The first time I took note of Jason was at the 2000 Tish Tang Tangle.  I was shooting video at the finish, and out from the trees popped a dudded up DH'er on a Palmer Specialized.  The first serious looking DH'er I saw that day at my second event ever.  He burst from the trees, drifted out into the road, leg hanging out, plowed right over a giant orange cone, hooping and hollering the entire time, "Yeah!  Fuck yeah man!  Whooo!"  Since then Jason has lost absolutely no enthusiasm and can get a snail pumped up for DH racing.  His passion and contagious appreciation of our sport earned him the title "Superfan" on this years NORBA circuit.  Vocally supporting, and befriending, all riders with his daring charisma.  In the last two years his riding has improved dramatically, which touches on below, from riding by "brail" to feeling smoother then ever, Jason continues to improve each day.  After putting our nerves at ease, the interview flowed as naturally as water from a spring.  Jason's complete honesty and genuine character come through in his interview.  At many points in our sit down the spirit would move him to rise from his seat and reinact a particular scenario.  I hope some of that excitement is captured herein.  The interview is lengthy but worthwhile to any who know Jason through reputation or from shared experiences.  Enjoy, my fingers thank you.
Rider Profile - Jason Reiman

Photo File
"I'm hitting it dude, like a frog skipping on a leaf"
Justin:  March third 2005, could you state your name and your vitals?
Jason:  My vitals.  Well my name is Jason Reiman, I was born 06/07/77, about 170, five ten's my height.
Justin:  What have you been riding?
Jason:  Let's see this last year I've been riding a 2003 Pro Big Hit DH.  With a Marzocky, how do you say that, Marzocchi Shiver on the front,  Been working pretty well for me so far, needs a little work but...
Justin:  Where are you origninally from?
Jason:  I am originally from Morgan Hill California.  I was born in San Jose California, then I grew up in Morgan Hill.  That is where I began riding, cross country.  I just started riding cross country, this guy gave me a mountain bike one day.  He said hey dude go do this.  I just started doing miles, I'd go out to the woods, we had Henry Koe State Park, we could go for miles.  That's how I got into mountain biking.
Justin:  When did you enter your first race?
Jason:  My first race... man, it was back in...  I can't remember the exact day but I remember the month, it was in April 199...5, yeah.  It was a cross country race, the beginner class.  Did pretty well for a first timer, I took twelevth, I won't forget it, it was crazy man.  That was Grant Ranch, on the east side of San Jose, up over the hill.  Just a bunch of wide open territory, and that is where I found out about DH.  I was like 'what's this DH on Sunday?'  That's how I met Marla Streb, was at that first race, I still have the autograph.  Came back out to check out the downhill race, and I walked up the course and sat in this one section and people were doing like 60 (mph) dude, and I was like 'I gotta try this man'.  That's how it all started for me.  It goes a little bit deeper then that, the guy who gave me the bike knew I was getting in a lot of  trouble, you know, doing a lot of shit that I shouldn't have been doing.  This guy happened to notice, this kids too young to be fucking up this bad.  So he gave me this bike, and was like 'dude go ride this thing'.  That's how it all started basically, then I found out about racing.  It goes pretty deep, mountain biking to me is like a passion, I love to do it.  Something I am always gonna do no matter how old I am, you just gotta have that adrenaline rush.  I will probably learn, for the rest of my life how to ride a bike, and never stop learning.  It's deep like that for me.
Justin:  Did you play any other sports first?
Jason:  You know what man, at a young age I always played baseball.  That was my thing dude, I was deep, I could play ball, I could hit, do whatever you fucking know.  But then it was later in life I got into mountain biking, I got introduced to it.  Then I got into snowboarding, Christina and me, she was like 'we gotta go try this'.  She dragged my ass out to Tahoe one day and showed me how to do it.  It it wasn't for her I wouldn't know how to ride it, so that is what else I do, yeah.  Yeah.
Justin:  What do you think is unique to your riding style?  What terrain favors you?
Jason:  ...You know high speed man, i call 'em "Demon Runs".  you know what I mean, real high speed, I feel comfortable at that speed where everything feels like it is flowing, I'm not fighting nothing, I will take high speed over technical stuff anyday.  But I can ride the technical stuff you know.  I guess that is kinda my style, going fast.  Big Bear was a good one, on some of our course you could let it run as fast as you want, wide open, wide open man pinned.
Justin:  Tell us a little bit about what you did this last summer?
Jason:  Oh yeah, this last summer...  where did it all start, damn dude?  I guess it started back in the winter time when we went up and started mobbing Hoopa, started building trail out there, and all of a sudden we are having events.  I started riding so much that my skill was starting to get to a pretty good level, and I started asking "Can I go race this NORBA stuff man", sure man sure you can do whatever you want.  As soon as I knew my skill level, we started building new trails, all of a sudden we are riding down library at night, we are hitting crack, hitting those two trails with no problem, with ease.  Then go mob the 801 and just have it pinned wide open, 'dude this is sick!'  Then my skills started to develop, and my balls got big enough where I figured I could go try racing.  We were coming back from Hoopa, it was Me, Curtis and Brian going to Horse Mountain, because we always hit Horse before we came home.  Curtis was all "Let's go race the NORBA's"  and I was like "Oh shit let's go!"  That's how it all started, and from that time on I just saved my sheckles man, worked my ass of.  When July came, the race we had up on Lord Ellis, the Bigfoot, right after that man we hit the road.  Forty day'er 8100 miles man, it was on, NORBA racing dude, riding everywhere.  You know we had some difficulties getting into Canada, so we bagged Canada, which is all good we'll ge there some day, not a big deal "let's press on, let's go to Idaho."  We hit Idaho buddy and it was on, it was the first race, bam we're here!  I was like "Yeah, i'm ready to roll, feel pretty good."  I hiked that trail so much man, I upped and downed that thing, everday I would hike it.  One day they weren't letting bikes up for practice yet, so I would hike that son of'a bitch all the way to the top, you know, I had shit in my mind dude.  Idaho was good I took second there, that's where I qualified for Mammoth, I was stoked.  Had a good time in Idaho with all the locals man.
Justin:  Can you talk about your run at all?
Jason:  My run?!  Sure I can talk about my run... Yeah my run, Captain Andy, yeah dude it's crazy... Jar of sardines buddy (laughter), it was crazy, it was crazy, you just had to be there you know?  It was wild.  Curitis it helped me get down so much man, I was like "how do we do this National scene man?"  He's done it before, he's pretty hip to it.  So I asked him for a lot of knowledge, like "how do I do this?" and he set me up.  How you ride these courses, what you do in practice, how you practice, whay you should be working on you know.  Hiking up and down the hill you know, making sure you got that thing in your mind.  So Curtis helped me with that.  As far as my race run, it went pretty well, I took second.  I had one bobble on the bottom, everything else on the top, it was a bunch of switch backs, I was nailing those.  It was rocky dude, fucking rocky.  I mean the expert/Pro course is nothing but rock, that's all your riding on is goddamn rocks and big hits.  'Altar boy', 'Bowling Alley', you name it.  I saw Kirkcaldie fold his bike, it was crazy dude.  Happy (Brian) and i are standing there, we're watching practice, and he just went 'whhaaaa', coming down through the Bowling Alley, just 'whack whack!'.  I run down there and he gets back up on the bike and mobs down the hill, I went by the Maxxis tent like 'Bro are you fucking okay, that was gnarly?'  His bike was just bent, crazy, he stacked hard.  Anyway my course consisted of a bunch of switch backs, at the top they just had you swtich back, that was key you had to stay real smooth.  Didn't want to be coming in like a mad man, but with good enough speed.  I would come in, go around a turn, then pedal, pedal, pedal, and then just pump in to the next turn.  Come out of the turn pedal some more, that was the basic switch back technique I was using, smooth you know no bobbles.  Then it put you out on this demon run, a fire cut, rocky as hell dude.  Baby heads, rocks, you name it dude, rocks.
Justin:  You got second in Idaho, did that give you new focus and resolve having a good finish under your belt?
Jason:  Basically man it took some weight off my shoulders, knowing that I had qualified, that was all I was focused on and I wasn't able to do that in Big Bear, Big Bear I took like eighteenth.  It also gave me some confidence man, knowing I could race these courses, cause I didn't know what the courses were going to be like to race on.  It gave me a bunch of confidence in my riding skills and my ability to race those type of courses.  I can be honest with you man, the Hoopa riding out there has helped me so much.  When it comes to a steep part in the course, it's nothing, you know what i'm saying?  It's like mobbing down the 801 (fire road) and having a good time.  Going into Aspen I was up, I was ready, I was there all week practicing, Aspen Colorado man.  Been practicing all week Burtis and I, Brian and Hank, we'd been mobbing my course dude.  I had that thing in my mind, I knew, I could sit there, shut my eyes, and bring up sections, blam there it is.  Like a picture man.  Going into the race I had it won, in my mind it was mine.  If you don't have that in your mind already you better be standing in the condo, you know what i'm, saying.  That was kinda my thought after a while, you get so used to being confident in what your doing, but you can't get too confident cause that shit can bite you in the ass.  It is that fine line of confidence that I learned.  I was there all week, we'd been mobbing my course.  Bam, Bam, Bam, I mean I had some runs in.  I had at least 150-200 runs, that's off the top of my head.  Going into race day, just sitting up at the top dude, took a nap right there.  I showed up early that was the thing, woke up from my race and was up there early.  They were like "they're still racing the whatever, dadada..." They were racing the cross country still, and it happened to go on longer then scheduled, you know.  Went back down to the condo and chilled out, was like 'Man i still got time!'  Got my grinds, got my shit together, and went back to the top of the hill.  Man I was the first one to go in my class.  I guess they went from Idaho standings, I don't know what was going on, but I was first to go.  Man I cut it loose out of the gate, roll it, bam.  Aspen was this single track, where you could just pin it, know what i'm saying.  Some turns in it, then into some single track, pretty technical, but it was still fast, you had to be keyed in, you had to hit your marks.  I had a bunch of marks everywhere, I would stack rocks.  Curtis would trip out on me dude.  I was hiking the trails and I would stack rocks for my marks, where I needed to hit.  I knew where my marks were at cause I would stack rocks, and as long as I hit those things I knew I was on.  I was mobbing dude, it is won, it's done, all I had to do is cross the finish.  I'm telling you right now dude, i'm mobbing "whoo whoo yeah! whoo whoo!  just bam."  Well you know man, sense I was the first man in my classI was right after the beginner folks, OK.  Didn't tell the guy in front of me, 'Hey man if you hear me hollerin behind you, I'm comin through.'  Sure as shit, I get three quarters of the way down this course and there's that boy in front of me dude.  We're in the single track at this point, and I'm hollerin, for fifty yards just hollerin like this 'move, you gotta move, just fucking move, move!'  as loud as I can.  Finally I'm like 'I'm hitting this boy'.  I bumped his tire, and when I bumped his tire dude it just took me off, and I lost all focus from there...  My program went straight out the window, you know what i'm sayin, the flow was gone.  When I got to the bottom Curtis was like "What the fuck happened to you man?" Cause I was looking all sketch, I was all over the place.  So it didn't go right for me in Aspen, I ended up taking seventh.  But I wasn't too pissed because I had already qualified in Idaho.  I was bummed, I had it in the bag, had it won, all I needed to do was cross the finish and it was mine.  Right at the start line I was like 'This is me baby'.  You could feel it, you know what I'm saying, yeah dude it was crazy.  Anyways I wasn't too upset there, had a good time anyway, Aspen was fun, had a nice condo.  Big Hank hooked it up you know.  Had a great time there hanging out with all the pros, once again, you know what i'm sayin', supposedly they call me superfan so you know (laughter) yeah.
Justin:  I heard there was quite a bit of partying on this trip.
Jason:  Yeah big partying man, got to uh... yeah after that it was time to rock to Durango for the finals man.  Got to Durango and got the sick, sick, condo.  It couldn't be any better man, you walked on the deck and there was the whole scene right there.  It was fun.  There I won, that was great man.  I won in Durango, took the sport class but goddamn.  I had it won, once again when I got to the start house I had it won.  Just needed to cross the finish, keep it smooth, and hit my marks.  I did everyone of those things, and I won.  I got to the bottom, Curtis was right there, and he was like "You won dude."  He handed me my hat, my glasses, a bottle of Rumplemens and it was on.  The whole time we were there, we were there for like a week, just mobbing, getting ready for the finals, hiking the course, getting to know the course.  The course was great man, for sport people.  They did a pretty good job of it.  Out of the start house, a nice phat berm, right hander, over some rocks, bam, shot you through some single track, then it came to a wide open jump some waterbars, into some wideopen off-camber, you know what i'm sayin.  It was just wide open ski run as fast as you can go.  Boost a road, around some rocks, over some rocks, it was just a good course all around.  I'd been at altitude for a month already, so I had that on my side also.  Spent some time in Telluride, Telluride was good, I wanna go back.  That was good riding.  And Vail, Vail was one of the highlights of the trip.  We were staying right underneath the Honda G-Cross folks, (Greg) Minaar and (Cyril) Kurtz.  Little Hannah was there, I can't remember her name, Mick's sister, was riding there too, got a chance to ride with her.  Hooked up with Kirt Voreis and Lyndsay Voreis.  I got a chance to ride with Kirt, and that was the first time I got to ridew with somebody who is at the professional level.  For me to keep up with him I had to ride over my head, and if he'd slow down for me it was a treat cause he could show me what lines to hit and how to do it.  They have those certain skills they can show an amateur, something that I don't know, to make things faster for me, if I could keep up with 'em.  Sometimes he was gone, you know, just gone, there's no way you can keep up with him.  He had mad skill, he's just got the skills to kick my ass (laughter).  Humbles you a little bit, you know what I'm sayin'.
Justin:  You made it to interbike didn't you?
Jason:  I did, I did, I did.  I got a chance to go to Las Vegas, go to interbike through the SWD folks down in Modesto.  That was quite a treat man.  Girls, alcohol, you know, uh bicycles, bikes.  I mean how much can you take in, it was insane.  Whether it was at the Fox tent, wide open kegs, partying with every pro in the world, or just going around checking out the new 2005 stuff.  You know what's coming out, dude this is sick shit, you know, it's nice to see the stuff that's coming out.  Not everybody gets to go to that, basically you gotta be somebody to go.  You gotta be a dealer, this, that, or whatever.  So it was great to go see all that, do some partying with a lot of people, partying with Kirt and Lyndsey, basically a big party down in Vegas.  Uh, strippers, strippers man (laughter).  Strippers and alcohol, you know what i'm saying.  Suddenly you go to the ATM and your like "Oh fuck I gotta go home still!" (laughter)
Justin:  So you were there with SWD, do you want to talk a little bit about how you got to know Steve and became involved with his program.
Jake:  You know I got involved with his program through Hank Matheson.  Last winter he was riding that SWD the whole time, and I've seen the kinda stuff he's done on his bike.  Steve, I remember Steve from the Hollister days man, having the Ride Series.  I remember him from there but he just didn't know me.  That's also how I met Curtis, through the Ride Series in Hollister.  The only guy going down the trail winning and singing dude, you know what I mean, I was like 'Damn that's some shit dude."  But that is where I first remember Steve, then I think it was Northstar... went to Tahoe when I first me Steve. (pause)  I truly can't remember but I am gonna say that is it.  Ever since then I've been racing and he's been watching, keeping up on what I'm doing.  So I decided to order one of his frames, and that is what I am gonna be riding this season, the Crazy 8, the SWD man.  Should be here shortly, get that thing built up, get it ready to go.  See how I can do.  It is gonna be a different ride, single pivot bike, I'm used to that four bar FSR linkage.  It is just gonna be a different ride to get used to.
Justin:  Is he (Steve) gonna be able to help you out at the races?
Jason:  You know, I think it's just I'm a privateer still you know, but I'll be riding his bike.  Whatever, no big deal, I am just stoked to be riding his bike.  Something new, something different.  It has a 26 inch wheel in the rear, rather then that 24 which didn't do me no good in the National series.  Not really a race tire, more of your free ride bike.  Throw a derailleur on it, some big travel, and go ride some trail some where you know.  It's really not a 'DH' bike even though they call it a DH bike.  But it's OK I had fun on it, it's all good.
Justin:  With that Big Hit you qualified for the National Finals, what went down in Mammoth?
Jason:  What went down at Mammoth, man, that was an ugly scene.
Justin:  Where was your head at that point?
Jason:  Obviously in the fucking clouds, not thinking about what the fuck I was doing.  Full confidence, once again I had it won all I had to do was cross the finish.  Going in to it, going in to it.  Going into practice, 'What's this practice J, find your lines, get it down, focus on what you have to do.'  I took some runs, in my mind I'm thinking fully 'All you gotta do is cross the finish, you win, that's it' that's how it's been the whole time, you know.  It just happened to me in practice, I tried to go lit ball off the top, figuring it would be faster because in one of my runs I come off the top, and got off my bike in one of the sections and kept watching people ride this section.  They were coming down sketching, way slow, slower then I want to come down the fucking thing man, I'm here to win man, fuck that! So I come down the hill, i'm standing thinking about that section, if anything else I got it down, I'm hitting it dude, like a frog skipping on a leaf.  That's the way it felt, they would paint dude, they would paint, they would paint all over the rocks, the stumps, jumping off everything dude.  I had this line through a rock cropping, people were dicing through it, I was taking it straight on!  Using the back rock to jump off, land and jump again, bro I had it down I was in.  'Watch the fuck out'  I woulda won.  I'm standing in line saying 'OK bro, what you do off the start line is pump over the fucking water bar' cause there was a water bar like this (gestures) with a big ditch behind it.  So you had to pump over the water bar and go over this little hill.  I knew that if I pumped over the water bar with enough power that it would shot me up over the little knob without any pedaling whatsoever.  I come off the start line, this is in practice man, I should have known this you don't be doin this shit in practice man, you save it for the race run.  So I'm like dude, mmrrrp, I pump over the water bar, loaded the front shoock up again to go over this little hump you had to go over, load that fucker up, it shot me up over dude, and when I came over I had ass end up in the air, right at the start line.  Off the back side it goes like this and then it goes like this again (gesturing a very steep drop off) and man when I came to the top abnd crested dude I let it run dude, I let it run and let go of the brakes and let it run after my little momentum shot and I came down that thing, loaded up the shock as soon as I came down in, right between the next hit down.  So I came off the top, boom, load, then another shot before it ran out into the open.  That's where I got fucked up, right before the open.  I loaded up it up so much the bike shot me out, it like projected me bro it was weird.  Came in whoo, whooa, next thing you know man I am looking down at the ground like 'this is gonna hurt man.'  That was it dude.  The shiver went like this when I loaded it, like POP, like an explosion.  It was weird it shot me out, cause I guess I loaded up too hard and it shot me out like a spring.  When I landed I landed head first, left side, blew my shoulder out right there, and I just crawled over to the fucking side ans was just like 'Yeah leave me alone', was just walking around in fucking circles.  Bummed that I just took myself out, i'm sitting there talking to myself going 'Man you just took yourself out of the fucking championship.'  I was hella pissed, I get stupid cause I'm pissed, throw my helmet back on, my goggles back on, my visor hanging off to the side, it's an ugly scene, i'm spitting rocks outta my mouth, I took a digger you know what i'm saying.  So I just put my gear back on, shake my head like this, decided to get back on the trail.  My adrenaline is rushing I fucking guess, and I don't know my shoulder is blown out and there's a hit coming up right after that and I took it and stacked again.  The worst pain bro, I just said 'You are done dude.'  I tried to go some more you know, and you know the whole time my bars are like this (very crooked) and I'm like 'This isn't good man.'  Yeah, it was psycho man.  Like a little bitch man, I just crawled off to the fucking side like this (stands up, walks away, squats down) and I just sat there saying 'Fuck, fuck man'  pissed cause I had wiped myself out.  I had the course down, once again, blam.  I'd lay there at night and I could run the course in my head.  Once that happens to me, once the projectors running, I know I'm good.  Now that I know I've picked up on it.  But I happened to go big at the wrong time, not basically landing because of the way I was pitched out.  There was no way I was gonna be able to land this, decided to just take the digger and it wiped me out. That's what happened.
In the emergency room they took their x-rays and shit, put me in a sling, handed me some pills and said "Dude you better go home and chill."  Meantime my knee is blown up to the size of a fucking cantaloupe, just from impact.  I'm limping around 'Yo, whatever, it's all good.'
Justin:  So how long all together were you down for?
Jason:  This happened in late September...  it was about... I want to say four months.  There was a month there where I couldn't do shit.  You just lay there cause you are hurting, you're just one big bag of ice, that's just how it is.  But yeah man, it was four months of just not doing shit. 
Justin:  How did you keep busy?
Jason:  You know what, I got into reading, I just started reading books.  Before would read a mag, a bike mag or whatever.  There was nothing i could really do physically, I couldn't go to work, I couldn't ride.  So I just got into reading.  i got this book about climbing Everest, I was into that, real true life shit you know.  Just reading haha.
Justin:  You started riding a trainer at some point?
Jason:  I did, it was after the first month of just laying around, I kinda got board with just laying around, the swelling was starting to go down and everything, my knee was starting to look good.  I had some cash still so I decided to go down to Rev and pick up a trainer.  I got on that sucker man, there was a week there where i cloud just spin for a little bit, and just spin real slow.
(flip the tape)
Jason:  Am I answering your questions?  I feel like I am wandering off, "J come on back!"
Justin:  it's good man, can't be all questions.  Coming out of the injury has it changed your mindset at all?
Jason:  Honestly I can say yes.  A, it's because I gotta go to work Monday morning, I gotta make some money, to be honest, but when race season comes I kinda cut it loose.  I guess it has, it's made me a little bit smoother then I was before.  Where I was on the demon run every run, every run!  You know, smacking trees, taking diggers all the fucking time, I was shredding my shit up you know, breaking my equipment.  I don't want to stack so much, i'm not afraid to stack, it happens, it's part of the game.  But the less I can bail the better off I'll be.  The more I can stay in the saddle and stay smooth and develop my confidence and get that speed back.  Right now I am lacking the speed.  You know, after being off the bike that long.  After riding the bike so long you develop this speed, like you said it comes natural to ya, you can be hauling balls and you don't even fucking know it, cause you're used to it.  So I've lost that, right now I'm trying to get it back. 
Justin:  Your current status then?
Jason:  My current status right now?  Riding pretty smooth.  There is always residual pain, the pain is never gonna go away in that shoulder, that sucker's blown out.  You don't repair that shit unless you get surgery.  But I don't feel it when I'm riding, you know what I'm saying, I don't feel it when I'm riding.  I'm riding smooth right now, I can see, the visual thing right now, I've got glasses.  I'm seeing the trail real well right now, it's unreal.  I seeing shit way up there, seeing turns way up there.
Justin:  So with your glasses, the entire time I've known you you've never worn glasses.  How did that start and how has it changed riding for you?
Jason:  I was mobbing back from Tahoe one night, with Hanky, and when it got dark I had a hard time driving.  I realized that a while back, I got glasses when I was fifteen, then I boycotted them cause I got sick of 'em.  These things are a pain in the ass.  I'm not realizing 'You need to see brother, you need to see.'  I get glasses now, I put 'em on, i'm riding down the hill, I can see dude.  I'm not smacking trees, Jake was telling me "Now I can see why your hitting fucking trees all the time!  Cause you can't see dude.  You need to be able to see this shit."  He was telling me this last weekend (No Chains DH).  So yeah I got the glasses.
Justin:  Whereas before you said you were piling up rocks to find marks was that something...
Jason:  Oh yeah, that is something I had to do because my vision wasn't sharp at all, I don't have 20/20 vision.  So I had to put marks on the trail, to hit my marks.  Whereas now I can see the mark coming, boom, hit it, go.  Before I had to do that.  It's almost like brail, going down.  Now that I think about it I trip out the shit I've done on a bike not seeing it.  It's weird (laughs).  Like night riding, now if I go night riding I'm on it brother watch out.
Justin:  At the beginning you began to talk about how it is more then just biking to you, it's something you'll do your whole life, can you expound on that?
Jason:  I had a dope problem and shit, I mean a real dope problem man.  Like my dad's buddies they were into fucking... they were into shit, a lot of trouble man.  you know a guy hands me a bike and says "Go ride it, see what you can do."  My dad always had a mountain bike in the garage, I would ride that you know, another piece of the story.  I'd always see how fast I could go on it, up and down the street... I'm losing my train of thought, gotta reel me back in... oh yeah the passion of mountain biking.  Kept me out of trouble, one of the things that got me started was just riding around locally in Morgan Hill, on the streets.  Go to her house (Christina), you know just riding on the trail.  Then I got hip to going out into the back country, Henry Koe State Park, local trails.  That's what got me out of trouble, I had something else to do, besides go hang out and get fucked up.  Then I got used to being out, that alone feeling where you are just tripping out by yourself out in the hills that was always a great feeling to me, still is.  Just being out in the woods and riding, just riding, that's always been my thing forever man, ride.  Ride as much as you can, if you're not injured.  When I entered my first race, that's when it really became a passion for me.  I found out about competition, the feeling of competition and racing against other people.  That is where I really like it is that competitive feeling, knowing that the dude behind you could kick your ass, you better get it on.  That's what I like, bring it on.  Some people they go "Ohhh", me Uhhuh.  Why be like that, let's go.
Justin:  So where are your goals at now?
Jason:  I'm gonna relate back to riding for the rest of my life.  Let's go back to that, cause I'm back now.  Whether i'm fucking fifty dude, fifty five, racing downhill or just out riding XC, that's how it's gonna be.  That's a way for me to release a lot of energy, find focus.  I channel a lot of energy through riding.  I guess that's why I'll be able to ride forever.  Ride dude, if I want to get a tattoo dude it's gonna say fucking RIDE, and Dainese dude (laughs).  Dainese baby!  Kept me from breaking my bones, back to that story, but yeah.  That's why I love to ride man, I channel a lot of energy through that.  But now days I am all about DH, I love it dude!  I could do it all day long.  You know what the weird thing is, I could find a trail and ride that thing all day long.  All day long dude, all day long, that one trail and have the best time ever.  That's always been the weirdest thing about me man, I can hit that one trail and love, I'll go ride the Red Tail all day, eight hours a day, and go 'Yeah!' every fucking time!.  You know, cause I find something new to do on it.  That's why I love mountain biking also dude, oh I fucking love it.
 
Word Association
Nathan Rennie:  Power House... yeah I got more to say about that... skills, fast man, footwork, that guys got the best footwork in the world, it's dope.
Fear Inhibitors: (following a brief explanation of recent U.C.I. rulings) Me as an amateur I think it's bull shit.  Bull Shit.
NORBA:  Fun, good time, that's two words, but, damn... (laughs)
Reggae:  Love, yeah, Peace... i got so many words, you know it's crazy...
Drift:  Love it man, yeah
Humboldt:  It's better then the city (laughs) I'm having a hard time with this one word thing.
Clipless:  Challenging, bam right there, challenging.
Trainer:  Good, I can't say nothing bad about it.  It's just gotta be like that if you're injured.
Steel:  Oh we're talking about my frame now... i'm trying to get to this one word thing...  I love it man, it's good stuff.  Chromoly's good stuff.  I'd say good shit.
Spectacles:  Awesome, as funny as that sounds for anybody who doesn't wear glasses, but for me buddy it's awesome.
Mobbing:  Love it, love it forever man.
Pirate:  Awesome, yeah, races.  Hell ya shred man shred.  That's what it's about.
 
Justin:  I think that about covers it, unless there are any parting comments you would like to leave.  Something you were just dying to talk about?
Jason:  Yeah, what am I talking about?  I was going off pretty good earlier.  (luaghs)  I mean there are so many more stories I could tell you about the trip.  Fucking racing you know what I'm saying, as far as racing and riding with these pros.  I got a chance to ride with Colin Bailey down at Mammoth, practicing the Kamikaze.  He's been riding that forever you know.  So when day I'm heading up the gondola and there's Bailey.  You know I've been partying with these guys for the last few months, knowing who they are.  So I said what's up, and was like what's up with this Kami.  And he's all follow me.  I was like 'Yeah dude this is gonna be crazy man.'  Got up the gondola man, he just took off.  He had a small chainring on, it was a forty toother, what he was racing DH on all season probably.  But I got a chance to ride behind him, showed me some lines, some killer lines, total down  speed where you didn't ahve to scrub, through the chicain, no brakes, at like fucking fifty man.  It was crazy dude, I'd get going so fast on the bike my eyeballs would shake, it was hard to focus, you really had to focus.  It was a trip riding behind that guy.  Then he went and threw a big chainring on and he was just gone, just gone, just gone.  He was probably trying to do sixty or something.  He took second, Tomac won the fucking thing.  Insane man.  Telluride was a great trip.  We thought we missed, Curtis the whole time was telling me about this mushroom festival.  I was like 'Get the hell out of here, you're lying to me.  There's a mushroom fest?'  "Yeah J mad mushrooms, just good partying you know."  Like yeah we gotta go, thinking that we'd missed it already.  Man we roll into Telluride and we see big signs "Mushy Fest", we were like YEAH!  So stoked man.  We're low on smoke dude, thank god we're getting to fucking Telluride, we're low, man, you know what i'm sayin, yeah Telluride.  We're up in this fat Motel at first man, and the gondolas were free.  When I heard about that I was like 'Man it can't get any fucking better can it.'  I'm walking down the street, see a reggae flyer, Michael Franti was in town.  Caught another show the Motet down at this bar.  It was crazy, did some mushrooms and shit, it's the mushroom fest, you gotta do some shroomers.  You can't not do some shroomers, we're in teh fucking parade dude!  The fucking mushroom parade!  Curtis is all "Let's go man, come on!", we get in the parade, you just get done riding, your just fucking lit you know.  Hippies are handing me mushroom honey out of these honey jars, I'm just eating it dude...then you make some tea, your just fucking zinging man.  It was great.  I loved the gondola factor, fuck man you could ride at any time of the day.  They opened at 7 and closed at 9 for mountain bikes, but it would go till midnight.  Up the fucking ridge, down the back side into this resort.  It was killer man, it was killer.  One night, just shroomin dude, got up on the gondola just tripping out.  Happy and I, Brian, before we started shrooming we drank some tea, before all the gondola shit, Happy and I we just got done riding man we're still in our gear and shit.  Curtis is shrooming by now, having a good time.  And our tea kicks in, and I'm like  'Nightride?' Happy's all "Yeah dude."  So I fucking drink half of my cup, knowing it would get me off as soon as I got to the top of the hill, Happy fucking drank his cup.  We had to sit up there for a little bit for it to get dark, not knowing that down off the trail it is already dark.  Up on top of the hill at like 10,000 feet, all of a sudden the shrooms kick in dude, turn the light on and we're mobbing.  Happy's fucking boosting man, it's crazy!  I'm like "Yeah Fucking shred!", Happy shreds dude.  Mobbed this fire road, felt like I was doing fifty but I was only doing twenty you know what i'm saying.  Came into some single track, just mobbed the fucking single track, was awesome on shrooms, felt kinda like a roller coaster.  Yeah just did a lot of partying in Telluride, a lot of riding, that's basically all we did, fucking ride and party.  Thank god we had Curtis to drive us around cause we would have gotten busted everywhere we went.  I swear to god man we were back and forth to the grocery store, with cases of beer.  In and out of the bar and shit.  Once we got to Sand Point it was like 'We want to go to that bar' just pick a bar and go to it.  Shit like that you know, but then the ridings good you know.  Find the trails at the resort besides the race course.  There was one downhill trail called the jump trail , we mobbed that shit, it was fucking nutty dude.  Happy was like jumping turns and shit...  Happy would just go off, the whole time he was just on it man.  Hell ya.  That's enough.
Justin:  I'm going to be typing for days.