Monday I hired my buddy and BMX legend Brian “Yellow” Gavagan to help me air out of a quarter pipe. Here’s Brian a week ago in Salida, CO. Photo by Clayton Brown.
Wow. Imagine what that must feel like.
Regarding that moment, Brian said, “I had no idea how high I would fly. I sprinted as fast as I could at that vertical wall and trusted my body to do the right thing.”
My skate park training has hit a ceiling in the form of the 7-foot quarter pipe at the end of my favorite indoor jump line. In my fantasies I pump into the steep roll-in, flow three perfect jumps, air out of the quarter pipe, then pump/jump back up to the platform all fluid and nonchalant.
But I can’t bring myself to get over that metal coping. It’s like a bulletproof glass ceiling. I’m riding smooth and fast and pretty, but my nervous system has me locked beneath that coping. No matter what I try, I ride a wide arc across the wall just below the coping and work hard to reach the platform. Keep in mind I have no drivetrain.
What is it about that edge? My bike riding has been paying mortgages for over 20 years. I ride technical trails and significant jumps several days a week. So what is it about a quarter pipe? I think, for me, the issue is going straight up a wall then straight back down the way I came. What happens above that metal rail, my mind just can’t fathom.
Brian told me 90% of the BMXers he coaches never get above the coping. I asked why.
“It’s too scary.”
I asked him why that coping is so scary. He replied:
“Because it symbolizes ‘the edge.’ Like a cliff but in reverse.”
Well said.
I knew flowing this quarter pipe would make my skate park riding more fun, and felt it would untie one of the energetic knots in my riding psyche. I knew Brian was the man to help me.
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