A second chance - Part 1 of 3

Imagine meeting someone who`s past is riddled with 10 years of prison, haunting mistakes and a passion for riding bikes. I recently met a sound guy Chav Dan, who is looking to see his future improve, but is struggling to find his feet after his last spell of prison and in the last stages of his patch of community service. I decided to step in and give Dan some hope in the form of taking his passion for hitting big jumps and giving him a day that would invest in his future and away from the past.

Read more to see how Part 1 of the story unfolded
In my life I am lucky to be surrounded by awesome people and organizations that care about people like me. Most of you know me just for being a writer at Pinkbike, but I also run a youth work organization and I'm part of the leadership at a local church. I love my jobs because I can affect and impact people's lives by investing in them with time and effort. And finally I was inspired to mix my passion of people and bikes to shape someone's future in a positive way.

I got on the phone to some friends of mine, Blake and Ray Samson and asked if they were interested in spending a day with Dan and teaching him how to take his mad skills of hucking and equip him with the skills for pulling some sweet tricks. They quickly said yes and the article was off to a flying start. We decided Chicksands would be a perfect location for the day of riding! When my church heard about the project they decided to fund the petrol expenses and entry fees for the project - making it very easy for us to do this asap!



I picked up Dan and brought along my good friends Tom Gaffney and Nico Turner, who would help me capture the magic as it happened on film and stills. After a crazy 7am departure from Derby and a personal wake up call for Nico - we were on our way to Chicksands - excited, adrenaline filled and hoping Dan wouldn't fall off on the first jump and we would all have a mint day.

Upon arrival at sunny Chicksands we were quickly robbed of £10 from the sunglass wearing, hobbling owner and pointed in the direction of the jumps with a couple of grunts. We quickly saw the awesome collection of trails and tracks and we set up ready to hit the jumps.


Dan quickly realized that the large set of jumps were the main line for tricking and so he stepped up straight away and rolled into the jumps to try and find his feet at this UK dirt hot spot.

The first roller double was hit perfect, but the second jump didn't go to plan for any of us. His rear wheel hooked up and threw Dan down into the dug out pit onto his left shoulder really hard. On quick inspection we realized that he had either dislocated his shoulder or broke it and he needed to go to a hospital fast.

As we loaded into the car and packed up our gear - Blake and Ray Samson arrived with James and Harry for a quick catch up with Dan and to wish us well at the hospital and to rearrange meeting later on for a ride.

As quick as we arrived at the hospital - Dan was seen, treated, X-rayed and given the news - it wasn't a break, but it was a serious dislocation. He was slung up and he insisted we return to Chicksands asap so he could watch the riders and let us go capture some time on bikes and behind the lenses. Cheers Dan - it was really humble of you!


After a mint session of riding with Blake, Ray and James we hit the Dual slalom, 4x, freeride area and of course the Dirt jumps. It was jam packed of immense, amazing moments - and all of us - even injured Dan were stoked to see the caliber of tricks going down. The lads were really welcoming to us and spent a lot of time chatting and engaging with us all - it was really special lads - tah!

Nico Turner caught this section of magic - he thought he would share it with all of you to see what made our day so fun!



As time ticked on and Dan looked in more pain we decided to leave the boys to their weekend and make our journey home. As we traveled home Dan told us more about his past 10 years and his appreciation of us giving our time and effort to make today happen. We all agreed that as soon as he was ready to ride again, we would rearrange the day's training with Blake and Ray - and try again to have an injury free day.

Now if the story ended there it would be pretty cool for Part 1, but there is a little bit more which finishes it off nicely. DMR and New Life Christian Centre had actually sponsored this article and meaning the following day we had a few surprises for Dan that would hopefully make the injury a little less painful.

The next evening I was privileged to present Dan with a DMR Transition frame (courtesy of DMR) at a special service at New life Christian centre where we reinforced the message that we were behind Dan for the long haul and that anything we could do to help him move forwards, we would try our best to support him.


Dan said "I am blown away by the cash support and the DMR frame from a group of people I have never even met before - no one has ever done anything so nice for me before and it means so much to me. When I'm recovered I'll be back riding bigger and harder than ever - and ready to make you all proud."

Dan was stoked and is so eager to get recovered and finish this project. Part 2 will be up soon, let's hope that the next article sees Dan get his bike in the air a bit more and the tricks start flowing.

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