such a wonderful conversation. 

Follow Kelly Bolton on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyboltonco

Follow Dumont Creative on Insagram: https://www.instagram.com/dumontcreative

Dumont Creative Web site: https://www.dumontcreative.com/

Follow The Failed Experiment on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_thefailedexperiment/

Support the the Failed Experiment: https://account.venmo.com/u/kylecowling

Follow The Failed Experiment on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@_TFE

Follow Kyle Cowling on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylecowling/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Episode 49, the field experiment. I'm stoked on this episode. Um Kelly Bolton, former professional BMX athlete. Brad conversation. Rad dude. Probably should be back for part two, because I feel like there's a lot of shit we could have got into even more. Um if you don't know Kelly, give him a Google search. Check him out on YouTube. A lot of videos from his BMX career. Uh kinda gnarly on two wheels, to say the least. Um we have never met in person until today. We were Instagram pals, but that was really the um extent of it. Just knowing each other through the industry, and he's in the dirt bikes. Um I grew up riding dirt bikes and also BMX, so um, I was familiar with who he was, so I was rad to make this happen, and uh took 49 episodes to have someone on from the BMX world. Um honestly thought it would have been Mike Hucker Clark, because we went to high school together and we're really close, and that might still happen at some point. He was interested, we've talked about it, and should probably follow up, but um yeah, stoked. This this week and next week, two BMX legends are on the podcast. So stoked. Uh a lot is here, like I said, we could probably do a part two. Um, but we uh yeah, get into a lot about how uh bikes entered the picture for him and how his dad almost died on a bike, and that was like, yeah, I know I want to be on my bicycle, which is a wild story. Um a lot of stories about his dad and just how uh what a wild guy that man was. Um kind of growing up in the uh Venice Beach area, and then splitting his time between Venice and the Gardena area after his mom and dad had split up. Um and yeah, there's just I don't even know where to start. There is a lot. His time with Eastern bikes, um the money he was making at the time in BMX, how he was essentially rich in life but had you know no income. Um his frustrations with the sport and his sponsors after he had an injury while he was overseas and was struggling to uh get his sponsors to help him in any way, get his wife overseas to get to him because he was there alone. Um when he realized it was over, his transition um from BMX into uh his creative career where he's at now with him and his wife. They own a creative studio called Dumont Creative, um doing a lot of CG motion graphics work for um clients like Paramount, uh in some like really big deal stuff, like not like dirt bike stuff, but like or BMX stuff, like real deal, like big time shit, big time movies, TV shows, commercials, the NFL, like yeah, big deal. Um super rad. Super rad, dude. Um really cool story. I really think there's a lot of cool stuff here that people enjoy and it oh yeah, yeah. There's the co-host Violet. Um yeah, it is this is so rad. I'm so stoked this happened. So thank you, Kelly, for making the time to come down from LA down here to sit and have this conversation. Um yeah, probably need to do a part two. Hope everyone enjoys. And I know I talked about it, but if your wife is interested, legit. Would love to have her on the podcast too, because I that would be really fucking cool. So uh if she's listening and you're interested, the seat is open. Would love to make that happen. Uh cool. Hope everyone enjoys uh in terms of the wish list of guests. You already know. Uh Jenny Taft, Tom DeLong, Tyler Fernagel, I think would be pretty dang interesting, another BMX guy. Um one of the the There's only a handful of videos that really stand out. They like have always stuck with me. And Tyler's piece with Red Bull and the Pontiac Silverdome. Uh my god. That was something that I would reference um throughout my career. Um such a beautiful piece. And I know his story is pretty wild. Uh so that'd be cool. Adam Censorello, Justin Brayton, Max Anstey, uh Sam Rosenholtz, the Williams trio of Justin, CJ, and Corey, West Borland, Buddy Nielsen, Jordan Pundick, uh Brandon Blaine, David Kennedy, Katie Maloney from Vanderpump Rules, and the Disrespectfully podcast would just be real fucking cool. Uh Did I say Alex McKenna? I think I did from Red Dead Redemption 2. West Borland Molly Carlson. Reach out to Molly Carlson via Agent. Agent ghosted me, so that's on par for uh agents and what they do. So shout out to all the agents that ghost everyone. We're killing it. Um yeah, I think that's it. Um anyone knows those people? Want to connect some dots that we read? Uh, if you know of someone that you think would be good, a good guest for the podcast, let's make it happen. If you want to support this very small DIY sponsorless podcast, you can donate uh Venmo at Kyle Cowling a couple bucks or uh link in bio on Instagram or in the show notes to support the show. You can become a member for three bucks a month and get access to the episodes five days before they release to everybody else if you want to support that way. Uh if not, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, wherever you like to listen to your podcasts, leave a nice review, leave a nice five-star rating, and I will love you forever and give you a shout-out in these ungodly long intros. Um yeah, I think that's everything. Hope everyone enjoys. Again, Kelly, thank you again for coming on. This was really fucking cool. Like legit, really, really cool. Your story's wild. Hope everyone enjoys. Um give him a follow on Instagram and check out his uh Creative Studio with his wife, Dumont Creative. The shit they do is wild, in my opinion. Um so sweet. Oh yeah, Instagram at underscore the failed experiment. Let's give it a follow uh on YouTube, but I don't update it because I'm lazy and don't care. Um yeah, so okay, episode 49, Kelly Bolton, Kelly Bolton, former professional, VMX athlete, creative, genius, rad dude. And hope everyone enjoys. And uh let's do it. I don't know if you've ever listened to any of these.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah, I did. Um shoot which one did I just listen to? Um, one of the recent ones. Let me see which one it was.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Oh, yeah. Or just tell someone about that one not too long ago. That was one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_06 8:24

Yeah, I I really like him, so I I listened to that one. I was like, oh, I really want to hear that. But I want to listen to more of the the filmmaker ones that you've done. Like those ones look really cool too.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah. Um yeah, holiday one was someone was just asking me, like, what was one of my favorites? Oh, it was someone from work. And I was like, I don't know if you know dirt bikes at all, but this one with this manager from Cowsaw, he was really good.

SPEAKER_07 8:48

Yeah, okay. Yeah, his story is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Okay, can you go get it? And I'll open it for you.

SPEAKER_07 8:59

So independent already. Yeah, we're so independent. Yeah, she's doing a good job.

SPEAKER_13 9:10

Yeah. There you go, buds. What do you say? You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Um cool. So I always like to just kind of start at the beginning. Yeah. Um, and then work our way through. And I'm sure some of what we were just talking about, we'll talk about as we go on.

SPEAKER_08 9:36

But um for sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Born and raised uh LA, Venice Beach?

SPEAKER_06 9:40

Venice Beach, that's right. I was born in Santa Monica at Santa St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica. Um yeah, lived in Venice Beach and kind of all over the west side of LA.

SPEAKER_04 9:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 9:52

Um my parents were split up, so I had one one my mom was in Venice and my dad ended up in Gardena. So that was like kind of farther down. We were living off uh like Crenshaw and Manhattan Boulevard. So it was like right by uh El Camino College.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

What uh what was it like growing up in those two areas? Those are two pretty like Gardena and Venice are definitely a little bit different.

SPEAKER_06 10:19

They're really different. Um well old Venice is I don't know. I I like to describe it as like you know, that scene and point break when they go to that those uh like the tough guys' houses and they're listening to punk and like the little dude's like smashing the like the bed real hard because he's on something, you know. Like that was Venice.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:39

That was my the Venice I grew up in.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:41

So the 80s, 90s Venice. Um now Venice is you know gentrified and lots of money has come in, and you know, everyone's got a mixed mansion that's like three stories and yeah, towering all over all these old 50s houses. Like I told you, look, the one I grew up in was from the 50s and no AC, just open the windows, and um but yeah, so and then Gardena was also tough, you know, like it was a different type of tough. I don't know, it's so weird because you know, in Venice you got like surf punks and surf gangs, like real, like gnarly dudes, you know, long-haired blonde white dudes, but they were gnarly guys. Um then in you know Gardena, you had you know your typical, you know, running gangs over there. So blood, cribs, all that stuff, like and it's just a totally different world. And I later on now, now when I look back, I I'm glad that I got both of those experiences. Um I had another a whole other experience going to school. Um so in Venice Beach, my mom, my uncle, my dad, everyone went to Venice High.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 11:58

And when, you know, when I was a kid and I was growing up, we were like two blocks from Venice High. I thought I I was gonna go to school there. I had there was an elementary school too that I used to ride my bike and skate in. I didn't go there because my mom was like, You're not gonna go to school in Venice. And I'm like, why not? Like, all my friends are there, people in my neighborhood are there. Um, but you know, every other week there's a stabbing, there's a shooting, there's a gang-related issue. You know, back then it was really like a lot of black on Mexican gang wars in that area. And they were bussing kids in, you know, from Culver or down to Venice and stuff, and it just got too much. And my mom was like, You're not gonna go to school there. So uh ended up like in third grade, she transferred me to uh Malibu.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 12:50

So it's technically uh Santa Monica Malibu School District. Okay. So if you live in Santa Monica and you can prove prove your address, then you can go to Malibu. And I was I had no idea. My mom figured this out. So she got an apartment down at Santa Monica. It was the coolest place, dude. It was three houses from the beach on Frasier Boulevard, in like the heart of Santa Monica, like right there. I mean, you know those famous sand gaps, the skate gaps?

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:22

I could see them from my window.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

No way.

SPEAKER_06 13:24

Yeah, it was wild, but it was the worst apartment. I mean, it was a one-bedroom apartment. I had my sister, me, and my mom, and it was a galley. Like you walk through every room. The the kitchen was all the way in the back. So you had to walk through the living room, then you had to walk through the bedroom, and then you could get to the kitchen in the back. And it was just a straight, like thin apartment galleyway all the way through. Um smallest thing ever. But she got it because she wanted us to go to school somewhere else. Yeah. Um, which, you know, of course, now looking back, you know, then I didn't know anything that was going on, but I'm like, oh, that was a pretty big sacrifice too. We had a a house um in Mar Vista, like that Venice area. And uh that's where my my whole family lived there. My grandma was down the street, my great grandma l lived down the street. I remember walking like two blocks to go get cookies from her arena. She'd always give me these like little what are those oatmeal frosted cookies, you know? Yes.

SPEAKER_13 14:29

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_06 14:30

Yeah, so um that yeah, great, great childhood. Like definitely free range. Like walk to grandma's house. Go ahead, do your thing. You know, if you're 10 years old, it was no problem. Just walk around the neighborhood. Yeah. Um, but so, anyways, I was able to see life in Malibu too. So it's like, I see Malibu, I see Venice, Santa Monica, and then I see Gardena, Crenshaw, you know, Hawthorne, like all that stuff. And so I'm like, okay, wow, I I'm going to school with kids that parents are famous. They have I did a book report with this one kid, and his house was right on the water. He had a grass hill that cascaded down to the cliff that went down to the beach, and at the edge of the grass was a 14-foot trampoline right on the cliff, and you're just like jumping on the trampoline, this beautiful, the greenest grass you've ever seen, and like the ocean's right there. And I'm like, this is crazy. Yeah, I'm gonna go home and feel bad about this later, you know. So that was yeah, that was interesting contrast to see. So it's like uh the the way I describe it is like here one kid has everything he's ever wanted, like you could just ask for it, you got it. Every game system, every TV, everything you've ever wanted. And then I go back to like Gardena and my friends like getting cigarettes put out on his arm.

SPEAKER_09 16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:04

I'm like, this is weird. Yeah, how does life work? Why does this wh why are some people here and other people are here? Because no none of these kids chose this, right? They're just born into these families. So I just was like, I got this worldwide, not a worldwide view, but a wide view of different, like I guess, income levels and places you live and stuff. And so uh it gave me like m a good base to really keep my mind straight. Yeah. I I think Malibu was really difficult though. Like my mind was tripping.

unknown 16:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:41

I was tripping. I was like, why don't I have this? Why why are my parents not wealthy? Why didn't my dad start a company and blah blah blah blah blah, you know what I mean? Like because I'm in third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade when I'm going there. Those are some pretty like formative times, like where you're starting to figure out the world, you're figuring out what income and stuff like that is. Um, and so it did definitely spin me out. Like I remember being like 12 and spinning out. Like, how am I ever going to afford to live? How am I gonna I don't I'm not good in school, you know? My um my childhood was I wouldn't say bad at all, like we were definitely middle class, you know. My parents kept it together for sure, but also there was a lot of fighting, there was a lot of pain there. My mom was very obviously they got divorced when I was one year old. Oh so I don't know any different. All I know is them screaming at each other over the phone and my mom taking my dad to court, you know, getting visitation rights, and then me having at like 12 having to decide who I want to go live with, and you know, it's like a bunch of mess, dude. It's yeah. And so I think at the time I was really struggling like mentally, you know, handling a lot of that stuff that was going on. My mom also um she didn't really get to live much of a young life with her. She had four brothers that she took care of, she's the oldest. Okay. So she a lot of pressure was on her to, you know, step up and do things for the family.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:25

And so, you know, and she never really had a good income either. So when I was I don't know, I I think she had to be in her thirties, late thirties, you know, entering forties. And she started making some decent money. She had got a good job. She was a CPA, so she did all like accounting and stuff. Okay. Um she had a good job, she was doing it, things were good for her, um, and she was having fun. You know, she was finally living her life. But yet we were at home, you know, like the like kids, my sister and I, and she's hanging out at the Lakers Lounge, and like, you know, she started dating this guy that was uh the manager for Neil Young, you know. Uh she was just going, you know, partying, having fun. Um, but it was confusing for us, you know. Why is why is mom in the shower with her clothes on? I don't get it. Why is she laughing? Why is she crying now? You know what I mean? The emotions were all over the place. The little voices just yeah. You know, like my daughter's as I said, she's nine, so that little voice is there, but it's not a little bit. It's not well, yeah. What this is, yeah. I look back on videos and I'm just like, wow, it's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

I was telling my wife not too long ago, like, I need we take obviously a lot of pictures, but like I need to be better at getting videos of like her talking and stuff because we don't have as many as we probably should.

SPEAKER_06 20:32

Well, I like to live in the moment too. Yeah. I I hate having to break the moment with the phone and yeah. So my wife does most of the computing for the family stuff. Um but yeah, so I guess yeah, just growing up was I got to see a lot of different lifestyles. Um and uh I think I was talking about my my mom. Yeah, so she was yeah, my mom was going through it. She was whiling out getting crazy, you know. Uh that the guy ended up being a total D-bag and had a had a wife and all this stuff, and my mom found out, and of course there's a big fight, and yeah, and then my mom is basically you know telling him to get out and he's not, and this, that, and the other. My mom ends up going to jail, and and I I'm coming home from school, and my dad's picking me up. I'm like, why are you picking me up? And he's like, Well, yeah, your mom's in jail. And I'm like, What?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

What's going on? Oh my god, dude.

SPEAKER_06 21:34

And so they're you know, they're pulling me into therapy and stuff in school because I'm like drawing pictures of like World War Two or guns or something, you know what I mean? Like just boy stuff, but like I wasn't acting out or anything. Yeah. And I did bring a pocket knife to school in third grade. Okay. That didn't go over very well when someone found out that I had that. It was nothing, it was like a little Swiss Swiss army thing with some scissors and you know. Know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:01

But still, they were like, so that like red flagged the school, you know? Yeah, understandable. And then yeah, so we went through all that stuff, and it was a wild, wild times for sure. Um, but again, I was able to see so many different styles of life and how kids are living. And I I saw that the wealthy kids weren't happy. That was my first thing, and no one told me this. You know, no one like it's all kind of I feel like it's more talked about now, you know, that rich people aren't very happy or this, that, the other, or whatever it is. And I just I had to learn it but through observation.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:47

Right? I observed everybody. I observed these kids that had everything they wanted. Well, guess what? They didn't have the thing that mattered the most. Their parents.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:55

They were gone. They're affording that lifestyle, dude. Their dad never there, gone. Mom, I don't even know where she was, but there's nannies taking care of them. There's nannies dropping them off at school, there's nannies picking them up, there's nannies making them food, and then what you might say goodnight to your kid, maybe if you're not on a trip somewhere, uh you know, but I noticed that they didn't have what need they needed most, and I did, thankfully. Yeah. I had two parents that despite their issues and differences stuck around. You know, my dad definitely could have left, dude. You know, like for sure, get divorced and just take off. Go live your life and do whatever you want. You know, he's he's my dad's a crazy guy. Um he he's changed a lot. He's become a much more stand-up person, I think, yeah in his older ages. But when he was younger, he was a wild dude who liked to party and go skiing and motocross and bikes. Um I mean, there's so many stories of my family.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

A spider. A spider?

SPEAKER_06 24:08

You found one? Oh okay. How are you doing so good with your sentences? That was a good one. Crazy, yeah. In the cup. That was good. Still working on that balance. Yeah. Don't worry, so am I.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

I've yeah, we all are.

SPEAKER_07 24:30

We're all still working on our balance.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

You wanna come sit? What's wrong? Come here. Where's the spider? In the cup? In the cup? Do you need me to get the spider? Okay.

SPEAKER_06 24:49

Oh no, you did warn me, but I I know. I know what three is three years old is like a lot of people. Um maybe jumping ahead a little bit, but um with all this, because I had there's so much stuff in my life if I if you let me talk, I won't I won't get past on it like twelve years old. So all good.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Um like I know for me growing up, it was just seeing like I had single mom pretty much m my whole life. Um a lot of moving around and doing her best to keep a roof over our head. But there it was, I mean, from the age of seven to fourteen, I think we probably moved seven times. This was like once a year, so it was it was tough. And I stayed in like the same school district, which was in this area, but like we were living in Long Beach at times and other like areas that weren't in the district, so it was like couldn't tell the school or my friends that like, hey, we live in Long Beach, because if they found out, like I'd get kicked out, right?

SPEAKER_07 26:31

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

So at times it was kind of lonely for me because I couldn't really have friends come over or anything like that.

SPEAKER_06 26:37

Um dude, I identify so much with that having to go to school in Malibu and then come back and then have four sets of different friends, right? Yeah, I got friends in Venice, I have friends in Malibu, and then I have friends in Gardena.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:55

Which ones am I gonna like hang out with or talk to? And you know, a lot of it's dependent on your schedule, of course. Like, yeah, so yeah, but I know I know that. Like, and then you come back, hang out with this other group. Well, guess what? The days you were gone, they have now some sort of inside joke, you're not a part of it anymore. Yeah, it's uh you're the little outside, you're on the outside.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Oh, yeah, even like I felt like summer breaks, like by the time the school like semester would end. Okay, like I've made progress with this group of friends, and then you go away for three months and you come back, and it's like they still kept hanging out, but I was not with that.

SPEAKER_06 27:32

And I'm just like totally like all these little funny jokes, you know, whatever it is that you're not a part of it, yeah. Which I'm glad my friends did a good job of trying to keep me in the the loop and you know, trying to be good friends that way. But for sure, when you're gone, you're gone. Yeah, you know, you don't experience what they are, so that's tough.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

So for me, like something I I took away, and like I don't have a relationship with my mom anymore. We haven't spoken for like eight years or something, like it's been yeah, not good. Main reason why I'm in therapy.

SPEAKER_07 28:06

Don't worry, I'm my mom or a couple times a year.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Okay. Um but uh one of the things I always took away from all of that was like if Andrew went I ever met someone and like got married and had a family, like I didn't want to go down the same path, you know, like try to I guess break the cycle. And I know some for some people they just follow down that same path.

SPEAKER_06 28:30

Yeah, that's called a transgenerational cycle. I've broken so many of them in my family.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Okay, so yeah, so I guess where I was getting to, like, obviously, you going through everything you've gone through, you're married, you have a a daughter of your own. Like, if that was something that was on your mind of like, I can't go down these same paths, like I gotta be the change.

SPEAKER_06 28:48

Oh, for sure. I mean, I don't think I ever thought I was gonna have kids, to be honest with you. Just living the BMX life, and I don't know where I was going or what I was doing, but I know that living BMX w ways, you it's really hard to support a child. And if you do have one, you need to have a wife or a a mom that is totally dedicated because you're gone. You're gone a lot, man. You know how it is. I mean, moto's worse.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:17

Moto's worse than BMX. BMX is like, okay, here, I'm on a trip for a week here, but I'm back for three weeks. Then I'm gone for two, but then I'm back for four. You know, moto is just non-stop. Like those women are warriors, dude, taking care of the kids and making sure everything's right. And I it's that is the way it is. Yeah. If you live in a Moto family, you're you are dedicated to this one person at all times. You know? Um but yeah, that that distance is is tough. You know, from your friends and and then of course from your family. And I I agree, like what I looked at with those kids in Malibu, I'm like, I don't want to be that way. I don't want to sacrifice my time just so I can provide more. But if I can provide the basics, right? I mean and the basics I'm I'm meaning more of like you know, a middle class. Like, yeah, you know, I'm not saying basics as in you have three like three hot squares and uh, you know, a cot. Like, no, we're talking like a decent life here, you know. I got a backyard, place to be. Yeah, uh, but yeah, that it's it's um it's just really tough, like to it's tough to not want more a lot.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's yeah. I felt like that was some of them like in my film career, like you always want more and more, and like I've said it before, but like when I was coming up, Red Bull was like the pinnacle, and then like I got that. It was like Red Bull and Honda and Suzuki and all these like bigger and clients, and I'm like cool, I'm also kind of unhappy, yeah. And also like, what's next after this? You like I felt like it was like okay, you achieved this goal, but then you're like unintentionally moving the needle, yeah. And I'm doing so when I'm not happy, and I thought I would be happy when I like reached certain.

SPEAKER_06 31:32

When you achieve certain goals or things you set for yourself, yeah, and I'm like, man, this is not okay. I mean, I think your biggest problem is that you're good, you're too good, dude. Uh yeah, I you're too good for what people are probably wanting to pay you and for the production level that comes out at the end.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:55

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:57

And I I try to tell my wife this like when you're working for a larger company and there's a lot of hands in the pot, you sometimes have to do your job and let other people fail. That means that the project might fail. That means the project might not look what you wanted it to look like at the end. But in this big collaboration, you just have to you have to do your job and let everyone else do theirs. And they'll mess it up and do all this stuff, and you can't save everybody in a company like that, like a large company. Well, with your own stuff, you can, right? And unfortunately, sometimes that's at a detriment to your own self. You were so good at doing it by yourself, or maybe with a skeleton crew, yeah, you know, that people then are gonna go, well, what you did this for this company. You know, yeah, I did. Yeah. Because X, Y, and Z, and I wanted to get, well, your job, like the job from you now, like, right? And a lot of times you you know how it goes, you start out doing that stuff for exposure. Or okay, I'm gonna take the hit on the pay because this is a very well-known client, and everyone's gonna see this content out there, and then maybe I'll get some more gigs off of that, right? And then it just spirals. Yeah. Because then you're taking lower rates, then there might be internal chatter, and people might call someone like, hey, how much does Kyle charge for this? Well shit, if you charged him a little too low because you're trying to give him a homie deal or whatever, then they're gonna tell the other people that's it. He did this for us for this much. You know? Um, and that's it's tough because it's it's there's a whole bunch of different things that are coming together for this to happen. Technology, for one, like what we're doing right now, couldn't have happened. Like what, 15 years ago? You'd be in a studio with the real studio set up. So, like, and being able to do edits on your laptop on the airplane, like that didn't happen before. You know, so like all these things now are technology is allowing us to do all this great stuff. But the problem is the technology has made people that are releasing the funds from these businesses think that the content's cheaper. But it's not, it's just as hard as it was before, you know, maybe a little bit less on the um, you know, you don't need as big of a crew, or you could save some money here or there, but like it's still just as hard. Yeah telling a story, making an edit, getting good visuals, putting it all together, making it make sense, making it entertaining. Like these are those are all things that need to happen, and without proper budgets, it puts everybody at risk. And I feel for everyone, I mean, I I'm in the same position myself, like with our agency. Like my wife and I own a creative agency called Dumont, and I named it after the Dumont Dunes because my dad used to take me out there.

SPEAKER_04 35:15

Oh, red.

SPEAKER_06 35:15

Yeah, okay. Yeah, we used to go to Glamis and Dumont, and um, but like Cal Cal City was our spot, that was our like local um zone. But so we named it Dumont. My wife like fell in love with the dunes out there. I took her out there one day and she was like, Wow, I've never seen anything like this. And I'm like, yeah. Um, but yeah, we see that all the time. We have to we want like if we if we in intake a job, I want to price it well enough to be able to support our business. And this is not like a price that's I'm not a creator, I'm not one person anymore. I'm more I'm more. I hire designers, I hire artists, I hire an accountant, you know what I mean? There's a whole business structure behind this. So when I'm charging people, there's a charge for the business structure too, because I gotta pay people. And people, it's hard because a lot of people and companies, of course, too, want to pay creator rates. Well, like so-and-so did this for us. And I'm like, they're 19, they don't have a child, they don't have a family, they don't have a business, they have nothing. I love that they created that, it's beautiful and amazing. But go back to them if you want that again, right? Like, yeah, so and and again, you're doing yourself a disservice when you're discounting your prices. I think for for me, I have been in this position so many times that when I hire friends, I pay full rate. Don't do not give me a discount, please. I want to help you, yeah, right? Like, especially if I'm hiring a designer and I'm getting a budget from a client. You know, I'll tell the client I need more money because this designer I'm hiring is really expensive. But I'm fighting for that designer in that meeting. I could totally come to that designer and say, hey, this is what I got, and they'd probably do it. But why not? Why not just fight for them a bit more, you know? Get some more money for them.

SPEAKER_09 37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:27

Um, and you know, it's the same thing with like if my friend owns a restaurant, I want to buy it. I don't want him to give me a meal for free. Like, no, dude. Like, this is money that I'm trying to give you to support you. Like, real real friends will support, you know. Yep. Um, and the fake ones will want something for free all the time. Yep. You know, you can really tell who who your real friends are when you start something up, you know.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Yeah, that's a really good point. Um where did um at what point in all of this for you going back to like childhood, I suppose, um like bikes kind of entered the picture for you.

SPEAKER_06 38:12

Day one.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 38:14

When I was one year old, my dad was in the hospital about to die.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_06 38:19

Because he got hit by a car on his way to work in the morning, going up a hill. I it's I I have the hill in my head, dude. It's a hill right down the street from where I grew up. I skateboarded down that hill a bunch of times. It's called Beethoven Hill. And he was going up right seven o'clock in the morning. Stolen car came down the wrong side of the road, and they met right at the crest of the hill. He couldn't see it come in. Both of the uh compound fractured both femurs on the handlebars, flipped over the vehicle, knocked himself silly, didn't knock himself out, which is like horrible. Broke his collarbone, six ribs, five toes, two on one, three on the other. Uh I think he broke his wrist as well, and rolled down the side of this hill. And this lady was walking her dog, and she said he stood up and with two broken compounded femurs, cracked, like fell back down, of course, couldn't hold himself up and goes, I'm late for work. I mean, of course, he's like silly, like super dazed, probably, you know, like almost fully knocked out. Um, yeah, and then so blood transfusions, hospital, like big deal. Uh he almost died. He pretty much lost like over half of his blood. Um, and during that blood transfusion, he got hepatitis C because their blood screening wasn't as good back then in the 80s. So uh, but yeah, so when I was one, he was like, yeah, pretty much close to death, and then got back from that injury. And I mean, like I said, my dad is like really gnarly, like he he's uh he's an old school dude. Um grew up in Lancaster. Okay. So they're dirt bike dudes from day one. Like he has pictures of him and you know, like on any Sunday style and with their stingrays wheeling down the street, you know, or and like you know, since he grew up out there in the desert area, like I mean, the dude's like wheeling a street bike like 20 miles, you know what I mean, and running from the cobs and all this crazy stuff. Because it's just this desert stuff, you know what I mean? Like, who cares? Like back then, especially. Yeah. So he'd tell me stories, you know. We're like driving up to 14, going to Cal City, go ride, and he's like, You see that canyon right there? He's like, Man, one time I ran from the cob when I was went down that canyon, and you know, he'd had all these stories, but uh yeah, so he was he's a rider, he's a rider die, he's he still rides, he's 69 now. Okay, yeah, so we just went to Akateo last year. Um hopefully we'll get to link up again this year, but uh yeah, so he's uh he used to race um road bikes too, like Willow Springs, track racing, uh just anything, dude. My dad was like a motorhead, like a bike guy. Um, but so we always did bikes. It was bicycles, motorcycles, whatever we could get our hands on. But it was it was never really four-wheels for us. It was always two. Okay. My my grandfather too, he's he's a rider, he um rode street bikes for a very long time. And um, yeah, so growing up with my dad, it was just like I had footsteps to follow that were really big, you know, because he's a gnarly dude, and the stories that he has are way wilder than I think any other any stories I have.

SPEAKER_04 41:57

Like, okay.

SPEAKER_06 41:58

Um there was this time he he was wheeling down the street in front of my whole family and looped it out and totaled a land cruiser that was parked on the side of the road in front of my entire family before I was born, you know, ripped all the skin off his leg, you know. I mean, the guy's scarred from top to bottom. Like it's crazy how many scars he has. And yeah, even through our time when I was growing up, like we'd race BMX together, you know, we'd go down to Orange Y or to Cole Canyon or Ontario, we go to National Points races, and and he was like so competitive, dude. He's like the gnarliest competitive guy, and I am not. Okay, you know what I mean? Like I took I went away from that kind of mindset, and he's out there practicing starts, you know, and I'm doing X ups over the double, you know, practicing or not even practicing, just like having fun with my friends. And he's like, Are you gonna practice starts? And I'm like, I don't know. He's like, What am I bringing you for? You know, yeah, and I'm like, Well, what do you mean? Like to be together, like to hang out, to just be in this industry, like you know, with friends. Yeah, yeah. But he wanted to win, you know, his thing is winning. Like, so uh he but I you know I watched him snap a chain and break his collarbone, and we drive home, and you know what I mean? So a lot of stuff like that. Um, but he was very competitive. He would definitely look at like all the a the ABA numbers, you know, make sure he's like, okay, I gotta beat this guy the next race, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, um, but he did really well. He was like, uh I can't remember, I think it was like 40 plus or vet vet class, whatever, and he won a lot. He did a lot. And then we also raced downhill mountain bikes for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 43:46

And he was fourth in the world for that as well. Oh, for vet pro. Okay. Yeah. And went to Canada for the worlds and everything, yeah. Oh wow. Yeah, so he was he's a gnarly dude. Um, had a lot to live up to. Yeah. You know, like you couldn't you couldn't do anything that was tougher than he already did. Do you know what I mean? Like you couldn't crash harder than he already crashed. Or you know, like I I remember this one time we were down in Palace Verdes, all the way at the the south end of LA. Um there's this used to be this place right where like Trump golf course is now, and it was all those, all these jumps and all this cool stuff, and it was just like this open area, and we used to call it playland. So we'd go down there, just we'd go straight from Gardena, drive down Hawthorne all the way there, yeah, all the way till it ends, and that's where we would go. And I remember one time he there's these things go that go all the way down to the cliffside, and they're called the roller coasters, and it's just these hills that go up, down, up, down. And if you went fast enough, you can kind of like clear the top, just kind of scrub the top, yeah. And I'm right behind him, and he dude, he O day OJ's it and OTBs all the way to the bottom, and it was like an explosion at the bottom, and I'm like right behind him. I think I was 10 at the time, and he knocks himself out like completely cold, snoring, like convulsing snoring. And I'm like, I don't I didn't know what to do. I'm 10. I maybe saw one other person get knocked out before in my life, but I wasn't even near it. It was everyone else run ran over and took care of him, whatever. And I'm me and me and my dad are by ourselves. There's no one there. He's snoring on the ground, like you know, doing the whole whatever. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. I'm so scared, dude. I'm like terrified. And eventually, you know, he comes to and you know, he's doing the whole repeater thing, you know, repeating himself. He got he got really mad because he just got uh the Magura oil brakes, those were brand new at the time. You know, they had that like flow yellow brake uh lever or um whatever.

SPEAKER_03 46:01

Yep, I remember those. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:03

And he ripped the cables out because he OTB, he's just like the whole bike was like freaking messed. And so the cables were ripped out, and he's like, dang it, dude. And I swear he said it 40 times my brakes, my brakes. But he's doing the repeater thing, anyways. Our friend came eventually. He we called and he came and picked us up and stuff, and my dad ended up breaking his collarbone in that as well. So he went to the hospital. I went home.

SPEAKER_04 46:32

Thank God.

SPEAKER_06 46:34

Wild. Shoot, another another good one was I was 14 and I won't I was starting to get into like riding tracks like dirt bikes.

SPEAKER_09 46:44

Okay, right?

SPEAKER_06 46:44

Because my dad's an off-road guy. Don't tracks, jumping, what is that? I don't want to do that. I want to go look at that mountain. Let's go to the top, we'll find a way up there. That's his thing. I want to ride 80 miles today, you know. That's his thing. So he didn't understand tracks, jumping, tricks. None of that was in his wheelhouse, you know. But we still went to supercrosses, you know, like he took me to um Coliseum.

SPEAKER_04 47:10

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:10

You know, so I got to see like uh when Deegan launched his bike, you know, I think that was '97. Yeah, I was there for that. So I got to see that. That was awesome. So we went, but then he's like not really that into the racing, like track stuff, and off like outdoors. Like we never went to an outdoor, like maybe went to Glenn Helen once. Okay, you know, yeah. So it was just it was interesting. He's very like, you know, particular. Like I would say that. Um, anyways, I'm trying to, I'm 14. I'm trying to jump, you know, I'm trying to whatever. This is like I don't know wow, 14. I'm this is 2003, maybe. Okay, you know, maybe 02.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

What year were you born?

SPEAKER_06 47:52

I was born in 85.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

Okay, so I was I'm 86.

SPEAKER_06 47:55

Yeah, okay. Yeah, so this is probably like yeah, oh two, oh three, something like that, um, in that era. And he he takes me to Elsinore, and we've been there before, but this time we took a friend, his one of his friends, and you know, they get aggressive on the track and they're battling back and forth, and I'm right behind him again. Here I go, behind my dad. They go off this table together, and dude, the the lines just met right up. They hit in the air, they go down, my dad goes down, I'm again right behind him, so I'm like, oh damn it. Yeah, and my dad rolls off, crawls off the track. You know, he's knocked the wind out of himself, and he took a pretty decent hit. Um then he's like, we were like, you know, just working things out. What's going on? Are you okay? Like this, that. He's like, man, I'm like, my arm is weird. He's like, I can't really feel it. And I'm like, dude, don't freaking move. Like something's happened, like something really bad. Like, you this isn't right, you know? He's like, Yeah, I don't know. He's like, it's tingling. He's like, I don't know, it's weird. He's like, my fingertips are tingling, and I'm like, dude, I'm like, all right, I I'll load everything up. I'm like, do not do anything.

SPEAKER_03 49:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:13

And he drove home. He because I'm 14. I I could have drove probably, but whatever. Ended up getting to the ho getting to the house, then my stepmom, they drive to the hospital right away. I unload everything and get everything done, and sure enough, he breaks it, broke his neck, uh, fractured like two vertebrae there. Oh my god. Had that nerve pan nerve damage that was making his arm go numb, and come comes back home in a couple days, and he's got a neck brace, and just talking shit, laughing. He's so gnarly, dude. I don't and uh yeah, so then and then a week goes by and he goes, Hey, you want to go ride? And I'm like, You're you're broken neck, dude. What are you talking about? Yeah, he's like, Yeah, he's like, let's go to Elsinore. I'm like, What? I'm like, you literally just broke your neck there like three weeks ago, dude. Yeah, and he's like, No, he's like, he's like, I'm not, I mean, obviously he's not riding, but he's like, you know, I want you to ride. And I'm like, all right. I'm like, oh, how are we getting there? He's like, you're driving. And I'm like, what? So I'm 14. I load the bike up. I'm driving, I'm driving a suburban.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_06 50:34

Chevy Suburban. And I drove all the way to Elsinore Road, had a great time. My dad watched me, and we drove all the way back. And I drove the whole way F-14, first time on the freeway. I mean, uh, granted, I had been driving in the desert for years, right? Like, I'm okay, it's okay. Like, yeah, I'm riding a dirt bike with a clutch and gears, and you know, car is nothing. Yeah, but I never drove in the freeway. So, you know, he's teaching me the whole way. He's like, All right, when you signal and you're gonna get over, he's like, Don't break into the lane. He's like, gas it in there, you know, stuff like that. Like, yeah, but I was uh definitely not legally able to drive, and I was driving down the 405 freeway all the way to Elsinore, like so wild from Gardena.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Yeah, that's a that's that's a solid drive.

SPEAKER_06 51:24

Solid, that's like an hour and a half. Oh, easy, yeah. Yeah, yeah, and I rode, like yeah, you know, but again, you know, those are the things that are were just like normal for him growing up in the desert, you know, like no seat belts, like none of that stuff. So he was like, but I again that later in life now, I really appreciate a lot of that. I would say it's trust and respect and belief. Like you can do this, dude. Like you're fine. Yeah, you drive in the desert, you you know, like I've driven sand rails, like he's like, You're fine, dude. Just do it. Yeah, and you know, whereas like my mother would have been like, absolutely not, like you need your license, like blah blah blah. So she's like more by the book, yeah. Um so yeah, she was definitely she was she loved that I loved something, but she wasn't really happy that it was bikes. Understandable. I mean, she was I again super supportive, like very, very supportive of what I wanted to do. Um, I mean, she's happier that I'm an artist than a bike rider, but because she didn't want to see me get hurt, of course. Yeah, and being with my father for so many years is hard. You know, he's getting hurt all the time and doing stupid stuff. I'm a lot smarter than he is. I don't make that many stupid decisions, you know what I mean? Yeah, like I still don't wheelie my derbike. I I I do like when I'm out and uh hit a roller or something and be like, uh, you know, but like I can't sit in balance. I'm not like you know, I'm can't do it, and I don't want to do it because when I loop out, that consequence is not worth what it was. Do you know what I mean? Like, yep, like if I break my wrist falling over, like tipping over in a corner, I'm gonna be bummed because I'd rather break it jumping off a roof or like going big or like something. Yeah, so like wheeling to me just seems pointless when you flip it when you loop out. Yeah, otherwise it looks awesome and super cool, but it's funny.

SPEAKER_02 53:33

Yeah, it's funny you say that because I like I grew up riding BMX mostly dirt bikes, and like when I was racing, I was like a mid-pack intermediate kid. Never could wheelie, but like at like you were saying, like on the track, if I need to like bring the front end up and like manual over something, no issue. But if you're like, oh, do do a wheelie, mm-mm.

SPEAKER_06 53:54

Yeah, like do a Doug Damoko style, just sit down and like cruise down the street and like nope.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

And like like all the stuff nowadays with like the wheelie boys and whatnot, I'm like, uh-uh, can't I know never learn it, never wanted to.

SPEAKER_06 54:06

But if I'm on the track and I need to like do that for like you know, a maneuver to get over a roller or whatever, yeah. No problem. For sure, for sure. I'm the same exact way, dude. I feel like I can maneuver my bike in a lot of different ways and I can get around a lot of ruts and you know go fast, but yeah, I just I can't. I don't even I don't even want to learn it because I don't want to loop out. I don't want to have to replace my whole silencer and rear fender and subframe maybe. Yeah, like I'm not trying to loop out for $400 or $500. Like yeah, so yeah, so he he was a wild, gnarly dude. So I had a lot to live up to for sure. Like nothing I ever could do was as gnarly as he ever was, right? Um but again, I he did uh put a lot of belief in me and respect um for me to be independent, you know. Um like we were we would ride from Gardena down to the beach, down to um Hermosa Beach. And that's it's a good little jump. 20 miles, maybe 12 miles there, 12 miles back, 24 altogether. I mean, dude, we were 10 years old riding all the way to the beach. I wasn't in a cart or a backpack or a thing, you know. Like I'm pedaling right there on my little rock hopper, like all the way down to the beach. Yeah, you know, and now when I think about that, I'm like, there's no way my daughter could ride 12 miles somewhere and 12 miles back, like you know, yeah. Um, but it was like that. It was we were on a major street, you know, we're on like these huge streets with lots of cars, and he's like he trusted us because he taught us the lessons and the rules and what not to do and you know not to swerve out into the street or whatever. It's just it was almost like when you have when you like I guess you're pushing out feelings of confidence, and your kids are are feeling that and feeling that you have confidence in them, and they can kind of turn that inward and have confidence in themselves. Like he believes in me, you know, to do this. So I don't know if I can do this, but I'm gonna try it anyways, because you know, yeah. He's telling me I can do it, he's telling me it's safe. I trust him, he trusts me, and you know, that's how it was. Like, yeah, I think a lot of kids today don't get a lot of that, like they don't get a lot of trust from their parents. Yeah, you know, I try it with our daughter the same. It's like when she was her age, three. I'm trying to do the same thing. Go get yourself a snack. Yeah, you want a snack? Go get it. Ask me. Can I have this snack? Yeah. Or no, if like dinner's ready or whatever. Yeah. You know, so but just making them independent, giving them confidence, um I think it's really, really important. Yeah. Um and I and I certainly needed I certainly needed that. I think with with my what I talked about before and you know, coming coming up being raised in kind of a tumultuous like place, you know, with a lot of anger and yelling and whatnot. I think it's easy to shut down, you know, kind of turn inward and not like have much confidence, self-confidence. Um but that again, you know, that's also what skateboarding, BMX, Moto teaches you. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know that more than anyone. It yeah, it teaches you a lot of self-confidence.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Yeah, and like self-discipline and and like a a work ethic, I feel like. Especially now, like even though I don't work in any of that anymore, like where I'm at now with Trader Joe's, and I'm trying to I've been trying to go for a promotion for a bit, and it's been a slow process, but it's like I'm like, well, I'm glad I I had all these years and decades of being self-employed and doing this thing of like just keep moving forward and you're a self-starter, I bet.

SPEAKER_06 58:30

Like I bet if you get dropped in a business like that, you can hit the ground running.

SPEAKER_02 58:34

Yeah, it was scary.

SPEAKER_06 58:35

Yeah, I'm not I'm not saying it's not scary.

SPEAKER_02 58:39

I remember even like I think I've talked about this, but like when I I knew that I was done. And it was like a very quick, like, yeah, I'm I'm done. I'm not, this is over, I'm not going back to this. Right. And immediately going on the Trader Joe's website and like applying and like filling everything out. Like there it was scary and a little bit embarrassing in the moment because I'm like, this is what it's come to. Like, I work so hard and this is where it's come to, but then I'm like, no, this is a this is good. Like, there's a lot of good, and I also like I'm not gonna keep beating my head against the wall for this thing that like I'm now in this really shit position. Yeah, um like all these like weird feelings, and that even that first day, I was like, man, this is like scary. It's just scary. But like I also had like no choice but to like just like hit the ground running and just like work. Yeah, I've been there almost two and a half years and I'm I love it. That's great. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 59:43

Yeah, yeah, I mean, of course, you get used to it after a while, but those first yeah, first couple of months or weeks are really tough to like you know, have that self-confidence, right? And be like, I can do this, I know what I add although I don't know much about this job or whatever it is, like I know that I can do it. Yeah, you know, like and I think that's an overarching theme that I try to keep, you know, is well I don't know if I can do it, but I know that I can give it a my best effort, and typically my best effort comes out pretty good. So you know, um, but I same like when I transitioned from BMX into motion graphics, that was that was very daunting. It was it was tough, you know. Like thankfully through BMX, I made connections with people that were connected with other companies, and like some of the first I wouldn't say like I did a lot of motion motion graphics before that for friends, for videos, for people's video parts, whatever. But for a company specifically and getting paid by them, I had not done any motion graphics like that. So when I got my first gig was through um Glenn Milligan. Um he's like an amazing person, just can he knows everybody. So I he got me hooked up with an agency he was working with, and like the first couple of jobs we did were like Nike jobs, and I'm like, that's so scary to not I mean I literally just came off of like 12 years of riding BMX for a living. Yeah, but I obviously did graphics, I've been an artist my whole life. I went to college for graphic design, I didn't finish, I only went two years. But um I figured that was always gonna be my path after bikes, yeah, but I didn't know because you know, whatever, you're just riding the wave, right? Living life on the bike. And but through that I was doing graphics for friends, like I said, or connecting with people through BMX and doing some things like that. And I made a couple like even a couple like magazine ads, you know, that were like in magazines, like full page ads, and I designed the whole thing, you know. Yeah, I'm like, that was really cool. Um, so yeah, getting thrown into graphics, I yeah, the first couple of jobs were Nike jobs, and I was nervous as hell, dude. I'm like, I don't, I'm not even a motion graphics designer. I'm like, I don't even know if I can do this. Yeah, but again, you know, hit the ground running, right? You're like, I don't know what it is about I don't know if it's a generational thing, but like seems like some for some reason people that were born in the 80s, 90s have some this like self-starter mentality almost, right? Yeah, yeah. And I felt every job I've ever had, I felt that way. When I went from doing all those graphics and then working at the NFL, same thing. Oh man, this is broadcast graphics, these are live on TV, like blah blah blah, you know? Yeah, um, and I was super nervous. And like, am I gonna be good enough at this? Is my is my art good enough? Are the the concepts I'm coming up with and like wanting to deliver, are they good enough? Or the NFL, which is like this massive biggest thing in the world, you know, yeah, or in America as far as sports. So, you know, but again, same thing, hit the ground running, right? I don't know file structure systems, I don't know any of this stuff, I don't know what to name anything. I don't, you know what I mean? Like I'm so clueless, but yet I'm that type of person that won't ask you for something unless I really need that. If I can go Google it, like if you said some acronym to me and I didn't know what it was, I'd just Google it. Yeah, I'd look it up. Yeah, there's so many people that can't think for themselves, and they'll say, and they'll bother you to ask you what the acronym was when they could have just looked it up. You know what I mean? Yeah, um, and so that's like what I'm saying, like self-starter. Like I'm looking into it because I don't want to bother you, you know, and I also want to look like I know what I'm doing, right? Yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, same when I got the job at Paramount, you know, like I've done TV show graphics, movie graphics before, but at the same time, you know, this is a lot of different stuff. We're traveling to London or Budapest to shoot, like we did Halo, Halo this season one and season two.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:15

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:16

Um and you know, I'm coming up with concepts and designs that we're gonna fly to Budapest and shoot with talent. So with actors, actresses, and on set. And we have this whole concept. This is our you know advertising campaign for Paramount, and this is what we need to shoot. We need to shoot them all in their, you know, their outfits, all the gear and all this stuff, and like um, you know, we have a small team, we had a small team there, and you know, we all worked on this whole thing and getting these shoot concepts down, but then we'd go out there and we'd execute those shoots, come back, I'd take all the footage and I'd make everything and create the whole campaign. And wow, so but I again like I don't I don't know if I how many sets like not just a a set like a a cycle or something, but like the massive I mean like multiple huge buildings with these cars, warthogs, airplanes, like all this stuff, and outdoor sets that were huge, you know what I mean? Like I'm like, wow, look at this production, this is insane.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:28

And then I'm gonna make the main graphics for this thing, like what the Yeah, you know, yeah, that's a lot of pressure, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:36

And so to not have been have done that before and get just thrown right into it, you know, it's it's a lot for sure. But I yeah, you have to like I I I guess I'm just a self starter, that's the way it is, you know. Like I don't I don't mind just jumping in and getting straight to business, but I think it's hard for a lot of people nowadays, I I've noticed, you know, when we hire We hire new people and I think even with like especially with these corporations when you work for like a Paramount or somebody, the systems are massive. Like you are signing into five different things. You know what I mean? Like you have your payroll software, you have this software, you have like whatever it is, a Zoom.

SPEAKER_12 1:06:23

You need a green snack? What do you say?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:27

That was very sweet.

SPEAKER_12 1:06:29

Okay, now what do you say?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:31

That's right, please and thank you. Get you a long way.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:36

But yeah, like it it's just like I remember every day logging in, dude. It's like five two-factor authentications. You know what I mean? Like just getting into the systems and getting into starting the work is like 30 minutes, you know? Yeah. Which is so annoying. But even that stuff, like I'll figure it out. I don't want to call you, I don't want to text you, I don't want to bother you. Like, I will figure it out. And if I hit a big enough wall, then I'll hit you up. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:04

Um that was fast.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:08

You crushed it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

Oh, dude, she these it's insane. Like, she'll go through there's four in a in a box. She'll go through. I buy usually four boxes every day. Yeah. Like by the end of today, she'll go through the four that I got last night. Crush it. It's insane. Um so with uh bike riding in BMX. At what point for you did you kind of figure out like ooh, this is like there's something here, this is the direction I kind of want to go.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:41

Well, I think obviously from day one, it was bikes. Yeah, you know, that's what I wanted to do. It was obvious, it was before it was just it was racing dirt bikes.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:49

I wanted to be Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig, I wanted to be all these dudes. Like, I mean, when I started watching Moto, I mean I'm in like Bob Hannah era, you know, so I'm looking at Ricky Johnson, Bob Hannah, and I'm like, damn, these those are badass.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:03

Like, yeah, one day, one day I don't do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:05

Yeah, and then you know, like, of course, like start growing up, and then it's um and it's Jeremy, you know, and Jeremy's winning everything, and I'm just like, dude, that's so badass. I'm like, and then I see like the little they still had like junior races back then, like the kids would go out, and I'm like, one day, dude, I'm gonna be that kid, right? And I'm saying that like at the Coliseum, you know. I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. Like, and unfortunately, we fell on financial hard times. I think it's like it's the same, it's just such a same story as so many people. I I'm probably could have done it.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:42

What do you say, Bubs? Okay, what do you say? You're welcome.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:50

So I'm like, you know, I won't I was idolizing motocross guys, and I had you know posters up in my room. Like, I remember I had this like no-lean Yamaha poster for like the longest time, like those white and blue, or it's the peak bikes, sorry. Okay, it was the peak, yeah, yeah, it was the the blue and white bikes. Yeah, I had a poster in my room for the longest time with those and I but yeah, it was all about moto, moto everything. Uh and then we fell on some financial hard times. My dad ended up having to, I think, you know, file for bankruptcy, a bunch of stuff. We lost a house in Gardena. Had to move, we moved into uh a rental in Redondo Beach. Um, and that was cool, you know. It's like, okay, and that I guess we're a little bit more towards the beach, you know. Redondo, North Redondo, that area was still a little, it was half like hood and half not, you know. We're right on the verge of like Lawndale, Hawthorne. Okay, yeah. So we're in that area. Um, but then it was BMX because we didn't have money.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:58

So then we go, okay, so because we always had BMX bikes, right? And motorcycles. So all the motorcycles went away, those all got sold. Um, and then we rode BMX, we started racing BMX, and then my dad got into the mountain bike stuff. We raced the mountain bikes, and then we ended up getting dirt bikes again at some point. You know, it's like five-year gap, five-year gap there, yeah, four years there, three years there. It's like on and off. You have a bike, you don't have a bike. Um, but my dad would never have been able to support a racing career for me, like at all. Like, that's not a possibility, especially coming from the west west LA. Like, yeah, okay, you gotta drive an hour and a half just to touch the dirt to ride. Like, dude, this ain't gonna work out. Like, yeah, you need to ride from your garage to be in that world, you know what I mean? So I didn't know this, of course, but my dad knew this the whole time. He's like, We're not you're not racing. And I'm glad they didn't crush me and kill my dreams, you know, like back then because but he knew it, he knew it. He's like, You're not racing, like it's not gonna happen. But so we ended up doing the BMX stuff, and that's uh really what took over. It was like okay, jumping ramps in the front yard, you know. My dad would build me some kickers, some launch ramps, and just be jumping and jumping over neighbor kids, and you know, the whole like 90s, like growing up on a BMX bike situation. Yeah, and then I think uh around 98, 98, 99 is when I learned about like what pegs were and freestyle was, and I mean I I knew about it, of course, because of course the movie Rad, right? Yeah, the first guy to backflip. You're like, oh okay, that's awesome, like tricks, like kick out. Yeah, but I had no idea that all through the late 80s and the 90s, dudes are grinding rails and like 360 and downstairs, and I'm like, I had no idea any of this was happening. I just knew racing. And so when I started, it became obviously 98, 90 in the late 90s, everything got more popular and was on TV, right? X Games started in '97. That was the first one, you know. Like I didn't even know that existed until 99, 98, maybe. Okay. Um, I think it was 97 when X Games started. 95. Was it 95? Oh, it was 95. That's right. Yeah. And it had pink, the pink ramps, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yes. I do remember their wild paint setup. Yes. Yes. Okay, yeah, so 95. So yeah, I didn't even know about like X-Game stuff till like, yeah, 90, 98, 97, 98 in that area. Um, but that's obviously when it all blew up. And of course, I'm not really racing. You know, I'm racing and I'm giving it my all. Like, if I go into a race, I'm gonna do it. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not hyper competitive like my dad is, but I'm definitely I want to do the best for myself. Yeah. Right? I think that's that's a through line through my life. Graphics, everything. I just want to do the best that I can do. The best me I can be, best father I can be. And it I'm not comparing myself to anyone else. I wasn't given the same opportunities or not given opportunities, you know. Like, so I can't, you can't compare yourself. You just have to do the best you can do. Yeah, and so that was like racing for me. It was like, if I'm in the race, I am working my ass off, trying so hard. But at the end of the race, I don't want to be in the mindset that I'm angry that I didn't win. Hated that. Hated that. Like my dad was mad. Mad when he didn't win, mad when he crashed. I'm like, you like this? I was like, you do you like this? Because it looks like you don't like this right now. You know, like, why are you doing this if you don't like it? You know? Um, and yeah, so I'm like, okay, check, check box in life. Gotta like it. Yeah, gotta like it, dude.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:11

You just gotta like it.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:12

And that's what bikes are for me now. I don't ride for company, I don't make money off bikes, like, but I ride as much and as many different bikes as I can.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:23

You know, like, and then if I think I I've said this in other podcasts, if I if I had the choice, I'd ride. If I could make as much money as I'm making now on my bike, I'd be on my bike every day. Yeah. But it's just not where the world is, and it's not where the industry is with biking. And yeah, um, you know, of course, I want to sustain a certain lifestyle, right? I'd like to have, like I said, a house with a backyard and all this stuff. So, but I think yeah, after that point we sold all those bikes, we got really into the BMX stuff, and then come around to like high school um and I learned about pegs and all that stuff. I got my first like freestyle bike.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:08

Like I remember ordering a set of Haro pegs off Dan's comp, putting them on my race frame and bending the axle like within four seconds of jumping on a ledge. Like, I went down the street from my house in Redondo, jumped on a ledge, and I was like, what the hell? They just went like bent straight up, bent my dropouts, and I'm like, how do these guys do it? I'm like, I didn't eat I hopped on a foot-tall ledge, and I'm like, how are these guys jumping down rails? And you know, I did no idea. I didn't know what a 14 millimeter axle was, I had no idea. So then yeah, then I just started learning. You know, I start looking into it. Okay, dance come up, look at the whole catalog, you know, go through it, and then I'm like, okay, I'm gonna save up for a freestyle bike, you know, and ended up getting uh getting one. I got a DK SOB, okay, put it together with a bunch of just squirrely parts, yeah. Um, and I rode that frame for like seven years, dude. Oh, wow. For a long time. Wow. Because again, we're not like we didn't have a lot of money. And my dad was very frugal, you know, like he wasn't spending a lot of money. Even I would say he definitely liked to spend more on himself and his bikes.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:23

But still, in all reality, he's not spending that much money on his bikes. But you know, so I I rode that frame for a long time, just changed every part. Everything changed out of that bike. Um, but that's what got me started in freestyle. That's and then I met a couple kids in the area and Redondo, and we would just ride. Like I again didn't really know that much, but figured out the pegs, figured out grinding ledges, yeah, going to the park down the street, meeting up with some kids, trying manuals, you know, like all that stuff was all brand new. Like, and I now it seems late. Like I'm 14, 15, when I'm learning about what a bar spin is or a tail whip, or do you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I feel like at least at in this part of our lives, when you're seeing like a six-year-old do a 720 tail whip, you're like, you know, I'm I was pretty late, like 15, like that's pretty late, you know. Um, so when I was riding, of course, I was like, man, it'd be so cool to be sponsored, it'd be so cool to like do this for a living, but I'm like, the reality is probably not there. Like, nobody's riding freestyle for a living back in those days, or was different, you know. You're doing maybe box jump shows or something like that for a living. Um, and then so I was like, I never I just never thought it could happen. I knew I was a good rider, and I knew I ridden since I was the day I was born essentially, and walking is uh more awkward than riding a bike, you know, but I don't know, like there's no skate parks around us. It was very strange because you know, you think California, you think Venice Beach, you think skateboarding, skate parks. Nope, there was none, dude. All the cool parks were on the East Coast in a warehouse, you know, and like to buy a warehouse or even rent one here in LA is astronomical. Yeah, you'll never make your money back from kid skating in your warehouse. Just the way it goes with the property values here. Yeah. So um, yeah, it was dirt jumps and all that stuff and street. Okay. Just riding street and dirt jumps, and then I started finding magazines and videos, and then I I met um through my dad. My dad worked for the phone company for GTE for a really long time, and through him, we had some friends, and they raced BMX. So I started hanging out with them, and they lived in Lawndale, right next to Redondo. And um my buddy Steve that I met there, him and his brother Sean, you know, they were my entryway into like what like real freestyle was. So like my that guy, he was Steve, he was like really into like East Coast trails, so like Posh and Push and all these other places that were like so famous, yeah, that you would never find here. Like Sheep Hills was the the place, which I mean you're just peddling the whole time, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:38

Um, so I quote unquote real trails, like yes, sheep is real trails, but they're different, they're different than an East Coast set of trails or you know, something like that. And so he introduced me to like videos like Home of the Brave or Seek and Destroy and all these like super old hardcore trail videos, and then we were just like got on this trail kick and we were just going to trails everywhere. We go to Hidden Valley over here, we go to uh sheep, we go to Slater's, yeah, which is that funny because when I was driving down here, I saw Bolsa Chica, and I was like, damn, I remember the first time I went down Bolsa Chica, we went to Slater's, and like, yeah, so um, and then we went to Trails in the Valley. Uh one of my best friends now, Miles, that's where I met him when I was like, I think I was four 14 or something like that. And I met him out in Simi Valley and at some trails called Horse Trails.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:33

Um, but um, the guy Steve, he he was older, he was like four or five years older than me. So he had license, car, and that's how we cruised around um when I was you know in high school until I got my car. Yeah. Um, and then yeah, then it was just like, you know, riding, meeting people. We did a bunch of like Orange County. We had a lot of friends in Fullerton and go to the block at vans, you know, and go to that skate park. And and I graduated high school and I was like, okay, here I go. I'm gonna start a job or start life or do something. I don't know. Like my dad was like, All right, dude, I'm out. He's like, I'm out, I'm going to Nevada. I'm like, okay. He's so he went up and he lives by like Carson City, Nevada area, uh, just down from Tahoe. Loves it. Living his life up there. And he's like, Do you want to come with me? And like literally just graduated high school. And I'm like, I don't think so. I don't think I'm gonna go live up in Gardnerville when I just graduated high school and I'm 18, you know. I'm like, I don't think so, dude. Like, yeah, maybe now. Maybe I live there now, you know. Like it's beautiful. It is, yeah. Um, but yeah, back then I was like, I don't think so. So he's like, he would say stuff like, Oh, you're an LA boy.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:58

And I'm like, ah, come on.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:00

Yeah, what's wrong with that?

SPEAKER_07 1:22:01

What's wrong with that?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:03

I'm like the least LA boy there is.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:14

Oh yeah. Show off.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:50

Okay, you want frozen?

SPEAKER_06 1:23:56

Which one? Are you gonna do frozen two or frozen one?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:58

Frozen one. We haven't done frozen two.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:01

There it is. Let it go.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:05

We love frozen. We got an Elsa dress, an honor dress.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:08

Yeah, we had an Elsa dress. Uh yeah, we had all that. Big frozen. Now she's out, she's out. Um she wants to listen to hardcore. She's like That's awesome. I know. I I like I try to give her songs that she can listen to, yeah, you know, but some of them are gnarly, so I'm like, maybe not this one right now. I give her I have a playlist for her that I make, and like anytime I hear like a hard song and and it doesn't have like too many gnarly lyrics, I'm like, all right, put this on that her playlist, yeah. So but yeah, she started out a long time ago loving rock, like a player penny wise and all this stuff, and she's like she loves it. Yeah, now it's like if a song comes on and it's mediocre slow, she's like, next, and I'm like, wait, you gotta give it. Like sometimes the intro is slow and then it drops, and then you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:00

That's how so like on my days off, like after we finish this, we'll probably load up and go down the beach and I'll put her in the stroller and go for a run, we go for a run. And I have a a Bluetooth and a playlist that I have for like running, and it's just all like really fast, like punk rock and rock stuff, and there's some like hardcore, like I guess turn style H2O stuff on there, and she's fucking she'll just bop her head, kick her legs.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:26

So cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:27

My my daughter loves it, dude. Like now, now my daughter's like into stuff like like peeling flesh and like all these like really gnarly bands. She loves it. So good. Yeah, like you know, they're doing the whole like uh like pig squealing, like yeah, she loves it.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:46

So good.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:46

Yeah, she's super into that now, so it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:50

Um who uh in terms of like I guess pros BMX pros at that time, like was there anyone that you were looking up to or that caught your eye that you're like, oh yeah, this guy's like influential, like in terms of like what you were into and yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:06

I mean throughout like racing, we were always connected to like a lot of dirt jumping guys, you know, because they would do like king of dirt at a race. Yeah, you know, so I'd be like, oh cool, I got to see like uh Brian Foster, like he raced and did like freestyle and was in the X games, and like that was really cool. So I kind of connected like with him a lot. Um then of course, like I said, when I was exposed to all those like East Coast Trail dudes, like I like was introduced to like Chris Doyle and got to start watching his stuff, and I'm like, oh that's cool. Like, I mean watching Doyle taught me so much riding-wise, like I'm jumping trails and doing the stuff, and I'm just starting to like maybe learn 360s, and I learned 360s opposite because I didn't know what I was doing, and no one was there to teach me. And then I watched Doyle on video and I'm like, oh, he's right foot forward and he's spinning to the left. I'm like, maybe I should try to spin left. Literally went to the dirt jump, spun left, and landed at 360. And I was like, that was so much easier than going the other way. I'm like, what's I even doing? Yeah, so just stuff like that, you know, just watching, you know, it's basically the same as like Moto. You're you're analyzing footage, you're seeing what these guys are doing. What is their shoulder doing, or like, you know, I would be hardcore like that and like rewind and fast forward or you know, play certain spots if I wanted to learn something. Um, but then yeah, like the normal people, Edwin Delarosa for street riding, Van Homan was like the gnarly dead man stuff, like huge rails and all that stuff. So that was he was obviously a a huge um inspiration too. Yeah. And then I had a couple really good local inspirations through my friend Barney and Maron. Those two guys were when I was, you know, whatever. 13, they were 16, and they were the cool guys, you know, and they lived in Hawthorne area. And um, I think Maron was down more Culver City area. Um, but those guys, you know, when I I first saw them, I I didn't again, I was in this racing to freestyle transition, and I'd never seen a like people do a lot of stuff in person.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:23

And I saw them and they had four pegs on their bikes, and they were stalling on rails and stuff, and I'm like, whoa, like that's new, that's cool. Like, I'm trying to do that. And then, you know, I'd see them every once in a while. Like, there's this church park behind the high school, and this church would just put out these like little ramps, like roll them out of a little like storage container. Uh, but they would show up there and ride sometimes, and I was there every Thursday because that was the only ramps in the area, and so I got to ride with them a couple times and started to know them and meet them, and then it wasn't until like later on, we were in our 20s probably that we really started hanging out um and riding a lot, but they were huge inspirations to me just being local, like they weren't pro at the time, like they were pro-level riders, I would say for sure. But to me, that they they were like full pro, like they're so good. I was like, Well, like how can I ever be like that, you know? Um, but of course, you know, when you're watching videos and magazines and stuff like that, you're looking at all the stars, uh Corey Nastasio and you know, Biz and all these dudes, but locally that was those are like two guys. Yeah, yeah, Maron and Barney were the two dudes. Oh and they're still around, still involved. So oh that's cool. Yeah, yeah. I see Barney all the time. We ride as much as possible. Of course, we're all dads and have our schedules and stuff. Yeah, but yeah, and like for me now it's I'm I have to pick my poison, right? Like if I go ride moto, that's it. That's all I can do that that day, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:30:04

Yeah. You need your pants? Where are they?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:18

I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:19

You gotta go searching.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:22

I see something rainbow right there.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:58

Where are you going with that? That thing's big. I see you're looking in there. Um but yeah, so definitely definitely the the general the general people, of course, that are all on props videos and stuff like that, but I would say more important was local, yeah, kind of local friends, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:50

Yeah. Um so then at what at what point does the BMXing turn into an opportunity to actually be a career path for you?

SPEAKER_06 1:32:03

That wasn't until I was uh 20.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:09

Yeah, I was 20 and like I uh you know still riding just because I I love riding. Like I'll never stop, even if I never turned pro in the first place. I'd still be riding just because I love it. Yeah, so it was that was the mindset. Do it because you love it. If something happens, great. Yeah, and fortunately I was riding really well. I I went to some contests and rode and some jams and got some photos in you know, um magazine, and then uh what was it? Yeah, I got a photo in a magazine, and then my good friend Adam, I was riding with him a lot of the time, and he was sponsored by Eastern Bikes, and I had broken a frame and he got me a frame, and then I connected with Lee Ramsdale, who's the TM of the company at the time, and he's like, Yeah, man, if you ever need anything, just let me know. He's all sended out. I'm like, Am I sponsored? Yeah, question mark. Like so in what we would call that now is flow. Like I was being flowed, you know. I got parts and things if I needed it, and I just call Lee and say, Hey man, I broke pedals. Can I get some new ones? He's like, sure. Like literally a month later, he Lee calls me up out of the blue and he's like, Hey man, do you want to go to Germany? And I'm like, Yeah, and he's like, Okay, the flights on Thursday, it's Monday. And I'm like, Okay. And he's like, You got passport? I'm like, no, I've never been out of the country before, dude. Like, yeah, you know, again, we're not like super wealthy. I'm not taking French vacations in the summer, like, you know, so I don't have a passport, and I'm like, I'm 20, you know, and I'm like, oh shoot, I'm like, I really want to go. Like, I'm about to leave college so I can go on this trip. Um, and my mom was the one, like I said, she's always been very supportive, even though she doesn't like it. Yeah, she got me a rush passport. We did the whole thing, went down to the federal building in LA, got a rush passport. Uh it's like 300 bucks. My mom paid for it. She's like, you have to do this. She's like, I will never be able to take you to Germany. I'll never be able to take you to Europe. She's like, You have to do this. If you don't do this now, you're gonna regret it the rest of your life. Yeah. And I'm like, all right, I'm like, let's do this. So packed it up, went to Germany. Uh, right after Germany, I went to uh England for two weeks. So straight from Germany, right over to England. Met a bunch of dudes, met a bunch of people, um, filmed a bunch of like cool stuff, and then when I got back from that trip, um, you know, the owner of Eastern, the two owners of Eastern, they called me up and they were like, Hey, you did a really great job while you were out there. Like, do you want to like ride for us for real? Like for pro. And I'm like, Yeah, hello, like what?

SPEAKER_11 1:35:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:14

And so coming back off of that trip, first trip I ever took for BMX, and I come home with a bike sponsor and a shoe sponsor because then there was these guys out there um ran a shoe company called Odessa.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:28

And yeah, I just because we were out there doing stuff for our Eastern bikes distribute distributors, we were connected with these people, and so that's who was taking us around and showing us all the spots and all the places to ride and stuff. And they loved me and I loved them, and we all got along super well. And they so they were like, Yeah, do you like let's they sent me home with like six pairs of shoes and you know, pretty much flowed flowed me shoes. Like, I didn't get any money, but it was like a shoe sponsor flow for the next like three years after that.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:04

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:05

Um, and so yeah, so like after my first trip, I came home with a bike sponsor and shoe sponsor, and I'm like, okay, I must be doing something right, I guess, right? Yeah, like yeah, I didn't know if I was or if like I thought everyone else was better than me or good, or you know what I mean? Like more marketable than me. Like, but I guess I was doing something right. So I just kind of I just kept going. Like, if uh and then of course, since I left and went to Europe, I had to drop out of school because you know, I guess you I mean, unless you get a note and all this stuff, but I'm like, I'm pretty much sure I'm not gonna go back. Just just a hint, you know, of like I don't think I'm going back. I wasn't really doing well anyway. Um I was slacking off really bad. College. I was like sleeping in my van and classes going on. So um, yeah, so anyways, like yeah, and then just from there just started traveling. Like Eastern picked me up full time, so I'm going on all their trips. Um, Odessa flew me out to Barcelona like a couple months after that. It's my first time in Spain, and that was amazing. Love that. That was such a cool trip. And I got to hang out with some really great dudes out there that were like European legends, and that was awesome too.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:26

What? You're gonna play the drums? We can play the drums in a little bit.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:35

You're just like my daughter, she loves the drums too, loves it. Um, but yeah, so then uh it's just kind of kept kept going. Like, you know, it's it's all about relationships. Yeah, it's all about who you know, who you meet, who you hang out with, if you're cool with this crew. And I think being on a team as far as BMX goes, that's more important than a lot of things. Can you be in a bus with someone for 24 hours without ripping each other's heads off or you know, without gnawing the crap out of each other? And yeah, and that stuff happens, you know, like it's just it's traveling with a group of people and you're all tight for so long.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:15

Um, but that is something that doesn't translate to like moto world or anything. It's yeah, this crew mentality, right? Where you're part of this team and you're you're together no matter what. I mean, you might be sharing a bed, like you're not sleeping on the floor right next to each other. Yeah, um, it's much more hardcore. So you gotta be sure that the people on your team are are with you and you all get along, you know. It can't be an odd man out type situation.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:48

Yeah. Who um who was all on the team with you at that time?

SPEAKER_06 1:38:52

So it was Adam Banton, Josh Perry, um, myself, uh Nick Diderloma was on there. He was like an Am guy that turned in. Um who else was with us? Um there was a couple other people. I don't know why I'm blanking on his name. It's a Florida writer.

unknown 1:39:16

I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:18

Blinking on his name, but he's a good Florida writer, and he was on there for the first couple, maybe first year that I was on, and then he got he was off. Um but really it was um oh yeah, Darren Baldwin was on. Okay. Um, Carl Pointer was on too. Um and then a couple other dudes that were like getting flowed at the time. But that was like main like pro team right there, like at the height of everything. And so we had we had a good team. I just don't know if we had a right the right look, you know. Like I always thought like I was very loyal to them. I rode for them for like I think it was eight years. Okay. Um, but they are they weren't like I don't know, they weren't the coolest looking company. You know, like nowadays cult, like yeah, super cool, right? Got a very, very specific vibe. Not saying that I would ever be on cult because I just I'm not the type of writer that fits in with that crew, and that's what I mean by how these crews are very, very tight. Like, especially cult. I know Robbie really well, um, and he has really created a specific vibe in this crew and this team and this company. Yeah, um, and for Eastern, it was a little all over the place. We didn't really have a look. There wasn't really anything like wasn't like animal on East Coast, it wasn't like this, it wasn't a cool, cool brand. But what we did do, and what they did do, I should say, it's not we, but they they were one of the first people to get really into like high-end um complete bikes for kids. So like a $400 complete with three-piece cranks. That was like new at the time, and they dude, they sold like crazy. I mean, all over the world they were selling bikes, and kids would get them because a parent was like $400, I could do that for Christmas, you know? I get you a bike, and then eventually all the parts change and only the frame remains. Then they go on to cooler brands, right? Cooler companies, FBM, whatever, Mutiny, like all these really awesome brands that are whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:35

And I think Eastern was more of like not a Walmart brand, but like this in-between where you're not super core and super cool, but you're not Walmart yet. Yeah, you're right in the middle. Um, and I always tried to like really improve our look. I I designed graphics and shirts and things, and I tried to make us look better, but I don't know. I just never felt like we had it, was never the cool team. Yeah. You know, I don't think people were aspiring to be on our team. Like I would say.

SPEAKER_12 1:42:08

You need what? Eddie Coco? You need what? You want to watch Coco?

unknown 1:42:15

Baby Cocoa.

SPEAKER_12 1:42:16

Baby Cocoa?

SPEAKER_06 1:42:17

Baby Cocoa. Is that Coco Melon?

SPEAKER_02 1:42:20

No, uh um the Disney movie Coco.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:23

Oh yeah, I like that one too.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:25

Okay, so what do you need? You need baby cocoa? The little your little baby cocoa toy. Yeah. I just saw it actually.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:09

Can I see cocoa? Can I see?

SPEAKER_12 1:43:13

Can you show me?

SPEAKER_00 1:43:14

Can you show me cocoa?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:23

But yeah, so that was like that was our team and Yeah, I I don't it's a pretty well like a good way to explain Eastern. Because that's kind of how I like viewed it too.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:40

Yeah, they're a great like entry, entry level style brand, you know. Yeah. And of course, you know, when I was riding for them, they did a bunch of wild stuff, like cutting holes in the frames, and you know, people freaked out about all that, which is really funny because I'm a large person, you know, like I've I've been six foot since 11th grade, and I've been 200 pounds since high since senior year. So I'm bigger than most BMX writers, and so I'm a great parts tester, I'll tell you that much. I'll break a lot of stuff, yeah. Um, but people freaked out when Eastern they cut holes in the head tube. And you know, I mean, technically, if you're looking at like stress points of frames, the stress really isn't on the front of the head tube, it's on the gusseting where the two tubes are connected to that head tube. That's where all that force is being applied. So everyone freaked out. They're like, you're gonna snap that, break that, you know, 12-year-olds are gonna break their frames and all this stuff. And uh here's the problem is right when they did that, they got, you know, it was everyone was talking about it, uh, and they they just they had it at Interbike for the first year, and so everyone's like looking at it, freaking out. And then literally, like right after that, they had a bad run of frames from Taiwan. This is not even frames with holes in them. This is just a bad run of frames. Yeah, I don't know whether what happened, they didn't switch the tooling out enough, you know what I mean? And this this batch just was not good, and there were kids warranting frames that were like 12 years old, like snapping head tubes.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:23

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:24

And I'm like, this is not good. You guys just cut holes in the frames, and now 12-year-olds are bringing frames back with snapped head tubes. And mind you, this is snapped head tubes where the cuts aren't even happening, so this is something else, yeah. But it didn't look good publicly, yeah. So a lot of people started talking crap about Eastern and how their parts aren't good or their bikes aren't good, and and uh that's not that's not fully true. I will say that yes, they are entry-level certain things, but they of course have a higher range of frames that are more expensive, and they have three-piece cranks, and I personally never rode their cranks, and I never rode their stems, but that was really just because I didn't like the design of the cranks, it cut my ankle all the time, and then I didn't like the stems because there weren't the right reach or rise or all this stuff. So I rode other parts, and I always got hooked up by Odyssey and those guys, like that was a really huge hookup for me. Yeah, just flow, never on the team, never like that, but definitely always could ask them for anything at any time, and they would always hook me up. So I rode their wheels, I wrote a lot of their parts, and then I rode frames for Eastern and then whatever parts they supplied to because they made everything tires, tubes, wheels, like yeah, they did the whole deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:50

Was there any uh I know you were with them for eight years, was there any opportunities during those eight years to go elsewhere?

SPEAKER_06 1:46:58

Or never directly. I didn't have any direct, like, hey, do you want to ride for us situations? But for sure I could have reached out. Yeah, for sure I could have been like, you know, I I just see a change in direction and and start reaching out, you know, could have reached out to Moller, Robbie, Fit, this, that, the other. I I mean so many connections, I knew everybody, yeah. So I could have reached out, but I didn't. I you know, like I was happy. They were supplying me with everything I needed. If I needed 17 frames that month, they would send them to me, you know. Uh, and I was also too like with Eastern, one of their main athletes. So I was always on their ads, always in videos, you know, like so they pushed me as far as my professional career and my image a lot, you know, which of course is a give and a take, right? Like they're using my likeness to sell their parts, so you know, but I'm happy that I'm out there getting coverage, getting magazine ads, you know what I mean? Just so other people know me. Like, and that's what probably got me all the other deals I had with like DC, and you know, it was just being out there and being visible, you know. So I thought visibility was probably better than ditching them, going to a different team, and maybe not working out with that team, or you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Um, and again, like they were taking care of every every need that I wanted, except for income.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:35

That was gonna be my next what what is what does that check look like a month? Bad.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:46

Not not good, uh, but you know, the potential there is to stack your sponsors. Okay. So that's really where you can make the living. You're not gonna make a living off one sponsor. It's just not gonna happen in BMX anyway. Um but for Eastern at the time, and this is again 2008, 2009, 10, I was getting 500 a month. Okay, so you know, 500 bucks a month. I don't know. It doesn't go very far.

SPEAKER_09 1:49:18

Not really. Not really. Nope.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:21

Uh so I was eating a lot of rice and a lot of butter and yeah, um, scraping by, um, and then yeah, I I didn't have uh any other paying sponsors for the longest time. Um everybody else was flow, right? Yeah, shoes, all the shoes. I was I was on uh sorry, um what is what did I say? I'm getting too mixed up now because I was on both teams. Odessa Odessa and Osiris, okay. Then I was with Vans, I was riding Vans for a minute, getting flowed. Okay. Then from Vans I went to DC.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:00

That's where I ended my career, was on DC.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:02

Okay, because you were with DC for a little while, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:50:04

Six years. Okay. Yeah. Yes, for five, five or six years. Yeah. And then two of those years was full-time paid pro.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:12

So I rode for them for like four years before just getting flow, just shoes. And honestly, I that was enough. Dude, you go through shoes so fast when you're riding like that. When you're riding every day hard and you're doing contests and you're training and whatever it is you're doing, you're riding street, dude. You're blowing shoes out less less than a month, three weeks. I'd have to get a new pair.

SPEAKER_10 1:50:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:36

So they were stacking me with shoes, and I'm like, all right, that's cool. I'd love to get paid. That'd be great. So I don't have to mow lawns and stuff. Like me and my buddy Josh, we were using our buddy Ryan's um lawn mower, weed whacker, and all this stuff that he had bought. Like Ryan did really well in BMX and won a lot of contests and stuff, and so he was able to buy himself like two houses. And so we took care of his property. Okay. So like he had this huge property by the lake, and it would grow crazy in North Carolina. And so we would mow mow it, cut it, all this stuff. But we would use his mower and his equipment, and then we would go to other people's houses.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:17

And that's kind of how we got by. That and the $500 a month.

unknown 1:51:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:21

So $500 a month paid for rent, and then the rest of it paid for food and utilities or whatever else I needed. Uh there were many, many times where I flew to the other side of the world and literally had to leave my bike because they were gonna charge me to put it on the plane. Because they found out, right? Yeah. They're like, oh, this is gonna be 175 bucks. I'm like, well, I'm gonna throw it away. Because I have probably negative $400 right now in my life.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:48

Yeah. You know? That's wow.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:50

And I begged, I begged a couple times. Like, I literally was about to put it in the trash can and be like, just give us to a kid or something, I don't know. And the lady's like, ah, just go. You know?

SPEAKER_03 1:52:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:02

Because I we would put the bikes in golf club bags. Okay. And I'd be like, it's golf clubs. Yeah. They're gonna know it to the x-ray it later. And so most of the time it's fine. Just put it right in, go ahead and oversized baggage, you know? Yeah. But every once in a while they'd open it up and be like, This is a bike. And I'm like, yeah, so what? It fits in the same bag.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:23

Yeah, still the same.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:24

They're like, no, because it it's classified under transportation.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:28

So you are putting transportation on the airplane. Yeah. That is, you know, quote unquote a class of the classification that allows them to charge you more, you know. Yeah. So, but yeah, so many times. And and that's I think the biggest takeaway from BMX as far as income and all that stuff is there is potential to make a lot of money. If you're like contest-winning guy, like, dude, you can make tons of money. Like, I know guys that made a lot of money, had cars and houses and all that stuff. But that's this, like, you know, that's a that's 1% of the rest of the people in the world that are riding bikes and BMX. And so to even scrape the five percenters of BMX, like I feel successful, very successful, you know, even though I didn't make much money and I didn't I don't buy a house and I don't have these assets, you know. Um, I felt rich in life. Yeah, you know, like I traveled the world, dude. Like who else gets to do that? And who else gets to travel the world and go to the most local places ever? Like I didn't go to Barcelona and go to the W hotel, you know. I went to Barcelona and went to the slums. I went to the like the lowest places and went to the alleyways and like we had locals in every city, every country show us around. And like that's the coolest part. Yeah, you're not doing touristy, you know, you're doing local stuff, yeah, which is rad. Yeah, so I feel rich in life, but for sure when I hit 28 and my BMX career is winding down, I'm like, I'm almost 30 and I got nothing. Yeah, I got nothing to my name. I'm like, if I had a kid right then, dude, I don't know what would happen. You know, like how could I support support, you know? And then I think it was 2012, I broke my leg in France. I'd snap Tib Fib, just complete floppy leg. Um riding dirt jump contests. I tried some trick that I probably shouldn't have tried. I I had only I had invented this trick called the orbit, and it's basically a Superman seat grab flip, but you don't flip. I it's hard to describe. Okay. But you basically go for a flip, you decommit, but your bike still goes up. Okay. So it's uh directly above you, and right when it's above you, you start to turn and pull it back in.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:09

So it's almost your body's doing a 360, but your bike is doing a and I called it the orbit because something orbits around something. So the bike is orbiting around you almost.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:21

Uh and I only landed that trick once on a resie.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:25

And it's the hardest trick, it was so hard. And uh, I don't know why, but I was feeling really good, and I was riding uh, I think it was like Masters of Dirt or something in France. And uh my buddy Tomas, he's like rad dude, invited me out for that, and then I think it was doing really well. I think I was in like sixth place or something, and then they had a jam, little jam format at the end. It's like 10 minutes of just like your best stuff, just do one trick if you need to. So I did a couple more tricks before that, and I was feeling really good. And but at this time, like I hadn't really been riding much dirt, and these jumps were like 30 feet and like 12 feet tall. So I'm like, but I like I said, I was doing good. Like I did 720 and I did double tailwave and all this stuff. I'm like, all right, I got it still, you know. Yeah, and so I went and tried to orbit at the end of the contest. I mean, there's like two minutes left in the contest, and just nabbed my freaking leg on the landing, didn't pull it, bailed out of it. At first, I thought the bike hit me in the shin because I had like a dead leg like that. I was like, oh dang, sliding down the landing on my back, you know. And then I I picked my leg up, like and like you know, you kind of rub it like this. I picked it up and it flopped. Yeah, and I was like, flopped. You idiot. There's two minutes left. You could have gone home tomorrow. Like, what is wrong with you? Yeah, like you're not even riding dirt right now. You're riding a lot of street, you're doing like all this stuff, and now you're gonna go try to freaking orbit like the hardest trick you know, yeah, without practice, you know what I mean? Like, stupid, dude. Like, oh man, the the amount of regretful thoughts that went through my head after that moment, dude. I was just like, ah, and then there's 15 days in France, you know, five days in the hospital, full like rod surgery, luckily a clean break, so that's good. No compounding, anything like that. That was good. I had like full leg protection, so I had like knee, shin, ankle. Yeah, so I think the shin guards maybe helped keep it together, yeah, you know, and not like stick out of the skin or anything. So, but it was clean break, and the surgeon was awesome. Actually, still talk to him now.

SPEAKER_08 1:57:44

Oh wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:45

He like checks in on me. He's like, Oh, how are you doing? I'm like, great. You did a great job, dude. It was really good. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so then but everybody, you know, flew home the next day. Like all my teammates, anybody I was with, like flew home. And I'm there by myself in a French hospital where no one speaks English, and my phone is dead. My phone crapped out two days before. I got nothing. I'm looking at a clock, and then I'm waking up in the middle of the night because I'm on morphine and all this stuff, and of course, nights suck, dude. It hurts. And I'm waking up and I'm looking out the window and I'm like, it's dark. I can't go back to bed. I wake up. Oh, it's a little lighter, so it must be like 4 a.m. You know, like and yeah, no TV, no entertainment, you gotta pay for all that stuff. And so I sat there and the like nurses were feeling bad for me. They're like, nobody's here to see you, like, no one's coming to see you. And I'm like, I don't know anyone here. Like, yeah, my mom and my wife, um, which was my girlfriend at the time, they figured out what room I was in and how to call and how to get through to the room. It wasn't like direct every time. Sometimes they get transferred to a different room just because of France, like French speaking, you know, didn't understand. But I was able to talk to them, and then um with the help of the ARF with the athlete recovery fund, that was Aaron Cook. You know Aaron, right? Yeah. So Aaron's obviously still really involved in Moto. Um, and Alan is his brother, his BMX, and now involved in mountain bikes. Um, Aaron, uh I had Lee reach out, Aaron to Aaron, and I've known Aaron since I was 12. Because mountain bike race, mountain bike racing. Okay. So I met them up in Big Bear a long, long time ago. Okay. So Aaron knew me, he's like, dude, for sure, we'll help out immediately. Like, what do you need? And so I'm like, I just honestly, I just need my my wife. Like, I need somebody here with me, you know, to help me out with my bags and getting on the airplane and going home. And so they flew her out. DC got me a hotel for seven days. So I went five days in the hospital. They kicked me out. They're like, you gotta go. I'm like, okay. So then I went to our distributor, Celine, she's an incredible woman. I went to her house for two days. Then I went to my buddy Tomas's house, and he had a four-year-old daughter, like just like her, in in uh the south of France, and I stayed with him for seven days, and then I stayed another seven or another yes, five days at a hotel when my wife came finally.

SPEAKER_04 2:00:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:30

So I met my wife and niece, and then we stayed in a hotel there, which DC got for me. Which there was this whole drama, and this is like it's a story that I've told before uh in a magazine, but I never have told it like on a podcast. And I I think it's pretty important for a lot of people to know. Um, but when I was out there, I was doing two different jobs essentially. I was there to go to a surf contest for DC, and we had a ramp out there, and we were doing like a demo. All right, just show up, DC athlete, cool, whatever, have fun. Um, and then the contest, I was representing Eastern. So there's like two things happening. So who fronts the bill for certain things that are happening on that trip? Well, I don't know, because it's kind of a 50-50. DC's also getting something from me while I'm there, and Eastern is too. So when I broke my leg, I go, okay, I'm like, I need a flight home. I don't, I the flight's gonna obviously have to be in 15 days because my doctor says I can't fly because of thrombosis, right? Vein, you're could get a blood clot and lose your leg.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:01:49

And so um I'm like, okay, I'm gonna need somewhere to stay and I'm gonna need a flight home. Well, the flight that they got me wasn't insured, so they just lost the money, right? Because I didn't make the flight home. And then I'm in the hospital, you know, just on morphine, just swirling around in my head, you know, because I got no phone, I got no connections, I got nothing. So I'm just like, you know, having those stupid thoughts, like, I hate this. What the fuck am I doing with my life? You know, like, why am I even here? What the hell? You know, um, and I'm like talking to to them Eastern, and I'm like, can you get me a flight home? And they're like, we'll work it out. What does that mean? Like, just get me a flight. I don't care, dude. Like, it's two grand, 2500 bucks. I'll pay you when I get back. I'm like, just take care of me. And it's not about take care of me as in like I'm whining, it's I broke my leg on the other side of the continent, or like, you know, other side of the world. And I just need confirmation that you guys got me, right? You got me a flight. Like, no, no BS in, just go get it. All right, tell me that you got it so I can relieve my mind that says, all right, I got a flight, you know. And they were they were they were what happened was they were in debt and they didn't tell anybody. They didn't tell me, they didn't tell anybody, they're writers, they didn't tell anybody, so I didn't know this. Apparently they owed this, uh, they owed Taiwan like half a million dollars or more. Um, and I think the distributor, Celine, I can't remember the distribution name, but that company owed Eastern money because they had ordered a bunch of stuff from them to distribute. So somewhere along the lines, they owed them money, and so Eastern says, Okay, oh, Sun X. Sun X, you buy us flight home. And I'm like, motherfuckers, buy me a flight. I don't care. Stop with this business stuff, like just get the flight. Like your rider that you sent is somewhere in a hospital losing it. Like, just do it. They tried to get Sun X to pay for the flight and all this stuff, and I'm just like, oh, this is so annoying. Turns out I ended up getting on the hold or on the phone with the marketing director at DC, and he got me a flight. He got me a flight, and he got me that hotel.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:39

Who's the marketing director?

SPEAKER_06 2:04:41

It was Mike Allen.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:43

So Mike came in originally to phase out BMX from DC. That's what his job was, essentially. And he fell in love with us. He fell in love with the team, he fell in love with BMX and the vibe. And I think his first thing he did was he came to Dave Mira's uh Animal House contest, which was at his warehouse. And he just dude, yeah, he fell in love. We partied that night, and you know, he's just like, I can't, I can't cut this. He's like, This is awesome. He's like, we need more of this. So that's how pretty much everybody ended up being on pro, and we all got DC diamond rings and you know, all that stuff. It was cousin Mike because he came in and they were like, check this stuff out, see if it's viable. And he's like, Heck yeah, dude. He's like, We're leaning in, and then that's when yeah, we all got on put on pro, we all got paid like really well, and we all took really good trips. I had like a $10,000 travel budget for the year, so I could just buy a flight if I wanted to go to that jam or this place. Yeah, um, it was like it was the first like real sponsor, like a real big sponsor that I had that wasn't like BMX based, you know what I mean? Like where they the contract was real. Like, I don't even think I ever had a contract with Eastern. It was like handshake, you know. I don't think they did contracts, they weren't those types of people, yeah. Um, but yeah, so riding with for DC was like that. Um, and he, Mike, I owe so much to him, he just did everything for us, got us in the magazines, you know what I mean? Like built a built a brand new team with a bunch of dudes, and it lasted for two years until you know DC did the whole they cut everybody and everything, not just BMX, it was women's snowboarding, it was um Moto, they cut Moto, they cut BMX, they cut a lot of stuff. Um, and you know, that's just politics or not politics, but that's just uh that's business stuff. Quicksilver owned DC. Ken told DC. He says it's the biggest mistake he ever made, and I believe him. Because they went public, you know, sold the company. Quicksilver owns it, Quicksilver's not doing good, and they're funneling the money out of DC. DC's crushing it. This is Robin D Robin Big Era. I mean, they are murdering. Like, I couldn't even. I mean, we would get hunted down because we were in a bus that said DC on it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 2:07:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:07:20

So um, but yeah, it's and I think they can't they had someone outside come in, um, look at the books, look at what was happening, and they're like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, cut all those divisions, and that was it. And then we got cut. I got a two, three, no, so three weeks before we got cut from DC, we got cut from Eastern.

SPEAKER_09 2:07:44

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_06 2:07:44

So Eastern was having their financial problems, which I didn't know about, right? I got we I got cut, then I I do uh I do a magazine article, and they asked me all about it. So I and that's why I'm saying I told the story just to the magazine, and um I didn't know anything about their money problems. So I told the you know, I told the magazine the whole story about France and all that stuff, and then uh how now I'm off the team and you know I don't really know what's going on. That the whole last year that I was on the team, we didn't take one team trip. I'm like, that's weird. Something's wrong, right? We didn't take one trip this whole time. And so um, so I yeah, I got let go of them. I did an article, and they got mad at me about the article because I pretty much just told the truth of what was happening. Then come to find out, they told me about their money.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:48

Okay, we pooped. Oh, good job. This is a this is actually like a big deal that she's letting us know that she pooped.

SPEAKER_06 2:08:54

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:55

Good job. Okay, let's go get a fresh butt. Thank you. That's a I'm very proud of you.

SPEAKER_06 2:09:00

Yeah, then we're then we'll wrap it up when you get back.

SPEAKER_02 2:09:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:11:56

Uh before I leave on the

SPEAKER_02 2:12:02

Okay. So you Eastern's pissed at you because you explain what happened.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:08

They said I slammed them in this article. Which I really didn't slam them necessarily. I just said what was going on. Yeah. Um we didn't have and I What would you like to watch?

SPEAKER_02 2:12:26

You want to watch Mulan? Mama said you did this yesterday too.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:31

Back and forth.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:32

Yeah. We don't really do a whole lot of like screen time with her. Yeah. But what do we do? She likes to watch what?

SPEAKER_06 2:12:47

Friday?

SPEAKER_05 2:12:48

Friday. Great, we're great, really good.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:52

Um I'll take the bathroom now.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:54

Yeah, yeah. Um you'll see it. Kind of left hand side ish.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:03

What do you want to watch most of the people?

SPEAKER_02 2:14:19

Oh, yeah, I should probably start. Come on, yeah, I know. My bad.

SPEAKER_06 2:14:30

Um yeah, so yeah, the article. Um I think it was more or less about the France thing and the articles because I told uh talked about it. Yeah. Um realistically, I just you know, I think it was a warning to riders, you know, out there. Um just like be aware, you know, that stuff like that can happen. Um obviously you go across, you know, the ocean and you're in a different country and you're riding BMX, it's dangerous. You know, like you can get hurt at any time, which I got really lucky up until that point. I you know, I had a couple injuries overseas, but nothing to like enter a hospital system for. Um but I just yeah, and and like I had a message to like future companies to just take care of your riders. It's not about the money, you can afford it. Just it's about mental it's about the mental clarity that that person needs in that moment, you know. Um because I mean I've again I've had big injuries, but that was pretty much the biggest injury that I had, and you know, being out there alone is tough, and yeah, um so I just felt like there wasn't enough support there, and it doesn't really have to be emotional support, right? Like I don't need to tell me I'll be alright, like I know I'll be alright, I'll be fine. Yeah, but it's that mental clarity of knowing things are gonna be taken care of, or knowing that you have a flight home, or knowing that they'll get you a hotel if you need one, you know what I mean? Um, so to have them not necessarily back me up there was tough, and it definitely put a big a big rift in our relationship, and then come to find out after that article was posted and after our we got let go from the company, they called me and got really angry with me. Uh the the one of the owners, John, specifically called me um and cussed me out and all this stuff. And I let him I let him do his thing, you know, get your emotions out, right? And then let's really talk about it. And eventually we got to talking, and finally after yelling stopped, and I found out about their money problems. And I'm like, dude, I'm like, you could have told me this. You could have told me this while I was out there, that Sun X or whoever owed you money. But here I am in the dark in a hospital, not knowing if I got a flight home.

unknown 2:17:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:18

I'm like, do you understand that? Like, do you understand that you left me there? Like, with nothing there, you know, like and you know, of course, we we it was nice to talk about it, you know, but I was definitely disappointed that we weren't that I had been writing for them for seven years and they didn't tell me what was going on with the company. That really got me. I'm like, you could have told me, I could have helped, I could have made more videos, I could have made more magazine ads, or I could have, you know what I mean? Like we could have done something.

SPEAKER_04 2:17:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:55

More YouTube, I could have started a vlog, or I don't know, some way to promote Eastern. Yeah, you know, uh, and instead they took it all on their own shoulders and didn't tell anybody. And then here we go, and we're not taking trips, and then I'm off the team. Yeah, or we're all off the team. It's not even just me, like everyone. Um, and yeah, so I I basically advised everybody that's getting into BMX through that magazine article, like just be aware. Yeah, you know, like things can get screwy. Yeah, you know, um, and be honest and open and talk to your your employer or your sponsor, you know. Um, and partially, like again, might be a little bit of my fault that I didn't reach out to them. How's everything going? You know, blah blah blah. Yeah, but it's not technically my responsibility to make sure the company's doing well. Yeah, I'm making sure that I'm riding and you're fulfilling your standards.

SPEAKER_02 2:18:53

Yeah, fulfilling your obligations for what they're expecting out of you. Right. Yeah, that's yeah, that shouldn't be on you to be like, oh But uh we're close.

SPEAKER_06 2:19:02

Yeah, we're friends, and we're close, and I've been on this team for this long, and you know, I just want to see it successful successful. Like the more successful they are, the more successful I am, right? Absolutely. So it's a win-win, like and that was a lose-lose situation I was in. Yeah. Um, but I did want to touch on Aaron and the ARF and him helping us out. Uh, he was able to get my wife out there to be with me while I had like five more days left to go, and she helped me on the plane and everything, coming back. Um and it was like he was they were just so eager to help. And I actually you know, you're going a lot through a lot emotionally when you're sitting in the hospital out there. But I I was mad, I was angry that I had to rely on the ARF. I'm like, dude, that's for people that like break their backs or they're paralyzed, or there's gonna be like legitimate future complications the rest of their lives. Like, that's what we have the ARF for. Or you need lifelite, you're like in that bad shape. I broke my leg, dude. Like it's a big deal, but it's also not. You know, people break their leg every day. You know, I'm I'm alive, I'm sitting there, I'm laughing with the nurse staff, you know, like I'm fine. And it was just sad to me that my sport or my not my life's choices or anything like that, but like the the sport I love, the sport I devoted all my time to couldn't even support me enough to get my wife to fly to see me when I got hurt. And I was like, that sucks, dude. Yeah, that sucks really bad. So, again, thankfully to Aaron, but I when we got back from there, I went right over to Aaron's house and we had dinner with him and the family, and I paid him back. I gave him all the money back. I'm gonna just give this back to the ARF. I'm like, I can't. I I broke my leg, dude. I didn't die. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, and sure, I could have I could have figured it all out and done it all myself and not have my wife out there come with me, but like you know, just to have somebody there with you is really nice when you've been all by yourself for a while. Yeah, on the other side of the world, yeah, and you speak like a couple words of French, you know, you can get by, but you're not having conversations with people, that's for sure. So um, so yeah, that was uh definitely a wild time. And you know, like I said, three weeks after the Eastern call came in, the DC call came in, and I'm like, dude, there goes my paying sponsors, really. Like, I I was on Bell Helmets at the time, too. So Bell was doing me like a it was like a quarter or a half a year thing, so six months, and then they pay me in the next six months. Um, and that wasn't very much, but it helped, and so I'm like, I think this is it for me. I broke my leg. I'm coming off of like I'm recovering from a leg thing from breaking my leg. It's just I'm just starting to ride again when this happens, and I'm just like, I just don't know if I can keep doing this. I don't where's the future? Where's my retirement? Where's any of the things that adulthood comes with, you know, and they're not there for sure. I mean, the company wouldn't even pay for my flight home. Like, how are they gonna help me to get to the point where I have savings? Like, this whole time I've been riding BMX, it's like 12 years almost. Like, I had no savings. Like, I told you, probably negative money. Actually, no, I was a lot, I was in debt a lot because I had hospital bills, medical bills, I had other bills I like that I couldn't pay for. I had overdraft fees, and you know what I mean? Like all that stuff. Yeah, and I'm like, again, rich in life, poor in financial status, right? So, and I just like I just don't I don't want to do that anymore. Like, I don't want to be in an airport on the other side of the world saying I can't pay for this bike. I can't, I can't pay for gas money, or I you know what I mean? Like those moments of feeling so stressed out that I might not make it to the gas station or this, that, the other. I was just I was just ready, ready to be over that. Yeah, you know, not again, not that I didn't like it, like, yeah, it's amazing. You're hanging out with your friends, you're progressing, you're pushing yourself, you're landing tricks that you thought were impossible, and the feeling is out of this world, but hard to buy yourself dinner that night. Yeah, that's tough, that's a tough reality to live in, you know, and it's like I said, it's cool. Like when you're 17, 18, it doesn't feel like it matters very much. But when you're 28, 29, going on 30, and you're thinking about the rest of your life, and you're thinking about 40s and all this stuff, you're like, okay, so just kind of just gonna float the rest of my life and maybe make no money and maybe just sleep on a friend's floor, like um, so and then obviously, like I was with my wife at the time, and we wanted to start a family, and I'm like, all right, I think it's time, it's time to not grow up because I don't ever want to grow up, but it's time to get my finances in order, yeah. I think that's really what it boiled down to. It's not growing up or anything like that, it's getting your finances in in order. And so, man, my wife, I she's such a G. She's helped me so much in my life. Like when she first met me, we weren't even together yet, and she hooked me up with this friend of hers that was an agent for athletes. He's still an agent, he's like Chad Curley's agent, and a couple other people, and and uh she's just like she's just always been trying to better me from the very beginning before we were even together, um, and giving me any opportunity that she had. And she's like she's very well known, she's a very connected person. Um, she's in the fashion industry, and so I owe so much to her for just being there for me always, you know, and those moments where I'm not making any money uh or I'm hurt on the other side of the world, or um, a lot of that stuff. And so that's when I when I uh broke my leg and I was recovering, I went really, really hard in YouTube and learning motion graphics more. I already knew it, but I wanted to master it, you know, and then start working in that industry. Um, and then like uh we talked about before, I started working with Glenn and Nike, and then just fingered out from there to all these other companies, and now I own my own company with my wife. And yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, she's a she's the real boss. Yep, yeah. I'm uh I'm the muscle, but she's the real boss, man.

SPEAKER_10 2:26:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:40

So I I know we were talking before we started recording, but with this next chapter in your life with all the design work that you do, like you were working for Paramount and the NFL and like some pretty big deal stuff. Yeah. Um what has that or those experiences been like for you being at that level? Because it doesn't really get much bigger than that.

SPEAKER_06 2:27:06

Well, I think I think BMX really helped me there. Like, I wouldn't say like I won't say like being a star like or anything like that, but like having pressure. Like, let's say you're going, you're at, you're at X Games Dutch or whatever, and your name's on the big screen, your face is up there, they're saying Kelly Bolton from Venice Beach is dropping in. You know, like that moment right there is so much more intense than any of these moments, like with graphics or TV or film or any of that. Even when I like flew to Budapest to do, you know, work on Halo, it's none of the pressure is as large as you put on yourself for riding or doing well at a contest or anything like that. So I was lucky to have those experiences where I felt like when I went into doing TV show work um and film work, I wasn't in the starstruck moment. Do you know what I mean? I kind of already had lived through some media and being in a magazine or being on videos or having a random kid stop you in France when you're with your wife, and he's like, You're Kelly Wolden. And you're like, How do you know that? Yeah, you know, but that's part of it, that part of you know, being a writer or being in the public eye. And so when I went to these things, I just yeah, I wasn't like starstruck by you know talent actors, actresses, you know, like I treat them like normal people, and you know, we do our jobs and go home. Um and so I I honestly I think it's easier, it's easier than BMX, yeah, for sure. I mean, it's harder because I have to be more attentive, talk to clients, you know, be on Zoom meetings and stuff like that, and um, you know, the business part of everything is really tough, but again, none of it is as hard as falling down 300 times trying to learn a trick. And like what you were talking about earlier, that's where the determination that hit the ground running comes from, right? Yep, like nothing's gonna be that hard, nothing's gonna hurt that much either. True, you know, like this these people can't hurt my feelings, like because they want a graphic green and I made it red. I don't care. Like, yeah, you know, it's I cared a lot more about my personal art or my writing than I do, than I did do about let's say, like what we were talking about earlier with a large group of people making one thing. I know it's gonna change a million times. Like, so why do I care if an executive calls me or calls and says, you know, we want this uh to be blue now. I know we said green last week, but now we want it blue. I my brain goes, okay, it's gonna look like crap, but that was your decision, not mine. You know, and I'll let it look like crap for you and charge you for it.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:29

So true. So true.

SPEAKER_06 2:30:32

Because that you know, that happens a lot. You make something maybe really great, and people whittle it down until it's not so great anymore.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:38

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:30:39

Oh yeah, you know how it goes.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:40

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:30:41

Yeah, yeah. Legal teams get involved, and it's just oh wow, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:49

I remember doing stuff for Suzuki. We're doing like some like commercial work for TV, and like I remember getting everything done, and then all of a sudden the legal team has to come in and they have to go over everything. And I was like, it was my first time dealing with that, and I was like, okay, and then they go through and they just start picking apart stuff of like, well, we can't show this, or like if we're gonna show this, we have to have like a uh a disclaimer, a disclaimer at the bottom. That like, and I was like, what the like, yeah, whoa, okay, yeah, it's like it's such a weird thing.

SPEAKER_06 2:31:25

You want to get bigger budgets, you want to rise up, work for bigger companies, but it gets much more complicated, much more much more complicated. Yeah, so sometimes doing the homie deal is fun because you know you're working with your friends, and and then that's why that's my biggest thing is like I wish I wish we could support each other more in BMX or Moto to where we can do that. We can have these teams, like you can have a crew, right? Instead of just you and another guy, yeah, or anybody, like gas, he could have somebody else, or whatever teacup, he could do something else too, and have more people, more crew, more cameras, more editors, like but we it's like we can't support it right now financially.

SPEAKER_04 2:32:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 2:32:12

Or at least people don't want to. I don't know what the deal is because I feel like a monster and a rock star in these companies, those are obviously just energy drink companies, but you know, of course they put a ton of money in. Yeah, you know, they do video projects, like I know they just wrapped up that one at Wyvern. Um that looks rad. I can't wait to see that. Um, so I don't know that that's a lot of a lot of income, but you know, I think there's a lot of other companies that could probably do a better job of supporting those people. Because I know some of the budgets that these filmers are getting for projects, and I'm like, come on. Oh yeah, come on, company, ex, whoever you are. Yep, yep, yep. Like, I know you're doing better than that. Oh yeah. This is very true. But it's hard for people to let go of their money, you know, uh, especially with maybe an unproven concept, or you know, it's hard to gamble that.

SPEAKER_02 2:33:11

Yeah, and I feel like at least my experience was like a lot of what I was for better or worse trying to create. It was always kind of a gamble because it was like, oh, I know no one's done this before, but here's the idea, and it would just be like like I don't know if you'd ever seen any of the spectrum stuff. I saw them all.

SPEAKER_06 2:33:30

Okay, so I bought the whole series, dude. Thank you. Hell yeah. That's what I'm that's what I said earlier about supporting people.

SPEAKER_02 2:33:36

I appreciate that. I bought the whole thing, man.

SPEAKER_06 2:33:38

Hell yeah. And then you did an episode with Andrew, one of my goods.

SPEAKER_02 2:33:41

Yes, yeah, that was so fun.

SPEAKER_06 2:33:43

Me and Andrew actually started um almost started uh a creative company working for Moto. Okay. Yeah. We pitched a whole big thing to like BTO back in the day when they were doing their team, a race team and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Andrew's Andrew's radio. He's so rad. So cool. Um too cool. Yeah. Calming.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:04

Oh, yeah. I haven't talked to him in quite a few years. Uh but even with that whole thing, I was like pitching it to websites at first, and nobody wanted to touch it at all. So it was like crazy. I guess I'll just do it myself and then I'll put it behind a paywall because if a website doesn't want it or like no one wants to help like fund it, I'll just do it myself and then I can do exactly what I want, how I want, and you guys don't get a say. Yeah. And it it worked, it pissed off some people. There was some industry. Do you need a green one? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_12 2:34:40

Which snack do you want? Can you go get it?

SPEAKER_02 2:34:42

Yeah. Um in doing so pissed off certain industry people and certain sponsors.

SPEAKER_06 2:34:50

Absolutely insane to me that you are just trying to make a living.

unknown 2:34:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 2:34:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:34:57

And you're trying to actually get paid what it's worth to make what you're making. But is insane to me that people would even push back or be upset at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 2:35:07

Oh yeah, I was I was on a I was on a I was on a blacklist for a little bit. So stupid. Um yeah, which I thought was hilarious because it's like, okay, because I don't go to the races anyway. So you're not giving me the credential doesn't affect me because I'm not, I like I don't I wasn't going at the time. Like all my work was like that, and that was all like during the week stuff or client stuff. It was all commercial type stuff. So I wasn't at the end. Yeah, you weren't at the races, right? Yeah, so um, but it it it all that backlash like just made people more curious, so then they more people got into it and were buying it.

SPEAKER_06 2:35:43

And yeah, I mean we didn't well do you think do you think that's one of the biggest problems is the small mindset?

SPEAKER_02 2:35:50

Yeah, oh yeah, that's probably the biggest. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 2:35:54

The biggest thing holding back the moto industry would be the small mindset.

SPEAKER_02 2:35:58

Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_06 2:35:59

Because it's and the um what is it? What's the word for when not gatekeeping, but when you don't want to see people around you successful, right? Yeah. When you and the people around you could all go together, yeah, right? Instead, you're closing doors, stunting things, holding people off from getting paid because you're afraid of something. Yes. So, like in all racing, all bikes, all things, and in my whole life, my thing is do not base decisions off fear. If you're deciding something and you're fear in fear at the moment, stop, do not make that decision. Yeah, make the decision when you've cleared your mind and you've cleared your head. Because a fear-based decision is never the right one. Yeah. Ever. I've never made one that was right. I've made a lot and they're wrong always. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and that's the same goes for asking for what you're worth. Saying no to the client that says, Can we take your price down? Yeah. You know, say no, that's not gonna happen. Yeah, and if you want that to happen, go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_13 2:37:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 2:37:17

But that's so hard in the moment. It is, and when you're hurting on money, it is so hard to say no to someone offering you money, but you know it's not worth the job you're gonna do. Yep. It's the worst. Yep, yep. But I feel like if these people and the motor industry could just lift each other up and do what I'm saying, like support your local people, support the videos they're making, support their projects. Like a bunch of my buddies right now, the whole Richie Canyon crew, you know, they're out there and they're making a skate park.

SPEAKER_04 2:37:52

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:37:53

Concrete.

SPEAKER_04 2:37:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:37:55

And it's like they're running like you know, Venmo and all this stuff, and people are helping out. Yeah, and I'm like, this is what it's about. Like, we gotta donate to this, you know what I mean? And that's what I do. I can't donate enough of my time, you know, so I'm gonna donate money for bags of quick crete and whatever they need over there, you know. Yeah, um, I'm only able to get over there every once in a while because it's a two-hour drive from my house, but I try as much as possible, and I love all those dudes so much.

SPEAKER_02 2:38:25

So yeah, it's even like with the doing this podcast, like I had tried doing it in like 2021 or 2022, and I was gonna I think I was with doing stuff with Vermoto at the time, and I'd pitch it to them, and they were into it, but they wanted my takeaway was that they wanted to do it like in a studio, like lighting cameras, the whole thing. And I was like, Yeah, I I suppose like that would be cool, I guess. Um and I would keep pitching it and just kept getting pushed back, pushed back, and then it never happened, and then you are snack machine.

SPEAKER_06 2:39:04

You're a snack machine.

SPEAKER_02 2:39:05

Hey, what do you say? You're welcome. And um just yeah, ended up not happening, and then because I was on like a retainer with them, and then when that all came to an end in December of 22, a couple months later, I was like, fuck it. I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna do it just audio, no cameras. I'm gonna do it in my dining room and like sit down with whoever I want. Yeah just not not just like Moto people. Like I've like, so I've had obviously there's people for Moto filmmakers, but I've had police officers on, firefighters, school teachers, comedians, like I just sit down with people that I think are interesting, and I just it's very DIY. Like if people want to support it, cool. I have no sponsors.

SPEAKER_06 2:39:53

How do people support it?

SPEAKER_02 2:39:54

I do you have a uh Venmo or a I always in my intros, I always like will throw out my Venmo. Like, all right, if you want to support, like that's how you can do it. Because like I don't have any sponsors, I don't seek out sponsors.

SPEAKER_06 2:40:05

What is the Venmo?

SPEAKER_02 2:40:06

Just my name, first and last name.

SPEAKER_00 2:40:08

All right, Kyle Cowan, get him on Venmo, send him some money, please. Um I'm about to do it when I get home. I'm doing the podcast and I'm sending him money. I'm paying you. I I did not ask him to do that, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 2:40:23

Um but yeah, so it's just like a total passion project. I don't ever expect to make anything off of this if it turned into something that made money, cool, but like that's not why I'm doing this. That's the best way to do it, man. You're episode 49. Organic. Yeah, this is just straight DIY, and we get interrupted by that little thing.

SPEAKER_06 2:40:43

That's the same way I was with writing when I was 18.

SPEAKER_02 2:40:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:40:47

I don't know if this is gonna happen, probably not, yeah. But I'm gonna do the best that I can.

SPEAKER_02 2:40:51

Yeah, and it's fun. Like it's fun, yeah. If if it yeah, it turns into something cool if it's yeah, if it stays exactly how it is, that's fine. Even if it turned into something, I would still do it in this format. Yeah, like yeah, it's just I I love that. Yeah, I like this. I feel like it's I don't know, just DIY. I do all the social stuff myself, like which I hate. If it ever made money, the first thing I would do would be I would hire someone to do the social stuff. Yeah, social person.

SPEAKER_06 2:41:21

I know it's hard. But I know, yeah, and most of our work, a lot of the work that we do is social stuff. Yeah, it's tough for sure. It is, yeah. It's a constant like evolving of content all the time. I mean, I'm grateful that in my at least BMX career, I exited right as social media was becoming like a part of your contract. You know, that stuff I missed, thankfully.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:49

Yeah, good for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:41:50

Oh man, I was so happy too. Like when that stuff started coming around, and I'm like, oh man, I'm so I I consider my era of riding merit-based.

SPEAKER_02 2:42:01

I would agree with that.

SPEAKER_06 2:42:02

Are you a good rider? Can you hang out? Great, yeah, right? That was it. Like it was merit-based riding, not are you popular or what gear are you wearing? What is you know, are you got Jinkos on or not? Like, yeah. Um, it's just good riding. Are you a good rider? Are you doing cool stuff? And are you cool to hang out with? Yeah, that was really it, you know. And now it's a lot different. Uh people were people are getting on teams because of their following on social, or that's maybe that's not the reason that they're getting on teams, but it is a factor.

SPEAKER_04 2:42:39

For sure.

SPEAKER_06 2:42:39

Right? For sure. It's a factor. Yeah. Your following count, and you know, that is a big factor for sure. Yeah. Which I'm grateful. I you know, I don't necessarily feel more justified, but definitely justified that people saw my writing and reached out.

SPEAKER_03 2:42:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:42:58

Right?

SPEAKER_03 2:42:58

For sure.

SPEAKER_06 2:42:59

That's what I mean by merit based.

SPEAKER_03 2:43:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:43:01

I'm doing me, they saw it and they liked it. That's it. Yeah. I wasn't putting anything out myself. There was no social media. So I'm grateful to come from that era and feel I guess validated, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:43:19

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:43:19

You're validated by your community, you're validated by your peers. And I I felt very validated because I didn't ask for it. Right? I wasn't reaching out to get that. I was just doing me and what I wanted to do on the bike and what I thought was fun and cool, which was mostly like flipping and doing all that stuff. So and people just seem to like it. So I'm, you know, again, yeah, grateful to live in that that merit-based era era.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:50

Yeah, that's a good way to that's a really good way to put it. Um only a couple more things and we'll wrap this up. Yeah. Um we talked about it earlier, but you have your own agency now with your wife. What's kind of what's the service that that's providing, and what are the kind of goals for you guys as you move forward with it?

SPEAKER_06 2:44:11

Right. Well, right now we're providing content creation, so motion graphics, um, CGI, a lot of like 3D stuff. Um, like what we just did for uh this company. Um, this woman has like a workout company, and she, you know, Coachella was just recently, and so everybody's doing billboards along, you know, whatever the 10, yeah, going out to Coachella. So she got herself a billboard and she wanted to do a little like you know, fluffing up around the campaign, and so we're like, okay, cool. So we created her these motion assets that were basically a billboard, and the billboard is uh of her laying down, and underneath is the type of her company. So in our version, it's a video of the billboard off the road, and inside the billboard, she actually walks in and lays down.

SPEAKER_04 2:45:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:45:10

So in the real billboard, it's not a motion billboard, it's just a still frame.

SPEAKER_04 2:45:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:45:14

But in our social piece for her, she comes in and walks and lays down in the same position she gets in when she's on the billboard. Okay. So it's just like a little stunt, you know, like a little social stunt just to say, hey, when you're on your way to Coachella, check out this billboard. Yeah, you know. Um, so stuff like that. Um, I still I'm working for Paramount too, like not me personally, but they're hiring our company, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 2:45:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:45:39

So I kind of turned that relationship into a revenue source for our company.

SPEAKER_03 2:45:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:45:44

So we're working on a couple uh TV show graphics right now, which is awesome. Oh, right. Um, some hefty deadlines, of course, with us. But um, yeah, so we're we're doing that. Um and yeah, so essentially it's just uh motion graphics, CGI. We have assistance a little bit from AI, and that helps us out in like keen green screening, you know, kind of stuff like that. Okay. Um, and then yeah, we just we can kind of like service most any client, which is great because of my background and my wife's background. So we do a lot of like beauty campaigns, we do some fashion and entertainment. Okay, and then I do BMX and Moto stuff for free because I don't want to charge people, yeah. Which is which my wife hates. I know. Sorry, Angela, you know, you don't like it. But I love providing those things for my friends and for people that I you know have known for years and are making videos, and you know, I want their stuff to be better. For sure. I want the graphics to in BMX or Moto to be better, so yeah, you know, like we worked on um I think it was a year or two, maybe three years now, but uh with hundred percent. They did one of their team shoots out in Caneville like a couple years back with Ken Block. Um and I got to do all the graphics for that, and that was so fun, and I loved it, and I felt like we elevated the spot even more with the graphics, and like you know, that was that was like amazing. I love doing that, yeah. So um, but yeah, so basically our company now is yeah, doing motion graphics and servicing just any client that we have a connection with, and we just want to work with good people, yeah, you know, that respectful and you know, we have a good relationship, so yeah, it's not easy to find all the time, but you know, we've had to say no to some people because we just didn't vibe and you know I didn't want to take the job, and that's those are those moments uh like we were talking about before that are really hard to say no. Yeah, you know, I'm like I need the money, but I want to say no so badly because I know there was you know, like whatever you're on an initial meeting and there's 17 red flags, but you still need the money.

unknown 2:48:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:48:11

You're just looking at one green flag here. Well, yeah, ignore all 17. All 17 flags, but the green one, we're good. Yeah, yeah. So um, yeah, doing that and just yeah, standing up for what you're worth and whatever. So that's what we're doing with our agency now, and what 30 30 years of experience all coming down into this, so from both of our sides. So my wife's a fantastic creative director, she's a visionary for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:40

So I'm uh tell her to come on the podcast.

SPEAKER_06 2:48:43

I know she should come on the podcast, honestly. Like she's she's got so much to say. I mean, she's done so much in her career with fashion, and I mean, she worked for the Kardashians when they first started their TV show back in the day. She styled them. She styled Juliana Huff and a bunch of people, like a bunch of celebrities for red carpets for Oscars and all this stuff. And she did all their like wardrobes. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah. She's she's a G. She's she knows everyone in Hollywood. That's great. Well, yeah, she she wants to be. We like literally can't walk anywhere in the city without her seeing somebody.

SPEAKER_02 2:49:15

That's wild. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Well, she wants to come on the podcast. Yeah, for sure. She would. That'd be super.

SPEAKER_06 2:49:23

She'd be great to have on a podcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:49:24

Um, let me hit the restroom real quick and then and we'll wrap it up.

unknown 2:49:30

What? We don't have a mic was out of the book.

SPEAKER_00 2:49:37

Mike was asking.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:11

Violet. We're almost done, Bubs. And then we're gonna go to the beach and go fast.

SPEAKER_06 2:51:24

That sounds fun. Um case you tuckered out.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:28

Yeah. Um, let me pull up Instagram. Uh a couple of questions that got submitted.

SPEAKER_08 2:51:37

Oh, people actually knew who I was.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:40

Um, there'd be go.

SPEAKER_13 2:51:45

Um here we go. Right. How do I?

SPEAKER_02 2:51:52

Uh so this is actually from Eric, who was a guest a few weeks ago. Uh, he wants to know how do you get courage to go off a huge jump if you've never done it before?

SPEAKER_06 2:52:02

You gotta do a bunch of smaller ones first, I guess. Right? Work your way up. Um, I don't know. I think you know, when you're riding a lot, and anyone that rides knows this, you're just in this world of comfortability, and like you're like I said before, you can ride better than you can walk almost. Yeah. And so when you're in that when you're in that mode and you're you're going, those jumps don't seem so big at the time. Now, when I look back, I'm like, dude, you're stupid. Like, that was huge. Like, what are you even thinking? Like, I I remember I 360 down an 18 stair one time, and now when I look at that, I'm like, that is so scary. I am shaking. Like, if I thought of if I really stood up somewhere on an 18 stair and considered 316 down it right now, my hands would be shaking.

SPEAKER_10 2:52:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:52:59

Because it's not, it's not in my world right now, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, of course, riding is and you know, jumping and stuff, but like, yeah, going up for the big that big jump is just uh it's all about that muscle memory and practice, you know. It's like you get so used to it. It's just like how the guys in Supercross can hit the track and jump everything first lap. I still don't get it, dude. I like I mean, jumping in moto for me has always been tough since I'm a BMX dude and I use momentum on everything.

SPEAKER_03 2:53:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:53:31

So the you know, going bop, bup, bup, bup, br up, up a lip, I'm I'm terrible at that, dude. I'm so bad. Anyone in the hills will tell you I'm I'm horrible at that. But uh, but yeah, it's all it's all muscle memory and practice, man. And when you're in that mode, you just you're just like you're so confident, you know. Yeah, it's like guys that can air a vert ramp and land an inch next to the coping every single time. Yeah, and they're going 12 feet out. I mean, vert to me was one of the scariest things to watch. Terrifying to me because they're landing so close to that coping every time, they're even hitting it sometimes. You'll hear it. Yep. And then they're going 12 feet out, and I'm just like, that's immediate to your face at the bottom. Yeah, you're going at least 20 feet to your face.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:24

Yep. I was I was a couple weeks ago, I was listening to the Unclicked podcast with that Fudger has. Yeah. And it was the one with Chad Keggy on it, and I like my first memory of him was at like the BS contest in Steel Beach in like '98 or something. This Confederate helmet.

SPEAKER_06 2:54:44

Yep, yeah, he did, yeah. Yeah. Was it Union Jack or was it Confederate?

SPEAKER_02 2:54:48

It was Confederate. And then uh Rooftop was the co-host, and literally the podcast starts the first question is that a rooftop's mouse. And he goes, So, Confederate helmet, why did you do that? And then like Chad explained, like, I was not a racist, it's not that it was just like duke's a hazard. He just thought it was cool. And so it was like, but um that's so funny. That was so funny. Rooftop would do that, but they were talking about Vert and like why Vert really isn't a thing anymore. And Chad was just talking about because like you die, dude. Like it's just it's too gnarly and it's not relatable to people.

SPEAKER_06 2:55:23

Yeah, no, for sure. And like I said, like I've been there, I could air a vert ramp eight feet out. I never got to like 12 or nothing, but like I rode Vert like every day. I lived at Woodward for a while and rode Vert every single day. So I know what it feels like to go eight feet out and land right next to the coping, but when I watch it in person, it scares the crap out of me. Do you know what I mean? Like I'm nervous, yeah. Especially like uh Mega Ramp. I was nervous all the time watching those guys, yeah, because they're just going so freaking high. Yeah. Morgan would just go 27 feet or something, and I'm like, and he He's just gnarly too. Yeah, he's a different breed. He is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:56:03

Yeah, we got along really well. I never got to meet him, but he seems super cool. I went to uh uh Mike Clark Hucker. Yeah, him and I went to high school together. Oh, really? We met in in math class. Yeah. My sophomore year, his freshman year, and he was like, Oh, I ride BMX. And I was like, wild one. Yeah, I was like, sure you do. Cause I rode BMX and I grew up going sheep and hidden slater and stuff. It wasn't very good, but like I rode and whatnot. Yeah. He's like, Oh, I ride. And I'm like, sure you do. Yeah. Sure. We like I don't know, a day or two later we go ride together, and he's just fucking killing himself. And I'm like, oh yeah, you ride. You're scary, but you ride.

SPEAKER_06 2:56:44

Oh you got his name Hucker for a reason, dude.

SPEAKER_02 2:56:48

Um this question uh comes from Andy Dredd's BMX. Oh yeah. Uh has motion design in VFX changed the way you look at BMX spots?

SPEAKER_06 2:57:02

Yeah, Andy uh thanks, dude. That's uh another guy that rides BMX and does motion graphics, actually.

SPEAKER_07 2:57:09

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_06 2:57:10

Yeah, he uh that original agency that I worked for with Glenn, he actually took my spot there.

SPEAKER_04 2:57:15

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:57:16

Yeah, so it was cool, like pass pass the spot down to another BMX dude. Yeah said does motion graphics. So yeah, Andy's cool. Um I don't know if it's changed the way that I think about spots or you know how I approached writing. But it certainly gave me a lot of like inspiration for how I wanted graphics to look in my videos, or you know, like maybe even filming custom things for graphics. So like I was always inspired by like Odyssey when they did like electronical that video. Do you remember that? Where they built physical signs with the people's names and had it lit up, and so and then they had another one um a while ago, a long time ago, I mean, um, where it was like a fully animated intro where they basically just took a you know a video and then just drew like outlines of the care of the rider and had it animated, and and so I think it I've always wanted to do a really like VFX heavy edit. So something I guess uh very similar to like um was it sorry or what was the one that had all the green screen uh uh skateboards? Uh yeah, right. Yes, yes, yes, yeah, right. Like that type of stuff always looked so fun to me to like literally set up shots or spots or things for a specific purposeful shot, not for a specific purposeful trick necessarily, which also could be added to that, but for a shot specifically. I'm gonna land this and transition into this next shot through this way, and I need a specific spot that can get me into that next shot, whether that means I'd ride by a car or whatever, and then the next the next scene the car's there again and it's a continuation. Or I don't know, I've always had these like dreams of doing that, but the task is so large that I just can't do it like without money and time.

SPEAKER_04 2:59:29

For sure.

SPEAKER_06 2:59:29

Maybe if I was 15 again and I had a camera, you know, like then I'd probably spend a lot of time doing that.

SPEAKER_03 2:59:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:59:36

And I've all always also too thought about doing like a whole backwards edit where you're going fakey the whole time, but then you forward you forward it like in you know, you reverse the clip, so then you're moving forward. But every trick is purposefully done so that going forward it looks like it was going forward. Do you know does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that would be wild. So yeah, like you would roll backwards, grind a ledge, jump off, and keep rolling backwards, and then you just reverse the clip. Yeah, yeah. I uh someone's done it. I I've seen someone do something similar, but I think to do it really well takes a lot of planning. For sure. Like that. Yeah. Like very specific spots, very specific tricks, very specific plan.

SPEAKER_03 3:00:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:00:20

Um, but that I always thought that would be really cool to add my graphics and VFX and maybe I don't know, whatever. Make the ground some different color. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:00:30

No, that'd be really cool. Um, sweet. Uh like three questions I'd ask everyone at the very end. Rapid fire. Um realist, optimist, or pessimist?

SPEAKER_06 3:00:43

I'm like in between optimist and realist. Okay. I'm very optimistic, but at the same time super realistic. Very realistic with my goals and with my uh what it's accomplishable. You know, like I don't go too high. I don't fly close to the sun. Yeah, you know, yeah, I kind of try to stay even.

SPEAKER_02 3:01:00

That's good.

SPEAKER_06 3:01:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:01:02

Um guilty pleasure.

SPEAKER_06 3:01:07

Guilty pleasure. I mean, uh uh uh guilty uh pleasures. I just like snacking a lot at night, and that sucks because it's not good for you. Yeah. Um that's definitely probably my biggest thing right now that I'm working on is trying not to snack after dinner.

SPEAKER_02 3:01:32

Dude, that was actually me last night because I so lame, but I was off at nine last night, and usually when I close, like I'll closing's either you're off at nine or ten, and I was off at nine, and usually when I come home from a close, I'll like grab an ice cream bar or something and have that in bed. And I'm like, I have to stop because it's become a problem. So like last night I was like, I'm not doing it. I didn't do it, yeah. And I woke up feeling proud of myself, but it took a lot of strain.

SPEAKER_06 3:01:57

It takes a lot, yeah, yeah. It does. The snacking takes a lot of restraint.

SPEAKER_02 3:02:01

Yeah, especially when you're gonna Trader Joe's, it's like snack heaven. That's all snacks, yeah. Yeah, uh favorite, not favorite, but like any specific band or song you're into at this moment.

SPEAKER_06 3:02:15

Uh yeah, I guess I've been listening to a lot of peeling flesh. Um, what's the other band? Oh, Worm Alert.

SPEAKER_02 3:02:26

I feel like I've just heard this name.

SPEAKER_06 3:02:27

Worm Alert is like the most ridiculous band ever, dude. It's so fun. Like they're that like pig squealing hardcore, crazy, deep, bassy, like chugging music, like you know, but then they're adding in like samples from like country music and stuff. It's just a the weirdest stuff, and like one of their songs goes from hard like chugging stuff and goes right into like this uh EDM mixed with chugging. Like it's so weird, dude.

SPEAKER_02 3:03:03

I feel like I've I've seen this actually. That name sounds too familiar.

SPEAKER_06 3:03:08

It's strange, but I love it. Like it's like it's so weird that I just like am gravitated towards it, just how awkward it is. No, I mean, I'm not saying like their songs are like great, you know what I mean? Some of them, like the samples are like whatever, crunchy, they don't work or whatever, but they're funny. Yeah, so I like it because it's fun. Um but as far as like I don't know, I'm all over the place with music, honestly. I just I have like such a deep like passion for for music, mostly all like rock, uh a lot like some rap, um a little bit of like slower stuff, but a lot of like my dad was a big on the classic rock, so a lot of those old school songs are like really you know big to me. So you know, Joe Walsh or you know, some of those guys, like really influential. Um but yeah, definitely a lot of a lot of hard, chuggy stuff lately. Okay, nice.

SPEAKER_02 3:04:07

Um, and then last one if you have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would they be?

SPEAKER_06 3:04:15

I'd love to have I'd love to have dinner with Ken again for sure. That's I would really like that. Um sorry, it's like hard for you to talk about it. Um another guy, Dave Dave Mira. Yeah, love to have dinner with him. Uh sorry, it's all people that are dead now. Sad. Um and then uh I guess wild one out there. I I'd probably like I'd probably like to hit up Elon and see what's going on. Oh boy what's going on, dude. Yeah, yeah. What's happening?

SPEAKER_02 3:04:58

Yeah, please help uh explain because yeah, it's wild.

SPEAKER_06 3:05:04

I don't think he knows either, so I yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:05:07

I would he intrigued me for quite a while and then it just felt like it went off the deep end. I was like, oh yeah, I'm I'm not I'm I'm out.

SPEAKER_06 3:05:16

I just I mean I kind of just want to know the secrets. I mean, yeah. Okay, let's let's make it Elon at dinner if he's honest. Okay, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be good. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:05:30

Yeah, um heck yeah, dude. That's like three hours.

SPEAKER_06 3:05:35

Yeah, crazy. Went by so fast.

SPEAKER_02 3:05:37

Anything else you want to hit on that we didn't I feel like we could do a part two to be honest.

SPEAKER_06 3:05:41

I know. Every like I've done other podcasts, and it always ends that way. We could do a part two. I got so much stuff in my life that I've done, and uh I'm very proud of the life that I live for sure. I feel like I can die happy already, which is great. You know, that's awesome. At 40 years old, I feel like I can already. I mean, obviously not for my family, but yeah, I know what you mean, though. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I feel accomplished for sure.

SPEAKER_13 3:06:05

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 3:06:06

I feel happy.

SPEAKER_13 3:06:07

Cool, sweet dude.