Twenty-two professional BMX riders. One simple question: What’s the saddest place you’ve ever done a wheelie? Their answers just might surprise you.
1. Mat Hoffman – “Saddest place? I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand.”
2. Chris Jensen – “What? I guess I’ve biked through plenty of sad places, but I can’t say I’ve ever done a wheelie through them.”
3. Morgan Wade – “The last place I did a wheelie was the X Games, but that’s far from sad.”
4. Steve McCann – “Saddest? Like, sad to me, or sad to you?”
5. Taylor Brown – “Maybe I have to hear the question again? Sorry.”
6. Daniel Roberts – “I once did a wheelie after I left a crime scene, but not while I was actually within the crime scene itself. I’m not sure that counts, but I figured I’d give you what I had.”
7. Donny Robinson – “What are you talking about?”
8. Jared Sandoval – “I don’t follow…”
9. Carlos Oquendo – “I refuse to wheelie anywhere that’s not happy. Maybe that’s a controversial thing to say, but I stand behind it 100 percent.”
10. Pierre Ronchetti —“I once did a tailspin over a grave, but never a wheelie.”
11. Zack Warden – “As a BMX rider, I fear that every place I have wheelied through in my life has been a sad place. Would anyone ever really consider a dirt road where competitions are held and only one person emerges victorious to be happy?”
12. Colton Satterfield – “I once wheelied for 30 miles straight through the cornfields of Iowa, but never during those 30 miles did I think my surroundings were sad.”
13. Jackson Wade – “The saddest place? I don’t think I understand.”
14. Greg McCann – “Unfortunately, that’s an easy one: I popped a wheelie right in the center of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. God, there were just miles and miles of carnage, further than the eye could see. I remember coming across a family of seagulls gasping for air, absolutely covered in oil, that were slowly being dragged down into the filth, and I just hopped right over them on my rear wheel and kept on going, skidding oil everywhere and spreading the destruction even further. If I could, I’d wheelie through it again, but this time I’d bring soap and several sponges and try to clean up as much as I could.”
15. Vince Byron – “Wait…what?”
16. Marshall Baldock – “A wheelie? Does driving on just my front wheel count? If you’re a purist, I understand.”
17. Jamie Bestwick – “I’ve really been meaning to wheelie through an underprivileged school in rural Kansas, but I haven’t really found the time on the professional circuit.”
18. Ashton Tanis – “I don’t know…a skate park?”
19. Zack Underwood – “I remember it so vividly. On August 7, 1996, this 12-year-old kid Jeremy Nichols was arrested right outside his childhood home. Earlier that day, his parents had left him alone with his baby brother, Greg. When they got back home, though, Greg had been smothered in his own sheets. No one except Jeremy knows exactly what happened during those 10 or so hours, but God, I popped a wheelie right in the middle of his conviction hearing. At the exact moment the judge said the words ‘life in prison for first-degree premeditated murder,” I burst through the front doors of the court on my back wheel at 15 mph. I jumped onto the jurors’ bench and grinded along the railing. I rode up on the judge’s stand and did a rear wheel hop, turning my bike around a full 360 degrees. And then right as his parents collapsed into each other’s arms, I wheelied out exactly as I came.”
20. Jonah Blickenstaff – “I’ve only ever wheelied through graduation ceremonies, so I’m not sure I can answer the question.”
21. Simon Tabron – “I’ve witnessed so much pain that it’s hard to choose.”
22. Dennis Enarson – “Here’s the paradox: When I do a wheelie, everything around me becomes happy. So really, isn’t it impossible for me to do a wheelie in a sad place? Sorry.”
