Fire Ride have their UK jam this July 13th at Twisted Oaks Bike Park near Ipswich with five different open competitions going down plus plenty more.
With the Fire Ride UK Jam heading to Twisted Oaks Bike Park in a few weeks, we sat down for a chat with their main man, Patrick Robinson to find out more.
Who is Patrick Robinson?
Patrick Robinson is a bloke from Yorkshire who spent many hours in the skatepark after school and college and found a love for riding bikes and travelling the world, meeting people at various events competitions.
What’s your background in bikes?
It started off when I was 14, when a skatepark was built in my local town, Wakefield. I wanted to become a pro BMX rider but the competition was tough. When I was 21 I moved to London for university and that’s when I got into mountain biking thanks to my first girlfriend who rode MTB. From then on I stopped riding BMX and got a love for racing and discovered urban downhill racing which still to this day is my favourite type of event, the buzz of racing through the streets with people watching is incredible.
What’s your background in events?
Through my network of friends and work at the time I was getting invites to incredible events from The Grammys, the World Cup in Brazil, Ann Summers after party and attending epic events like Crankworx plus other urban downhill events. So you could say I’ve been lucky enough to attend some of the best events in the world but actually running events. I knew nothing until we did our first one in Mexico.
How did the Fire Ride jams come about?
I raced an urban downhill in Mexico and a guy called Gaby told me that the event organisers were donating some wooden kickers to him so he asked if I could design a bike park. I didn’t know if he was been serious but I drew up a simple but progressive bike park. 3 weeks later he sent me photos fully complete, I was shocked and that was the first bike park in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Anyway, I was out watching Rampage and it worked out cheaper for me to fly back home via Mexico. I had a couple of days in Puerto Vallarta so I said to him lets do a little jam. He responded with “OK, great lets do it.” Moments later he put a Facebook status up which got over 200 shares and suddenly a event was created.
At first, he named it the Patrick Robinson Jam but I didn’t like that so changed the name to Fireride given that it would be the same date as bonfire night in the UK. We had local school kids making posters and putting them in bike shops and then the council and other shops asking to be involved which was amazing.
Once you’d made that decision, what happened next?
I asked my bike sponsor at the time (Insync Bikes) if they would donate some bikes as prizes, they said to me “Why didn’t you tell us about this event of yours, can we see the business plan”. It was a light bulb moment and time to take this seriously. The event only came about within hours so obviously there was no plan but I quickly put something together.
With it growing every year but during the back end of covid with no bike events we saw an opportunity to jump a few years and do an international invitational event in Mexico, we had the world best athletes come down such as Nicholi Rogatkin, Reed Boggs plus many more. That really helped the growth and put Fireride on the map for MTB events.
How did you go about finding the venues?
At the time there was some land that was waiting for planning permission for houses to be built, it was a 2 year process so we had that land for 2 years. Now we just reach out to bike park owners around the world. We’re currently trying to cook something big up in Bali but that’s a time consuming procedure. Now we are focusing on the UK Jam at Twisted Oaks Bike Park.
How do you go about getting the right kind of talent to these events?
We try to promote progression and inclusion in the sport so sending invites to people with the right attitude is the starting point. Having good communication with the athletes sharing what Fireride stands for and what we are trying to do. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, we’re just here for the good times.
What’s unique about the UK Fire Ride Jam?
With the UK jam we will have a mixture of athletes competing together from kids to pro athletes. For example, lil johnny could be following Sam Pilgrim over the long jump. This could be a dream come true for their riders to ride with their idols. I think the athletes love giving back to the sport like this too and after the competitions, we will have a party. The goal is for it to be a fun day or weekend out riding bikes with like minded people enjoying good riding, food, drinks & music at affordable prices.
Also unique to Fireride is that people can compete on any bike from a dirt jump, to ebike (no battery) the one rule we have is that riders must use the same bike for all the competitions.
What are the upsides and downsides of organising an event in the UK?
Upside, there’s a great MTB / dirt jump scene in the UK and some really talented athletes plus awesome bike parks to choose from. Downside, you can just never be certain of UK weather.
Favourite moments to date?
I love the overall experience, from welcoming athletes and picking them up at the airport to seeing them all riding the course or landing tricks they’ve wanted to do. Even though people are competing against each other there is still a bond and people helping each other out over jumps or with landing certain tricks.
The after-parties are always fun.
Any disasters?
I wouldn’t go as far as disasters but for sure we’ve had our moments from an earthquake putting a huge crack in the middle down the roll-in ramp, I broke my ankle riding an airbag just before an event. Oh, and we found a dead body when building the course in Mexico.
Where next for Fire Ride?
Fireride UK Jam at Twisted Oaks Bike Park on the 13th of July. Then back to Costa Rica in Febuary & hopefully Fireride Bali.
