For those who don’t know you, your name and what do you ride..??

My name is Michael Brandt,28 years old,been riding for about 10 years. Started out racing Downhill mountain bikes, then moved to Enduro riding. Did a few solo and team 12 hour and 24 hour enduro races here in WA before starting Flatland seriously in October ’08. I ride a KHE Paris II which has been nicknamed the “Snozzberry”  due it  looking like a candy shop. might change it up again soon, but for now it gets a lot of weird looks

You recently placed 2nd in Middies at Round 1 of the new DownUnderGround series.  Congrats!!  How did you feel before, during and after your runs..??:

I always feel nervous before any event especially so at Round 1 this year as i’ve been working so hard at my links recently.I felt super sketchy during my 1st run,the combination of the lights and big crowd really got to me i think as i touched on a few tricks i (more…)

Tell us about yourself and what you do…
I’m a regular ol’ white boy that enjoys travelling, riding bikes, taking pictures, and hanging out with women. I’m about to be 27 years old and I live in Long Beach, California—and I absolutely love it.

From the time I was in high school I knew I wanted to build a career around bikes. As I got older though I realized I didn’t really want to have a “job”, so I’ve tried to make my sources of income seem like as little “work” as possible. My full-time source of income is working as the online editor for Transworld’s Ride BMX Magazine (ridebmx.com). And my other income comes are from small graphic design gigs, freelance photography, and concepts like the Flatland Calendar. But all of my income streams are, for the most part, what I’d want to be doing even if I wasn’t “working”.

These days I really want to travel as much as possible to experience as many cultures, places, and scenarios as possible. And more often than not I want my travels to include riding and shooting BMX photos too. I’ve done a good job of crafting my life around what I love to do, and I plan to keep that up.

2009 Hollywood Jam
Guess I’m not 100% a flatlander yet…I have no clue what this trick is called. I do know it’s a simple variation of one of my only flatland tricks (backwards steamroller) and Chad Johnston showed me how to do it. Photo by Sam Proctor.

How did you develop the skills to be able to work at Ride US?
I have always been somewhat creative, and I have always been into art and photography. But most importantly, I have always been super (more…)