All photos by Brian Finestone | 10-year-old Finn Finestone has been raising eyebrows for several years. He absolutely slays every kind of riding, including BMX, skate park, dirt jumps and, of course, the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. It makes sense...Finn's dad Brian happens to be the Whistler Mountain Bike Park Manager. I chatted with Brian and Finn to get a better idea how this father and son shred team work together. - Mike Berard |
What is your background in biking?I have been involved in the WMBP since 2000, first as the safety guy and then as manager from 2007. I didn’t grow up racing, but always wanted to, BMX was on my radar as a kid but there was no track where I grew up. I raced rigid mountain bikes in the early 90’s, it was rough on the body, no pads, no suspension, high speeds and sketchy Styrofoam helmets.
When did Finn first ride a bike? And when did he first catch the bug to be a mountain biker?Finn started riding at age three. We missed the first wave of the run-bike revolution by a year or two. Finn rode for a couple of weeks with training wheels and then told me to take them off when our neighbor gave him a full-face moto helmet and some Fox moto pants. We told him they were magic pants that would help him ride on two wheels, so he put on the suit and just rode away. Later that day we built a jump, I guess there was some magic in those pants. Mountain biking was a given, Finn has grown up watching Crankworx, both turned 10 this year, so there has definitely been an influence watching the best riders, live in person for as long as you can remember.
How the heck has Finn cultivated such style at such a young age, and has it been a concentrated effort to perfect style?I truly think style is something you are born with. Finn has always watched the best riders in the world very closely and recognizes their style. He has an innate ability to look at two different riders whether it’s cornering or doing the same air and identify the one with better style.
Clearly, Finn’s success is a result of a close bike-centric relationship between the two of you. How many days a week do you ride together?Finn’s abilities are the direct result of practice time. We ride different stuff all the time, it’s random really, not some bike training regimen. We ride skateparks, pumptracks, race BMX, pedal XC and DH, or else we just go skateboarding. We just have fun together doing things and I guess the aggregate result is his skill set. We probably ride some sort of bike daily during the summer months.
Brian, you mentioned to me that Finn recently won the “Target Outstanding Camper” award at Woodward for “good spirit and sportsmanship.” You also said it was what made you proudest. As a parent, is it a challenge to maintain his expectations when he rides at such a high level?Abbie and I are proud of Finn’s tenacity. It takes motivation and a serious work ethic to get to where he is today. A parent can’t make a child love something, all you can do is provide the opportunities and if they take to it, support them in any way you can. It is not about spending money on bikes, it is about spending time with your kids. Finn is pretty humble for his skill set, he is always looking for kid’s videos on You Tube to see what other riders are up to and get inspired to try new things. He loves to ride, plain and simple, and will ride with anyone of any age and have fun. Finn is competitive in nature and seems to thrive under competition pressure situations, often landing completely new tricks he has never done before. That trait is important but we watch it closely and put zero importance on results at this stage. What is important is that you had fun, tried your hardest and lost or won gracefully. Burnout is something we want to avoid, but I think we are lucky with the seasons here, as biking gets to its peak we switch to snowboarding each year so there is always something fresh coming around the bend.
Most of Finn’s coverage is park or jump based, but clearly he must ride single track and bike park if he’s your son. When and where is Finn at his happiest?I think the bulk of the coverage is skate park and dirt jump based because those are easy places to shoot. We ride everything and I guess stopping while riding DH and XC kind of blows the flow. Finn is happy any time he is riding, no single discipline stands out yet, most days we do a mix of all of them, Bike Park laps in the morning, skate park / dirt jumps in the afternoon followed by an Airdome session and some pump-track on the way home.
The future seems to be bright for Finn. What mantra would you say the two of you follow most closely going into the future?The future is full of options. Finn could certainly make a career as a cycling athlete if he chooses to – there is plenty of time. The only mantra we try to follow is “Keep it fun”, if he is getting frustrated with a trick, I try to get him to leave it alone for a while and come back to it, sometimes you just have to try “softer”.
Finn, a quick 10 questions for you...
1. Who are your favourite riders?My favorites are Brandon Semenuk, Brett Rheeder, Danny McAskill, and Cam McCaul for tricks. I like Brendan Fairclough, Stevie Smith and Aaron Gwin for racing and Kurt Sorge, Graham Agassiz and Thomas Vanderham for big mountain riding.
2. What do you enjoy most about riding? That’s a hard one, I don’t know how to answer that…it’s just fun.
3. What's your pre-riding ritual (if you have one)? I don’t have one, I just drop in and ride.
4. What's the next trick you'd like to learn? I have a few; bar spins, flips to dirt, and 360s.
5. Who has the best style in mountain biking?Brandon Semenuk easily.
6. Who has the best style in BMX?I liked Daniel Dhers in the X Games.
7. What's better, speed or air? Air!
8. If you had to choose one style of bike (BMX, hard-tail, DH, DJ, trail) for the rest of your life, which one would it be? Dirt Jump bike I guess, because I could ride it in pump tracks, skate parks and dirt jumps.
9. How long will it be until you are beating your dad down the mountain? Already happened, he tried to film my last Phat Wednesday race and you can only see me for a few seconds.
10. Favorite Trail?I would pick Top of the World to Khyber Pass because you can only do it sometimes, otherwise A-Line which you can ride any time.
Finestone Sponsors: Lil’ Shredder Bikes, Troy Lee Designs, Chromag, Shimano, Sandbox Helmets, Oakley, Five Ten, Fox Suspension, Evolution Shop and Leatt Brace.
Article by mike Berard. All photos by his dad. Nuff said
Even if being in the media turns him into a wanker so what? There are a lot of wankers out there who have never had an article about them on Pinkbike. Hell, some people think I'm a wanker and I don't care.
If being pushed too hard makes him hate the sport by age 14 and then he ends up going out and getting a real job, so what? It's better to be good at something and give it up because the passion dies, than it is to never be good at anything.
Finn, you are an inspiration to all dads and kids. I would advise you to take up golf on financial grounds, but if you stick with bikes great!
That’s a hard one, I don’t know how to answer that…it’s just fun.
Finally someone I can relate to on PinkBike. A 10 year old.
Anything else is a lie and like I said, I'm excited to see what this kid produces but don't have any illusions that this kid is running under his own steam/passion to ride a bike.
and another poster mentioned "these kids" that have style. this article and all the others have been exclusively about finn. it'd be different if the articles were on kids that shred at whistler or anywhere, but they're not
His story would be a good case study for the theories in Gladwell's "outliers." How much of it is natural talent, how much is circumstance?
I'm totally jealous of his situation, but pinkbike has a bit of a creepy old lady crush on this kid.
(a) laziness: We are inactive and it shows based on the high rate of obesity and lack of regular physical activity.
(B) Development of Basic Gross Motor Skills: Humans are made to do certain motions or skills but as with anything with movement if you don't develop it a young age it becomes quite a bit more complicated to learn later in life (especially starting at the pre-teen level and of above.
(C) Safety Regulation: Over-regulation in regards to safety of young people make natural development nearly impossible to occur.
"Finn started riding at age three. We missed the first wave of the run-bike revolution by a year or two. Finn rode for a couple of weeks with training wheels and then told me to take them off when our neighbor gave him a full-face moto helmet and some Fox moto pants. We told him they were magic pants that would help him ride on two wheels, so he put on the suit and just rode away. Later that day we built a jump, I guess there was some magic in those pants."
(A) At age 3 many children do not have the dexterity and coordination to ride a bike effectively and correctly even with training wheels.
(B) To reach the point of not having training wheels just a few weeks after he started to ride is virtually unheard of. Do most parents wait longer than they should to take of training wheels? Probably but that is a function of societal pressures and anxiety than the kids ability. Either way he obviously picked up learning to ride way quicker then expected.
(C) Making jumps on pretty much the first day without training wheels is virtually unheard of. It usually takes at least 3 or 4 times of riding without training wheels to be comfortable.
(D) More and more parents don't have the skills or patience too teach their kid to ride a bike. It is one of those things that seem to be going out of style. I firmly believe that most people would be shocked at how many kids can't or barely can ride their bike into as far as early elementary school.
Can't wait to see him in a few years making the cover with his role models.
But, I have slept for more so maybe my dream of being a professional sleeper has come true.
For example, I'm a high school teacher and it'll take me 11 years before I reach 10,000 hours of teaching practice. It's a long time.
i completely agree with that statement. he definitely benefits from the fact his dad runs the bike park and that he has access to pros and tutoring and limitless ride time. there are a lot of kids riding out there as well who are as good, you just don't have their parents posting it and if they do, the parents don't have the connections in the industry that get write ups done on websites like pinkbike. i stand by my statement that this kid and jackson are being marketed by their parents. there's a huge difference between taking pics of your kid and posting online as a nobody vs. having enough industry connections to get articles done on a website like pinkbike like finn and jackson get.
Although I do agree with qbert2000, there is a genetic limit when talking about physical sports, but until we start genetically engineering kids like in the movie Gattaca, the average kid has a fair chance if they get their 10,000 hours.
Also instruction has to help right? I haven't figured out where I stand on that yet, is instruction just a wash if you have enough hours practicing?
Last point is if anyone had 10,000 hours right now in our young sport, they could dominate. Look at how Carmichael forever changed MX and SX, if it wasn't for his work ethic which was for the most part previously absent from the sport, he wouldn't be GOAT, and people likely wouldn't have to put in the level of effort that they do now.