Our first interview is with a heavy weight in the Semi-Pro class. We asked him a few questions and this is what he said! We ran into this racer at the Firestone race. He approached me and asked who I was shooting for. I replied it was for our website that we are about to launch. I exchanged pleasantries with him and we talked about the course and I asked him if he would be willing to do an interview for the site. The racer I met that day is named Michael Forest and he races Semi-Pro. He had a bad second run and fell that day. The next race was the Fontana Norba race and he came back to take the win!!! I asked him what he does and he said "right now in my life all I do is race DH mountain bikes." He has been riding for a long time, "all through middle school I raced BMX. It wan't until after high school that my friend Jesse Jackson" (who got second at Fontana) "got me into DH, with a little more Freeriding at first, but it wasn't long before I began to race."

I proceeded to ask him about the state of the sport and the direction it is headed. "I haven't been in the sport long enough to know where it has come from or where it is headed. I hear that it isn't so good right now, but I like to keep a positive outlook on the situation and say that it will grow again". His thoughts on improving the sport and its audience were "maybe bigger companies stepping in to provide sponsorship and funding. Try and get TV coverage again to raise the public awareness that there are other sports out there." I delved a little deeper about the state of racing in the USA and wether it was at times dissappointing. "I get a little sad hearing about overseas races and the entire town comes out and puuls for their local riders. They have huge crowds, that isn't the case in the sates. This may be do to lack of publicity and public awareness of our sport." How can we bring the sport to the masses? " More TV coverage and people like you." I mentioned the Jeep King of Dirt and that it could potentially work for DH. "Of course thats a perfect example of what a few larger sponsors can do. Throw in CBS and bang, you have a bigger sport!"

We got into a discussion on courses and the way the are biult. I asked what he thought about making the Expert/Pro courses more technical. "Courses should be like the US Open we just had in New Jersey, it was pretty good. Technical at the top and fast down at the bottom." It had a good combination. "I wouldn't want to see sections so technical that you loose momentum right on the line."

We started talking about riders of past and present. He said "Sam Hill is the fastest rider of all time. Justin Havukainen is the fastest unknown rider." I had to ask about clips or flats. "Flats" was all he needed to say! This is where I asked my trick question about Nico alternating between clips and flats and dominating on both. " Nico is one we should all take lessons from. Not only his bike skills, but his professionalism and thats not the only thing he would alternate that nobody else did." He said "I like traveling, east coast racing is so much different than west coast. But it is very expensive with little support." His last words were thanks for the time and coverage. Hey no problem and good luck this year!