Chris Birch
Published: 13th August 2007
Author: Words and photos by Sutty
How would you like to make a decent living riding for a factory backed KTM team? Dating a super-hot alternative supermodel would be good too eh? And you wouldn't mind scoring a sponsorship deal with one of the globe's leading skate shoe companies right?
If you answered all three of the above questions with a big yes please then it's pretty safe to say you'll think 23-year-old Chris Birch is a pretty lucky guy because he's either done or doing them all. Is it fair to say he's living the dream? I should coco...
If you don't closely follow the faltering UK freestyle motocross scene then you may wonder who hell he. Chris isn't to be confused with the badass Kiwi enduro rider of the same name, fellow UK FMX star Chris Brock, the Birch tree or even Kris Kristofferson, the actor who played the leading role in cult '70s trucker movie Convoy - 10-four good buddy? So who is he?
Well, Birchie is a genuine individual who's simply doing what makes him happy and doing it in style. While Chris may outwardly appear to be a bit of a meanie with all his tattoos and that - "I've got a full sleeve, my hands and my whole back is pretty much done" - he's actually a very well spoken, polite young man who just happens to have what it takes to be one of Britain's very best freestyle motocross riders.
After serving a lengthy apprenticeship with Andy Godbold and the Bolddog/Lings Honda freestyle team it was a surprise move to the Jimmy Verburgh owned and Belgian-based FMX4EVER squad last summer that really got the ball rolling for Birchie. And riding for the team run by the man who went down in history for block-passing Jeremy McGrath to steal the final transfer spot in the LCQ on night one of the '96 Bercy SX has been nothing but a positive move.
"FMX4EVER is now a fully backed KTM factory team and all of our sponsors are really good too," says Chris in between X-Fighter teasers at the Donington Download music festival. "It's actually an unbelievable set-up for freestyle and I really couldn't be in a better place. There are loads of great riders in the team and other affiliated riders who run FMX4EVER stickers on their bikes right around the world - it's quite a big deal."
Not only have Chris's levels of happiness increased 10-fold since joining the squad so have his levels of on-bike confidence and the number of tricks and combos he's pulling. And that's not the only thing that's increased - his amount of Airmiles have gone through the roof which is another bonus for Chris. "I really love travelling and meeting new people - they're some of the things I love most about this sport."
Earlier this year Birch was given the opportunity to travel some more and take part in what was once the holy grail of FMX events - the IFMA tour. "I'd expressed an interest in travelling to America to do some shows last summer when I was riding the Hardcore FMX tour in Europe. It's basically Team Europe Vs Team America and most of the American riders are connected with Live Nation and Clear Channel who are the organisers of both the IFMA and Dew Tour.
"I was due to stay with Derek Burlew and Mike Mason but then I got moved to the East coast and I had to change everything. Leading up to when I was going I was a bit nervous because I was travelling on my own and I didn't really know anyone out there. Then when I got there one of the other guys saw that I had all my tattoos and my bike with black plastics said 'uh-oh not another Metal Mulisha wannabe'. But after a few weeks he'd figured out that I'm not actually like that and he and everyone else was really cool - I made a lot of good friends."
But aside from bonding with the locals and making some solid friendships Chris found the IFMA tour was not all it's cracked up to be. "The stuff I did wasn't like the proper IFMA stuff you see on Extreme TV with the dirt courses. They only had one dirt course this year - that was in Houston - but for the most part the comps were held on mobile landings in concrete floored arenas.
"It's like they're cashing in doing the comps as cheaply as possible. There's no prize money and all the riders are paid the same except whoever they're paying extra to do the backflip - he's the guy who usually wins. It was cool to be a part of and I saw some really good riders and some tricks that I'd never seen before."
With the IFMA tour not being quite what Chris expected he's looking ahead to getting involved with the new big thing in Stateside FMX. "The Dew Tour has all the best riders and by far the best courses," reckons Chris. "That's where I'd like to be in the future but first I need to start backflipping and see how it goes from there.
"I have set myself targets but I don't like to brag about them or tell people what I'm thinking. I don't wanna say I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that because people will be like 'yeah right'. I'd rather just get on and see what happens
"I want to ride as much as I can and I want to get really good. I really want to be able to work off all the sides of the bike as well as upside down. I see freestyle as an art and every trick I do I want to be perfect - done as big as it can be done extension wise but it's got to look good from getting off the bike to getting back on.
"I'm giving myself until I'm about 25 to really push it with freestyle - that's how old Mike Mason was when I met him and that was just before he got bronze at the X-Games."
But even if Chris's three year plan doesn't work out he still sees himself sticking around the sport that's already given him so much. "I'm sure there'll be options when I retire from riding. I wanna stay in with motocross or freestyle getting my hands dirty or I'd love to work with KTM or maybe Red Bull. 90 per cent of the work I do at the moment is for Red Bull doing X-Fighters teasers and I've already given them some ideas for a top secret event they're working on for next year which should be really cool."