Corey Bohan is one of a slew of Australian BMX riders currently taking ownership of the worldwide competition scene. His effortless style and unique trick combos have helped make him one of the biggest names in dirt jumping, an honor he's earned—three years in a row—with gold medals in X Games Dirt and RideBMX Magazine's Number One Rider Award for dirt. While some riders fall victim to the fame, Bohan has remained accessible, down-to-earth, and humble about his success. He spends the U.S. summers based in Southern California, and returns home to Brisbane for the Aussie summer, chasing the sun and the surf sessions year-round. It's a good life.
Compare your life five years ago to now. I was working a full-time job, riding as much as I could, trying to save money in order to come over to the States to tour around and hit a few contests. From then to now, my lifestyle has changed a whole bunch. I get to sleep in and just ride full-time. It's pretty wild; it's what you want to happen, but you never expect it to happen.
What about the things you owned? Back in the day, pretty much all I owned was my bike and a shitty old car. That was it, just living at home with mom and dad. Now, you get these money deals and if you do the right thing, you can get set up pretty sweet. I tried to save as much as I could, so now I have a house in Australia and a house out here in Cali. I never thought any of this would ever come from BMX riding, so it's really cool.
You've won the last three X Games Dirt contests, but they dropped the event for 2007. How do you feel about that? It wasn't really that big of a surprise because of the way they've treated the dirt discipline for the last few years. It sucks for sure, but what are you going to do? I'm going to focus a lot more on park this year.
Do you think dirt competition is in jeopardy? There are always new ideas, like the Red Bull Empire of Dirt contest in England. It's going to be huge, so people are going to be watching that and other things will pop up, for sure.
You mention the Red Bull comps, like Empire of Dirt and Elevation. Is that the way dirt contests should be headed? Every rider agrees that that's the way dirt comps should be these days. With Elevation, all the riders 100% enjoy going to ride that. Everybody's talking about it, looking forward to it. It's definitely the way dirt should be done.
Do you think the dirt competition on the Action Sports Pro Tour this year will heat up? I think so. I see they changed up their format this year—finals is two runs count, instead of that one-run bullcrap, so that's cool. They're finally taking note; I hate going to a comp and repeating a run. It's not cool at all.
Do you have to approach park and dirt differently? I like going to the park comps because you get to be creative. The courses are always changing, and it's cool to push yourself on different objects. You have to work out lines, get creative, and do your own thing, whereas in a dirt comp, it's just a straight six-pack.
Do you like one better than the other? I'm a dirt rider for sure. I grew up riding dirt and that's my favorite, but as long as I'm riding my bike and having fun, it's all good.
Do you remember your first win? Yeah, my first ever win was back in Australia at this little local comp in Ipswich; '98, '97 I think? The local comps in Australia, there's usually no money, maybe just some prize packs or something, but this comp was talked about for a couple of months in advance. To win it and get a check for 300 bucks was amazing. That was huge back in the day; it was cool.
Does winning still feel the same now? It definitely does because the level of riding is just ridiculous. When you throw down a good run and feel good about it, then see other guys throwing down, it's crazy to be on top of all that and get the win, so it feels awesome.
You do a lot of surfing; didn't you get to hang out in Hawaii recently? Yeah, for the Triple Crown. Red Bull invited me to hang out for a week and check out the contest. It was amazing; I arrived and got a rental car, drove over to the North Shore and pulled up to this mansion, a bloody ginormous house right on the beach. If I wasn't a BMX rider, I'd definitely want to be a surfer, so I was just living the dream right there; it was awesome.
How nuts do the Guitar Hero games get at your house? When it first came out, that's all it was in this house: 24-7 Guitar Hero. I wanted to finish number one before number two came out, so I was on a bit of a schedule—late nights. I finally got it done. It takes over your life if you let it.
You used to draw a lot; do you still do it? No, not as much as I used to. Every afternoon I would come home and draw; I wanted to be a cartoonist. It's slowly fading away, but I'd love to sit down and draw something up here and there. Heath [Pinter, one of Corey's team managers] is really good, as well, so it's cool to work with him on sticker designs.
Let's do some favorites here in the U.S. and back in Australia. Favorite meal? Favorite place to eat over here is easy; it's Chick-Fil-A. We had a delicious meal there today. Back home, it would either be KFC or mom's home-cooked curried sausages.
Favorite riding spot? Probably Utah. I love the scene out there. I wouldn't live there, because it's a little too quiet, but I love the riding scene for sure. Back home, it's Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Favorite thing to do on a Saturday night? Could be anything, really. We're usually rolling deep with about five of us, so there's always something interesting going on. Back home it's just madness, either out drinking at the local or causing some mischief.
Free time activity? Over here, it's either surfing when it's warm enough, or playing ping-pong, or getting into some waste-of-money activity, whether it's RC airplanes or… I don't know, there's just too much to get into when you've got this much spare time. Back home, it's the same deal: surfing all the time because it's so damn hot, and just chilling out with my buddies.
What did you do in the off-season? I spent most of my time back in Oz, hanging out with all my buddies from school, and riding all of the local spots back home. Just being really relaxed, no worries, and a lot of surfing. It was good, no schedule whatsoever. The BMX Games were on down in Sydney, then myself, Dave Dillewaard, Colin Mackay, Senad Grosic from Austria, and my buddies Robo and Stuart, we drove from Sydney down to Canberra to film for an hour-long program on Fuel TV; it was such a fun trip. The show should be airing soon.
You've got a lot of signature product on the way; tell us about that. Duo just brought out a New Era hat, a celebration for my X Games 3-peat, and we're currently working on a signature grip, too. I've also endorsed a shoe with a signature colorway for DC, and Giant got my signature frame together, which will come in two colors. That's all going to be coming out this year; it's pretty exciting.
What else is on tap for this year?
Compare your life five years ago to now. I was working a full-time job, riding as much as I could, trying to save money in order to come over to the States to tour around and hit a few contests. From then to now, my lifestyle has changed a whole bunch. I get to sleep in and just ride full-time. It's pretty wild; it's what you want to happen, but you never expect it to happen.
What about the things you owned? Back in the day, pretty much all I owned was my bike and a shitty old car. That was it, just living at home with mom and dad. Now, you get these money deals and if you do the right thing, you can get set up pretty sweet. I tried to save as much as I could, so now I have a house in Australia and a house out here in Cali. I never thought any of this would ever come from BMX riding, so it's really cool.
You've won the last three X Games Dirt contests, but they dropped the event for 2007. How do you feel about that? It wasn't really that big of a surprise because of the way they've treated the dirt discipline for the last few years. It sucks for sure, but what are you going to do? I'm going to focus a lot more on park this year.
Do you think dirt competition is in jeopardy? There are always new ideas, like the Red Bull Empire of Dirt contest in England. It's going to be huge, so people are going to be watching that and other things will pop up, for sure.
You mention the Red Bull comps, like Empire of Dirt and Elevation. Is that the way dirt contests should be headed? Every rider agrees that that's the way dirt comps should be these days. With Elevation, all the riders 100% enjoy going to ride that. Everybody's talking about it, looking forward to it. It's definitely the way dirt should be done.
Do you think the dirt competition on the Action Sports Pro Tour this year will heat up? I think so. I see they changed up their format this year—finals is two runs count, instead of that one-run bullcrap, so that's cool. They're finally taking note; I hate going to a comp and repeating a run. It's not cool at all.
Do you have to approach park and dirt differently? I like going to the park comps because you get to be creative. The courses are always changing, and it's cool to push yourself on different objects. You have to work out lines, get creative, and do your own thing, whereas in a dirt comp, it's just a straight six-pack.
Do you like one better than the other? I'm a dirt rider for sure. I grew up riding dirt and that's my favorite, but as long as I'm riding my bike and having fun, it's all good.
Do you remember your first win? Yeah, my first ever win was back in Australia at this little local comp in Ipswich; '98, '97 I think? The local comps in Australia, there's usually no money, maybe just some prize packs or something, but this comp was talked about for a couple of months in advance. To win it and get a check for 300 bucks was amazing. That was huge back in the day; it was cool.
Does winning still feel the same now? It definitely does because the level of riding is just ridiculous. When you throw down a good run and feel good about it, then see other guys throwing down, it's crazy to be on top of all that and get the win, so it feels awesome.
You do a lot of surfing; didn't you get to hang out in Hawaii recently? Yeah, for the Triple Crown. Red Bull invited me to hang out for a week and check out the contest. It was amazing; I arrived and got a rental car, drove over to the North Shore and pulled up to this mansion, a bloody ginormous house right on the beach. If I wasn't a BMX rider, I'd definitely want to be a surfer, so I was just living the dream right there; it was awesome.
How nuts do the Guitar Hero games get at your house? When it first came out, that's all it was in this house: 24-7 Guitar Hero. I wanted to finish number one before number two came out, so I was on a bit of a schedule—late nights. I finally got it done. It takes over your life if you let it.
You used to draw a lot; do you still do it? No, not as much as I used to. Every afternoon I would come home and draw; I wanted to be a cartoonist. It's slowly fading away, but I'd love to sit down and draw something up here and there. Heath [Pinter, one of Corey's team managers] is really good, as well, so it's cool to work with him on sticker designs.
Let's do some favorites here in the U.S. and back in Australia. Favorite meal? Favorite place to eat over here is easy; it's Chick-Fil-A. We had a delicious meal there today. Back home, it would either be KFC or mom's home-cooked curried sausages.
Favorite riding spot? Probably Utah. I love the scene out there. I wouldn't live there, because it's a little too quiet, but I love the riding scene for sure. Back home, it's Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Favorite thing to do on a Saturday night? Could be anything, really. We're usually rolling deep with about five of us, so there's always something interesting going on. Back home it's just madness, either out drinking at the local or causing some mischief.
Free time activity? Over here, it's either surfing when it's warm enough, or playing ping-pong, or getting into some waste-of-money activity, whether it's RC airplanes or… I don't know, there's just too much to get into when you've got this much spare time. Back home, it's the same deal: surfing all the time because it's so damn hot, and just chilling out with my buddies.
What did you do in the off-season? I spent most of my time back in Oz, hanging out with all my buddies from school, and riding all of the local spots back home. Just being really relaxed, no worries, and a lot of surfing. It was good, no schedule whatsoever. The BMX Games were on down in Sydney, then myself, Dave Dillewaard, Colin Mackay, Senad Grosic from Austria, and my buddies Robo and Stuart, we drove from Sydney down to Canberra to film for an hour-long program on Fuel TV; it was such a fun trip. The show should be airing soon.
You've got a lot of signature product on the way; tell us about that. Duo just brought out a New Era hat, a celebration for my X Games 3-peat, and we're currently working on a signature grip, too. I've also endorsed a shoe with a signature colorway for DC, and Giant got my signature frame together, which will come in two colors. That's all going to be coming out this year; it's pretty exciting.
What else is on tap for this year?
I'm going on the Local Exposure Tour, then going to England for the Empire of Dirt, then the Action Sports Pro Tour season starts. I'll have the Elevation comp, then I'll be heading over to Europe for the Rebel Jam… It's a busy schedule this year, so I'm sure it's going to fly by before I know it.
Justin Kosman
