Patrick King, Jr. Interview

ride4life1100

• July 14 2003
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I knew I had seen it all when I met 13-year-old Patrick King Jr, who was only two years old when I started riding and now, after only riding for three years, can do way more tricks than I can.Our initial encounter was on a Mosh tour last year where we visited him at his parents’ house in Rosinville, South Carolina and rode his backyard ramp compound, the King Ramp Club. I was lucky enough to hang out with Patrick again just recently on the second Props Mega Tour and he impressed me once again with a slew of new tricks and his ability to quickly adapt to every skatepark we went to. If Patrick isn’t a childhood prodigy then I don’t know who is.

What or who got you started riding?
I saw my neighbor Kyle Judy riding his ramps and I wanted to try it.

When did your father (Patrick Senior) start building the ramps for you and what did you ride before you had them?
He built me a mini ramp when I was ten. Before that I had a little wedge launch ramp.

How’s the yard looking now?
The place has gotten bigger since then. We put up a building with ramps in it and we just added on a bowl.

How many contests have you entered and how have you done?
I’ve entered six contests so far. My first contest was at Eastwood and I won first place, and in the Roots Jam 2002 I won third place. I did pretty good in the other contests too, the worst I ever did was fourth place.

Do the contests make you nervous?
Contests used to make me really nervous, but only a little bit now.

Was MOSH your first sponsor? How did you get hooked up with them?
Mosh was my first sponsor. I was on the BMXonline web site and I saw a flyer posted about Mosh looking for younger riders so I sent in a video and later on Sam from Mosh called me.

Who are your sponsors now?
Mosh, UGP, Osiris, and Clive.

You have a pretty deep bag of tricks; what was the hardest trick for you to learn?
360s over the whole box jump.

You just got back from the second Props Mega Tour; what was that like for you?
The Mega Tour was really fun; it was the best trip I’ve ever been on. I went to a lot of spots I only saw in videos and magazines that I’ve wanted to go to.

I watched you ride on Mega Tour and you seemed totally comfortable. Do you ever feel intimidated riding or even hanging out with a bunch of fully-grown Pro BMXers?
No. I feel pretty comfortable around them; they’re cool guys and fun to be around.

What did you think of Woodward?
Woodward is amazing; I would love to go back someday. I would never get bored there. It’s everything I imagined it would be.

When do you think you’ll move up to a 20″ bike?
Probably in a couple of months.