Spiked

Interview with Kris Brock - Jan 08

Over the last 10 years the extreme sports phenomenon has grown bigger than anyone could have imagined. The resurgence of BMX and skate has been great to watch for those of us that used to partake in the 70’s and 80’s.
Comps like the X games and the Gravity Games have pushed these disciplines to a new level and brought it to a mass audience over the satellite tv network, the likes of Travis Pastrana, Tony Hawks, and Matt Hoffman are now household names.
One of the sports to benefit from the extreme explosion is Freestyle Motocross, sell out crowds flock to watch these guys perform their death defying stunts over 75 feet gaps. The tricks they perform are pushing the laws of physics to the absolute limit; double back flips, flip combos and so on.

In the UK the scene isn’t quite as big yet, only time will tell if it will truly take off here in a spectator sense, however we do have our share of top riders and one of those is Kris Brock. 
Kris has been one of the top UK freestylers for some time now, you may not have seen that much of him though, this is because he generally travels abroad to compete. One of the Spiked crew recently bumped into Kris and sat down to catch up with him and chat about things in general.

Mr Spike : Hey Kris, how’s things with you?

KB: Yeah, not too bad, just come back from a wrist injury, so yeah taking it easy.

Mr Spike: What you been up to Kris, haven’t seen you for a bit?

KB: Doing real good now, coming up to about a year now since I had my crash, wasn’t doing anything spectacular or anything, just a standard jump, come up a little bit short, managed to ride out of it but my bars tucked and I went over the bars and dislocated and broke my wrist, and I’m just back from that now after 3 surgeries and a 4th which was a bone graft, which I had done in Belgium, the same Doctor who did Everts and that, he’s got a real good reputation.

Mr Spike: So how did you get into freestyle?

KB: Pretty much rode a lot of BMX when I was a kid, my Dad hooked me up with a trials bike where I pretty much learned all my bike skills, did really well with that and got to about third in Britain, but there wasn’t enough help in that really and I really wanted to do Motocross, my Dad was a bit upset but we ended up getting a bike and took it from there really. Then I met Jamie Squibb, another freestyler and started riding with him, then started doing demos at supercrosses and did the Red Bull tour and then on into Europe doing the IFMX tour and other comps like the Red Bull X Fighters and the Airwaves comps in France, they were pretty good.

Mr Spike: Did you race much before all that?

KB: Yeah in between when I first started I had about a years worth of racing, just local stuff really, they didn’t go too good but they were good fun.

Mr Spike: So what’s your best moment so far in freestyle?

KB: You know, I can’t really remember where my bikes taken me, it’s taken me to so many places, but you know the highlight has to be Red Bull X Fighters, that was crazy, I’ve been 3 times but only rode 1 of them due to injury.

Mr Spike: X Fighters is pretty much the benchmark now Kris?

KB: Yeah, it’s difficult to explain unless you’ve actually been there. Even being there as a spectator I felt the buzz just like when I was riding, you know.

Mr Spike: Why don’t you think the scene has taken off over here in the UK so much Kris, what’s missing as such?

KB: Lack of riders, lack of places to ride, just the whole scene really, it’s a struggle if you want to do it really.

Mr Spike: So who would you say rider wise over the years was your biggest influence?

KB: Pretty much a combination of all the old school riders really, I used to watch the Crusty videos, I  liked everyone for different things, different tricks you know, they were all nuts back then, Seth, Metzger, everyone you can think of really, I just looked at it and thought that looks cool.

Mr Spike: So when can anyone see you in the UK again then Kris?

KB: I haven’t actually got anything booked in the UK at the moment, I mainly ride abroad, but I expect I’ll do a few shows with Gary Taylor soon.

Mr Spike: Kris, we see you guys doing more and more crazy stuff, how far can it go before you say that’s it, you can’t go any bigger?

KB: Yeah, I don’t know, it’s just about pushing our limits you know? People are helping to make it work, like the distance jumping and stuff, but you can die, you know, if something goes wrong you’re going to die (laughs!), it’s just gnarly isn’t it, it’s just about pushing yourself. Unless you ride it’s tough to understand.

Mr Spike: We haven’t seen anyone do the tail whip yet; can it be done if they sort the giro stuff out?

KB: Yeah someone will do it, I aint gonna say it'll be a consistent trick, cause it’s like the body varial you know, it’s just a couple of kids that do it.

Mr Spike: So what you been doing since you’ve been off the bike, any other sports your interested in?

KB: To start I didn’t do anything, just kicked back and took it easy really, eating my Mums food, she’s a real good cook and everything’s organic you know, then as soon as I felt ready I just started skateboarding a lot really, like everyday, then just started riding my BMX gently and then I’ve literally started riding my motorbike again this week, and everything felt fine, much better than the last time I rode, where my scaphoid  was damaged I kept getting like these electric shocks but it’s coming good.

Mr Spike: Cheers Kris, all the best this year.