Josh Dove
Dovey, you have been on an absolute tear lately, can you tell us what your day-to-day is like at the moment?
Thank you, it’s been a really fun year! Lately, I’ve been cruising down to the beach early morning with my coffee and having a quick dip. I don’t ride all day so I have a lot of spare time and every day is always different, I also have been surfing a lot lately.
We can all remember young Dovey at core series, how old were you when you started riding?
Core series was such a fun event, I was 8 when I did my first one.
I have ridden since I was super young, I started racing at 3 years old and stopped at 8. I gave racing up because If there was a skatepark next to the track I would be straight over there on my park bike between gate drops, dad would have to run over and get me ready to be straight onto the gate haha. I just wanted to be at the skatepark flowing around and learning tricks and haven’t stopped since!!!
Who or what was your inspiration when you started riding and has it changed over the years?
On my 8th birthday I got the 2011 colony DVD and would watch that constantly and always looked up to Alex Hiam and Chris Courtenay, I ended up getting posters of them and hung them around my room, just wanted to be like them. Over the years my inspiration changed but still looked up to Alex and Chris. I became good friends with Jason Watts riding Albany creek all the time I then started to try be like him and copy the tricks and lines he use to do. My biggest inspiration over the past couple of years is Brandon Semenuk every time I see something of his it makes me wanna go ride!
You seem to have an uncanny ability to air higher than everyone else, do you remember a specific moment when you unlocked this crazy style of airing because it seemed like one day you were just going higher than everyone?
Haha gets scary sometimes, I think just getting to ride Alexandra Headland bowl all the time helped a lot! I just learnt to not de-pump at all and hit it with all the speed I got, just go fast and learning the pullback is key. Such a fun feeling going that high though
It’s been really cool watching you develop your style, from the little trick machine in the early days to the huge airs and kicked-out style, one thing that has always perplexed me is when you air your front foot is feathering around on and off the pedal, what's that about?
Cheers, I still like doing all those tricks as well as flowing a bowl I have definitely found what i want to do on a bike tho, yeah I’m unsure why that happens to be honest ahah I think just when the air feels really floaty it just naturally happens.
What was your local park when you were growing up and what was the scene like there?
Redcliffe skatepark was the closest park growing up, it was still about 20 minutes drive away tho, I never had a skatepark that I could pedal to as a kid but dad would take me every afternoon when he finished work and would sit there till late at night till I was done.
The local scene was really strong when I first started riding but everyone got older and into other things, there was still a little crew that was older than me and would always help me out and teach me everything. Still, remember the day Chris George taught me no foot cans now it’s my favourite trick.
As a young man that has recently picked up sponsors and headed overseas a bunch to ride comps and jams, what advice would you give to the young kid at the local that doesn’t know how to get there?
Most Important thing is to be riding for the fun of it and riding the way you want to ride. These two things will give you the best opportunity for things to happen.
What's the craziest thing you have ever seen while out riding?
You left school early to pursue bmx right? You must have some really supportive parents, was that a hard decision for you and your parents to make? Mum and Dad wanted me to stay in school but in 2019 I made all the finals in the vans pro cup events which meant I travelled to all the next stops that were on during school time and some exams lined up to be the same week as I was overseas at the contest. I got back from the third stop in Mexico and said to Mum I’m not going back haha. Mum and Dad could see that I was some what good at bmx so they accepted it and supported me like they have through everything. Covid hit at the end of that year so I could have stayed in school for my last year due to no events actually happening in 2020 but was stoked to leave school.
Any parting words for the BMX community?
Shoutout to everyone in BMX that makes it such a sick thing to be a part of!
Check out what Dovey has been up to later:
Check out Dovey ripping his local park here:
