Travel is central to this biking game we all play. Let me explain.

Starting off on the lowest level, permission is sought from the parents to ride to the local skatepark, you then level up by thinking a little bigger and finding a mate with a car that will drive to a nearby city. This then leads to getting your license and travelling down the east coast with a bunch of mates on your maiden road trip. From here, your mind expands further to the upper level, contemplating international travel and all that comes along with that including planes, bike boxes and strange cultures. The world is yours.

Within each level, a sturdy sense of adventure and exploration continues to develop, a wonderful attribute which hopefully never fades.

This approach to life kind of happens without you having to think, it is simply part and parcel of riding bikes and constantly being on the search for new places to ride.

While this trajectory doesn't cover all bikers, it is certainly a blueprint for which many have followed, including our torchbearer and the protagonist to this piece, Chai Moody.

Growing up in various locations around regional Victoria, most recently living in Canberra, Chai has now found his way to the Sunshine Coast and seems quite content. Makes sense what with the world class beaches, majestic hinterland villages set amongst rich and ancient bushland and a privileged, relaxed lifestyle. 

However, the contentedness of this young biker cannot be limited, nuh uh, no way. With an insatiable appetite for travel and enjoying whatever this life can offer, Chai has recently returned from a 5 month long, life-defining trip across 10 countries and 6 of the united states. An incredible achievement and something I thought worth bringing into attention for our biking audience to experience. 

The following is a discussion between myself and Chai as we delve into the motivation for the trip, key moments and the influence of being a biker. 

Read on. 

As discussed above, one benefit of BMX is the adventurous spirit that remains ubiquitous amongst those committed. To get a sense for how Chai experienced this concept, we kicked off the discussion based around the original spark for this trip.

"G'day there Vocko, thank you for this opportunity you’ve given me to speak some of my story.

I believe the reason I’ve always wanted to travel is because I grew up in small towns where people stay stagnant and comfortable. Which is great for them and fills their cup but that’s never been something that’s aligned with me personally. First proper trip that comes to mind is when I was sixteen driving to ACT Jam with the big yellow Learner, Mum as my passenger (legend), Todd and Brendan in the back and bikes on the rack of the old Mitsubishi Magna sedan. Since then I was hooked, up and down the east coast either solo or with crew. 

From travelling to India as a volunteer building mud brick school dwellings, to trips in China with Marius Dietsche to ride bikes and cop footage. It has became an insatiable endeavour to see more and do more. However, this most recent trip was by far the most fulfilling and badass of them all. My lady, a back pack each, 10 countries, six states of USA, five months and some passports."

The iconic east coast trip. Pretty cool to hear of a fellow biker (also subscribed to the Mitsubishi lifestyle!) finding motivation for travel having done this trip. Moving on, with so much travel under his belt at a young age, I was interested to know how a trip of this magnitude is approached from an expectation standpoint. 

"I find a basic trip plan and no expectations to be the only way I travel nowadays. For example, we were meant to spend four weeks in Costa Rica cruising around but due to it being the Switzerland of Central America and costing more to live there then it does in Aus, we bailed after two weeks. I’m talking $6 dollars (AUD) for a can of black beans, absurd! So these days I find the most streamlined, stress free way to travel is to have a basic itinerary of where to go and what to do in those regions. 

Another reason I try not to plan so much in each spot is because when you do, you’ll meet a local that will tell you about something out of this world that you can’t go to because you have it all planned out already. Best to keep it fluid, you know; a little fast and loose if you will. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans” (Allen Saunders, 1957)."

Makes sense doesn't it. Typically, the approach of travelling from my point of view ranges from overly planned to completely loose. As always, it's the trusty middle that works the best, balance on balance. As Chai points out, one of the joys of travelling is meeting the locals and getting that inside word on, so allowing space for that is a wise decision.

I'd bet good money on the fact that this approach also puts you in strange and uncomfortable situations, which offers up the chance for meeting remarkable people, happening upon eye-opening scenes and ultimately, making memories and carving out new experiences.

I wondered what some of the more notable moments of Chai's 5 month trip might have been.

"Man it’s hard to pack so much into an interview, I feel like I could write a book with the amount of stories from this trip.

From trailing bear scat in Alaska, to climbing active volcanoes in Guatemala and even swimming with whale sharks in Mexico. For the sake of photos though I’ll speak of Alaska first.

My lady (Rylea) found a niche lil' hiking trail on 'All Trails' just out of town that looked to be a treat. This was fortunately Alaskas first day of sun in six months, so the locals told us, what a treat too. Blue skies and snow draped mountains surround in every direction, absolutely dwarfing anything else in view.

The trail takes a turn and we find some bear scat, smiles fill our faces and our hearts start beating. This is it, we’re going on a bear hunt! After an hour or two of going up river I take myself to a vantage point for some photos when I hear a rustle in the pines next to me. Hairs prick up on the neck and all senses turn on big time, what could this be. Lo and behold, three absolutely jacked mountain goats effortlessly blazing up the same trail we’d been walking. Absolute magic any time you see an animal like that in the wild."

Adding to the above, Chai describes:

"Out of all the countries we visited, all the people we interacted with, the Don of the trip was Guatemala. 

Guatemala is a country made up by mountains that slowly traipse their way to the sea at either the Pacific side (west) or Caribbean (east). I fell head over heels for the city of Antigua and all that surrounds it. A beautifully coloured, culturally rich heaven up in the clouds that welcomes all. 

The city is located in a basin surrounded by active volcanoes going off about every half an hour. We called it home for just over a week and in that week we set out in the rain to climb Volcano Acatenango. With an elevation just shy of 4000m we got loaded up with gear and set off straight for the clouds. Worried the whole way up we wouldn’t see anything with the horrible weather conditions, a blanket of relief fell over us as we got to the summit. There she was, the neighboring volcano of Fuego erupting even better than we had hoped."

One of the key benefits of travelling is gaining a fresh perspective on life, stepping outside of what you know based on your narrow life experience, broadening and challenging stereotypes. I love that this comes across in another tale from Chai and to be honest, a view that I hold myself. 

"I’d say the most surprising thing about the trip was Mexico and just how good it was. We heard a lot about Mexico coming in to the trip and it being really dangerous. You know all the usual crap you’ve heard.

I’ve never felt so safe and so welcomed by a culture/city/country anywhere in the world honestly. Don’t get me wrong there’s sketchy parts in Mexico City but every country/city has those if you go for looking for them. I mean with the way domestic violence rates are going in Australia it’s safer for my partner to be overseas at the moment than it is for her to be in Australia, especially when the footys on."

"If you do find yourself traipsing around the land of tacos and festivities, you’d be an absolute fool not to get a guided tour of the Mayan temples.

Mayans (if you’re unaware) are Mesoamerican Indians occupying a nearly continuous territory in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize. The Maya were deeply religious, and worshipped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn." 

"With Central America done and dusted over the space of about three months and with some spare time, we decided to hit the US of A.

Ticking off dream spots like Death Valley, Zion and Yosemite national parks, we set up hiking mats in the back of a hire car and soaked up all we could and some. Absolutely blown away by how vast America can be and just how incredible their national parks really are.

We never really planned to wander around the USA, however, while volcano boarding in Nicaragua we met a fellow named Ben who gave us his parks pass as he had just been there. Cheers Ben, legend! Again, having an open itinerary allows you to do add bonus rounds and spots to your travel you might not of even thought of."

Wrapping up, you may or may not have noticed that there has not been a single mention of riding bikes. Yes, there is more to life, but know that even with the bike absent, it still guides how a BMX lifer sees the world, makes decisions and engages with people and places. 

I did however ask Chai how he felt about travelling for so long without a bike and further, what subtle connections he was able to observe as a result of this trip. 

"I suppose I’ve kept this article quite focussed on travelling and haven’t discussed BMX too much but there just wasn’t any of it this time around. 

BMX itself has helped me become a better more well rounded person. BMX has enabled me to talk to new people at new parks, deal with sketchy people who turn out to be pretty alright. It’s made my situational awareness a lot higher than the average person and my pain tolerance too. Which helped me big time when I climbed Volcano 'Acatenango' with a fractured foot from stacking it surfing in El Salvador. 

I’ve made many lifelong friends all around the world and will be forever thankful for everything BMX has done for me and my life. Thanks for having a read and to Vocko and LUX for this opportunity.

‘Two wheels and good meals’  - Russell Brindley"

Cheers to Chai for being down to work on this piece, pleasure. Let's not forget that the dude can ride - the below video by Jason Griffiths (from 2016) proves just that.