us and them by greg "shugga" walsh

[Mat]

or in this case me and most of you.

as the owner of stuntlife.com the worlds largest online resource for stunters. i am pretty dialed into the street free-style scene. administering our message board for the past year, watching memberships explode from a handful of friends to 8500 registered users (adding on an average of 40 new members a day!).  i have a good feel for the sport and the people involved in it. its a tightknit and fun bunch, with many others who are dead serious about pushing the sport of street freestyle to the next level.  we've got our squids of course, but there are just as many pros dedicated to increasing the legitimancy of our sport.
but i have also noticed that some of us stunters can be pretty nearsited, especially in terms of public perception of our sport. this is where we run up against the wall when it comes to taking our sport to the next level--by this i mean x-games style competitions with mobs of spectators and real prize money, or sponsors that offer more thatn a 10% discount on parts. we fall into the old "us v.s. them" trap. "they"don't get it "they" don't understand "us."
this gets back to the tightknit community thing--for the most part stunters only hang with other stunters. its normal to interact with people like us who understand us. it also has to do with our underground status and the fact that we arn't exactly invited to participate in the traditional motorcycle world. thats changing now that magazines (finally!) begin to acknowledge stunt culture, stunt videos make their way into dealerships, and stunt competitons become part of racing events. but this is a slow process, and being recognized by the motorcycle industry is still a far cry from acceptence by the general public.
which is why its good sometimes to step outside of our stunt bubbles and see things from the perspectives on non-riders. whats with these haters anyways, always running to the cops the minute a sportbike passes them at 5mph over the speed limit. whats their problem.
pull your head out of your helmet and pretend your in the buick for a moment. (scary isn't it) realize that the public perception of street freestyle is at least a decade behind us inside the scene. think of it like this. remember when you saw your first stunt video. Starboys, FTP, or LVX? didn't it blow your mind. i mean they were doing wheelies for almost a mile, and popping them up standing on the seat. amazing!
of course five years later that stuff is nothing to us. a tank wheelie won't even raise an eyebrow at a competiton anymore. but to a SUV driving soccer mom its completely different. the average person hasn't seen any of this. they don't know a high-chair wheelie from a wheelchair. and if they did they would just think one led to the other.
unfamiliarity breeds fear. the average joe thinks that riding a motorcycle on a public high way is only slightly less dangerous than searching for land mines with a butter knife. a motorcycle with the front wheel even an inch off the ground looks totally out of control to them, to say nothing of the one dragging its tail light. so no surprise of four guys hoisting standups sends them running for the 911.
not that stunters arn't trying to change this. anyone involved in the sport sees the movement for the streets to the tracks. some of the best stunters never even ride on the streets anymore, only on closed courses. but the negative image is still the biggest obstacle to the sports growth. it should be a priority to show the public that we know enough to be safe when we stunt and save it for an out of the way place.
everyone has an opinion on the future of street freestyle. some think the sport will peak soon (or has already peaked) others expect it to be the next freestyle motocross, front and center on ESPN. will PBR XMX and 1096 hijack american livingrooms vix 2004 x-games, or will we always be just a side show to "real" motorcycle events? are we doomed to this stupid "us vs them" crap, the equivilent to a teenager arguing about curfew with his parents? i hope not. that was bad enough the first time around.....
either way streetbike stunting in america has a way to go. we get closer every day but they are baby steps. the only thing that will help us is more unity, and all of us working together in the right direction. the popularity of street freestyle has been growing by leaps and bounds, so we are obviousely doing something right. if we continue to work it, we can ride this ting all the way to the top.
the only question is are you with us or are you with them?

another user on another forum said everyone who questions stunting should read it so here it is.

[Jared]

Ok I've read it....(i wasn't questioning it but hey I feel like replying) and I still think the knuckleheads doing the stupid crap on the street are true idiots.

Is it a skill /talent... yep it sure is. Does it have a place on the streets. Nope.


Take it to the track.....

[vtlion]

I have to agree (for the most part) with the root argument of the post, which, if I've read it correctly, is that those who do not ride fear what they don't understand, and that your average cager's mind can't distinguish between a sportbike doing 75 on a highway and one riding a wheely through traffic at 100?  

This is probably true... motorcyclists have this burden to bear, its generally accepted as a part of the pastime.

Still, stunting has its place on a closed course with all of the proper safety precautions in place.  When someone rides a wheely down the street past traffic it ruins the public's perception of motorcyclists in general.  This shouldn't come as any surprise to us anymore.  The human mind functioins by categorizing things and generalizing.  If someone sees a dangerous motorcycle stunt on a public road then they are likely to make the assumption that all motorcycles are dangerous and ... tada... a stereotype is born.

I love watching stunting videos on the web.   I'm fascinated by it the same way I'm fascinated by bungee jumping and parachuting.  I'll never work up the gumption to do any of those things, but I'm fine with others doing it.  Just keep it in its place: in a safe, closed, controlled environment  To continue the analogy, if people were bungee-jumping above rush-hour traffic from highway overpasses, wouldn't you start to develop a dislike for those people and over time begin to scowl at anyone walking down the road with a jumping rig over their shoulder?

[bbanjo]

Well put VT.

[pizzleboy]

Nothing against stunting, or general goofing around -- only where you choose to do it.

You wanna break the sound barrier?  Fine, don't do it on the highway with people doing 55MPH.

Stoppies?  Fine in a parking lot.

The problem, I'm sure, stems from partly from cagers who over react, as well as people doing things where they shouldn't.

Don't get your knickers in a knot because people on this board are frustrated at being labeled with these folk.  You talk about "us and them", and as long as there are people being stoopid in places where they are putting others in danger, it will always be "us and them".

[JohnNS]

Like everyone else has said..it's all in where it's done. As I've said before, I'm all for stunting done in the right place at the right time. I think it's amazing and I have total respect for people who can pull that stuff off.

When it comes right down to it though, stunters have noone to blame for their negative image than themselves. Granted, I'm sure there are responsible ones who ONLY do it under controlled situations...but let's be honest, a LOT of people who are capable of doing those things, do it in city streets too.

I see it all the time...and as a rider I don't think "wow that's cool." I think "what an idiot." I can only imagine what cagers are thinking. As long as there are people doing those things on the city streets, stunters will never get the respect they desire (and the sensible ones deserve).

I'm sure there are riders who are smart about how they do it, and who are genuinely concerned about the image of their sport, and I applaud them. Stunters need to look amongst their own ranks to see the root of their problems though.

If you do it sensibly though, more power to you!

it should be a priority to show the public that we know enough to be safe when we stunt and save it for an out of the way place.

Best line in there  

[pantablo]

One of the biggest problems Stunters have in turning the tide toward respectability and mass acceptance (ie x-games corporate sponsorship) lies within the stunting community itselt.

There are stunters that feel they'd be selling out if they went mainstream but that's the only way it'll get any legitimacy. x-games style corporate sponsorship won't come without safeguards in place, like wearing proper safety gear (perception of safety/danger looms high on corporate minds). There are many stunters that feel they shouldn't or choose to not wear safety gear while stunting in competition...

or so I've read.

[octane]

Many forms of motorsports have roots tied to illegal (read: street) activity. To one extent or another, you're never going to totally remove that element from the street. But if you are serious about making stunting a legitmate, recognized sport - you need to take it off the streets and run events within a sanctioning body that will set safety regulations and bring some order, etc.