Reckless Abandon with Casey Groves

Source - Andy Holmes - Producer/Co-Creator Reckless Abandon

As new as Reckless Abandon is, we are spreading like a wildfire, our next extreme sport to tackle.. Free Style Mountain Biking. Reckless Abandon is an extreme sports show who spotlights an extreme sport, an Athlete who does the sport professionally, and then we try it out for ourselves, success or failure it makes for good TV! A lot of sports these days have some pretty serious fans, but nothing as serious as compared to MTB fans. We have talked to a number of athletes and fans and PinkBike.com is the #1 site that everyone has referred us to! When we were looking for a rider for our Free Style MTB episode, our host Bruce Cook knew exactly who to go to and that was to Casey Groves.

More inside,
Casey Groves, 18 year old rider from our hometown Kelowna, BC. He is a young up and comer with some serious skills and many competition wins under his belt. I have had the pleasure to film Casey twice now, and yeah I agree, perfect guy to do it with. I had a chance to catch up with Casey over Facebook Chat to talk about filming Reckless Abandon.

Interview-


Casey!
Yo

What were your initial thoughts of Reckless Abandon when you first saw an episode?
Dude...I haven't even watched one yet! It keeps slipping my mind lol!

Watch ONE RIGHT NOW! I am sending it to you!


OMG that looks so fun! Alright so my first impression of Reckless Abandon is that these guys have the time of there lives and are badass, like a mini Nitro circus... LOL!

I like that, well first off, what made you want to shoot an episode with the Reckless Team without even having seen a single frame of an episode?
When I met Bruce at H20 aqua center one night he told me about Reckless and it got me stoked. I love shooting and when the opportunity came up I jumped on it.

Bruce must have been in a cast still? Or was he walking normal?
He was walking normal, this was before he busted his foot.

Ohh right, right. Now we have had one, well, kind of two shooting days with you, what did you think of the shoots?
Yeah I believe we're going on our third now and the past two have been rad. Reckless is the most laid back, but strong structured crew I have shot with and it makes the shoots way better!

That's good to hear, I believe it was your buddy Dustin who was saying, "Well this is definitely different than what we are used to" With the jib shots and the Iconics it must feel weird to have three cameras pointing at you, I mean we were at the hill for 5 hours, 2 of those were just getting interviews...now that is all done with and we can focus on filming you riding, what do we have in store, anything special? I know you and Bruce have something planned.
Yeah it's a bit different shooting with a group for once instead of one single guy with a camera. I have shot with a crew of cameras before and it is definitely was sicker than most shoots. The next time we shoot it is going to go off! I have a few new things now that I want to throw out there and see what happens. Bruce and I have a few things planned and we're really excited!

You've seen Bruce ride FMX, what are you expecting out of him on a MTB? I mean you watched episode 2. He kind of set the bar pretty high for himself.
Bruce has big balls! He hits 80ft gaps, 40ft in the air on his FMX bike and does insane stuff. I can see him taking an MTB for a bit of a wild ride for sure. One reason I know this is because I am going to push him!

I like it! Hopefully he can remain in one piece, he just had a bad fall at one of his shows, here's the link.
Yea he showed me the video when I saw him at future show, it’s nuts!

One thing Kelly (Kelly Veltri, Co-Creator) and I have been talking about is scoring this episode with music, do you listen to tunes when you ride? If ya do or if ya don't, what kind of music does our audience want to hear during this insane episode?
I actually can not stand listening to music when I ride. It's just one thing I can't do. It may sound whacked, but I have to listen to my bike rolling and the sounds of everything.


What do you think for tunes during our show, we don’t have the big bucks to pay for Bruce’s favorite Brittany Spears' tracks, but any genres or similar sounding bands we should look for?
I am always super laid back when it comes to music. Obviously it has to be a good matching song, but I am not picky with anything.

Okay okay, I am the same way, that being said if any indie artists want to have their tracks played on our show during this episode please e-mail us at the address below, or go to our website www.RecklessAbandon.tv - Okay what's next here, oh right... we are close to the end here, but you mentioned before how we are like a mini Nitro Circus, you and your MTB team are mixing up with Bruce and team C&C to do something that hasn’t been done too much before...tell us about that.
I don't really want to give much away, but when I said mini Nitro Circus I wasn't lying. I'm pretty sure everyone has seen the episode where monster trucks and dirt bikes are flying over each other, that's where Myself, Bruce and our teams become involved!

LOL! I was a bit worried you might give too much away, but that's a perfect answer, I imagine lots of loaders and machinery are going to be on site getting this ready, I know I will be 60' up in a Jib/Boom Crane filming it!
Ha ha ha!

One last thing, it has come to my attention that you are going to be the featured athlete in our very first 22 minute episode that will run on any networks, how does that feel?
How does that feel?! Dude it makes me so excited! When I was thinking about it, my mind was going insane. I am super stoked to be involved with Reckless and this episode, especially since it is going to be the first 22 minute episode featured around myself!

Yep, we have filmed four 5 minute sizzlers, and you get to be our official 22 minute "pilot" episode! I'm stoked to see 22 minutes of Reckless, I keep hearing how people want to see more, more, more, so here it is. Well Casey I think that's about it, I would like to thank our Sponsor “Soldiers of the Bottle Clothing Co.” and thanks PinkBike.com for running our interview, you have anyone you would like to thank/add? Did I forget anything?
I would like to thank all my sponsors as well as you guys for involving me! S.O.B. for giving me a sick hat and making it possible for you guys to get started and keeping the show on the road!

Beauty, I will see you on our next shoot, and I will see you at the Reckless Abandon/SOB tent at Center of Gravity this summer... Later bro!
Thanks man! See ya soon.



Stay tuned for a glimpse preview of the up coming show and more photos!

Casey Groves
Transition Bikes
Pinkbike.com
Fox Racing Shox
Straitline Components
Race Face Soft Goods
Gravity/FSA
TSG
Five Ten
Industry Nine
Demon Dirt
Geax
Rock Star Energy Drink
Cyclepath Kelowna
Camp of Champions