What the hell happened?

Where did this train get off the tracks?

Who stole the soul?

Maybe (probably) I'm being whiny on this issue, but seriously? does anyone ride bikes for fun anymore?

Example:

(timmay walks into the shop at 3:00 on a beautiful day, the only sunny day so far this week)
Me: "what up timmay! man you headed out on a ride?"
Timmay: "Naw man its my off day in my training program"
Me: "Really? its beautiful out dude"
Timmay: "yeah i'd really like to ride but my plan says i can't"
Me: "uhhhh, ok."

There you have it. the thing is, i have this conversation repeatedly with different people on a regular basis. How did this happen? When did people stop riding for the fun of it? This mindset of riding for training has got to be stopped at all costs.

Remember when you were a kid? Remember that first bike and how awesome it was to just get on it and pedal as hard as you could? I do. I remember going to the bmx track with my old man when i was 7 and ripping around trying to jump everything. i also remember when i lost that first race and started crying because i wanted to win. i had the wrong mindset about it and luckily my old man set me straight right quick. its a lesson that i remember to this day.

first a little background on Bruce "the menace" Ennis. Raised in Jacksonville, Fl, my dad found water skiing early on when his family would go down to a lake house for vacations. At age 20 he moved from a nice house in town to a single wide trailer on doctors lake so he could ski everyday after work. Over the next few years he won pretty much everything there was to win in competitive water skiing. slalom, long jump, trick ski- he got natl champ in all of them. He got sponsored by Ski Nautique and got free boats every year. His long jump record stood for almost ten years. After his knees both blew out he was instrumental in starting up the Cypress Gardens ski show. He was also a grade A jackass, partying hard, driving sweet ass shitty muscle trucks and buggies and generally living the dream. One story he tells for instance was when he went out partying the night before a huge meet in Orlando. he showed up the next day at the venue in the back of a truck with nothing but the clothes on his back. He then walked around the pits and managed to borrow two mismatched old skis and a women's life jacket. He then proceeded to kick everyone's ass and win all three events. he told me that because one ski was longer than the other he had to lift up the shorter one right before he hit the ramp and jump one footed then correct in the air so he didn't eat shit. PURE AMERICAN AWESOMENESS.

so yeah i look up to the old man. He taught me that having fun is most important in life and that you'll be better at whatever you want to do because of it. he also taught me about how a positive attitude and believing in yourself is much more important than the best training and equipment.
to this day if my old man shows up to a race i will ride 90% harder just because my hero is watching.

So back to that bmx track years ago... I'm crying, pissed that i lost when the old man says "what are you crying about? its just a race, if its not fun why bother?" the rest of the day we rode the track and had a blast jumping shit and roasting corners/ it made a lasting impression on me. the race didn't matter. learning something new was more important. riding a fun track was more important. HAVING FUN WAS MORE IMPORTANT.

so that's where i come from. That's what this riding is to me. unfortunately i feel like I'm a minority in this sport today. all i can do is fade out of the picture. the soul is gone. riding is a bout skin suits and numbers now. its about training plans and goals. fun has been kicked out of the picture.

no thanks,

Dano out.