Miscellaneous
When I think of the X Games and BMX legends, it doesn't take long to get to the name Chad Kagy. Chad was a force in BMX Park, Dirt, Vert, and Big Air and always a threat to win any contest he entered. He was also a rider you looked forward to watching because you never knew if he'd pull something out of his bag of tricks that nobody had ever seen before. Chad grew up in Northern California which had always been a hotbed for BMX talent. Seemingly every generation of Freestyle has seen a high level of riding come out of that part of the United States. From back in the early 80s with one of BMX freestyle's first crazy guys Hugo Gonzalez, to the Curb Dogs with Dave Vanderspek and Maurice Meyer, followed by Mike Kranaich, and flatland legend Pete Brandt. The 90s were no different... In addition to Kagy were Norcal shredders like Ryan Nyquist, Cameron Birdwell, and Joey Garcia who burst onto the scene pushing each other's skills while taking major contests by storm, at a time when the X Games and BMX on tv were exploding! As Chad got older his focus shifted predominately to BMX Vert and Big Air, pushing both events to new levels of craziness, while stocking up on even more X Games medals including a gold in BMX Vert, and 3 gold medals in BMX Big Air. Chad went on to become one of the biggest names in X Games history winning a total of 15 X Games medals. Eventually, a number of serious injuries would take their toll on Chad's body long term... with marriage and eventually having a kid, he decided it was time to call an end to his competition career. We hit up Chad via Skype and got the lowdown on how he started riding BMX, the NorCal scene and some of its history, winning the Bronze medal at X Games for BMX Park back in 99, how he made the decision to ride vert, moving to Woodward to train with the best riders in the world, blasting the 27 foot tall Big Air quarterpipe, his relationship with Kevin Robinson, being a part of Nitro Circus, doing the Bikes Over Baghdad Tour, and the injuries that brought an end to his X Games career. So get comfortable, crank up your speakers, and get to know a true X Games BMX legend... Chad Kagy.