In August 2010, mountain biker Mike Montgomery strapped a GoPro HD Hero camera to his helmet and barrelled down the slopestyle run at Whistler鈥檚 Crankworx festival. The resulting minute-and-a-half-long compilation of backflips and tailwhips, interspersed with commentary from Montgomery (鈥淗oly shit, I made that!鈥), became , garnering over three million views to date.
Since he switched from BMX to freestyle mountain biking, Montgomery has made his name with a repertoire of gorgeous tricks. 鈥淢y pitch in the sport is thinking outside the box, doing certain tricks that people can鈥檛 really think about properly,鈥 he says. That鈥檚 earned him a slew of awards and Best Trick titles, plus first place in slopestyle at the 2011 Teva Mountain Games. We caught up with him ahead of his return to Vail, where he aims to take back his title.
国产吃瓜黑料: What鈥檚 your mindset going into the games?
Mike Montgomery: It鈥檚 more of, just go and have fun. But you鈥檝e still got to take it seriously, because sponsors always like to see you do well at events. Whether it鈥檚 a higher-level event or a lower-level event, you鈥檝e just got to treat them all the same.
How have you been training?
I鈥檝e just been on the bike a lot, and in the gym, making sure my body鈥檚 fit and ready to take hits. Just basically keeping all your skills super sharp and tuned up.
You started out in BMX. What made you decide to make the switch to freestyle MTB?
It just looked more fun. At the time with BMX, the courses weren鈥檛 great, the people were a little salty, and [mountain biking] just seemed more open, more relaxed. The courses looked amazing to ride.
Do you think your BMX background has affected your MTB performance?
BMX definitely gave me an upper hand in pushing over, because I had such a great foundation from BMX, for the tricks and all that stuff. I just had to take that influence, put it on a big bike, and then try maybe five percent harder than I would on a BMX bike.
You do a lot of experimenting on the bike. Have you always been so comfortable taking risks?
I guess over the years just spending so much time on the bike, I figured, hey, no matter what, if I can get away from it, if I can find my feet again, I鈥檓 totally fine. I didn鈥檛 want to do the normal runs, what all the other riders do. I can only imagine how boring it must be for all the judges, to watch the same thing over and over again and be super nitpicky on points.
How do you come up with these new tricks?
A lot of it comes from the freestyle motocross background. I live in Southern California. The whole industry鈥檚 here, all the races are here, all the tracks are here. It鈥檚 really, for me, taking what they do and kind of manipulating it to what we do on our bikes, and finding the happy medium. Sometimes it doesn鈥檛 work at all, but if I can figure it out in my head鈥攈ow properly to adjust the bike, how to adjust my body in the air, how to maneuver certain angles鈥攏ormally it works out.
Do you have a favorite trick?
Unfortunately you can鈥檛 really do it on a mountain bike, but it would have to be a .
Will you be bringing any new tricks to the GoPro Mountain Games?
There are a few things that I haven鈥檛 done this year yet that I want to do. I鈥檓 really curious to see how the course is gonna be built and what obstacles are there, because that鈥檚 part of the fun. You have to really think about what you鈥檙e gonna do.
Where are your favorite places to ride?
Highland Mountain Bike Park in New Hampshire is in a class all its own. They have all the downhill trails, all the cross country trails, and they have the more full mountain bike jumps that are more my forte.
Anywhere you鈥檇 like to go?
I think riding in the Alps would be really cool. Doing tricks has brought me all over the world. It鈥檚 kind of crazy where freestyle actually takes you. The later part of this year is taking me to the Cayman Islands to ride with a few kids and teach them how to jump stuff.
You seem to work with younger riders a lot.
Basically, they鈥檙e the ones who are going to keep the sport alive. A lot of the younger riders think you have to train, train, train, and do X-Games type runs every single time you get on your bike. The more they realize if you just go out and ride for fun, that鈥檚 always when your best riding comes out.
Do you have any pre-competition rituals?
I have no idea why, but for the last two years whenever I would have an event later in the afternoon, I would always want to eat bananas in the morning.
I don鈥檛 even really watch the other competitors compete on their runs, because I always figure, with what I have in my head, if everything goes well, then I should place well. So I just stick to that game plan and it normally works out.