Interview: GROUNDED BMX - Belgium

Brecht Baeyens - GROUNDED BMX, BELGIUM

Can you explain how the idea for your store came to be?

Somewhere in 2009, I placed an online order at the only Belgian BMX shop. My order never got serviced and I was so pissed about it that I told my friend, BC, that we could do a way better job and we should run our own online bmx shop. A few months later, I used my savings from five years of working full time to create our own shop (groundedbmx.com) and the rest is history!

Can you tell us a bit about your personal history within BMX?

I got into BMX at about 12 or 13 years old after a kid named BC moved into my neighborhood. I always saw him riding his BMX bike. At that time I was playing soccer but I thought BMX looked way cooler, so BC and I became friends and he let me ride his bike or the bike of a mutual friend of ours. A few months later I got my own second hand bike. By that time BC and I were riding everyday and I got totally hooked. I ditched playing soccer shortly after. After a few years I quit riding to go party all the time, but I got back into it in my early 20's and rode till my early 30's. I quit riding because it was getting difficult to run the shop with a broken leg or a badly hurt back or hip etc,.

Are you primarily a BMX shop?

We always kept it Freestyle BMX only because it was all I knew and cared about.

Kenneth Tancré

Who’s on your team for Vans ‘The Circle’?

Simon De Geyter: 23, rides a Fiend setup and rides technical street.

Kenneth Tancré: 25, rides a Totalbmx setup and rides park and dirt.

Louis Brouckaert: 25, rides a BSD setup. Hardcore street rider but can kill it on ramps too if he feels like it.

Niels Mertens: 26, rides a Cult setup. Mix of technical and hardcore street rider that can spin like a tornado.

Brian O Brien: 23, rides a Fiend setup. Super smooth, stylish street rider that always finds original lines.

Barre Neirynck: 37, rides a flatland bike with a mix of Fareast, Autum and Igiflat parts. He rides flatland only and loves to do long rolling lines.

Who have you chosen to film the edit?

Jelle Harnisfeger. He's an old team rider of Groundedbmx that now spends most of his time riding and filming Freeride MTB, but he has years of experience riding BMX and knows all our guys well. He films most of the stuff for Looseriders.

Has filming went well?

It hasn't been easy with the guys traveling etc., but we already have some good footage. You can expect our edit to have a good mix of different styles. It won’t only be 100% street as BMX is more than just street and we want to show this.

How’s your local BMX scene looking these days?

Our local scene is kinda f'ed at the moment. Our local park got torn down so we’ve just spent the past 6 months without a skatepark. They will start building the new one at the end of September and it's going to be a 100% BMX park, so that's cool. Our locals are mostly ramp riders and we have some guys that are really dedicated and compete in various contests like FISE.

How does it compare to when you first opened your store?

When we opened there was no real scene and we had just got the skatepark that they’ve just torn down. We did lots of jams and summer camps etc., and built a huge BMX scene - probably the biggest in Belgium even though we are located in a small city of just 40,000 residents.

Have you seen an increase in female riders and more diversity in general over recent years?

Yes! It's super dope to see young girls getting into riding. As for diversity, we have always had riders of all races, shapes, sizes and ages, some rich and some poor. The scene has always taken care of everybody. If someone broke a fork and couldn't afford a new one somebody always helped out by giving them their old forks. It’s always been this way here and that's the beauty of our scene. We are all family, BMX family.

How important is a good BMX shop in supporting a local scene?

I think it's very important. Grounded has always been the place where everybody meets up before going riding together, or just to hang out and have a good time.

Do you think BMX has been more popular lately?

On a global level I'm sure BMX is growing fast! Urban and extreme sports are super popular thanks to social media. In Belgium we are lagging a bit behind. We have bad winters and no indoor parks where BMX is welcome. Belgian Cycling doesn't want to help BMX out, so during winter lots of kids can't go out riding, or they have to drive to Holland or France to get an indoor session.

What’s the strangest request you’ve ever had from a customer?

I once had a dude come into the shop, he wanted to buy a 16 inch BMX bike. I asked him how old his kid was and he told me the bike was for him. I was like, wtf?! You’re a grown ass man, you need a bigger BMX. He was like, I won't use it to ride BMX, I want to strap it on my back and go on long walks with it, and then use it to ride back home once I'm tired of walking... At first I thought he was joking but he assured me he wasn’t. I never sold him that 16” bike as I thought it was a really bad idea and overall, I thought it was a bad look for BMX. I told him to go get a foldable bike or a unicycle.