Cam White Interview

Name: Cameron White
Age: 25
Hometown: Canberra, Australia, but living in Las Vegas.

Years riding: Ever since I was a little kid, but I started jumping jumps when I was about 12.

 

Cam, how was the winter back home? Well I don’t get a winter, I get 12 months of summer because Australia has opposite seasons than America. It’s a pretty sweet deal, I’m kinda stoked. It’s like I have two different lives that are joined by BMX. It’s sweet as!

 

The Unit edit was nuts, what's with the 40ft sets in the yard? Well after riding Red Bull Elevation I was like damn, those jumps were pretty much the best jumps I had ridden and I wanted to go home and build me some. I was pretty lucky that I live on six acres of land that’s on the side of a hill. As soon as I got off the plane I got to work. They took forever seeing as though I had a digging crew of just me. But finally were done and all the work paid off big time. It’s not real tech but it’s so fast and big that it’s a blast every run.

 

When you’re in the states where do you ride? I ride at TJ Lavin's backyard. That place is seriously so bloody awesome. We have every type of jump and the runs are insane. We are doing four people deep trains, each person on different lines and we are jumping over one another, criss-crossing, over taking, landing on a six foot wide landing next to someone else at the same time and it all meets up in the second turn and is just so crazy. It’s honestly like the best place ever to go and ride ay. We have massive transfers, hips everywhere, roller lines, super tech top berm line, a run that we call no-turn where you go around the yard and hit no berms, just all hips and transfers. A crazy "S" berm transfer line, rollercoaster line, Jeppy love line, middle line which is so fast with a massive transfer in the middle. I could honestly go on all day, but yeah the
place kicks so much arse its not even funny!!!

 

Growing up what riders influenced you then and who are some riders you look up to now? Growing up in Australia BMX wasn’t that big so all we did for motivation was read BMX Plus magazine, any dirt jumper that was in those mags, like Lavs, Nasty, Stephen Murray, Nyquist, Joey Garcia, Fuzzy, Mike Aitken, Ruel Erikson, the list goes on for days, but all those guys were my influence and motivation to go ride and dig trails.  To this day and age, I still look up to those guys and am stoked when I’m on the roll in with Lavs, Fuzzy and Joey Garcia and any of the trail bosses that kick arse. It’s such an amazing feeling riding with the guys who's posters are still on my wall back home in OZ. Not to mention that pretty much all the Aussie shredders, close friends and anyone who I ride with, if they are having fun then they are an influence to me.

 

I know you ride everything but what do trails do for you that other riding doesn't?  Well a lot of people probably don’t know that I grew up riding street. I use to run pegs, no brakes, all that jazz, loved every minute of it, I also ride a lot of park when I’m back home, I love it too. Anytime I’m hanging with my mates riding my bike I’m stoked but trails is something different. I don’t know if it’s being able to create anything that you want, session it and then change it to whatever else you want to change it to or the speed and flow that riding trails has that riding other stuff doesn’t have!!! Maybe it’s that I just really like digging for months on end to create something that you and all your mates can enjoy! Who knows but either way I really just love riding trails. Contests are fun, I love pushing myself to ride at the best of my ability but crash and burn or pull your runs and do well, at the end of the day it’s my love for shovels, blisters and heat stroke from digging trails that will keep me doing it for as long as I can hahaha!

 

You have an amazing family at home, how hard is it to leave them and come to America every year?  It’s definitely hard to leave family and friends and just bounce over to the over side of the world for half the year but it’s a good time as well. I have friends over here that are like family, so when I do go back to OZ it’s just as hard leaving here. I miss my dogs Bullet and VB a lot too. I grew up with those dogs so they are a massive part of my life but they are too old to travel over here and kick it in the desert with me. I just hope they are tuff and can hang on for another six months until I get back!

 

I heard you have a few new sponsors and that you are working on a signature helmet deal - how did all that come about?  Yeah I have a new sponsor for this year, Monster Energy Drink, I’m heaps stoked to be a part of the team and want to thank everyone involved in that. STOKED! And yeah, I’m doing a sweet ass helmet for Mongoose. I feel as though helmets are the most important thing and definitely a necessary item to wear when doing what we do. I crashed when I was 17 at one of my local parks back home, I wasn’t even doing anything crazy but just came off wrong and landed wrong and fell down the 6ft ramp straight onto my head,  lucky I had my helmet on because the only thing that happened is I fractured my skull, woke up in hospital four days later, was in a neck brace for five months and had no to poor hand eye coordination for the next 12 months after that. So I kinda figure if I didn’t have a helmet on I doubt I would be sitting here right now doing this interview. But yeah, I’m excited to bring out a dialed helmet from mongoose and protect my noggin!

 

You have been on Mongoose for a while now, how is that going and what’s it like riding for the company that pretty much started BMX?  Yeah, I have been on Mongoose for longer than I have been coming to America and I’m in my 6th year here. I’m stoked to be part of the team and riding for a company that has been around for longer than 30 years. Growing up it was Fuzz and Stevie McCann that I saw in magazines riding for Mongoose and have always been a fan of the company and when I got the offer back in Australia to ride for the Aussie team I didn’t hesitate to jump on such a great opportunity.

 

Cam, you have an amazing girlfriend that is there when times are good or bad how much has she helped along the way? Yeah my girlfriend Michelle is awesome. She isn’t scared to call me a pussy and make me front flip the 40 footer in the yard... haha. She is awesome and puts up with me going riding all day or hanging with the boys all day. I couldn’t ask for a better girlfriend or a better someone to support me when life is good or bad. I’m definitely one lucky guy, that’s for sure!

 

Being from Australia why do you think the Australian riders have such a big impact when they come over? Because we’re a good looking bunch of guys...... no? hahaha! I don’t know, there are good riders everywhere in the world, I just guess you could call it Vegemite... now we’re talking!

 

Cam take me through a perfect day for you: Wake up early, hang out with my dogs and give them the crust of my vegemite toast that I eat for breaky, then go ride some trails, not a big session, just like 10 laps or so to wake up and loosen up. then I will go chill with my mates, maybe do something fun, watch a movie, dig some jumps, who knows, keep an open schedule, then in the arvo if it’s not windy, go ride again. Maybe do like 20 laps, then throw down on the trick jump or something, maybe do some stunts. After a good session, food again and then some sweet couch time before bed... oh, and I really like fishing, so maybe if we can throw some fishing in there somewhere were laughing!