THE NORTHERN EMBASSY

16 Dec The Braden Beck Interview

Saskatchewan’s Braden Beck made a name for himself in Brodie Gwilliam’s DVD Let’s Get Fistical. The young SK rider had a ton of tech tricks and real naturalness to his fakie tricks that made his section stand out. This past summer Braden dropped another banging edit so we decided to catch up with him to get some background info and insight on the SK scene.

Name, age, where your from and where you are currently residing?

My name is Braden Beck, I am 21 years young, born and living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

When did you start riding and what got you into it?

I have been trying to jump my bike as far back as I can remember, but I got my first actual bmx when I was 10. I got it from Spoke N Sport and they gave me an issue of Chase Bmx with it. I hadn’t really seen much street, park or flatland riding at the time and the photos in it blew me away. I just gradually got more and more into it from there.

How was the SK/Saskatoon BMX scene when you first started and how is it now?

When I first got into the scene there was a pretty solid group of core guys and a hand full of random kids my age. The scene was, and still is, pretty tight and unknown else where. There was a local clothing company called Dedline6 that had a warehouse with a really rad bowl set up that put somewhat of a spot light on our scene for guys to migrate to for the winter or crash/chill at when passing through town. The scene went through a bit of a slump for a couple years in my opinion. Some of the guys moved away or just stopped riding and minimal kids were getting into it. But in the last few years it has for sure picked up to what it was like when I first got into the scene. You can always count on going to the park and meeting up with someone to ride with. There is more young up coming kids, a few new faces and a lot of guys that are really pushing themselves. All the core SK guys know each other and are easy to get along with, no egos, just guys making shitty jokes and riding bikes.

It definitely always seemed like the SK scene is really tight which is an awesome thing about ‘smaller’ scenes. How many parks you figure are around SK and what parts or cities have the strongest crew of riders?

There are about 8 larger parks in SK that are all pretty rad. There are also a bunch of really small random cement parks in Saskatoon that can be found through out different areas and neighbourhoods. Also a bunch of small towns have some sketchy wood ramp set ups that most people might laugh at. I’d have to say Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Regina and Moose Jaw have solid crews of guys. Most cities in SK don’t really have different crews with in each city, since each city basically only has one or two larger parks, it creates everyone to ride together pretty much.

Your part in Let’s get Fistical was one of the most solid sections in the video/ to many who saw it the standout section. How long did you film for that video and what was the whole experience like?

Thanks, stoked people were into it! I filmed for 3 years for my section, I didn’t really know what to expect going into it, I had never filmed for a dvd before or with Brodie. Brodie lives in Kelvington, SK so we had to usually smash out as much filming over the weekends as we could when he could come to Saskatoon. Brodie was really awesome to film with, he was super patient, always did an amazing job on his end and laid back about it all. Some of the stuff I filmed was things I had always wanted to do, but for the most part, a lot of my section I didn’t really plan out and the ideas just happened while out riding a spot that day. Somedays we spent a few hours trying to get a clip and other days we could get a few clips in an hour, but most of the time it was just going out and riding with your friends type vibe. It was an awesome experience and would love to do it again some day. I definitely learned how far I could push my self and gained a lot of respect for anyone filming a full length dvd.

You recently dropped a rad edit from this summer. How long did you film for that and how long were you in AB for?

Thanks! I went on a little trip with my two good buddies Kelly Bragg and Josh Rieger to Edmonton for just a weekend in September. My buddies and I just started filming a few things on that trip and thats when I started filming for that edit basically. So I guess I filmed for 2 months for it.

You seem like you were meant to ride a freecoaster with how well you use yours. How long have you been on one now and how the hell did you get so good with it ?

I have been riding one for just about 7 years now and I am not really too sure, but thanks haha! I have always been into fakie tricks, even when I rode a cassette. I constantly always try and figure out how I can incorporate a fakie maneuver at a spot, I just love doing that sort of stuff. So like anything, practice makes perfect I guess!

How brutal are SK winters and dealing with no indoor spot?

Ya, they suck. They are really long and cold but if you have lived here long enough you get used to it. Regina has a small indoor thats pretty cool if you want to make a weekend trip. But for in Saskatoon I usually ride a number of underground parking lots that have a few curbs or jersey barriers. Usually a small group of guys meet and just mess around until we get kicked out. But its better than nothing, something to satisfy that itch to ride and keep you on your bike.

Regina particularly has a reputation of being pretty shady, what’s the sketchiest thing you’ve ever seen happen in SK?

Ya there are a lot of shady neighbourhoods in SK haha. Back in high school my buddy Josh and I were cruising around in his new pick up truck one night and saw a few buddies at a corner store parking lot. So we swung by, got out and said whats up. 15 mins later about 10 sketchy dudes showed up from our school, we were curious what was going on so just kept our distance and watched. Another 15 minutes later 10 random dudes came running from these park bushes across the street and this gnarly 20 person brawl just broke out between the two groups of guys. Josh and I were 20ft away just watching everything happen so we were like lets get the hell out of here. But then the fight just moved towards his truck, a guy got thrown onto the hood of it while three other guys were getting beat up on the sides of it. A few minutes later it eventually just stopped after a few guys took off running, so once they cleared away from his truck we jumped in it and took off. It was insane haha

Thanks for doing this, any last remarks or suggestions to anyone thinking of visiting SK?

Anytime man! If anyone is coming through Saskatoon give myself or anyone else here a shout and we are always down to go ride, show you some spots or where the coldest beer is.