As seen earlier on PSBMX…
Stats: –
- Name: ‘Chris Jackson‘.
- Age: ‘18′.
- Weight: ‘9st 10‘.
- Location: ‘Gillingham‘.
- Sponsors: ‘A’ME Grips’ flow through ‘ValleySideDistro’! I’m also happy to represent Dartmoor UK/Slam69 as a free-agent.
Questions: –
1) Where are you based? And how exactly did you get into BMX? I’m based in the ‘South-East’ of ‘Gillingham’! I’ve always grown up around bikes, but the first real cycle sport I got into was ‘Bike Trails’! I rode trials for a good four to five years and competed several times – I then found my next thrill in MTB/Dirt jumping. I grew through this for a good year and a half, then I started riding my mates BMX quite a bit! I just found this so much easier and a lot more fun! Believe it or not, I have been riding BMX since November last year!
2) Do you remember your first trick/stunt/line? As a young little nibbler, it has to be a wheelie or something like that, ha ha! Then I grew more into Dirt jumping – It was all about Tables and X-ups, ha ha!
3) What were you riding back then? As a youngster, I always remember cruising around and bombing of curbs on my ‘GT Vertigo’! Ha ha!
4) What is your current bike? And what is the story behind it? At the moment I have one of the most perfect bikes I have ever ridden! The geometry is bang on for the stuff I like – Short rear-end (13.38”) and a mid/long top-tube (20.8”) – As for the story, I knew about Dartmoor from watching MTB edits, as soon as I saw their BMX products it was one of my goals to own/run a full Dartmoor set-up! I’ve got the 2012 ‘Yuki’ frame, amongst other assorted Dartmoor product! Check my online bike check, for one pimp’d ride!
5) When was the last time you did something crazy? Hmmm… Probably when I went to Corby with ‘Lil Rob’ and started learning ‘Flairs’… That was a good day!
6) What makes ‘Chris Jackson’ Mad? Ha ha! I wouldn’t say I’m mad, just highly energetic! But at times I do get rather silly, usually after I’ve had a couple of ‘Red Bulls’ and a big bag or ‘Jelly Tots’!
7) What tricks are you currently working on? Hopefully, I’m going to get back to Corby and carry on getting my flairs dialled… Possibly double-whips and some new 360 combo’s aswell!
8} Do you ever listen to an MP3 Player when you ride? All the time man! I can’t ride without it! For anyone who cares, the main genres on my Ipod are: ‘Alternative’, ‘dance’, ‘electronic’, ‘hip-hop’/’rap’, ‘New Wave’ and ‘Pop’. Mostly upbeat tunes get me pumped up good!
9) Going back to the trick thing… How have you gone about learning ‘flairs’? How has your personal experience with ‘flairs’ evolved? This may sound like a load of poo, but I learnt flips into foam at ‘Corby’! Harry Main’s explained the trick with flairs is just to; “do an normal air and flip”… Next thing I know, BOOM! First try I pulled a perfect flair into the foam section (side of transition)… Couple more tries into the foam and I was ready to try it on the 7ft ‘Mini Resi-Ramp’! After a few experimental runs I was riding away from them! Go try them there not as hard as they seem just need to fine tune mine!
10) What about street… How street are you? Most of the riders from my local scene ride street a lot! But it’s just not my cup of tea! I can ride street if I really want to – I would rather boost out of a quarter and send a ‘tuck no-hand air’ than throw myself down a rail, or off a drop!
11) Out of all the disciplines within BMX, what is your favourite? Hmm, for me, it’s practically a draw between ‘trails’ and ‘skatepark’! I love skateparks, because there are a varied amount of objects/obstacles to trick, plus they all need different techniques! It feels go to know you can do certain tricks on one set-up, then take it to the next level by finding another skatepark set-up! Then there is the trails! Nothing beats the feeling of flowing down a big set of trails! Just casually flowing through a line, with big moto-whips!
12) Has riding trials prior to BMX had an influence over your tricks, or perhaps your style? I definitely have more bike control after riding trials! Also, I like having big bars, just nice and wide, that’s definitely evolved from trials! I think riding trials has improved my ability with manuals and lip tricks! Just more bike control all around really!
13) How critical is (product) weight to you? I’m not a big fan of the whole weight saving malarkey – But my bike is definitely light! But I don’t want it to be too light, because it would just feel like there is nothing below me!
14) Who did you look up to when you first started riding? And who do you look up to now?
Back then it was a lot of MTB Riders to be honest: ‘Martin Soderstrom’, ‘Andreu Lacondeguy’, ‘Brandon Semenuk’ and ‘Syzmon Godziek’ – I still look up to riders like this a lot! However, nowadays the BMX scene is my influence – E.g. Harry Main, Pat Casey, Daniel Sandoval, Dawid Godziek and many more! They are all on another level! And it may seem like I am following a “trend” of learning big bangers and lip-tricks, but that is just my way of riding, my personal preference! Yet I’m always trying to do different things, it’s just that ‘heavy hitting’ style if you like!
15) In terms of progression, influence and creative-flair, what one rider is at the top of this sport? There are so many riders pushing the sport to the limits! Recently I have been watching Dawid Godziek, Daniel Sandoval and of course Harry Main! These are a few of the tops riders I look up to; and to pin-point ‘ONE’ rider that is really pushing the sport is very hard! Everyone is on a ridiculous level of riding! It’s really hard to pick out certain people in the sport!
16) Anyone you ride with that you want to mention? Like, the dudes on the way up…
Hmmm, I would like to mention Lil-Rob (Rob Horgan) and Lewis “Mario” Taylor! If these two carry on progressing as fast as they are, they will definitely be going places!
17) That’s about it Chris! Any final words or shout-out’s? Obviously the Mum and Pah, Chris at Valleyside, Graham at Slam69,Christian “Webb” Moore for filming me! And all the lads at Cozzy – Mario, Ash, Webb, Lil-Rob, Sherlock, Sam Coe and Reece Spice!