Video: Joe Varndell On Being A Student at MTB University
Young Starling Cycles rider Joe Varndell has a cool story.
Not only is he super talented on a mountain bike, but he also actually studies mountain biking full-time at college. Yep - that really is a thing you can do now!
Joe joined the Starling Cycles team a few years back and went on to enrol into Mountain Bike University, AKA BASE College in Scotland. His racing was going well, the results were building and he knew that he wanted to just throw his energy 100% into mountain biking. He applied and before he knew it, Joe and his Starling Cycles Murmur were heading north to the Borders Academy of Sporting Excellence (BASE), in Peebles, Scotland.
Joe's time studying mountain biking isn't just about riding bikes. It's also learning race craft as well as sports science, psychology, coaching skills and everything you need to be an all-around expert two-wheel athlete. It's a three-year, full-time course and graduates gain a HND (Higher National Diploma) qualification at the end of it.
Because we think Joe is rad and we think the life he's living is rad, we decided it was time to tell his story.
And to add just a little extra element to the story, we recruited EWS racer, veteran rider, BASE tutor and filmmaker Innes Graham to tell the story. Who better to tell the story of the mountain bike student than one of his own teachers, right?
Look out for Joe racing UK Enduro Nationals and heap of other one-off UK events, including the Malverns Festival. Good luck, Joe!
Learn more about Starling Cycles at starlingcycles.com
Learn about the bike Joe is riding here: starlingcycles.com/bikes/murmur
Follow Joe on Insta at https://www.instagram.com/jvarndell63
And thanks to Innes: https://www.instagram.com/innesgrahamphoto
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Member since Mar 6, 2018
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I have an HND in a very similar field ("Outdoor recreation Management") and its almost worthless.
That said it was a great 2 years in Devon and I would do it again, but also wouldn't recommend it- I still needed to get a load of qualifications to actually work in the Outdoor Adventure industry and that took a further 5 years of work based courses and accreditation.
Pretty Heavy Drinker, that is =P
Fyi: you can get your tech leader much cheaper and easier away from “uni”.
And you’ll need more than that 1 qualification to make yourself employable. Add on climbing, mountaineering, kayaking etc and then you might scratch the surface.
That’s great you want to be a pro racer, but a uni course will not get you there. If it’s a decent course (engineering, law, business etc) there might be something to fall back on when you’re done with racing.
Name one pro who actually studied mtb. Not just a pro who went to uni.
They have more than one course
Guy already has industry connections and that mostly what you need to get a job in the industry. The school thing will help with some knowledge based stuff but he’s already got a foot in the door.
If you’re young and don’t mind housing up with roommates, and not being rich in exchange for cool bike shit and traveling then it’s a pretty f*cking fun lifestyle.
Theres plenty of people that make it work, don’t let comments like mxmtbs discourage you.
Wear a condom ✓
Don't wear a condom ☓
Hi There
As a BASE student myself i disagree with your statement.
The first year is a SCQF level 6 course,
The second year is a HNC in sports coaching and development.
The Third year is a HND in the same course.
You can leave and come as you wish.
It is a great way to make yourslf employable in the future while training to be a full time professional racer.
I hope this clears things up.
Really, all I wanted to suggest is that (admittedly as a father of a son who is about to leave school) I hope there's jobs out there for everyone. I've a wee bit of experience with degree apprenticeships, and I really only meant that a stronger proposition would be for industry to select and support candidates. This wouldn't necessarily change the content of the course, it might even sit alongside what's being done already, but given that there's a very limited pool of full-time professional racers, it might mean they have to widen the BASE approach to other HNC-level qualifications like photography, engineering, event mgt., etc.
best wishes to you and everyone on the course..
End of the day one ACL tear or major injury and he's going to be wishing he took a CoL or trades job making at least 5x riding bikes for fun on the weekend.
From what I can see, the BASE college doesn't just give you nothing, you get a HND as well as valuable life experience, you can if you choose use the hnd as credit towards university as well in the future.
As a parent you never know where your kids will end up, passions change, they grow up, you just do what you can to give them the best life possible.
At the moment to me that means spending countless hours driving, riding, racing. He loves it, I love it.
You can earn more, sure, but think of the smiles.
So yeah tell your son to stop being regarded and look for money. Sorry to gloat but he's the one thing I've done right in this life.
I get the sentiment and agree, but as a parent it's a little more nuanced IMO:
"Make lots of small mistakes but please don't repeat them or make any fatal* mistakes"
*young males typically do a bad job at recoqnizing and evaluating this category and need help.
Hi There
As a BASE student myself i disagree with your statement.
The first year is a SCQF level 6 course,
The second year is a HNC in sports coaching and development.
The Third year is a HND in the same course.
You can leave and come as you wish.
It is a great way to make yourslf employable in the future while training to be a full time professional racer.
I hope this clears things up.
I love this Ronan, People could learn a lot from it.
Look at you, Pro racer and part time DJ living the life.
I think more people should actually read about things before chatting shit online!!!!!
Over the last ten years, we’ve had 100+ students come through the course with a number of them going on to be professional riders. Greg Williamson, Lewis Buchanan, Luke Cryer and Reece Wilson are just a few of the students that have been through BASE. Others have gone on to further their education at universities, or traveled to places like Canada, New Zealand and the Alps. Some of them now run businesses in rope access and media, and all of them are better developed adults as a result of applying the BASE attitude and culture to the rest of their lives.
The nice thing about choices, you can always make a different choice down the road .
My lad is starting this year working as a shadow for a top UK coach to learn the coaching trade, along then with the plan to do BASE in the future, it should give him a decent chance of 'something' should the racing not pan-out like he/we hope.