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Chelsea Wolfe is a BMX-ing Shred Girl IRL
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Florida-based BMXer Chelsea Wolfe has some amazing advice to share when it comes to getting seriously rad on the BMX bike. Her tricks are crazy-cool and what I really respect is the huge amount of time that she spends at the park practicing. Love this quote from her: “I don’t force my progression anymore (I learned that lesson the hard way) but I do a number of things to get myself into a headspace where I’m eager to learn and willing to take risks before I go ride.”
When did you start riding?
I started racing BMX just before my 7th birthday in 2000. That was all I did aside from recreational mountain biking until high school. I got into freestyle BMX around my 15th birthday, mountain bike racing when I was 17, and fixed gear racing and road biking came about a year later.
When did you decide you wanted to start racing BMX?
BMX racing came kind of before I made decisions for myself haha but I was totally into it from the start. BMX freestyle grabbed my interest in my early teens when all of my racing friends got what we called “play bikes”. I bugged my parents for one for a while but didn’t have much success until I took some old mongoose with pegs out of the trash and started riding that haha. The thing weighed a ton and was probably a death trap so for my 15th birthday my parents found me a used Felt Sector on Craigslist. 5 months later I cracked the frame but I was already in love by that point so I scrounged together whatever money I could find to buy a friend’s old frame and Franken-biked it. I was hooked for life by then.
Favorite part about riding?
My favorite part about riding is the freedom it gives me. From the first days of ripping around my neighborhood to exploring the country by flights to random cities where I’ll know people because of bikes, and beyond that soon when my passport comes in, my BMX bike has always been my vehicle of choice to get away. Every time I’m on it I feel whole and become so focused on what I’m doing and how I’m feeling that anything on my mind other than that moment just disappears.
Have you made friends through riding?
Pretty much all of my friends are through riding. I have a few people in my phone from work but we don’t hang out on our days off or anything. The result of riding being the only thing in my life for so long is that I only meet other people who ride.
Coolest trick or accomplishment you’ve had with riding?
The coolest accomplishment I’ve made with riding is becoming my own hero. When I was little I dreamed of discovering someone who’d done what I now do to show me that it was possible and that it was okay to be me and still ride BMX but eventually I had to accept that this person wasn’t out there, that if I wanted this role model it had to be me. To be able to be the person that I needed when I was younger is so healing, and every time someone tells me that I inspired them in the same way that I once needed that inspiration it tells me that I’m doing the right thing. That’s one of the main thing that drives me. Every now and then I think back on how far I’ve come and where I’m headed and I think, wow that’s pretty cool.
What does a week of training/riding look like for you?
I keep an open schedule at work so I can freely take time off for trips so an average week at home looks like seeing how much riding I can squeeze in between my work schedule. Some weeks it sucks and I only get a few days on the bike, some weeks I have to pace myself because I have time to ride too much. For the riding itself I sometimes have sessions where I just can’t get in the mindset to take big risks so I’ll just cruise but most of the time I can get myself into a pretty good mood and learn a bit every day. I don’t force my progression anymore (I learned that lesson the hard way) but I do a number of things to get myself into a headspace where I’m eager to learn and willing to take risks before I go ride.
Best tip for someone younger who’d love to get started riding/racing, but doesn’t know anyone else to ride with?
My advice for that is to go it solo. When I first got into freestyle I didn’t ride with another freestyle BMX rider until 2 years in. I would just watch whatever BMX videos I had (usually the Roots Jam 2001 highlights VHS which speaks a lot to my current riding style) and go try to emulate what I saw. To this day I don’t typically try to make arrangements with people. I do my thing and if they want to do their thing at the same time in the same place, cool. There’s something to be said about the lack of structure when you’re just winging it on your own. That’s the freedom that I enjoy.
Best tip for tackling a scary section in a bike park, i.e the pump track for someone super new to riding?
Flap your arms like a chicken, you’ll be too focused on how dumb you feel to be scared then you’ll just do it hahaha. No but for real, just do it. The longer you think about something the scarier it’s going to be and the more you’re going to overthink it. You have to trust that you know how to do what you’re trying to do then just let yourself do it. Something I tell myself is if anyone has done this then there’s no reason that I can’t do it too. But if you’re not feeling it and you can’t get yourself out of that headspace of what could go wrong, don’t force yourself to do it anyway. Chances are you’re just not ready for whatever you were going for and that’s okay. I want to do countless things every day that I think about, realize that I’m not ready, and don’t go for it. That’s not a failure, what that did is built trust in myself that when I feel ready for something I know I’m actually ready, not that I’m being overly confident. Even though in that moment I didn’t learn a trick, I still progressed because when I am ready to go for the trick I can trust myself that I truly believe I can execute that trick which makes it much easier to stay calm and focus through the fear.
Absolute favorite piece of gear?
My favorite piece of gear is my collection of retired frames. I get very sentimental about stuff and I believe that bikes have souls that live in the frame. Each one of them has its own memories, accomplishments, things that I overcame. They mark periods of my life that when I look at them the memories and feelings from those times come rushing back. It’s uncommon for me to hold back tears when I retire a frame so it makes me feel better to know that if I really wanted to I could put one back together and ride it (provided that it’s not broken).
