Mike Aitken 20 Questions MIKE AITKEN IS A RIPPER. He never ceases to amaze me. I could seriously watch him session every day of the year and not get bored. Anytime I get to shoot photos with him is always a treat- he's one of those guys who makes every shot worth taking. He goes huge, his style is unmatched, and I don't think there's many other guys who look completely pissed-off while they're riding, yet are having the time of their life doing it. Pure aggression and poetry in motion. Yeah, I'm jealous of Mike, but I'm not afraid to admit it. Right now, he's tearing things up on the contest scene and in his everyday riding, so we threw 20 Questions at him. Here goes... 1. Since you've been to a lot of contests lately, and placed first or second in most of them, I'm assuming you're somewhat serious about competing right now. Would that be an accurate thing to say? Not really serious, but when I get to the contests, I want to give it my all. I don't try to hit them all; I just go to a couple here and there. I used to be really serious about it, but I don't really care now. I still have my standards that I want to ride to. 2. Your contest runs are a mix of big tricks and stylish flow. Are they intentionally put together like that, or is that just what comes out? Pretty much what comes out. I don't plan runs or anything, I just do what I feel at the time. I might plan the first jump; after that it's pretty much whatever pops into my head. 3. How do you feel after qualifying first into the finals and then riding awesome runs, only to have someone like Ryan Nyquist throw a number of super-tech tricks and beat you by only a point or two? It's good to know that the not-so-big tricks can get you there. [Nyquist] definitely has a lot of moves and he does well under pressure, so he always comes out on top. But I'm definitely glad to know that you can still do tabletops, and if you make them look good, people like it just as much or more. 4. Do you ever feel like you should throw some barspins and flip variations to win a comp, or is it more important to stay true to yourself and not ride for the judges? It's more important to me to stay true to what I like. Those tricks are cool and everything, they're just tricks that I've never been into. If you [ride contests] your own way, do everything really smooth, and make it look better than everyone else, you can still win. It's a little harder 'cause you don't have as many tricks, but if that's what you're into, it's better to do what you feel than do what you think they want to see. 5. You can do flips and variations of them. Will they ever surface at contests like one did at Toronto earlier this year? No, that was the first and last- I only needed one for myself. That's all that was. I asked Garrett Byrnes, "Hey, you think it'd be funny if I did a backflip?" And he just looked at me and started laughing. Then I was up on the roll-in and all of my friends were screaming, "DO IT!" So I did [laughter]. 6. You're known and admired heavily for your style. Do you think about style as you ride or is it a subconscious thing- something that comes natural? I definitely think about different ways you can move your bike around, but when it comes to just riding trails or whatever, it's something that just comes out. 7. How do you feel when people talk about your style vs. your tricks- are they equally important to you? Style is more important to me, but the tricks I do , I just try to make them look the best I can instead of moving on to different ones without making the ones I do look right, or what I think looks right to me. 8. How do you go so damn high over spines and doubles? I'm a racer, so I try to pump the sh*t out of everything. My friend Courtney that got me into riding would always say, "Go fast and pull back," so ever since then, that's what I've done [laughter]. 9. What kind of things have you been doing that most people haven't seen yet- specifically street stuff? I live downtown now, so I ride street all the time. I just look at street a little differently, I try to anyway- not just looking at rails all the time. Every once in a while, I'll see a gap-to-icepick I want to do and I'll try it. I don't think people have seen me ride street hardly at all. Maybe a couple of manuals and rails here and there, but nothing I'm really psyched on. 10. When you're out riding, what's your thought process for learning and progressing? I just ride around and if I see something and I'm in the right mood, I'll try it. There aren't days where I'm like, I'm going to learn this or learn that..." When I'm out riding, something will pop into my head and I'll try it- out of the blue. 11. Do you know you can do certain tricks, or learn them easily, before you've even tried them? With most dirt jumping tricks, and rails and stuff, I definitely feel really confident about it before I try it, and I kind of know I can pull it either first or second try. That's how I've always been. I don't want to get hurt [laughter], so I make sure I know I can do it before I do it. Most of it is [mental] for me. I think about stuff too much sometimes. If I take a million runs up to something, I won't do it. If I just look at it real quick and tell myself I can do it, then I end up doing it, but if I look at it too long, it's definitely bad. 12. Where are you drawing influence from these days? Mainly from the people I ride with at home. I still look up to the Pennsylvania trail style, but it's kind of hard to look up to it as much when I don't have trails here or they get plowed, so I just ride with everyone here like Elf, Fuzz, Matt [Beringer], my roommates, Pantyboy... They all do their own different little things and it's interesting, so those guys influence me a lot. 13. How has moving out of Beringer's changed your riding and your everyday life? I save money on gas now and I live downtown, so I ride street a lot more. That changed the way I ride just by that, by riding street. I never used to before- I actually used to not like it; I'd always fall and get hurt [laughter]. We get along better. We didn't get along bad, I think Matt just got sick of me. I knew it was time to move out, anyway. 14. What do you think about the break-up of the Erie scene? It definitely sucks for my friends in Erie. Mike Szczesny and Erik and all of those guys, they pretty much don't know what to do. They still ride, but I think they're bitter, for sure. It's good for [Kris] Bennett, though. He's getting Square One going 'cause Little Devil is helping him out, and I'm sure he rides a whole lot more now, living with Van [Homan]- all the good stuff in Philly. 15. Is it hard for you to deal with riding friends getting into drinking when you're not into it? I've never been into the whole drinking scene. I'd rather go out and ride all night. I wish everyone just wanted to do that instead of planning which bar they're going to. I get bummed out when I hear that one of my friends that didn't drink starts drinking, but it wears out pretty fast; you get used to it. Now that's just one less person to hang out with when I'm doing whatever at night. 16. Quitting Mosh was a big move. Getting on Fit was just as big. What was up with the switch? I wanted to leave Mosh 'cause I wanted to do my own thing and help something grow. It's a lot more satisfying when you help something out that much and it's because of you. With Fit, it's a whole different program than Mosh, and I fit into it a little better. I'm not really hip-hop and we didn't get along well most of the time [on Mosh]. Me and Heath got along fine, but I felt like the odd one on the team [laughter]. With Fit, I feel more like a part of it. It's good. 17. I've seen you take some of the hardest slams ever, and within five minutes, you're shredding again. Do you feed off of your wrecks or are you just numb to them? Most of them hurt, but they end up hurting the next day, and I don't really like to lay around and let everyone know I'm hurt. I'll try my hardest to ride again- it makes me want to pull it when I wreck hard on something. When I wake up [the next day], I definitely feel it, but right after, I'm kind of still going on adrenaline. 18. What are your plans and goals for the rest of this year? just to have fun, ride, and go to a couple of contests here and there. I made Gravity Games street and dirt, so I'm pretty psyched on that. And I think I'm gonna go to the Vans comps and kind of nit-pick at what else I'm going to . I want to travel a little bit and go on road trips more than contests this year. 19. Where do you see yourself in five years? Hopefully riding. I'm sure I'll still be on Fit 'cause I'm really psyched on it. Hopefully doing video parts and stuff like that instead of hitting all the contests- I'm hoping that BMX turns more toward that instead of the contests every weekend. 20. Who would you like to thank? My parents, Fit, Vans, Square One, 50/50 bike shop, all of my friends in Salt Lake, everyone who's ever helped me out, and everyone I've ridden with. -Keith Mulligan, Transworld BMX- September, 2002