FreestyleXtreme Magazine Issue 5 | Page 95

KELLY McGARRY So what’s been the biggest highlight of your career so far? Probably getting second at Rampage in 2013. It was my best result at the biggest comp in the world, it has the most hype surrounding it, and of course the whole viral YouTube thing was sweet. It was a cool experience and it felt awesome to do well after doing sh*t there for a few years. I was also pumped on the public’s reaction to my run, and winning the People’s Choice Award meant a lot to me. It’s cool that everyone liked what I did, my line and what went down. consider “ I stillto just be one myself of the boys riding the jumps ” The crash at the 2014 Rampage was pretty sh*t! It bummed me out as I wanted to do well there, but it was more about some outside factors like pressure from sponsors to run product that wasn’t up to the task. When you’ve got a 90kg dude riding in the biggest, gnarliest freeride comp in the world, you want to be running the most reliable products you’ve got. I did go pretty deep on that jump, but to have the wheels collapse like they did was pretty catastrophic. What are you more famous for? Your hair, your canyon Backflip at the 2013 Rampage, or your canyon crash in the 2014 Rampage? (Laughs) It’s gotta be a combo of them all. I’m pretty stoked and never dreamed of being where I am now when I was banging nails in Nelson. Your 2013 Red Bull Rampage POV run has passed 22 million views on YouTube. That’s insane! Yeah, it’s pretty crazy, alright. I never thought that would ever happen when I hit the GoPro button at the top of the run. It’s amazing to see how far it’s gone: it was on daytime TV all over the world and friends saw it on the news in Japan, France and Egypt. It was definitely good for my p. Simon Makker And what was the lowlight? profile and my career and it gave people a pretty good idea of the view from my office. I think the reason it worked so well was the views off each side of the ridge, a good angle and exposure, as well as being able to hear the stress in my breathing and the crowd cheering and stuff. It seemed to put the viewer in the moment. It’s probably fair to say you get a lot of love from both mainstream and MTB media. Why do you think that is? Yeah, I’m not really sure. Maybe because I travel a lot and I try and stay down-to-earth. I think it’s important to always make the time to talk to people and I still consider myself to just be one of the boys riding the jumps. People can get on their high horse, but that’s not good for anything. Luckily there are very few people like that in the sport. It’s cool to see mountain biking getting more mainstream love over the past few years. When was the last time you cut your hair? Ohh…I think I had an army cut back when I was 24, about eight years ago. I then thought ‘screw it – I’ll grow it long’. Big hair, big air! I’ve had a few trims as it turns to dreads and gets a bit manky. Sometimes you find old bits of pizza, pasta sauce and vomit in there from getting on the hammers…[laughs] just kidding. I give it a trim now and again when it starts to annoy me. FreestyleXtreme.com | 91