Pro BMX Rider Adrian Warnken – A Life On Small Wheels.
At Fusion we are very aware of the power of bikes to change lives and connect people, and pro BMX rider Adrian Warnken’s story is one of the best. It begins with finding friends and a way of life that suited a kid not into conventional team sports or pop culture, through a professional career as a rider and now full circle, working in a social enterprise helping more children make sense of their worlds through a community of BMX.
We met Adrian as part of our Cycling in the City series for Shimano when headed to Düsseldorf, in West Germany. Riding, shooting and chatting together we discovered how BMX has shaped his life.
Arriving in Dusseldorf the first task for the Fusion team was to help reverse Tetris the outstanding van packing of our photographer Chris Lanaway who had somehow managed to cram in a selection of urban e-bikes from Crescent for an epic multi-day, multi-shoot road-trip. With a bit of bike switcheroo our Chris Robson ended up on Adrian’s own bike with Adrian on the photo shoot urban e-bike and Chris L on another e-bike, all poised to explore the city. Almost immediately Adrian was carving the concrete curves of the street furniture, “when you ride a BMX you see the city differently.”
With total professional focus we got on with shooting the city guide, dipping in and out of cycle paths, along the tree-lined riverside tracks, back and forth across the five bridges across the Rhine River that link the older parts of Dusseldorf to the new.
Once the key shots of the morning were in the bag we got Adrian to take us to his favourite café, which gave us a chance to get to know him a bit better. His story was bigger than we expected. BMX lifted Adrian’s childhood, introduced him to friends, gave him a career and helped him through difficult emotional challenges. Now he is working at Skate Park Eller in Düsseldorf, training as a social worker and using his BMX as a way to connect with children going through their own tough times.
“ BMX helped me out so much, I have to take the tool and give it to other people.”
“I got my first BMX when I was 12. My parents offered me a BMX and I said ‘nah that’s not my thing,’ I wanted a mountain bike. But then I met a new friend making jumps by the lake and that was the start. My first bike was a Felt and ten years later I was sponsored by them which is really funny.”
“I wasn’t interested in soccer clubs or the things other kids my age were doing. BMX meant I was able to be independent in my choices, in my friends. I rode my BMX every day. A lot of my friends were in their 30's. I was 13-14, but they were teaching me to ride, taking me on trips and showing me a different way to do things. I lived somewhere a bit shady, a bit grimy. They gave me a lot of strength, they showed me that the bike could give me a lot of good times.”
“When I finished school, I told my Mum I just wanted to ride my bike for a year before I started work. I got some good sponsors who helped me to travel and enter competitions. For ten years straight, I just travelled with my bike. I was supported by the biggest distribution company in Germany, SportImport. BMX supported me to develop myself in a way I couldn’t without it. I built my life around my bike.”
“I didn’t want to make my hobby into my job but then I didn’t feel very satisfied with the other ‘real’ jobs I took. I was an apprentice draughtsman, I worked as a carpenter but I couldn’t do it. I felt I was working against myself. It led to me having a bit of a breakdown.”
It was BMX again that pulled him through. “When I was 15 I was part of a group planning a big skate park in Düsseldorf, it didn’t seem like people would ever build it. There were petitions against it, people were worried about vandalism and noise. Just at a point where I was feeling really down, the park finally opened.”
Pausing to show us on the map where the park in Eller is, Adrian then continued, “I headed up there to ride and met a friend who told me he was studying social work. At the time I was running classes for kids, doing up bikes and helping kids learn to ride. The park had some funding to use BMX to help the local community. That sounded perfect to me, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.”
“Skate Park Eller is one of Germany’s biggest skate parks – it is all about social work and helping kids, as well as riding. Some people in BMX think we are not that cool, but the kids and parents love what we do! Monday and Thursday, we rent bikes out for free, sponsored by the Government so it is easy for everyone to access. BMX helped me out so much, I have to take the tool and give it to other people.”
“Sometimes parents come in with their kids and tell me they are not happy at school, they don’t have many friends, they don’t like soccer clubs. I get them on a bike and the next week they come in with a big smile, excited to ride. It is really fun for me to see other kids develop the way that I did”
“To find a lifestyle that worked for me I had to find out the hard way, now I am doing something that is very different to most people. It is what I always wanted. For me it’s a reflection of my own childhood and growth in BMX. As well as being at the skate park I am studying social work part time and I work in a school taking children out to a pump track. It is a school with a lot of refugees so this is a really special time for them, just to feel safe and to enjoy riding together.”
We couldn’t help but feel humbled by Adrian’s story. The work he is doing with kids is truly special and reinforced our own beliefs in the bicycle as a tool for good. But more than anything Adrian’s life story with BMX as the hero is a film we want to watch! Any budding filmmakers out there want to give it a go?
Check out some other Fusion BMX stories - Red Bull Athlete Kriss Kyle’s Don’t Look Down Project - a skate park in the sky.