So, your son or daughter wants to ride BMX. This is a good thing.
BMX is an amazing sport - part craft, part art, part endurance. On and off the ramps, BMX is more like a family than many sports. The competitions are truly co-opetitions in so many ways.
Zack watched the X Games for the first time in 1999 lying on the floor of our living room watching Mat Hoffman take gold medals with a broken ankle. Zack decided at that point in time that he wanted to ride bicycles for a living and become a BMX professional. He had been racing BMX with the local bike shop - The Bicycle Zone - for a few months and it never really held his interest as freestyle did. From then on, Zack started making decisions about his sporting activities based on his belief that he could compete in several sports and really excel at none of them, or he could chose one - BMX - and become exceptional.
When Zack was 11 years old at his first big am contest - CFB in Joliet, IL my husband & I drove to Joliet and experienced our first large BMX Comp. While we watched the biggest names in BMX practice, sign autographs, grant interviews and try to find some shade to cool off in, we also saw competitors of all ages taking turns on the ramps in a way that clearly indicated there are rules of conduct on the field, even if we had never read them or seen them. We also saw veterans offering advice to novices of all ages and riders helping each other. Two months after that event, RIDE BMX (the premier U.S. BMX magazing http://www.ridebmx.com) had a full page add featuring Jamie Bestwick on the halfpipe - Zack in the back-ground sitting against a trash barrel watching the Pro Vert Finals.
We often marvel that our son has found a way to pursue his dreams and now he trains with and competes against Jamie Bestwick and he works for Mat Hoffman. Talk about distilled pursuit of happiness.
