Scott Smith

Brooks Hello and welcome back to the awesome mountain biking podcast as always i'm your host brooks lawson aka the mountain biking realtor and you can find all things brooks at brookslawson.com, i got a co-host today which is dale doherty of mtb atx and uh we've had dale on the show before we're still planning to get him his own show in the near future but this show is going to be about Scott Smith. Scott is probably best known for his appearance at Crankworx in 2018. Would you agree?

Scott Yeah, I suppose so.

Brooks So his foray into mountain biking was documented by none other than Seth Alvo, aka Seth Bike Hacks, aka Burn Peak. So Scott, why don't you get us started off by telling about your history with biking and, you know, if you want to throw some things about Seth and your guys' relationship in there, that'd be interesting to hear about.

Scott Cool. Yeah. So, uh, Seth has pretty much been around since almost the beginning. Um, I started riding BMX when my dad told me there's a bike specially made for doing wheelies all the way down the street. And I had this little, you know, kind of downward hill. And I just imagined some guy riding down on his back wheel. And I was like, my mind is blown. He, uh, picked up red from the library on VHS. And then, uh, I don't think we ever returned it. We just, man, we, I just, I just destroyed that tape just on repeat. My family hated me. I would not stop watching it. um eventually got a bmx bike um what.

Brooks Is rad oh.

Scott So rad is kind of the movie that got everybody into bmx back in the day when i was a kid um basically about a hometown kid who has a chance to either take his sats or go race hell track and uh he's super talented and just kind of dedicated wants to dedicate his life to bikes instead of school and fights with his mom and uh. Definitely. Uh, I, I definitely understood the appeal. So, um, yeah, got a BMX bike, proceeded to break every part off of it over and over again. Um, got a better BMX bike, um, met Seth and we just went out street riding, building trails and, um, hanging out. So he, um, he basically, uh, you know, progressed with me and, um, you know, we fell in love with riding together and rode every day. And then eventually lost contact. Um, you know, years and years later, he reaches out to me and basically said, Hey, Scott, have you ridden a mountain bike? And I said, no, why would I, you know, in my mind, I had the older view of mountain bikers because they had progressed a lot since then. But like the, you know, 40 something year old guy, kind of just riding over a little log and being like, wow, I just got so extreme, um, you know, compared to BMX, it's just, it wasn't what I was looking for. so um he's like well you know you know you never really rode brakes which i didn't and you know to kind of address that i do have brakes on my bike in that video but it's only because i put them on because i had a torn acl and i literally couldn't stop you know jamming my foot in the back tire. Um he's like you know i have a proposition for you and i was like i'm in you know he's like dude we haven't talked in years and i'm like i don't care it's you seth is a wild man i was like i'm in And he goes, well, you know, I have a YouTube mountain biking channel and I got invited to do a kind of a, I guess, documentary kind of video for Dirt Diaries alongside Crankworx 2018. And, you know, he kind of had to, for what I understand, he had to submit a script and get it approved. And the idea was since he, since I introduced him to my love of BMX, he would introduce me to his love of mountain biking. He basically said, we're going to put you on a mountain bike for the first time on Whistler Mountain, just film the carnage. And I was like, let's go. So I was, I didn't, had no idea what I was in for. You know, he flew out. I really didn't look too much into mountain biking. I want to have, just have it be an experience. You know, I didn't start watching videos or learning tips or anything like that. That's pretty crazy, but I trust him. Maybe I shouldn't have. He put me down to Schleyer, one of the first runs, which is double black tech. Absolutely crazy. Yeah, we flew out to Whistler and I got on the mountain bike and it felt, it felt crazy to me. It felt wrong. It felt like I was doing something that just was the opposite of what I should be doing on BMX. And then by day three, I had done A-Line. I had done Dirt Merchant. I did Dwayne Johnson, which is a pro line. And there was something about the aspect of nature can be a skate park that really appealed to me. And from that point, I was... I hope this is answering your question. I'm just kind of on a tangent.

Brooks And the tangents are what it's all about.

Scott From that point, I was very confused. uh, about what part of mountain biking that I want to do. I knew I wanted to do it, but I, I kind of felt weird being on the trails. I couldn't keep up. I was out of shape. I was always looking for BMX sort of inspired things that, you know, I mentioned in the video, you see a rock that could be a launch, you know, and gap out over a log or something. And I didn't realize there was kind of a, a side of mountain biking called free ride. So now I'm, you know, after the past three years of trying to figure it out, I finally understand what free Freeride is like, it makes sense in my mind. Cause you know, I didn't know what Enduro was or XC was or Freeride or just trail riding or whatever it might be. And then, um, just fell in love with Freeride. It feels like, it feels like big, crazy BMX in a different, just a different way. It's the other side of the coin, you know, BMX is, is about, you know, a little bit more about precision. Freeride's more about just, you can just go so much bigger and that's kind of where i am today so you know i've said thank for renewing my my next chapter i.

Brooks Mean this is a very a very uh noticeable thing you do that a lot of other i've seen a lot of other you know people who transition from bmx do is that they ride mountain bikes and they're constantly like scoping out the trail and looking for like different shit to ride.

Scott Yep it's uh from street riding yeah because where i grew up you know we didn't really have much we used to try and dig dirt jumps but they just get plowed just next week every time and we didn't know what we were doing. Um, street riding on the other hand was like, just go out, get creative and just use your, your imagination. And that's really what, um, that's still the way I look at things today.

Brooks For sure. Uh, so what was your experience like post crank works? Uh, did you get a lot of attention? Um, you know, a bunch of followers and like that.

Scott It was kind of, yeah, it was, it's kind of weird. Like people, it's always stopped me on trails. Like, Hey, you're that guy from that thing. And I'd be like, I just kind of wait for a second. They're like Seth's video. And I'm like, you know, it was exciting. It was cool. Um, I kept texting Seth like, Oh my God, someone stopped me at Whole Foods and talking about mountain biking. Um, not like a whole lot of, I mean, maybe a bunch of followers. I don't have crazy amount, but probably a bunch of people from that. I don't think people knew where to find me or what to think or you know I didn't have any of my my stuff geared towards hey I was doing BMX but like I didn't like promote any of that stuff so not really but it's definitely been cool meeting a lot of people from all over who uh stopped me and I still get you know it's an angel fire get stopped and um you know whenever I go on trips California people seem to know me from that video which is pretty exciting that's.

Brooks Cool and does that I mean do you like that or I know it's something that some people don't like they don't want to be approached how do you feel about that I.

Scott Love it yeah yeah i mean i've always been really shy when i was a kid and making friends it's kind of hard for me so having people just come up and be like hey dude what's up it's like it helps you know because i'm that guy who's always trying to be like hey you want to get a ride together or try and make friends and you know for me i'll usually just kind of sit in the background just do my thing and hope like-minded people approach me for.

Brooks Sure um so what percent of the time would you say these days you spend riding or thinking about bmx as opposed to mountain bike or free ride.

Scott Dude Dude, that's so tough. So I definitely think about BMX here and there because there's certain things you can't do on a mountain bike that you can do on a BMX. And there are certain aspects I miss, like, you know, quarter pipes and stuff, which I'm trying to find quarter pipes for my big bike, which is something that's coming into freeride more and more. But I miss pegs. I definitely texted my man Dale over there recently. Do you know anybody who has a 3D printer? He said, you do.

Brooks Oh, I do have one, yeah.

Scott And I came up with a scheme to put pegs on my, on my full suspension Enduro bike, um, I definitely texted a few people about that and they said, what's wrong with you? Like, like you have problems. Don't do it.

Brooks It sounds like it would make a interesting content.

Scott Seth definitely said he was like, bro, what, what the hell?

Brooks Yeah.

Dale I was wondering if you would have asked him about like, maybe, Hey, the engineering side of things, surely there's some bike manufacturer engineer that's going to see that and shake their head and be like, Oh, we never intended this. Yeah.

Scott That's the thing is he has that engineer brain, right? So that's, he's the first person I texted. And he was like, dude, you need a nap or something, man. Like, what? So I still found a way to do it. I still think I'm going to do it. You know, Dylan Stark, somebody I look at, because he rides very similarly to the way I would dream of riding. He kind of just has that eye, that former BMXer, what can you do on a mountain bike, like no limits. it's for me um i think he's a little bit braver than i am as far as like being um open-minded and and not living in a box i like for whatever reason i see other people do things i'm like oh that's cool i want to do it too and instead of being brave and inventing stuff and i definitely saw a post of his where he was doing a pedal grind and someone said oh put pegs on a mountain bike and he said you know in the comments pedals pegs don't belong on a mountain bike and then and then And Gabriel Wimber, he put pegs on a mountain bike, and I thought that was cool. He, of course, had Canyon behind him engineering. I'm sure it took nine months to figure out. But what I figured out is just a 3D printer and a lot of luck. So if you're down.

Brooks Do you know how to do 3D design?

Scott Dale can help me with that, I'm sure.

Dale Delegated.

Brooks So what's your contribution to this?

Scott What me i will i will definitely find a lot of crazy rails to send myself down, yeah i definitely uh rails were one of my favorite things on bmx so i think the biggest one i did was like a 24 stair we'll.

Dale Get entertainment out of this.

Scott Yeah and definitely uh be entertaining that's for sure so.

Brooks Speaking of dylan stark uh you guys both actually just returned from the dylan stark jam in california uh tell us who dylan stark is what that event was um and how what it was like Like, what was your experience?

Scott So he throws a gym at his local trails on 420 every year. And they're kind of like BMX style trails for a mountain bike. And they have some really big jumps there. So just wanted to go, want to push my limits. It's hard to find a jump with a 12 foot lip. I have a photo of Dale standing next to it. And it's just, it just shows how ridiculous the jump is. So, you know, I just set my sights on going, you know, booked a ticket. Dale came along to film and hang out and ride. And it's awesome traveling with him. I mean, he and I think very similarly about things. And then, uh, you know, I went out there, I messaged, you know, I, I posted that I was going, Dylan hit me up and said, I could come out to day six of Stark week. Um, you know, which I know they're doing their thing, they're filming for, for their video, but it was really kind of him to say, come on out, check out the trails, kind of get to preview them, um, see all the pros, just absolute murder, um, stuff like that. Every time it's just, it's amazing to watch and just being part of that. So I feel very fortunate. One of my big things is I absolutely love to go get to ride stuff people don't get to ride. I love riding the big jumps at Bentonville Bike Fest. That's exciting for me. So to be part of something that was invite-only felt really special. And then the 420 Gym is where it's open invite. Anybody can come out. So we went out there, had an absolute blast, got to hang with everybody, meet everybody. body. And, you know, one of the big things for me is I've, I don't know if I'd say lofty goals, but I want to do a lot of stuff in mountain biking and just starting to get to meet people and, you know, the world's about people and, you know, hopefully, uh, hopefully I can do more and more cool stuff because just, you know, meeting people and I guess connections and whatnot.

Brooks Networking.

Scott Networking.

Brooks Yeah.

Scott Yeah.

Dale Very few people realize there's the business aspect of it too. So.

Scott So, yeah, it's weird. It's hard to look at it like that, but I mean, I just kind of think of it as who do you want to hang out with, you know, hopefully I'm around, hopefully people think what I do is cool and want to hang out with me and I get opportunities to do really cool stuff, man. That's, that's the biggest thing for me is I've always just wanted to, Just to do the cool stuff that came up, like I was lucky enough to ride the X Games. Before they had X Games in Austin, they threw events in each city. I think there were three or four cities they were considering. And only a certain number of people got invited to ride it. And when I showed up, somehow, I don't know how I got invited, but I showed up and it's this huge street course, huge box jump right in front of the state capitol. And I have a picture of myself doing a tuck no hander in front of the state capitol in this X Games event before X Games, which did come to Austin, we kind of put out the biggest, I guess, a show out and they picked Austin. And like, that's a hugely fond memory for me. You know, those sorts of things I absolutely love getting into. So, you know, I look back fondly on getting out to day six, you know, it was dark week, me and Dale helping set up, put caution tape all over and, you know, put up the 420 jam sign and, you know, stuff like that. That's cool. It's amazing.

Dale Amazing who was your favorite writer of that week i.

Scott Mean dylan's you know my favorite writer just hands down like i'll watch his videos and just get inspired all day but curtis downs man good god tommy crell was was throwing some crazy stuff i mean everybody out there you know going crazy it's.

Dale Kind of wild watching andre shuffle yeah.

Scott Oh my i was just gonna ask you who was your favorite i.

Dale Think between curtis and andres it was while just watching him crash over and over again and then get back on the bike and send it bigger and bigger and like the air that they're getting was just ridiculous that was like in.

Scott The middle of a 360 tuck no hander or something like.

Dale Yeah yeah i do think it is um i agree though like my personal favorite is starting to get very uh it's still on like let's just and for a lot of the same reasons you like him, I think also just kind of, uh, his personality I resonate with mm-hmm um, he's like a lot of the people I would hang out with earlier, um, in my twenties and everything, but watching him actually in person, like we all saw, you know his real heat videos and the dark fest stuff and hitting that quarter pipe at dark fest and those ridiculous whips but seeing that in person and just how long he would have the bike leaned over for or how long he would be hung out there with that whip and holding it and just like pretty much at the very last minute sometimes even landing like sideways just absolutely mental yeah.

Scott I mean i you know i feel like a little kid sometimes like i get just crazy stoked out and inspired watching these guys almost to the point where like you know it's i just can't get enough of it i just want to sit there and hang out and watch and just kind of you know be a fan but i also want to be part of it too so on to the next thing man let's figure out what we're doing next you know green river classic.

Dale Right right well so on sunday when we were in california you got to go to your uh buddy's backyard yeah dan's house yeah dan iso my man yeah and he had like just the most sick set of BMX trails back there. And they're so compact. And I was like, how the hell is Scott going to hit any of this? And eventually you found a line into the quarter pipe over the spine. But that was kind of cool. And that was when I think you talk about big bike BMX stuff, i think that was the perfect example of trying that out.

Scott And getting a big bike to work on.

Dale Those smaller features.

Scott Yeah it's interesting because certain setups don't work like you know i've tried to ride quarter pipes on my big bike like my downhill and it just doesn't really work but a quarter pipe to a bank you know that definitely works and you see the moto guys doing it right like colby raha and stuff just blasting out on the x games but um yeah his setup was perfect now i've been looking for something like that in fact we tried to build something like that down the trails and a bunch of uh you know sarong kids came and had some fun and dug them up so um yeah it's it's hard too because the stuff i want to do requires stuff that most people a would never hit b want to build c it requires land and patience and time and money and stuff so um that's a big reason i travel too so much you know i and here in austin we're getting you know people the crew the groups out here are so amazing i mean we have best side we have rpr um you know we have freeride 512 uh there's so many amazing spots to ride and the stuff's getting bigger man there's an appetite for it too and i feel like bentonville is really really really cool and it does a lot of the mountain biking stuff great i feel like not only does texas do mountain biking well but the freeride scene is is starting to really grow i just have a funny feeling we're going to be a destination for not just mountain biking but freeride here what do are we missing.

Dale What are we missing what needs.

Scott To happen jumps 70.

Brooks Foot jumps yeah i think bentonville has been extremely influential like around the world um because every time it comes up and around here it's like what should we build like oh well there's this section in bentonville.

Scott Where they.

Brooks Have this trail and they build like this and we should do something like that, and i hear that all the time and it's it's awesome that um they have all that and they have that we're you know learning from them.

Scott Yeah and rightfully so man they you know they do it it really well. And, um, you know, I was lucky enough to hang out with some of the YT guys at the gym, um, before bike fest, they built out, um, a line on Griffin loops property and dude, they were really, really big jumps. Uh, and they were built incredibly well. And I think, I think since YT has opened a mill out there, they want to kind of bring some of the bigger stuff to Bentonville and I hope they do. Um, that, that line was amazing. It kind of showed maybe Bentonville there's a appetite for stuff like that oh.

Dale Yeah and with people like Joe Skoda.

Scott And Bobby.

Dale Are you know working on getting some of that big stuff.

Scott The boys yeah doing their thing yeah so.

Brooks Speaking of YT you ride YT how.

Scott Many YT.

Brooks Bikes do you have.

Scott Uh, including my wife's.

Brooks Sure.

Scott I think seven.

Brooks Oh my goodness.

Scott I think seven. One's, one's a dirt jumper that I'm going to sell. Cause I bought a same one, different color. Cause I like color. Um, yeah, I mean, you know, I ride YTs because when I was kind of looking at, you know, everybody I saw who's doing this stuff, I wanted to do spinning big bikes, bar spins, tail whips, all that stuff. They're always on a YT. And, um, I mean, i didn't have a lot of money i didn't have ten thousand dollars for a yeti those are amazing pivots are amazing stuff but they're very very expensive and like you know also i wanted multiple bikes i wanted downhill i wanted a trail bike i wanted a dirt jumper and um seeing all those guys just do what i wanted to do and also have it be more on the affordable side like yt just made sense to me and the funny thing about yt is and i don't know this is gonna sound but they're not like bikes that you get on. You're like, Oh, this is nice ride. Um, when I first got it, I was like, you know, I was on my diamond back for what, three years. And I, you know, it's a bike you just get on pedal around and it feels good.

Brooks That was a four C right?

Scott Uh, five C.

Brooks Five C. Yeah.

Scott Thank you. Diamondback and Seth for hooking me up with the bike. Cause I, you know, I don't know if it would have stuck if I didn't have a bike to ride. Um, but yeah, when I get on the YT, it's kind of just like, Oh, okay. Like I have to, you have to, I have to be aware and more an attack position i mean every bike they make even the scepter which is their gravel bike is made with downhill in mind um and then the moment you get it into a place you need you're like okay that's why they build it that way like you know that bike the bigger the jump the bigger the gap is when it feels better and better and better better so um yeah man i'm you know love those bikes i.

Brooks Just got a my first yt is a scepter but uh it's not built up yet i actually just Just got a message from Wes on the way here. They got my parts. So I'm excited to get that put together and start riding it.

Scott It's such a cool bike.

Brooks It's just, there's been so much rain here lately. And it just, I guess they're crazy. You know, I can't go ride my bike and like any other bike for when it's raining. Yeah.

Scott I keep telling Taylor that my wife, that we need a scepter and a decoy, the e-bike and all of them.

Brooks Just get the whole thing.

Scott And luckily for me, she's like, yeah, we do. And I'm like, okay, wait, I can't be that irresponsible. Like I'm talking her out of it. So I'm very lucky in that regard.

Dale So then what's your favorite primary bike basically? And what's the build?

Scott Oh, my, uh, two S the downhill with the single crown. Um, I always want to be as prepared as i can for whatever craziness you guys we went out on a little ride today at brushy creek i'm in full face helmet fully padded up ready to go i found some stuff to get into but like you know the idea is who knows what i'm going to come across what i'm going to see you know we're taking a little trail ride i see a drop off a bridge i'm like okay i'm going to do that sort of thing like so if i could ride my downhill bike everywhere i absolutely would i rode around walnut creek once and some dude was like downhill bike what's wrong with you like he got offended bended downhill bikes are polarizing to people sometimes not really not just at walnut creek little trails but like i don't know you show up at a downhill bike and people are like do you need all that and it's like well i expect to you know even carson.

Dale Storch was like what are you doing bro when we went to the my.

Scott Downhill bike at the clinic and.

Dale How many miles did we ride that day.

Scott Oh my god yeah i was i was cooked by the end of that single speed it's set up single speed we're riding from From Bentonville Bike Fest grounds all the way to Kohler.

Dale Yeah, the hub. To drop the hammer. Did all that climb trail, single speed.

Scott I'm like, Carson, I want a 360, the jump here. And he's like, these are not the jumps of 360. I'm like, okay, sir. But yeah, I have all sorts of wild ideas. And, you know, thank you, Dale, for always saying like, okay, yeah, sure. That could be possible. Let's get the camera out.

Dale Hell yeah.

Scott You know.

Brooks Let's do it.

Scott You know, I work a corporate job. So I always have people like, don't get a concussion, don't break a bone. And like, I don't do well with naysayers. Shout out to my friend, Mikey Leplow. He's a BMXer, you know, rode on mutiny and he hated naysayers. And like, you know, I take inspiration from very strong people a lot of times. And he used to just straight up just freak out on anybody who said, you know, maybe you shouldn't. He's like, don't second guess me. Don't be a naysayer. Don't be a hater. um so yeah you know keeping your mind right on stuff like this is super important dude.

Dale That helped me out today when you were like oh it's fun like when we were doing um mulligan.

Scott Yeah yeah the big rock i was.

Dale Afraid to go commit on it and you're like actually it's kind of fun it's.

Scott Kind of fun like.

Dale Oh okay well in that case.

Scott Yeah i mean you know a lot of visualization a lot of positive thinking a lot of like you know don't just just trust yourself sort of stuff but i mean some of the stuff that i've been lucky enough to roll up to in the past year or two you know like that 12 foot lip at dylan's trails i'm like yeah geez man um yeah.

Dale I was going through your mind looking down that line and working through it i.

Scott Should have hit it already and i should have tricked it and that's before i felt you know jumped off the first drop like for me i i know i feel like i can if i can see it i can do it and i just kind of get on myself like why haven't you done it yet you got this like don't don't hesitate but everything that was big it's a huge yeah big big jump man but that's what i'm you know it's hard here's a here's the thing about freeride that's really tough all the stuff that i say i want to do and feel like i want to do i won't get to do until i if i'm ever lucky enough to show up and look down the barrel of a 76 you know 80 90 foot jump. I don't know until I'm there. Right. So like, imagine, I would say like, Oh God, I'd love to ride dark fest. Imagine I showed up dark fest tomorrow, looking at 110 foot jump. Like, would I do that? I like to think yes, but I mean, it's, it's a confidence game, you know, a lot of this. So I'm just trying to travel around, get into as much as I can. Like, that's why I'm looking forward to green river this year. I had no idea what to expect last year. I saw the biggest stuff I've ever seen, you know, um, the shot to, you know, Aiden parish, just, standing right next to him as he no fruity cannon cannon and suicide no hander like a 50 60 foot drop and i literally stood at the top of it and just went there's no landing and i was like yeah it's over there all the way down there i was like no it's not possible there's no way and then just right past me and i was just at first i said he's insane no one should ever do this this is this is absurd and then i was like it's doable so i mean a big part of freeride is like it lets me challenge much myself and kind of see what I'm, I'm capable of too. So yeah, man, it's, it's reinvigorated everything.

Brooks It's funny how quickly your mind changes on that kind of thing.

Scott Dude, you have no idea. I, uh, you know, I, I want to, you know, flip, I want to do flip variations, flat spins, tail whips, bar spins. Um, I've had success varying degrees with all of those tricks. Like, you know, at first I'm like, no, I'm good. Just ride and enjoy in life. Next thing you know, know i'm just a dead man tricks everywhere like yeah it changes real quick i'm ambitious so.

Brooks So you guys just got back from bike fest as well.

Scott How did that go.

Brooks What was that like experience like.

Scott And bike fest is always amazing all the bentonville people are really cool um usually i get to see my guys at loam lander uh there every year they weren't able to make it this year um but it was amazing nonetheless so i mean think about it man it's bentonville in the first place sure and then you have a million people all like-minded people gathered uh you know for the for the right reasons i guess it's free so anybody can go and then there's just a million people just trying to get rad like it was incredible dale what'd you think man oh.

Dale I thought it was sick um like the yt mill grand opening that was kind of neat i guess.

Scott That was fun it.

Dale Was cool to go to to Bentonville and have like so many, um, industry people there and kind of like the bike celebrities and stuff like that. And that was a neat experience, I guess. Maybe, um, if you really want to ride and everything, that's not the best weekend to go.

Scott It's so crowded.

Dale Yeah, totally crowded. Uh, but I think for the experience and just the people watching aspect of it and yeah, it was really neat. Um, what was your favorite part of it? Do you think?

Scott Um i don't really know honestly man it's just so for me it's never really one thing it's the whole experience it's getting coffee at onyx or at heroes beforehand um you know just hang with the crew it's going out to dinner at night i like that as much as as the riding um but drop the hammer was especially fun this time yeah you know i was just trying to throw down on it throw down as many tricks as possible this time so i was feeling good it was fun what was it like.

Dale Uh what What was it like doing the YT dirt jump jam and everything?

Scott Real talk? Yeah. Freaky. Yeah. It's freaky. You know, I show up and it's me, a couple other guys who are rad, who I, you know, don't really know. And then every pro ever. And I'm looking at, you know, Carson Storch and Kyle Strait and just, you know, Dylan Stark and all these guys. And I'm like, these guys are unbelievable. I don't, what am I doing here? here. So I just try and show up, do the best I can. But it was, it was the most rewarding experience. Like, like for me, that that's what I love. I love going to things. People don't aren't, you have to be lucky to go to stuff like that. And for me, I feel very fortunate to get to do that. And it just, it makes my whole life. That's, that's what I look forward to. Like, you know, shout out to Seth for letting me do this Whistler thing back in 2018. Like that was amazing like who gets to do that that's crazy yeah you know so yeah the yt gem was was incredible everybody's super nice um good to see a couple people again um you know talk to cal straight recognized me i was like oh my god like wow you know a little fangirling yeah big time big time and then just i just tried to show out and and just you know do well and you know earn my my place on those jumps you know just throwing down whatever i could and it was amazing yeah.

Dale I was super stoked on the rail yard session, I think, and just like running into people from Austin in Bentonville.

Scott The squad.

Dale Yeah. And like we knew a lot of folks were going to be there the same weekend, but there are some surprises too.

Brooks Yeah. I think that happened even when we were there, like the whole time we were there, we're bumping into people from Austin.

Dale Yeah. Like one of our homies from South Austin, he used to ride a lot of like South Austin Trail Network on single speed, Jason Smith. He moved to Bentonville. He got a job at Fat Tire. And so Clint had to get his bike fixed. We needed a chain. And so we went into Fat Tire. And he was the first person we saw when we went into Fat Tire. We were like, hey, Jason, what's up? And so we had a long conversation with him. That was pretty cool. But then, yeah, just seeing so many people. Like we went into the YT mill for the grand opening. And I saw Bobby from.

Brooks Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dale Yeah.

Scott Bobby Parker.

Dale So he was no no bobby uh bobby badelic uh from oh from i.

Brooks Was gonna say bobby parker works there too now.

Dale Yeah no from austin and like i look up and uh on the second floor there's somebody wearing this shirt actually dude.

Scott How cool was that.

Dale That was like the sickest thing and i was like wait what and i was like oh shit it's bobby and uh i was like oh that's so sick um so yeah just it was like the whole mtv family was up there in bentonville for that week.

Brooks I think they think about austinites the same way that austinites think about californians.

Dale I'm sure of it yeah.

Scott Oh it's so funny.

Brooks And then uh you want to talk about the the weather event you experienced there.

Dale Yeah there was a weather event that's for sure um dale.

Scott Saved our lives.

Dale Yeah well we were lucky uh clinton and i were up late um we both are kind of like night owls and uh so we were up for a while on the back patio just hanging out and we saw the lightning coming in this was maybe like 1 30, and so we're like oh so it looks like it's probably gonna rain tonight and then all of a sudden we hear these sirens going off like what the hell are those tornado sirens and like it's clearly tornado sirens but they're off in the distance and everything so they weren't super loud it's.

Scott Just got that spooky drone to it.

Dale Yeah spooky drone long drawn out and everything and uh and so we were like well that's interesting and so i went back in the house to grab my phone look for weather alerts and when i went inside over the air conditioning in the house you could like you couldn't even hear the tornado sirens so if we were already in bed sleeping, we wouldn't have known yeah i was sleeping yeah and i wasn't getting local alerts uh for weather either i was still is still thinking i was in austin apparently and so i had to get it set so that it was actually thinking I was in Bentonville and I would get the local alerts. And so I got the tornado warning. I was like, oh, apparently there's a tornado warning for Bentonville. And then a little while later, we got another warning that was like pretty targeted. It was like precise location sort of thing, you know.

Scott It actually said our Airbnb number on it.

Dale Right, you will die. Yeah, and so, you know, we're stubborn for a bit, just kind of looking out the window. and um, kind of just seeing what was going to happen and then i think once the rain band started going literally like sideways and like branches were hitting the side of the house we're like all right it's probably time to seek shelter and so we knocked on their door woke them up, huddled in the bathroom and no sooner than we got in the bathroom we hear this boom and um you can tell like there's wind starting to buffet at my bedroom door and everything and the window just blew in, like, I guess just from the air pressure and everything. And so grabbed all my camera gear out of there really quick. Uh, probably shouldn't have fussed with any of that, but it did. And, uh, I would have. Yeah. Well, yeah. And, uh, so got all the camera gear out there, threw it in the bathroom with us. And, uh, and then just, we kind of wrote it out and, uh, Clint was smart enough to like put the pane of glass, like back up against the windowsill and prop it in with like a broomstick. so it kept the room from getting like too too badly soaked but by the time it was over like everything was soaked in there um the neighborhood was just screwed up like the neighbor's house had a tree on it every.

Scott House had a tree on it.

Dale Yeah the car across the street had a tree on it yeah and the people across the street they're um in town for bike fest i think there were some other folks on the street as well for bike fest and so like there's obviously a lot of airbnbs in the the area and our friends were there too they had rentals and we were getting texts from them um and then we were also watching brett tippy and dylan were live streaming from aaron ross's airbnb there they're like we'll try to save the airbnb aaron and uh and so that was like kind of comic relief for the whole thing like i probably would have been a little bit more nervous if it wasn't for the fact that like so many of our homies were experiencing this exact same situation that we that we were going through. But a couple of the folks were like way worse than we were. they um jackie and kevin's airbnb like their whole uh guest room they.

Scott Sent me a photo it's just water.

Dale Coming in crushed by a tree and then um and then austin's airbnb they had like branches sticking through the ceiling of the living room and their entire back patio was uh knocked down by a tree and before we were even able to leave on sunday we had to actually um chainsaw this huge tree at the, up at the top of the road. And so it was like kind of weird, but yeah, it is, um, that, I mean, 39 years of getting tornado warnings in Austin and I've never really paid much attention to them. And then this was the first time it actually mattered and we could tell like, and the next day the helicopter was flying, what I assume would be the storm damage path. It was like a block and a half away from where we were.

Scott Yeah. When Dale, Dale's like get in the bathroom, tornado. nato i was like oh okay it's just gonna be a little windy and i opened the door and just like absolute pandemonium and i was like oh thank you so much dale yeah but yeah the homies kind of you know all the homies being out there like some of the guys are posting like there's a million ticks out apparently they were calling tick nato and stuff like that like so it was a really tough situation for a lot of people but you know i i talked to some of the people at bike fest and And everybody seems to be doing good and volunteering and getting to trails back. And, you know, everybody's feeling, from what I can tell, like, you know, banding together over there. So, scary stuff. But, I mean, you know, they're resilient.

Dale Yeah. And I wonder, too, like, well, I doubt it's going to change much. But I did see, like, on Reddit, after the tornado came through and everything, some of the locals were, like, questioning how many Airbnbs are in the area. And if it's good for the community, because typically in like a situation like that, the community bands together and helps each other out, helps each other recover. Like you got a house or a tree in your house and your neighbors might help you out. Right. But there are no neighbors in Bentonville. They live in another state. And so you might never actually see them. You know, you'll only ever see the insurance adjusters out there and then whatever construction crews are going to do, whatever they got to do. And so, um, I think there was kind of like this, um, realization from this storm for some of the locals that there is not much of a robust locals community there and that there's a lot of tourism stuff, but I don't know if it necessarily matters to us down here in Austin, but it was something that I thought was kind of interesting.

Scott It is interesting. Yeah.

Brooks Uh, anywhere else you've been riding lately? Yeah.

Scott Um, local or like kind of.

Brooks Or like trips. Yeah.

Scott Dale, I'm, I have no memory for this man. Where did I go last? Was it green river classic with my last trip?

Dale Yeah. I think before, um, before we went to California, you had gone to green river classic. Yeah.

Scott That was a amazing trip. So trying to get back this year, hopefully, you know, you can go.

Dale Yeah. I would love to.

Scott I mean, a little side note. Um, I'm always curious about your perspective, Dale. Cause like, you know, we've gone on trips, you know, doing filming and stuff like, you know, what's your favorite part of coming out and lugging a camera around and, you know, getting to see, you know, other people ride or maybe try and film me do some crazy stuff.

Dale I mean, I've always felt like I've lived vicariously through people. You know, there's a lot of things that I think it would be sick to be able to do, but I can't do myself. And, and so it's neat to be able to tell stories about that sort of stuff and, um, and be able to be like right there. And I, plus I've never really been like afraid of, um, I mean, I'm shy myself. I don't really necessarily like to be on camera. Um, but I've also never been like afraid to stick a camera in someone famous's face and ask them questions or something like that. Um, I just like talking to people and finding out what people think about things and tell the story. And so, yeah, that's, that's, what's fun for me. Um, is is just getting out and finding ways to uh tell stories and also to get sick shots like i think it's neat to try to up the game just like you're trying to up your riding game up up the shooting and get like better shots cooler looking shots like the shot that clint did today that was cool he was following you with the phone like that's really sick that one i sent you where they use two different vehicles to do like a follow cam sort of thing that's really sick and then there's the technology aspect of it it's like a big legos kit sort of and so you get to play around with gear which is always sick um but yeah i think and and just being able to go to cali and kind of travel with you and um see that whole side um i think that's pretty cool yeah.

Scott It's super fun man i always have these ideas that we're going to be doing a shoot for something one day you're gonna have a glide clan glide cam and a budget of red bull budget or something.

Dale You know but like you.

Scott Know we always send each other videos to commence all you know videos where they do a really good job or the yt.

Dale Videos um.

Scott And i always love the behind the scenes like the braga video like for his x games real mtb part i don't.

Dale Know if you guys saw.

Scott The behind the scenes i know you did.

Dale Yeah but.

Scott Like that's the stuff to get me gets me even more stoked um. Little side note, one thing that's kind of funky about freeride, and it's a big reason I like to travel and try and meet people. I don't know if the freeriders out there who are successful, see it the same way I do, but suspension's confusing. Um, you know, all these crazy tricks on big bikes, like, you know, it's, it is a huge learning curve. At least there is for me, like huge. It took me, I don't know, maybe I'm just slow, but it took me three years to realize what freeride was. Um, you know, I want to pick people's brains. I want people to, you know, help. I'm always like asking a million questions of people. Um, I mean, let's put it this way. I've been trying to figure out how to set my suspension up for big stuff for a long time. Uh, did a clinic with Kyle straight. He got on my bike. He goes, this is way harder than I'd ride it. Even at rampage. I looked at Kyle. I was like, dude, this is embarrassing. I took like 30 PSI out last night. Cause I had a feeling you'd say that he's like, dude, what are you doing? Um, so, you know, a big part of traveling for me is love, you know, like, and you leveling up and just trying to figure this whole thing out. And I know you and I have been talking about maybe doing a video, um, starting, starting to film some dead man, freaking street spots and craziness and builds and stuff like that. But, you know, for me, I appreciate you coming, coming along and, you know, having similar visions that I do. And, and you're awesome to film with too, man. Cause I'm like, Oh, I messed up one more time, one more time, one more time, a million times. You're just like, dude, you got it. You got it. You got it. So, um, yeah, it's.

Dale It's fun to, it's fun to film. I mean, it's fun to work with you. Um, like it was cool going to California and I mean, I'll see some of the features and maybe I'll keep my mouth shut cause I don't want to, you know, I want to be positive and stoke you up. But thank you. You know, when we get to Dylan Stark's little bandit venue there for the four 20 jam and I'm looking at these features, I'm like, holy shit. Yeah. This is insane. And, uh, and then like the natural dirt step up when we went over and looked at that. And it was kind of like, I could tell that you had set it in your mind. Like, that's okay. That's the warmup. That's the first thing that you're going to hit. And I'm looking at, I'm like, that's the first thing you're going to hit. That's insane. And it was just so huge. And then, yeah, you dropped right into it and hit it and cleaned it and it was like oh okay well we're set here we're cooking now and and then everything else looked relatively cool you know i was like all right scott's got this you know he'll he'll have to work through it but um yeah i think it's funny like the the crux kind of ended up being that long and low after all dude the.

Scott 30 foot hip long and low or whatever it was that thing was it was scarier than the big 12 foot lip.

Dale Yeah sometimes.

Scott The things you don't expect set up jumps, you know.

Dale I'm sure you feel like pressure when you're about to roll into that stuff too, especially when it's like around other athletes and everything. And you got other people's, I mean, you got like Bender is out there announcing everybody rolling in, you know? And so you got Josh Bender freaking announcing you as you jump into this line.

Scott In the past two months, I've had Josh Bender and Brett Tippie announcing me as I'm riding, like, you know, jams, whatever. It's not like, it's not like, but, oh my God. Right. Like, you know, I want to say childhood me is freaking out, but me as of, you know, when I learned about these guys three years ago is freaking out as I'm riding. It's, you know, but I love it. I love that sort of pressure does it for me too.

Dale Yeah.

Scott So, yeah, it's, it's, it's wild and it's kind of scary. It's nerve wracking, but it's also like the best feeling, at least for me.

Brooks Well, it's an interesting time we're in where you don't have to be like the greatest sports anything to make money doing sports because you can just like make very short videos and upload to social media and be successful that way. You can get sponsors that way. Like they don't care if you're an amazing writer. They just care that you're showcasing the brand and the people are watching your videos.

Scott I love that personally. personally i mean like there's so many people with very different viewpoints and uh you know whether you're like a comedy you know tiktoker or instagram guy or you know you're one of those guys who can do all the crazy tricks in the world or maybe you're just on a journey you know like hey i'm i'm trying to you know figure out how to do cooler stuff and set up my bike like i don't know i love i love help and information i i benefit from that a lot so it's cool it's not it's not like it used to be. Like I always looked at NBA and everybody's trying to shoot the same shot or football there, you know, there's creativity in it, but to a point, right? Baseball creativity, but to a point, um, you know, I was, I always saw like Scotty Pippen. I used to watch the bulls back in the day, Jordan Pippen. And he took the ball, like he was on the sidelines and he had to pass the ball in and he bounced it off somebody's back and took it in back in himself. I'm like that little bit of creativity is what really did it for me. And, um, if we were all focusing on the best rider i feel like it'd become homogenized right yeah uh bmx has an underground right now that's a lot of really cool creative riding but the kind of pro level the the people making money at contests they're doing a lot of the same stuff like it's just one more tailwhip triple tailwhips 360 triple tailwhips backflip double tailwhips right um i'm really i feel really happy that social media allows for all the different creativity and different approaches which is to our sport and the fun behind it. Even the people who are in vans, you know, showing off their vans so you can go out and ride and not have to ride a corporate job. Like to me, that's just as valuable as seeing somebody do a 60 foot drop or, you know, whatever other cool, you know, thing a mountain biker would do.

Dale I think people are just looking for genuine characters that resonate with them too. You know, like even if you're not the best, if they see a little bit of themselves in you, then you're their new favorite writer. Like those kids when we were at RPR, you know, and they were like, they're your freaking biggest fans. They're like, you're the best writer ever. And you're hitting that quarter pipe. They're like, yo.

Scott It's funny you say that, man. I've always said I love characters. I guess maybe it's just me growing up being kind of on the shyer side as a kid. like i love people who aren't afraid to just be themselves and be wacky and be interesting and you know um being an individual is amazing i always tried to kind of blend into the background so i take a lot of inspiration from those people so yeah characters man um i mean just it just makes the world that much richer well.

Brooks What i was i was getting is that you know you guys could work together and and start a business if you really wanted to.

Scott Okay talk to me i mean.

Dale Investment tips with bro.

Scott I was just saying you know.

Brooks You could be a pro rider and that wouldn't necessarily mean that you're you know racing or competing or any kind of competitions but you know just like making videos and putting them online and getting sponsorships and look at matt.

Dale Jones the guy can't even fakey and.

Brooks He's out.

Scott There he's.

Dale Everybody's favorite writer.

Scott Yeah but he could do everything but i know i'm just kidding i'm.

Dale Just kidding don't at me matt.

Scott But but no you're right you're right um and that that's a really cool thing and that's something that i mean it's It's a dream. You really have to be something special for that to work though. I mean, I think there's more money in mountain biking than there is in BMX, but I still don't think there's a lot of money where people can make, unless you're the upper echelon, unless you're like, I don't know how well normal mountain biker does, but I imagine he does pretty well in social media or, you know, Christian Pepper. I think he rides full time. He's got a family. He has to be, you know, living well enough to support his family. But yeah, that's, that's the dream. If you have any ideas.

Brooks Well, I'm just saying, you don't have to be like crazy good. you just have to make a lot of videos and post them often you know what i mean you're right that's the key to if you wanted to to kind of monetizing that uh that path if.

Scott You have any suggestions for how to actually monetize that path let me know.

Brooks I mean it just comes with it's like all things and you know social media and youtube and all that kind of stuff is people it starts with a passion and you have to do it and you have to do it a lot and you have to care about it um and it might take years and years but eventually you know you amass a certain size following and then you hear from corporate people and they want to put their name in your videos and then again you know they don't care if you're the best rider in the world they just care that people are seeing their brand now.

Scott You're right you know i see people sponsored by like i guess ford right like the bronco and stuff like that like um who would have thought of that yeah outdoor lifestyle browns and stuff like that yeah so, Get at me, Ford.

Brooks All right, we got some community questions here. So Jason Carney asks, Fufanu or Abubka?

Scott Abubka.

Brooks I'm glad you knew what that was.

Scott I say Abubka because, you know, coming back in fakie seems harder, but when you're going to stall on your back tire in the coping, I don't want to turn around and flip over. Yeah, Abubka.

Dale That was probably the best question on the list right there.

Brooks Yeah.

Scott Thanks, Jason. You're the man.

Brooks Dale asked, mayo or Miracle Whip?

Dale Oh my God.

Scott Do I have to pick? Can I say mustard or horseradish?

Dale Yeah.

Scott I'm a mustard guy, man.

Dale Absolutely. I don't know how that question ended up on the paper.

Scott Definitely mayo.

Brooks You posted it.

Scott Definitely mayo. Dude, I've been on a health journey trying to get myself in shape for lots of endeavors and shenanigans.

Brooks Well, that's good because that's our next question from Ray Frazier is, what is your training regimen if any.

Scott Man okay so i started taking help more seriously probably about a year and a half two years ago um dealing with old injuries dealing with some injuries that keep cropping up um and just not performing the way i want to like like i said i have uh aspirations so, started working with a bunch of personal trainers um they just kept injuring me uh eventually found on this doctor named Dr. Sam LaCroix. He's at the whole athlete and he's amazing. I haven't been hurt from any of my old injuries since I started working with him. So I'm in the gym night after night. Um, I do cardio rides. I do walks to kind of help myself, um, deal with some of that stuff. And, uh, yeah, so I'm, I'm locking in. I'm meal prep my, well, my wife meal preps for me. Thank you, Taylor. Cause I'm so scatterbrained, but yeah, I eat two meal preps per day. And then, And, you know, whatever she's having for dinner, if it's not something healthy, I'm meal prepping again. So, working, I'm down quite a bit of weight. I'm getting stronger. I'm not getting hurt as much. The old injuries aren't bothering me. So, yeah, I'm full on. But Dr. Sam is amazing.

Brooks Excellent. Next question is from Lionel Hernandez. And it's the obligatory question, is clipless or flats? Clipless.

Scott I used to joke, if you, if I ever, you ever see me clips, just push me off a cliff, um, you know, but, but I'm developing appreciation for other things. I probably will never ride clips in my life, but I mean, you know, you said you just got a gravel grinder. Clint, Clint, uh, Cactus Flats Newman used to talk about, you know, riding his gravel grinder. And I'm just like, dude, I can't imagine it. Now I can imagine it, you know, I'm, but I'm also seeing like the, the health aspect of riding too. And, you know, I want to live a long time. so maybe if i get a gravel grinder do you clip in on those i.

Dale Don't clip in on anything.

Scott I'm never clipping in i follow what dale says i'm not a graceful person i.

Dale Have no balance clips would probably kill me.

Scott Yeah i'd probably end up clint clint.

Dale Rides trail clipped in.

Scott Yeah i will no flats all day ddt max on every bike i ride yeah.

Dale Uh specifically flats that have most of their pedal pins just falling out so no traction.

Brooks Yeah i mean i like i like flats just because is you really need to be for what we're doing you know is to be able to get your foot off quickly.

Scott Yeah um.

Brooks But yeah definitely if i'm on gravel or road or whatever um i definitely run clipless for that um there is like an extra some extra efficiency there um it's also like your foot is constantly in exactly the right position so yeah that's you know like trying to constantly move your foot around to get it in.

Scott The right position the right tool for the job yeah little side note is kind of odd um i always felt uncomfortable on my pedals every pedal bmx pedals mountain bike pedals until i got the ddt max they're gigantic size 13 foot yeah game changer yeah absolute game changer for me i'm.

Brooks The same way um i mean hands and feet i wear double xl gloves and i still rip them because they're too small.

Scott Dang man wow yeah yeah the right tool for the right job i mean i'm neurotic about bike setup i don't take care of my bike at all but if something's off, I can't, I can't ride.

Brooks Uh wdz our wdz howard asked flour or corn oh.

Scott Flour all day i've only had corn tortillas once that i liked i know they're traditional this was like a traditional place it was amazing but not the best mexican food ever flour.

Brooks But you deal oh yeah flour yeah team flour all around nice.

Scott I should have asked.

Brooks Um brian preston asks how much did the bmx background lend to doing higher level tricks and skills when transitioning to MTB. Do you think you'd be where you are skill wise without that background?

Scott No, I don't think so at all. BMX is, is huge for, for tricks. I mean, think about the nature of the bike. I mean, it's tiny, you have to control everything. So mountain bikes, they're not easy to control and they're very grounded. They're big bikes, big wheels. I still try and ride my mountain bike like a BMX, but I also have that reference point. And I also had a ton of tricks that I get to bring over. Adapting them has not been too hard. Can-cans are a little different, higher top tube, you know, knack-knack, stuff like that. But for the most part, to be honest, I find the tricks easier on the mountain bike just because maybe it's because I'm a bigger guy and I feel like the bike fits me better. It always used to take me, excuse me, it used to take me like an hour to warm up on my BMX bike, just, but I don't think I've ever had a BMX bike that actually fit me. um but yeah the the bmx background will help like crazy um get a bmx bike find a fly out and just and just start throwing tricks and then you can just bring it to your mountain bike super easy i.

Brooks Actually did get one and i i couldn't do it man it's just.

Scott Crazy right too small.

Brooks It's too twitchy um but i think the the dj is a good middle ground for me.

Scott Dj is definitely a good middle ground yeah really good and something funny that i heard i'm curious if you guys agree, someone said that uh djs are really good because it's near impossible to go from like a full-size mountain bike to a bmx in the same day without taking like hours to get acclimated but you can go from a mountain bike to a dj or a dj to a bmx back and forth um but yeah it'd be very difficult to go from like a bmx to a mountain bike or vice versa yeah it's interesting right djs are great though i'm still trying to figure out djs they i don't know if it's a mountain bike or bmx and it literally scrambles my brain every single time it.

Brooks Is neither it is.

Dale I my my uh i've always heard it described as a mountain bike so.

Scott Me too yeah also all the real mtb parts people were on dirt jumpers and i was i don't know why i was surprised it's cool there are mountain bikes but i was i was surprised to see that i guess they are technically mountain bikes yeah.

Brooks I mean i always explain it in the way that like mountain bikes you know you're, most of the time you're just cruising down the trail right and you might have a feature here and there that you play around with. But when you're on BMX, that's like literally the only thing you do. There's no trail to ride. You just do tricks the whole time.

Scott That's exactly right. I mean, it's the whole point of it, right? As long as you're not, you know, it's not actual BMX racing. Yeah. You're, you're riding jumps, you're riding street or park or not to me, people ride flatland, but still that's focused around tricks and proficiency on the bike. So yeah, BMXs are, are definitely helped me immensely. Um, I did get on my bmx recently and i was just like this thing is so small i couldn't ride it but i do want to build one up um yes definitely gonna build one up.

Brooks Um so chris armstrong asks without context hard or soft go.

Scott Hard every day based.

Dale On your suspension setup too i would have to say that's accurate.

Scott Yes i.

Brooks Think we may have covered this one already but uh johnny cadenzano asks dirt Dirt jumper or full squish for progressing into bigger jumping slash tricks?

Dale That's kind of a different question.

Scott For me, full squish all day. For everybody else, I'd say dirt jumper. It's just like, I feel like there's a lot more to control. It's a lot bigger bike. Yeah. It just, for me, I feel like my downhill bike is the perfect bike. It feels like what I always wanted a BMX bike to feel like. That's why I have it set up for bar spins and tail ups and stuff. But I'm 6'3", and I just, I don't know. It feels like a... gigantic bmx bike for me for going insane um but for most people i definitely recommend dirt jumper i.

Dale Think i would i would agree i would agree with uh full squish but for like different reasons um and like i think it's i think it's stability and uh forgiveness so um on on a dj it still retains a little bit of that bmx twitchiness and so the the big bike's going to be more stable I think for a lot of people. And then when you land, you're going to have a lot more suspension and a lot more forgiveness. And so me, somebody who gets scared of big jumps, if I was to approach it and you were to say, Hey, here's two different options. You can pick the big bike or the dirt jumper. I'd be like, please give me that big bike. Um, that's interesting.

Scott I feel like you have more. So, you know, like BMXs are made for more for precision, right? I feel like for bigger jumps, having a little bit more precision, like knowing what your bike's going to do off the lip. lip because there's been plenty of times i've hit a lip on my full suspension and just gotten pitched in the strangest way because i didn't hit the preload properly or you know my back suspension the rebound is set up a little bit maybe too fast for a jump like that so i feel like you know i guess it's ch's own but i feel like the dirt jumper is more predictable um and then is it for tricks or just for you know for bigger jumps yeah.

Dale Bigger jumps bigger tricks.

Scott The other thing too is like do a can can on a bmx bike or a dirt jumper you're gonna throw your leg over on the third try on a, on a big, you know, full suspension bike. Like it's, you have to bring your knee up to your chin, kick it out. It's like, it's, it's just so different. It's bigger, but you're also kind of like more planted. It's harder for you to throw yourself around. So I think also the bike follows you when you get really good on a BMX or a dirt jumper, the bike can follow you. So if you want to lean over and throw that can-can, the bike just leans under you and throw your leg out. When you're on a mountain bike, Like it's kind of like there's a huge, it's also fighting your body. So I don't know.

Dale I think if you're talking about like progressing, which that kind of is, your point, you know, holds water because you get a lot of that like finer control. And I guess maybe you don't learn bad habits. You don't pick up big habits on the full suspension. um but yeah if you were to just say dump dump me in front of a big jump and say here's two different bikes you can pick for this what are you going to pick that makes sense that full squish yeah yeah uh.

Brooks Lee compton asks toilet paper rolls in or out.

Scott In is wrong out for sure incorrect underhanded fashion i will change i'm not like ocd about many things this i will change it i.

Dale Think the simpsons answered this question.

Scott Really yeah they said out right yes yes yeah the the.

Dale Underhanded fashion was incorrect.

Brooks Okay so the correct answer is out yes all right uh.

Scott Last question last.

Brooks Question i have um and then i think you have some more on on instagram um chris would ask top three bike parks in america.

Scott I've only been to whistler trestle angel fire i think those are the only ones i've been to um, dude i mean okay so take this a grain of salt whistler is much more suited to what i'm looking for um the first time i went was all about jumping had an absolute blast the second time i went um Um, I went with Seth and Alex single track sampler and we, it was, it was raining. I was glad I was with them because they showed me about tech and I fell in love with tech at that point. Um, when I went to Trestle and Angel Fire, there were a bunch of good jumps, but I was looking for tech. Maybe I was looking for the wrong thing. Um, but somebody described it as these parks are fun because you want to go as fast as you can. Like that, that's your goal. Um, I don't look to go fast necessarily. Speed doesn't do it for me. um you know flirted with the idea of racing under mtb atx and i think we're gonna get some races going on if we.

Dale Can stop getting injured.

Scott Dude but um yeah i think uh i think whistler whistler and whistler for me um you know those other parks are awesome i i probably would love them if i focused on the jumps at that time well.

Brooks Did it ask specifically about america u.s.

Scott Oh dang um Um.

Dale Oh, that's right.

Scott Oh, free ride. Sorry.

Brooks For sure. I like that one. Yeah.

Scott Station mountain for sure. Uh, no state station mountains. Great. Cause it focused on jumping. Um, I love riding spider. Uh, you know, the thing about spider too, is like for me learning how to handle the bike in more of like a race scenario, it's, it's perfect. It's got everything I need. So I guess, what can I say? Station spider for sake of argument.

Dale Let's call the bike park at Reveille Peak, a bike park too. Where does that fit into the question?

Scott Number one.

Dale Yeah. Number one.

Scott I love, I love RPR. Yeah. Even before they built all that, when I first went there, it's just something about the vibes and the dirt. And it's just always been one of my favorite place feels really soothing to me. So I, you know, having all those really cool features, it's just, that's where I get in my like, you know, Zen place. And I could just ride there all day. Even if just a trail, I love the trails out there too, but yeah, the freeride stuff. So yeah, RPR, RPR is awesome.

Brooks All right, what do you got next?

Scott I got a couple things from Instagram. Which is cool. Somehow Luca abruptly said, what inspires you? That's a tough question to answer, man.

Brooks It's a loaded question for sure.

Scott Yeah. I don't know how to answer that. I think that maybe being able to hang with the people who I look up to inspires me. I'm working to get better and better on the bike and the journey, it's not the destination necessarily, it's the journey. And I've always loved the road trip to the destination just as much, you know, when we take off for Bentonville for a weekend, like, I'm like, I'm stoked out of my mind, um, where are we stopping? You know, what are we eating? What drinks are we getting? Which Starbucks or coffee shops? So yeah, I think, uh, I think chasing it, man, just, just absolutely chasing it and then getting little wins along the way or big wins along the way. Um, that inspires me. That's, that's my favorite thing. So thank you for the question. Uh, Taylor, my wife said, how do you get your arms so far back and tuck no handers? the real answer i try them break the i try to break them off my body i literally hurt every single time i try and break them off um it usually works pretty good so good question um james trails, this is interesting if it's okay could you create awareness uh for any mountain biker considering visiting kenya uh there's bike trails oh.

Dale I follow him.

Scott Do you yeah yeah interesting guy yeah so um i see you know a single track sampler alex he goes to what peru ryan rodriguez goes somewhere overseas too um and i see some of the freeriders take trips out to more remote locations with with on you know things that have never really been ridden before and like there's a lot of different scenes going on all all over like not just like well-established scenes like you see queenstown right in new zealand and there are a lot of bike parks in europe but yeah i mean it's It's really cool to see that. So shout out to anybody listening. Kenya, go ride in Kenya. It's probably awesome. Dale, we should go to Kenya next.

Dale Okay.

Scott Yeah, man. I don't know how good it is, but.

Dale Right, right, right.

Scott Ever drunk Baileys from a shoe?

Dale Oh my God.

Scott I'm old Greg.

Dale Daniel Ricardo.

Scott That's from my man, Taylor Ernest. So good question, I think. My man, Carson Wooten. So I lived in Utah for about six months, moved out there for the riding. I moved right in the beginning of winter. It's just kind of how it worked out. I'm dumb and didn't realize Virgin's three and a half hours away. I had to go to Salt Lake because that's kind of where my office was located. So I didn't really get out to Virgin aside from when I went to Rampage. But I don't know that I am coming back to Utah to live, even though I've talked to Taylor about that a little bit. But soon, man, I'm going to get out there. I'm going to get there as soon as I possibly can. So I'll hit you up. My man, Jamin Burgess, dude. So his question is, where's the first spot you jumped a bike? He actually built some trails behind a gas station down in a town that I lived in. And they were unbelievable. Like, like they were really, really, really good. I made fast friends with him and I'm still friends with him to this day. I almost got kicked out of the trails because they said, do not walk through the gas station. You will get the trails plowed. This is before I knew anything. And I walked through the gas station one day just to get out because I was late. and uh one of the the guys named luke um i mean these guys were like the scary older kids and i think james like i don't know how much older but scary older kids and i was wearing a red beanie he goes hey little red riding hey little red riding hood get over here you're dead and i just i think i ran and i was scared to go back and every time i went back i'm like looking over my shoulder trying to jump um but yeah uh it's uh it's i don't even know the name of the trails man but that was the first place little spot in my town and then um i think that's it man that's all that's oh that's all i got.

Brooks What are your thoughts on, uh, electronic shifters and seat posts and things like that? Uh, have you tried them?

Scott Hate them and love them and never tried them. Like, it'd be really cool to be able to do, you know, the stuff I want to do, which I'm still working on, like Barsman's and tailwhips and not have to take my bike apart every time. You guys probably saw that ribbon that I have around my head tube today. That's because I took my front brake and shifter off and I mounted my shifter under the frame because I saw Dylan do it. It was a smart idea. and um just took off my front brake and now i can bar spin my trail bike just by doing that um so yeah i'd love to but i'm terrible at technology i'm terrible with bike maintenance i will never remember to charge it i will show up with my bike not functioning every single time, so it's probably not going to happen for me anytime soon i'm more of that just you know grab an allen key and modify it as best as i can and i'm a terrible bike mechanic so yeah i.

Brooks Already know but i'm gonna ask you anyway dale what do you think oh.

Dale As far as electronic yeah i'm i'm all about it yeah i mean i think a seat post is probably a little excessive i don't really need that if i could have it i would take it in a heartbeat, somebody gave it to you yeah i love my access i got it second hand for a good cost for a good price if you can find it that way that's like the easiest way to do it uh but it's a game changer just being able to mash the button and have the whole you know gear range at your disposals it It helped with climbing because I'm a terrible climber. And so that helped a lot. But yeah, I like it. I'm never going to support wireless braking if they want to do any of that stupid crap. Like always give me a mechanical connection, you know.

Scott Yeah, shifting or seat. I'm kind of hoping Brooks is like, look under your chairs. You have an electronic shifter.

Dale Who is this podcast sponsored by?

Brooks Oprah Winfrey.

Scott And oprah went for your production all.

Brooks Right uh last question for you scott uh what's next for scott smith.

Scott Dude um i i hate i hate talking about that because it's like you gotta you gotta call your shot right and you gotta put it out there it's the sort of thing where like oh okay i'm gonna you know i was talking to dale the other day or today and i'm like i'm gonna do no-handed backflips i'm gonna do flat spins bar spins tail whips by the end of this month month. And so, you know, for me, like I was trying to call my shot, but I call my shot in private a little bit. If I had my, if I had my dream, I would be able to go to invite-only competitions, big air competitions. I'd be in Freeride Fiesta, Fireride Fest, you know, the Dark Fest. Yeah, Dark Fest. Like, send me out there.

Dale Starquake 2025.

Scott Dude, yeah. I mean, that's, you know, dreams, right? Yeah. Like, 100%. So, all I can really, I'm just going to control what I can control, keep getting in better shape, and just keep on focusing on my craft, and then just hanging out and hoping that had uh you know people like hanging out with me enough to have me around and then just show out the best i can and and hopefully just have a hell of a lot of fun doing it i hope you're successful because.

Dale I'm gonna follow you around with a camera i.

Scott Think i maybe could get successful if you follow me with a camera yeah hey some crazy stuff bro because i mean teamwork i appreciate you so much hell yeah dude i mean think about it like otherwise i got a tripod and an iphone and well Well.

Dale So you already alluded to it on Instagram. So I guess what's next is making a X game style street edit, right? So we want to make a skateboarding style, BMX style, big bike in the streets, skate edit.

Brooks We do like a full length.

Dale No, no. We're going to try to follow that X games format, I think, and just do a one and a half minute, you know, get your stack, your best clips you can.

Scott Yeah.

Dale And, uh, and just put all your A grade material in there and make a nice tight, quick edit. it, maybe we can find some musicians or something to score that bad boy for us and get some OG music in it.

Scott Yeah. So I've done this before for BMX. Um, you know, I, I definitely was pushing for, for BMX and, um, um, It's my favorite thing to do. Yeah. Just like spot, just figure out spots, do builds, and then just go in and just lay down hammer after hammer as best as you possibly can. Cause it's like a, it's like a time capsule of, of where you are, the absolute best that you're capable of at that moment. And like, as you're doing it, you think about that. You're like, I can't leave, I have to put it all on the table because this is me right now. And then of course the goal is to put it out and then gear up to do something better every time. Um, so yeah, my goal is to kind of, and it's weird because as a rider, like you're like, oh yeah, you know, you have an idea of how good of a rider you are, but once you want push comes to shove and you lay it down and you put it on tape and you watch it, you're like, okay, this is where I am. This is what I got. And if I, if I feel like I need to be better time to go back to the drawing board and, and, you know, level it up again. Yeah. I love it. So I'm, I'm hoping that Dale and I can, cause it's tough for Dale too. I mean, tough for me, but like, you know, Hey Dale, I found this spot up in Lago Vista. to it's it's off on a you know i'm jumping off the roof of a building like i found out there's a building on the east side i'm going to jump off the roof all right and that's like the logistics of that showing up parking a neighborhood bringing crazy expensive camera equipment crazy expensive bikes figuring out how to get on top of the building like dale pushing me up a tree so i can climb up and throw me my bike jumping off trying not to get the the cops called on you getting the shot doing again oh i i didn't like the way i did that or hey you know i didn't quite to get the shot I wanted over and over and over again. Cool, Dale, next, you know, we're going to San Antonio for the next shot. Yeah, that'd be so. Who has time for that? Except you got to make time, right? You have to be motivated and dedicated. And like, you are so focused and I'm, you know, I try and be focused as well. And like having somebody like-minded like that, who has a passion for their craft and who wants to be something, I don't know, something exceptional, hopefully exceptional, or at least like achieve a goal. So that partnership is hugely important, man. You have no idea how much I appreciate you for, you know, staying focused with me.

Dale Oh, yeah, we'll progress together this year.

Scott I hope so, man. I got some big plans for before the end of the year.

Brooks All right. Well, any shout outs, socials, any websites, content information you want to give out?

Scott Definitely shout out to the people who support me. Deity, I'm on their Fresh Blood team. They're awesome. MTBATX, Dale. video, um, golfer USA for breaks, uh, loose riders, um, for sure. Um, I feel like I'm forgetting. Oh, Lomelander. I can't forget Lomelander. Lomelander is, I just want to say something about Lomelander. They're the first people who looked at me and said, Hey, you're on the team, like totally organic. Like they're the best people in the world. I actually just saw they were having a jam and I messaged them and said, Hey, can I come out? I just want to come out, just hang out. And I was like, sure, why not? So I actually went Went to one of the owner's houses and just spent the day with them and then spent the next day hanging out and riding to the park, um, became fast friends. And they said, Hey, you know what, you want to be on a team? And I'm hugely grateful for that because that's sort of, you know, for me, I'm. Outside validation helps i don't know if you guys are like that but for me i was like okay maybe maybe there's something in this where i feel like i could do something um so huge shout out to lumlander they're the best people in the world um what's the other question oh socials socials um scott jp smith on instagram if you want to give me a follow uh scott smith mtb on uh youtube i'm trying to make videos i have a new video coming out from the 420 gem here pretty soon and then um I don't post on TikTok because I don't get it, but Scott Smith MTV on that, on TikTok. I'll probably end up posting videos there too. Because yeah, you're right. If you want to do something extraordinary, you have to push on all fronts, I guess.

Dale No, stay strong.

Scott Shout out to my wife, Taylor Moore.

Brooks Don't do it.

Scott Huge shout out to my wife. I can't do anything without her. She's like, she's my inspiration. She's my freaking manager. She's my brain. she's she is so insightful and so helpful she's the reason i found the doctor that i found like behind the scenes she does so much um and i'm forever grateful for her supporting my dream and um yeah she's the best so huge shout out there shout out to you for hanging out today and asking me to be honest that's amazing shout out to you dale um and all the homies around austin i mean there are too many to name but like we have the best community here in austin i huge community yeah when i moved to utah i was like i messed up now that i'm back i'm like i'm home i'm here with all these people and everybody is um to getting after it their own way right with station mountain and and the guys down at freeride 512 and um you know garrett over at east side and, god i mean like we have an amazing spot here just such an amazing community so austin's definitely home base for you know not leaving excellent.

Brooks Well i think we'll wrap it up there um you've been listening to the austin mountain bike podcast as always i'm your host brooks lawson aka the mountain biking realtor and you can find all things brooks lawson at brookslawson.com.

Scott Thanks guys thank you.