Graduate Interview: Morgan Walker

Who is Morgan Walker? Where are you from?
Morgan Walker is a mountain bike crazy person, trying to be involved with MTB in new Zealand as much as possible. I am originally from just north of Auckland, from a town called Warkworth in the North island.


What do you ride? How did you get into MTBing?
I am currently riding a Yeti SB6C and the Yeti 4.5 Carbon. The SB6C is the perfect do it all Enduro machine. Its great, I’ve done everything from multi day adventure rides, to days in the park in Queenstown on it. I love it. The 4.5 has been a recent purchase, as the shorter travel 29er keeps things interesting on some of the flatter, more XC oriented tracks. It makes climbing a breeze, which is great for a washed up DH rider! Originally I used to ride for fitness training for when I was racing Mx, but I found that I was enjoying the training rides more than the racing. I ended up selling the motocross bike, and buying a ticket to Whistler..


When did you complete the Hiring Camp? How did it help you get into the MTB industry?
I took part in the Pre-season training camp at the start of the 2013 season. I had a friend who had recommended it to me, who had already signed up, and it seemed too good to be true! The hiring camp was the best thing that I have had the chance to be a part of. My own personal riding progressed in leaps and bounds, with the oversite from great coaches like Mike Johnstone and Duncan Mainland. With their tips and tricks I felt like I was completely prepared for any challenges that came up during my time working in the bike park.


What was your experience of living and working in Whistler?
Living and working in Whistler is unreal, it still surprises me to this day the level of riding that we achieved while we were living there. It's pretty surreal living in such a beautiful part of the world, it's something that will stick with me for life. And working for Whistler in the Bike Park Programs is one of the best jobs in the world. I will remember Tom Radke as one of the best bosses ever. He has all of his employees best interests in mind, and made turning up to work every morning a pleasure.

The riding back home in NZ is just as amazing though, and since my recent move into the Nelson region I have been lucky enough to ride some more world class trails. In the Nelson region we are treated to such and amazing selction of trails, everything from world class dh and enduro trails, to massive epic adventure rides, taking days at a time spanning some amazing backcountry trails.


How did you come up with the idea of the Mot Lodge and Mot Bike Co.?
The idea for Mot Lodge came from living in a chalet when I took part in my Hiring camp. The atmosphere and vibe from living in a big house full of mountain bikers was amazing, and having Whistler on our doorstep only made it better. I wanted to emulate that in NZ, as it was really a concept that hadn’t been explored too much.
As we started to bring it together, we formed a great relationship with Yeti NZ, as we were using the Yeti SB5 as our rental bikes at the lodge. This started to form into the idea that we needed an outlet to provide the people of Motueka and Nelson with these world class bikes. Thus Mot Bike Co. was formed.

What is your vision for your new shop?
The idea for our shop is to be a destination shop. We want to bring a great space to people, where we provide amazing food and coffee, amazing bikes and gear, and top level service for the riders of our area. We are amazingly lucky to be able to do Yeti cycles, so we wanted to provide gear that matched these top level bikes.



We are currently stocking Yeti bikes, POC clothing and protection, Raceface clothing and Protection, Smith Eyewear and Helmets, Five ten shoes, WTB tyres, Lezyne accessories, Juice lubes and Shimano and Sram hard parts.

We opened on the 5th of October, and at the time of writing this we are 2 months into operation at the shop and loving it!


What advice would you have for someone wanting to get started in the MTB industry?
Perseverance, you need to be motivated and keep at it to crack into the industry. The Hiring camp was the best head start into the industry, so that would be the best thing I could recommend doing to start off with. After that you just need to get involved with your local scene. Do some trail building days, get into racing, and just fully immerse yourself. After that the opportunity’s will come!

John Inman
Ski, Snowboard & Mountain Bike Instructor Courses & Camps
www.peakleaders.com | Tel: +44 (0) 1337 860 079
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