I was 12 years old when I realized that gravity wasn't a rule—it was a suggestion. It started with a 20-inch BMX and a concrete skatepark next to my scholl.
THE CONCRETE ERA (AGE 12)
Most people start riding to get from point A to point B. I started riding to see what I could break in between. My first bike was a heavy, steel-frame BMX. No suspension, one gear, and brakes that barely worked. It was the perfect teacher, not only at riding but also at working with my hands.
On a BMX, you can't hide bad technique. If you are stiff, you crash. If you don't commit, you crash. It taught me the fundamental language of bike control: how to pump transitions, how to manipulate weight distribution, and how to fall properly. I spent hours sessioning a single curb, trying to perfect a hop. It wasn't about nature back then; it was about conquering the geometry of the city.
INTO THE WOODS
As I outgrew the skatepark, the horizon expanded. I traded the 20-inch wheels for a Hardtail. This was my introduction to speed. Taking a rigid-rear bike onto rough trails is a brutal education in line choice.
You learn very quickly that the "fastest" line isn't always the smoothest. You learn to unweight the rear wheel over roots, to scan the trail ten meters ahead, and to trust your tires on loose dirt. That hardtail beat me up, but it built endurance. It shifted my perspective from doing tricks in a confined space to flowing through an open environment. I wasn't fighting the architecture anymore; I was reading the terrain.
FULL SUSPENSION & FLOW
The transition to Enduro and Dirt Jumping marked the moment where engineering met adrenaline. Moving to a full-suspension rig changed everything. Suddenly, the limitations of the bike disappeared, and the only limit was my own mind.
Enduro combines the technical precision of downhill with the physical endurance of XC. It demands a schizophrenic skillset: you need the cardio to climb 1,000 meters and the focus to descend it at race pace.
This is where my obsession with the "machine" truly began. Setting up suspension damping, tweaking tire pressures for specific soil types, adjusting geometry—it appeals to the developer in me. The bike is a system of variables, and the trail is the dataset.
From the raw simplicity of that first BMX to the carbon-fiber complexity of my current Enduro setup, the core feeling hasn't changed. It's still just gravity, momentum, and the search for the perfect line.