[News]

China FMX: The Veteran – Joel Brown

7 years ago | Words: Cam Sturtridge | Photos: ARD FMX

Following on from our recent article ‘The Other Side of FMX’, this fifth instalment of China FMX introduces you to the story of NSW athlete,  Joel Brown.

FMX Athlete Joel Brown, hailing from Griffith in NSW, has just completed and returned home from a stint with ARD in Tianjin China. Joel is no stranger to travelling to perform and compete, being a thirteen year veteran of the sport he has been travelling the world riding his dirt bike for a living for many years.

This time though, things were a little different, he was not travelling for a weekend, week or even a month but spending half a year living and breathing the Chinese lifestyle, performing daily for the Chinese crowds. Joel packed up his things leaving behind his wife, house, two dogs (Denzel and Loci) and cat (Tweak) to continue the FMX dream working full time performing in China. When asked him about the opportunity he said ” I was stoked, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have riding as a full-time job. I’ve ridden professionally for the last five years, but it’s show to show; you can make a living out of it but it’s hard. This is different, it’s a full-time gig so with the consistency I’m not left chasing the next ride or waiting for a call to book my next gig.”

Joel wasn’t always into FMX, he grew up racing dirt track of all things but when he reached the age of 16 that all changed, as he moved into the scene of FMX (much to his parents disgust). Having been riding and competing for so long he is no stranger to injury and the work it requires to maintain fitness that enables him to progress and stay relevant in the constantly evolving sport of FMX. When Joel first arrived in China though it meant he could relax, the shows were constant, he had the skills and the tricks already so the need to push and progress did not seem a priority and neither did training. “Because it was only doing shows and I didn’t have to push myself I kind of slipped into a bit of holiday mode when we first got here and training went out the window. At home I was still working to progress so I was training a lot on and off the bike but yeah here I kind of left training behind at first and ended up paying the price by getting out of shape. The biggest thing noticed was the difficulty of doing certain tricks and how important upper body strength was, once I started going back to the gym again it came back pretty quick and I remembered why I trained so much at home and why it’s so important to keep on top of these things”.

Off the bike, Joel is also a qualified mechanic so his role was a little more involved than the other athletes on the team, when asked how this changed his experience Joel said “I enjoyed being a mechanic so I didn’t think of it as a downside to it. Sometimes you know we might of had shows in the arvo and I’d have to do a rebuild between it, but it was never too bad we were never too rushed, we always planned out when we were going to do stuff to the bikes you know, when we had maintenance and so long as you were prepared it wasn’t too bad”

Spending half a year working and living in another country is bound to be fraught with challenges and lessons to be learned, when asked what he was taking away from this experience Joel answered “Firstly the financial gain, having the constant pay check makes managing money much easier and also I already had bit of a business perspective on things but now I have much more, this has just drilled it home to me, I’ve learnt more business wise I guess more out of the whole thing. When you are riding full-time it is a job and it’s a business, so sometimes business is hard and other times business is good. I’d wake up some mornings and I didn’t really want to ride but I knew I had to, you push through it, I guess what I’m coming away from this is more the business aspect of the sport”.

Joel’s experiences are testament to the continual development and growth of FMX as a professional sport and shows that the growth is going in the right direction. Joel would like to thank – Metal Mulisha, City Coast Motorcycles, Weateffex, Maxima Oil, Scott Goggles, ARD, Aussie Adrenalin, Illpluminati, TribleStar, and Filtrate Eyewear.

If you would like to keep up with Joel you can follow him on Instagram or Facebook.

If you enjoyed Joel’s story make sure you check out the other stories
Part 1 – The Other Side of FMX 
Part 2 – Brayden ‘Muggins’ Davies
Part 3 – Codie Rooney
Part 4 – Dillon Kattler 

Stay tuned over the coming weeks for more personal insights from the riders and management on their own experiences and methods to maintain motivation and stay focused during their time aboard.

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