SUSO: November 2007 Archives
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.
