theflu

Hmmm, thanks again Ryan, another thought provoking article.... Like many others I ride for several different reasons. Health, fitness, mindless abandon... Freedom... I'm pretty sure that for me riding keeps me "safe". I need to exercise in order to maintain a certain level of calm to the raging torrent that can so often be flowing like a river below the surface. A few years ago I suffered a brain injury, and while recovering from that I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I think that at that crossroads in my life I became stuck in a never ending cycle of selfishness.. Very different from who I was and who I want to be.. In becoming "selfish" I lost the ability to enter the Zone.. Or the ability to just be and enjoy the moment, regardless of what is happening around me... Losing the ability to laugh at oneself, to truly just enjoy peoples company, to be able to enter the Zone and be happy go lucky... Riding forces me to just get back to basics.. Speed, dirt, air... Positioning, strength, cardio, relaxing... I can find the Zone while riding no problem, finding the Zone while being a dad, and a husband.. next to impossible.. The relationship of riding, my life, and the Zone is that I know that at least I can still get in the Zone. My hope is that by learning to focus on other things in my life, not how tired I feel, or how weak my body feels, but on things that are important, like my children, and my relationships with them. That I will be able to find the "Zone" again. Thanks again Ryan. Dave

Dartmoor Quench

Dartmoor Nightnday Dartmoor 24-7 Dartmoor DaynNight Dartmoor EbbnFlo

Great article Ryan.. I think what makes your point a little more poignant is that it is only with time (or injury) that we tend to be able to take that step back and re-evealuate our situation and our responses to them... Another point is that our sport is young, not just in terms of it being a sport, but in the median age that it tends to attract. At least with the dirt jumping and downhilling.. Which tends to lead to a fair amount of recklessness and testosterone. Which seems to lead to daredevil attempts that we normally wouldn't try... It will be interesting to see how all of these concussed and brain injured riders make out in the long run... Just think of the crashes at Red-Bull Rampage, Crankworx, and all the dirt jumps and downhill courses... It adds up.. and adds up... and adds up... Checkout a movie/documentary called (I think it's called) MindGames... About head injuries in sports.. It'll rattle your nerves. Having suffered a head injury myself, every time a rider goes down and hits their head I just cringe knowing how it feels and what it feels like for months after... and how it can change their lives completely. I guess my question to myself and to you Ryan is this. How do we encourage our sport to grow without others taking the inherent risks needed to push it further? But perhaps that is the problem... We are by nature drawn to the train wrecks around us.. it just seems like we can't turn away...

It does say scooter in the title... You don't have to watch it... Just skip by.. But it's kind of like a train wreck.. You have to see what it's all about. The BMX trick and the scooter stuff was fun. They love it, spent thousands of hours perfecting it, why not show it. I'll never do it, but my kid thinks it cool, and now I can show him a vid of some crazy guy doing crazy tricks on his scooter. Respect to all who hurt themselves trying to better their ride... Whatever it is.