BMX athletes push the limit

The No Hate Tour, which has been running since 2000, has two teams, one in the western United States and one in the east. The east coast team, which visited WHS, is made up of Zach Newman, Trevor Meyer, Alex Leibrock, Mason Ritter and Sieg.

“We're on the road about six months out of the year, five days a week, at high schools hanging out with students and promoting positivity,” Newman said. “[By showing that] we could be normal kids and learn how to do some of the stuff on our bikes, then maybe the students in the audience might have a dream that they feel is more achievable.”

For the No Hate Tour, dreaming big is a big deal. Each of the members have made high achievements in BMX. Some of them have done things that they once could have only dreamed of, like meddling in the X Games, something which both Meyer, who specializes in flatland, and Newman have done.

“Since I was eight years old, all I ever wanted to do was ride my bicycle,” Newman said. “Even before that it was a big wheel or something with wheels. All I ever wanted to do was be a professional bike rider and it took a very long time, but being able to be part of this organization, travel, get a little bit more cultured because I get to see different parts of the country, it makes the best job I could possibly ever think of.”

The members of No Hate Tour say that keeping one’s focus on their passion is what will bring success and happiness. As the athletes showed WHS students the product of years of practice, Sieg recounted how Newman became the athlete he is now through important moments in his youth, from purchasing his first BMX bike from a pawn shop with his mom, to his own experiences with bullying. 

“Dan tells a little story about me,” Newman said. “As a young kid at the skatepark, I was kind of bullied a little bit because I was a really scrawny, tiny little kid. What I did was I went away from where the majority of everyone was, which was on the medium size ramps. I went to the big side of the skate park where those guys were more afraid to ride, but I felt more comfortable over there because I could still ride and I wouldn’t have to deal with them. How I dealt with bullying was going to ride those big ramps and when I actually got an invite to be in the X Games it was for riding that size ramp.” 

Newman’s story of persisting through a negative experience, leading directly to a positive outcome, highlights a key point of the performance, which is that getting through hurdles is a necessary part of exploring any passion.

“The impact that I want kids to understand is the simple fact that whatever you do in life, you're going to be bad at it, people are gonna make fun of you and they're gonna try to drag you down,” Sieg said.

While this might not sound like fun, Sieg said it's just one part of the process of learning something new. 

“If you stick with [practicing your skill] long enough, eventually you get through that learning curve and your skill spikes and actually gets fun,” Sieg said. “Same thing with talking on a microphone. I mean, anybody can get on a microphone and talk, but to become good at it and not sound like a monotone boring person probably takes a couple of years. So I sounded like that monotone boring person for a good couple of years and I took advice from other people who were doing it. I listened to other people doing it.” 

Sieg, who was originally a BMX athlete, switched his role in the tour to become the MC. He said the learning curve of getting used to speaking through a microphone was similar to that of learning to ride a bike. 

“My favorite thing about being an MC on a tour like this is having the ability to speak to you kids and talk to kids that need to hear the message that I have,” Sieg said. “Everything that I say in my show is anecdotally related to one of our riders, if not myself, and if you watch the show or hear the show, you can most certainly understand the passion in my voice as I talk about it.” 

WHS Principal Allyson Mizoguchi, who heard about the tour last year, said the school signed up because they thought it would be a unique and engaging way to learn about important topics.   

“I hope that they saw a really thrilling and unusual show, interspersed with really positive messages about following your dreams, about looking for support, about supporting each other through challenges,” Mizoguchi said. “I think all of those messages when enacted can make us a stronger community.”

The difficulty and thrill of the tricks increased as the show went on and towards the end, Newman performed a backflip with his bike over Mizoguchi.

“[The experience was] totally freaky and really thrilling,” Mizoguchi said. “[It was a] once in a lifetime thing for sure.”