07 Mar Ryan Senechal Interview.
Sneaker Tuesday is cancelled, because this is better. And I forgot.
How about a Sneaker Thursday?
If you don’t know Ryan Senechal then you pretty much suck.
He’s been holding it down in Ontario since forever.
He’s a man in need of no introduction, (Because the interview does all that for me.)
He helped organize Not-So-Metro this year, so I shot a few questions over. It’s a really good read, so sit back and enjoy it kids.
Hey! Who are you? How old are you? All that standard info.
Ryan. 25. Born in the Hammer, raised in Bracebridge (Muskoka), and then
spent about 5 years in Toronto after high school. Guelph is home now.
What the hell happened to Myope?
We’re a bunch of lazy fucks. My contributors are going through some
real struggles these days like passing mid terms or showing up for
work sober, but every now and then we get some decent material. We’re
not going anywhere.
So, you were behind Not-So-Metro this year correct? Who else had a hand in it?
I can’t take credit for that. Mike Heaton was the official organizer
of that event. In the name of professionalism, I’m not going to go
into specifics, but I will say that I directed the event over the
weekend.
A whole bunch of riders from the central Ontario Bmx community are the
others that had a significant hand in it. Their contributions were
invaluable to the event, as in the event would have never left the
ground without them. Greg at Corebmx and skate organized the ramp
build effort and brought together some serious talent to see it come
to being. More importantly, he held his ground for the integrity of
the event.
Some of the guys poured in tonnes of hours, usually on evenings and
weekends to fit in with their day jobs. Jeremy even contributed a 53′
trailer with a semi, his time to drive it, and diesel. Dionne, Wayne,
and Jeremy lead the course build and did an incredible job. Equally
important are the event-weekend volunteers which staff our
registration, help brute the ramps off of trucks and into place,
course staff, etc. I’ve got a list of thank yous on my Myspace page.
This is what being a community is about and basically we just got
together to show Bmx that Toronto is a serious Bmx town that takes no
shit from nobody.
Sum up why Jay Miron isn’t coming back and why you guys had to take care of it this year.
Picture this. You put a thousand hours or more and thousands of
dollars up to make a Bmx attraction meant to be accessible to Bmxers,
catering to them even. These Bmxers come from far and wide to attend.
They get loaded or just hyper with a big group and start breaking
shit, and making asses of themselves. Who does that reflect on? Jay.
He ends up reviewing all the bullshit after the show, and ultimately
pays for most of it.
It’s an expensive show to begin with, one that is resource intensive
and logistically challenging. When you put 20 years of experience as
a community-contributing Bmx rider into an event, you’d expect there’d
be some level of respect. I wish people coming to those events would
police themselves rather than having dumb shit go down and ignore it,
and we all get stuck with more security lurking and ultimately Jay
weighing his options to can the project.
There were other reasons why he’s not back. 3000kms to ship a staff
and ramp to and from is not cheap, neither is the venue they required
to meet the spectator numbers. It didn’t balance out in the end.
I was pretty bummed when I heard he backed out, and initially felt a
little violated when Mike Heaton publicized that an event equal in
scale and intensity would take its place. I’m a big Miron fan if you
haven’t already figured it out.
I’m probably going to take flak for going on the record and saying
this, but I’ve worked with Mike Heaton before and I didn’t have a
whole lot of faith in his ability to produce a premier Bmx event to
host 200 riders. So I pitched my involvement and started tackling a
number of issues that were immediately apparent, and prepared myself
for a complete cluster-fuck of a weekend.
You told me next years event was going to be better, what do you have in mind? What would you change about this years event?
I want to see the right people behind the scenes, people that are
committed to the scene and will not settle for anything but there
personal best. With a full year on board the project, I can plan it
the way I have traditionally planned events. Which means plan the
shit out of it, compensate for every potential issue, and budget it
intelligently so that there is enough left over to ensure another
year.
I went into this weekend almost completely blind, which means I had to
make a bunch of adjustments along the weekend and figure out solutions
to problems that hadn’t been compensated for (by a certain event
producer).
As for changes at this year’s, I would have had someone in place to
bring me more coffee, and one of those rental soft hot tubs. In a
licensed area, with girls, and no more fucking tragically hip.
I heard a lot of issues about people climbing on stuff, tell us that story.
Yeah. It’s actually pretty entertaining to see what people will do if
you leave them unsupervised long enough to figure out some plan to
amuse themselves. I laughed every time someone pointed out somebody
climbing through the window onto the mezzanine, or on top of the
washroom. But next thing you know, the people that run the bike show
itself are all over me. A safety violation noted by the union or
building inspector equals major fines to the bike show producer, which
will become an issue of my own.
Every minute I have to be chasing people off of bikes in aisles or off
of places they shouldn’t climbing onto, is time I am not able to be in
position to keep on top of the event — Consider the time it takes me
to radio for a medic in comparison to the time it takes for someone
else to run and find one. That’s a little extreme.
If the organizer of this event had of checked out the venue before we
arrived on setup day, he would have recognized that there was room for
only one bleacher trailer in that hall. That was the blunder which
lead to people hunting for better seats in my opinion.
You definitely organize a lot of stuff for the scene, tell us what you love about it, and what you hate.
I love giving people a reason to travel into town to ride and hang
out. It also makes for a couple of good nights to get drunk with
friends you haven’t seen in ages. Beyond that, it’s a real adrenaline
rush to try and keep things rolling without any “dead air” or fuck ups
that are visible to the general audience. The best part of doing an
event I find, is being able to use my brain, which doesn’t always
happen in my career. Not that I am saying that’s a bad thing, but
challenges are good. There’s so much to learn.
What I hate.. hmm. I hate that Metro Jam pulled out of Toronto.
That’s nothing to do with me organizing, but when people inside the
community do things that harm the community, I do definitely despise
that. I basically signed up for not-so-metro as an active member of
the community with sympathy for a weekend that brings a lot of great
people into Toronto. I didn’t want to go to the bike show, predict
the event would bomb, watch the show bomb, and go home knowing that I
did nothing to stop it.
Here’s a very simple formula for everyone to keep in mind.
BMX weekend in Toronto > No BMX weekend in Toronto. Consider that
next time before you follow through with your plans to steal a city
bus, set off every fire extinguished inside of it, and somehow drive
it through the ramps.
Would you rather just chill and ride or be the dude who everyone knows threw an event together?
I would without question rather be putting things on the calendar for
people to go hang out at. I think of all the people I’ve met and
become pretty close with over the years at events, and I’m pretty
grateful for that. It’s hard to imagine life without some of the
people that made huge impressions on me as a result of going to a
contest.
Ramble off some of the other events you’ve been behind.
Most recently, I co-produced a Redbull-backed event at Muskoka Woods
which was basically a big get together and hang out. Over 70 riders
on 20s, 26s, and 24s all slaying the park and partying together over a
relaxed weekend in Muskoka. That was about the most fun I think I’ve
ever had with an event. I’ve assisted at a few skate park contests
with consultations, registration software, and emceeing. Beyond that,
we did a mtb-street event in Toronto in ’03, built all the ramps and
had a pretty crazy turn out. A couple of events at Bremner park below
the CN Tower in Toronto before that, box jump and ramp/street stuff
there as well. Hmm, before that I organized trials events, a whole
bunch of them.
I see your opinions everywhere, but what do you think of Ontario BMX in general?
Me? Opinions?
I think it would be a lot more positive if people thought of it as a
community. Mostly, Ontario just needs to get its head out of its ass
(since when is this the Midwest?) and start hanging out together
again. I’m noticing the regional bonds starting to come back around.
ICC and Turkey jam this year were two really good signs of that, plus
the community support behind not-so-metro, several Bmx shops
supporting riders/events/skatepark builds, over a dozen new concrete
parks (most open to bikes), regional news sites with forums, and
multiple rider-owned indoor parks open or open very soon. Ryder
distribution and Tenpack as well supporting contests, riders, and
making for quick shipments. Several rider-owned clothing companies.
Muskoka Woods ramp camp. Now if only Alliance and Commercial would
put out some new frames and parts.
I think riders should just think progressively, and do something
positive for other people to enjoy down the road. It’s not a lot to
ask when you think about how much you have taken from bmx.
You’re still a moderator on DropMachine, are you still tight with the whole mountain bike scene since you started riding Bmx, or has it just sort of faded into the distance?
I sessioned a mtb for the first time in over a year last weekend at a
mtb park contest (industry). A contest that I emceed for the second
straight year (and the second straight year I’ve been Bmx only). So
yeah, I still support the mtb community. A lot of those guys are my
closest friends and why would a wheel size make me second guess them.
I’d have to be a real ass to pull that kind of move. We’ve been
riding in groups of mixed Bmx and mtb for over 10 years.
Out of all the cats on the Ontario riding scene, who do you think deserves more respect then they get?
One of my close friends here in town is a well known pro that gets a
lot of harassment over being married, career-driven, and a Christian.
He can murder just about anyone I’ve seen ride in Ontario on
street/trails/ramp, has some very profound things going on in his
head, and realizes that there is more to life than bikes. Why he is
not praised for riding bikes instead of tormented when he makes an
appearance, is pretty annoying to witness.
I heard you’re the reason Chris Silva rides street. Are you proud of the enormous penis he has grown from diving down rails?
haha, I heard that rumor going around about him publicly crediting me
for that. I am honored, shit yeah. Silva and I rode at least once a
week with a whole crew of others for a few years I think, and I think
we took a lot from each other — we had pretty different styles to say
the least.
Chris Silva is the reason I started riding Bmx about 6 years ago, one
of the main reasons I ride Bmx only now.
So, you’re stoked on bikes, summer, and all the street riding coming up then?
Yeah. Bikes are alright, this year is going to be good.
Any final shout-outs? Don’t mention Myope unless we’re getting an update in the next month.
Yeah. Doug Pilkey for never letting me into his fucking skatepark
despite being raised on the road by Doug’s fellow vert ramp crazies
like Eric Gagne, Travis Fontaine, Jamie Merritt, and Stephane Lavigne.
I dropped into my first 13 ft vert ramp in 1999.
It’s nice when my friends I ride street with, all go into the park and
I get denied.
Doug has organized a ton of options for Ontario bmx, which is exactly
what I’m all for. He lost most of my respect when he was completely
close-minded to my validity as a rider, because at the time, my wheels
were 26s. That’s the kind of bullshit that the scene in Ontario can
do without. I can think about several cities in Ontario where the
crew is split between wheelsize these days — Pilkey must be grinding
his teeth. This mountain biker just did everything possible to make a
Bmx event in your hometown a success.
Mind you, I now ride a frame from a company that once printed a t-shirt
with a picture of a mountain biker sprocket grinding a ledge that said
“URBAN INSULT”. I’m down to wipe the slate clean. But you fucking
owe me a beer.
A positive shout out, everyone out there that is helping, not hurting the sport.
Oh yeah, I’d better thank my executive assistant for keeping me sane
and focused through all of this.