Oh, that house tap , I didn’t knock myself out, but you know when you’ve had a big crash and you’re body’s doing a system check. I came–to and there was just one massive big fuckin six inch nail stuck out the ground next to where my head was. That was worrying that, I started thinking about things a little bit then. But it doesn’t bother me too much. That’s one of the things that I need to go back and do. If you look at it, it was ridiculous, it was built of old rotten doors and I’d just wanted to get it done and go back and have a brew. My mate’s worse than me, he gees me up too much. He’s just like ‘come on then ya puff, get on with it’. He said afterwards that he was bricking it, he was saying that it was never really on. I’d turned the cameras on when I still hadn’t really made a decision whether I was gonna go for it, I don’t like that build up of, ‘right cameras on’, that’s the point where you’ve already committed without committing. Basically I just went and as soon as I’d gone I realised I hadn’t really thought about it and by the time I’d put two pedal strokes in I was up on wall thinking, ‘fucking hell this is wrong, this has badly gone wrong’. I try to trick myself like that sometimes and go before I’m ready because it’s quite funny, I guess I just piss myself off.

It’s always that circling point; when you’ve built something and you think ‘fuck what have I built here, this could be a little bit borderline’, it’s that bit where you ride away, that’s when you get your head straight, that’s when you’re going to win or lose it. You get these little scares every now and then, when you turn round to do it. It’s always in my head if I turn round and go, ‘we’re good to go’, but if I turn round to go and have another circle, that’s just not good.

Well, it’s a bit of an in–joke. It is true, if you watch me ride for long enough, I can nail a really technical line first time and I’ll be riding away and there’ll be a grain of rice on the ground and I’ll go over the bars. That happens so often.

Yeah I think it is, I do have very bad concentration levels. I get bored very easily.

Is that why your riding evolves would you say, out of boredom of what you’re doing and wanting it to stay interesting?

I’d say that’s a big part of it for sure.

Fuck knows, it’s getting a bit strange isn’t it. It used to be easy, when people asked what I do I’d just say ‘I ride trials like Dougie Lampkin rides motorbike trials, well I do that on pushbikes’.

Oh right yeah. That’s what I’ll use from now on. What do you do for a living? Well, I’m the best all round legend ever.

I think for starters a lot of people think I’ve been a professional rider for a long time. I’ve rode for Mongoose for quite a lot of years now but I worked for a shop, Aire Valley Cycles, since I was 16. Just luckily they were really good at giving me time off because Bernie, the guy there, is an ex–pro. A couple of years ago it was just getting too much, the shop was busy, people were ringing me up to go and do stuff, something needed to go.

Yeah, this is my second year.

I never really aspired to be a full time rider. You hear all these kids and they’re going, ‘I just wanna be a professional rider’. I never really had that, because I was enjoying what I did. I went to work, did my bit and went out riding at night. And it just happened that I was alright at riding a bike. I always thought that the worst thing would be that when you’re doing something for a job, sometimes you’re not right keen on it. I never wanted to not like riding my bike you know.

Do you approach it as a job now?

First year, you’re feet don’t touch the ground, you’re getting to know how things work. I think if you look at a lot of riders now that are doing it professionally, they’re all businessmen aren’t they, and you’ve gotta be. I’ve never been very good at that side of things but luckily I’ve had people around me that have been good at it and pushed me in the right direction.

I’ve never really been very ambitious I don’t think. Just keeping everything sort of fun and chilled. I’m in a really good position, I’ve got a select couple of mates I go out riding with and every now and then being able to bosh off and do some rad comps and a bit of travelling then coming back and just hanging out in Yorkshire. Luckily I’ve got to a point where somebody is paying me to do all that, it’s fuckin rad, I’m loving it. But obviously you’ve got to work for it and I had to get there in’t first place.

Like when I went out to Malaga recently, at the time it was super hard work, we were doing a lot of riding, it’s sort of stressful in a way, sometimes it won’t feel like fun. I’m a little bit unconfident sometimes about asking people to do stuff, deep down I know that things will work but it’s convincing people that they need to spend half of their day helping me build something. And then when it actually all goes together and they’re like ‘fuck yeah’. It’s wicked isn’t it? It’s the best feeling ever, it’s great ya know. And then it’s like ‘fuck here we go again, what’s next, lets get that done’.

Dunno, haven’t got a clue. But I would like to thank, Mongoose, Nick Larsen, CSG UK, Mum & Dad, Girlfriend, Aire Valley cycles, all my sponsors, anyone that’s ever held a camera for me and all the support from the people that have watched my edits.