Recently in SUSO Category
It's been said that Motocross is to MotoGP what Go Karting is to Formula One - a breeding ground for the next generation of motorsport talent. Just as Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard and certain others have honed their driving skills on the kart circuit from the moment they could climb behind the wheel 
you need look no further than the young Irish bike riding sensation Jonny Rea, to see how motocross can shape the skills of the world class Supersport rider. Shape and add an extra dimension I would say, if you've ever seen the way Jonny rides Cadwell Park and lifts the racebike clear at the classic photo opportunity ... not exactly what the 50 thousand pound corner hugging superbike was made for but something truly spectacular to witness for the viewing public.
Anyone that made it to the Echo Arena in Liverpool on Friday night for the first Supercross event of 2008 might have been left thinking "which one here is the next Jonny?" Indeed while SUSO MVR-D Suzuki's own Carl Nunn battled it out against the best Americans in the 250 and 450 classes the race of the night was definitely in the junior class (riders from as young as 5 to 10 if I remember correctly) where for just under 2 laps it was nip and tuck at the front. Then with just over 1 lap remaining all of the leading 3 collided in a heap! The young snapper in fourth, all 8 years old of him, came piling through to take the honours. Incredible stuff! In the crowd we were all on our feet throughout the race displaying a full range of emotions from excitement for the competition, to concern for the youngsters' safety to, in my case, outright jealousy that I never got into the sport at their age. What a way to learn, what an experience for the young men and what a training ground to find the next Valentino Rossi! That is if these boys do indeed ever feel inclined to give up the dirt for the tarmac. And these days there is infact a third avenue of opportunity on offer to the talented motocross rider, and as the clip below shows, for these creative, determined (kinda crazy) individuals, the sky really is the limit...
For UK wakeboaders Tom Watson, Lewis Cornwall, James Young and Lee Debuse their daily philosophy is one of total positivity and a sense of whatever it takes, I can do it. Each has a story that defines them – in some cases these are stories of pure imagination and creativity – in others the stories are of triumph over adversity – triumphs born of belief and single mindedness to stick at it even when it hurts. You've already heard Tom's incredible story, so time to introduce the rest of the crew.
Lee Debuse is a 19 year old with one of the biggest S-bends in the business. (That's like a big superman thing with a 360 spin to the most of us!). What many don’t know is that Lee has been a diabetic since the age of 7. He tells us ‘I’ve never let it stop me. I wasn’t a wakeboarder when I found out I was diabetic but I had this desire to express myself through this sport and as long as I keep on top of it with good self discipline and frequent check ups, I can continue to get out there and chase that big 7’.
Lewis Cornwall, for so long we knew him as Nick Davies’ crazy little friend. Well not anymore. Packing a huge amount of power into an atypically slight frame for a wakeboarder this boy is now writing his own history – already he has the 2007 Wake MK title to his name and 2008 brings great expectation. Lewis’s ‘double’ s-bends (Backflip with ... you're getting the picture!) and alround cable style are something to behold. Stepping out of the shadow of the current World Cable Champ is not easy but Lewis has the creative style and the determination to have done just that.
In recent weeks Lee, James and Lewis have been ripping it up at the London Boat Show at Earls Court. These 3 and the UK Wakeboard community as a whole are never ones to let the small issue of winter and sub zero temperatures get in the way when they want to ride. Especially when there's the opportunity to move the whole gig inside! Pulled by winches over sliders and ramps these guys have been getting their winter fix. A great idea and a real creative solution to the eternal enemy of the UK boarding community .. (the weather) .. and as Matt Crowhurst architect and executer of this recent Pool Gap venture simply put it, "build it and they will come."
The Champions Award is presented by The Sunday Times each year to a sports person or team operating outside the spotlight of mainstream sports. Column inches are few and far between. These are the sports people who go unnoticed but who are no less remarkable than those routinely filling both back and front pages, and arguably more determined.
The absence of those trappings of fame leave these athletes pure and single minded in the pursuit of their dreams, and, for water skier Nicole Arthur, 20, this year’s winner and a sponsored SUSO athlete, it was very much a case of following a dream. It was her grandfather, Ian Arthur, who introduced the sport to Scotland in 1952 and set up the Slamannan Ski Club in the Forth Valley where Nicole still trains today. Water skiing in a Scottish loch? Do you know how cold it gets up there? You need to be pretty stubborn and a little bit mad to get in that water every single day - perhaps why Scotland is hardly renowned for its water sports - but Nicole is both and more. Despite the need for thick rubber suits, despite her age, and despite the fact that the winter darkness up north means finding the time to train with her coach and father (who himself won 18 consecutive Scottish Championships in the 70s) after work a little difficult to say the least, Nicole has been on a rampage of late, winning slalom titles at the British Open Championship, the British Under-21 Championships and the European Under-21 Championships. Then, to cap it all, she won gold at the World Slalom Championships in Austria two months ago, seeing off more experienced rivals who grew up and learned in somewhat warmer and more hospitable climates around the world (!).
It’s in specialist sports such as these, where the rewards are far less monetary and often far more personal, that you find people with the most creative and determined attitudes. There seems to be more to overcome, and if you do make it, only a specific demographic gets to hear about it. That’s why SUSO works with and is constantly looking for people like Nicole; you just know these people are doing it for all the right reasons (refreshing given the ongoing debate about the health of football in this country and the half hearted displays of ‘passion’ at Wembley). Nicole is one such person, and the awards she’s earned are testament to all those years spent bobbing up and down in a half frozen loch.
Have you ever been so determined to do something that you’re willing to risk actual bodily harm, if not the permanent use of your body, to get it done? Have you ever wondered what it might be like to try something that hadn’t been done before, to redefine the boundaries of your discipline, to rewrite certain rules, to seek change rather than settle for straight up passive acceptance? Have you ever dreamed of being at the forefront of the thing you love most? Have you ever set out to get there? Have you devoted your entire life to getting there? And did you get there?
Zach Shaw has done all the above. That’s why we’ve signed him up - because he’s retained that same attitude throughout his career as a rider, that imagination, that creativity and that determination to succeed, to be at the front not the back, to change the way people think about the things he does. He invented the 360 flip on a BMX. Today it’s called the Zakflip, although we’ve no idea why.
How the trick came about tells you everything you need to know about what it takes to succeed, not just in BMX and others sports, but in anything. He imagines something in his head. It seems crazy; no one has done it before. Even so, he then sets out to learn how to make it happen. And he doesn’t give up.
“I came up with the idea after doing the Mansfield Demo with Mat Hoffman in 1990 where he pulled the first flair. It got me thinking that a 540 flair was possible but I had to learn flips first! When I finally got the opportunity to learn flips I started messing with flipping and spinning (on a jump). I could do 180 flips no problem but getting the extra rotation was really hard and I never could get more than flip 270s until I went to the jump at Crowhurst in Hastings.
When I first jumped there I realised that this was THE jump i could do it on. I didn't say anything to anyone there and just rode in to try it. The first one I rotated full 360 and landed then my back wheel slid out. The second attempt the same thing happened and on the third attempt I landed sideways and blew the spokes out of my back wheel and had the wind taken out of me as I landed on my ribs. I vowed to pull the trick the very next weekend. When I went back to Crowhurst it took me 2 attempts to pull what’s now known as the Zakflip.”
Zach’s won pretty much everything in his time, yet he still bases himself in the UK and continues to give something back to the sport here by nurturing local talent.
SUSO is using creativity to make something of the things we imagine. It’s the will to succeed, to do what others say can’t be done. It’s the struggle for success, the challenge of the unknown and belief in the self. It’s now, right now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Now. It’s seeing the possible and never the impossible.
It’s Imagination, Creativity and Determination. And it’s the confidence to use all three.
IMAGINATION
Close your eyes. See the world as you want it. Think what might be rather than what is. Fly. Breathe underwater. Dance on the moon. Do what you dare not do. Say what you’ve always wanted to say. Speak to her. Speak to him. Dream and then dream some more. Go where you’ve never been. Scrawl a masterpiece across the mind’s eye and forget reason, just for a moment. This is the world according to you. This is the bright untroubled sky, an escape from reality and her legion of limitations. Forget reality, and think - really think - about the things that you see.
Listen to your imagination. It’s where ideas are born.
CREATIVITY
Do something about the things you see. Turn desire into action, dissatisfaction into motion. Embrace discomfort and make the unknown known. Learn something. Free yourself from the constraints of reality. Remain resistant to reason. Choose active change over passive acceptance. Be enthralled by the future and disrespect the past. It doesn’t matter anymore. Progress. Generate. Create light from dark and discover order in chaos. Listen to yourself, and then bring method to the imagination.
Use your creativity. It makes the imagined real.
DETERMINATION
Believe and persist. It’s too easy not to. Know the difference between success and failure, between genius and curiosity, between maestro and musician. And know what it is to make a difference. Take the road less travelled, and take it to get back, too. Fall down. Get up. Fall down. Get up again. Swim against the tide. Take criticism and defy convention. Determine your own limitations and resolve your desires as the mind sees fit.
Lean on your determination. It can take you anywhere you want.
NO CAN’T DO
People say it can’t be done, that pipe dreams and ambition are too divorced from reality to ever be made real. Quit dreaming, they say. Wake up. Welcome to the real world, a place where the imagination is a momentary escape not a source of success, where creativity is a luxury we can’t afford, where determination need get you no further than nine to five. Accept what you’ve got and blend seamlessly into the fabric of modern life. No one else will see you there. And no one else will care. You’ll be safe that way.
This is popular wisdom, but three little words can reveal wisdom as flawed. Three little words with the power to change the world:
IMAGINATION. CREATIVITY. DETERMINATION. Together, they represent the SUSO attitude of NO CAN’T DO.
