In every sport there are select athletes able to achieve icon status, and in BMX that is Dave Mirra. Mirra is by far the most dominating rider BMX has ever seen, and his consistent contest performances have also made him the most decorated athlete in the world of action sports. Mirra has been a BMX force to be reckoned with since the age of 13, and he evolved from a pint-sized terror to the rider who won everything in his way.
After winning everything imaginable some riders might be thinking about retirement, but that’s not Mirra. As he put it himself, “There’s nothing that interests me more than riding every day.”
The Season of Pain
Dave MirraLast year was crazy with Mirraco being born, my little daughter being born, a few injures… It was almost too much going on. Louisville (Dew Tour) was a slam-fest, Denver I got knocked out, X Games I got taken out, and then basically it was like, “time out.” I was supposed to be out for the rest of the year but I ended up riding Orlando, which I probably shouldn’t have. My liver still wasn’t completely healed (from the X Games crash), but I was like, “This is the last comp of the season. I’m not going there to win. I’m going to ride, have fun, and to be back out there.” Hopefully I’ll get a good start this year. Competing is awesome, but turning it into fun as well is going to be the recipe this year.
I guess that goes to show that it’s not about winning. Winning is great—it’s awesome to win a contest and know that what you did to prepare helped, but in the end what brings me back is that I love to ride.
Motivation
Dave MirraWhat brings me back to contests after years of winning different events? I guess that goes to show that it’s not about winning. Winning is great—it’s awesome to win a contest and know that what you did to prepare helped, but in the end what brings me back is that I love to ride. If I can win it, cool. If I don’t win it, oh well; then you know that there are some good riders out there. I go to contests to try to win but I think my attitude this year is to just have fun. If you can’t win it, at least go out there and ride my best and make it fun. Plus if there is something that you want to learn but haven’t tried at home, or you know you can do something but you just haven’t got that mental focus at home, then you can use contests for learning something new. You can use all the fans and the crowd to motivate you to say, “All right, I’m going to huck it. There’s a medical staff here so we’ll see what happens.” I think there really are a lot of benefits from contests. I love to ride and I ride every single day, and that’s just because… To be honest, I’ve ridden for so many years, what would I do? There’s nothing that interests me more than riding every day.
Private Stomping Grounds
Dave MirraI changed up my warehouse this year, took out the vert ramp, and added more park—that’s pretty much what I ride 99% of the time anyway. I’ve got a couple of big quarterpipes with a wooden resi—it’s not really a resi, it’s more like a big quarterpipe. That’s the landing pad for getting the big vert tricks down. If not, it will be time to take a trip to Woodward. My buddy Mike Mancuso took the vert resi (from my warehouse) and built a ramp in his backyard, so we have a vert ramp here in town. Now I have a bigger park, and I’m really psyched. The place has a little bit of everything.
Travel Time
Dave MirraOne cool thing is that I’ve traveled more in (the first three months of ) ‘07 than I probably have in the last three years. Going to Estonia, going to New Zealand for X Air…just doing a lot more fun things. Mike Spinner and Mike Laird went over to Estonia with me, Spinner went to New Zealand, and we have a whole crew going to FISE this year in France. It’s been fun to travel and keep it fun. Maybe these smaller events weren’t as fun for me two years ago, but I’m finding more fun in them and just taking things a little more lightly, so it’s cool.
The Business-Side
Dave MirraI started Mirraco and it’s cool to be partially on the (business-side) of the fence, but the question of do I see things in a bigger picture now? Not yet. Jim Ford pretty much runs everything day to day for me and I’m still riding every day. I have put a foot over the fence, but I definitely haven’t started jumping over it yet. I still love riding, and it doesn’t seem like any time soon I’m going to be off my bike. I just couldn’t imagine not riding every day.
Check It
Mirra’s pro model helmet the Faction, featuring a custom-designed graphic by legendary skate artist Jimbo Phillips.