The Scotty Cranmer Interview

No, we're good. It's not live, right? It's not live, right? Scotty, how are you? I'm doing fantastic, Kyle. How did you feel about winning such a prestigious award from such a great guy? I couldn't believe it, honestly. When you came to that door, and I saw Kyle Carlson walk in, and then I saw the award, and I read it, and I was pretty much in shock. And to be honest with you, that made my night. That made the end of my year, to be honest. Do you understand why you're receiving it? You know, I could speculate a little bit, but, you know, if you want to care to elaborate... I'm fortunate to be here interviewing you, but just to run through it, obviously your recovery. You spent basically 2017 in recovery, which I know is an ongoing thing. Just today you were in physical therapy, and I think that's been incredibly inspirational to so many people, that you were literally told, like, yeah, you probably can't walk again. And you worked your ass off to the point where you can literally ride a bicycle again. And I think that's just huge for the BMX world, to see that, and the way everybody rallied behind you. Did you expect, obviously you didn't expect it, you hope nothing like this ever happens. Were you at all shocked by the amount of support you received, the jams going on? I was completely overwhelmed, and overwhelmed in the best possible way, because you never think about a situation like that, ever. You know, because it's your human nature not to ever think that anything could go wrong, right? You know, you just go through life living every single day and worrying about these small things that turn out to be nothing when it all comes down to it. Because when something like that happens to you, it completely changes your life. Completely changes how you go about living, and what matters to you, and your opinion on life in general completely changes. So, for me, being surrounded by BMX the way I was my whole entire life, and I loved it, I felt like I belonged there. But after I got hurt, and I realized how important I was to BMX, and how much people loved and respect me through BMX, that was a huge eye-opener for me. And honestly, that kind of positive energy from everybody helped me so much throughout my recovery, because it's hard. This has been insanely difficult to work with. Extremely dark, too. And every single day when I'm in that hospital, and I'd get a letter from somebody telling me how important my riding and how important my YouTube videos are to them. And that just turned my day around. It just gave me something else to live for, in a way. And all the jams, and all the photos that people were sending, it was so overwhelming in the best possible way. So where are you right now, physically? So physically, I can move everything. And I have full control, but it's not like it used to be. I'll just pretty much break down everything for you. So originally, it was neck down. I couldn't move anything. And when I was in the hospital in Vegas, I had a flicker of my left wrist moving, just the tiniest little bit like that. And also, I had my left foot move a little bit. And that just gradually just kind of excelled. And it went from my left leg started first. I started getting more power in that, being able to move the leg up and down, or being able to bend my knee. And then the left arm started moving, and then the right arm had nothing. I remember just thinking to myself, just thinking, what do I got to do to make this work? How is it not working? It made me realize, okay, the connection is literally cut. I got no power going there. And I remember just begging myself, just come on, let's do this. Let's move. I couldn't do it. It was so frustrating. And eventually, the right leg started happening, and then the right arm was the last part to come back. And now where I am, I'm able to walk around. I don't have a walker. I don't have a cane. I'm able to drive a car, which is fantastic. As you guys can see, I've been back on my bike, cruising around a little bit. But I'm still, I'm a huge work in progress. Like, I'm not strong at all. I have no muscle mass compared to how I used to be. I can't do basic things like moving boxes from my front door inside like it was. Like, it was a piece of cake back then. Like, it's just so frustrating to me. I can't even pick them up. I can't even get pressure to push against the box. It was a mindless activity, and now it's a chore. Now it's like a huge chore. And it's difficult, but it's getting so much better. Right now, my fingertips definitely lack feeling. From right here, it starts to diminish. By the time it gets to here, it gets a lot worse. And pretty much at my waist, you know, I don't really have much sensation in my skin going down. But I'll be able to feel, you know, like let's say if I'm bending down now. Like, I'm able to go down on one knee like the Tim Tebow pose. Like, I could do that one way. They call that the marriage, the proposal pose. I just call it getting on one knee. You don't have to get all sports on. Is that what it is? Getting on one knee, that pose. Like, doing that, like I could feel like my toes bending. I could feel a little bit of pain in that. So, like, it's starting to come back, but it's definitely not like it was at all. So, if you continue on the path you're on, you go to physical therapy, you work out, you do everything you've been doing, should you continue to get more and more and more back? Kyle, every single day I notice power and things coming back to me. And I'm so happy I get to say that. But I remember the doctors telling me, all right, there's going to be a time where you're going to plateau. And don't be bummed. You know, you just got to work through it. And there was little times where I'd get frustrated, you know, because everything I did was such a chore. I remember looking at my shoes and just thinking, like, to get them off right now, I'm going to put every ounce of energy I have in my body, and I'm going to be completely depleted for the next 10 minutes. And, like, I would regret doing that. And now I'm able to get everything ready and tying my shoes on my own. It's hard because, like, I can't feel my fingers. There's times where it takes five times to do one knot on my shoe. But I'm able to do it, and I'm not fatigued from doing it anymore. I'm getting stronger constantly. And it's all about me pushing myself and just kind of realizing where I'm at. Like, my simple movements of bending my knees, like, up like this, my right leg, I can do it easily. But my right leg, sorry, my left leg, I can do it easily. But my right leg feels like there's a weight on it. And I sat there, and I realized, okay, it's going to be miserable doing it. But the more I do it, I'm going to get it back. And I'm constantly seeing difference every single day, honestly. And I just keep on working, and it's just I'm so curious to see how far I could take it because I don't know if there's going to be an end. I really don't know. But I'm so proud to be where I am right now. You somehow seem to stay very positive in all of this. I'm sure you have to. I can't imagine living through this and not keeping positive. How do you manage to stay so positive? I think a lot of that goes to everything around me. My friends, my family, all the support they've constantly put me through, they've put a smile on my face nonstop. But just going back to BMX in general, like I was saying, so many people rallied around me. The amount of love and support I got from the sport itself, that's a high that you don't realize. But, man, that took me to the next level. That put a smile on my face when there's days when I start getting down on myself. And I'm not going to lie. There's still days that I do get down on myself. I lost the main things in my life that I loved doing, things that I was so passionate about. They were taken away from me. And I'm going to be realistic. There's no way around it. I'm bummed out about that. And I can't play the piano and play music like I used to. I can't touch my guitar and play music like I used to. I can't ride my BMX bike anymore like I used to. And that's rough. I don't care how positive a person you are, that's still going to dig into you. But I also think back to when I was in the rehab facility and seeing people that were never going to get the opportunity to be back on their feet or drive their car or spend time with their friends like I am right now. And I will never let that sit in me and bring me down. I refuse to. I'm so grateful to be around my wife. I'm so grateful to be around my friends and my family. And to see BMX and to be around my friends riding and just people in general riding and enjoying it, that I don't let that kind of stuff hang on me and pull me back down. But it's inevitable. I'm not going to lie. I do get to points where it is hard. But you just got to battle through it. I know it's a big step ahead of right now. Do you still have the fire to get on your bike and ride it like you used to? Is that something you would like to work towards? Definitely. I definitely want to get back on my bike. My main goal right now when I think about me riding BMX again, and this is pretty funny because it's pretty detailed of what I want to feel again. I want to be able to ride a six-foot mini ramp. And I want to be able to carve and do double peg grinds. I want that feeling so bad again. I want to put metal pegs on it too so I can feel the old grinding against the coping. And I'm excited for that to come back. And I'm going to be realistic. It's going to be a long road for me to be back to where I was. And there's a good chance it's never going to happen. But I'm going to keep on pushing and see how far we can get this. And I'm going to enjoy the process along the way. I can truly say, and this isn't a question. I'm just giving my opinion, which nobody asked for. It's appreciated. When somebody says you can never walk again and here you are, you'll grind a quarter pipe. It might take a couple years, but you're going to do that. Oh, thanks. I appreciate that. I have no doubt in my mind. I really do appreciate that. How is everything else going? I know that the skate park is closing down. I know that's pretty heavy on you. Is there anything you'd like to say about that whole process? Definitely. I'd love to talk about it because I feel people around the BMX community deserve to know about it. And I want them to realize how I feel. Is it heavy? It's pretty heavy. It's crazy because I spent more than half my life going to that skate park. We started working on that skate park when I was 12. And the place was in a fire, and I spent time there while my dad was fixing the building. And knowing that, wow, he's going to build a skate park here. That was the coolest feeling in the world. And it was a whole process to get it going. But having that park around like it was and thinking about all the amazing experiences I've had in that place, from me learning all my tricks and seeing all the countless pros that came through that door and experiencing them, seeing them like the rock stars that they were, riding my skate park, those are the most important memories to me, honestly, from me growing up and molding myself into what I am right now. And having the skate park closed down after all this time, it's hard. It's definitely not a happy thing for me. But I do not let it hang on me like that because I think about all those amazing memories and all the people that I've met throughout the years that came to that skate park and all the amazing times that those people had. And I'm so grateful that my dad took the chance and took the risk of opening up a skate park the way he did. And I'm excited, though, about what's going to happen next because this isn't the end of our skate park kind of journey and what it was for us in BMX here. We're going to be able to do something out of this. And we have the bike shop here, and I'm excited for making new plans and trying to extend it and having a chance to kind of restart. Throwing it back, I think it's important that people understand, and you can clarify this, the primary reason it's closing is due to an issue with the owner, correct? Yeah. You don't own the building. Do you have a landlord? You're right. Yeah, we would have kept the skate park open as long as we could. But, yeah, the landlord's changed. Times are changing. And it's really expensive to keep a building of that size open, especially when you're charging people $15 to come in and ride. It takes a lot of $15 to make that kind of payment. Yeah, you're totally right. And I'm blown away that we were able to do it for all these years. But, yeah, if I was able to, when I was a kid, think about buying that building instead of anything else at the time, you know, like I wish I could have done it, you know, because the Incline Club is so important to us. And, like, I know it's killing my parents. It's really hard for them because they put so much into that building, day in, day out, of running that business and to have the skate park closed. It's hard because we have all these people that have went there over the years, and we're such an important part to BMX and scootering and skateboarding and rollerblading. And, jeez, we've had some interesting things on wheels come through that door that we let in there. But it was a big, you know, important part to the extreme, whatever kind of, you know, sports hub around here in New Jersey. And it's hard for us to be able to close the doors. And we don't want to do it. But this time has come, and it is what it is. But, like I said in the last question, like, we want to try to think of something. We want to be able to extend this and try to do our part and keep that scene going. So, as you mentioned, your bike shop is where we're sitting right now. Yep. This is my first time ever coming to your bike shop today. And the first thing that really impressed me was the amount of BMX bikes on the shelf. As we go everywhere in the world and go in bike shops, so many places have a couple or no BMX bikes. And I'll ask them, like, hey, what's up with BMX? Oh, we make all our money selling road bikes. We make all our money selling mountain bikes. And here I see, I'm terrible at guessing, but let's say 50 bikes up here. Yeah, probably. You know, 50 BMX bikes. And according to you, they're moving. People are coming here and buying BMX bikes. What exactly do you think is leading to this shop doing well with BMX bikes? So, what I would attribute it to would be the fact that we've had the skate park over the years. That definitely came into play of bringing people in and giving them a place to ride. But definitely, I think the YouTube channel has a lot to do with us, you know, being able to keep BMX moving the way we can over here. We're so proud of it. We really are. I love seeing kids come in here and buying their first BMX bike. And they come up to me and they say, it's because of your YouTube channel. And that blows my mind because when we started this channel, I never thought that it would have that kind of impact the way it did and the way it does right now. And it's so cool. It's the most rewarding thing. I'm amazed by it and so grateful for the experience. So, getting into the YouTube channel, it's kind of become a huge part of who you are. A lot of these YouTube celebrities and whatnot are people that don't really do anything. Like, this kid has cool clothes or a rich dad, so he has a Lamborghini. There's a bunch of really dumb stuff out there on YouTube. I'm also a 31-year-old man. But you're a very successful guy by the sport. You've won everything there is to win, signature frames, video parts. What made you want to get into it in the first place? Because you couldn't really predict that you were going to have this following, that it was going to lead to the bike shop doing well. What got you into it in the first place? This is a pretty elaborate story, but it's the truth. I remember being at the skate park and having people come up to me. And they were mentioning BMX riders. I've never heard of them before. They were calling them pros, and I'd never heard of these people. And I had no idea who they were. And Big Boy, he was there with me. It was the first summer that I was hanging out with Big Boy because my little brother became friends with him, and I'd spend a lot of time with my little brother riding. And Big Boy's like, yeah, he's a YouTube guy. I'm like, I don't know who these people are that they're talking about. I saw it. I was like, I felt so out of the loop because here I am. As you were saying, I've been around a while in BMX. I started when I was 16. And at the time when I started my YouTube channel, I was probably about 27. So 11 years as a BMX professional, and I accomplished a lot of things I was very proud of. And I saw just me kind of being pushed aside as a professional BMX rider competing at competitions because Dewtor just dropped BMX. Okay, now what? I have X Games. That's pretty much all I really rode competition-wise. Didn't really do too many small contests at the time. And I just kind of looked at my career, and I said, okay, if you're going to keep on riding BMX as a professional, something's got to change. And I sat back, and Big Boy came up to me, and he said, hey, maybe we should film a Day in the Life, and we could put it on YouTube. And I asked him, I was like, why are we going to film a Day in the Life? Like, who cares about that? And he was like, people love it on YouTube. And I'm like, I was so confused. I was just like, I've never heard of anything like that before. You mean people want to watch a video of somebody living? Like, I was like, this is the strangest thing. I would never go on there. Like, I couldn't imagine that. And he said that. And I sat back there, and I was like so confused by it. And it just hit me one day. I told my wife, and I was like, I'm buying a camera. I'm buying equipment. I'm going to start a YouTube channel. And she's like, what? And she looked at me like I was crazy. And she didn't want me spending money at all on this camera or this computer to do the editing and stuff. And I talked to my friends in BMX, and I got put in the right track for a camera. And I figured out how to use it, did some research on it like that, kind of learned how it was going. And I told people, I was like, listen, I just ordered a camera and a computer, and we're going to start a YouTube channel. And I brought them into this room in my house, and I put on a props video. And it was the props Colin Winkleman interview, and Lee Ramsdell was like the host of it. Will Stroud filmed it, and it was so cool. That was such a big video for me because that showed a different side of BMX. It wasn't serious. It was fun. But Colin Winkleman was the biggest name in BMX. He was at the top there. And there was a lot of badass riding in that. Yes, and there was riding, and there was background of him, and it was such a cool thing. And he watched it, and he's never heard of props before, you know, because he's so young. And he's like, this is awesome. I was like, this is what I want to do for BMX. I want to bring back this kind of vibe. And he's like, okay. And I was like, we're going to film a YouTube channel, and it's going to be nothing about fun. It's just going to be all about fun, and let's just try to do it, and we'll see what we can do. And, you know, I tried. I had worked so hard. I started doing one video a week. That's what I was originally going to do. And then I filmed a video, and I got it edited, and I had it up that night. And I'm like, okay, I've got six more days of doing nothing. I was like, you want to film tomorrow? We did that. And it went from one video a week to two video weeks to three videos to five, and then it went to seven. And when it went to seven, it kind of just turned into my life. And at the time, we weren't getting a lot of traction. And I remember just pouring my heart and soul into that, and literally my life revolved around filming these videos. And I wasn't getting views or anything like that at the time. I wasn't really making any kind of views or momentum. And I remember it bummed me out pretty bad. I remember getting to the point. It just broke down. I got to the point where I was like, okay, I can't. I don't see my career going much further as a professional because BMX is falling apart in this aspect, and these other guys are making progress making these views, and I'm just kind of sitting in the dark here. And it broke me down bad, and I just kept on going. And then we started getting some traction. I started seeing more views come in and more comments and stuff like that. And it just kind of exploded after that. And, oh, my goodness, that was like the biggest thing for me. I felt like I had a purpose again. I felt like not only were we making videos that were popular, but it was my riding that was being showcased in there, and it was my friends riding. And these kids that I rode with that were great on BMX were finally being able to get a name out for themselves. I remember when Big Boy first started getting Instagram followers. He had, like, 300 at the time when we first started, and he hit, like, 11,000. And every one of us, my parents, my friends, we all accused him of buying Instagram followers. And he's like, I swear to you. We were giving him crap over it. And we noticed, and we're like, it just kept on growing, and everybody else started growing too. And we're like, wow, like, it was pretty overwhelming in the coolest way. Once again, like I was saying, like, kind of how, I don't want to go that way and confuse everybody, but it was such a cool thing to see. Like, these guys were being recognized as BMX riders and as, I mean, YouTube people. I hate calling them YouTube stars or anything like that. That's just not how we go about it. But we kept it BMX, and we made traction, and we got success in the YouTube world. Is it something, when you look at it right now, you see doing for the foreseeable future? It is what it is right now. You know, like, I'm never somebody that grabs onto something and says, yep, we're locked in here forever. But if we're going to keep on making videos and people are going to keep watching them, like, we're going to keep it going. I love it. I want to do more too. And to be honest with you, after my accident, YouTube completely changed for me. And we had so much traction. We were getting so many views when I got hurt, like right when I got hurt. And it completely changed. You've got to realize that I was editing every single video. I was writing in every video. I was producing it, coming up with the ideas. And it was a full, literally around-the-clock job. I was editing until 3 in the morning, waking up at 10, getting with the guys, going to ride. And once that happened, I couldn't edit the videos anymore. So now the videos weren't showing up how I used to do them. And I couldn't set up situations where I would know to, okay, this is going to be a funny reaction from Corey. Let me go up to Corey with the camera. I couldn't do that anymore, and I still have problems doing it. And I'm excited about getting better to the point where I'm able to be able to hold the camera and flip it around to myself again. I can't do that right now. It's such a difficult thing for me just to even hold the camera up from my hand. And I'm excited about being back to where I was so I can make the videos that I want to again. I'm so grateful for Big Boy and all the guys coming together and making the videos and keeping the channel going the way they were. I'm completely grateful for that. But at the same time, I'm excited about being able to do it on my own, being able to kind of take the channel and let these guys just enjoy and film the videos and have fun during it, and I'll be the person behind the full control of it again. So for the longest time, essentially your entire BMX career minus contest winnings, you made a living through sponsors. And you have multiple sponsors that have stood by you for many years. You've been on Fox for a long time, Vans for a long time, Monster. Hyper's a bit more recent. How did these brands that essentially signed you up to be the guy that wins X Games feel about the YouTube channel? Because you're obviously still affiliated with all these brands. What do they think of it? They love it. Because the YouTube stuff, it evolved a lot in the past couple of years. And now I feel like YouTube is really accepted and expected when it comes to pretty much everything. Everything out there, there's going to be somebody that has a YouTube channel with a following, whether literally you can name it, man. Jewelry, makeup, all that kind of stuff. There's girls that are super famous for that. And it just made sense for me as a BMX rider to, I guess I was the first professional BMX rider that kind of went that route and was making YouTube videos about being a professional BMX rider as well. So once they kind of realized that and they saw the views and stuff coming in like they were, they loved it. It made sense to them. And it's an interesting transition because I was the contest guy for so many years. And they've accepted it so great. And I had such an awesome opportunity working with them and having to still be able to be the guy on the team that's going to be able to go to the contest and film it and be able to put the Vans competition on YouTube. And I'm going to film the Monster Dirt event. I'll be announcing it as well, but I'm going to film behind the scenes. And that's coming up in the beginning of January. So it's been a really cool transition for me. And so much fun. I'm really grateful to have the opportunity. And all the brands are psyched. They're all psyched. Let's just briefly touch on the announcing. You announced at X Games this year. You're announcing the Monster event just like as you mentioned. Is that something you've always wanted to get into or is that something you kind of fell into based on not being able to compete? It's something I never thought I would get into ever. It's not like something I was like, yeah, one day I'll transition over to that. But I think from the YouTube stuff, it made it really easy for me because I started talking in front of a camera every single day. So I figured out how to transition things and direct things to where I needed to go. And once X Games approached me for the announcing gig, I was so excited about it because I was like, oh, wow, this is the first year in a really long time I have no reason to go to X Games. And it felt weird. And once that gig came in, I was so excited. And I showed up there and I was terrified and I loved every second of it. Once it started and it was live, I felt so right. And it felt great. And I seriously had so much fun doing it. So it's something you would look to continue to do in the future? Yeah, of course. Has X Games asked you back? X Games, I haven't officially been asked back for X Games, so I can't say that I'm going to be doing it this year. Last year came really late. I don't know how it's going to go this year. We'll see. If they ask me, I would love to do it, you know, to be involved in it. But, you know, I get to do the Monster events with Jamie Bestwick this year. And, you know, for me, I was the biggest fan of the Olympics, you know, growing up. It's coming up this year. I'm so excited. I'm going to watch everything there. The speed skating, I love it. I think it's the coolest thing in the world. I'm going to be watching all of it. And I was always thinking, man, if BMX got in there one day, I'm going to take it as serious as possible and I'm going to be in there riding my bike. And, of course, I break my neck and I find out that BMX Park gets put into the Olympics. And I'm like, well, I guess that's just the way it goes, isn't it? Great timing. Yeah, but I'm going to try whatever I can to hopefully be able to announce it. I mean, that would be the coolest thing for me. I'd be so honored to be a part of it and it would be a really cool thing. So I would love to keep it going doing announcing. And I just love to be able to not only announce my friends riding and be there for the big moments of them winning and having their dreams come true, but to be able to explain the gap between BMX riders watching the events to a mom that's seen it for the first time, to show the athleticism and the difficulty of the tricks and to be able to explain what opposite is and why that trick went wrong, why he just over-rotated that or slid out. In addition to YouTube channel, bike shop owner, professional BMX rider, you're obviously a huge fan of BMX. Is there anything over the past year that stood out to you? Any riders you're psyched on right now? In 2017, what stood out to you in BMX? Constantly, man. I'm always looking around and seeing new things coming up. There's different riders that'll come up and I'll be like, wow, that was really cool. For me being a manual guy and seeing all the Courage Adams manual lines and stuff like that, that's so cool to see. Just recently, I remember seeing a line that Mike Curley did when he did the nose wheelie to Hank 5 to whiplash. I thought that it was done. My mind was blown. He landed in a manual and did a 360 out. I was like, wow. I didn't know anything about him before and I saw that. I love seeing that. BMX right now, it's unreal. The amount of riders that are out there that I've never even heard of before that I see for the first time doing a trick that I've never seen. It's at an all-time high. BMX is insane because for me growing up, I came in in the mid-90s in BMX, and that was an awesome time to come in because that was as it was growing from its slump. BMX grew. I grew with BMX. When I got into professional BMX, that was when the sport was at its top of getting TV time and getting recognition and sponsors coming in and stuff like that and seeing where BMX is right now, how it's getting into the Olympics. I'm so excited to see what comes of that. But the aspect of riding BMX trick-wise, it's really cool to see the originality right now from so many different riders around the world. It's not all the same right now. There's guys that are in Australia that are doing insane, unbelievable lip tricks and combo tricks that I didn't think was ever going to happen. But then you see guys that are overseas in countries like Russia. Andrei was here. I just met him literally for the first time, and I've been following his riding for years, and just seeing what that guy has done and contributed to the sport over in Russia. How he brought up courage and what he's been able to contribute to it, it's amazing. I love seeing it. I love seeing the progression, and I'm so excited to see what happens in 2018. Well, let's get to 2018. What can we expect from you? You got any goals, anything in the works that you haven't already discussed? What does 2018 have in store for Scotty Kramer? All right, so this is pretty cool. I'm able to start making plans again because I'm at the point where physically I can actually make plans that are going to be coming into play. I still want to keep on getting better on my bike, and I need to do a lot of work on myself. It's time that I'm going to be there at the gym and whatnot, putting in the work to get stronger to be able to get further in my injury and healing from it. But having the skate park closed, I'm going to build a lot of ramps. That's definitely going to be coming into play, and I'm going to try to take my YouTube channel, get a hold of it again, and be able to back up to what I expect my YouTube channel to be par wise. I want to be able to make BMX as fun as possible. I want to do BMX events. I want to do my part as a BMX rider and as a veteran pro to do my part as a BMX, how would you say it, as somebody that has a role in BMX to start giving back to the sport. This is going to be a good year, and I'm just so proud to be able to be a part of BMX the way I am and to physically have another chance at going about this again. Well, to wrap it up, I think I'd like to give you the floor if there's some people you'd like to say thanks to. I know it's been a big year. A lot of people have had your back. Obviously, you can't name everybody because there's hundreds of thousands of them, but a few key people. All right, so if I'm going to be doing some thanks, I'm definitely going to start with my family and my friends, my wife. She's been unbelievable throughout this whole injury, and she's really shown me, opened up my eyes, and made me realize what's important in life, and I'm so grateful to have her. My family, my mom and my dad, for everything that they've done through my career, through me riding BMX in general, but the things that they've done to help me get to where I am right now, even after the injury, it's been unbelievable. So grateful for them. My little brother, my sister, my older brother, they've been amazing throughout this whole thing, but I need to go and thank my sponsors. Every single one of them that stuck with me throughout this injury, Monster Energy, Vanshoes, Fox Clothing, Hyperbikes, and also Snafu BMX for making me feel like I'm still a part of BMX and giving me the opportunity to be a part of BMX. I'm so grateful for that, and I want to go out there and thank everybody that I've met throughout my BMX career, and also everybody this past year, people that I haven't even met before that stepped up and helped me, and you guys have changed me as a person, made me a better person, and made me realize what's important in life, and I'm so grateful for that. And every one of you guys that watch my YouTube channel, thank you guys every day for watching and commenting on our videos and being a part of my life, and I'm so grateful for you guys, I really am. And just everybody over the years that have supported me and watched me, whether it have been web videos or competitions, and thanks for having my back, and I appreciate all you guys. Scotty, congratulations on everything, on the award, on your career, on your recovery. I look forward to seeing a lot more, and I'm going to fly out when you're going to double peg that quarter. Awesome. Thank you so much for this opportunity, man. I'm really grateful to be 2017 Rider of the Year.