https://www.danscomp.com/

This is great for BMX, so why aren't more people supporting it?

Why the Share a Bike - Share A Smile Project needs help from all of us

18 Apr 2023

Shareabikeshareasmile IMG 20230202 100218 441

Please Donate HERE www.ko-fi.com/shareasmile | Follow @sabsasbmx

NGO

noun

noun: NGO; plural noun: NGOs

1. a non-profit organization that operates independently of any government (Non-Governmental Organisation), typically one whose purpose is to address a social or political issue.

So, what’s that got to do with BMX you might ask?

Well, this is an interview with one regular BMX rider who has taken it upon himself to use his own time (and often his own money) to help less-fortunate and less-privileged riders around the world. Effectively Gabriel Goldsack has created a BMX NGO with the formation of ‘Share a Bike - Share a Smile’ (aka SABSAS), which along Steve Crandall’s work with RadShare, is really making a difference reaching out to help and inspire and support those new riders and emerging scenes worldwide.

People who shout about ‘just wanting to grow the sport’ or continually lecture other riders and brands online about what they ‘should’ be doing in BMX, could learn more than few valuable lessons from Gabriel’ Goldsack’s approach; Less complaining and more actual action - putting yourself out there and making a genuinely positive difference. An independent non-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) created for all the right reasons.

We caught up with ‘Gabo’ to find out more. Check it out out and please lend some support HERE if you can.

Shareabikeshareasmile IMG 20230202 100221 999

Hi Gabo, how are you? So, where is SABSAS based?

I'm doing good thanks. SABSAS is based in Germany. I'm in Australia at the moment, escaping from the winter in what was supposed to be a holidays with my girlfriend, but suddenly turned into a SABSAS thing, (as always!)

I'm helping the Brisbane locals Harry, Josh, Troy and Johnny Mackellar building a DIY skatepark for an unbelievable 3 jams in 3 days event. All 3 spots are DIY, and the last jam at the place we are building will collect founds to support SABSAS.

That sounds amazing, do you always push personal things aside to push your non-profit project?

I do it often, if I think about it, way too often. But I have to say that SABSAS is fairly small, it's a DIY setup. I'm doing pretty much everything on my own from the communication with riders all around the world, BMX media, shops that support the project etc, to printing our own t-shirts to generate some income to help pay the shipping costs. We don't get a lot of support so I take any opportunity I have to get some money for the next shipment.

Shareabikeshareasmile IMG 20230217 092219

Brisbane DIY.

Shareabikeshareasmile IMG 20230223 235727 424

Gabo in his happy place.

We lag behind skateboarding where more than a dozen NGO's have flourished and have reached the point of building skateparks around the globe. Why is that? Why aren't there more people supporting your project?

Don't get me wrong, we get a lot of support. I've got more parts than many bike shops to the point that I even had to momentarily stop accepting more because I don't have anywhere to store them anymore. We also get support from places receiving donations for like The Cut and 360BS, The Loading Bay just naming a few… or Kunstform here in Germany that offered helping us with our website plus more things like friends organising events for us, so there's a lot of support. What happens is that most of the support we get is in the form of BMX parts and that's just one part of the equation, we cannot send those parts if we don't have money to do so.

We need more people giving us a few bucks, but what we need the most are people spreading the word, following us on Instagram and sharing what we do. I believe the project will be stable once we have a decent amount of people stoked and following us. Usually, the amount of people donating money is fairly small, let's say 0.5%, having 5k followers, there are only 25 people possibility donating, meaning that they'd need to donate bigger amounts of money and more often so, they get eventually tired.

Now imagine having 500K, the amount of possible donors goes up to 2,500 meaning that you only need half of them donating 1€ a month to send packages regularly. I know that having such an amount of followers in BMX is highly unlikely, so we need to combine donations with other approaches like selling our own products, but I don't want to turn this into some sort of brand so I'd like to have the least amount of products as possible.

That's interesting, are you planning on changing your Instagram approach to be more attractive to the general public, and why aren't more people already stoked on SABSAS?

I'm always thinking of things that could potentially be helpful, after all I want this project to be a success because this is really meaningful for many riders in developing countries and it's changing people's lives, bit it gets to a point where you cannot change much. We basically collect BMX parts and donate them to those in need of them, wether you like it or not. I believe there are lots of people stoked on it, every time people talk to me in person, I can see they're stoked, the problem is that we haven't turned that into followers/supporters yet. for that I've some thoughts:

To start, no one has ever done anything like this in BMX. I'm 100% sure there were and there are people collecting parts & giving them away, but no one has done anything of this magnitude. We have sent BMX packages 22 times to 19 countries in less than 2 years and a half and we keep going. This is clearly ground braking & people doesn't know how to take it. Most people shares on Instagram what they think it's cool, but psychologically speaking that idea is depends on what the people they consider cool think about it.

For instance, do you remember when Mike Aitken started using skinny jeans and all of a sudden everyone in BMX did so? This is the same. If the cool dudes started following and sharing, that would start a domino benefiting our NGO.

The next problem is the need of more empathy and it's hard to be emphatic if you can't see yourself in a similar situation. That's why fundraisers to help a rider that needs surgery are highly successful & we are struggling every time.

You can see yourself crashing and in need of help, bit you can't see yourself as an African kid for instance, because you were already born elsewhere. It's hard to imagine living anything like it.

On top of that, we live in a highly competitive & individualistic society, everything is about being the best, focusing on you, your projects, etc. Focusing in helping others isn't common and confuses people. I do SABSAS for free, people doesn't get why, running this means lots of hours of free labour, who does that? I've been constantly asked with the question: what do you get out of SABSAS? Often people don't believe that I don't get anything out of it, at least nothing material. I have a huge satisfaction on doing this and I feel true happiness when I see the smiles of the riders we help. All this is already enough to make people doubt about the project and if you combine that with the next factor, it's quite understandable why we don't have more support. We barely get any time on the BMX media, regardless of how much we are doing we are still not there. So why would people trust something that's already confusing if not even the media shares what they do? I get it, BMX has a really small industry, there's not much money and most of the BMX media also struggle to see any benefit, so they need to keep the air time to promote the brands and shops paying them. However, I still think that sharing 2 stories a week wouldn't mean much for all those platforms and could potentially mean a lot for the NGO which translates into supporting riders in Africa, Asia or South America.

So those are my thoughts on this, I'm still quite positive though. We only need to change one of those things and we could potentially see a big change.

Sounds like you have spent a lot of time thinking about this. We have one more question for you, is there room in BMX for more NGO’s?

I did spent quite some time thinking about it haha. Of course mate, there's plenty of room! There's plenty of support for us and more NGO's if the BMX scene gets united. It's just a matter of time, slowly but surely big names in BMX are getting in touch and helping the project, like Julian Molina, Nathan Williams and Anthony Perrin. If we keep pushing and people start sharing a bit more we'll get to the point of sustainability, I'm quite confident about it.

Any last words?

Thanks every single person that has supported SABSAS in any way, you're awesome!

Thanks to my girlfriend Kerrin that support and help for me on this crazy journey.

And to the people out there, be the change you want to see in the world! Things won't happen on their own, so do it yourself.

Support here www.ko-fi.com/shareasmile and help Share a Bike, Share a Smile.

Related Video

JAMAL ZOGA - MOROCCO | Share a Bike - Share a Smile

"Jamal has spent several years riding at a really high level without owning his own bike" - More Info

Previous

Event News: Get ready for Strawberry Jam

Unterschleissheim, Germany

Next

Related Content

Palmistry 1
Play Button

VANS - The Palmistry Guide: Chapter 1 - Morocco

An Epic African Adventure

19 Sep 2016
Stark Safari 8
Play Button

Reed Stark Safari - Part 8 - Morocco

Big Ledge Hunting

12 Apr 2017
Vans Unfiltered Morocco
Play Button

Vans - Unfiltered - Bruno Hoffmann & Alex Donnachie In Morocco

Two of the most technical riders alive doing their thing in Africa

21 Dec 2017
United Morocco Leftovers
Play Button

United in Morocco - Leftovers

Bonus Goodies

26 Apr 2018
Morocco Safari Pt 4
Play Button

Reed Stark - Morocco Safari Pt.4

Feebles And A Really Sketchy Situation

23 Dec 2016
Shareabike Thumb
Play Button

SHARE A BIKE - SHARE A SMILE

A BMX Charity We Can All Get Behind

9 Nov 2021
zooga-morocco
Play Button

Morocco's Secret Weapon - Zooga Revolution

Straight outta Morocco...

6 Apr 2015
Share a bike share a smile thumb
Play Button

Morocco BMX Jam

Share a Bike - Share a Smile

9 Feb 2023
bsd-in-morocco
Play Button

Video Vault: BSD - Hippies in Morocco

Luc Legrand and Antony Lille venture to North Africa...

26 Dec 2014
Thumbnail Diy
Play Button

DIY LOCKDOWN IN MOROCCO

Calm before the viral storm with Robin Bourhis and Clement Carpentier

6 Apr 2020
No Foreign Morocco Dig Thumb
Play Button

United - No Foreign Lands: Pt.2 Morocco

The Trip Of A Lifetime

20 Apr 2018
https://shop.sundaybikes.com/collections/sunday-frames?utm_medium=banner&utm_source=dig

Latest Content

0 N9 Qu6410 X Ahqdefault
Play Button
Ov Rhr0e Wcn Ehqdefault
Play Button

SWEDISH CROWD II - ARVIND BOLMSTRÖM

Scandinavia's Finest

3 Oct 2024
G 6tn IX0iwghqdefault
Play Button
7 JDY2w Hf RO Yhqdefault
Play Button

UKRAINE BMX DAY - 'RIDE TO GLORY'

Kyiv, Ukraine

2 Oct 2024
OO Jh Y Yu Ssc4hqdefault
Play Button

UNHEALTHY KREW - 'THE LOST TAPE'

DIG LOCALS

1 Oct 2024
Ouj2v EOU Qb4hqdefault
Play Button
Gp Gc4t K Yl Tghqdefault
Play Button

A Missouri Father And Son BMX Duo

Corey and Owen Bradley

1 Oct 2024
C Yw Yn A8 Jd74hqdefault
Play Button

The hidden trails paradise with the ultimate surprise challenge

More gold from the Substrata crew

1 Oct 2024
6u2 OWW7 Xw I Ihqdefault
Play Button
Up Ilx Cuty M Qhqdefault
Play Button

FRACTURE - VISIONS OF LIGHT

Felix behind and in front of the lens

28 Sep 2024
QE8j Tn R1 Kr Ahqdefault
Play Button

MARB-BROS- MALICE BMX - ANDY GARCIA - NICK KRAUER

Cali streets talkin'

27 Sep 2024
7xy30d Dm4v0hqdefault
Play Button

DIG Partner stores

More Dig This

SUNDAY Silvawave Frame 3 Q web

PRODUCT DROP: Brett Silva's signature SUNDAY 'SILVAWAVE' frame

"It was only a matter of time before Brett got to call the shots."

26 Sep 2024
Osomatsu 4

SETUPS - Kazuei "Osomatsu" Oimatsu - ALIVE INDUSTRY

A Ben Lewis signature frame stacked with Animal parts

12 Sep 2024
20240907 BOH 019 perris

BATTLE OF HASTINGS 2024 - Everything you need to know

Schedule, livestream links, highlights, results & more...

2 Sep 2024
Garrett ss24

SIMPLE SESSION 24 - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Highlight videos, schedules, results and more

24 Aug 2024
Volume frames 2

PRODUCTIVITY - NEW VOLUME JASON WATTS & KRIS FOX FRAMES

Certified for roasting - THE SMOKO & THUNDERHOOF

6 Aug 2024
Efise leader results

WHO WON THE €22K at E-FISE 2024 WOLVERHAMPTON?

The results are in!

12 Jul 2024
Kink 2025 bikes

PRODUCT DROP - KINK 2025 BIKES

That New New!

12 Jul 2024
DSCF5547

MIKE MASTRONI AND THE STORY BEHIND THE 'TELOMERE' VIDEO

Backstories behind the clips

24 Jun 2024
X Games California 2023 Kevin 2

X Games Ventura 2024: BMX Preview

Who, what, where and when

15 May 2024
Hannah roberts dsc00340

X Games Debuts Women’s BMX Park at Ventura 2024

This year, X Games is adding Women’s BMX Park to the schedule, and Hannah Roberts is leading the charge.

10 May 2024
S1057107 2

MONSTER ENERGY 'CASH UP' 2024 SERIES ANNOUNCED

5 Jams - 5 Countries

25 Apr 2024
Nick wave

IN MEMORY - NICK COOMBES

A true renaissance man in every sense of the word

24 Apr 2024