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Rob Harris - Youth of Today Interview

"No idea how I didn’t get mugged, a 15 year old dragging around a broken bike is probably an easy target."

17 Nov 2015

Rob-Harris-Smith-Hard-360-DIG-BMX-NW

Rob keeping it 100 with the smith hard 360.

Photos by Nick Wotton Intro and Interview by Devin Feil

Rob Harris is a quick study, picking up BMX at an incredibly fast rate, all the while fueling his progression with meals at the world's largest fast food chain. Rob's developed a level of bike control that will leave many of his older peers jealous, already produced a full length video with his friends, travelled to Spain to ride, and he's got a couple of teenage years left to go. In conjunction with the release of a DIG exclusive video we decided to properly introduce this motivated young man...

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Name, age, location?

Rob Harris, 17, from Chepstow in Wales

How long have you been riding BMX?

I’ve been riding BMX for just about 2 years now.

I was told you rode trials prior, do you think that's helped with your riding now? And in what ways?

Yeah, I rode for a company called inspired before I got a BMX aha. It definitely helped though, I always took influence from BMX so when I actually got on one everything became so much easier.

Cam Wheeler manning the VX at Park Grove.

Success on both sides of the lens.

Rob-Harris-Hard-180-Barspin-DIG-BMX-NW

Rail to hard 180 barspin on a gem of a spot.

How'd you come up with the name DSOTG, Dark Side Of The Goon?

Well, I have always been really into Pink Floyd, and I guess because of that I just came up with Dark Side Of The Goon. We all started writing dsotg everywhere and it just stuck.

So what is this I heard about you getting lost in Barcelona?

It was the last day of the trip and pretty late, like 2am. I’d got a puncture and a snapped chain, so I decided to walk back to the apartment, but didn’t think that it was at least an hour away and I have no sense of direction. I ended up wandering around till 6am, with no phone or money. No idea how I didn’t get mugged, a 15 year old dragging around a broken bike is probably an easy target. On the plus side I now know every homeless guy in the city haha.

Who'd you travel there with? Did Spain live up to the hype?

There were about 9 of us, me and Jordan both wanted to film for the dsotg video at the time and pretty much everyone ended up getting clips which was sick. That was pretty much all the local scene consisted of at the time, minus a few. Spain definitely did live up to the hype! I wish I could afford to go back right now, you can’t go anywhere without finding something to ride.

Tell us about your eating habits, is it true you are a big fan of McDonald’s?

Oh dear haha, you could say so. I’ll blame it entirely on Jordan Godwin and his awful diet though, definitely a bad influence. I’m pretty much addicted to any greasy food from that place now.

Quick crook under some gray skies.

Smile Rob, the drive-thru is probably still open.

Related Video

Rob Harris - DIG 'Youth Of Today' Video

17 years old and not scared! - More Info

Is your Youth Of Today video the longest you've spent on a video part of yourself?

Yeah it definitely is, there was never really a rush to finish but me and Cam have been working away slowly for a while now. The only real project I’ve worked on before was the dsotg video, I think I was way more hyped putting everyone else’s clips together and as a result didn’t end up putting much effort into my part. I definitely push my riding way more now.

What will you be working on next? Any new DSOTG projects?

I want to get another full length video out at some point, I’m going to work on that for as long as possible and hopefully make it something that everyone involved is happy with. That should be a 20-30 minute video with sections from all my friends. I have soooo many ideas for it already so I guess we’ll start stacking asap, it’s hard in the winter since the days are short and the weather sucks. Hopefully we can get a trip sorted to kick things off with that video soon though.

Thanks or shout outs?

I wanna say thanks to Cam Wheeler for smashing it behind the VX, and also to Nick Wotton for shooting the photo’s for this interview. All my friends and everyone I ride with. My parents for giving me lifts everywhere and my girlfriend for putting up with me constantly ditching her for a kids bike. Also big thanks to Devin and DIG for running this interview.

Rob-Harris-McDonalds-DIG-BMX-NW

Mickey D's induced food coma.

"I’ll blame it entirely on Jordan Godwin and his awful diet though, definitely a bad influence. I’m pretty much addicted to any greasy food from that place now."

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