The Biker | Kris King
It is early Friday morning in Las Vegas and Kris King is already biking at the local skate park. When asked how he finds strength to wake up so early on his day off, he replies, “When I have a passion for something, I am willing to sacrifice a lot to do what I love.”
After Kris arrives at the park the first thing he does is stretch his muscles. He is doing circular movements with his arms and legs to prepare for the biking itself. “Most people underestimate the importance of stretching,” Kris says, “I think it is essential to prepare your body for a hard workout.”
After the stretching Kris starts to bike around the skate park. The expression on his face quickly changes from sleepy to energized. The wind is hitting Kris’s face and it doesn’t bother him. It is about nine degrees Celsius in Las Vegas but Kris wears only a T-shirt and shorts. “Adrenaline makes you hot,” he says.
After a while Kris starts doing flips with his bike. He tries to do one and he falls. Another unsuccessful attempt. And another one. After about four falls on his back he finally does a nice flip. His back is hurting but the smile on his face shows that he is proud of himself. “The main thing about biking is that out of 100 tries you’re gonna succeed only about 10 times. But if you give up, you’ll never be able to succeed. So the best way to improve your biking skills is to get up after every fall and feel motivated to try it once again,” says Kris.
It was especially hard for Kris to achieve the biking level he is at right now because nobody taught him how to bike. When he was in middle school, he used to ride a bike to school. There was a skate park in between his house and school, so he and about six of his other friends were going there out of curiosity. After seeing other people doing tricks with their bikes, the boys just decided to learn them by themselves. That is how Kris and other friends fell in love with this kind of sport.
Since he was not trained professionally, Kris had lots of challenges he had to overcome to become successful. Once he broke his back while doing a flip and he had to stay in the hospital for two months. He also could not bike for about six months after the accident. This whole situation was very stressful for Kris because not only he could not spend time doing his favorite hobby, but also it was extremely hard to start all over after he was allowed to bike again.
Now Kris has reached a pretty good level of biking, so traumas are rare for him. Sometimes he lacks motivation but as soon as he gets on a bike, he forgets about all of his doubts. He says, “When I bike I forget about all of my problems. It feels like I teleport to another world that has no worries or problems. And it is an amazing feeling.”
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Mariya Khomenko is a senior at the American University in Bulgaria studying Business Administration. She enjoys watching people do something they are passionate about.
