Tuesday, November 12

Chad Kagy From Oceanside

By George Crosland/Brian Botts
EXPN.com

Editor's Note: Chad Kagy moved from beautiful, sunny, hot chick laden Southern California - where the sport of BMX was invented - to a land of Amish people, heavyset beer drinkers and deathly hot and humid summers. Why do such a thing you may ask. Well the answer is so he can train at the campadelic Woodward facility… Ahhhh, of course. Are the immaculate Pennsylvania pipes, courses and jumps paying off? You be the judge - Chad got a solid Bronze at X Games VIII and just won the Vans Triple Crown Street Comp final round in Oceanside.

Bonus Fact: Chad is also a threat in vert; he gets top ten on a regular basis. We caught up with Chad after the Triple Crown to find out about flipwhips and life in PA. Cameo reporter DC Team Manager Brian Botts grills the recent addition while our pesky correspondent butts in with offensive comments and poorly formed questions.

EXPN: So what's up? Is the Triple Crown the first contest you've won this year?

Kagy: In street, yes.

Chad feeling at home in PA with a handplant over the spine.

Are you excited?

I was pissed off yesterday cause I didn't qualify, but then I won the last chance qualifier. I just wanted to lay down a serious, solid run. Flipwhip, double flip, big giant manual on the wall, just pile it all together into one. The recorder is sideways, will it work?

Yeah it will work. Seems like you've been getting your sh*t together in contests lately.

I wanna lay down the law! I've been seeing the same people win every single time.

Nice.

So I'm gonna make myself win every time.

Has the flipwhip/double backflip combo ever been done in a contest before?

Separately, yes. But not by the same person in the same run. This was the first time, ever.

Where are you living now?

About 30 minutes from Woodward in State College.

Ahh, its starting to come together now.

Yes it is (laughs).

Kagy showing off the custom headbadge on his pedal powered fun machine.

His agent butts in…

Hey, I won (to agent)!

Agent leaves…

So living that close to Woodward, has it paid off?

Are you kidding me? It gives me the most incredible stuff to ride constantly, day after day. If you can live at or near Woodward and not get better, you're a moron (more laughing).

What's a double flip like?

This is what you see - pedal hard, hit the box jump, yank hard, tuck the bike in - you see blue then gray cause the jump is gray (more laughing) then blue and when you see gray again you slow yourself down, focus on that, cause that's what you're gonna land on.

So you did it (double flip) at the very end of the run, where you tired?

I was tired before I even made it close to that box jump (laugher). About 15 seconds before that my legs were screaming at me.

So what's the plan now?

Interbike in Vegas, go home, ride more and get all these trick more dialed so everything can be laid out. I got plans.

Chad is also a versitile vert rider. He's shown here on his way to a 7th place finish at the final stop of the Vans Triple Crown of BMX.

What do you for fun in Woodward?

I …..

…I hump dogs (laughter). Did you say I hump dogs? Hey, lick balls!

I've been out to Woodward, there's not much to do out there.

I live in State College.

Ahhhh

Right now there are 60,000 college students there plus 40,000 people that already live there. So there's stuff to do everywhere!

Strip Joints?

Actually, the strip joints are horrible (laughs).

Bottom feeders?

They didn't get hit with the ugly stick it was more like a pile of bricks (everyone cracks up). Anyway, I do photography, I got all kinds of camera stuff so I'm always running around doing that, hang out with my girl, my dog.

Chad doing some big time TV interview after winning street at the final stop of the Vans Triple Crown of BMX.

You have a mini truck right, where's that?

It's in Vegas. It's full size so technically it's not a mini truck. But since it drags the frame on the ground it's kind of a mini truck.

Who's helped you out with that deal?

That was through Street Trucks, this guy named Tio, a very good guy. I made friends with Tio cause he's a rider then he just took my truck and hooked it up. Another friend of mine is painting it in Vegas, so I dropped it off with him.

What would you be doing if it weren't for bicycles?

Black Tar Heroin? I don't know... Growing up, I couldn't do any serious team sports. When I was six I did soccer and it was horribly boring. You stand on one side of the field, the ball goes to the other, and then it comes back. It's like baseball, the sh*t is long and boring and you need like18 people just to have a game. So I would probably be one of those freestyle motocross kooks (more laughing) doing Hart Attacks, whips and Cliff hangers… (pause) and what the hell are those stupid things where you wrap you're legs around the (laughing)…

Ape Hangers?

The crap where the legs go in front of you?

Heel Clickers (laughing).

Yeah, it looks like you're crapping on your crossbar. I would never do any of those! Something like that, I don't know.

Good deal Chad, thank you very much sir.

Thank you guys.