We catch up with the super stylish Rich Goff, cover star from Dirt Issue #24.

Rich Goff styling it up in his back yard trails in the Forest Of Dean. Dirt Issue #24 Nov/Dec 2000: Photo Paul Bliss

Dirt: hey Rich, so that cover shot…was that in your back garden?
Rich: Yes, I got a small digger from a friend and my dad let me plough half the garden up and make some trails. I was really lucky to have such laid back parents.

That jam featured in Sprung 4 didn’t it?
Yes,Paul Bliss came down to take photos and Alex Rankin from Sprung came down to film it was such a fun day.

You were one of the first brakeless MTB riders back then weren’t you?
I think so I was always so bad at maintaining my bike that my brakes never worked anyway, plus I wanted my bike to feel more like a BMX than a mountain bike.

The Sprung 4 Road Trip feature which also included Rich Barlow, Luke Smith, Donny and Ross Tricker.

How did you get on to the Pashley Team?

I was always going to Kiss in Cranham and entered all the dirt jumping comps there. Nick who managed the Pashley team at the time offered me a bike and stuff I was stoked and really happy to be apart of what they were doing at the time.

You even had a jump named after you at Kiss…Goff’s Gap?
Ha ha yes, Graham Foot named it because I was the first person to jump it.

Good memories from those days?

Yes, those days were so fun it was just about digging and building crazy jumps you doing the craziest tricks.

Do you still ride Mountainbikes? I saw you in RideBMX a couple of years ago on a BMX why did you make the switch?

Yes, I switched to BMX not long after that cover shot for Dirt was taken I was always more interested in doing tricks on my bike than racing and riding down mountains so I just naturally fell into BMX.

So what are you up to these days?

I’ve lived in London for about 6 years now I work as a set-builder for photography shoots and still ride my bmx most days.

Enjoying the BMX scene then?

Yea it’s great most of my friends I’ve met are through riding and I’ve got to travel around loads because of BMX I’ve had some great trips to places like Israel and Malta.

Do you still pop back to the Forest of Dean? The Broadwell dips are still running you know?! Actually were you involved in digging those first jumps?

I don’t go back as much as I’d like to but I do keep meaning to organize a weekend back with my bike soon I’ll definitely be visiting the dips that place is what got me into riding. The trails were first started by a friend of mine called Dan Beach then they slowly progressed over the years.

Thanks very much for your time Rich, anybody you’d like to say ‘hello’ to (in a Dave Lee Travis style)?

Graham Foot, Stu Loxley and all the Kiss crew.
Ben Taylor, Chris Morris and all the Forest of Dean lot I used to ride with Dan Beach, Pete Hutchins, Craig Baldwin, Dave Cracknall etc.