00:00:06
Brook McDonald, the Bulldog. Welcome to my podcast. Thanks, Dom. Thanks for having me. M. I'll tell you what, this
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is one thing. I've been doing this podcast um almost three years now, and this is one of the greatest joys for me.
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Um, people such as yourself being put on my radar. Um, I mean, I feel embarrassed
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about this cuz the amount of research I've done over on you over the past week, I feel like I should have known
00:00:27
you previously. Like, you're a massive deal. um but I hadn't heard of you and
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someone sent me a message giving me your backstory and um it's phenomenal to have
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you here today. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me, Dom. Um obviously my sport's
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so niche. So in I guess in New Zealand it's it's not a sport that's talked
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about because you know we've got rugby, cricket and soccer which are are the
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main mainstream events. Well a mainstream sport here. So mountain biking is is definitely growing in New
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Zealand but it's such a small sport. Um, I guess you don't really hear too much
00:01:01
about it, but yeah. Um, obviously for me to be on on a podcast with you is is awesome because I I grew up as a child
00:01:09
listening to The Edge, listening to you. So, um, me and my mom would like tune in
00:01:14
to The Edge every day, every morning, every afternoon when she'd pick me up from school. So, yeah, it's definitely a
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pleasure to be uh be on here. I know that's um I know that's a compliment,
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but [ __ ] that makes me feel old when people say that now. People come up to Yeah, it happens a reasonable
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amount to be fair and they they'll be like, "I listen to you when I was a kid
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and the car on the way to school and you look at this person with a full beard or
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whatever and I'm like, "Oh man, how old does that make me?" But um yeah, what
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you do is is crazy. So you're um a professional downhill mountain biker, correct? Yeah. Yeah. So basically, yeah,
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racing from A to B as fast as possible. Um you're over a stretch of between like
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2 to 2 and 1/2k long. Um and that roughly is I don't know about 2 and a half to 4 and a half at the longest. Um
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and I think average speed is you know up around 35 to 45k depending on the track.
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So it's pretty quick like over the over the span of my career. Um definitely the
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tracks got a lot faster um because they are wanting to like narrow down um the time of of the track to make it more
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exciting for for spectators and people watching online. So the the racing has definitely got a lot faster and the
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average speed is a lot higher. Was was it not exciting enough beforehand? Well, I I mean, I thought it was, but yeah,
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obviously they needed to to change it. But yeah, obviously with that comes comes like higher risks and um yeah,
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just you're literally on the edge for that whole three and a half minutes. It's uh it's pretty scary. Yeah. And
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that um high risk that you're talking about um that is definitely part of the
00:03:02
Brook McDonald story and and we'll get into that in this major accident um that
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you had in 2019. Um, yeah, it's incredible that you got back on the bike after that. It's actually, it's
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incredible that you even, you know, walking again after that. Um, so there's
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a lot to unpack. Um, no doubt I'll ask some dumb questions about your sport,
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but um, you just have to bear with me here. I'd like to think I'm I'm one of
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these people. I've got like a wide range of knowledge, but it's very thin.
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It's all good. So, do you you don't do any like uphill mountain biking, so
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you're basically just getting a chair lift to the top of a hill and then riding down. Yeah, basically the only
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uphill stuff I do is for training. Um, but yeah, at events it's uh chairlift or
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gondola. Um, so so a lot of uh a lot of the places we go for our events mainly Europe is um you know based around um
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ski resorts. So in the summer though those are um bike parks. And I think now some of the ski resorts the biking is
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taking over the skiing because obviously skiing uh well the snow in Europe is is
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not that great. Um and so biking has definitely become a big part of of their you know
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their um I guess their part of their life whereas like ski was was a massive part of it but biking is kind of
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becoming that which is pretty cool. And in in terms of again another dumb question in in terms of um like training
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and stuff, what do you need to do? Do do you need to be physically fit or is it just like mentally you just have to be
00:04:33
unhinged? Definitely a lot of that, but also physically. Um when I first started
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racing, I just thought riding my bike was was the only thing that I needed to do. Um so for a long time, well, not for
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a long time, but probably three or five years of of the start of my career, I just rode my bike. I didn't go to the
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gym. I didn't, you know, use a road bike to to do my cardio. So, um, when I brought on a trainer, um, that was all a
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massive eye opener for me because, you know, all of a sudden I had to go to the gym three times a week and then spend
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six six days a week on my bike and I was having uh, one rest day in that. But, you know, that rest day I'd still be
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riding my bike. So yeah, it all become uh it all become quite important when I had to start doing that because my sport
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had started evolving and you know training to me become the job whereas like before it was just riding my bike.
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Um so yeah with that you know obviously comes a salary all of that stuff. So it becomes a job. Still fun, but it becomes
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a job. And you're, you know, writing for these these big companies that want you
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to perform. So along that, you know, came with with all the training or comes to training. Yeah. The stakes the stakes
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get very they get ratcheted up all of a sudden. E it's um it's funny sports like
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that. Intrigues me. It's Formula 1's the same thing as well. It's like just guys
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sitting on their ass driving a car, but they're all like physically supremely
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fit. I know. And you know, you look at other sports and I'm like, what? You know, like what kind of training they
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do? Like for example, Formula 1, they're sitting in a car, but you know, they're
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pulling so many G's that they have to do so much physical stuff. Um, and yeah,
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like a lot of people with my sport is like they just think that I race down a hill, so you don't need to be fit, but
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you have to be so fit. It's, you know, like 3 minutes of just emptying yourself
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um physically but also mentally and like getting into that frame of mind of like
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risking everything you have to the millisecond like you know one one bit of track if you're offline that can cost
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you milliseconds. So yeah, it's uh it's definitely progressed over over the
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time. Like I feel like every year I've had to train harder and start earlier.
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Um so yeah. Right. Yeah. So you you worry about your nutrition, you worry about strength and conditioning. You do
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all that stuff. Yeah. I guess like strength and conditioning is probably the biggest nutrition. Um I'm not like
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super strict on what I eat. I um I'm lucky enough I've got a personal chef
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that uh that cooks me good food. So um I'm lucky with that. But like I'm not
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super worried about what I eat. I just make sure I eat good food. Um, and yeah, obviously, you know, a bit of weight
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behind you going downhill is is not a bad thing. And then, yeah, obviously strength and conditioning like three
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days a week in the gym. And then seven days a week on the bike. I'm not really
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I mean, I have rode a my doorstep. So riding my bike is is something that I do every day and it's hard to be like,
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okay, today I'm not going to ride my bike, but I sit there and get bored, so
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I go out and ride my bike. So yeah, just just riding my bike is is the biggest thing. And just like, you know, adding
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those hours and consistency is is really important. And you just love it, eh? And
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was was that a joke before about a personal chef or is that your is your talking about your partner? Yeah, I'm
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talking about my partner. I was going to say, [ __ ] there's a lot of money in
00:08:18
this. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I should have said my my partner. Yeah. But um Yeah. So, I'm I'm
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very lucky on that side. Yeah. But ultimately, when it comes to it though, when you're at the start of one of these
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events and you're at the uphill and the gates up, do they have a gate? We have
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like a a beam that you break. Okay. So, um every like qualifying we have every 30 seconds a rider goes. So, um yeah,
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after after five you're allowed to go whenever after that if before I think you get like a maybe a 1 second um
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penalty. Um so yeah, when you're up there at that moment, how much of it comes down to like the um the physical
00:09:00
work you've done and how much comes down to just having no fear like if you had
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to put a percentage on it? Well, I like to think like all the I feel like all the work is done in the off season and
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the fun and the easy part is racing. Easy part, I say somewhat easy. Um, yeah, but I think it's just like
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switching your brain off because like I think in our sport a lot of people you have that that subconscious feeling of
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like when we're warming up at the top. So, normally I do like a 30 minute warm
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up um on the bike just to get ready and prepare myself. But like a lot of the time like especially if I've done good
00:09:41
um I subconsciously in my head I'm like am I going to crash in this first corner? Like am I going to make a
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mistake there? Which um is like I find super hard to deal with because in my head I'm telling myself that and also
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I'm wondering if it's going to happen. But as soon as I hop in the start gate,
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I feel like everything just disconnects and goes away and all you're focused on
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is putting each section. I try to piece each section together um as I go down, which is super hard because I'm also
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worrying about what line what line I'm going to be well writing my line. Um so
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yeah it there is a lot to it but it also is simple at the same time when I've
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done it for you know 15 years of my life it becomes pretty easy. It's just yeah
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switching off the brain and and going as fast as you can and you know like just finding the finding the edge and the
00:10:40
small milliseconds to you know to be second place compared to 10th place. You know it it comes down to like a small
00:10:50
overb break into a corner or your exit speed out of a corner. So it's now it's
00:10:57
more like that. When I first started, you know, you can make small mistakes and still come 10th place, whereas like
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if you make three, well, even one mistake now, it's you could be like 20th place.
00:11:10
Yeah. I suppose it gets to that point where you're looking for those like little marginal gains. The the funny
00:11:14
thing is hearing you talk about this, it's like if this was me, I've watched
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so many videos of you in the past week, and if it was me, I reckon if I made it down to the bottom, the part of my body
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that would hurt the most would be my like hands from like gripping onto the brakes too hard. Oh, for sure. I mean
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like like it would take me hours to get down there. Yeah. I feel like when I haven't ridden in a long time, um that's
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the that's the most part that I notice that hurts is my hands because obviously
00:11:39
like bike setup is such a massive thing and like if if you have small things that are not out or different tracks
00:11:45
you've say I've come back from my last World Cup to ride my bike and at at home
00:11:51
in Roou like the setup is so different. So all of that changes the way you ride and the way the bike feels. And yeah, I
00:12:00
rode my bike the other my down bike the other day for the first time in 3 months
00:12:04
and like get to the bottom like stop midway, have a break, get to the bottom, my hands are so sore. Um and that's just
00:12:10
like time not spent on the bike and also the setup of the bike too. So um yeah, obviously like you know the more you get
00:12:19
into it, the more relaxed and the bike set up the more easier it is. Where where are you where are you a big star?
00:12:25
Like where's your fan base? You've got a massive massive social media following,
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eh? Yeah. Um huge following. I think mainly Europe and South America, a little bit of the US. Um and a small
00:12:36
amount of I think Australia and New Zealand a little bit, but yeah, mainly Europe because a lot of my stuff I do is
00:12:41
is based in Europe. A lot of my racing is across Europe and we do a small amount out outside of Europe. And what's
00:12:49
your world rank? Do you have a world ranking? Um, last three years for me have have
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been terrible. I haven't had great seasons. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm embarrassed to say where I sitting.
00:13:03
Okay. Well, what's No, I was just curious if there is like a world Yeah. No, we do have a have a world ranking
00:13:08
system. Um, what's the best you've been then? Six. Okay. Yep. six of well we
00:13:12
have like a world cup series and then a world ranking which goes off of like um UCI points which work at like smaller
00:13:21
races, world cups and world champs. Um and I think one point I was maybe fifth in the world rankings and then yeah I've
00:13:30
had two six overall finishes. So those have been my best results. I'm I'm
00:13:34
intrigued now. Like how how bad is it like a top 100 or out of the top maybe? Yeah, I think out of the top 100 cuz
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it's super hard now. Like there's so many people racing, but for us in New
00:13:48
Zealand, our national series, we don't get UCI points. So the only points that
00:13:53
I'm collecting are at World Cups. And now with the change of the system, we have like a qualifying, a semi-finals,
00:14:01
and a finals. So if you're not inside the top 20 in the qualifying, you don't
00:14:06
Oh, I think it's top 30. You don't get points. And then if you go through to
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the semis, I think it's maybe top 20 and then finals is top 30. So it's like super hard to get points now. And
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then you have these races in Europe like preseason um you know say like Portugal,
00:14:24
Spain where these guys go and they can collect a lot of UCI points there which brings their ranking up into you know
00:14:31
the top 50. Um, so it's kind of really hard for for us being so far from New
00:14:37
Zealand trying to like collect points to go and race, but also for like a world ranking. Sorry for bringing that up. I'm
00:14:46
still I'm still suitably impressed. You could get like 500 people at a road bike park on a Saturday afternoon and
00:14:53
I'd be lucky to make the top 100. So yeah. Yeah, you're still awesome in
00:14:58
my eyes. Is um Yeah. when you're at this level, you know, and you've been, you
00:15:02
know, one of the best in the world at this um, you know, downhill mountain biking, is it lucrative? Does it pay the
00:15:06
bills all right? Yeah, for sure it does. Um, I feel like I've been super lucky to have like
00:15:16
a really good span of of racing and consistent results and and a consistent paycheck. Um, so basically, yeah, I've
00:15:25
been able to race for the past, you know, 14 years and and not have to not have to work, you know, a job in the
00:15:34
summer just to cover, you know, my summer or flights to Europe. I mean, the first two years I I did that. I raced
00:15:42
overseas um and I worked in the summer just to sort of help me out through through the um season of racing. But as
00:15:51
soon as I got like a proper salary and a proper contract, like a pro pro contract, um yeah, I was I was pretty
00:16:00
sorted and have been, you know, consistently um making good money throughout like the yeah, past 13 years.
00:16:09
But with um obviously with co like that really bmed the mountain bike industry and obviously people were like what what
00:16:18
can we do differently or what you know what can we do outside of like going to the gym and running so people like
00:16:24
started buying mountain bikes and then I think the industry like kind of freaked
00:16:28
out and just over capitalized with with making bikes and now that's that's
00:16:32
really paying um paying for what they did then and now. So, like for me now, I um
00:16:44
even like getting product is super hard. Like I struggle to get product now because I'm just sort of putting my own
00:16:49
package together for this year. And um yeah, it's it's really difficult. Like
00:16:55
the industry is struggling super hard. Um, and I understand that in in like the industry, but like in my eyes as well,
00:17:05
it's like, you know, I've been so prominent in the sport, like to go to a
00:17:09
company, it it feels I kind of feel offended like if they're like, "Oh,
00:17:15
sorry. We can't do that." And I just it it's hard to understand because like you
00:17:21
know in my eyes like I feel like I should be able to you know finish World Cup racing but still be associated with
00:17:29
the industry. And I've kind of got the feeling like I could have just put everything down and not said a word and
00:17:37
no one would have asked the question. And it it's kind of a shame the way it's
00:17:43
going, but I feel like it's probably going to pick back up maybe in 2 years time. Um, so yeah, it's it's definitely
00:17:52
a lot harder now than it than it used to be. And obviously like results are definitely a huge part of, you know,
00:18:01
securing a a good contract and and more so now than than ever. Yeah. Good on you
00:18:07
for sharing that as well. I'd find that frustrating as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
00:18:10
like a lot and a lot of people, you know, could put it down to like arrogance or something, but it's like
00:18:14
you you've [ __ ] you've done the [ __ ] work and you've been doing this like
00:18:17
half your life and you've done it at a exceptional level. Yeah. And I I would
00:18:21
hope to like be associated with some brands and I'm lucky enough there there
00:18:26
has been brands come to me that want to be a part of it but like it just seems like a little bit of the industry is
00:18:33
more focused on racing now and like there's so much change in the racing like Discovery and Warner Bros. have
00:18:39
taken over whereas like before was Red Bull TV they did a great job like free live stream to everyone in the world.
00:18:48
now everyone has to pay a subscription to watch it. And it just seems like I don't know in my eyes the sport
00:18:56
has changed and they're trying to go down the route of like Formula One, but
00:19:01
my sport's so niche that you're not going to get these multi-millionaire
00:19:05
billionaire people coming and watching because you know it's you're watching on
00:19:10
a big TV at the bottom or you're standing on the side of track and watching you know 30 people come past
00:19:17
every minute or every two minutes and I feel like it's very difficult in our
00:19:23
sport to to draw those people in or draw outside sponsors in. Um, and yeah, as I
00:19:30
said, it's very niche and I feel like they're trying they're trying to change
00:19:35
it when it doesn't really need to be changed. Um cuz I feel like the way it was was really good and how it worked
00:19:43
and we had like they're cutting out people like privateeer people that are doing it off their own back and trying
00:19:50
to race at world cups to get the result to get onto a pro team whereas now that's sort of like they've sort of
00:19:56
pushed all that out. Um cut the podium down to three people whereas before it was five. So like getting fifth place at
00:20:03
a World Cup was massive. Like such a big achievement for yourself and for the team and the sponsors, whereas now I
00:20:11
don't know. I feel like fifth place now with no podium is going to just feel
00:20:16
like fifth place and not Yeah. So out of sight, out of mind. Yeah. Yeah. What about um I mean you're wearing a Red
00:20:22
Bull cap. There's a can of Red Bull on the table. Um how long have you been associated with them? Um 14 years. So
00:20:28
like Yeah. Yeah. I've had a really long partnership with them and still continued to do so. So, they're like
00:20:34
your day ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They literally Yeah. have been with me from basically the start of my career and
00:20:40
it's been amazing. They're such a It's such a great company to work with.
00:20:45
Um they just have so many resources and so much stuff that can help you from day-to-day life, you know, like they
00:20:54
have two APC like athlete athlete performance centers. um one in LA and one in Austria. Um so like you know if I
00:21:05
get injured or if I want to go do some training there um they can send me there and I can spend a week or two weeks
00:21:11
there um working with like strength and conditioning physio um psychologists um yeah you name it. They
00:21:21
have it all there which is really amazing. And you know like from from that to creating projects to um being
00:21:29
involved with their own projects um you know like Red Bull Fluke Tag and those events. It's um really cool and you just
00:21:38
get to network and meet a lot of different people. Um, so yeah, I've been very fortunate to, you know, obviously
00:21:46
any kid in any in any extreme sport like Red Bull is what they want to be sponsored by and that was obviously my
00:21:53
dream to be working with them and obviously when that happened it was like a huge dream come true and I've just,
00:22:01
you know, tried to like do everything I can to be involved in the in the brand and um create projects with them. So,
00:22:10
it's been really cool. Yeah. There must be a Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm pleased to
00:22:14
hear you say that and explain what their involvement is beyond just sending you a
00:22:18
case every now and then, throwing a bit of cash your way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. They I mean they they look
00:22:23
after obviously an F1 team and I think over maybe over 800 athletes around the world. So they definitely it's really
00:22:34
cool like what they put back into into the sport and helping like all these athletes and um I just think it's so
00:22:42
different to other energy drinks that spons you know like they may the the package they give you is
00:22:51
really good like you know you you you have a salary you have like performance bonuses you have um marketing budget you
00:22:58
have travel budget um anything like you know like if I was in need like say I was in Canada and I hurt myself and I
00:23:10
needed you know surgery they would I would contact Rebel Canada and they would put me in touch with like their
00:23:16
surgeons that they have used and just all of that stuff it it's like just the
00:23:20
smaller finer details that really make the brand great. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very
00:23:27
different sport, but I've had Hayden Wild on the podcast, the the triathlete.
00:23:30
And um like you, he's very very thirsty to get the hat out and get the drink
00:23:35
out. And um you know what? It it doesn't bother me at all. It says a lot about
00:23:39
the brand. The athletes that they sponsor are so like eager to, you know, get them get them your front of mind. I
00:23:46
think it's really cool. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Oh yeah, it is
00:23:49
definitely. Um, and I feel like they, you know, I think it's a cool brand to be involved with and like the
00:23:57
can looks great, their hats, their product is just something that, you know, every kid dreams of of wearing.
00:24:04
Yeah. It's not a not a hard sell. No, for sure not. Yeah. Okay. So, let's go
00:24:09
um let's go all the way back. So, um yeah, speaking of Red Bull, I saw some like documentary movie they made about
00:24:15
you that's on YouTube. Um, and I don't know if this was a joke from your mom,
00:24:18
but it sounds like when you were born, uh, it was an 18-hour labor. Yeah. Um, and then they gave up and just gave her
00:24:24
a cecerian and you came out almost like doing the peddling motion when she reckons that it's a joke, right?
00:24:32
Yeah. I think she jokes about that cuz um I think maybe a week cuz she's a posty so um she spent 30 odd years of
00:24:42
her life riding a bike delivering mail and I think she spent right up till maybe a week before I was born um still
00:24:51
out riding her bike. So I think it's just a yeah just a just a running joke that she was obviously a week before I
00:24:58
was born she was still out peeling a bike and yeah thinks that I come out. So this was a bike as well. Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:05
Yeah. Well it's a great joke. Um so yeah. So you're born in sort of Hawks
00:25:09
Bayway. Yeah. What are your earliest memories? Do you remember much of those years? Yeah. I guess I spent a lot of
00:25:16
time with my grand um and granddad at the farm they have um spent I would spend most of my weekends up there with
00:25:25
my cousin. We just helped my uncle and my granddad out on the farm um riding motorbikes. I started playing rugby from
00:25:34
four um right up until I think I was 17. Um, and that was obviously like, you know, rugby being such a prominent sport
00:25:46
in New Zealand, that was my my goal was to be an allback like every kid that plays rugby. Um, so I yeah, I played
00:25:55
rugby right up until I made a decision whether I wanted to race mountain bikes or play rugby. And I felt I definitely
00:26:01
feel like if I went down the path of rugby, I potentially could have been an all black. Um, well, I like to think so.
00:26:07
Anyway, just with your mindset or because you were good? I think just with my mindset and and I was also really
00:26:12
good. I was I was a mongrel on the field. I was always fighting and just just one of those ones that would um
00:26:19
just not scared of confrontation. Not scared at all. And I would just run when I get the ball, I'd run it straight.
00:26:25
Whether it was some, you know, 80 kilo dude standing there, I'd still think I'd
00:26:29
be able to run straight through him. So yeah, I I definitely had a hard decision
00:26:36
making that whether I wanted to go and play rugby or not cuz I was juggling between like high school rugby playing
00:26:43
in the morning and then my grand and myself would drive to Wonganoi in the winter and do a series of downhill races
00:26:50
over there and on a Sunday. So, it was just um yeah, juggling between the two of them and I guess
00:26:59
I fell for for mountain biking. It was just something different to rugby. Like it wasn't a team environment. It was,
00:27:06
you know, an individual sport. So, yeah, I kind of like didn't have to worry about anyone
00:27:12
else. It was myself that I had to worry about and that, you know, that was everything was on me, you know, outside
00:27:19
of mechanical errors. But yeah, it was just down to me, you know, switching off my brain and trying to ride my bike as
00:27:26
fast as possible. Yeah. In terms of an entry point, it's um such a more difficult sport to to get into. Or maybe
00:27:33
it's easier now. I don't know. But in terms of schools, I mean, it's easy
00:27:35
enough to get into a rugby team, right? Yeah. You go to any rugby club on a Saturday morning, go to weigh in, and
00:27:40
then you're in a team. But yeah, it seems like Yeah. Very, very hard to get into like downhill m. Yeah. I think um I
00:27:46
think now it's way more easier whereas um when I started we didn't you didn't
00:27:52
have like Queenstown with a chairlift, Christ Church with a chairlift. Um Ro was there but like the how it is now
00:28:01
compared to what it was. It was it's such a bigger scale now. So I feel like
00:28:05
getting into mountain biking then was a lot harder. Whereas now, like I I only started racing, well, started riding
00:28:12
mountain bikes when I was, I think, 11. And kids now are, you know, four, five year olds that are out in the forest
00:28:19
ripping. And so they have that that, you know, that age from 5 to 11 where they just learn so much and they get to 11,
00:28:30
I'm like looking at these kids that 11 years old, that stuff that I'm like,
00:28:33
"Holy shit." Like I would not have been doing that at 11 years old. So like Yes.
00:28:39
So by the time you were starting they've already done their apprentichip. Yeah.
00:28:42
And now with like Queenstown and Christ Church the chairs like you know it's so
00:28:47
accessible now for them to be able to go down there and ride bikes just punch laps out like you know just constantly
00:28:54
going. And these kids these days are, you know, they got so much energy, so they're just, you know, out there doing
00:28:59
20 laps a day, which I mean now improves your skills so fast. Um, so yeah, definitely
00:29:07
difficult back then, but also still difficult now for being such a small country, so far away from Europe where
00:29:14
all the races are and just the process that, you know, you have to go through now to get onto the world stage. And
00:29:21
your your nickname the bulldog. Is that was that a school nickname or is that one that came later on? Uh that came
00:29:26
later on just um through through riding um I think just from my aggressive riding style, the way I crashed, how I
00:29:36
crash and would just brush off and get back up. Like you know people always say to me like I don't know how you crash
00:29:43
and get back up cuz if I crashed I think I would have you know two broken legs and two broken arms. I just pro I I
00:29:49
definitely put it down to rugby. Um just that whole, you know, contact sport and
00:29:57
being so involved and I think that's definitely helped me through my career and yeah, just basically come from just
00:30:05
I guess being a mongrel on a bike and so so why the bulldog? What does that mean?
00:30:10
Um I don't know. I just think the you know like just aggressive or aggressive?
00:30:14
Yeah, the aggressiveness. I mean bulldogs aren't that aggressive. No, not really. They're kind of fat and amazing.
00:30:20
Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it just come down to It's a great name, though. Come down to that. Yeah.
00:30:27
Mongrel, aggressiveness, being able to just get up like nothing's happened and
00:30:33
and carry on and ride my bike at the same speed I was riding before I had these big crashes. So, you first
00:30:39
represented New Zealand in 2008, which feels like a lifetime ago, right? 17. How old were you? So, that's 17 years
00:30:45
ago. How old? Yeah, I would have been 16. Amazing. So, you've been doing this
00:30:48
over half your life. It's incredible. Um, yeah. What are your recollections of
00:30:51
that representing New Zealand for the first time while you're still at school?
00:30:54
Yeah. Well, I mean, um, my mom and myself went overseas for the first time. Um, and back then obviously like there
00:31:03
was no, you know, navigation on phone. So, here's me like reading off a map to
00:31:08
my mom, not having a clue how to read a map. And um yeah, just like I vividly remember like going to Scotland um going
00:31:18
to Andor and going to Italy where I did two World Cups before I went and race world champs. Um and yeah, like I I
00:31:29
surprised myself massively. Like I didn't think I was going to go there and qualify. I qualified at both world cups
00:31:36
and then um finished I think yeah finished fifth in my first juniors and yeah kind of from there sort of like
00:31:45
progressed and I got you know 2009 I had a small Italian team um so I went to Italy for 6 months like it was crazy
00:31:55
like I had you know lived at home mom had cooked me food so I had to go over there my stepdad come over with me spent
00:32:02
a couple weeks like just settling me into the um apartment we were staying at and then you know see you later here
00:32:08
comes my teammate and I'm having to like you know learn to cook pasta cook past
00:32:13
without water like just chaotic. Yeah. Yeah. So it was like So how old were you then? Yeah I think I
00:32:22
was Yeah. 17. You have to grow up real quickly. Eh so quick. So quick. And um but like that that year was so important
00:32:31
for me learning life skills and learning all of that stuff about myself and having to wash my clothes and bedding
00:32:40
and cook. So I feel like that definitely shaped me into the person I am now. and
00:32:46
you know just having the appreciation of like a small team running on a small budget and you know having like a little
00:32:55
stick that would click into like our big PC um laptops to have 1 hour of internet
00:33:02
you know all of that stuff that now we we just all take for granted um and back then it's like you know I look back at
00:33:09
it I'm like holy [ __ ] like that's how how it was but it was so simple and you
00:33:14
know just ride my bike every day and that's you know what I grew up racing through throughout the years and how
00:33:21
racing was and you know it just be like we'd go to a World Cup and um I'd be
00:33:27
thinking of like me and my mates would be talking about the afterparty wouldn't
00:33:30
be focusing on the race we'd be talking about the after party and you know what
00:33:34
we're going to do and I think all of that just you know helped us taking our
00:33:40
mind off of results in bike racing and we just rode our bikes for fun. And I think the best thing
00:33:47
about that was the results came with with I guess the mindset of how we we raced back then. It must have felt like
00:33:55
you were living the dream back then. Oh, 100%. Like are you kidding me? Like get
00:33:59
out. That's insane. Yeah. And then like I got the next team in 2010. I was on
00:34:05
like a a pretty big team and um they had like this tour bus like double-decker tour bus and I'm like no way like you
00:34:14
know I get to spend half of my season cruising around this sleep in it had beds in it and um like massive big
00:34:22
structure for our pits. It was sick. It was so cool. And um yeah, I I was just like I'm living the dream riding
00:34:31
bikes. And I guess it was like all a blur until like my man a a manager in the sport who was who was very prominent
00:34:41
and um still my manager now come up to me and um he was running a quite a elite team
00:34:49
at that time like a factory team and came up to me and he said, "Oh, look, you know, like this is what I can offer
00:34:55
you." And I'm like, "No way." Didn't have a clue what that money meant, but
00:35:00
like I was just like, "No way." Like, "This is going to change my life." What
00:35:04
was it? Can you remember what it was? The the amount. The amount. I think it was like 125k US like per year. Per
00:35:12
year. Wow. And I was like, "What the fuck?" Like, how old were you? Like 18,
00:35:15
19 or something? Yeah, I was Yeah. 18. And like, oh my god, that's unreal. to
00:35:20
an at that like at that time too like to an 18y old that amount of money is so much and
00:35:28
um yeah and I was just like I was like [ __ ] this is actually a real job now like you know I still want to have fun
00:35:36
and race my bikes but I've still I've also got to perform because I have you
00:35:40
know I have a massive it was this was Trek Bike so huge huge company and um yeah so I had like a lot of pressure,
00:35:50
but also not at the same time because I had people around me that, you know, it never said, "Okay, I want you to go out
00:35:56
there and I want you to be top three." It was just go out and have a good race.
00:36:00
And I think that helped a lot. But yeah, that that obviously changed my life. Um,
00:36:05
you know, having a contract that big and um yeah, that's Did you get some some
00:36:12
financial advice for from anyone or were you like were you were you a dick with the money or were you comfortable with
00:36:17
it? No, I was I I was very lucky that I had a stepdad who was a builder. So, he um you know, obviously was like in the
00:36:26
industry and and you know, gave me advice, okay, you know, buy your first house. I built bought my first house,
00:36:34
had it as a rental and then um I bought a piece of land and and built a section I built a house on that
00:36:42
and he built it all for me and then I just paid him a percentage cuz he did everything cheap. So, we made a bunch of
00:36:48
money on that. So, I've just like I didn't I haven't had like proper
00:36:52
financial advice but just sort of figured it out through my stepdad and and myself. But, you know, getting that
00:37:00
amount of money at such a young age, like you think that it's never ending. Yeah, it can be dangerous. It can be
00:37:07
dangerous. And I'm I'm you for sure. I've made like stupid mistakes where
00:37:12
I've been like, man, I shouldn't have spent that money there, but like at the
00:37:16
time you think it's it's great, you know, like go to the go to the um club
00:37:21
with my mates and spend $1,000 some gray goose or Yeah. Yeah. And like, you know, at the time when
00:37:28
you're making that money, it's like you don't see it as an issue cuz you just
00:37:32
think it's just going to keep going on. Um, but yeah, I I want to say like I've
00:37:38
I've been like very good with my money and and smart with it. And I feel like I
00:37:45
probably could have progressed a lot more, but at the same time, I was like, you know, I never had a heap of we never
00:37:53
had a heap of money growing up. So like in my mind like saving my money and putting it into accounts and just
00:37:59
leaving it there and looking at it was always a you know for me it was such a attraction and I felt like if I didn't
00:38:09
have it sitting there and it was invested in something else it was like ah well I can't go do that but you know
00:38:16
like obviously that can be a return in the future. So, I feel like I've been I
00:38:22
haven't been like too chaotic with my money and making um making decisions where I'm like I can be okay with losing
00:38:31
that money because I've just like, you know, money in in your account always
00:38:36
looks good, right? So, that's always been my thought process. And yeah, I feel like I could have definitely done
00:38:43
some other things with my money, but I've just been I don't know, very cautious with it. Well, it sounds like
00:38:49
you've been smart. Nothing worse than sitting in front of you now and you going, "Oh, you guys this?" I don't know
00:38:53
where it went. Like, I've got a big TV. I've got a a skyline in the garage that
00:38:58
doesn't work anymore. But yeah, I'm definitely glad I didn't like go down
00:39:04
that path and just blow my money because I've I've know people that have done
00:39:08
that. So many people. So many people. And it's um and I guess I've looked at
00:39:13
other people and and just sort of made cautious decisions. Like I've just gone
00:39:18
out and bought rentals and I feel like that's been like my safest option because I mean you
00:39:24
can't really go wrong with with having rental properties, right? Yeah. Bricks
00:39:27
and mortar as they say. Yeah. And and um prior to 2019, we'll get to that. But
00:39:32
what was your worst sort of accident or injury prior to that one? Collarbones. Yeah. I've been super lucky. Really
00:39:39
lucky. I done I fractured my ankle in I think 200 like end of 2009 into 2010 and
00:39:51
then yeah I've just done three collarbones. So I've been like I've been
00:39:57
pretty lucky. Yeah. Yeah. Although I've done a collarbone once actually falling
00:40:00
off a bike as well as that round you know that round tapo bike ride. Oh yes the road bike ride. I did that one year
00:40:06
and it was um it was I think it was just fractured in the end but I went to Tapo
00:40:09
Hospital. They gave me a sling and some [ __ ] panadol and out of my way. It was like not much you can do about it
00:40:14
unless it's unless it needs to be plated. Yeah, it was but it's the most
00:40:19
inconvenient injury. Like I had to wear button-up shirts cuz I couldn't wear
00:40:22
t-shirts for a while. Yeah, I know. And then I um Yeah, once I thought it was healed again. I was so fearful of like
00:40:28
going back to the gym and doing bench. I thought it's going to snap again. Yeah.
00:40:31
Um which makes your injury which we get into even more remarkable in the fact that you got back on the bike. So um
00:40:38
yeah, Canada 2019. Yeah, it was uh definitely definitely a day that changed my life. Um world champs had lit Yeah.
00:40:51
Yeah. Literally come off of a really consistent season and I felt I don't know. I just felt some like something
00:40:58
was going to happen. Not in the way of crashing, but in result-wise. Um, how do you mean like you something felt a
00:41:05
little bit off or? No, no, like something felt good. I felt like, you know, I was going to going to get a good
00:41:11
result. Um, just the way I had prepared and like I felt I was probably in my best shape at the end of the season
00:41:19
going into World Champs. And, um, yeah, good week of practice. Um, really good qualifying. I qualified third. And then
00:41:29
at world champs we have qualifying one practice day before finals. Um so yeah we the day before we
00:41:39
had a lot of rain um and track got cut up and then obviously next day went into practice it dried out well was drying
00:41:47
out and um yeah went up for first run I like vividly remember coming to the section stopping having a look and I
00:41:56
just wanted to change my line a little bit. um went back up, dropped in, and I just had this like sense of
00:42:05
feeling that the run I was about to do was the run that I wanted to put together for my finals run. So, yeah,
00:42:13
come in, did the section, got it so perfect, and then just linked all the track up how I wanted
00:42:19
to, probably at like 70% and then, yeah, get to this um like this rock feature in
00:42:26
the in the woods. Um it was like a it's kind of like a 90 degree turn. So you
00:42:31
lost a little bit of speed and then sort of over a rock roll which like to me or
00:42:36
to anyone that you know was racing that time wasn't like a huge deal. It was
00:42:41
probably 45°ree. Um and I think prior to me there had been maybe like three or four oh maybe
00:42:49
three crashes. Three three people that had done exactly the same thing I did. One dude like fully KO'ed himself. off.
00:42:56
Another guy went off and cut his arm open or leg. And then um yeah, I come through and I just went to go over the
00:43:03
rock like kind of like pulled over and as I went over there's like exposed route like sort of
00:43:09
just cambered off a little bit and um hit that and it just flung my back wheel which sort of like unsettled me and then
00:43:18
I kind of went over well yeah went over was going over the handlebars. in my mind, like I was pretty optimistic that
00:43:25
I was gonna ride this out. Um, and yeah, it just happened so quickly. Like before
00:43:30
I knew it, I was I hit the ground so hard and like the force I hit the ground literally bounced me and put me off on
00:43:37
the side of the track and um I was laying on my side and I was like [ __ ] my back is really like I was in so much
00:43:46
pain and I went to roll onto my back and I was like holy like why can't I roll
00:43:52
and I was just like in my mind I didn't really know what was going on like I
00:43:57
didn't know that I was paralyzed But um yeah, so I was trying to roll over just
00:44:02
cuz I wanted to get comfortable cuz I wasn't comfortable. And then um yeah, it was just like real weird
00:44:09
sensation in my legs, like sort of tingly. Couldn't feel anything. Couldn't
00:44:13
move my toes. And I was like, "Fuck, this is bad. Like this is not good." So
00:44:19
all I wanted was like, "You got to get me off the hill." Cuz I just wanted to
00:44:23
know what was going on. I knew I'd done something bad, but not to the extent of
00:44:27
what I was going to get told. And um yeah, so like medics come up. They had two doctors on the hill. They had one
00:44:38
cuz they there was a a cross country race happening at the same time as we were practicing. So they had a doctor
00:44:43
down there and then a doctor on our hill, but that doctor was attending another person who had crashed higher
00:44:50
up. So like at the time I had no medication for maybe like I don't know an hour until the doctor come down. Were
00:44:58
you Were you freaking out? Um were you were you in like a calm state or No, I feel like I was in a pretty calm state
00:45:06
cuz I mean I couldn't really do anything literally. But you but you know it's you
00:45:13
know it's not [ __ ] great whatever is going on. No, but like my biggest thing
00:45:18
was I just wanted to get off the hill to the hospital to know what was going on and
00:45:24
um yeah, that didn't happen. I um Yeah. So, is this at the moment we're at now?
00:45:30
This is a photo I found online. Yeah. Yeah. Surrounded by a few paramedics. That's the paramedics loading me onto
00:45:35
the onto the backboard. So, how long had you been on the ground at that point? Um I reckon I'd been on the ground
00:45:43
probably oh maybe 10 minutes, right? Um so they took me from there they took me out onto like just the ski piece and
00:45:53
they had a [ __ ] quad there with a trailer on the back where they could put the the board on the backboard on. And
00:46:00
um yeah, they decided me decided to put me on this trailer with a quad and like the road down was like this real gnarly
00:46:08
four-wheel drive well quad track and um I don't know what was going on in their
00:46:12
head like a person with an like no feeling in their legs, unstable back and they wanting to drive me down this hill
00:46:22
on the back of a quad. And um in my mind I was like just get me off the hill. Like I didn't care how I got off the
00:46:30
hill. But you you weren't thinking straight though. No, I wasn't thinking
00:46:32
straight. And as soon as they started driving, I was like, "Fuck, no way. I'm
00:46:36
in so much pain." And then my mates around me are like, "What what the [ __ ]
00:46:39
are you guys doing?" Like, "He's obviously broken his back. He can't feel
00:46:43
his legs. And you guys are trying to drive him down the hill." So they took
00:46:47
me off and I was like, "Just call a helicop like get a helicopter as soon as
00:46:53
possible. like I honestly need to get off the hill because I'm in so much pain. So that that you know that hour
00:47:00
until the doctor turned I had no pain relief and then the doctor turned up and I think in Canada there's a rule where
00:47:08
they can only prescribe you a certain amount of pain relief but the pain relief is kind of like paracetamol.
00:47:16
So I was like, so I spent five hours. Yeah. Five hours on the hill and they were just dosing me up with the stuff
00:47:23
and nothing was working. Panadol. Come on. Yeah. Like literally. And I was still in so much
00:47:29
pain. And um so yeah, I lay there. Second hour goes by. I'm like, "Where
00:47:35
the [ __ ] this helicopter?" And they're like, "Oh, it's coming. It's coming."
00:47:38
And I'm like looking in the sky like trying to find this helicopter. And they're like, "Oh yeah,
00:47:43
here it comes. Here it comes." Helicopter flies over. not the helicopter for me. And I'm like, "What
00:47:47
the fuck?" And um Were you getting angry? I Yeah, for sure. For sure. I was
00:47:52
getting real. Like by the end I was cuz you you I mean you were irritated as well, I guess, cuz you're in pain. I was
00:47:58
super uncomfortable. And then um so yeah, time goes by and then helicopter turns up, spends like half an hour
00:48:07
circling around the mountain because they had no no helipad to land the heli on. And so they had and it was quite
00:48:14
windy too. So they had to um they had to land the heli like put this the um skids
00:48:21
into the side of the hill and just load me in. But but before this like there was a guy who was a helicopter pilot and
00:48:30
so they were like they were having this huge argument going back and forth like cuz they were saying no we can't land
00:48:36
the helicopter. guys like I'm a heli pilot, you can land here or you can just
00:48:40
put the skids in and and hover. And they were going off in um French Canadian. So
00:48:46
that was really pissing me off. And I was lucky like I had um one of my good friends Steve Pete who was an ex-raer
00:48:53
who literally stayed by my side the whole time just comforting me because I don't want to be comforted by you know
00:49:00
these dudes who are like going off in French Canadian. But like the paramedics were super good as well. Um, so that was
00:49:07
that was like made the whole experience a little bit nicer. So yeah, get in the helicopter and then they get a call and
00:49:15
they're like, um, sorry, the helipad at the hospital's out of use. You can't
00:49:21
come here. So like we had to fly to the airport and then from the airport we had
00:49:26
to get an ambulance, 20-minute ambulance to the hospital. And that was the worst.
00:49:30
That was like their roads are like cut up into maybe 100 meter sections. So like these big old you would have seen
00:49:38
the um ambulances in America like those big heavy things. So I was in one of those and just every bump a b and it was
00:49:45
just like on my back every bump I was like oh my god and then um got to the hospital at
00:49:53
like 5:00 in the afternoon. got examined. Um went to the Khole. That was crazy. Um was on the moon walking
00:50:02
around kicking, you know, space dust cuz this is pharmaceutical grade, not festival
00:50:08
grade. Yeah, this is pharmaceutical grade. Like literally when they're examining, I felt like I literally left
00:50:13
my whole body. Like my whole body just went. And um yeah, that was that was real crazy. And yeah, so they examined
00:50:21
me. Um, by the time it had finished there was um like surgery. It was too late to do surgery, but I was lucky that
00:50:28
I had a window of 24 hours to get the surgery in hope that I was potentially not going to be paralyzed. Um, so yeah,
00:50:38
spent a night there, had surgery in the morning, um, which I think was like 8 hours. Come out of that and yeah, no
00:50:46
pain, zero pain. So at at that point once you get to hospital who's making decisions on your behalf? Are you making
00:50:52
them for yourself or have you was your My mom and um stepdad were there right? So yeah they were obviously um like they
00:50:59
must have been worried sick. Yeah. Yeah it was. Was it worse for them than you? I think so. I think it definitely
00:51:05
impacted them but it was also really nice to have them at that race. It was just a coincidence that it happened
00:51:10
there and they were I was lucky that they were um there as well. So yeah. Um but yeah, got out of
00:51:18
surgery. Like the only pain that I had was my kidneys from like all the this the so much
00:51:25
um uh par like the paracetamol stuff they were giving me. I just had these crazy pains in my kidney. And I'm like
00:51:32
you guys have got to stop my pain relief. And as soon as I stopped my pain relie settled down I had zero pain in my
00:51:39
back. And then I had um yeah like all all the feeling had come back in like the top of my quads.
00:51:45
So how soon like immediately after the Yeah, immediate like not like fully but like I had some sensation there. Um and
00:51:54
like in my mind as soon as I woke up I'm like I'm going to race my bike next
00:51:59
year. And I think that was like the biggest thing that drove me to be able to race my bike again. Um cuz like
00:52:10
immediately after surgery, what do they what do the experts sort of tell you about the uh the medium to long-term?
00:52:16
Well, I was I was very lucky that I didn't get told anything. They didn't
00:52:19
say that you're going to be paralyzed. You're not going to walk again. Um which
00:52:23
in my eyes was like a massive benefit for me because obviously if I did get told that I was going to prove him wrong
00:52:30
for sure. Um Yeah. Cuz I've had a girl on the podcast um called Casey Brady who's like she was a motocross rider.
00:52:36
Yeah. and um she had just had this had this feeling like it was going to be an off day and she didn't want to ride but
00:52:42
she rode anyway at this track in Toppo ended up having a crash and she's been
00:52:45
in a wheelchair ever since and she said when when she was in Oakuckland like they told her unequivocally like you're
00:52:51
never going to walk again. Um like giving her no sort of false hope at all and she she's she's incredible. Like
00:52:58
she's really determined. She hasn't walked yet, but she's she's giving
00:53:01
herself every [ __ ] chance she can. If medicine or medical advancements catch up, she's going to be ready for it.
00:53:07
Yeah. Yeah. I think I think in in that position, you do cuz I feel like in my mind, not being told anything is like a
00:53:15
good thing because I can only focus on myself and not what someone else has told me. And um so yeah, like day one I
00:53:23
was like, I'm going to race my bike next year. I'm like it's probably not going
00:53:26
to happen. And I can I can't even walk yet. Were you saying that to anyone or
00:53:31
just like it? No, just just that was my own in my own head that was what I was going to do. Yeah. You wouldn't want to
00:53:37
be saying that to your mom necessarily? No. No, definitely not. Um but yeah, I think like from that point on like I
00:53:45
progressed so quickly. Um, and I think throughout that in throughout a a spinal injury, you sort of just have these up
00:53:53
and downs and plateaus. And I felt like I just went like from no feeling to having everything back obviously over
00:54:02
a period of a year and I did so much hard work. M um and I just like set small goals like you know I was I was
00:54:12
walking you know they had me standing two days after surgery and then I was like walking on a um what do they call
00:54:20
like a walker on that. Um, so I just like every day was a progressing step for me. And I was obviously in a really
00:54:29
good hospital. Like luckily the surgeon there was a spinal surgeon, like a really good like top spinal surgeon in
00:54:36
Canada. So I was lucky to have him and yeah, he pieced me back together and spent two weeks in Canada just because
00:54:44
of like insurance and getting flights home and stuff like that. Um, so yeah, did that. It was like a little bit
00:54:51
inconsistent because of like I didn't know when I was going home. So like physios like sort of all over the place
00:54:58
with like my timing. If I was out for a walk, they come by, I wasn't there. That
00:55:02
was like my physio session miss for the day. Um so like Canada definitely was hard, but I had like my eyes set on
00:55:11
going back to New Zealand and um going back to um Burwood Spinal Unit. Um, I had other options. I was looking at like
00:55:20
going somewhere in Vancouver and Red Bull Canada was like a massive help with trying to find all that stuff for me,
00:55:26
but I just kind of wanted to be back home and in an environment that I was comfortable with. So, yeah, I went back.
00:55:33
Um, I spent I was thinking maybe 3 4 months in Burwood, but I was only there for 4 weeks. And like when I got there,
00:55:40
I was like I just told myself I'm going to walk out of here. Um, cuz at that
00:55:44
time I could barely walk. Like could barely lift my legs. But, you know, holding on to stuff was okay. Um, so
00:55:51
yeah, I had like a great physio team there. Um, actually my physio that I work with like knew who I was cuz she
00:55:58
was a mountain biker. So, um, working with her very closely was was awesome and she just pushed me through those
00:56:04
four weeks. Um, and that was hard like with a spinal injury like you get so fatigued so quickly. So it was like, you
00:56:12
know, I had two sessions in the morning, I go home, sleep, another two sessions in the afternoon. Um, but yeah, like it
00:56:20
just, yeah, progressed so quickly and I walked out of Burwood and went home and like I rode my I was riding my bike
00:56:29
5 weeks post surgery and I rode my bike better than I could walk. So that was for me a sign of like okay well if I can
00:56:35
ride my bike okay then it's not gonna this gonna be a small part of getting back to racing. Yeah. And um I guess in
00:56:43
my mind like the back for me is the furthest thing away. So I didn't lose much confidence riding my bike. I feel
00:56:51
like you know your arms and your collarbones and your legs are like closer and you know more stuff can
00:56:56
happen to that. So in my mind, my back was the furthest thing away. And you know, the chances of it happening again
00:57:03
are probably like pretty slim. But yeah, it seems like there was there was a lot
00:57:06
of luck. There was a lot of things that went your way, but also there's um there's a lot to be said for, you know,
00:57:12
um your determination and a positive mental attitude, but um yeah. Were there dark days, dark moments?
00:57:20
The fact that you have to pause and think about it tells me that not so much. No. No, there wasn't because I
00:57:27
think I progressed so much. I think it was it was very hard for me being in Burwood
00:57:34
because here's me turning up to the gym and there's these parapolgics and tetropilgics and I'm like standing
00:57:43
up in my wheelchair and starting to walk and like got a smile on my face and there's these other people around that
00:57:49
are like literally just learning to like try and use their fingers or having to like sit on a bike and slowly move their
00:57:58
legs with like help. Um, that really made me feel uncomfortable because here's me
00:58:06
progressing, going to walk out of there and these guys are probably going to be parapolgic or tetropollegics for the
00:58:12
rest of their life. And I I I definitely struggled a lot with that because I found it was like sort of unfair like
00:58:21
why why am I like this but these people aren't. Survivors guilt. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:26
Yeah. For sure. And like that was definitely hard. But like for me, I definitely had no dark days. Like no
00:58:32
days where I was like, am I ever going to walk again? Am I ever going to ride my bike? Like I think that setting that
00:58:38
goal from day one really helped me through my whole journey to getting back to to racing a year later. I mean, I was
00:58:46
probably pretty optimistic and a lot of people probably didn't think I was going
00:58:51
to do that. And luckily CO happened. So I had like another 6 months to rehab and
00:58:57
get back and I had um half of my rods removed out of my back just because I think if I didn't have that I probably
00:59:04
wouldn't be where I am today. Probably would have still be riding bikes but not
00:59:08
racing. So Oh yeah. So I watched the um the Red Bull documentary The Road Back. Um that's a a gnarly looking scar. Can
00:59:17
you show it to the camera? Is it How's it now? Oh, it's I don't know if you can see it.
00:59:23
Oh, someone's had cupping therapy. Yeah, I can see the scar. Yeah, from there to
00:59:28
there. It's pretty clean. They done a good job of it. Oh, they really have. So, there were rods in there for a time.
00:59:33
Yeah, I still I still have some rods in there. Um just a small amount, but the rods I did have in there like really
00:59:41
limited to really limited me to limited me to movement um and gave me a lot of back pain. So, I was lucky enough to be
00:59:48
able to get those out. They didn't want to take them out, but it it definitely
00:59:53
changed my whole life and the way I live now. Did it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like massively. Just like everyday living,
01:00:01
like painfree. Um being able to bend over, like working out in the gym. Um yeah, all of that stuff. Just day-to-day
01:00:11
living. It it definitely helped a lot. And I I have a lot of people that ask me about um you know getting rods out and I
01:00:19
always recommend to them to get them out because like where my scar is it's like
01:00:24
that's a lot of your bending point. So I was fused right through there and it
01:00:30
made life so hard and I think yeah like anything in your back if you can have it
01:00:35
removed cuz I don't feel like you know metal wear is meant to be in your back
01:00:39
for a lifetime. and it's just there to, you know, stabilize and help heal things
01:00:43
heal. So, yeah, I definitely recommend to a lot of people that reach out to me to get it removed just because of the
01:00:49
way it changes day-to-day living. Yeah. And um the helmet you crashed and there's um there's pictures on that
01:00:55
helmet of two. Have you still got the helmet, by the way? Is it the souvenir thing or no? Yeah, I do. Yeah. What?
01:01:00
Yeah. Why why did you keep it? Um I had like two prominent people that like passed away in my life. my granddad
01:01:08
and u my good friend Stevie. Yeah. Who's Stevie Smith? Who's Stevie Smith? Yeah,
01:01:13
he was a he was a racer from uh Canada. Um and he unfortunately passed away in a
01:01:19
motorbike accident um in 2016. And yeah, I spent um time on team with him and just become really good friends and we
01:01:29
just had this bond where we were basically the same people. Um shared the same birthday. So yeah. Um, and I was
01:01:37
racing in Canada in his home home country in a place where he had done well before. So like my mom and my
01:01:46
stepdad had um worked with Red Bull to do this custom paint job for me and and surprised me um with it at Mount St. An.
01:01:56
So I feel like yeah, going back to Mount Stan, like every just all the pieces to
01:02:01
the puzzle were starting to fall in place. It's obviously like a nice helmet. Gives you confidence with people
01:02:06
that you know are looking down on you and um Yeah. Yeah. It was just a a nice touch to go into world champs. Well,
01:02:15
there was no head injury so the helmet definitely played its part. Yeah, definitely. I was I was so surprised I
01:02:19
didn't have a head injury from that because I landed straight on my head. Um what are the biggest lessons about
01:02:26
yourself and life from that period? The biggest lessons um probably not to give up. That's like when I've wanted to
01:02:37
give well not when I've wanted to give up but when some when things have got
01:02:42
hard in my mind I'm like okay well they're hard why why do I why should I
01:02:47
have to do it? But then again I'm like you've come this far so why give up? Um,
01:02:54
you know, for example, I go out and do training. I'll have, you know, 32 sets
01:02:59
of of intervals and I'll get to the end of the first one and I'll be like, in my
01:03:05
mind, I'm like, okay, well, I'm happy with that. I'll just go home. But then
01:03:09
I'm like, you can't go home because you're going to feel guilty when you get
01:03:13
home for not finishing that. Um, so yeah, that's been like a huge part of my journey from my accident to
01:03:21
now is just not giving up because I feel like anything that happens in life, there's always a way through it and a
01:03:29
way that you can work around. And I just think giving up is not necessary. Especially like with Kiwi Nature, like
01:03:38
we're so, you know, far from everywhere else. It's like everything that we do,
01:03:42
we put so much into achieving or or getting to places and when, you know, the going gets tough, it just isn't an
01:03:52
opportunity. Well, there's no opportunity to give up. Yeah. I don't know if this is something
01:03:57
you've ever thought about, but yeah. Have you ever paused to think about how
01:04:01
life may look now, like six years on, had you not been so lucky? Had you been confined to a chair?
01:04:07
No, I to be honest, I haven't. Like I feel like you wouldn't be like a you
01:04:10
wouldn't be a miserable guy though. Like you wouldn't be sitting around like um
01:04:14
you know with the windows pulled just watching Netflix. No, for sure not. I would have like in the back of my mind I
01:04:20
was accepted to being paralyzed and having to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. Yeah. While you're on the
01:04:25
side of the mountain there. Well, just when I was in hospital when I didn't really know to what what was going on
01:04:32
really. You'd sort of mentally prepared. Yeah. I just I I I had definitely mentally prepared. Um, and [ __ ] that's a
01:04:40
that's a lot to take in. Eh, yeah, it is. It is. And I I did How did you feel
01:04:45
when you were mentally preparing that way? Like, were you were you emotional? Were you crying or No, I was pretty
01:04:50
calm. I was pretty accepted because I'm like, [ __ ] I've had a good career. I've
01:04:56
done everything. Well, I hadn't done everything that I wanted, but I've achieved a lot in my life that I wanted
01:05:04
to achieve. Like, I'd won a World Cup. I had like been on multiple podiums, so I
01:05:08
was like happy with that. Um, but I guess that was just in the back of my head. The main worst case scenario.
01:05:15
Yeah, worst case scenario. The main thing was like I'm going to walk again. There's no way
01:05:20
I'm not going to walk again and I'll do everything I can to try and walk again.
01:05:26
Um, yeah. I I guess at times I was like, no, actually not. At times I just like like I said before I just progressed so
01:05:35
much that there was no time to think about you know what if I just stopped here and you know I can walk 10 m with
01:05:44
assistance but then I have to have a cane um to walk with and I feel like that was nothing that had like
01:05:54
crossed my mind and I I I went through like a a a stage I was in a wheelchair and then I was on a I was in a walker
01:06:01
and then I was in a cane. I was walking with a cane. Well, crutches and then a cane and then walking by myself. And
01:06:09
like to be honest, I I couldn't walk well. Like I dragged my foot. I had um yeah, I dropped foot. So I was li, you
01:06:16
know, like just so out of place of walking. But it's just the fact, you know, I look back on it now and I'm like
01:06:24
I'm actually like thankful that I went through something like that because it
01:06:30
taught me a lot. like I you know you never ever think in your lifespan that you're going to have to learn to walk
01:06:35
again and it's just it just comes so naturally. So for me it was just like it
01:06:40
was like a whole new learning of like having to walk again like just mentally like and physically understanding how
01:06:50
the body works and you know the signal from the brain to the legs like just that was so hard and trying to make you
01:06:57
know like telling myself okay lift your leg but my leg's not lifting. That was
01:07:02
such a random thing cuz none of us even think about it. No, no, not at all. And that was like that was so hard. But I
01:07:10
love the challenge. I love the challenge of the whole the whole journey from like
01:07:14
start to finish. And I I mean I'm not finished. Like I'm still still things
01:07:20
that I'm learning and progressing on. And and they say like it takes between
01:07:24
four and five years for you to feel somewhat normal again. And I'm not somewhat normal again. I'm still there's
01:07:31
still like small things that I notice in the gym and riding and little bit of fatigue that really like phys physical
01:07:40
weaknesses. Yeah. Yeah. What about what about mental weaknesses? Any like how how was that when you cuz you make it
01:07:47
you're making this progress um and it's like a good evolution. So you're
01:07:50
standing again, you're walking again, then you can ride a bike again. Um like
01:07:54
telling telling your mom, for example, that you want to compete again. How was that conversation? I don't think I ever
01:08:01
I don't know if I ever told her that I was going to compete. I She was just like I think she didn't have a choice
01:08:07
whether she told me I think it's a good idea for you not to race again or not.
01:08:11
Did anyone tell you it was a bad idea? No. No. No one said no one said a single word to me cuz it wouldn't have
01:08:16
mattered. No, it wouldn't have mattered cuz it wouldn't have changed my mind. Um
01:08:20
but can you can you imagine just like um like putting yourself in your mom's
01:08:24
shoes though when you when you go back to competing again? Um, was she there to watch by the way
01:08:30
when you got back on the bike and was competing again for the first time? N so that like that must have been that must
01:08:35
have been awful for her. Yeah, it would have been horrible. And that was like um
01:08:38
co Yeah. So like everything was pretty restricted. I was only, you know, I just got out of the country. Um but yeah, I
01:08:46
could imagine it wouldn't have been easy for her. But I think her knowing me and how I am, I
01:08:54
think probably gave her confidence from watching my whole journey and and my drive to get back to where I was a
01:09:03
little bit easier. Um, yeah, I I I've never ever really talked to her about that. I just think she just
01:09:11
sort of stood back and let me do what I do. And obviously, you know, for me it was it's just so normal to my life. So,
01:09:21
you know, probably stopping racing, it would have been so hard for me because I knew that I was capable of of getting
01:09:29
back to racing. But if I was told that I shouldn't do it and I convinced myself
01:09:35
then I shouldn't, then I'd probably be kicking myself now. Yeah. Yeah. I can just imagine her
01:09:41
sitting at home going, "Well, bulldog. Does she call you the bulldog or does
01:09:44
she call you Brooke? Uh, she calls me Brooke or something. Well, Brook's Brooke's going to do what Brook's going
01:09:49
to do and there's nothing I can do to stop him. But [ __ ] she must have been
01:09:52
worried. Yeah, I think Yeah, for sure. For sure. But like I guess she knows who I am and what I'm capable of. So,
01:10:00
probably helps her a lot. I don't think she's one of those mothers that really worries
01:10:07
too much. I think she's pretty good because she obviously grew up playing sport herself. So in you know just in
01:10:15
the in the blood it's like sport and you know knows how to handle it I guess. If
01:10:21
if a similar accident happened again and um the outcome was less favorable could
01:10:26
you still be at peace with that? Yeah I think so. Yeah, I think so because I guess I've gone through it
01:10:34
before and come out on the other side. And if it happened to me again and I didn't come out on the other side, I
01:10:40
think I would be okay with being in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, I just would I would adapt to it. And I I
01:10:48
know people that have um had injuries like over the past five years and have not been so lucky. And I've seen them,
01:10:57
you know, blossom so much and are actually really happy with what they're doing in life. Like a a kid from Palmy
01:11:06
called Jaden. Um he was like 16 when he got paralyzed and he just I don't think
01:11:12
he dwelled on it. He didn't held back. I I spent quite a bit of time with him cuz
01:11:16
I I knew what he was going through and I knew at such a young age. It's such a
01:11:20
massive thing to take in and and understand. I kind of felt like being there for him, just comforting him and
01:11:27
and giving him that advice and saying, "Look, you know, anything's possible."
01:11:31
And now he's like over in living in Whistler, like ripping on the um on the snow and the bike. It's crazy. And I
01:11:40
think like every time I see him when I'm there, he's just so happy. And I think
01:11:45
he's just loving life and has adapted to life is what he knows now. Yeah. Oh, so
01:11:52
he's doing this extreme stuff but um modified. Yeah. And like a three-wheel modifial. He does like these like 45°
01:12:01
shoots on. It's crazy. Like I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it if I was on a
01:12:05
three-wheeler. But like, you know, he just adapted to it and rips around and and loves life. Yeah. Yeah. Just back to
01:12:13
him. I mean, I've only been sitting down with you for what, like an hour, hour
01:12:15
and a half or whatever it is today. Um, but I feel like I've got a fairly good
01:12:19
grasp on who you are as a person. And I think from your mom's perspective, she
01:12:23
like she knows you better than anyone, right? Yeah. So, she knows that, you know, you're going to be happy
01:12:27
regardless. You're going to find a way through whatever the scenario you find
01:12:30
yourself in cuz that's just who you are. Yeah. I think just like my family background as well, like my uncle, my
01:12:37
granddad just were those kind of people as well. So, I think just learning like small bits from them growing up. Um
01:12:46
and I guess just being hard and you know not worrying about things and um just getting through life and pushing on I
01:12:58
think is yeah how how can people train to be more like that from a mental perspective you know the
01:13:04
determination, positivity, optimism, you know all those good things. I think like
01:13:10
I definitely like for me I put it down to like hard work and just being by myself a lot like pushing myself when
01:13:19
I'm out training cuz like I spend so much time by myself when I'm training
01:13:24
and obviously in those times you have so much thoughts running through your head
01:13:27
and I think just making yourself aware that you know you're you can progress and you can
01:13:36
be better and I think that's just made me and created me to the person I am now. And I think just being able to
01:13:45
like I mean it's it's so different for the for for so many people, but I think
01:13:50
just that mentality of of being optimistic about anything and knowing that you know even with a small injury
01:13:58
that some people struggle so much with that but just knowing that like there there's you know the out just having a
01:14:05
positive outcome. I think the negative outcome is always super hard because the the body is crazy what it can do. Like I
01:14:14
never ever thought my body would, you know, heal like it has and and I would be able to walk again. But like I think
01:14:21
that's just the mind is such a strong thing and same with the body and I think
01:14:25
just looking after yourself and eating right and you know all that sort of stuff um definitely has helped a lot.
01:14:33
Yeah, mate. I love it. I love the mindset. What are your what are your worst flaws? What are your what are you
01:14:38
what are your character deficiencies? Like what do you think you need to work on? Oh, or your or your partner out
01:14:44
there. What would she say? Probably impatience. Impatience. Maybe nagging. You nag a little bit sometimes.
01:14:54
Listening sometimes. Sometimes I'm I'm uh goes in one out one ear and out the
01:14:59
other. Um yeah. I don't know. Like I guess like if I went back on my life to the
01:15:09
start of my career, I would definitely have done some things differently. Um like what like invested my money
01:15:18
differently. Um cuz my goal always was when I when I started getting a good paycheck, my goal was like my stepdad
01:15:27
was like, you know, set a goal. say you you you want to have a million dollars in your bank account by 30 and that was
01:15:34
my goal and that's you know what I wanted to do. Um so yeah like I I achieved that
01:15:42
and yeah I just think like I would have done things differently with that money.
01:15:48
Um but you achieved that you got to a million by what the [ __ ] I know. Like a [ __ ] mountain biker, you know, like
01:15:56
my stepdad, he was like, "You you if you if you're smart with your money, you can
01:16:01
have a million dollars in your bank account by 30." And like that was my goal. I was set on that and I achieved
01:16:07
that and then obviously like you know comes bills and houses so that money goes pretty quickly. Um investing it
01:16:15
wisely though. Yeah. Yeah. Investing it wisely. But yeah, I think um yeah, what was what was the start of the question
01:16:21
again? I can't remember. We were talking about what what are your worst character
01:16:23
flaws? Oh yeah. Yeah, probably like the money that I've spent on stupid [ __ ] Oh
01:16:28
no, no, but it's you know I've I've seen a lot of friends that um you know they
01:16:32
they've died young for whatever reason. Um so my view on money is like you got
01:16:37
to have you got to have a dollar each way, right? Like you need to save for the future, but also you don't want to
01:16:42
put everything away for the future because the future it's not it's not not
01:16:45
a given. It's not guaranteed, right? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And I guess Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, going back to that. Yeah.
01:16:51
My biggest goal was that I wanted to finish racing and not have to work and be able to like
01:17:00
stay in the industry, maybe do small things here and there, but like be able to live a life after that I'm
01:17:06
comfortable with and like, you know, have money in the bank till whenever I go. But um yeah, so that was like a huge
01:17:15
goal of mine and yeah. Well, it seems like you're in a good position to give
01:17:19
yourself um choices. I I I've got no I've got no So you're a veteran now, eh?
01:17:24
Are you a veteran? 33. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty. I'm really old in the sport. Like these
01:17:31
kids now are like 18 to 25 and um yeah, I feel feel so old. But I I um I was going somewhere with that. I think this
01:17:41
this is just like a chapter of your life and there's going to be there's going to
01:17:44
be many more chapters because you're not going to be the type of guy that just um
01:17:47
hangs up the helmet and that's the end of it. You know, you're not going to
01:17:50
kick back at home and you know there's going to be more projects because you
01:17:54
you know, you've got so much to give. Do you know do you know what the future
01:17:56
holds? Do you know what you want to do next? Um I suppose having you being smart with your money and having um
01:18:02
investments behind you gives you options. Yeah, for sure. I I definitely want to like create some business.
01:18:09
Um, I just want to do something different or something outside of mountain biking. But it also it's also
01:18:14
scary because all I know is mountain biking and like you know investing money into a business or starting a business
01:18:21
with no like background knowledge of business. Like I wasn't great at school. I I went
01:18:28
to school to eat my food and play sport. Um, so everything that I've learned is
01:18:33
just all the life skills from mountain biking and how to deal with money and travel, whatever it is. But,
01:18:41
um, yeah, I just I don't know. Well, I can't wait to see what it is that you do
01:18:46
next. Yeah. I because I'm sure it's going to be Yeah. How will you feel that
01:18:50
um scratch that adrenaline itch after this? Like are you worried that nothing in life is going to bring you the same
01:18:56
sort of level of excitement? No, I think like I think mountain biking definitely
01:19:00
brings that there's like it's a specific adrenaline rush that you get from it.
01:19:06
Um, I definitely have noticed like the older I get, the less well just like, you know, racing wise, like I've
01:19:15
struggled for the last three years and I'm like, well, why am I doing this when I'm struggling and not getting
01:19:21
what I want out of it and putting everything on the line like like literally putting everything on the line
01:19:27
for a 50th place result like I'd never turn up I've never turned up to a race
01:19:32
and wanted to come 50th place or you know it's you want to win or be on in in the top
01:19:38
five. Um, so yeah, I just I feel like I've definitely slowed down a little bit
01:19:44
in the ways of like risking everything for a 40th place run. Like I don't and
01:19:50
like there's so much variables that go on with with racing and like the you know the way the bike works and how you
01:19:57
work with the bike. like all of that stuff like comes into control and you know if you're not comfortable with your
01:20:04
equipment it's super hard to be confident to go fast. Um and yeah I've like struggled to struggled like over
01:20:14
the past yeah 3 years. This year was really good. I had like a new team and um a new bike so it was just a whole new
01:20:22
like beginning and excitement for me. Whereas like the past I struggled with the bike I was riding with like the bike
01:20:29
was a good bike but it just didn't work for me. Um so yeah, I've just got to a
01:20:34
point now like I still like to risk something but not to a point where I'm like getting 30th place or 40th place.
01:20:42
Do you do you think that's got anything to do with um with the accident and mindset after the accident or I think a
01:20:47
little bit. Um, I definitely struggle with a little bit of confidence because I've had this
01:20:54
period of 3 years where I rode a bike that wasn't comfortable for me and I got
01:21:00
to a point where I was in such a negative hole that everything that would happen in my mind I'd think, okay, well,
01:21:10
I'm going to crash here. Like, you know, tires. I struggle with tires. Go around
01:21:13
a corner, no confidence in the tires. I'm like, what's going to happen here?
01:21:16
when I started going fast, I couldn't control the bike, so I didn't know what
01:21:21
was going to happen. And that sort of I think I it really knocked my confidence a lot. And I I still struggle to this
01:21:29
day a little bit with that. Um and just like crashing. I don't want to crash. I
01:21:35
mean, it comes with a sport, but I feel like the probably the more I I crash now, the more confidence it's going to
01:21:43
give me, you know, for that next ride, knowing that I'm okay crashing. But sometimes I'm not okay crashing because
01:21:52
I it just hurts. Yeah. And and I'm I'm not surprised um if it's, you know, a mental thing or
01:21:58
not, but like what you went through in 2019, like it's it's [ __ ] insane.
01:22:04
Yeah, that's crazy. I know. I I guess I don't I probably don't give myself a a
01:22:08
lot of credit for it because it's just something that I went through in life
01:22:13
and achieved so quickly. Um, and like I yeah, I forget about it. I forget that I
01:22:21
had a back injury and that I had to learn to walk again. And I guess it's something that like, you know, I never
01:22:28
it's never really talked about unless someone brings it up or like on a podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Or just like you
01:22:34
know random people that ask me about an injury and they you know like someone if
01:22:40
I'm telling them that I race mountain bikes and the the first thing they go to
01:22:44
oh what's your biggest injury and to me or like have you been what's your what's
01:22:49
the injuries you I'll just be I've broken my collar bones. I won't relate
01:22:54
to my back because I don't know I just don't want to sound want to get into it.
01:23:00
Yeah. I don't want to get into it, but I also just don't want to sound like the
01:23:04
person bragging that I've, you know, been paralyzed and I've, you know, walked again. Um, but it's but it's it's
01:23:11
part of your part of the the mosaic of your life. Like, it is it's a fairly big
01:23:16
part. For sure. Yeah, I guess it is. How How is it to talk about? Is it okay to talk about? Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm fine
01:23:22
talking about it. And like I don't I definitely don't mind talking about it
01:23:26
and like every It's not hard or No. No, for sure. And every person that I talk
01:23:30
to asks different questions and I explain it differently. Um, and yeah, I've like I guess like when I first
01:23:38
started talking about it, it was like quite emotional. Um, just because I'd like have flashbacks on what I went
01:23:45
through, but now it's it's pretty simple. It's like just having a conversation about an injury and and
01:23:52
you've got no bitterness about it or anything. Like there's um there there's
01:23:55
even some detail that I read that that you um emitted from the story today like the um so the helicopter was waiting
01:24:01
near the bottom of the mountain and the pilot was like sitting at home having his lunch like 45 minutes away or Yeah.
01:24:07
That that was like that really pissed me off because I mean they they had no clue
01:24:12
if I had internal bleeding. So in Canada and Quebec um they have a system where their rescue helicopter is used for
01:24:24
life-threatening injuries and then um no sorry other way around the army helicopter is life-threatening injuries.
01:24:32
So that would be like between 30 and 40 minutes and then the other the normal rescue helicopter is like an hour.
01:24:40
But this this guy, well, I mean, it's not the pilot's fault, but he was at
01:24:45
home on call 45 minutes away. So, by the time he got to the the the the helicopter, they got, you know, the
01:24:53
staff together. Yeah. Just it was a [ __ ] show. It was a massive [ __ ] show. But
01:24:58
yeah, you have to let that stuff go, I guess. Otherwise, nothing can change it. I was pretty pissed off at at
01:25:04
like at the start. Um but I was like I can't do anything about it. Yeah. Yeah.
01:25:10
And just like the way they went about it and like I guess the pro they didn't
01:25:15
really have any procedures in place for an accident like that which at a level of what we race at. They really should
01:25:23
like some um venues in in Europe they have a helicopter you know maybe 5 minutes down the road just on a heli
01:25:31
spot waiting for accidents to happen on the hill. So that helicopter's, you know, with within like five minutes to
01:25:40
the person that needs to be airlifted off the off the hill and like for me that's like in our sport, well in any
01:25:46
sport it should be like that, especially if it's a very serious injury. Yeah. Are you proud of yourself for how
01:25:55
you how you fought back through that whole period? Is it not something you really think about like that? No, it
01:26:01
isn't something that I think about, but I definitely am proud of myself because I never thought, you know, that
01:26:09
would happen to me and I would go through all what I went through to get to get back to racing at a World Cup
01:26:16
level. So, yeah, I think I I I definitely am proud of myself for what I've achieved.
01:26:22
You when I asked if you're proud of yourself, you had like a like almost like a sheepish grin on your face. Is it
01:26:27
embarrassing to say? Well, you know what what us Kiwis are like. We're so humble
01:26:31
that we don't like blowing our own trumpet. E. Yeah. But Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny.
01:26:37
E that admitting you're proud of yourself as almost said is blowing your own trumpet. But it's like [ __ ] man.
01:26:42
Like no one can do the work for you when you face some adversity like that. Like
01:26:46
no one's coming to save you. No. Like any any results or gains you've had from
01:26:50
that point are entirely down to you. And I think that's something to be celebrated. You should be proud of that.
01:26:55
Yeah. For sure. But I feel like you ask you ask any Kiwi, are you proud of yourself? And they're going to sit there
01:27:02
and think about it and probably not answer you, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just around in the seat. Yeah. It's
01:27:08
just one of those things, eh, that we're such humble people that we Yeah. Like I said, we don't like blowing our
01:27:14
own trumpet. Yeah. And um when you eventually retire, how would you like to be remembered in um downhole mountain
01:27:20
bike circles? Um, I guess I would just like to be remembered as the person I am. Um, the way I rode my bike, well,
01:27:29
ride my bike. Um, and the fact that like for anyone that goes through an injury that anything is possible and if you set
01:27:37
your mind to the, you know, the right task and you have a goal at the end of end of the road that it's anything's
01:27:46
achievable. And yeah, I guess just the person I am. I mean, I'm a normal person like everyone else.
01:27:55
Um, it's funny like, you know, yesterday I was in the forest and there was a
01:28:00
German dude in there who had come from Germany on holiday and he um he asked me who I am and I'm like, "Oh, I'm Brooke."
01:28:08
And he was like sitting there. He's like, "Oh, Brooke who?" And I was like, "Broo
01:28:13
McDonald." "Oh, the bulldog." and he freaked out like you know like and and I
01:28:18
I was just I'm you know I'm just in the forest by myself. I'm like I'm like you
01:28:23
don't need to freak out like you can be normal cuz I'm I'm exactly the same
01:28:28
person as you. And like it was cool cuz like I had a chat with him. He come and took a photo, but like he was when he
01:28:34
was taking a photo, he was shaking. But like I mean at the same time it's really
01:28:38
cool cuz he's like met someone that he probably would have never ever thought
01:28:42
he would meet in his life and he meets it in an environment that we both, you know, enjoy being in the forest and
01:28:49
riding bikes. Um yeah, which I think was cool. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Hey,
01:28:56
this has been a lot of fun today. Yeah, it's been really nice to connect, mate.
01:28:58
I'm super inspired and there's um so many good takeaways and lessons in here
01:29:01
for everybody um regardless of what they do. The Bulldog, Brooke McDonald, thank
01:29:07
you so much for coming on the podcast, mate. Thanks for having me, Dom. It's
01:29:10
been awesome.