Josh de Reus is back in town.
A Cambridge BMXer raising in the ranks of the professional scene has just touched down in New Zealand after a whirlwind trip in the United States.
It was Josh de Reus’ fourth trip to America with Premium BMX, a fully paid-for working holiday where the trickster pulls of stunts and street riding for the brand’s promotional videos. During the latest trip, this time to San Francisco, Josh signed up with a more prestigious branch of the company, Haro BMX, and got a new bike in the process.
“I’m pretty lucky really, I never thought I would be able to go and travel around the world doing this,” said Josh.
It wasn’t exactly a cruisy trip for the 24-year-old, day-in day-out de Reus was out with a cameraman filming his best stunts and tricks at spots throughout the Bay area – including the infamous UC Berkley campus – jumping stairs, grinding handrails, pulling off tricks, and thankfully without sustaining any injuries in the process.
“It was just work the whole time really, like literally wake up, get in the car, and the filmer had already planned all the spots we were going to,” Josh explained. “It was pretty fun, pretty tiring as well, just riding every day and trying to film the best stuff you can do.”
Josh de Reus flying high in San Francisco.
When he first arrived for the ten-day trip, the air was still smoky from recent fires in the area.
“It was pretty lucky that we actually were able to do anything with all those fires… I’m not sure how close we actually got but when we first got there we couldn’t see anything, it was smoked out in one area because another fire had just started… it was pretty hectic,” Josh said.
Whilst he enjoyed filming for the first time with prestigious cameraman Christian Rigal, Josh was happy to come home on Thursday last week. “I always look forward to coming home, we have nicer food here,” he laughed.
For now, de Reus will continue street riding and filming stunts to create content for the BMX brand, and in February he’ll be heading back over to the States once again.
With so many young BMX riders in Cambridge, for those hoping to get into professional street stunt work, de Reus advised, “If you really want to make something of it, just ride your bike a lot and have fun, and see where it goes… I got lucky, I just rode every day.
“You’ve got to just make it fun, that’s the most important thing. It’s just a good time at the end of the day.”
