By Chelsea Underwood |Asst. Sports Editor|
Red Bull flatland BMX athlete Terry Adams performed a demo at CSUSB on Sept. 24 as part of a two week SoCal Red Bull college tour.
The Louisiana native travels along with his sponsor, Red Bull promoting the sport of flatland riding to the surrounding colleges and their students.
“Our goal is to hit a lot of different schools,” said Sam Bennett, Inland Empire Red Bull Field Marketing Specialist.
“It’s such a cool campus when everybody always, like right now there is a lot of people outside so the concept was to do a demo out while people can walk by and be surprised with the skill set and be blown away by it all. That’s the ideal of the overall goal,” said Bennet.
CSUSB perfectly suites this kind of sport because it contains flat surfaces and very little obstacles such as stairs to get to and from classes. It will allow riders to pick almost any spot on campus to do their thing.
“It’s about spreading the awareness of what I do and promoting my sponsors along the way,” said Adams.
Flatland is one of the branches of the BMX sport. “It’s more of the artsy side of BMX,” said Adams.
It consists of riders doing maneuvers, spins and tricks with the help of pegs that are placed on both sides of each tire that are done on a flat, smooth surface. Rails, stairs, and jumps are unnecessary.
Adams did a demo during lunch hour in front of the Pfau Library while many students were outside enjoying their lunches and the San Bernardino weather.
“I’m not doing shows all the time so [the students] are kind of getting to see what I would be doing if I’m just hanging out,” said Adams. “For the most part the students on campus think I’m just another student on campus so that’s why it’s kind of cool.”
Adams enjoys doing the sport not for publicity or fame but to show others around, the passion he has grown to love since he was 12 years old.
He was blessed to have a family that drove him around all over the United States for BMX flatland competitions when he was young.
“They didn’t know I was going to do this for a living when I was 12 but they will still drive me all around the place. They just knew I wanted it and that I thought it was going to happen,” said Adams.
His dedication to this sport not only made his dream reality but brought fans, sponsors, and opportunities that has and will keep excelling his professional career.
Adams’ fans stand by his side with support through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and travel along with him to his competitions.
“The fans have helped me because they stand by what I do and believe in me,” said Adams. “They stood by me for 15 plus years.”
Fans is a big part in having a professional career but sponsors such as Red Bull provides opportunities that would be hard to do without their support.
Red Bull has been sponsoring Adams since 2004 as a BMX flatland rider and has help change his career.
“It’s definitely awesome to have a company like Red Bull support you because they support a lot of the top athletes, it definitely helped me and I’m thankful for it, because a lot of what I have is because of Red Bull,” said Adams.
Adams passion for this sport goes beyond competitions and shows but extends to encouraging others to take joy into the world of BMX Flatland and support them every step of the way.
Adams continued his two week SoCal college tour which ended Oct. 4.