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Shad Johnson - Realtime

"BMX is about the stories"

25 Aug 2015

A DIG Production Shot and Cut by Fraser Byrne

For some this will seem like an obvious thing to say but sometimes BMX loses sight of where we're all headed and why we all started doing this in the first place. All too often people are more concerned with "who's next" or "what's next" without even fully talking in what's happening right here and right now... never mind what's come before. In many ways BMX is now just mirroring the attitudes and approach of the wider society that a lot of us tried to escape from in the first place.

This year marks ten years for Snakebite's Shad Johnson holding it down behind the sales counter at Goods BMX in Portland, Oregon and around 3 decades for him as a BMXer. He’s beaten the odds to stick with both for way longer than most and he's gathered some seriously good opinions along the way. Here Shad takes a walk with Chewy and talks openly about the uniqueness of the North West scene, his equal respect for riders young and old, and why we need to give more room to let riders grow, rather than continually cutting them off at the first opportunity. We really should all just slow down and take things in a little more - welcome to episode 2 of Realtime.