Kevin Porter’s BMX Sabbatical and Future Plans
So, you’re going to be out of town for a while?
Yeah, I’m taking off for a little while… taking a little sabbatical. I’ve been trapped in Chicago for a little while, but that’s what a business does. The business is doing fine—everything is good here.
I’ve got a lot of work to do for bike riding… not really work, but… if you had to call it a “job,” it would be work. I have to film a part for Flybikes 10th anniversary DVD. I’m taking off today to go to Spain for… a whole month. I’m also going to go to the Estonia contest, which is the first week of February. Then, shortly after that I’m going to return to Spain for a few days, say goodbye to everyone there and head back here to Chicago for my little dog’s, Zazzer, birthday on Valentine’s Day, so we are going to have a little party for Zazzer.
So you’re not going to be back in Chicago for, at least, a month?
For at least a month I’ll be gone. Shortly after Zazzer’s birthday, I’ll be flying—or driving, to Pittsburgh to hang out with Tom Arkus—
Corn Cob?
Ol’ Corn Cob; talk about some stuff for future Vinyl stuff and I need to cut some stickers… so I’m going to get a bunch of stickers done there. I’ve never even cut stickers, so it’s going to be an interesting thing. After Pittsburgh I’m going to be up at Frostbike, which is up in Minnesota—it’s like a dealer-special-show for QBP. I’ve never been to QBP, so it’s going to be interesting too. Immediately after Minnesota I’m going to fly to Las Vegas to hang out with some of the Vital crew and maybe film some sort of Vital edit… I don’t know… we’ll see if that happens. After that I’m going to go to L.A. and hang out with Huy Doan. I’m going to stay in L.A. for about two weeks and check out what L.A. has. I haven’t been out there in a really long time. I stopped there recently, but it was for just a day… I had such a great time, I realized I should probably come back and celebrate how awesome L.A. is. After L.A. I’m going to head to Austin and stay there until May 1st to finish up my Empire part… I have a lot of work to do with that and… I know Parrick is going to be psyched because, I’M GONNA WORK THAT TO THE BONE!
So, you are going to be gone for a couple of months…
Yeah, I’ll be gone for a while. The coffee shop is doing real well and, umm… I decided I wanted to focus a little bit more on riding bikes and kind of just take advantage of what I have. Chelsea, my wife, is going to run the coffee shop from now on—that’s kind of like, her passion, to run a business like that… so she’s having a lot of fun doing that. I’m just, basically, working there at this point. I’m just another worker. She knows that if she needs my help, I’ll just come right back and help her out… I just feel like… I have a lot of big things to do this year for bike riding. I’m going to try to take full advantage of riding bikes. I’m still involved with Delicious Café—that’s my little baby.
What’s up with you selling all your shite?
Well, when you are not going to be in Chicago for 6 months, it’s kind of pointless to have a apartment with all this crap in it, so… I sold everything. My car, my bed, my TV, my clothes… I gave it all away—kind of like a little sale. I’m coming back in May and I’m starting fresh with new clothes, new car, new apartment—new everything. I’m probably going to spend the whole summer toting around Chicago, with David Leep, Andrew Brady and Brian Kachinsky; finding the spots that Chicago has… and hopefully not going to jail like Brian and David have [laughter]. I’m also going to take full advantage of any travel opportunities that come about during that time. I’ll be traveling all over the world. I’m trying to cross the Bering Straight—I know that sounds insanely nuts, but I’ve been looking at all these packages and you can go from, uhh, Estonia to Alaska on the Trans-Siberian railway. It looks really fun and I think about… who, that you know of, has ever crossed the Bering Straight? Just the idea of crossing it would be such an achievement. Who knows, maybe after that, I’ll shoot down to the coast of California and into Mexico and cross the Panama Canal while I’m at it.
Where can we keep up with your travels and what you’ll be up to?
Well, I was thinking about starting a blog, but I might just keep Vinyl updated and Flybikes updated… the Duffs blog, my Facebook and my Twitter are always going… except right now—I shut my phone off, so it only works in a WiFi area. I’m going to go back to the gypsy lifestyle. Peanut butter and bananas everyday…
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Tom! Make a post about Bobby Delaat being on Sunday Pro!
[...] Also Tom asked Kevin Porter a few question before he went on a month long journey all over the world.. pretty intereting that’s what riding is all about.. check it out. [...]
[...] last I heard (in your Vinyl interview) you were taking off traveling all over to filming for the Empire video and the new Fly video. What [...]