name & age
Chad Kagy, 24

hometown
Gilroy, CA the garlic capital of the world

current residence
State College, PA

sponsors
Specialized/Mountain Dew, Oakley Clothing & Eyeware, DC Shoes, TSG pads, M.A. Audio, Bonspeed.com

years riding
I've been riding a bike my whole life, competing for 15 years and 6 of those years riding in the Pro class.

marital status Single

How do you feel about riding now as opposed to when you started riding? Has it changed?
My riding has gone through so many changes in the last 15 years. I used to race and ride a lot of dirt, there weren't many ramps that we could ride and public concrete parks were non-existent at that point. Some friends and I built a ramp park and that's when I quite racing and rode more ramp. Eventually there was less for me to ride so I moved to Woodward and then I didn't ride much dirt and hit up tons of vert.

What do you think of the current state of BMX?
I see the state of BMX a few different ways, like the big comps Vs. roots style comps. Each have their place and both are fun and let riders choose what direction they want their riding to go in. The amount of controversy and drama in our sport sucks because it make for people acting stupid and ads mocking each other but at the same time our sport is called freestyle so that we can all do anything we want and controversy makes people interested to see what happens next. Foam Vs. Foam Free, you're free to choose whether you want to progress with the rest of us in the world of tricks or learn the hard way that we all used to do years ago and my body hurts bad enough as it is so I'm all for learning the mechanics of tricks into foam and then taking it to a ramp.

How do you like living in State College and being able to ride at Woodward everyday?
As far as hanging out with my friends and being
able to ride Woodward at anytime, State College is great but I really don't like the weather. It's been a bad year for weather and it gets depressing when you know it's going to rain every week and soon it's going to start snowing and I'm not a fan of shoveling snow.

Who are the people that have influenced you in your life?
My original influence and the reason I started riding is my older brother, Scott. After that my influences ranged from my friends Joey Garcia, Mat Mardesich and Nyquist to the guys that I saw in videos and magazines like Mat Hoffman, Miron and Joe Rich. Now my influences are the people that I ride with, Robinson, Bestwick, Stober, Whitton, Jared Souney, Steve McCann, and Keith McElhinney for a touch of old school.

How would you describe your riding style?
I try to push myself and learn new tricks all the time and send them all the time so I guess I just huck myself but I've got some beat down body parts so I like to be smooth too. I can do a lot of the tech stuff but I'm not really into it so I don't do that stuff very often. I prefer to go fast and high.

You recently have suffered a really bad injury, tell us about it.
I just broke my neck, vertebrate 5 and 6 smashed into each other and cracked and when they hit together the tendons and ligaments in the back of my neck stretched out. I had surgery to fix the problem and had the two broken vertebrate fused together and it's by far the most painful injury I've ever had. I'm not paralyzed so things could definitely be worse, I'm happy about that. Should be 6 weeks in a neck brace, then start therapy and anywhere from 3 to 6 months I can move normal and most likely ride again.

Will this change your riding at all?
It will a bit, I've got to watch out for tricks that whip the back of my my head into the ground if I fall. The doctors asked me to not do double flips anymore and that sounds like a plan. I doubt I'll ever do another double flip on a real ramp. If I re-injure or re-do what I just did to my neck I'm told that I won't ever ride again and that's not worth it to me.

What are some of your career highlights?
My personal career highlights include some of the regular stuff like podium finishes but also some other stuff that I've done to contact people in a good way and never would have had the opportunity if it weren't for bike riding.
They are:
• Target House charity demo
• Woodward Scholarship program
• Helped out a boy with cancer, gave him a bike, shoes, pads, and clothes. Best thing ever was the smile on his face.
• Two X-Games Bronze medals street
• Gravity Games Bronze medal street
• UGP Roots champion
• Latin American X-Games Gold Medal vert

Here are some questions from Readers....

From Dustin: "If you could have the chance to be in another biker's shoes and feel his style or riding and his control.. who would it be? and why?"
I would try out Jamie Bestwick's shoes to see what's going on in there. He is ridiculously smooth and can go higher than anyone else and do any tick he wants to and does them with more style than anyone else. Weather you're a vert rider or not makes no difference, anyone can respect how Jamie rides.

From Bike9Mike: "I know that you, Kevin Robinson and Jamie Bestwick all ride together. How much do you think that helps you ride do you think you would be riding vert if you didn't ride with those guys? Also, just wondering, I know you once siad that tailwhips gave you a hard time but now when ever I see you do them they just keep getting cleaner and clearner how long did it take you to land tailwhips from the first time your tryed intill you pulled one on like a flyout or anything."
Hey Mike. I started riding vert before I moved near woodward and rode with Kev and Jamie so I think I would be riding vert even if I didn't ride with those guys out here but I sure wouldn't be at the level I'm at now. Riding with those guys on a regular basis pushes my vert skills to new levels every time we ride together, when you ride with
the best it helps out.

From Kevin Villerreal: "Hey Chad, you rule, you are one of my favorite riders.How do you feel since Nyquist has been winning so many comps this year? Do you think that he is overshadowing riders like Lavin or Ruel? What gear ratio do you recommend fo street, a lot of trails, ramps and a little bit of vert? Iam looking for the smallest ratio that still works fine. Thanks for your time."
Thanks Kevin, I'm stoked you like my riding. I think Ryan is really dialed and I'm stoked he's winning all the time. It's always good to see different people win at all the different comps but if someone is going to win all the time I like to see doing it, he's a nice guy. He may draw more attention than Lavin and Ruel but I think he puts in more time and rides a ton. Kids like him but people like Lavin and Ruel for
their style, there will always be riders out there that like and dislike certain people and Ryan is in the spotlight so he's easy to like and dislike. I've always ridden a 44 or 45 front with a 16 tooth freewheel. Every tooth in the rear equals 3 teeth up front and the smaller sprockets are the same ratio as the original 44/ 16.

Thanks for your time Chad, hope you have a speedy recovery.