The Athletes Podcast
The Athletes Podcast is a leading source of information, inspiration, and education for anyone interested in optimizing physical performance, maintaining good health, and living an active lifestyle. Join David Stark as he interviews some of the world's biggest athletes and fitness professionals, The Athletes Podcast provides practical advice, expert insights, and real-world strategies to help listeners achieve their health and fitness goals.The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire the next generation of athletes!
The Athletes Podcast
Richie Bullbrook: Canada's #1 Skateboarder - Ep. #252
Richie Bullbrook shares his journey from a young skateboarder inspired by cartoons to a competitive athlete vying for Olympic recognition. He discusses his family's role in his development, the emotional impact of his father's passing, the reality of imposter syndrome, and his commitment to fostering community among young skaters.
• Starting skateboarding at four, inspired by a favourite cartoon
• The importance of parental support in pursuing sports
• The role of Revert Skate Park in his upbringing
• Coping with grief following his father's passing
• Experiences at Team Canada training camps
• Navigating the pressures of competition and imposter syndrome
• Managing injuries, including torn PCLs, through training
• Hosting the Medway Bowl Bash to mentor young skaters
• Goals of achieving the 900 and Olympic participation
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I don't know. I feel like I'm young enough to still chase this goal. So, like I don't know, I'm a little whatever. Sorry.
Speaker 2:Dude, don't apologize, keep going. How the heck is a 21 year old saying you're too old? Now? What are you going? What are you talking about?
Speaker 1:I think when my mom would tell me her friends have kids and they're older than like 14 and I was like eight I'd be like that's not a kid. Kid like my mom, like my mom's friends don't have kids, they have adults, if that makes sense, like it's like you're an adult child. So I think 21, I should have it together. I should kind of have a plan. It seems like a lot of. So I'm in university. It seems like a lot of people in university really have it together and I have it together. But then I'm kind of dropping everything and moving to California to pursue this dream. So I kind of have it together but I don't know.
Speaker 2:You're not dropping everything.
Speaker 1:You are expanding on what you've already built yeah, kind of um, yeah, dude, I uh, I hope it works out. That's it really. I just hope it works out. I hope's it really. I just hope it works out. I hope it's worth it. But I mean, I don't know, can we start with the intro to skateboarding Of course, I think that's the best spot to start.
Speaker 2:Dude, I'm so pumped for this episode you have no idea, because you've got an infectious energy. It's been a while since I've recorded and dude, you're number one in Canada and we like to highlight Canadians. You're only 21 years old, you're humble, you've got Dude. Let's go Start with the intro to skateboarding. Get into it.
Speaker 1:Okay, dude, thank you so much for having me. I'm super stoked to be doing this. I've never gotten to do anything like this before, so it's kind of a dream, honestly. This is really cool for me. So starting skateboarding.
Speaker 1:I started skateboarding when I was four years old. What got me into skateboarding was there was a show called Arthur, which was like this show with an aardvark. It was a cartoon, and I saw these two bunny rabbits skateboarding in this cartoon and I thought it was the coolest thing. They were skateboarding in an empty swimming pool and so I went out to my garage and in my garage I had a skateboard. It was my mother's, though my dad bought it for her before she went to a surf camp, just so she could like practice on it, and then it kind of got abandoned after that. So there was this really crummy skateboard in the garage and I just started.
Speaker 1:I must have started on my butt, I don't know, that's how most kids start, but I started going to a little park down the street from my house when I was four and immediately loved the feeling of rolling and moving and just doing something fast. Just doing something fast and the idea that one day I could maybe go in the air and stuff. So that's, that's what drew me to it as a kid, for sure is, uh, just television and like thinking skateboarders were cool you are cool, you are very cool, man, cbc.
Speaker 2:This morning you're getting attention, well deserved. Mama bulbrook is out here pounding the pavement making sure people know that her son's number one and, uh, he deserves some attention nowadays dude.
Speaker 1:yeah, I think I wouldn't be able to have come this far in in sport if it wasn't for my parents, um, my mom and dad, uh, from from a young age, from like since I was four, they always treated it kind of like how I think hockey parents are, or like that's just a stereotype, but you know what I mean by hockey parent. It's like they took it seriously and they understood that there potentially was somewhere for me to go with it and it's newly in Olympic sports. Back when I was really young, there wasn't really anywhere to go, but my parents still saw something in it, so they worked really hard to be able to give me all the opportunities I have. And that goes back to like starting skateboarding at like four years old. My parents would sign me up for summer camps in the summer. That's really when I started.
Speaker 1:Skateboarding was through these little summer camps locally and there was one at this indoor park called revert, which I I think I would attribute most of my young success to uh. It was at a church, um, on monday and tuesday nights, uh during the winter, but there were also summer camps, but during the winter was where it started, uh, because where I live in london there's nowhere to skate in the winter, especially like there wasn't back then, but on Monday and Tuesday nights there was this place that had all these ramps and they were all modular so you could kind of move them around, and from the age of seven until like 13, I was skating there Every day it was open. I was at all the summer camps. I loved it because it was like Lego, uh, skateboarding, like you could go there and take all these different obstacles and put them together to try and recreate something that, like I saw on YouTube or saw on a video and that was really magical to me as like a kid.
Speaker 1:And I think that place, revert I don't talk about that enough in interviews Uh, like, I've never brought up revert until this morning at cbc when I thought of it. But like revert skate park, like is probably the reason I got good and also my parents taking me there all the time. Um, that I really want to highlight that because, like I don't know, I've been talking to people about revert recently because it obviously closed.
Speaker 1:like everything in skateboarding, it doesn't last long but um that's somewhere that I really value and I don't think I'd be good if I had nowhere to skate in the winter at that age. So I think I owe a lot to the people at that skate park and I I think about it a lot and I miss it dude.
Speaker 2:You uh might be the reason why you can bring something back to canada after you crush it in california right and, you know, build something that young skaters want to be able to and can be able to pursue and participate in during the winter months. Like I know, I struggle with it here in vancouver. Even it's miserable at you know, five degrees. You guys are like minus 30 a week ago or whatever it. It was ugly. Yeah, I'm curious, though, like obviously, your parents, uh, you had the unfortunate passing of your father, but they raised an incredible human being here.
Speaker 2:I have to shout you out for the fact that you came on here. You talked about the fact that you wanted to be on this episode. You came in, you brought notes, you were more more prepared than 75% of the people that come on this show. So kudos to you, man. You're doing an incredible job and I think even here you've talked about the fact that you're taking a break after that mega ramp, returning from competitions. Let's go through based on what you put together here. But I want to make sure you know that anything you do moving forward, you started off super humble and you were kind of almost in a state where you didn't know. I just want you to make sure you have excellence pouring out from you and you are going to do amazing things, and I just want to reassure you of that. Put it that way.
Speaker 1:That means a lot, dude. Thank you, reassure you of that. Put it that way that means a lot, dude. I thank you. I uh it's. It makes me happy to think about the place I came from and the resources I had and kind of where I am now. It's um unique, like no one really across canada has really made it in skateboarding, let alone from like London Ontario. It's just kind of unheard of and I kind of forced it to happen, like I just worked so hard. I don't know, that is just the way it went. But thank you, dude.
Speaker 2:I have to ask when you bring up the Lego pieces? It made me think of Andy Anderson's drop that he talked about with the office material that's turning into skate gear. Is that a thing? Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1:There was a Swatch commercial he filmed that had him in an office that I saw. That was pretty rad.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Some of the obstacles were a desk and then they flipped over into a ramp. They transformed no that was super rad I really love super sick.
Speaker 2:Those weren't actually real things.
Speaker 2:They just made it like with andy for a commercial and it was unbelievable I believe, yeah, too bad, it's super cool, though I like that too bad I have to bring it up because andy's actually local, like I'm in white rock, so surrey so he and he went to school with my brother. He's around my brother's age, so, uh, we're gonna have to get him on at some point. Maybe chop it up the three of us. Maybe you guys can give me some lessons in the bowl. I am terrified. I will be completely honest. I've only just recently started learning snowboarding the sport of for the past, probably decade now, I guess total cumulatively. But uh, yeah, man, skateboarding was never a thing longboarding struggled with. Uh, tell me, was it just natural for you as a kid and was it the sport that you've always loved to do?
Speaker 1:I think from a young age I was like my parents put me in all the sports that parents put their kids in um.
Speaker 2:But I didn't like what, sorry, sorry. Like what, what, like what. You gotta be detailed.
Speaker 1:I was in football for a day, like I quit after that. That was really expensive, because my parents like bought the equipment and stuff and then I didn't do it. And then hockey same thing, like I probably lasted like two of the little kiddie like lessons and then like soccer. I mean just every like. Okay, so everything. Those are the three in my mind football, football, hockey and soccer.
Speaker 1:And then I just would always stop those at like five years old because I just wanted to skateboard and I didn't. I think at five I didn't really feel like I was good at skateboarding but just the idea of flying was so appealing. That's what I'd do at that indoor skate park, reaver. I'd always build these ramps, thats that like almost emulated that mega ramp, because all I wanted to do was be in the air and you can't do that in anything like hockey or soccer, like you can't fly.
Speaker 1:So I think that's what drew me to skateboarding from a young age and I think I wasn't naturally good at it, I just did it a lot. Uh, because you know kids they bounce back. Like between the ages of like 4 and 13 I was probably skateboarding every day and no rest, just like continuously, relentlessly, like just falling and eating crap and getting back up, and that also taught me a lot as a kid. I think from a young age, if you kind of learn that risk and reward and the way that you have to put in work to get a result, like that, learning that at like five years old, like it, just it really helps shape kind of who you become and I think that's why all?
Speaker 1:skateboarders are good people. I must say, like all skateboarders are good people and I think it's because they kind of get that like slap in the face when they start.
Speaker 1:And then like it's like a reality check, like skateboarding is hard, it hurts, and like it's not really that rewarding. When you're a kid, like when I was five, the only reward was the feeling of learning something, and I think that's what kept me going. Uh, when I was a kid was the idea that I was getting better and I could see it and I knew that if I kept working at it I would keep getting that like it's almost like a drug feeling of learning a new trick, especially in like the developmental stages of skateboarding. You're learning so much so you keep getting this hit of like dopamine or adrenaline and it just it doesn't stop and you just get sucked into this loop of trying to learn how to like first ollie and then kickflip and then be able to drop it on a ramp. It's just like.
Speaker 1:I kind of feel like my upbringing in skateboarding from that young age is pretty much the same as everyone's. I think everyone tells the same story. They all fall in love with the same way. Um, I think that's kind of magical about it, but, um, something that I want to highlight about my upbringing in skateboarding is definitely my dad's commitment to uh taking me to this place called woodward, because I think, I think revert and woodward, uh, are probably the two places that I would attribute my like developmental stages in skateboarding to. So, woodward, do you know what Woodward is?
Speaker 2:No, tell me about it.
Speaker 1:So Woodward is a training facility in Pennsylvania and they have been around for like 40 years and it's the best place to train for any action sport in the world. They have like at the one in Pennsylvania. There's like 20 skate parks all in this campus and they have foam pits next to every obstacle.
Speaker 1:You'd want to learn to skate and they have these things called resi, which is like a rideable mat, basically, so you can land and eat it and be fine. And so when I was 10, my dad took me to Woodward for the first time on a weekend getaway in Pennsylvania, and I just remember well, I don't remember a lot about the first time I remember being really scared of how big everything was there.
Speaker 1:Because that was my first time ever being somewhere in skateboarding that was like real, if that makes sense, like the skate parks in canada, kind of suck. When I was 10 was the first time I got to go somewhere that was like this is like a proper facility it was proper and I remember being really scared.
Speaker 1:everything was super big. Um, there were some things that I couldn't even like drop in on, like I couldn't even use some of the ramps because they were so big. But my dad loved it at Woodward too and I loved it, and it's in this beautiful Valley in Pennsylvania. Um, like the scenery is really cool around it. Like there's a couple like it's really mountainous and it's just like an idyllic place. There's there's nothing around Woodward. It's in a field in Pennsylvania and the nearest town is like 30 minutes away. Like it's so secluded that it's almost like a heaven. It's. It's kind of weird, it's it's super strange where it is, but it like adds to the like uh environment of it. It's just kind of like a heaven. And so my dad took me there when I was 10 and, uh, that was the first time we went and then every year after that, in the summer, my dad would work there so that I could skate in the summer like for cheaper, because it's so expensive to go.
Speaker 1:So my dad worked there as a guy who drives kids to the hospital, because, like someone needed to do that at that facility during the summer it was Woodward was like mainly a summer camp Also, I don't think I added that but so my dad would work there so I could train and those are some of the most fond memories of my childhood skateboarding because skating at Woodward I'm sorry I'm talking so much as well I want to apologize, man, I want to take a break from talking for a sec.
Speaker 1:But I Woodward something I'm really passionate about, because it was me and my dad's place.
Speaker 1:He, he, he put so much effort into being able to make sure I could train there um, because it around here is the closest place that's a legitimate skateboard training facility. So being able to take me there as much as he could and working there so I could stay longer, allowed me to get good at skating big ramps, because that's what I love most is skating like vert, um and mega, and at Woodward in Pennsylvania there's a mini mega. So, as like a rambunctious kid who just wanted to like fly, that's what I spent like all my summers doing was just skating mini mega and being at Woodward I'd meet kids from all over the world as they'd come to train there, so it was just like the perfect place to be at that age to make connections. Like some of my best friends I met at woodward when I was like 12 and it's just like. It was just a really cool place for me, um, at that time that's uh somewhere that I into something that like works?
Speaker 2:I feel like no dude, dude, you don't need to apologize, you're crushing it. This is part of the podcast experience. You're supposed to be in the hot seat. You're supposed to be the one talking. I just ask questions to get you to talk more. Sometimes I have to talk but, honestly, the audience is here for you if they want to listen to your story, your experience, who you are and you're doing a phenomenal job. Dude, honestly, uh, I want to of things. First off, you know that training session I mentioned with you and Andy. We got to do that at Woodward because that place sounds sick.
Speaker 1:I'm always down for a mystical adventure. Any excuse to go there, man, it's so good.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, clearly, your dad saw that as well, and the fact that he went there, worked during the summer, drove kids to the hospital. Hopefully you weren't one of those. Um, that's, that's, that's so cool, um, and such a unique experience that you guys were able to share, and you know probably stories for days, uh, some that you'll probably be able to share one day. I'm uh, I'm curious, though, like like that's gotta be that pivotal moment. You're like okay, this is the next level of skateboarding. What was the thing that topped Woodward next? Or, or has there been? Is there a facility that really knocked your socks off afterwards, or that really you still to this day?
Speaker 1:want to go back to the world of training. I think, it is, and I think being introduced to it as a young kid is kind of I don't know you feel spoiled because it's like, wow, I've really been to the best place.
Speaker 1:So I've been everywhere, and I think Woodward is where I would want to skate. If I had all the time and money in the world, I would just live there. I think that's mainly because I feel close to my dad there. It's like a really sentimental place for me, um, but yeah, there's nowhere better to skate in the world than woodward, for sure and then tell me when was that?
Speaker 2:how many years had you been going to woodward prior to your first team canada training camp?
Speaker 1:so going to Woodward. I went to Woodward all the way up until COVID and so my dad was with me every summer there. So like from the age of 10 to like 16, I think, is when COVID was, and then COVID shut down camp. So right when COVID hit, I got invited to a Team Canada training camp and up until this point I hadn't really taken the Olympics stuff too seriously. Skateboarding was introduced to the Olympics in Tokyo, like the one Andy went to and so like from 2016 to 2020, people were kind of training for from Canada and working towards qualifying for it, and I wasn't part of that crop of people. I was still really focused on like being a kid and like skating at Woodward in the summers. Um, so I was never part of the team Canada stuff at that point. But after the 2020 Olympics had happened in Tokyo, uh, I was invited to the first training camp after that and that was a really big opportunity for me because it was a little bit of recognition. It was like I'd been working hard skating all these years and I never really had aspirations to do anything with it at this point. I just skated for fun. And going to Woodward made me realize that I was like not like crazy good, but I was like good on like a global scale or like at least kind of um, I don't know, I still think I kind of suck, but that's just like a weird mental thing that I think some athletes have. But so, like, going to Woodward made me realize I'm all right at skateboarding, and then it was nice to get recognition from, uh, canada Skateboard about that, and so I was invited to my first team Canada training camp.
Speaker 1:But at that time my dad was really sick, and this is another thing that I just want to say because it's important to me, talking about my dad. I talk about him all the time. I think grief is super important. I think the way like Western culture handles death is super strange. I talk about it all the time, like with my friends and stuff. It's unusual how people act like it doesn't exist. So I always make a point to talk about it.
Speaker 1:But so during COVID my dad got sick and right at the same time I was invited to Texas for this camp and I really didn't want to go because I wanted to be with my dad in the hospital, um, but because of COVID restrictions I couldn't be there, which was really weird and sucked. But, uh, I just wanted to be at home and my dad wouldn't let me stay, which was really cool of him, um, cause he saw this opportunity I was getting. He saw that I was getting recognition for skateboarding and he's like, well, this is like really cool, you should go and go show who you are to these coaches at this training camp. Like you need to go do this.
Speaker 1:And so I didn't stay home with my dad, I went and then, like after I was at the training camp, on like the sixth day, I got called home because, like dad was dying. So I came home that day, um, and I said bye to my dad and he was super proud of me for being gone for that, because I know he would have rather had me working towards my goal than being at home and missing an opportunity. So I think that just goes to show how much my parents, like my dad, like they cared about this for me, um, and they just wanted me to be happy and really trying to pursue skateboarding in any manner I could dude, you're making me tear up here.
Speaker 2:Uh, freak, I, uh I wasn't prepared to cry during this episode, but here we are. Um man, I I'm pretty sure the cbc reporter probably didn't do that, but um I, I gotta know. Like, how do you, how do you handle that experience? How do you skate for those six days thinking about your dad? Were you able to communicate with him? Cause I know COVID was an issue during that time, like was it, were the restrictions really handcuffing you?
Speaker 1:Were the restrictions really handcuffing you? Well, my dad was like my dad. He wasn't like brain, like he wasn't brain dead, but he had like lost part of his like brain function, like when he was sick. So he couldn't really communicate. So I could talk to him on the phone a bit, but it was kind of difficult like speaking to someone like that. So I communicated with him a bit. I just let him know I was doing, um, told him I was like working hard and like skating well in front of these people. I needed to impress because I was really the idea of the trip was to go to Texas, show these coaches that I can perform and that I deserve to be competing for Canada and cause that's what training camps really are for. And so, yeah, I did communicate with my dad as much as I could, um, but it wasn't a lot because it was difficult to speak to him. Um, I I think all the communication I needed happened before that. I think all the communication I needed happened before that.
Speaker 1:And it was like my dad was able to tell me that he didn't want me to be at home, like I needed to go, and whenever I got an opportunity, he never wanted me to miss it, no matter what the circumstances were, and I think it would have beat him up if I had stayed home and not taken that opportunity. So I don't really know how I handled it. I just kind of like skated and that just goes to show like skateboarding really makes my life better. I just skated every day, missing my dad obviously, and that was like the hardest point in my life, like being away from home, like your dad's dying. You're like a kid. It was weird, it was really strange.
Speaker 2:but, um, I think I'm stronger for it and I'm happy I did that because it made him happy well, dude, it sounds like he was a freaking incredible man and, uh, like I said, developed an amazing son. Uh, I gotta transition because you, you took a break from contests after that to then skate mega ramp, like you were talking about, and like, uh, that's those clips where people are going off crazy, uh, crazy, crazy heights. Um, the name evan mckechran might ring a bell for you. You might know he was early on the athletes podcast, like episode early 20s, maybe early 30s, but he does x games, big air, all that fun stuff, and when I see you guys do that it's ridiculous. Man, I don't know how you do it. Do you ever get nervous?
Speaker 1:Uh, skating mega, yeah, dude. I mean skating mega is a very serious endeavor, but I think I can tie it into the story I've kind of told a bit. It's like so I took a break from contests after my dad died because I felt like it was like after that it was just like something I just didn't want to be a part of, because I was like pretty upset and like I had just kind of started to like dip my toes in like the team, canada stuff, and I was just like I don't want to do this, like I have other goals, like I was really upset that my dad died. So I just didn't want to be competing and I took that year, uh, after dad died, which was 2022. He died in January.
Speaker 1:So that whole year I just went to California as much as I could to skate mega ramp, because that was what going to Woodward as a kid built up towards, because I skated mini mega at Woodward and skating mini mega all those years helped me get comfortable on that type of ramp. And then I was able to be qualified to skate mega. Like not just anyone can skate mega, like you have to be able to prove that you can, like you're sufficient on mini mega because, like people, you can die on the mega ramp. So, like I, I spent all those years with my dad at woodward in pennsylvania getting good enough at mini mega to then be able to skate mega, and my dad actually and I had planned a trip to California the July of the year he died. So we now he he died before the trip came, but we planned a road trip to California just to go and skate mega. Um, and I still did the road trip without him, which was pretty cool. I brought his ashes, which was cool for me at the time.
Speaker 1:I read something like that. And so, um, I packed up my car as soon as I finished school that year, Um and I drove to California, which is like a 40 hour drive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've done it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The old Toronto to LA track. I didn't do a direct route but it's a mission.
Speaker 1:Dude, it was crazy. Yeah, and I did it by myself and my radio in my car broke, so I was just the whole way there. I had no music, it was by myself, it was ridiculous.
Speaker 2:That's what the kids on TikTok were calling raw dogging it I think yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I did. I did it the whole way to the hallway there it was crazy dude um, and I never, I'm never gonna do that again because it was horrible, but so probably a good call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I went there, um, and I skated mega ramp for the whole summer and, um, I needed that because that was a goal my dad helped me work towards and I needed to do that for him and I, I um, over the course of that year, me and my friend brock sharon, we filmed a uh like we recorded all of me skating mega and then put it together into like this for dad tribute video that I'm really proud of, um, and it's like a four minute video of just like everything I did on the mega ramp. Um, and that was really cool for me to do so. But about mega ramp, like as a as a thing, um, I think it's super dangerous if we're talking about it like legitimately, like. So I, when I, when I first I first went with my mom, my mom was there and she, um, this was a couple trips before that road trip in the summer, um, my mom and I were in california and I met this guy, bob burnquist's brother.
Speaker 1:The ramp is at this guy, bob burnquist's house, um, which is nuts and it's in his backyard, and I I spoke to bob's brother and I told him who I am, I like showed him like my qualifications, like how long I've been skating mini mega, and he was like, yeah, sure, come out tomorrow. So my mom and I went the next day and I had no intentions this trip of doing the mega ramp. So I like went and like bought everything I need. You need a special board for the mega ramp, like on a mega board. Your trucks are like I think there's ten and a half inches wide and normally they're like eight inches, eight and a half inches wide, so that wider truck is like what gives you the support so you don't get speed wobbles.
Speaker 2:If you ever seen videos of people doing that, yeah for sure Didn't know that's why, but it actually makes sense now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I went and bought a mega setup, I went to the mega ramp and I did it on my first day, that trip with my mom.
Speaker 2:Casually, it was crazy.
Speaker 1:It was crazy. I um, I couldn't believe I did it, but I was flying home the day after, so it was like I only have one day to come and try and do this. I've been talking about it for years, I've been dreaming about it for years and so I just how does your mom react? Well, my mom, my mom wasn't going to drive me. She was like I'm not taking you there, um but then I had to.
Speaker 1:I had to explain to my mom like how it? It it's dangerous, but like I think like there's a lot of things more dangerous. There's things a lot more dangerous than that. Um, because you're wearing pads. I know what I'm doing and I've been training for this sort of thing and cause it was my goal to skate mega ramp. Uh, before I even thought of doing the Olympic stuff, because it used to be an X games there used to be kind of like a career you could have in skating this really big ramp. Um, like back in like 2012, there there were, there was like an x games event called big air. Um, it's still in snowboarding, but in skateboarding it's gone.
Speaker 1:That's what evan does yeah, it's so, not this the big air and snowboarding is way bigger than the mega ramp in skateboarding.
Speaker 1:It's much larger. The gap. The mega ramp in skateboarding is a 50-foot gap to a 30-foot quarter pipe and so that's pretty big, but I think in snowboarding it's like an 80 or 90-foot gap. It's just nuts. But I think that's all I have to say about it. Mega ramps dangerous, but it's not dangerous because I knew what I was doing and, um, I really enjoyed my time skating that ramp. I'm glad I took like a year to go out to California and just focus on that, cause I think you need to have fun. Skateboarding and the Olympic stuff isn't very fun. So, like, I'm glad I did that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the. I think you need to have fun doing everything, whatever it is in life. Honestly, that's probably. If you can have fun doing it, you're probably going to have a recipe for success, and that leads to you returning to competitions. You know how you qualified for the Olympics. Tell me why the Olympic stuff isn't as fun. Sorry, you can't just dangle that carrot and not let me. First of all, I haven't been to the olympics yet, I know, but you say it's not as fun.
Speaker 1:You're repping the gear you're repping the ovo shirt. Yeah, I. Um, I think it's less fun because it's not my discipline of skateboarding. So I grew up dreaming of skating MegaRamp and I loved skating vert as well, and both of those are substantially larger ramps than what you see in the Olympics.
Speaker 1:The event that I compete in for the Olympics is Park and it's like a concrete hole and I'm a pretty tall guy so that makes ramps kind of feel smaller than other people, if that makes sense. So like it might seem counterintuitive, but skateboarding is much easier on a big ramp than it is on a small ramp. Like skating mega ramp is actually less dangerous than skating a lot of things because you have so much time to correct your mistakes and there's also so much ramp to catch you like a slide when you fall. So that's like I don't know. I think generally people don't see that, but that's the way I've always looked at it.
Speaker 1:Like skating mega is dangerous but like I mean where am I gonna fall down? Like on my butt, and like slide down it, like it's, it's pretty big, like I'm not really going anywhere. So skating uh the park contest for the olympics is not fun for me because it's so small compared to what I like. I have to kind of shrink my skating down and like I just feel like this in the park balls. It's weird, it's just the way my transition to park skating's been. It's just not my discipline really.
Speaker 2:That's why it's not fun but I feel like it's fun like I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's not as fun as what I like to do how, uh, how tall are you? I'm six two, and that's the tallest skateboarder in world skate, which is like the league I compete in.
Speaker 2:Like everyone's, like five, five yeah, I was gonna like I. You don't see a lot of tall skateboarders. That's interesting yeah do you think that it's an advantage, being that height like, or is it you are?
Speaker 1:are you at a disadvantage. It should be, but it doesn't it like it should be. I think I just complain a lot. I think I should be better at skateboarding than I am and I think I should be able to use my height to my advantage, because when something's smaller it's less scary, like if a ramp is smaller, there's less to be afraid of. But I think at my height my board's further away for me to grab it and that's like a lot of like it's just.
Speaker 1:I just like have a weird body type for skateboarding, but that's never stopped me, and I mean there are guys who are killing it at six two. There's one other guy from brazil who's like one of the best in the world and he's my exact same build.
Speaker 2:I just like haven't figured it out yet but when you are shorter, you're closer to the board and that's really all I can say about it. Like it's a little different yeah, I imagine if you can pull it off as a taller individual, it might look cooler. The tricks that you're able to perform because you're traveling, you're transporting that board such a longer distance, right like that feet for when benyana looks way better than a mugsy bogues, for instance, right when they're you know, five five versus seven five. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I totally get it. I think I think being tall helps the scoring. I don't know I, I, I think it it should help me once I, once I get my stuff sorted and I'm skating at the caliber I need to be, I think it'll help but how, uh, how often are you skating?
Speaker 1:uh, right now. So right now is, uh, it's 2025, the winter. I'm skating a lot, um, on the weekend. So I go to toronto and skate, uh, with my friend fay, who went to the olympics. Um, I, I, um. I'm skating three days, friday through sunday. There I'm in school, so that's why, um, I'm skating for like four hours every day on the weekend, and then during the week I skate two nights, and that is at this mini ramp, which is like a small half pipe that someone has in their barn, like just outside of London, because there's no public indoor parks.
Speaker 2:Casually, you're either playing hockey on the ODR or skating in someone's barn. Something's happening in Canada on the weekend eh, it's funny, it's awesome. Something's happening in canada on the weekend day it's funny, it's awesome. Uh, yo, you touched a bit on it earlier, but you want to tell me about the imposter syndrome and how that leads to, like mental health, your conversation there.
Speaker 2:So, um, I feel like I kind of dismembered my story or like, just like I feel like I've told my story in the wrong order, but it's okay, dude yo, there's no, there's no right order to this thing you got to remember no one else knows the structure, it's really just you, and now you get to paint the picture however you want and you know I'm going to just correct you and this imposter syndrome that you got going on and I'm going to keep pumping your tires. Okay, richie Cause you got it going on, you just got to keep going with it, okay.
Speaker 1:Thank you, dude. Yeah, so to get to the imposter syndrome, I'm going to try and tell my story chronologically again. So after skating MegaRamp, after I took that year to focus on that, I returned to competing for the Olympics and trying to make the national team. So in 2023, I competed in all the national series events across Canada and that's how you qualify for the national team. And that following fall, I earned my spot at the first world championships I'd ever qualified for in Rome. And to qualify for the world championships at that time you needed to be in the top six in the country, so that was a really big deal for me. You needed to be in the top six in the country, so that was a really big deal for me. And I had never had the opportunity to compete for Canada and that was always the goal.
Speaker 1:At that point, I was just like I just want to go to a world championships and represent Canada, and so I went to Rome. My mom came. It was like a big deal. I was on the news before I left. It was like this big deal, like this local kid's going to an Olympic qualifier. That's what these world championships are, and I'd never had such an eye-opening experience in skateboarding.
Speaker 1:Besides going to that first world championships, I think if you've never been to World Skate which is like what these events are called you don't understand how good skateboarding is Like. You don't understand the level you need to be competing at until you go to World Skate. I think a lot of people experience that. But my experience at World Skate was really shocking. I had no idea how consistent, how powerful, how many good skateboarders there were and that really like put me in my place, because I think up until that point I thought I was pretty good at skateboarding.
Speaker 1:And then I I went to Rome and it really, really rocked my, my shit, if I can swear. Um, it was. It was really surprising how good everyone was and it made me feel like I didn't belong. And to go on top of that feeling of already feeling like I don't belong, I fell on. You get two runs at world championships, um, they're both 45 seconds and you go until you fall. Well, you can, if you fall, you can get back up, but if you fall in your run, it doesn't matter, your score is crap. So my first run in Rome, I fell on my first trick, which was heartbreaking as as a kid who'd come across the world with his mom thinking this is his first time getting to represent Team Canada, all happy, and that really, really sucked was falling on my first trick. And then, since I get two runs, I kind of collected myself after freaking out and I fell on my second run too, and then it was like well, I guess it's over.
Speaker 1:It was over in like five minutes my first world championships. It goes by so quick, there's so much build up to it, like you think. Like you think it's going to be a life changing experience and it's something I always wanted. It was on my bucket list was to go to worlds. And then it was over in five minutes and I was back in the hotel room like crying like, and then I just got on a flight and came home and right after that I was like I don't belong at this level, like it's just not where I deserve to be skating. I don't think I belong with these people. I think I look stupid standing next to these guys on the deck, like I just shouldn't be competing at this level. So that was kind of the imposter syndrome I felt and I just kind of sat with that for that winter, because it happened in September. And then, once I came home, I just kind of got back to the drawing board. I didn't give up, but I just kind of trained, like like everyone does when they're not competing, like I just came home and worked as hard as I could.
Speaker 1:And then the next Olympic qualifier, dubai, came, which was February of the next year in 2024. And I went to Dubai knowing I had to stay on my board because if I didn't, I would really really not feel like I can skateboard. If I didn't, I would really really not feel like I can skateboard. Like it. It's a completely different thing being able to compete and land your run at these events and being good when you're like in private training, like it's, and I didn't realize how different they were. Like you don't need to be a good skateboarder to be good at world skate. Like you need to be a good mental performer sort of it's, that's all of it's.
Speaker 2:That's all. I thought. That's all sports actually, if, as much as it may seem otherwise, like you got to be able to perform on the ice, you know whether you're playing golf, whether you're on the court, like I mean, I mean, sorry, I shouldn't cut you off, but it's all mental at the end of the day, dude like some people just can't handle it at that level, like and I watch this F1 show on Netflix which I think most people have probably seen and like some guys just can't handle it when they get to that level and they just fall right out of it.
Speaker 1:And I was so scared that was going to happen to me as soon as I make it to like this top league. I'm just going to fall right out of it, can't handle the pressure. So I went to Dubai in February and I fell on the first trick of my first run again and that was like the. I didn't actually freak out about it, I just like sat down and spoke with my coach and just like kind of collected myself. And then I landed my second run. And then I and then I just went home and I was like, thank God Cause, if I didn't do that, I I really don't think I would still be trying to do this. I think I would have just mentally imploded Like I don't know. It would have been horrible.
Speaker 1:So I landed my run in Dubai Um, that was the last qualifier before Paris Um. But because my first qualifier was Rome four, paris Um. But because my first qualifier was Rome, I had missed, uh, two qualifiers that were before that Cause I made the national team halfway through the Olympic cycle, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:So I missed it on some of the qualifiers.
Speaker 1:So no matter how I did in Rome or in Dubai, I wouldn't have been able to qualify for the Olympics. So they were both kind of tester events and I'm happy that in Dubai I was able to put it together. I wasn't able to put something together that I'm proud of, but I stayed on my board for 45 seconds halfway across the world under like the most stress I've ever been under, and that was good at that time, um, and since Dubai, I, uh, I've really just been at home back in Canada, training as hard as I can, um, and I, uh, it's working, it seems.
Speaker 1:It seems that it's working, it seems that I am actually getting better.
Speaker 2:Crazy what happens when you pay attention to it. Refine your craft, keep pounding the pavement, brick over brick, day over day. Uh, consistency is the key to success and sometimes it just it's also dude, you're young, you're 21. Like you started this off this interview, I don't know if you remember you were like yeah, I feel like I'm late to the game. I'm like, dude, you're so young. You want to know who we had on the podcast, probably two and a half years ago now. His name Mikey Taylor. You know that name?
Speaker 1:Is he a skateboarder?
Speaker 2:Yeah, arguably one of the top 10. Skated with Tony Hawk, a bunch of those boys. He's now an entrepreneur businessman, runs in California Senate or council. Yeah, you can reinvent yourself. You can do a heck of a lot. Just because you're a skateboarder right now at 21 and you're going to dominate the skate world for the next 10 years, doesn't define you as a skateboarder for the next 30 or 40 after right. So just keep that perspective. I'm going to give you two pieces of homework You're going to have or get the book or audible it on spotify. If you have that, membership is two books. The confident mind by nate zinser dude, I have that I have that book.
Speaker 2:Let's go I swear I gotta have that book. Yeah, let's go okay, well, you need to start putting some of that into action. Then, if you've got that, if that imposter syndrome is still there, um, I got that book after rome someone else gave that there.
Speaker 1:I bought that book after Rome, someone else told me to get that book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so cool. And Inner Excellence have you heard of that one by Jim Murphy? Okay, that's the other one. You want to know why I bring that up? I only found out about it a couple weeks ago. Aj Brown on the Eagles was reading it at halftime or like on the sidelines, and then sales popped off NFL player. I don't know if you actually know who AJ Brown was Sorry, I know you're a skateboarder. No, no, no, no, keep going. And so he was reading that book and it blew up online. I started listening to it. It's an excellent read. Also, I know you would benefit from it. So, inner excellence by Jim Murphy, confident by by Nate confident mind, sorry, by Nate Zinser. You've already read it. Give me your thoughts on that one. Do you like it?
Speaker 1:I, so I can't really read books. I'm not good at reading books. I got like I've almost read it like a Bible, like I go to it's sections, so I kind of look through it like that.
Speaker 1:Um, I like it's kind of like one of those books that I have sticky notes popping out of. I haven't looked at it in a couple months because I've I've been feeling better about the way I I skateboard, who I am, so I haven't really returned to that book, but I think it's it's one of those things that helped. You know, like I don't think there's a lot that helps when you kind of feel like that, but that book I think is beneficial for all athletes.
Speaker 2:Could not agree with you more. I'm so glad you've read it, um, and you're right, you, you don't need to go back read it every single day, but you've got it dog-eared. You've got those notes. Um, I think inner excellence is another one that you'd really enjoy as well. Um, tell me about tearing both your pcls, though you probably could have read or done a bit of listening or reading or playing some other instruments. What'd you do when those were gone?
Speaker 1:that's, uh, so that is when I read that book. Um, but so in skateboarding, in skateboard park, like this olympic event people wear knee pads. And they wear knee pads so that when they mess up in like air trick, they can slide down the ramp on their knees and the like actual mechanic of the PCL is to keep your tibia from pulling backwards. And when you fall onto your knees like this, like your tibia just comes back every time. So just skateboarding tears your PCLs.
Speaker 1:I plan on tearing my PCLs several more times, but I tore my first PCL on my right leg probably two and a half years ago and that was what made me want to start going to the Olympics. After skating mega, it was like, okay, if I'm going to start getting hurt like an old man, I got to get these things off my checklist. So right after that first PCL tear is when I started taking the Olympic stuff really seriously. After that I went to Rome and stuff. But I tore my other pcl training in california earlier this year and it sucked because it was my first day of summer, like so like I just got off school, I flew to california the next day and then I just felt really stupid on it and it just snapped and I like I kind of know what it feels like after doing the first one and then I like didn't really let it heal because I had all these national events across Canada during the summer so I just kept skating with the torn PCL and it's such a horrible feeling in your knee I don't know it's like.
Speaker 1:It's such a, the pain's so weird and unique and I it's just it's a nightmare honestly dealing with those. But I should have let it heal the second time the first time. I let it heal the second time this summer, it took like eight months to heal. It was done healing in October because I kept skating on it, which was foolish of me, but I needed those points to be ranked number one in the country and I can't believe I did that with a torn PCL. That's pretty cool to me. But yeah, no, dude, terrible ligament to tear I. But yeah, no, dude, terrible ligament to tear.
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to tear them a lot. Everyone tears them. It's just part of the sport. But yeah, dude, it sucks.
Speaker 1:Do you strength train at all hockey? And it's because of this guy His name's Brent at PFPC, it's a local performance gym. They do all the NHL players from London because London's a big hockey city so I've gotten to know some pretty cool hockey guys through that. And, yeah, they're one of my sponsors, this gym. So I strength train three times a week and I feel like it's made me so much better at skating because when you kind of get to the higher level of sports it's almost like you're I don't know what the term is like splitting hairs, like trying to find ways to improve performance, performance.
Speaker 1:And I think strengthening my body and trying to develop like a better endurance is key to me being able to perform at a higher level. Because I think when I do fall in those 45 second runs it's because I'm tired and I think if I'm not tired I won't fall. So that has become religion to me is trying to make my body stronger and trying to keep my body healthy. So yes, I do strength train and I I I don't love it. I don't get like the gym high people talk about. I like it's, it's really hard work and it sucks, but like I see the benefit when I'm skating, so it is worth it for me.
Speaker 2:Dude, you'll benefit. You'll see the benefits You'll continue to see, to see it like, honestly, your ligaments will thank you for it. Uh, include some isometric training in there. That'll help out those a ton. Um, yeah, I can confidently say it will benefit your body and probably set you apart even further from the others in your sport, because it's not typically that you see skaters in the gym pumping iron, right. But if that's something to your point where you're splitting hairs as a pro, if you can do that in another sport where it's not typically adopted, then you're going to see miles of success above the others Because you've got your endurance, you've got your strength, you're going to get injured less because your muscles, your ligaments, your bones are stronger, right, I don't know. I see that one being like you should be doubling down on that. Obviously not going full bodybuilder, but yeah, keeping the resistance training high would be a definite suggestion and I'm glad to hear you're doing it obviously.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I think. So. It's interesting that you say skateboarders probably aren't working out, and that's true. Skateboarding being a new Olympic sport, they're still kind of like figuring out like what makes someone a good skateboarder and how to train for this professionally. And it's important to me to kind of be at the forefront of being an athlete uh, who's a skateboarder like?
Speaker 1:because there's not many of those in canada, um, and I think that's what I. I don't think I'm the best in Canada, but I think I deserve my placement right now as number one, because I'm working hard in every aspect of my life too.
Speaker 2:You did it on one PCL yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's. It's being a good skateboarder is more than being a skateboarder. It's about being an athlete, and I'm realizing that more and more. I'm trying to incorporate that into my life as I go into the next Olympic cycle because I think that's what's going to set me apart from other people everywhere in the world.
Speaker 1:Honestly, it seems like skateboarders really don't understand the importance of nutrition, strength training and just honestly sleep Like skateboarders are crazy people and it's because it's coming from this culture of partying and like drugs and troublemaking.
Speaker 1:That's what skateboarding was when I was a kid and now it's changing with an opportunity to represent your country at the Olympics, and I love that because I think skateboarding should have always been that way.
Speaker 1:I think some people really hate that skateboarding is an Olympic sport because it takes away from that culture that I think some people really love. I've never really been a part of that culture. I've always been for skateboarding being a sport and I'm trying to treat myself as an athlete so that I can show kids in Canada that there's an opportunity to, you know, make a name for yourself in skateboarding. It's not just hockey, soccer, basketball, like it's anything, and it can be skateboarding, just like there's a lot of successful snowboarders coming out of Canada, and that's because Canada now has the resources to treat snowboarders like athletes and there's programs that are training these kids to become some of the best in the world, and I want to see that happen with skateboarding, so I'm trying to be at the forefront of that. Sorry for that. I try to make a point of that every time I speak to someone. It's like skateboarding is a sport and I want to see it change.
Speaker 2:Dude. You're the reason why I started this podcast, frigg Like. Literally, I wanted to help educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes, and you're doing that right here today, and there are going to be hundreds thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands, of skateboarders that hear your story, richie bulbrook, and end up becoming skateboarders because of you. Straight up, no cap that'd be crazy.
Speaker 1:I just want to. I just want one kid to start skateboarding because of me, like because that's what? Like I got into skateboarding because I looked up to older kids. It's like kind of the cycle of sport. I think it's important to develop the next generation and I think some people who find success sometimes forget that. But I really try to like connect with the local community, especially in London. Like each year I put on a contest for the kids at my local bowl in the summer and that has allowed me to see growth and like I'm helping people in a way, because I think I'm really lucky for the success I've found and I just hope some other kid from London can get that, because it's a really unique opportunity, especially from a place where not much happens other than hockey. I think it'd be cool to see another kid take to skateboarding, guy or girl, like anyone. Skateboarding is for everyone and I think we haven't seen the best of it yet. I think there's a lot of room for growth.
Speaker 2:Tell me about that contest. What do you do? And then what are their goals? You got my list of goals.
Speaker 1:Here is one of your bullet points, so tell me about those and then tell me about this contest, so it's called the Medway Bowl Bash that's what I've named it, and each summer it happens kind of whenever I'm home. So, like it's not, I run it terribly, so I have it's not in it, I run it terribly, so I have no idea how to put on an event. But I knew I wanted to put on an event for the kids in london, so last summer was the first time I did it, and this is usually how it goes is I contact my sponsors, I get some prizes and then I make an instagram post and I'm like on this day I'm going to be hosting a contest at this park and it's going to be super unorganized. But please come out and, um, that's honestly how skateboard contests were for me as a kid living in London. That's how it was.
Speaker 1:It was some older guys wanting to put something on for the kids and that's just like how this was before it became an Olympic sport, and I also think it's kind of charming like that. Like it's I don't know. It's a unique. It's a unique event when the community puts something on like that. So I put it on the summers and I have all the local kids come out. Some people come from Toronto. Um, it this year, this past year was a really good turnout. There were probably 50 people and they all come and watch we play music, uh, and then I don't really know how to run a skateboard event. So I just kind of tell these kids, like okay, you got 15 minutes. And then me and like a couple of my friends who, like our judges, like write down some of the stuff that kids are doing and like, then we just give out prizes to everyone like or try to if we have enough product.
Speaker 1:Um, and just like I don't know. It's nice to have people out at the skate park. That's really the goal, If that makes sense, because I don't really know how to run an event. That's what I try and do and that's what I've done the last two years and I plan on doing it every year for the rest of my life because it's cool.
Speaker 2:We're going to hook you up with some perfect sports products. We're going to make sure that you guys get hooked up there and you've got plenty of stuff to give away to those kids. Thank you, dude. 100% I can already commit to that. But yeah, let's see how we can maybe help you organize it, maybe get a little couple more people there. You know, I don't want to take away from the allure that is, the unorganized kind of hey, come together on a whatever day.
Speaker 2:I know that's what I'm like. I don't. I feel like there's people listening that live in London, ontario, right now. They're like yo, I want to help Richie with this. Like come from a sport management background, or I'm just telling you it may happen. So, either way, kudos to you for doing that, because that's something that I've been talking about for a while here now building a foundation to get scholarships into young athletes' hands so that they can pursue higher education. And yeah, if you and I aren't going to do it, who the heck is right? So, um, kudos to you for doing that. Keep doing it. I hope to be in london whenever one of those comes up, and I'll make a fool of myself it.
Speaker 1:Actually, when people say they're gonna come, I'm like it sucks like dude.
Speaker 2:I was at the chicklets cup there, uh, this summer, uh, when it was, uh, so spitting Chicklets host a hockey tournament.
Speaker 1:That's a podcast yeah. Right, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So they hosted like a ball hockey tournament in London this past summer and it brought people from all over. Like the team I played for, the San Diego Margaritas or whatever we were called like a bunch of people from San Diego Buffalo all came together. I flew from Vancouver and played in the tournament, uh, and then proceeded to spend a month in Ontario before running a marathon. But yeah, like you know, people from all over North America came to play ball hockey in London. It was pretty hype.
Speaker 1:That's so sick. That's cool, yeah, and like I bet, it was for no purpose other than fun, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was a lot of alcohol consumed at that weekend, but yeah, no, it was like the it's Spittin' Chicklets hosted. They're like it's a Chicklets Cup. They do a couple, or they do one a year, I guess. But yeah, man, like again to your point, hockey culture there's people that want to get together, have a good time, share stories Similar to the skateboarding vibe. Right, like you can bring people together. They were pretty unorganized too. They just have a lot more money with bar stool behind them, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's super sick. I love that. Anything like that in any sport, like cause that's what it's all about, really like remembering what it was like as a kid and trying to create that magic for other kids. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Dude, how'd you become so wise man?
Speaker 1:Dude, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:What are you studying in school? What are you studying? I'm assuming you're at Western.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not there a lot. I try. So this year, this semester, I've decided that I'm not gonna. I truly to anyone who's listening, that like really matters in my life. I really care about school, like my grandmother. Everyone like I care about school a lot. I'm grateful, but I simply can't be bothered to like focus on it right now.
Speaker 1:I've had a really like great start to my year, um, and skateboarding is just taking precedent like it needs to, and skateboarding is just taking precedent like it needs to. So I'm in marketing because I do kind of want to go into like being an agent or something one day, because like all the contracts and stuff that I've gotten to be a part of is just like kind of fascinating. Like there is money to be made in sports and there's a lot of people that you don't see Like an NFL player's agent you would never see. They're not famous, but they're probably making good money and they're probably involved in a lot of cool stuff. So that's kind of what I'm hoping to end up in. But I don't plan on getting a real job until after the Olympics because I don't have to grow up yet.
Speaker 2:Dude, you don't ever have to grow up so straight up. I think some of the happiest human beings are the ones that never grew up and that stayed that little inner child their whole life and figure out a way to make stuff happen. And you know, you talk about the fact that you're getting a real job after the olympics or whatever the case may be. Like dude, you keep creating content online. You keep maybe starting your own podcast. Maybe you have an opportunity to incorporate some of your marketing efforts with some of the brands that you work with. You get a job there as a part-time marketing coordinator, creator. Content Dude, you might not ever have to have that real job. And don't think that setting that arbitrary timeline after the Olympics to settle down and become an adult.
Speaker 2:Like dude, enjoy the fact that you have the ability right now to skate live, pursue the sport that you love, and then afterwards you don't even have to stress about that, right, because that's future. You Live in the present. Enjoy that. And then I know you're worried about it. You've got that imposter syndrome. I'm the same way, the athlete that's thinking about future, stressing out whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2:Dog, you got so much time. If I can tell you one thing just take some deep breaths. Recognize the fact that you are the number one skateboarder in Canada and you are only 21 years old. So you could totally mess up for the next five years of your life and then be way better off than I'm at right now. Right, like, take that into consideration, dude, and I've been sitting here chatting with people on a podcast for five years, right, so just know, you got lots of time, you're in great shape, you're in great hands with your mom and it sounds like your grandmother paying attention to you. Everyone knows school is important, so you know, keep making sure that you're getting those grades passing. But, yeah, skateboarding should take precedent when you're the number one guy in your country at it. Yeah, that's a good decision. I'm saying, I'm putting my bets on you. Sorry, there's my rant there for you, richie. Uh, now you're moving to Cali. What's the 900.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's so like um, I think when talking about my life as a whole, I had a couple of goals. Uh, I have it on my wall actually, but I think I have it in my memory as well. Um, so my goals were to, uh, do the mega ramp, represent Team Canada at a World Championships, do a 900, go to Pan Am Games and go to the Olympics. And of those, I think I've done three or two. I've done the mega ramp and I represent Team Canada at the World Championships. And every time I reach these goals I get, I kind of add to the list. And so right now, the 900 is something that's really at the forefront of my mind, kind of, because I'm not really competing for the Olympics. The Olympic qualifiers start 18 months before Paris, or, sorry, la, so they start like mid 2026. Um, and until then I'm training really hard, but I also kind of have this weird window of free time.
Speaker 1:And doing a 900 in skateboarding used to be really cool. It's what made Tony Hawk famous. So it's two and a half rotations and I've always wanted to do it because as a kid you see that, and I think every kid saw that and was like I want to do it because as a kid you see that and I think every kid saw that and was like I want to do that and not many people actually get the opportunity to. I think not like get good enough, but like I I don't know it takes a long time to be able to do a 900. It's one of the hardest tricks in skateboarding. Um, no one from Canada's ever done a 900. Um, someone from Vancouver, sluggo. Uh, rob Boyce, he's someone I really look up to. He tried 900 for like 10 years and he never did one.
Speaker 1:But I've always wanted to do 900.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry this is going way longer than it needs to, but so I was at Woodward a couple weeks ago and I knew I wanted to try 900 because I kind of have this weird window where I can get hurt and it's kind of fine. So I started trying them a couple weeks ago and it like just works, like for some people. I think for some people 900s are really difficult because after you do the two and a half rotations you can kind of get thrown off axis and you're kind of sideways for the landing, like because in skateboarding you kind of exist on this vertical plane on a vert ramp and if you spin you might like kind of end up like this or like this, if that makes sense. But for me, 900s the way my rotations work I'm landing completely flat after I spin two and a half times and that was shocking because it was like this doesn't seem that hard. I feel like I could do this if I had like a weekend like I feel like I could probably get this done.
Speaker 1:So I got really close to nines that weekend and I was like I need to do this because I thought I'd never do it. But that weekend at Woodward I almost landed it in like five tries.
Speaker 1:It is really difficult to get yourself to try it because it's quite dangerous five tries it's really difficult to get yourself to try it because it's quite dangerous, but for sure that's a goal of mine that I've had since I was a kid and I'm so close right now that I just have to do it. So while I have this kind of free window, I'm trying to get back to woodward as much as I can to just do a 900 so I can check that off my list and leave it and be the first canadian to do it. Um, because that's important to me and 900s are less cool than they used to be. Like a lot of people in 900 now like probably 50 people can 900, which is like a lot more than used to be able to Um, and it seems like kids are like just learning 900s at like 10 years old and like it makes me feel bad, like it's like, oh, why would I even try? Like these kids got it now.
Speaker 1:But but I think there, I think there's something to be said about being an adult doing it, because it's really difficult. You got to go really high um to have the time to be able to do that, especially like being as big as I am. Um, it's just gonna be difficult, but I think I can do it. And I want to do that because if I do a 900 and never go to the Olympics, I think I'll be satisfied. But like, obviously be more satisfied if I go to the Olympics, but like I think I don't know. I have goals, I hope I achieve them all, but 900 is really important If that makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I have a feeling you're going to do both, man.
Speaker 1:Dude, I hope this is sweet, dude. If I did did both I'd have nothing else. Like I. I got nothing else like I can wrap it up and just go and do something else other than skateboarding not that I don't love skateboarding, but like it's cool to check everything off. A list, you know totally, totally.
Speaker 2:That's a phenomenal feeling. Uh, that means your list is done. What? What would you do, hypothetically speaking, rishi? What would you do after?
Speaker 1:uh, after the next olympics, I think I want to um, if you could do anything.
Speaker 2:Money was not an issue. You were not paid, not comment like. You just did whatever you wanted to do that filled your heart. You got paid the same amount, no matter what you were doing.
Speaker 1:Money is irrelevant I'd just build them. Uh, so there's only two mega ramps in the world and it seems like they're both in pretty bad shape because, like no one really takes care of them. I just build a new mega ramp, um, like a brand new one, with like the nicest skate light. That's like the surface, like I just build like a perfect mega ramp and uh like no, no, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't think it'd be in london. I think if I could live anywhere, I'd probably live in dude. I don't know where I'd live. I think I'd live probably northern ontario like somewhere, really, really pretty um I think also oh, whistler, I'd live in whistler. Whistler's super sick. I went there last summer. I'm a fan of whistler. Um, I'd live in Whistler. I'd have a mega ramp. It'd be indoor and I'd have a vert ramp and I would never be bothered by anyone here, that's.
Speaker 2:That is not the craziest dream to have. So, uh, set your mind on something, put it out into the atmosphere. Crazier things have happened, richie. Uh, the way we wrap up every episode, man, is we ask our guests their biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes. Given that you are in that next gen that we are inspiring, what do you got?
Speaker 1:uh, actually, like I think I got a good one for this. So, as I'm trying to go to the Olympics and putting all my eggs into this one basket, I've realized that the reward isn't achieving that goal or standing on top of that podium, but it's the journey. That is what makes it worth it, because if you have a reason to get up every day, that's in work towards a goal. That's that's way more powerful than achieving the goal. Like just having, like I realized, skateboarding is the reward for what I'm trying to do. Going to the Olympics is not the reward. It's the fact that I have a reason to get up every day and train for something.
Speaker 1:That's it I think I think people should realize that because, like, if I go through this whole athletic journey and don't realize that what I'm doing right now is actually the important part and what fills me with joy, then I'll miss it Right. So I just I don't want to, don't want to let that happen. I'm trying to realize every day that I'm so lucky that I get to skateboard full time. That's the report.
Speaker 2:Damn right. I couldn't have said it any better myself, richie where can people find you on socials so that they can follow along with your journey and stay inspired by you, because you're one heck of a young man?
Speaker 1:Thank you, dude. My Instagram is Richie Bulbrook. It's R-I-C-H-I-E-B-U-L-L-B-R-O-O-K, and I really only use Instagram, so that's where to find me.
Speaker 2:Hit them up. That's the pod. Thanks so much for coming on, richie. I appreciate your time, can't wait to chop it up again.
Speaker 1:Hey, until next time.
