Kade Edwards interview – the hugely versatile rider on DH's future, riding with Brandon Semenuk and more

It's been almost a week since Kade Edwards' and Brandon Semenuk's new edit, Parallel II, dropped. Impressed by the video and curious about the process behind the scenes, we sat down with Kade Edwards to chat about all things mountain biking.

BP: Hi Kade. Are you currently in the UK or are you elsewhere in the world?

KE: I'm in the UK. Just at home, chilling at the moment.

Are you planning to ride in the next round of the DH World Cup at Snowshoe?

I don't think so, I had a crash at Lenzerheide [the last World Cup round] and I'm still recovering. I've got an appointment with a doctor soon where we'll make a plan on how to proceed with this. 

Sorry to hear about that. Is it a concussion?

Yes, yes it is. Something we definitely need to be more cautious about in mountain biking.

Absolutely. You recently co-starred in the Parallel II video edit, how was it? Have you ridden with or filmed anything with Brandon Semenuk before?

It was really, really good. Very professional. Everything we needed was just there. Even just watching Brandon get in the zone and all was just pretty special. I haven't done any filming projects with him before. I don't think I have ridden with him before either. When I got there, we just jumped straight to it with the edit, there was no hanging around.

It's such an epic edit. How do you put something like that together? It looked so well choreographed.

This edit was six to eight weeks in planning. The team was amazing. We just all got on really well. A lot of this takes a lot of working out. Lots of tests and things to figure out who can be in what position at what time. The bit that took the longest was the first shot. Because we need to get the timing perfect, we had to shoot it over and over again. It was pretty complicated! But I really enjoyed riding my bike that week!

When was it shot?

It was like, end of April, I think! It took us about 10 days.

I imagined that the final sequence with you guys riding towards each other around that berm would've taken the longest! How was that to film?

The timing was really hard on that one because the whole line had to be timed as we cross over before that turn. So yeah, that had to be timed as well. But then once you got one thing right, the rest of the trail would follow on. It was kind of heartbreaking to make sure it all flowed pretty good.

Were all the features in the edit from the same trail?

No they were on different ones.

After riding with Brandon, do you feel inspired to give Rampage a go?

Yes, for sure. I've watched Rampage for a long time now. We'll see what happens though, see if I can get in.

How come you haven't already?

It's really tough to get a spot. A lot of people are there already and lot of people are preparing for it, it's just hard to get a spot.

You're so good at so many different riding disciplines. How do you maintain them all? Do you kind of adapt your training based on what's coming up, or just really enjoy riding and feel confident going into something right away?

I think I'm just confident in riding really. I've been riding since the age of two. I've been lucky to try all of the disciplines and it all kind of just ties in, you know? I've always loved BMX, skatepark and stuff. That's where I come from really. Then I got into mountain biking and really enjoyed it and that's where everything started off.

Given the forthcoming change in broadcast rights for DH World Cups, from Red Bull to Discovery, will this change your interest in World Cup racing in any way?

I don't know actually. We'll have to see how they do it, you know! We reckon it's going to be a big change but we honestly don't know a lot. It's all a bit up in the air, really. We'll just have to wait and see!

On the stories of DH riders forming a union. Are you involved with that and what are your thoughts?

I missed the rider's union meeting at both Lenzerheide and Andorra. I haven't been able to attend any of the meetings yet, but I will when I get a chance. It's just about having a good standard for the track and stuff.

In the current setup, do riders get a say if there's any dangerous features on the track? Can you flag things up and you know that they will get changed?

Yes, to a certain point, we do have control but then, not everyone can be happy, that's just how it is, right? But yeah, it'd be nice to have more say on the track safety, amongst other things.

What are your riding goals this year?

Well, for now, my goal is to get back on my bike and recover from the concussion.

What sort of symptoms are you having?

I've been getting a bit dizzy every now and again, neck pain, pressure on the head and all. Nothing crazy, that's about it. I've been lucky to not have chronic headaches and that! Maybe in like two weeks or so of complete recovery. Now it's been that time, but I think I'll take another week before I start getting back.

I hope you keep feeling better and Ggood luck with the recovery. Have you got any more video edits planned this year?

Maybe something for the end of the year. Nothing in the pipeline at the moment. There's a lot of plans for riding bikes, we just need to put a plan down on paper.

What would be your dream video edit?

This [Parallel II] one was one of my dream edits. I guess we've got some ideas. I'm not sure what wold be 'he' dream edit. I mean, it'd be fun to ride all of our bikes in one edit, why not!

That would be fun to watch! Will you be doing Red Bull Hardline this year?

Yeah, for sure!

Thank you for your time Kade and hope you recover well.