What's New with Dennis Enarson

Photos & Interview: Joey Cobbs

How did the YouTube channel come about?

The YouTube channel came about because I was hanging out with Colby Raha, he’s a good friend that rides motocross and BMX. He would come down and hang out, we’d go ride and his crew would film and post it on his channel and then I would see the videos and the reach they had, and how dope they were. It was kind of like showing behind the scenes of our lives a little bit. Because on any given day when I get together with my friends, we always want to go do something cool and so Colby just got the cameras out. It's not like filming for a video part or going on a team trip. We’re just farting around in San Diego, but when I would see the footage he would get from stuff that we would normally not even film, the were dope.

And then Mike Jonas was staying at the house and we were talking about how cool it would be to have a YouTube channel of our own. We just made a plan to go out for one day out of our week and I'll just take the footage from that one day and put that out there. The rest of six days are not on film so it's like you still have your normal life.

But then we were talking about how we almost need someone that like lives with us, and is part of the crew, and then right then Blake Peters walked through the door. And we're like, Blake! you want to film make a YouTube channel? We thought he was gonna be like, Nah, F you guys. But he actually was interested! And we're like, really? You really want to do it? And he's like, I think I could do it. No editing skills. Never used a camera like this or nothing. And then within 24 hours we got a new little camera and I think the next day we went out to film a practice one and that ended up being the first episode and we dropped it.

We committed to Friday videos and I think we've only missed one week so far. And so Yeah, that's that was a plan and we've been having a blast.

How long you guys been doing it?

I think it's been 13 episodes. Is that right? Yeah, we got 13 episodes. So we're in month three right now.

And how's it been going?

It's been good. We started from nothing and it's crazy how much people are watching them and liking them. We don't even have to put in any extra effort. I just make a plan with Blake for a Saturday, he cruises with the camera and we just hit a few homies and go ride the ramps or just do whatever we would normally do when we go ride and then we look at all the footage and it's usually like wow! that was a sick day.

People are really hyped on the videos and we've had only nice feedback, which is pretty cool for a thing that people hate on, especially in the Freestyle world. There's a lot of judgment in Freestyle on things that are outside the box, and this isn’t even that outside the box, a million people have done it, but not really in the way that we're doing it as far as like actually going out and really riding and doing our normal thing and not just filming, like a day in the life. So I guess we just kind of took a different approach because I was so influenced by what Colby was doing and was like, Dude, this is what we do too. And so yeah, we’ve getting nothing but love from everyone and it has been really sick and I appreciate everyone being into it. It’s motivated us to want to keep doing it. From the beginning we said like, we don't care how many people watch it, how many subscribers… any of that. It was like, if we like it, and if people like it, let's keep doing it. And we love it. And people seem to love it. So it's just motivated us to do it more.

That's awesome. I had a good question and not I'm brain farting on it. How is it balancing out the channel with all the other aspects of your riding?

I get a lot of like, “Oh, why did you film that for the vlog!?” this and that. And really, nothing I've ever put in the vlog would ever be in one of my video parts or anything. So it's been keeping me like really warm in between the team trips, and the video part I'm working on at the moment. So like, normally I’m not really filming until I'm on a team trip or have a filmer town but now it's like, once a week, I'm in front of the camera having fun kind of pushing myself, you know, because anytime the cameras out you want to usually ride a little bit harder rather than just like running through the motions. And now whenever I get on a trip, you know, I hear all the other guys like I haven't been on a trip and two months, blah, blah, blah, you know, I just feel super warm because I was probably filming like the day before I left on the trip. And then when I get home, I go straight back into filming. So it's keeping me really on it.

Do you guys have anything planned that you're like for the channel that you're excited about?

We keep it real organic and usually make the plans like the night before or that morning or sometimes literally like in the truck. But right now we have a lot of plans, we're dropping a welcome to ODI edit that we worked on for the last few days. That week’s video will be a bit different than the vlog style. It's actually more like a traditional edit that Blake is making.

And then next weekend, we're gonna go to the Haro warehouse and get some of the Haro and Premium guys together to session a bunch of cool stuff up at the warehouse. Thanks to HARO! We got some cool set up ideas with their forklift and shipping container and other warehouse items mixed in with ramps and landings.

And then we're also trying to go to the big Olympic racetrack in Chula. Thanks again to HARO, they're going to line it up and I have a bet with Joey Cobbs that I can 360 the berm jump on the SX track. We got a lot of plans. I got a whole notebook full of plans so I'm excited to start diving into these. Basically, it gives me something fresh to do every week.

Nice. Aside from the YouTube channel, what else do you have going on for 2023?

Yeah, right now I'm finishing up another video part for Vans. Well, there's two more trips to finish this Vans part I've been working on and I'm more than halfway done now. And honestly, I was watching the footage the other night that Dan Foley's sent over. And I think this is the part that I'm already like the most stoked on out of any part of I’ve filmed. It’s very well rounded. We did Oregon Northwest all skate parks, and the Philly, real East Coast Street. And then a San Diego trip where it was like all the spots a bunch of stuff I wanted to check off the listf for a while. Then we're going to do a Southwest trip and then I'm going to go to Dan Foley's area to wrap it up. And so yeah, I'm really working hard on that trying to make it my best part.

And I got an odyssey trip video dropping, that'll probably be out by the time this comes out.

Then yeah, just trying to ride, be a bike rider, street, Park, and then a mountain bikes are super fun too. I barely ride MTB, I’ve road probably like 25 to 30 times in my life, but it's getting more and more fun and my bike is getting sicker and sicker. So that's another little hobby too.

Do you have any competitions planned this year or

anything like that?

Yeah. I just got invited to X Games, Japan, probably won't go haha. I said I would go, but then I was just looking more into it. I'm like, uggghhh. And then the definitely X Games, the one in America then there’s Vans contests. So riding a bunch of fun contest and trying to not do too much crazy worring about contests because I'm super hyped on like the stuffwe're doing domestic right now. And that's why like, the Japan X Games thing kind of trips me out to like, go all the way to Japan for like, three days for a contest. Like it's like an hour of practice. And it's like, yeah, it's really cool. But there's just so much cool stuff to do with my riding right now. So I'm trying to figure out really what I want to do. Definitely contests that make sense and are fun, but I don't know about going all the way to, like Estonia or Japan for like, three days, that kind of stuff.

You’ve always had a good balance between core projects like video parts and team trips with those bigger contests, whereas I feel like there's like a lot of guys kind of do one or the other. How does that stuff balance out?

I honestly love it all, I’ve always rode everything with all my friends. Right in the beginning I got on Nike with Garrett Reynolds and we were riding Dew Tours together and working on video parts already when we're like 16. So it's just the most natural thing ever. And I don't think any have more importance over the other. I’ve ridden in so many contests, and filmed so many different types of video parts, Now it's pretty cool that I know which ones are more important to me and I know how to focus a little bit better. But yeah, I love contests and I love video parts. That always helped me too because if I did bad at a contest I didn't care or if I didn't get the clip I wanted whatever because it was always like next weeks a contest or next week is a video trip, just like that's kind of how I still live my life and just just keep doing the things that are fun.

What do you think about Freestyle in the Olympics and what’s your take on being involved in it or not?

I think Freestyle in the Olympics is one of the coolest things that's happened since I've been a part of Freestyle, which I’ve been a part of my whole life.

because it's a whole other type of BMX almost, because the Olympics is involved. You have street riding, you have park riding, like you know bowls, or just people who ride ramps, a rider who's not worrying about contest. There’s flatland too, you have all these different disciplines. But now there's Olympic Freestyle and to me, it's its own category, because it's been taken to such an amazing level and is such a niche thing… like big wooden ramps, spine, box quarters, you know, like how they put those courses together. And everyone's focusing on one thing you know? It’s being the best at this type of ramp riding. So it's like made its own discipline, which I think is sick. These guys are traveling the world making a living off of one type of BMX, so I think it's rad. It added just so much more.

Did you ever want to be a part of it?

I was interested, yeah. But it was weird. I would go to these contests and either make the podium or something would happen where I would get a flat and couldn’t finish a run. The issue was that the overall score was the average of your two runs, so if you weren’t able to finish one, then even if you got a perfect 100 in your second run, the best average you could get is 50 and I would miss the finals. And so I would travel half way around the world for a contest and miss the finals because I got a flat.

Then I went to Japan and I tweaked my back, then in China I was there for two weeks for two separate comps, the first contest I got second, actually I almost won! I was so hyped. I was like, yeah, a second at this Olympic thing that I didn't even know I was gonna make finals. And I'm doing this. I'm on the Olympic team, I did the best out of any of the Americans at that event.

But then the next weekend, before the comp even started, I got in trouble for riding the coarse with Rob Darden before practice. I wasn’t even really riding, I was just doing manual challenges with Rob. I actually ended up hurting myself, got practice taken away, and was kind of sick, and I just flew home early. And that's when I like officially threw the towel.

Oh, yeah. And then I tried again! I tried one last time, I had built up a park bike with brakes and a gyro and so I went to the Woodward comp they hosted. I went to the practice and it was like Marcus Christopher and all these guys, I was like OH YEAH! I’m going to get down with all these guys! I loved the vibe. I don't get to ride with these guys very often and so we were riding a ton and super hard. I kept saying that to myself I gotta chill, the contest is tomorrow, I need sleep. Haha. And then I was about to leave but thought about doing a 180 over the box jump on the way out because my backpack was over at the box. I was like, I’m gonna 180 the box and get out of here. But I got crazy wobbles on my with my cassette because I normally run a free coaster and I'm an idiot and forgot and I just got all weird because I forgot how to 180 a box with a cassette and I fractured my kneecap. And then that’s when I threw In the towel on the Olympics again.

What do you think about the USA BMX freestyle contest series, and the younger generation of riders?

It seems really cool, it's like, becoming a structured thing with more contest and something for the younger riders to actually look forward to. I started with racing and it was cool that between the two local tracks we had we could go out and get involved in a race like four or five nights out of the week.

And it did suck on the freestyle side that like there was only one big contest a year when I was growing up and the other ones you’d have to travel for. So this series seems like it's gonna bring more consistent events for everyone to participate in. It already is, so what they're doing right now is really rad. I would have love it when I was young to have a contest series to follow around like this. And its for everyone, all the age groups are rad, that its not just for kids.

Has there been anyone from that younger generation that has like caught your eyes off?

There's a lot of like young rippers that are killing it. Little Keir, She's rad. And then there's that kid Connor Sitt that I see a lot really killing it, he's super sick. And then yeah, it's cool to just see a lot of the young locals when we go to different scenes. It's cool seeing the older guys too, I don't know what the age group is. But a lot of these older guys are having fun, competing with each other, and progressing and have a fun little tour to follow around. They never had an older dude class like that to compete in, unless you're a pro.

So it's not like it's not exactly like new news or anything. But like, you somewhat recently had, like your, you know, had a son ASA. It like how is that like having a family or starting a family? How does that like, balance out withdrawing, or how has that changed things.

I used to just do everything, like I would go to Europe for a month, come home, go to Australia for a week, go straight to Japan, you know just did stuff back to back which was cool. But now that I have a family, I really like prioritize my time, which is really been good for my riding and for my productivity. Like back when I would go ride in anything I got invited to I was doing everything at 75%, whereas now I pick and choose the things I really want to do I can ride at 100%.

Now everything I do has to be thought about because my family is there, I can’t just screw off and disappear in Europe for a month you know, and go on these trips and just not come home. So it's been way different.

Honestly, one of my favorite chapters of life I've ever had. Acea has only been here eight months, but I love it. I love the change. I get up early now. I have home time, but I can ride too, and when I'm like going on a film trip or something like I prefer to go somewhere that's on a similar time zone because it's more productive you know? Even though it's cool to go to France or China or wherever to go film, that's the coolest thing ever. That's what I used to strive to do more of. Now it’s like Nah, let's go to let's go to Michigan or something like a new city in America. It's only a couple hours difference and I can just go and get home and travel is not crazy and in the end I’m gonna get more clips, I'll make My video better and faster. So it's like just a different process of thinking.

What advice would you give to like some, you know, young kid, just sort of discovering BMX and getting into it

If a kid was just grabbing a bike, I would say, just enjoy every moment of it. I love progressing. I love feeling good on my bike. I love the friends I've made. I love traveling. So just keep doing all that, you know, cruise around with friends and enjoy it.

Well, what do you think about that? If the kid says he wants to turn pro? I mean, what is that?

To a younger person or someone just getting into BMX who wants to be a pro bike rider and do it for a living and you know, get paid to travel and do all the fun stuff that comes with that. I would say you have to work hard, you have to love it. I've seen some of the most talented riders in the world fall off faster than anyone because they don't want to put the work in to stay good, people start to get better than them they get discouraged and ego gets in the way and whatnot. And it's always like, the dudes who have done it the longest and made the best careers have always just stayed learning and progressing in their own way.

Usually, the best pro riders end up driving in their own lane so they're not even competing with anyone. The Biggest thing about being a pro I think Is it to have your own style and be your own rider. Growing up, everyone has their favorite riders and their own influences and that shapes you as a rider but there's a certain point where they've just become like their own rider and create their own piece of BMX.

You ride pretty much all types of Freestyle, except flat. Is one type of riding that is more fun or more important to you or how to the campare to each other?

To me, they're all equal and they all stemmed from racing, too. Because I raced so much as a young kid, that gave me the fundamentals of everything, I was just learning to be like connected to my bike. So when I started riding freestyle, I had those fundamentals from racing for so long. It was really fun for me to go put on pegs and grind a ledge because that was a different feeling than trying to learn double whip airs on a quarter pipe, which was also a different feeling of flowing through the dirt jumps. So they're all equal to me. And they're all so much fun in their own ways.

I don't know. What do you have to get question?

What do you think about? It does seem like you know, racers that get into freestyle are super dialed in good freestylers that get into race seem to be kind of sketchy and like a liability on the track. Do you think that?

It's almost like the same with like, when freestyle dudes jump on a mountain. Like usually the the people who came from racing or dirt jumping are really good at mountain biking. But there's like really talented BMX riders that you see. Yeah, jump on a race track or jump on a mountain bike, and it's scary. So yeah, I think that just comes from a lot. Like there's people who there's nothing wrong with it at all, like they grew up. Like, you know, riding street, like people from New York, you know, like they they ride bags and street and rails like transition and manually rollers. Like it's just like a foreign thing they've ever done.

Who are some of the people you raced against when you were a kid?

Sean Lechner was like the superhero of our group, a kid from Kansas. But then LaShawn kobza, we raced a lot, we were very similar. Like, we're always going back and forth. So he's, he's someone I really remembered. Chad Kerley, he was a couple years younger than me, but we're always going to tracks together and were on the same team for a little while. Kris Fox is another dude that was like a year older than me, So we never raced but it's funny because we were always doing the same stuff. Now we are still doing the same stuff, just in the Freestyle World. Nic long, another guy a couple years older than me. I was on his dad's team, so we go way back. And yeah, who else? Corben Sharrah was a year younger than me. But I think we did race like a little bit out of the year, maybe that like the ROC races. When Corben was A little kid, he used race to flats and was the only kid in the class on flats and was still beating everyone.

Do you think you'll ever get on the racetrack again?

We're going hopefully going to the Olympic track next weekend. But shit, why not? I'm sure my son's gonna end up racing, because it's such a great thing for such a organized action sport.

So you think you might gate up when he gets into it?

Probably yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with it. if Acea does end up racing, then hell yeah. I'm gonna have to get a race bike and get some clips and do the whole thing. I'm not going to just sit on the goddamn bench that’s for sure. I’ll be racing too!