My MTB Experience With Strict Parents

My Mountain Bike journey started with a simple Berm-Peak video during the pandemic, about a day after I watched that video I was attempting to build jumps and ride them with my 1997 Schwinn S-10. My parents believed it was a normal pre-teen fad, but were shocked after I stuck with it for a year. I had ridden in my backyard for a while now so I wanted to get out and discover gnarly Ashville single-track. A friend of my dad's recommended a well known black diamond trail called Kitsuma, but my mom already had her doubts about my ability. A week before my ride, all i heard from her was, "Your not skilled enough, your asthma will act up, I've hiked that trail and its impossible for bikes." Even though all this discouraged me, me and my dad eventually went with our clapped out vintage bikes to tackle the 4 mile long trail. The feeling i felt that day was something that none of my old hobbies could never fulfill, I felt at one with bike, at one with the mountains, the dirt, the trees, everything! I came home tired and exited, but the only thing my mom expressed was her shock that I hadn't fallen. My dad shared the stoke with me and we were looking forward to going next weekend.

However, the stoke was short lived due to my grandfathers death only a couple days after our first ride. My dad was in Mexico for two weeks to attend the funeral and work out funeral documents and such. This left my mom to take care of my family and no time to take me riding. When my dad arrived home, all of his stoke vanished and started to work way more for a reason unbeknownst to me. Around this time, I saved up for my first disc brake bike which is a whole other story. I found that my parents stopped supporting my Mountain Bike passion and left me with the responsibility to keep that passion alive. This proved difficult due to their reluctance to take me to trails, the bike shop and other bike related activities. As my second year mountain biking wore on, i found myself riding less and less, and at the end of 2022, I hadn't ridden my bike for 2 months.

My parents had always been strict, I was always the outcast at school due to my lack of sport and video game experience. I was always aware of this, but High School reminded my of my different experience's every day. I didn't ride until April of 2023, and all my skills and confidence vanished. Every time my parental controls on my phone would disengage, i would watch videos of kids my age or younger shredding Whistler and other sick trails. This sent me into a slump, just the thought of kids being able to ride everyday compared to me, who only rode once every two months, was pretty disheartening. I did get a amazing bike in June 2023, which was great and bad at the same time. Now with a great bike, I had no excuse to not ride, right?

The current situation isn't much better, but I do have the Mountain bike Club at my school now. I am currently making a decent sized jump line at my house which will hopefully make my skills better and convince my parents to take me places. Wish me luck for the 2024 riding season