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