High school. Those two words side by side send chills down my spine. School every single day from 7-8 to 2-3 (I forget). Some kind of quiz or test EVERY Friday. Lunch at one time so the whole school packs into long lines and crappy cafeterias. I could go on… but in retrospect I had it easy.
Imagine the troubles of everyday school life with being one of the biggest names in professional BMX thrown in as well. Garrett Reynolds and Dennis Enarson are BMX superstars still in their teen years juggling high school with travelling all over the world to film, attend contests, do whatever they need to as professional riders. Garrett was born in the later half of 1990 and Dennis was born in the earlier half of 1991.
Dennis Enarson jumped into the professional competition at the ripe age of 16. Rising out of the San Diego BMX scene, he grew up around the YMCA park and riders like Steve Woodward. He learned trick after trick and soon became known as a park rider, though he would be even more prominent in dirt events. He was already putting his name in the top 10 at big events like X Games and Dew Tours.
He won the BMX Dirt event at the Playstation Pro Dew Tour stop in the 2008-2009 season AND the 2007-2008 Wendy’s Invitational Dew Tour stop in 2007-2008. This season (2009-2010) he took a park 10th place and dirt 5th place at the Nike 6.0 BMX Open and a park 5th place and a dirt 2nd place at the Wendy’s Invitational. This leaves Dennis in 7th overall in the Park standings and 3rd in the Dirt standings.
This is all even more impressive as it is a comeback run for Dennis after he had shoulder surgery earlier this year. Even more recently, he had surgery on his wrist and is said to be recovering well from that. Persistence, ladies and gentlemen… persistence.
His injuries put him out of riding for periods of time, which unfortunately included Nike’s trip to Europe. I can’t imagine it was fun watching Garrett and Nigel get tricks on some unique setups while he sat there, arm in sling, unable to ride.
But make no mistake, as Dennis comes back from injury and starts riding at the top of his game again, as he has already shown during the Dew Tour, you will see plenty of amazing clips from him and hopefully Nike has some more filming trips planned where Dennis will be slingless and ready to go.
But what’s worse is considering how he went through everything I just divulged to you whilst living at home with the parents and having to keep up with the demanding lifestyle of a high school student. They generally give homework out every or every other night in high school, so imagine how work is for him while he’s away weeks at a time for contests, filming trips, etc.
Garrett Reynolds. If you follow BMX park or street, you simply can not say you have not heard this name. Garrett is one of the best competitors on the scene right now. He’s locked down win after win at several X Games and Dew Tours, beating out all the big names and easily securing himself a reputation as “the best street rider right now.” Not second best, not up there with the top dudes… THE best.
Garrett is out of that Jersey riding scene. Lots of good street riding came out of that Jersey and NY scene and Garrett developed a mixture of street and park riding from his adventures on the streets and in his backyard DIY skatepark… Taking barspins and tailwhips heavily to street and mixing in any kind of grind or manual variation, his trick bag goes DEEP.
I don’t want to even get into this since you should already know, but let’s do this. Competition history. Now, he hasn’t been quite as dominant in the Dew Tour, winning only one stop (this season’s Wendy’s stop… a sign of things to come?). but his X Games results easily make up for a lack of podiums on the Dew Tour. He finished 5th last year on the tour, his best tour overall finish, and this year looks like he could go further.
X Games street, however, is HIS domain. He won the 2009 and 2008 X Games street event in LA. He won the 2009 and 2008 X Games street event in China. He took second at the 2008 X Games street event in Mexico. He won the 2008 X Games street event in Brazil. He won the 2007 X Games street event in Dubai. So what’s that like… all but one X Games street event since the 2007 Middle Eastern event?
Garrett is 19 years of age and already he has been to Dubai, Brazil, China, Mexico, Europe, and more… and while at each of those locations he has further proven himself as the number one street rider. So, where does he find time to study US History and Mathematics?
Well, I guess the only good answer is in between travelling the globe and becoming the biggest name in BMX. Garrett has released a signature frame with his sponsor, Premium BMX. He has fans all over the world and riders that he’s probably looked up to as a little bike riding grom are probably his best friends now, or worst enemies in competition!
So… you know the riders; you got their stories. Thing is, I can only know so much about them as I pretty much only know what they do in their riding life: contests results, video parts, who they ride for, etc. Now, we ALL get to know what their lives are really like underneath all that BMX stardom. Living at home, making it through high school, and hopefully we’ll see some of their BMX groupies who probably don’t help when it comes to concentrating on school work.
So September 19th (that is tomorrow for those who don’t know that it is tomorrow) at 10 pm EST (that is 7 pm PST for those who don’t know that it is 7 pm PST) tune into MTV2 to see what it’s like in the Nikes of a professional BMX athlete going through high school!