Canada’s Drew Bezanson has become one of BMX’s most talked-about bike riders. Over the last few years, Bezanson has been raising the bar in BMX. With multiple mind blowing web videos and success at countless major contests, the 22-year-old Bezanson has made his presence known in the BMX community.

In 2010, Drew came out swinging at all the major contests. The Canadian hailing from Truro, Nova Scotia went three-for-three at the first contests of 2010. Bezanson qualified first and won at Simple Session, Toronto BMX Jam, and JoMoPro. It’s a feat to win one of these contests, let alone win all three.

Along with winning some of the most prestigious contests in BMX, Drew released multiple web videos of his riding. Web videos in BMX are a dime a dozen, but Drew’s videos will stick out to many BMX riders for years to come. On top of that, Bezanson won the Ride BMX Nora Cup Award for the best ramp rider of 2010. All of this was accomplished in one year. Many riders and BMX media sources coined this year dominated by Bezanson as Drew-Thousand-and-Ten.

Unfortunately, Drew-Thousand-and-Ten was cut short due to injury but not before he left a lasting impression on BMX. I caught up with DK Bicycle’s Drew Bezanson to talk about last year, his injury, and what’s in store for him in 2011.  From what it seems, it will be Drew-Thousand-and-Eleven but through projects and some of the same successes as last year. He has already won the 2011 Simple Session and continues to hold his own in every contest he enters.

Michael: You got injured in 2010, can you elaborate on what happened and how it affected your run in contests in 2010?

Drew: The first of my year in 2010 started off incredible. I qualified 1st and won the first three contests of the year. After that I was so motivated to keep going but unfortunately I separated my right shoulder which put an end to that. Before the injury I had so much positive motivation and my shoulder injury just turned that into negative motivation. At that point of the year I didn’t really have time for it to heal and I just wanted to ride everything so bad. It was a very frustrating injury, my shoulder could still function but nowhere near the level I needed too. I kept trying to do everything I had planned even with my shoulder injury. Going from winning everything to not even making finals in any contest was a huge mental block for me. It brought me way down. I thought it was never going to heal. The middle of my 2010 was a tough one for me, I got to the point where I didn’t even want to ride my bike. Not because I didn’t like it but because I couldn’t physically ride the way I wanted too. I was only focusing on the short term rather then the whole picture. My shoulder eventually got better but by that point it was past all the contests but there is always going to be more contests. It definitely took way longer to heal than it should have due to my stubbornness.

Michael: Do you intend on hitting the contest circuit for the rest of 2011?

Drew: I plan on doing most of the contests in 2011 but a long with that I have other stuff going on. I’m working on my first full-length video part, which should be out towards the end of the year. As well as working on some signature stuff with a few of the companies I ride for.

Michael: Have you done any preparation for 2011?

Drew: I’ve been working a bunch with a bike park in Markham, Ontario called Joyride 150. The bike part is 90,000 square feet and is already incredible. I made a deal with the owners of the park that if I could get the funding that I could change what I wanted in the park. As soon as I got the OK from the park owners I got the ball rolling. Red Bull gave me some money to build new ramps, which are the same size as most of the contest ramps. I don’t know if I would call it preparation but I’m definitely going to try to be more comfortable riding big ramps this year before contests.

Michael: In 2010 you dropped some of the most talked about web edits and you have already made a few this year. Do you plan on making anymore?

Drew: I made a few web videos this year but they were a little more low key than last year. This year I’m working on my first full video part with Props. The project is called ”Owned” and 6 riders get full video part sections. I have been holding back on the web videos and putting my focus on the video parts. I still plan on putting out a few more web videos as well this year.

Photography by Kurt Hohberger.

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About the author

Michael Potoczny

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