“may the kings all drown in the blood of their conquests”

“may the kings all drown in the blood of their conquests”

Please introduce yourself in anyway that you feel appropriate:

my name is john i get too much recognition for riding a bike badly, i work in a shop called cyclone, i like music, wrestling, my chick, my bros, work, bmx, creativeness, sleeping-heavy zeds man.

Why do you ride a 20″ Bicycle?

I like pretty much all aspects of riding (Even moaning about it – which i spend alot of time and effort doing),I ride for fun, although sometimes its not and i stress, I ride for the feeling, that feeling could be sat in van for hours to ride some half assed skate park or trails, driving across europe for a contest, seeing one of your bro’s learn a new trick, learning a new trick myself, being terrified of a line or trick yet still doing it, laughing, seeing friends you don’t get to see too often, meeting new friends, you still get the chance to be a 7 year old – you can throw tantrums when your not riding too good – you get a chance to be in ‘club 7 year old’ with other like minded tantrum adults, the feeling of going to america for the first time and thinking how it was’nt how you expected it to be, being up or down but still thinking about riding before you fall to sleep … i could keep going but i think you get the picture – I LOVE IT.

What do you think about the riding scene in general and especially the english one?

It rules. it just seems to get better all the time, theres too many companys taking and not giving. people are too greedy – they dont give back to what keeps em, with bmx alot of u.k distributors never put there hand in there pockets they know the u.s profile of certain products will also sell them in the U.K without them having to do a thing, i think this is cheap as fuck and there could be better promo and support for riders (I’m not talking about little distros here i’m talking about BIG GREEDY companys, Theres also alot of people trying to nibble there way in to our scene by promoting there companys as bmx when they arent anything to do with bmx you can look through several other magazines – NON BMX – and they’re trying to get a cool name by attaching there cheap asses to bmx. they can fuck off, But i think the scene in general rules. there are alot of sincere kids in it who have a good understanding of why they’re in it, we have alot of skateparks but no one has set the standard yet, none of the parks are really that good thats not to say they’re shit – some are – just no one has set the pace.

What do you think should the purpose of contests be?

what ever the individual wants them to be, they could be seriously screwed up in the wrong hands – Exploitive hands where they have been before, for me they’re a place to see good ridng, travel or catch up with friends

What do you think of goofy footed riding (an english phenomenon)?

I dont really have much to say on the subject, some people say its ugly but theres no way i think. if some one makes it look odd they’d probably make regular footed look odd too, stuart king, scott malyon, marcus wilke are some of my favourite riders, they ride goofy.

is there any rider(s) who has influenced/inspired your riding?

tons and tons of riders make me wanna ride a million different ways, with so many different styles of riding, and a majority of it looking good its impossible to say names. everyone is influenced by everyone else from beginners to pros. everybodys studying style and taking tricks and lines off each other and at the end of the mash of styles some people look creative – i try to ride creative but usally fail and end up obvoius

explain the trick ferret controversy?

what a can of worms that was! that was meant as joke, it was written by about 3 of my very close friends, 2 of which would be considered ‘pro’. i wrote about it cause i thought every circle of riders has one (or a few) so most people would get the joke. some got the joke… some didn’t. how anyone can take offense to being called a tricks ferret is beyond me. its just not offensive, everyone was guilty of one of the things i listed (i do barspins, try tables both ways and unfortunately sometimes dont tweak tricks – most of the time – and nibble at times, fuck it) it wasn’t about kids, it wasn’t telling people they should ride a certain way it was a JOKE. one of the best things about bmx is you can do your own thing regardless of what anyone else thinks. we have people still writing to ride saying all this crap. they made there own defintion but it wasnt what i was writing about.

give three reasons to visit the states next summer?

see your trans atlantic bros, ride your bmx, travel.

are you a video nerd?

without a doubt. i’m not as bad as i used to be though. i probably could’ve held some sort of nerd title at some time. i’ll take the tag video nerd though, someo ther people i could also iniciate – start a secret society of freaks – yeah!

why and how did you start out making videos?

I wanted to make a video because i really felt no one had made a real good video covering the u.k scene for some years, so i made a contribution with a friend and his friend (sunil and allan glass) i filmed for 18 months i grew to hate filming as it stops you riding, however despite getting a shitty unsupportive review in ride i was really happy with the end result (this was my first attempt it wouldn’t have been possible without Allan and Sunil) and it sold really well which i was really psyched on. it’s still selling now. i tried to put a heavy influence on fun in this video and i think alot of people could relate to that.

Text: Markus Wilke | fotos: Ricky Adam and Ed Docherty