Introductions


The year is 2025 and I’m a middle-aged father of a 2.5yo boy named Finn. Like most fathers, I assume, there is a nagging drive to encourage my son to participate in organized sports, however the modern corruptions of the simplistic sports of my youth leave a lot to be desired. Though I was encouraged as a child to play all types of sportsball, when I really thought about it, what I really enjoyed most was riding bicycles (and then motorcycles). However, this passion wasn’t fully cultivated (all due respect to my parents). Further, I was sheltered from what were considered at the time to be “extreme” sports, and lacking the appropriate exposure, didn’t get to fully explore these options. 

On the contrary, Finn has been exposed to all types of wheeled and motorized transportation, and without intent, perhaps the pendulum has swung the direction opposite of my own upbringing. I’m probably remiss in not encouraging him to “have a catch” or focus on any such fundamental skills for ball sports. Instead, I have encouraged his curiosity and enhanced his exposure to all things two-wheeled. For now, I’ll digress and try to get to the point of this blog. I’ll maybe circle back later to describe my adventures in bicycling and motorcycling (and enduro racing).

On the event of Finn’s first BMX race at 2.5 years old, I thought that I would want to document his two-wheeled adventures somehow. Initial thoughts of a physical scrapbook were, well, scrapped. So why not a blog? Let’s chronicle some things in digital prose and pictures. Who knows if this will last. Maybe he will find a different path, and that’s ok. We’ll be proud of him no matter what.


Location: Oklahoma, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Second race - are we sure about this?

Image
  One week after Finn's BMX race debut, we had a pre-scheduled father/son campout weekend about an hour from home. Sand Springs BMX has Friday night and Sunday afternoon races so we considered racing Friday so we wouldn't miss a week. Instead, since we had fair weather (for a change), we decided to head to camp and spend two nights. First time Finn's been away from his mama for two consecutive nights, but it was a success. We took four bicycles- Finn's green race bike, his orange strider, his Trek pedal bike (with training wheels), and my MTB with toddler shotgun seat. We rode all four, plus my dirtbike. It was also a good opportunity to ease into his new full-face helmet. The transition to that was simple enough... just keep the half helmet put away and offer the full face. When not riding bicycles and playing with dump trucks, Finn was exploring the creek and catching frogs, fish, and a snake. Good times.  Late Saturday, we decided that making the Sunday afternoon rac...
Read more

First race - diving into the deep end

Image
Better get some things written down before we get too behind here. Finn’s first BMX race Sunday April 27, 2025, was a success. Not knowing how things worked aside from a cursory perusal of the Sand Springs BMX website and track rules, we showed up on a muggy day at about 2pm. Practice and sign ups were supposed to happen from about 2-3 with races after. With the help of a teenage girl named Maddie, cones were placed on the finish straight and the one preceding it such that the balance bikes had a “safe zone” for practice on those two “rhythm” sections. Essentially a coned-off 3’ lane consisting of varying height roller hills with one 180deg turn. It was foreign to both of us, but we took cues from the other racers and parents.   We put in a bit of sweat (mostly mine) laying down some practice laps and then we found ourselves on the track when the parade lap began during the national anthem. Not knowing protocols, we paused during the anthem and in retrospect, should have just kept ...
Read more