INTERVIEW
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HAVING A YEAR WITHOUT NATIONALS ?
JOSH : It was a blessing in disguise ; it was nice to take a step back and kinda relax and re-group and get prepared for the 2021 season , but in a way it was also really different not going to any of the Nationals and so this whole entire summer , I was like “ Wow , what do I do ?”
I actually ended up taking June and July pretty much off to go up in the Northwest to go do some riding and mountain biking and hit some different trials events . 1 : it ’ s extremely hot in Arizona during the summer , so I couldn ’ t bear that anymore , so I decided to leave ; 2 : I wanted to get some section time in . What better way to travel around and go to a whole bunch of different clubs ?
It was definitely weird not having any Nationals this year . Me personally , I didn ’ t like it ; I wanted to have Nationals , I wanted to be there competing , and so I guess that ’ s the same for everybody . That just gives you more motivation to push for 2021 . I found myself finding more time to do things . It was nice to take a step back and just go out and ride for fun , just knowing that there ’ s nothing serious on the line and just try and be safe .
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 58
KYLEE : It was nice ; it was actually really good for me . In 2018 , I broke my hand , so I only did a half season ; the year after , I got mono and so I missed the other half of it again . I just felt like for almost two years , it was like hard for me to find a groove and be consistent , and be active and riding .
I finally feel like I got that back after having the whole summer . The summers in Oregon are just the best , and I always seem to miss it because of nationals . It was really cool to be able to just ride all the time and do all kinds of things . I felt like I was able to get my groove back a little bit with not having nationals .