Freestyle and easy:
Streetbike
champion Aaron Colton's path has taken him to the Philippines where he hopes to change your mind about the sport
words and pics (except for the middle foto) by rick olivares
Why is a young kid from Minnesota like you not playing hockey?
Aaron Colton, out of Shakopee, Minnesota, laughed.
“Yeah, that’s hockey country right there,” he said a little
pensively as the question had him thinking back to his younger days; not that
being 22 years of age is old. “Yep. Right in the middle of farm country too. I
played some hockey when I was younger. I mean who wouldn’t? It’s Minnesota.”
“But there are a lot of sports that are pretty huge back in
Minnesota. We’ve got football, track and field, basketball… lots of sports. I
chose my path though and that’s riding motorcycles.”
That path has taken Colton from all over the United States to Costa
Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama, Bolivia, Dominican Republic and now to the
Philippines.
However, this isn’t Colton’s first time in the Philippines. He was
here in September of 2013; an anonymous visitor who spent a week in the island
paradise that is Boracay. This time around he’s here for work as part of his
Red Bull Street Tour.
The press conference for his tour is at Publiko in Eastwood City.
It pays to be early and I am rewarded with the day’s first one-on-one interview
and Colton isn’t only engaging but proves to be insightful and humble for
someone who has become a global star.
It was during his first visit to the Philippines that the idea of
coming back and promoting streetbike freestyle. “I noticed that everywhere I
went I saw motorcycles. Not just the ordinary ones but big bikes, some sport
bikes,” he recalled. “I was told that motorcycles were either used as your
regular mode of transportation or for leisure. Although I heard that there are
bike races as well. Basically, I want to promote the streetbike freestyle and
tell Filipinos that you don’t need a fancy or expensive bike to get into the
sport. And given the Filipinos creativity, I think they can bring something new
to the sport.”
Aside from the promotional tour where Colton will showcase his
stunts – wheelies, endos, burnouts, drifting, and acrobatics -- with his 2 KTM
690 Duke, he is here to shoot a video.
Something like the wakeskating stunt at the Banaue Rice Terraces, I
wondered.
“Yeah, most definitely,” enthused Colton. “I’m good friends with
Brian Grubb who did those stunts and he had good words to say about his trip
here aside from shooting the video. So maybe mine could be just as good.”
“Maybe you can help us with
some ideas on where we could go,” Aaron asked.
I rattle off a few ideas at the top of my head – the old world
streets in Vigan, the Lion’s Head along Kennon Road, the La Mesa Dam watershed,
Subic Bay….
“Awesome! We’ll take down notes,” chimed in Colton’s girlfriend
Daniela.
“When you think about the Philippines, one of the first things that
comes to mind is that’s it’s a vacation place,” added the multiple-time
freestyle champion. “But if you look beyond the beaches there’s a lot of beauty
country out there. There’s a lot you can do if you put your heart and mind to
it.”
“Motorcycles have been a part of almost my entire life,” Aaron reflected.
“I didn’t think it would be my life but when I was around 12 or 13, it changed
from a hobby to a passion.”
Colton’s passion for motorcycle sports and his achievements have
helped give the sport of streetbike freestyle a “facelift.”
“Streetbike freestyle have always had this rebel image,” explained
Colton. “Maybe that’s because it was an inner city sport and there were all
these tattooed riders competing. It is nice to be complimented in giving the
sport a sense of legitimacy but the credit has to go around to all the others. I
love the sport because it is taking and harnessing the power of the motorbike
and spinning it off into new directions. It’s a way of expressing one’s self.”
Truth to tell when Aaron takes off his helmet to reveal his long
curly locks, he looks more like a San Diego surfer dude (he now lives in Santa
Monica, California). ‘Yeah, I’ve gotten quite a few of those comments like,
‘what’s a nice boy like you doing in a sport like this?’
Standing six-feet tall, dressed in a gray short, long shorts and
Nikes. He might look like one of the scions of the Lords of Dogtown. Colton
grins at the remark. In addition to his incredible skills and achievements, his
clean image has helped bring in a lot of corporate attention and support to the
sport.
But streetbiking isn’t without its inherent danger. Lying around
for five months on the mend is enough to make one question their direction in
life. “Fear is something that you have to master. I am at a point were I am
comfortable with what I am doing. This isn’t something you can do forever but
I’m still young and I’d like to make the most out of it.”
And this sports prodigy’s path has taken him to these Philippine
Islands where he is out to spread the gospel of the sport. “There are roads yet
to travel,” he smiled. “I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Not bad for a boy from Minnesota who exchanged hockey for
streetbikes.
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It's way cool when the Man likes what you wrote!
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It's way cool when the Man likes what you wrote!
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