EXPN: What's been going on with you for the past few months?

Rick Thorne: Last few months for me, I had knee surgery back in like September or October. I had both of my knees done, ACL reconstruction. So, like, I got married in October and then the last couple of months actually I've gotten back into riding. This is, like, my second contest since surgery. And lately I've been kinda, like, everything came down at once. I had surgery, and there's deadlines for video parts, contests, tours and stuff so, I've been really focusing on just getting healthy and just starting to do my stuff again.

EXPN: How's married life going?

RT: Good. My wife's the best. Number one, man. She's a skater, so she skates and I ride, so she totally understands what I'm doing, and I back her up. Lately in the last few months we got serious about our band. We have a band called All Scarred Up with me and my wife Madonna and a couple of friends. It's a project that we're doing just like bike riding. Create music, do what we want to do, so having a wife, like, where our similarities are pretty close is incredible.

EXPN: I heard Matt Hoffman took a big header yesterday, trying to go thirty feet. What do you think about that? Him trying to go that big?

RT: He did that big ramp a few years ago and he fell and I never thought that he would do it again, 'cause he got hurt and stuff. But I think he could do it, you know? I think Mat's a very determined individual. I don't really know the details of his crash, 'cause I haven't talked to him. I heard the stories though and you don't play around on that big of a ramp. When you fall the injuries are very severe, even more than on his 12-foot. I give him props completely 'cause I think people look at that as a whole other realm. It's not even the same sport anymore, it's like, dare-devilish.

EXPN: So describe a typical Rick Thorne day for us.

RT: You know what? I've been hanging around with the younger dudes, like the 18- to 22-year-old kids. All they want to do is ride. That's all that they have, they don't have relationships or houses or cars or any of that crap. It's kinda keeping me on my toes. Some days we'll wake up, scout out some streets, parks, or we'll ride it up to L.A.; usually that's on the weekends. We'll go to, like, the Vans skate park on certain days and certain nights, the one in Ontario or the one here in Orange. I got a mini-ramp in yard; we'll ride the vert at night.

So you wake up, ride street, ride a skatepark, ride the vert at nighttime, weekends I'll go ride street. I spend a lot of time around my house, right now I'm just installing the white picket fence and spending time with my wife. And I also do that show, EXPN X2day, and so with that I'm coming up with ideas for that. And then just other opportunities: being my own agent, my own bike rider, my own television guy, and music too!

Actually, here's my normal day: Wake up, do some stuff around the house for a couple of hours, make some phone calls, go ride street or a skatepark, do band practice, eat, and go ride vert, and then go to bed or watch a movie. That's pretty much, like, a daily thing. And, like, weekends I might not ride the parks because they are so packed, so we'll go ride street all day. And that's when I'm at home, you know what I mean?

EXPN: Anything big planned for the EXPN2day show?

RT: The next one's going to be at the Action Sports and Music Awards. Really, the show is built on spontaneity and covering people in their element, you know? I don't know, it will be full of surprises, you just gotta stay tuned. Spontaneity is the best thing.

EXPN: How do you feel about ESPN's whole involvement in competitions, how a lot of the sports are really getting big now?

RT: With ESPN covering the sports, I think it's great because, especially in bike riding, we're trying to reach the point where you have endorsements, like, products where you don't have to compete. But unfortunately in bike riding, the turnover isn't as great as we would like it to be, like in skateboarding, but I think contests help riders be able to make a living at it, but don't make that your everything. Understand what I'm saying? Stay in the industry, stay into videos, stay into riding street, stay riding vert, but also go to the contests. Don't just think that contests are dumb or videos are cool, there's no one or other, do it all. But with ESPN covering the sports, it helps to solidify with the mainstream. It isn't just a side show at a fair, we did that for YEARS.

EXPN: Give kids and up-and-comers an idea of how long it took you to get to the level that you are at now.

RT: These days I think kids can learn quicker because there are skateparks, there's people backing it. Bike riding is still struggling, 'cause we're not allowed to ride a lot of places for one reason or another. But kids that want to come out and ride bikes, I've been riding for almost 20 years, but it doesn't take 20 years to compete. Just set your goals, in anything that you do. If you want to be here at this contest, then set that as your goal. You'll get here.

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