Garrett Reynolds, Unlikely Dew Cup Champion

Garrett Reynolds grew up watching guys like Dave Mirra and Ryan Nyquist ride on TV, and in 2009 he beat them, and the rest of the BMX elite, when he walked away with the Dew Tour BMX Park title. This wild ride seems hardest for Garrett to comprehend, as he has a hard time measuring himself against the likes of Mirra, Daniel Dhers, and crew. Not bad for a self-proclaimed street rat from Toms River, NJ. Garrett connected with Alli to share what he’s been doing since taking the win in Orlando and what he’s got planned for the 2010 season. 

When you look back at winning the Dew Cup last year, what are some of the things that you’re the most stoked on? What surprised you the most?
I think the things that I’m most stoked on are just all the good times I had traveling the last couple years going to the Dew Tour. And then the thing that surprised me the most is winning it. When it comes to riding and stuff I’m really not that much of a ramp rider so I would never expect to beat Daniel Dhers or Dave Mirra or Ryan Nyquist or Dennis or any of those dudes because they can do way crazier tricks than I could ever do. It was just a surprise to come out on top. 

Has winning the Cup changed anything for you?
Haha, no. Same old thing. 

Was your goal at the beginning of the year to win the Dew Cup, and at what point did you think it was a real possibility?
I didn’t think it was a possibility until Salt Lake City. I think a lot of the riders had problems. Someone was hurt and then someone broke their bike in finals. So the points were low. I think Daniel Dhers had low points or something and he was the dude that always won. I think he had a couple bad bikes or whatever. Then in Salt Lake City I got second and that put me in the lead for a decent amount. Because I don’t really pay attention to the points I thought I was like just above and then my team manager from Nike said I only had to do pretty good at the last one. Then at the last one I messed up and I fell in both of my runs. Daniel Dhers was in first, and if he finished first he would have won. Daniel Dhers went and was ridiculous and he got like a 93 or 94 for his run and then Ryan Nyquist put out like the craziest run and beat him and then I went and I won. It was crazy.

Did the tight points-race at the finals change your approach to the competition?
Yeah. When I was down there I didn’t know what place I was in. I was like, uh, I didn’t know. I thought I lost once Daniel Dhers got in first and I was in like 8th or 9th. I thought I was done right there. 

Who put the most pressure on you, yourself or your friends and family?
I don’t really put too much pressure on myself. At the time I was like it would be sick to win the Dew Cup or whatever, but I’m not really going to pressure myself to do things that I can’t do or anything. I’m just going to go out and do what I know how to do and just have fun. 

You consider yourself more of a street rider than a ramp rider. If that’s the case, where do the ramp skills come from?
I like to ride everything. I don’t try to bring it up that I don’t ride ramps. I ride ramps but preferably I’d rather ride street and that ‘s what I put all of my time into. Even when I ride ramps I can’t even do backflips. So all the dudes that can do the crazy tricks, you think that’s what would win.

“You just can’t ever consider yourself above the people you looked up to when you were little, no matter if you had your best day.” -Garrett Reynolds

Are ramps as fun for you to ride as street?
It’s not that it’s not as fun. I think the thing that gets me with street is that you go out and look for things that aren’t meant to be ridden and you look for setups and stuff so it adds more to it. But when you go to the skatepark and you ride you have the same old spine, you ride the same old box jump, you ride the same old quarterpipe, you ride the same old vert wall, you know. All of it’s the same. But if you ride street you can find way more unique setups and different kind of stuff and it adds to it for me. 

What have you been doing since the Dew Tour ended? How many different trips and cities have you been to riding street?
I’ve been on a bunch of trips. Too many to think of. Just around doing the same old thing I always do. Hanging out with friends. 

You went brakeless over the past year. What is the reason, and how does that affect your riding?
I always thought that when I’d ride, I’d always hit my brakes sometimes. Riding brakeless kind of helps you out. It helps me because usually if I jump something I’ll want to pull up before I hit a quarterpipe and I’ll air the quarterpipe. Not having brakes it makes it more fun but scarier. I just really like riding brakeless. And the other part of the thing is I like doing barspins and barspins are way easier without brakes. If you catch the lever you can stop your back wheel and then you skid and fall. But if you don’t have brakes you don’t have anything to catch. But then if you land on your back wheel you’ll loop out because you don’t have anything to put your front end down when you land back wheel.

Any new tricks you’ve been working on?
Not really. Kind of doing the same stuff. Same old thing. And then I got hurt but I was back in like a month.

Any new features you would like to see added to the park course at Dew Tour? When you look at a Dew course, what kinds of things are you drawn to?
The park courses are awesome for sure but I would definitely like to see more street stuff added just because that is preferably what I like to ride. The one thing I always like are the jersey barriers setups in there. They’ll put tranny ledges to the jersey barrier and it makes like a weird quarterpipe and it just feels really fun to ride and it’s easy to air and stuff. At the last one they had a jersey barrier spine thing it was so fun. But I’m down to go hang out and see everybody. Go out for the contest and hang out in the cities. See everyone and have a good time.

Have you put much thought into being the returning champ this year? Are you anxious to hold onto your title?
Well I’m definitely not going to hold onto the title, that’s for sure. I’m sure everyone else is going to be back on their game and stuff. But I’m excited to ride and do what I can do. I don’t really want to go too deep into trying to send it or whatever. I’m not really that jacked up.  It was more like I came upon it, got lucky and got it more than like, ‘Oh yeah, I killed it!’

When you look at the results from last year’s series and you see your name ahead of Dave Mirra and Daniel Dhers, how does that make you feel?
Ha ha, I don’t know, it’s crazy. More like a fluke to me. You just can’t ever consider yourself above the people you looked up to when you’re little, no matter if you had your best day. Whatever I did it’s not gonna compare to what Mirra can do. Mirra can air 15 feet out of a 10-ft and I won’t air above five. He’s just way better.

What do you think about this year’s competition with a couple guys coming back from injuries?
I’m just psyched to see the next year of progression in BMX because every year on Dew Tour it gets crazier and crazier. So see what happens this year. I’m excited to ride and excited to travel. I’m sure everyone is going to be on their game.

Is the Dew Cup on display at your house, or is it stashed at your mom’s?
No, it’s just chillen in my closet. I have a couple other awards that I’m psyched on but I don’t try to flaunt them or anything. I just have them. I would never display it or anything, I feel like it’s kind of weird.

The Deadline video that you’re making has all of BMX buzzing. How long until you think it will be done? How would you describe the project?
The project started off since I’ve been pretty young because all of us have had cameras and stuff. So I always wanted to make a video and then I came up with a decent amount of money this year. So I wanted to send some of my friends out and get them out to some cities and spots where there’s real good stuff and make something good out of it.  It’s just one of those things where I always wanted to make a video so I figured we’d make one.

I’m home for a while, but I had a little bit of bad luck with people getting hurt and stuff. But I’m psyched to see the final product and how it all comes out. Originally I wanted it to be done around August, but one of the kids in the video that had a really good part, JJ Palmere, he tore his ACL last year and spent a lot of time this year getting back. We all had a bunch of clips and then he started filming. Basically all their stuff was getting old and they wanted to film new stuff. I’m hoping for this Fall. Early Fall.

If you and your friends could have a private session at Dew Tour, which would you rather ride, the BMX Park course or the Skate Street course?
Depending on the day I’d probably rather ride the skateboard course because street’s just where it’s at for me. They always have really fun small handrails and ledges and little euro gaps and a lot of banked hips. That’s like my favorite thing to ride so riding the skate street course would definitely be more fun for me than riding the BMX course. Even though the BMX course is mad fun too. The BMX course is like you going out and it’s pretty crazy you’re riding big ramps and stuff. It’s bigger. You would ride the little skate section and it’s going to be more chill and you’d be able to play around a lot.

If you had to pick the winner of this year’s Dew Tour Park title, who do you think it will be?
I got my money on Drew Bezanson. He’s definitely on a roll. He’s been on it so I’ll see if my guess is right. 

The Dew Tour Nike 6.0 BMX Open returns to Chicago July 23 and 24 at Soldier Field South Festival Lot. Tickets are on sale now, starting at only $15. To get your tickets, click here.

For more information on the Nike 6.0 BMX Open event, including the competiton schedule, click here.