Big Dirt, big deal
Ricardo Laguna and the ups and downs of BMX
A SMASH interview with Ricardo Laguna
By Hektor D. Esparza
Sponsors:
DK Bicycles, Right Guard Xtreme Sport, Dan’s Comp, Fox, Truvativ, Axis shoes, Robedom, Maxxis Tires, Sun Rims. Spy eye ware, Ricardolaguna.com And… yo mama.

It’s funny how something as simple as riding a bike in your own backyard can come to be such a big deal. Now of course, we’re not talking about just anyone’s back yard. We’re talking about Ricardo Laguna’s back yard- a pro BMX rider with a lot on his plate these days. There’s The hopes of being invited to “Gravity Games” or The “X-Games,” or wining another pro contest like King of Dirt, and generally keeping sponsors happy by staying at the top of his game. Yet, for all of the flash and glamour surrounding his occupation, his roots remain firmly planted in the backyard of his parent’s North East Las Vegas home. It is here that Ricardo honed his skills and became one of the world’s best dirt jumpers. It is also the site of many a raging biker session with Ricardo and friends.
But you really have to see the track- walk alongside the nearly vertical jumps and stand atop the huge drop-in-speed-ramp, that starts it all off- to understand just how fun it is to be Ricardo Laguna. This is all the guy needs to get the job done, to do the stuff that pays the bills. But to him it’s not really a job at all, it always was, and still is, just about having a good time.

SM: Can you tell us about the early days, when you used to ride around on a mountain bike?

RL: Well originally, I’m from Mexico. We lived in a few cities in Mexico, then California, then we moved here. My parents took me on a trip to Vegas for my thirteenth birthday. They saw that there were good jobs in Vegas, so we moved here a little while after that. We moved into this ghetto trailer park, and I mean ghetto. Then one day I looked to the desert and I saw these kids and I’m like, ‘Yo, what are you guys doing?’ And they were like, “We ride BMX.” I was all, ‘You mean this is a sport or something?’ They were riding basically a hole in the ground with a wannabe lip that had 2 x 4’s with nicknames sticking out at the end. They were trying to see who could jump the farthest to flat ground. They told me about this real track and how there was a national coming up soon. We didn’t end up going to that event but I got started racing anyway. So then I got a BMX bike and I am really into it. But at the same time, I knew nothing.

SM: What were some of the set backs early on?

RL: Two years went by and I broke my wrist and my parents were like, “Do you really want to do this?” At the same time, I was getting into R.C. cars, but then I noticed that everyone else who was doing that was old and fat. I was also spending too much money on that stuff. Me and my friends would build trails, but they were always getting plowed. We dug more, and then one weekend I went out of town and T.J [Lavin] and Reuel Erickson had built them up. I was like ‘Whoa, what happened?’ I had the skills to jump little jumps, but now I have to go full speed. The jumps were way more intimidating. That’s when I started breaking bikes and bending forks.

SM: So when did it look like things were starting to turn around for you?

RL: Well by that time I’m doing contests and my Mom notices that I’m working my ass off, shoveling day and night on some someone else’s property and the jumps are getting plowed. My mom is like, we can move into a bigger apartment and you can have your own room, or we can suck it up for a while and save, and we can buy a house and you can build your own jumps. So we decide to save for the house. I remember they signed the papers but we didn’t move in yet and I was so excited that I asked the lady who had the house, if I could start digging. Before she knew what was happening, I had like eight of my friends digging up the yard.

SM: So when did the sponsors start coming?

RL: They would have DK nights out at Planet Plywood and everyone used to go there and party. One day DK brings a group down from Ohio, where they’re from and they were all getting trashed except this one guy Jered Ruflik. He wanted to do this big gap jump but was a little scared. I started pumping him up on it like, ‘you can do it man.’ Before you know it he lands it and we got to be friends after that. The next time I’m at DK night, these dudes are telling me that the guy I was talking to was an important guy at DK. They were like , “Do you want a bike, it’s no problem?”
And I am like, ‘Are you serious?’ I remember going to the factory and being like, oh my God, everything you need is here. I was like a kid in a candy store.

SM: What led up to you turning pro?

RL: DK had a circuit and I won one contest and then I won a King of Dirt amateur. They were like “It’s time for you to move up to pro.” I was like ‘what do you mean, I just won a couple of amateur contests. And then after I learned backflips, everyone was telling me that I had to turn pro. At the same time I picked up a few more sponsors.

SM: What is hot in the pro BMX scene right now, what tricks are you working on?

RL: Dirt jumping and skatepark riding, those are the big ones. Racing and flatland are great but they aren’t real popular with the mainstream right now. That’s too bad because both are really cool. I consider myself a dirt jumper. But I’ll ride anything. I am doing a lot of tailwhips, tailwhip 360’s, backflip nohanders, flip-turndowns. I haven’t pulled a flip-whip yet but I’ll get it sometime. No biggie. I do have superman-nothings though. But really, I‘m not on a mission or anything. I am just out there dialing my tricks, getting them on speed dial. If someone asks me to do a tailwhip 360, I’m like, ‘no problem.’

SM: How do you rate the scene in Vegas right now?

RL: We have a good scene. I have friends that come out from California just to ride the skateparks out here. We have 21 parks now, not including Skatecity. There are so many good riders out here. There’s T.J.. There’s Reuel. There are so many.

SM: What kind of response do you get from the young upstarts in BMX?

RL: A lot of kids want to make money riding. I explain to the kids that when I was little, I remember digging out jumps all day. I was never thinking that I can’t wait to get sponsored. I would do it every day, just because it was fun. And when I first started making money, it was unbelievable.

SM: Any shout outs, people you want to thank?

RL: Bill, Jered and everyone at DK, Tony D. and Todd Hicks at Fox, Lance Gillman at Spy, Ronda, Chris at Axis, Abe at Dan’s Comp, Dave Holden, Dylan at Truvativ and all my true friends (they know who they are) my Mom, Dad, brother, my family and anyone who digs.