My son who is 16, has spent the last 25 months of his life behind bars. Not the bars you may be thinking, but behind a set of handle bars. His mantra is now, “life behind bars”. Two years ago he took up BMX bike riding. Not racing but what is called in BMX circles “street and park” riding. I encouraged him to ride as I have riding most of my life and found it to be a great sport. Here is the rub. When I rode my goal was to keep the wheels on the ground and to go straight as far and fast as possible. His goals is to get the wheels off the ground and to maneuver in the air in impossible ways.
The trick in the picture is called a hand plant as he goes up and over a small wall. He is doing what I always had hopped to avoid. It is amazing to me to watch him riding along in a straight line and suddenly see him and the bike jump into the air, do a complete 360 and keep going as if that’s normal.
He wears shin and knee pads and of course a helmet but injures one body part or another almost ever week. So far only two hospital trips and one broken bone. This is how he hopes to make a living and there is a lot of money available for the top riders. I thought about encouraging him to become a Realtor, but then I realized that all we get to do is jump through hoops while he get to a wide range of tricks.
My name is Dale E. Bledsoe with Crown Key Realty and as always I maybe reached at 209-481-6031. This blog comes under the heading of a very proud dad.
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