01 May Braden Beck: 2024 Video & Interview
Braden Beck came to prominence in the Canadian BMX scene through Saskatchewan which is honestly pretty damn rare and probably pretty difficult. But that tends to happen for a guy riding at the level that he’s gotten to, regardless of location. Most of us would have seen him through Brodie Gwilliam’s videos, including the seminal Saskatchewan full-length Let’s Get Fistical. Braden and Kelly Bragg put together a new Embassy edit and it’s as good as you hope it would be. Below is a quick interview with Braden and a couple of anecdotes from James Perry.
What’s up in Saskatchewan these days? Is there a scene bringing people together?
Sask has always had a pretty spread out scene, but I would say the Saskatoon scene has been thriving in the last few years. Kelly Bragg at Spoke N Sport has been putting on the Brett Craig Memorial Jams and Seth Varga has been putting in work with the Cedar trails and jam. It has been pretty cool seeing events like these happen in our scene, even bringing people out of province to come hang. I’m grateful for people like Kelly and Seth helping push BMX and make things happen here.
Photo: Kelly Bragg
Does everyone just ride farm equipment and old waterslides, or is there a good supply of traditional spots?
Unless you’re as good as Brodie Gwilliam (watch his Bush League Videos for evidence), not many people are riding farm equipment. Haha. Although SK is notoriously flat, Saskatoon and Regina have a lot of cool “traditional” street spots. Being from Saskatoon, I’m biased to say it has some of the best street riding in SK. River landing, downtown, broadway, and 8th St are go-to spots. With my work, I get to travel all around SK and it can be quite surprising what spots are in small towns.
What do you think was a bigger accomplishment, filming a legit full-length video in Saskatchewan, or getting a news reporter to say the word “fistical” on air?
Andrew Richards being on the local news for the video was hilariously awesome! But I must say it was pretty rewarding putting that much time and effort in with your fiends to create something that you’re proud of. Looking back at the process for that video, it will forever be one of my favourite times; riding, filming and joking around with your friends as much as possible. It really made me have a respect and appreciation for anyone making full-length video projects.
Photo: Brayden Elliott
What got you in to backcountry skiing, and how did you even get into that from Sask?
I grew up skiing with my family on trips to Invermere, BC. Then in high school, I started working at the local bike & ski shop, Spoke N’ Sport where we would go on staff trips to Nelson, BC. Naturally, my friends and I kept going out west more which eventually led to getting into ski touring. After high school we would get the seasons pass to Fernie, Lake Louise, and Golden for a week or weekend out there at a time. There were a lot of late Sunday night drives back home, taking turns studying in the back seat for exams on Monday morning. Haha.
I asked Kelly to send some questions in, but he mostly just sent references to questionable stories. It seems like you guys are lifelong friends. Can you share your best story involving Kelly Bragg?
Kelly is for sure one of my best buds. BMX brought us together at a young age, but as we have “grown up,” he’s always been there.
No stories of him unfortunately though. He’s definitely never done anything like set a dumpster on fire, shot Roman candles at [redacted], crashed through a [redacted] building window with his bike, or crashed a brand new Mustang into a [redacted]… but could you imagine?
Buy Darcy Saccucci a beer and ask him how Kelly acquired the “Fubar Award” at the Nelson contest. It was an impressive performance.
Photo: Brayden Elliott
What’s your favorite color and do you have two dads?
Haha! I see where the questions came from…
Wood grain, mirror (it’s any colour for the indecisive), and short bus yellow.
Kelly Bragg (AKA Kbag) and Peter Olsen (AKA Papa Pete) are always helping me out behind the lens on the Dad cam. They’re always looking out for a guy and they ALWAYS come home after going out to get milk. I love those dudes.
What was your experience riding pro for a little bit? It sounds like you got a fun trip to Battle of Hastings along the way.
I’m forever grateful for what Darcy did for me with MacNeil. That guy is the best. Being apart of such a staple Canadian BMX company had the 12 year old me geeking out! I met a lot of amazing people, rode some cool places, and had some incredible experiences from it.
I went to Hastings, London, and Brighton with my homie James Perry. It was all time. The contest scene was wild. I think we slept for a full day at the end of Hastings from how wild the contest and night life was (no porta-potties were tipped over with Dave Patz).
We later went to Brighton and London; it was some of my favourite street riding experiences ever. Cool spots, food, pals and good times! It made me really want to spend more time in Brighton.
Photo: Brayden Elliott
Below are two anecdotes from James Perry. RE: Brighton trip.
One funny story I guess is from when I was trying to find some electric lettuce on that trip. Braden mentioned that he doesn’t smoke weed whatsoever, so I was on my own. I asked AK if he would hook me up with some spliffs and that we could totally share one of them as a finder’s fee. As this went on, Braden came back with some beers for us and AK handed him the spliff. He looked at me with a sneaky grin and took it and proceeded to take a few big puffs while playing it cool. After AK left, I was like “Dude. I thought you don’t smoke.” He responded, “I do if fucking Alex Kennedy hands it to me!” We laughed and continued a wicked night of partying with the pros who were all such G’s to us.
We were walking home drunk with a big fat pizza one night and passed a balcony where Dennis and Garrett were chilling. Braden was like “Yo, I should offer them some pizza.” I was an embarrassed bitch ass, like “Nah man, let’s just go.” He went up and offered. They politely declined, but Austin Augie was there and started going off saying, “Oh, you just want to come and be cool and talk to these guys, huh?” It was something along those lines. Braden, with no hesitation and a mouth full of pizza, yells “Oi, fuck you Augie!” It was hilarious. In that moment, I was jealous of the gonads on that prairie boy. There should be no shame in offering your idols some pie, and you should totally tell someone trying to belittle you to fuck off.