Interview: Catching Up With Wade Simmons
For mountain bikers who were around during the freeride heyday of the early 2000s, Wade Simmons needs no introduction. He was at the forefront of the movement, pushing mountain biking in a bold new direction with his technical lines, big airs, and overall effortless style on the bike. Even now, two decades later, some of those early lines have yet to be repeated – there's a reason he's known as the Godfather of Freeride. There's an entire generation of mountain bikers (my hand is raised) who can vividly recollect the video of Wade jumping over the Marzocchi truck, or his segments in classics like Ride to the Hills and The Collective.
Wade's still a professional athlete and ambassador, but two years ago he embarked on a new business venture with the creation of Godfather's Garage. Yes, Wade Simmons is now selling chain lubes and bike cleaners. However, this isn't a case of buying a bunch of generic chemicals and sticking new labels on them. The goal was to have as many of the products made in Canada as possible, with a focus on sustainability. The lineup currently consists of three different lubes, a bike wash, degreaser, and a tire sealant, all made in Canada, much of it within a relative close proximity to the North Vancouver trails where freeriding was born.
With sales in Canada going well, Godfather's Garage is now working to grow international sales. Norway was their first overseas market, and they recently shipped to Australia and Mexico. In the US, Godfather's Garage is distributed by BTI, and is also available from online retailers including EVO, Jenson USA, Bikeman and The Path Bike Shop.
The company's athlete roster includes Brett Tippie, Matt Hunter, Thomas Vanderham, and Richie Schley, basically the OG freeride crew, along with Mark Matthews and Caleb Holonko, two riders who are keeping that freeride spirit alive.
Okay, that's enough business talk - let's get to the good stuff. I sat down with Wade for a wide-ranging chat about the state of the sport, the role of social media for modern athletes, e-bikes, and more.
When Dylan Stark did a tuck no-hander over the Moreno Road gap last year, over 20 years after you hit it, how did that make you feel?
I thought it was awesome. For me, in sport, he stepped it up. If you're going to hang your hat on something that's already been done and you don't do any thing new, you can't claim that. I mean, it doesn't piss me off, but the Tour de Gnar, they're just on old stunts that we already hit. They're kind of glorifying these old things. I don't really like it too much, because that's stuff we hit 15 years ago. You gotta do something new, like 360 off it, Dylan Stark it and throw a trick, if you're going to use that as your identifier. If you take an old stunt and use it as your marketing tool you better add something new to it.
This is what I always ask young racers at Rocky - “What are you doing? What's going to set you apart from another rider?”
That's what motivates me – I've always been a line guy. I still have that; I drive around and I'm like, “Oooh, look at that, that's new.” I got out of freeriding when tricks came in because I'm not a trick guy. When you boil tricks down, everyone hits the same jump, and now it's just a pissing match – who's going to have the sickest trick? It's one-upmanship; I'm tired of that. I'm not taking anything away from people who have those skills, I mean, it's pretty sick to be able to do a double backflip, but it's not new.
In my career, I always wanted to hit things that hadn't been hit before. Like, can I do that wallride, or does that gap work? That's what I like about Dylan Stark – he has that vision.
The definition of freeride mountain biking seems to have shifted - now it seems like it's more about tricks and big jumps rather than finding and riding gnarly features. What's your definition of freeriding?
That's why Rampage is such an event, because it's that one event that has a bit of unknown to it. Look at the Innsbruck slopestyle or Rotorua, it's like “Here's the course, what tricks can you do?” That's not freeriding.
The definition of freeriding to me is going into any zone and finding lines to ride. It's like, what can we do here? Step-ups, step-downs, wallrides, manuals. Creativity.
 | Look at the stuff we were doing on those shitty bikes. 26” wheels? Short frames in the desert? No wonder we went over the bars all the time. Your spot for landing was a matter of inches – a little over the front, a little over the back and you'd get spat off. |
When you see the scale of the features on the modern Rampage course what do you think?
I enjoy it. The creativity, like that Battleship on/off, that's pretty cool. I enjoy people who think outside the box – Kurt Sorge was always good for that. If you're doing that big of tricks you've to to be controlled, or else you really hurt yourself.
The big built up lines - maybe they should just raw dog it, just have one day to kick in a line. I mean, it wouldn't be as spectacular. As humans we always want the spectacular, we always want to see the bigger, bigger, bigger. That's why extreme sports are going to eat themselves, because you always need more.
What riders are inspiring you?
Semenuk, I've always been in his court, he's so rad, just his fluid style on a bike. I always bring up Killian Bron, because I like his adventure style; that's what we did, we scoured the earth looking for lines. And that's why I say, all these guys, poor Yoann and Remy and stuff, there's not much new out there – the whole Sea to Sky, we scoured it. Anything within hitting distance we sniffed it out for a decade. Those guys are great riders, and what they're doing, the Gouranga drop, how many times can you film that? It's pretty sick, but it's pretty much scoured.
I think Dylan [Stark] is adding a very cool like cowboy / rock n' roll element to freeride. The Utah young guys... Again, tricks don't impress me too much. When you do a big stunt like the Moreno Gap and do a no hander that's kind of impressive, but when you have like a 20 x 30 ft gap jump that's nothing new.
I mean, Matt Hunter back in the day – some of the shit he did. Remember that Bike Mag cover back in the day with that air to wall ride? How sick was that? A memorable move for me was Gee Atherton's stepdown to wall ride in Rampage.
And then Hardline, I mean, awesome. But that creek gap that they did, with the scaffolding? To me, that's too contrived. Ok, the gap is there, but if you have to add that much scaffolding to make the landing.... I'm a natural gap guy.
Hayden Zablotny is doing cool stuff. Just people who are following their heart, doing what they want to do. Braydon Bringhurst does some pretty cool stuff – I like the creativity.
You've never been a big social media guy - what do you think about how social media has changed how the public sees athletes?
I can't physically do it. I go to post and I'm like 'gah, I can't' – I have some mental block. I don't want to shove myself down people's throats. I want them to come into being a fan of Wade honestly, earnestly. Not, “look at me!”
I mean, I've done some rad stuff – I have some old lines that still haven't been hit, and I pride myself on that. One of my favorites is the Acquatic Center, in Vancouver – there's this wall ride up and over. I always did things that I wanted to get respect for. If we're going to play in the urban landscape I want BMXers to respect the lines I did. I don't want to come in and just vanilla it up.
If I was going to do something in an urban landscape it would have to be something that the bosses of that landscape, BMXers, would respect. I remember, I did that line BMXers came up to me saying, “Dude, we've been looking at that line for years.” That's what I strive for. I don't want to do things just to get likes.
We're about to go on an e-bike ride, which seems a little surreal to me - it's not something I would have predicted 20 years ago when I was working in a bike shop with The Collective playing in the background on repeat.
Richie Schley and I high five and say, “Can you believe it? We made it to the e-bike.” We're riding our dreams. I spent my whole life filming, hiking, hiking... you get tired, right? Now we've got these bikes, and it's just quick little ups, you can blast around. It's like, we were dreaming about this, and they're here – we're living it.
On one point, you think “Are we cheating a little on the e-bike?” You don't even need to think about that. It's just because we came from pedaling that we feel like we're cheating a little bit, but if we grew up in the future and e-bikes were normal it'd just be normal. We're just living through the change right now.
What's your e-bike vs regular bike split these days?
It's whatever's happening. My son's 14, in high school, and I was the coach of the mountain bike team, so I was hanging out with a bunch of kids, riding regular bikes. I see the ebike as a tool, like if I have an hour I'll go for a quick lap, because you get the ride you want to do. My wife is very busy, two kids; I don't have a lot of time. If I had three hours to ride every day I'd probably be on a pedal bike, but when I want to get my fix for an hour and a half I have the ebike. You can't go that far in an hour and a half on a regular bike. I don't want to be a trail snob, but I get kind of bored. With the ebike, it's like, “What's new, where am I going?" I can go over to Seymour, put it into Ludicrous mode – it's the evolution of biking.
I was an early adopter – in 2017 I did the first ebike film for Rocky, for the Powerplay in the south of France. It was awesome – all sorts of tech climbing. For people that say they're not ready, they're thinking about it the wrong way. I don't ride an ebike to make my ride easier – I make it harder. I'm finding these new climbs that wouldn't have even been on my radar.
I like to use the surfing analogy – imagine we're surfers. Our whole lives we've been surfing the same wave, we're pretty good surfers, and we see this big waves out back, and we can't actually surf those because we're maxing out what we can paddle into. That's the birth of tow-in surfing. That's what e-bikes are – they're the tow-in surfing of mountain biking.
E-bikes are meant for expert riders. They're good for beginners, because it makes mountain biking easy, but it's great for experts because we see the new opportunities. I don't want to make my riding softer, I want to make it harder. It's this new fuel of where do you want to go, what do you want to do?
Any final thoughts about what the future holds for you?
I sell mountain biking. I'm a mountain biker. This is why I'm not a big social media guy either. I'm hands on – when we go for a ride we session; it's not about the distance or the time, Strava. It's about if we see something to hit on the way, it's all about the experience.
There's two ways of looking at things. Either you can do the big broadcast, and reach as many people as possible, but the time spent in their brain is little. If you spend quality time with 5 or 6 people, and you get them on your team, in your camp, they sell you for life.
It might be the best sport in the world. It's a lifestyle for me; I'm all about the adventure. I'm not going to stop – it's my sport. Mountain biking's always been about fun.
I guess, to sum up what the future holds for me, is just to leave a legacy, a legacy of mountain biking. That is my motivation behind Godfather's Garage. I once said to Tippie, who is always claiming the 'Godfather of Freeride' moniker as well - "We're all Godfathers buddy, if you're pioneering, garnering respect, and leaving a lasting impression.... you're a Godfather."
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Is the PB comment board mob of idiots about to turn on another legend of freeriding? I hope so. Long live the Godfather.
Also goes counter to "I sell mountain biking", unless there is a subtext of "only to those that can beat me at my own game."
Especially since they're not claiming it to be anything new except for exposing tons of new riders to it, not trying to sneak in an old line as something brand new. They're not out there shouting "look at _me_ hitting this old drop for the 18th time". They're shouting "look at all these stoked riders hitting this big thing _for the first time_". They shouting "if they can do it, so can you if you put in the work". Yeah, it's nothing new if you've been in the sport literally forever, but it _is_ hugely helping to grow and extend the sport, and someone who claims "I sell mountain bikesperiod> I sell mountain bikingperiod>" should be stoked on that, not poo-pooing it as not gnarly enough to be worth mentioning or recording.
And especially in light of the comments about extreme sports always eating themselves, always needing to get bigger and badder. So Rampage should go back the same old "kick in a line and huck it", and not keep getting huger and seeing the biggest threes and no-handers chucked off the biggest drops, the biggest and sketchiest lily-pads... but anything else must be bigger and more extra or it's not even worth sharing?
Is PB going to stop front-paging TDG releases now, because they don't contain anything new? Of course, we won't know til next year, since, as they put on the front-page already, this year's is on hiatus because of a gnarly crash.
Je dis ça je dis rien........
Bon je sors => Et bonne journée bien sûre :-)
Man, I would definitely tune in for a history of Wade's Lines. Who's hit them and maybe narrated clips of those ones that were never repeated, etc?
Loved listening to Tippie revisit the process they went through and who hit what back then.
Btw, I've been lucky enough to have bumped into Wade a few times on the Shore and even in Utah. He's a ridiculously charismatic human being. It's no random thing that he's the hero of at least one entire generation of mountain bikers. NSMB was originally created just to honor him.
Chapeau Mr. Simmons.
While I'd wager that this is true in a lot cases, how can he know that? I also would wager that somewhere, someone else who's not "in it for the likes" has done lots of things quietly, for themselves without a film crew or social media post.
After smart phones and everyone watching doesn't film...? Wouldn't ever say impossible, but...yeah.
There were definitely other people capable of hitting the pinnacle features, I was living there then everyone knew of them. But then North Shore mountain bikers on Simmon's level at that time was a very small community. Like count on one hand.
Maybe one finger.
That’s a great story but it has no relation to reality. Lines up nicely with your user name though!
The first thing Cam did when creating NSMB was interview Wade, whom he called the best rider in the world. He's talked about his reasons on the Forum at length especially back then, and even during that first interview with Wade hinted at it to his face.
"One of the things I was thinking when I was dreaming up this magazine in my head – I’d pick up a magazine and there would be one North Shore picture and it was like giving a junky an aspirin. It’s not the right thing and one of the things I was thinking was that I could get exposure for guys like you who are supremely talented and undervalued."
- Cam Mcrae
The 4 NSMB Wade Simmons interviews are great and worth a visit, as is the rest of the site:
NSMB.com
But it is freaking awesome to see ever more people out there getting stoked about stuff that's _new to them_. Kids who weren't born when those features were built are suddenly supposed to go far from home to find new stuff to get stoked on? Yoann isn't hanging his hat on anything in the TDG, he was a legend already, and isn't expecting anyone else to. It's part of the progression, part of spreading the stoke.
If you're not supposed to hit Gouranga because it's allegedly played out, how are you ever going to gain experience to go bigger? Posting anything and everything is part of life now in 2024, so those Gouranga hits will end up online, despite your complaints about wasting gigabytes, because it's part of the progression. The biggest and baddest, like a potential future 360 off Gouranga, will rise to the top and everyone will see it. The "bumbling" will live in the depths and get shared between a smaller group of friends who will be super stoked on seeing their buddies shredding, which probably means even more people will get out there and shred and progress.
Also, I don't care how many times clips of Gouranga pop up. Now that I've seen it in person, I will never not appreciate how rowdy it is, regardless of what line you take. Ha ha
I do wish few kids would ride with their phones and just try to get clips of everything they're doing, but that's just angry old man yelling at clouds stuff.
He did forget Caleb who did step it up and gapped the whole damn thing last year.
That's prophecy and history in one perfect sentence
As far as Negative comments go here, Theres another reason Social media sucks and takes a written conversation out of context. Knowing Wade i know he's not hating on anyone and certainly not the jealous type. He's stoked for everyone on bikes, but speaks with no filter, unrehearsed, can say dumb shit when the blood sugar is low, jokes around, and always open to debate if someone cares to. = genuine
"For people that say they're not ready, they're thinking about it the wrong way. I don't ride an ebike to make my ride easier – I make it harder. I'm finding these new climbs that wouldn't have even been on my radar."
THIS!
That said, I really loved his youtube on how to do drops. I'm really not much better at them but his video was the first video (after watching countless ones) that really made a lot more sense to me. For the first time I was able to really wrap my head around the riding technique required to do drops properly. It would be really cool if he did more of these. And it's really unusual for a guy who's so naturally gifted on a bike to be able to break it down for us mortals. When you ask people that have a knack for things how it's done many of them just shrug and say I just do it. Always followed Wade's career back in the early days before I took up mtb, but this series made me like him even more.
Love the Holonko shout as well. Freeride MTB ain’t what it used to be on the Shore - he’s one of few pushing the bar.
The tow-in is closer to needing a rope to assist in the climb up to a sick drop or jump, or a friend passing your bike up after you scramble up. An e-bike doesn't help you hit bigger things, doesn't help you access new terrain, though it might help you pedal to the top, or through that new terrain without walking, but when was freeride ever about pedaling to the top? Does the old stuff not count because they had to walk and carried their bikes up? Of course not.
An e-surfboard that helps you get out past a rough break that normally saps your energy, and then easily onto a wave that is still quite possible to catch by paddling, is much closer to an e-bike.
Jet-ski tow-in is way closer to a heli-drop on a summit that is virtually inaccessible for any bike to be pedaled up or even carried up.
Note, I didn't ever say I'm against e-bikes or tow-ins, just that the analogy doesn't fit. One makes the impossible possible (getting into waves a human simply cannot paddle into), one shifts the effort (e-bikes and shuttles don't help you descend anything that's not descendible on a normal bike, just helps you get there)
Two can play that game....
Change the venue, make freeride great again.
When Wade first started doing the how-to videos more recently, I hoped he might become the Bill Mason of mtb education (Bill is the late great Canadian canoe-filmmaker and educator). But I think Wade needs to get a little older first as white hair is crucial and Bill Mason worked with an exceptional filmmaking team who elevated the films into the art space (in case anyone was/is curious, some of Bill's films are on youtube).
Avoid that salt, be happy you were there when it was what it was for you. Some good ol days talk is expected but this dude just said he doesn’t like tricks! Ahahahahaha
The form of a city changes faster, alas, than the heart of a man…
The grease is good too.
I think what he fails to mention because he doesn’t like social media is that social media is bringing old lines, even hit in a boring way, to the masses in new and interesting perspectives: ie high fidelity action cams. Let’s be honest, Remy’s stuff looks fantastic, even if they are old zones.
I also see why he loves Semenuk, because Brandon uses terrain like nobody else, but Wade even slights him too by saying that Rampage is too built.
Wade Simmons wants to feel like all of us felt in the early 2000s watching him, but is freeride played out? Do we need to go back to urban freeride?
I'd love to see some new school freeriders take it on and step it up, would be cool to see.
Looks more like F550. I've seen customs with pickup beds mounted...wei kewl.
Is the PB comment board mob of idiots about to turn on another legend of freeriding? I hope so. Long live the Godfather.
If there were a bunch of riders out there hitting something old and claiming it was something special, that's one thing, but Yoann and crew fully acknowledge there are old features getting ridden by new riders, some who weren't even born when they were built! If people can't get stoked on hitting old stuff that is new to them, if progression only means the best of the best hitting the biggest of the bigger, then the sport is in a really shitty place.
If doing new stuff was all that riding was about, it'd get a bit draining. That's one-upmanship. Which he claims to hate. I feel like I'm falling for rage bait, given how contradictory the article is.
Says "I sell mountain biking. I'm a mountain biker.", but actively dislikes (arguably for wrong reasons, no one is claiming any firsts in TDG) a very popular kind of mountain biking: progession of all kinds of riders via sessioning existing features. TDG arguably sells mountain biking to the average person way better than one of the best (if you know) doing a tuck no-hander (if you know) off something that is only famous to someone already steeped in freeride culture, ie: someone that doesn't need to be sold on it!
Maybe it doesn't translate as clearly when you read the transcript, but this was basically Wade and I having an informal, off-the-cuff conversation.
Also, it's a transcript, there's no tone, so it's easy for him to come across as an opinionated douche due to misinterpretation. That's not nullifying the respect he's due as an OG.
One thing is to speak your thought, free speech, but outing riders by Name directly is really disrespectful. A smart person would generalize their concerns. The freeriding scene has exploded lately and this is not due some crazy dudes in the early age.
Wade "The Trump of Mtb" Sims
If I were MTB sponsors I would take a serious consideration partnering up with this Wade dude.
"it doesn't piss me off, but the Tour de Gnar, they're just on old stunts that we already hit. They're kind of glorifying these old things. I don't really like it too much, because that's stuff we hit 15 years ago"
No one can argue that these are features that are all "old" and way over filmed these days. His opinion is in reference to being asked about one of his iconic moves being refilmed, and how it makes him feel. He respects that if someone is going to use his feature (that no one has hit since) for gain, then at least he raised the bar. Whereas TDG just accumulates views on already filmed videos without bringing anything "new". That isn't what freeride is to him. And fair enough. This view reminds me of when they remake old movies rather than coming up with a new movie all together.
Also, without "some crazy dudes in the early age", we wouldn't be sitting here talking about freeride. It's absolutely because of the likes of Wade, Tippie etc. Remy and Yoann got you into riding? Wade probably got THEM into riding.
Human are extremely evolutionary creatures, no one can claim the MTB/Freeride scene would not have come this far without Wade & Co. Eventually other guys would have created something similar.
It’s much more distasteful to make your mind up about someone over a few words posted on a bike website. Anyone who has met Wade knows he’s a super chill, humble friendly normal guy who just happens to absolutely shred. There is definitely no bad blood between these three, but people are very sensitive online these days and ready to be hurt by everything. Yoann is already cracking jokes about it in comments on another article.
It’s not like he said Yoann and Remy are shit people who are just making money of off other peoples builds. Just that TdG isn't for him. I agree with his view, but not everyone has to. I dont get anything out of watching TdG other than a few cringes when I see people hit stiff that they probably aren’t ready for. I personally think TDG (and other group freeride group rides) are a massive liability. I personally think its a terrible idea to bring a bunch of young shredders out to hit these crazy features. Nothing brews dumb avoidable crashes and injuries like a bunch of people riding above their pay grade with peer pressure from their idols and others while filming while trying to hit the massive features for a full marathon day of hucks.
As for TdG, it's not like it's an open invite for randoms to come hit stuff. Pretty sure there is some kind of vetting process. Pretty sure the folks riding either know or ride with Yoann regularly. They're not getting "peer pressure from their idols", but riding with peers. That can and does breed progression and maybe it means that some of the riders hit things for the first time, but they wouldn't be riding TdG if those features weren't in their wheelhouse.
I'm sure the riders in TdG are vetted, but the camera and being on Yoanns youtube combined with the testosterone of a bunch of young men hucking the biggest things they have hit in that environment is enough pressure for a non-pro that they may be willing to try something they wouldn't normally or out of there wheelhouse. I've seen enough clips from TdG to know that is true. Yes, it pushes progression, but it also ramps the chance of people writing themselves off.