Tyson Jones-Peni Interview

Interview by Brodie Butterlegs

Name, Age, Location:

Tyson Jones-Peni, 29, Braddon A.C.T.

Years Riding:

I got my first BMX at 6, but it’s been on my mind since I was 12.

How’d you first get into riding?

My dad bought a second hand Kuwahara for $30 when I was 6, I still remember the conversation he had with this stranger. It was black and gold. It probably would’ve been worth holding onto now that all this ‘old school’ stuff is around.

I did the basic stuff, living in a country town on some acreage makes you try to jump off little bits and pieces, I think it’s just what you do. But I always count when I got ‘serious’ about BMX when I got my first BMX magazine, which was the December ’98 issue of BMX Plus. I think I had just started racing before then, but the mag is a memory marker.

Lets talk about the back bone video: you had a really good section, and I know a few of the clips took some people by surprise. How long did you work on it?

Thanks man! I guess what took people by surprise was maybe my street clips. Maybe the ender too. The oldest clips in there was from July/August 2012, when I was in PA. We had just started talking seriously about the video and I was able to take the camera Rhysty bought, over to the States to film with, so I could catch some Russ footage at Posh. But generally speaking, the video went in waves for me. I work six days a week, B-Dog (Brendan Boeck, who made the video) worked five days while filming for a lot of it. So a lot of the trails stuff happened at a regular session before work, except for a couple of tricks. But the street stuff was something that was a lot more organized. Meet up, this is what I want to do, try it, hopefully land it, leave.

Is there anything you wanted to do that just didn’t happen?

Definitely my proposed ender. I really wanted my last clip to catch people by surprise, so I came up with that idea for that as my last trick over a year before we finished filming. But for whatever reason I thought I would tailwhip that gap the whole time. So I’d lay awake at night for almost a year trying to imagine it; because the landing wasn’t there, I had no idea what it would actually be like, just had a picture in my head that was kind of how I thought it would look like and feel.

When we set the landing up that day it was wayyy bigger than I imagined, haha. But I had thought nothing but ‘okay, your last trick will be a tailwhip over this gap’ for so long that I almost wasn’t scared to try it. Regardless, I tried to taily it twice and the second time my cranks spun and I hung up and face planted. KO’d for about a minute, had concussion for four days.

Supporter

Any Crazy or funny stories from the filming process?

Man, there are a lot. Almost every trick I was there to watch was a crazy story, but we’ve got something in the works to explain that better that will happen soon. That Australia Day trip we took to Kempsey for the Blake Butterfield memorial jam was a good memory. Just the fact that when we pulled up to camp, everyone was pretty – actually very – hosed. I can’t believe we somehow got away with camping on the Bar Beach oval right next to the skatepark, two nights in a row, on Australia Day long weekend.

You’ve been doing The Hammer Down with your lady for a while now, how’s everything going with that? Anything new in the works?

Everything’s going well. Sometimes we think we could be doing more, but we keep reminding ourselves that it was never the point. It was always a creative outlet for us. We are fine with not being ‘in your face’ with it. It’s more a movement. We both believe in what Hammer Down stands for, and in that way, we enjoy the fact that the dudes and girls who actually want to wear it are a part of a small and tight-knit group that extends across the world. Our intention is never to just have every Tom, Dick and Harry wearing it, it’s sick that only the mad dogs rep it, haha.

Having said that, we’ve got a few small things on the horizon. Our aim is to get into custom product, that’s the dream.

You seemed to be the centre of United’s TRU frame release, how much input were you given?

I don’t know if I was the center of it, the trail dudes at United just put their heads together! Basically, I talked with Toby [Forte] who used to work at Stowaway, the United distributor at the time, about what I wanted in a frame. He said a bunch of stuff, Ryan, Kye, Leo, Jimmy Rushmore and Freddy Househam said what they wanted, it all ended up being pretty similar ‘cause we ride the same stuff. Except I wanted chainstay mounts. Then I got to choose two colours, ‘mystic moss’ green and ‘trans soil’ brown, with the brown being the Aus only colour option. I got to come up with the TRU name, which seemed pretty logical, the trail riders’ United frame. I got inspiration from Jimmy Keane at TRU BMX too. I designed the typeface that then became the stickers and head tube badge. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that. All I did was send through a T, R and U and then a few months later there was this killer head tube badge. It got me so psyched! I’ll definitely take this time to say that I had that original pre-production frame for 18 months, the whole time I filmed the Back Bone video, and it’s still fine. Badass frame.

Speaking of trails, you’re one of the locals up at Hillfire. After such horrid luck in Canberra with trails spots, it must be nice to know it’ll still be there the next day. What would you say the major upsides and downsides to a legitimised spot are?

Yep, it’s still there for now. I don’t even know about upsides and downsides. It’s all the things you can imagine, with any spot you have upsides and downsides. I guess it’s just about making the best of your situation. We have a lot of things that aren’t even possible with a spot in the bush, just like we have a lot of things that suck because we’re not in the bush. But at the end of the day, we’re getting laps at the trails.

Back Bone has been doing coaching and workshops with schools and the like recently. How’d that all come about?

This could be an interview in itself. But the short version is; we (Rhys and I, as well as a few others) formed a club [FACT BMX] so we could have our trails. Unbeknownst to us, at the same time the government was doing a whole bunch of research on how to battle the obesity epidemic, realized it started young based on kids’ inactivity. Did more research, found out kids, if they had to do anything, would ride freestyle BMX more than any other physical activity. Government looked up freestyle BMX in Canberra, found our club, who President and Vice President, along with committee members, work at Back Bone BMX. Talks start and nine months later we’re all accredited BMX coaches starting off on what then became a now four year program, which the ACT Government has said is their most successful physical activity initiative ever. We coached in 52 primary schools in Canberra last year, and have also coached in high schools. It’s insane. And so awesome.

Have you seen any ripple effect or kickbacks within the scene as a result?

We get kids into BMX directly, in a positive way. We’re also seen as a positive influence when it comes to dealing with parents, government, officials, whoever. I think what riders forget sometimes is that the hardcore BMXer should be the dude who is involved in their BMX community, building BMX, not just getting good at tricks. More need to give back to BMX to ensure it grows.

Most people probably aren’t aware, but you’re one of the most health conscious bike riders I know. What initially sparked your interest in health and fitness?

Constantly having to deal with injuries, as well as having to see my dad cope with sickness brought on by lifestyle factors is what sparked it. Just wanting to be better. As I get older I care more about looking after myself, and care less about what people think of me. Maybe I can break the stereotype.

What sort of ‘training’ do you do?

I just weight train, I try and lift heavy weights for compound movements but then do more hypertrophy work. I find building size as well as strength helps to take crashes – more mass to help ‘cushion’ the fall, haha. 4-5 days a week. It ebbs and flows. I generally go to a yoga class once a week as well. Before I started going to the gym I used to do HIIT (high intensity, interval training) for about a year but after a while I found it to be pretty superfluous. I wanted to get stronger, feel better and make my bones stronger. Be more resilient.

Has this benefit trickled down at all into your riding?

Of course. I mean, that’s the whole aim. I don’t want to do it if it doesn’t benefit my riding. Apart from the taking crashes thing, I have more endurance, I can hop higher, it mentally changes your riding too, which might be the biggest plus, or at least the most unexpected. When you do something like a set of squats with a heavy weight on your back, it’s intimidating – or at least it is to me! But you put yourself in a mental state of ‘I can do this’ and you give it everything you have. That type of ‘everything you have’ thinking, I thought I did that in BMX already, but it’s not the same. I feel like my intensity of focus has improved.. Once you train your brain to do that, you can apply it to BMX.

Top 3’s:

Bands/artists

Right now..

Young Monks

Goons of Doom

Kurt Vile & The Violators

Video parts/Sections

Darin Read Building the Underground

Justin Inman Fitlife

The whole Back Bone video.. I’m probably biased, but no kidding, I think I’ve watched it somewhere around 500 times and I can’t get enough. Zac Miner’s part still makes my hair stand on end.

Spots

Our trails

Civic skatepark

Any and every trail spot I’ve been to. To me, BMX is about how it makes you feel, and there is not many times on your bike that you get that jittery, excited and nervous as when you’re about to roll into a line for the first time.

Bike parts

United TRU frame (feels good)

Tree hubs (rolls faster and spokes stay tighter/straighter for longer)

Back Bone bearings (I like they way they look and Rhys and I designed them)

Foods

Free range, pasture fed scrambled eggs with shallots and Gluten free toast (breakfast)

Free range, pasture fed chicken with basmati rice, broccolini and Franks hot sauce (lunch)

Slow cooked grass fed beef brisket with pumpkin, potato, carrots and kale. (dinner)

(all the grass fed and free range thing might sound waffer, but it’s important to me, so that’s why it’s there)

Cheers man. Any thank yous?

Definitely. Thanks Brodie for hitting me up to do an interview. Thanks to my family for being a huge inspiration, my wife Melissa for being a babe and a supportive badass girl. My friends. Rhysty and Back Bone BMX for constantly working to build a better scene for Australian BMX.. And because of that, I’ll thank every person that buys from Back Bone. Or Australian BMX stores for that matter. Don’t support stores that don’t support the BMX scene. Ian Morris at United, the dude is a legend, thanks for supporting me. Sam at Tree for doing the same. Andrew at Vans, cheers for the shoes.

Thanks to all the riders out there who are doing sick stuff, building trails, holding jams, building BMX in a sick way and doing it with a smile on your face. It gets me psyched. So thank you.