I will be honest with all of you. I wasn’t even going to type about anything this week because (to me) the results as well as the race itself didn’t mean that much to me after what happened to Jerry Robin. I understand that some of you may not want to read this and that is ok, but sometimes I like to put my thoughts to paper (or in this case to the keyboard). So if you get through this, I hope it somehow resonates with you.
These are just some of the things I think about as a guy who loves to ride dirt bikes. If your world revolves around your family and dirt bikes then maybe some of these things below you can relate to. Sure we all know injuries happen, hell I am sure if you ride you probably know someone that has lost their life or have been injured to dirt bikes. This isn’t some epiphany that I just had but more of some understanding (maybe to myself, maybe to others) of why we all (if you’re reading this) continue to do this thing called “dirt bikes”. You can also say, “well you can get hit by a car” or “you can get hit walking down the street”, but riding dirt bikes willingly and having passion for something is a bit different than those two statements. Sure we can live in a bubble and choose to hide from life or we can have a passion for something and try to be as calculated as we can. Even when we do the ladder, sometimes shit still happens. Chad Saultz, Jerry Robin, even Kiah Reed are just a couple of privateers (as well as amateur racers) recently that have been injured in our beloved sport. With that being said, I am not even mentioning the countless professional, amateurs, weekend warriors, or off road riders we have either lost or have been injured, but the riders above are just a couple that I have seen get hurt as of late.
We aren’t a very big community but when one rider goes down, a lot of us feel their pain. Maybe not physically but I can tell you we ALL put ourselves in their shoes emotionally once it happens and we ALL think about our mortality when it does. How long does that affect you? Does it affect you permanently? Does it affect you for a short amount of time? That is something that is different in ALL of us. I think about this more now (and it lingers longer) that I am older than when I was my son’s age at 19.
I think sometimes as fans and even racers go on with their day not even thinking about the dark side of what could happen to them. Hell, I do it all the time and I even have a kid that is doing this damn thing. I grew up with a mother that was disable and in a wheelchair so seeing this everyday growing up scared the hell out of me, but yet I still swing a leg over my bike and hang it out from time to time. Why? That is the question right? Why the hell do we all do this knowing that something like this is around the corner. I wish this was a simple answer. Maybe it’s as simple as “it’s what we know” and “because we love it”. I am sure if you asked a lot of injured riders if they would take their riding life back, I am sure some would. However, I bet some would not because of how it made them or how it made them feel when they were riding.
I just was on the Pulp MX Show with my friend Blake Savage and I see firsthand what dirt bikes can do. Blake has ridden all of his life, was an amazing talent yet a tragic freak practice accident has left him in a wheelchair, but from what I witnessed that Monday night is that Blake continues to thrive at life. He attacks his post dirt bike life just like he did when he was racing. Unapologetic and with purpose. I don’t know if he knows this but he inspires me. Maybe I am more drawn to people with hardships because of my mom, but I see more toughness in a guy like Blake than I do Cooper Webb. He doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him. He’s out there living his life the best way he knows how and is doing a damn good job at it. I left that Monday night thinking about Blake, his family, what his daily struggles are, how he had to change his outlook on his life/priorities and how he still surrounds himself around the sport! I don’t know if I could be around it? Could you? To me, that is one strong ass human.
Our sport is so cruel sometimes but so is life. Am I going to be the type of person that quits something I love because I am scared to live? At times that does cross my mind as I am sure it does a lot of others when stuff like this happens so close to home. Am I being selfish writing this artifice at this time? A part of me feels that way as well. It’s not about me though. It’s about the thousands of others that do this sport (or even the ones that are still a part of it after their injuries/hardships) that have these same thoughts and fears and I can tell you that this is ALL normal. We are human. We are caring. We have fears. We have faults. We don’t always say or do the right thing but the one thing we (or at least the people reading this) all have in common is the love to ride/think/be around two wheels. You sitting there reading this. YOU HAVE IT! I can’t sit here and tell you to shake these thoughts off and go ride because you love it. That will have to be up to you to decide. If you decide to hang it up because you have negative thoughts when something like this happens, that’s ok. It’s also ok to still love dirt bikes and want to ride when something like this happens. That doesn’t make you a selfish or bad person. There is no wrong way to feel.
All of these professional racers that we see on our TV are crazy talented racers. Sometimes some of us forget they are human until something happens and then we get all supportive. I say we should try to support all of these racers more when they are racing as well as when injuries happen. Sure, we have a lot of things in place within our industry to help our riders when injuries occur but what about three to four years from now when things start to quiet down? What are we doing to help them then? Not just monetarily. I would love to see the same kind of support we give/gave these riders after the injury occurred. I don’t see as much of that as I would like and I guess I am guilty of this as well. These riders dedicate their life to this sport and for all of us that are involved, we need to remember we are just like them. We are no different so let’s try and support these riders as much as possible even after their life continues on post motocross.
We are all here because we love dirt bikes. No matter if you’re standing or sitting, we all love moto. Let’s try to continue to love the people that ride them as much as we love the bikes themselves. Our sport is small no matter how big we want it to get. Let’s continue to give positive thoughts to Jerry, Chad, Kiah or whoever you may know that is going through a challenge that dirt bikes may have put them in.
If you want to put some thoughts down and share you can always do this and send to me at kris@keeferinctesting.com. In the meantime let’s try to do as much as we can for Jerry as well as all of the riders that have been injured. Oh and let’s not just forget about them a year or two from now as well. Let’s keep striving to get more support for these athletes that we share this common bond with.
