Chad Kagy is one of the only riders to spend time at the top of the freestyle game in three different disciplines. From dirt to park to vert, Kagy’s done it all, and he’s nowhere near finished. Chad sent shockwaves through the vert class in 2006 by delivering psychotic tricks at ridiculous heights, and coming up with his own tricks in the process. A few years ago the media focused on Chad’s recovery from a broken neck, but after an X-Games Vert Gold Medal in 2006 there is a lot more to talk about now. This Californian-turned-Pennsylvanian and his wife recently welcomed their first child into the world, which means no one in their house is sleeping at the moment.
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Bell
Hometown:
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Chad Kagy
Gilroy, CA (currently living in State College, PA)
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Bell
Birthday:
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Chad Kagy
November 21, 1978
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Sponsors:
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Chad Kagy
Mountain Dew, Specialized Bikes, DC Shoes, Bell Helmets, Rockford Fosgate, Bonspeed.com/Devious Wheels.
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Bell
Current Favorite Place to Ride:
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Chad Kagy
Woodward Camp East. It’s my home park that I have free reign to ride at any time with my good friends. That and it’s the best place on earth to ride.
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Bell
Years riding BMX, and what are your earliest memories:
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Chad Kagy
I learned to ride at 4 years old, started racing at 8 years old, and turned pro at 17 years old. My father taught me how to ride a bike on a 16-inch Schwinn that I couldn’t touch the ground on, and he let me coast down the driveway to learn how to balance before I could pedal.
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Bell
Favorite type of riding at the moment and why:
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Chad Kagy
Vert. It’s the smoothest and fastest type of riding you can do. I’m really into it right now. I’m just having a ton of fun seeing how high I can go, and learning all my jumping tricks on a vert ramp is a new challenge.
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Hobbies off the bike:
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Rider
Photography, riding, or working on my chopper, hot rods, custom trucks, and working out to keep my body in shape to not fall apart when I hit the ground.
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Bell
How did you think the 2005 contest season went for you? Favorite moments? Worst moments? Dumbest moment?
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A lot of my motivation to ride is all about challenging myself to learn something new and pursue what I love to do.
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Chad Kagy
The 2005 season was the craziest busy season I’ve ever been through. I learned some new vert tricks that were either going to hurt me or definitely get me into the top-three… It worked getting me into the top-three most of the time. Favorite moments this year were every time my friends and I walked away from each event healthy, and the whole Huck jam experience. As taxing and tiring as the Huck Jam was for me it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. The Worst moment for me was on the flat-bottom of the San Jose Dew Tour trying to wake Kevin Robinson up for ten minutes. It’s never a good thing when you or your friends get knocked out. My dumbest moment this year, not so much a moment as it was just the way things went for me. I didn’t ride as much park as I wanted to and then I’d show up late to the events without much practice and go for crazy stuff within the first few minutes of riding. I should’ve put more effort and work into park—just not enough time in the day for everything I have going on.
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Favorite people to ride with and why:
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Chad Kagy
Kevin Robinson, Tom Stober, John Parker, Morgan Wade, and Anthony Nepolitan. They're all much more diverse riders than most people think. They're all fun people to ride with who love BMX for more than just a paycheck and it shows in their riding. There's a lot of progression and drive to learn without the stress of competition between each other.
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Bell
What’s your motivation to ride and progress? Does BMX ever get old to you?
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Chad Kagy
A lot of my motivation to ride is all about challenging myself to learn something new and pursue what I love to do. I have fun on my bike; it makes me smile so I continue to ride as often as I can or want to. The only time it gets old is when there is a structured show for multiple days that don’t give you much of an opportunity for progression. I did a week of shows at Disney’s California Adventure and they were boring, repetitive, slow, and made me look forward to a day off of my bike. So I guess it’s the shows that get old, not BMX.
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Bell
You came back from one of the gnarliest injuries there is. Did you exceed your expectations, or did it go as you had planned? What do the doctors say at check ups?
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Chad Kagy
After breaking my neck I hoped to recover back to where I could compete at a level close to where I was at prior to the injury. I personally feel like I’ve exceeded my own expectations to a certain degree. I never doubted that I would be back not only riding but competing, it’s just a matter of how long it was going to take in my eyes, regardless of what some of the doctors told me. Two of the doctors told me that I should pursue another career and not put myself in a position that could damage my neck further, which would most likely result in something more severe like being paralyzed or death, neither of which are choices I would take. The doctors that know the sports and know how determined I am told me that I’d be fine—having two vertebrae fused together isn’t the end of the world and I’ll be riding in a year. My doctor was surprised at how fast I recovered and how hard I worked to get back to riding and functioning normal.
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Bell
Craziest place BMX has taken you:
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Chad Kagy
This is a good question, BMX has taken me in so many different directions and so many location around the world. I’ve run across childhood friends in Portugal, been to a zoo in Australia to see live kangaroo’s because the 24 hours that we drove through the outback had nothing but dead roo’s on the road. The top things on my list of crazy stuff BMX has brought into my life would be an aerobatic stunt plane ride over the lake in Queenstown, NZ pulling two or three G’s or riding shotgun in a NASCAR at 170mph. Both of those experiences are insane and so much fun at the same time.
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Bell
Bell Moment:
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Chad Kagy
X Games 2005, during the hard-trick competition on the vert ramp I tried my first ever triple-tailwhip on a real ramp. It didn’t go exactly as planned and I ended up heading to the flat bottom of the ramp with my face, and right before I blacked out for a just a split second I was so thankful that I had a full face on built by people who know what they’re doing.
Check It
Kagy’s pro model helmet the Faction, featuring a custom-designed graphic by legendary skate artist Jimbo Phillips.