{"id":519,"date":"2013-02-25T14:19:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T20:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pauleide.com\/wordpress\/?p=519"},"modified":"2020-10-03T20:00:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T01:00:09","slug":"mountain-dew-kickstart-adventure-starring-bmx-pros-chad-degroot-and-mark-mulville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i80sportsblog.com\/mountain-dew-kickstart-adventure-starring-bmx-pros-chad-degroot-and-mark-mulville\/","title":{"rendered":"BMX, Bitches! Doin’ Tha Dew in F-L-A With Pro Riders Chad DeGroot And Mark Mulville"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Image Credit: Rob Dolecki\/DigBMX.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

To put this adventure into perspective, I entered the Orlando Skate Park with the BMX wherewithal of the average nine-year-old in terms of understanding and the average 12-year-old in terms of athletic skills, all packed into a nearly 33-year-old frame of a \u201cman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t I get into this shit when I was 12? It would be pretty emasculating to hit up a\u00a0local\u00a0skate park, present day, and get crushed by some teenagers, and, to completely shatter my face doing a rudimentary move in front of some kids who love Wiz Khalifa,\u00a0tiiight<\/em>\u00a0pants and jacking off, in that order. Worrying about your insurance deductible and the associated out of network costs never helped anyone\u2019s BMX performance. But, I wouldn\u2019t be the first person to seriously injure myself.<\/p>\n

Getting to Orlando Skate Park\/OSP (which is what you call it, Brojam) at roughly 7 AM was a serious thing of beauty. The sun had just began to rise, which gave everything a cherubic, surreal glow, and was accompanied by an endless chorus of early morning bird chirping action. It was like a bird mixtape that you made to impress a chick (when you used to do shit like that), except this was played against the backdrop of crisp morning air and the excitement of doing something you had never done before: Riding a BMX bike.<\/p>\n

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When I first attempted to straddle the BMX, my first concern was for my nutsac. I\u2019m all vasectomied up, so I wasn\u2019t worried about reproductive function being compromised (spray and pray, baby); I was literally worried about crushing my nutsac on the pointy plastic seat.<\/p>\n

When I asked pro rider Chad DeGroot about the protruding seat, which could tear anal membrane or ball sac-age with equal ease, he said, \u201cWell, you really don\u2019t have to worry because you\u2019re usually standing when you\u2019re on the bike, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with that, I mounted the bike from behind, and rode it, in a rather wobbly way for about 10-15 feet. The bike was really<\/i> small, my legs felt super<\/i> long, and the safety of my ballsac was still floating through my mind. Maybe it\u2019s because when I was 13 and playing little league I watched a kid in the on-deck circle take a well hit, yet foul, line drive directly to the nuts which resulted in one of his balls deflating, right there on the field. What a sound!<\/p>\n

I mean, I guess dudes can live with one nut a la Lance Armstrong and former Philadelphia Philly John Kruk, but is that really an optimal way of living? DeGroot picked up on my nervousness\/total lack of overall coordination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen was the last time you rode a bike?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUh, a year or two ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The skate park was divided into two areas; what I like to call the \u201cDouble Diamond,\u201d where pros like Chad, Mark and Rob Dolecki (Pro BMXer\/photog for DigBMX.com who snapped some killer images you can see here) make incredibly difficult shit look incredibly easy, and the \u201cKiddie Pool,\u201d where myself and my friend Zach Goldsztejn from Mountain Dew rode around to get a feel for our bikes.<\/p>\n

Having never done this, going down even the slightest of declines is a nerve wracking experience. Even a simple move called a \u201cBunny Hop,\u201d where you literally hop on your bike until both wheels come off the ground, is hard to do. But it\u2019s been a long time since either DeGroot or Mulville had any difficulty doing a Bunny Hop.<\/p>\n

DeGroot turned pro when he was 19. \u201cThe first trick I ever did was on a curb where you smash your front wheel in and your back wheel pops up, called an \u201cEndo.\u201d I didn\u2019t have a brake and you just smash it into the curb. It felt like you did something aside from just riding in a straight line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulville also turned pro around that same age. \u201cI just really loved to jump \u2014 jumping was always my thing. A lot of other kids wanted to race or whatever but it was just too competitive. I just liked jumping and would get kicked out from a young age for doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In BMX, there are two sorts of riders: \u201cFlatlanders\u201d and \u201cJumpers.\u201d And if it sounds like two warring factions, in the BMX subculture, it really is. Flatlanders, like DeGroot, stay on the ground and do technical maneuvers involving their hands and feet and a ton of coordination. Jumpers, like Mulville, get huge air and perform tricks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy go to is a Superman,\u201d said Mulville. \u201cWhere you jump out and extend your arms and legs off of the bike completely and soar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Mark Mulville, \u201cjumping\u201d:<\/p>\n