For the last decade my motivation was coming from the fear to lose my riding skills.
It was like : time is running so push yourself as hard as you can, you don’t know how long it will be possible.
But things have changed…
Stéphane Meneau
aka Shogun
Name?
Stéphane Meneau, aka Shogun
Age?
48
Location ?
La Roche sur Yon – France (West coast)
Bike? (And why you chose it)
Haro SDv2, feels good in the air on jumps and vert, as well as for more technical tricks.
Not so many bikes offer longer back ends nowadays, so you can pedal without touching your pegs.
Back to front brake / 4 pegs lately, so won’t have to switch to my 88 Haro sport to ride flat time to time. And a 4 pieces bar as it has always looked better.
Tell us about your early days in BMX, where did you ride? did you enter contests?
It all started for me in 1984 when I got my first BMX bike, as well as many other kids in the neighbourhood. Then started to learn freestyle basics and moved to some racetracks so we could jump, but never got any interest in racing.
I started competing only many years later, in the 90s. First ramp and flat, and then stopped flatland as it was getting too hard for me, and I had more fun riding ramps, jumps or street.
Got few titles in the French championship and once a first place at the worlds on vert.
I discovered that comps helped me trying new stuff more easily, good opportunity to get good vibes and go big.
What were the sponsorship opportunities in France like in your early days?
I started competing in the dead years, I first got some goods from rider owned Asphalt French company. Then got bikes from Heavy Tools and KHE directly from Germany. Latter opportunities came from local bike shops.
Where do you ride now?
I’ve got an indoor park around 1 hour away that has a vert and many decent things to ride, that’s the winter destination. When the weather is nice, we are lucky to have many good trails around and few recent concrete parks.
Do you mostly Ride Solo or in a crew?
Always with other riders, the local scene is quite good and active and when it comes to vert riding, I have a couple of OS mates to play with. I also have a young apprentice who I drive on most of the spots or jams I go. This kid shows an incredible progression, I’m happy to help and on the other side he pushes me as well.
The only solo sessions that I had were riding flatland during lock down, that was the only option to keep riding.
How often do you ride?
At least one big session every weekend, sometimes an extra during the week. Even when I could have ridden my bike every day I did not. I like to feel the need to ride and to look forward to the next session and then enjoy it 100%.
When you ride now do you just blast around having fun or do you have some structure to your sessions? I.e. – do you set aside time to practice certain tricks?
I like to have a little trick list, just to do or re do things that I’m not used to, and always add a 100% brand new thing to try. That will be used or not, but it’s part of the motivation process, and then the session goes as it goes.
France has always had an amazing scene and some great contests (including the worlds!!) – Do you feel the scene has been overlooked in the past by the major Bmx magazines?
In a way yes, only few riders got coverage out of France, maybe we were not good enough or did not travel enough :-). In Europe it feels that UK or Germany had more international actions/influence regarding mags and comps.
Do you think the popularity of social and digital media has helped the scene in France?
For sure like anywhere else. Many websites, then forums helped to get the scene together after the video tapes period and until the bigger social networks arrived.
You really push yourself when you ride. How do you stay motivated?
For the last decade my motivation was coming from the fear to lose my riding skills.
It was like : time is running so push yourself as hard as you can, you don’t know how long it will be possible.
But things have changed earlier this year. I mentally felt ready and confident to go for more new stuff and it worked out, I progressed more than ever.
I realized that there is a large unused potential to explore. I’m not afraid to get older anymore, I can see myself riding and progressing for the next 10 years as soon as I work for it, on and off my bike.
Is there anything that really scares you trick wise?
Less and less, I believe that many things that I’ve never tried before for some reason, can be done in the end.
It’s more a matter of: can you do it? do you want to do it? So let’s go…. I don’t ask myself about being scared or not.
How do you keep your body in the right condition to ride in the way you do? Do you do any exercise or stretching to help with BMX fitness and/or injury prevention?
I’ve been used do to some basic before/after session stretching since the 90s, for me it goes logically with wearing all safety gears, so you limit risks of injuries.
But related to this recent new long-term approach of my riding and progression, I started few month ago to take things way more seriously. I now do some physical exercise every single day, that’s the only way to ensure that I can keep pushing it on my bike again and again.
You seem to be able to kill it on any Bmx discipline. How would you class yourself as a rider? (Ie Vert rider? , Park Rider? All rounder?)
Back in the days you were a ground rider or a ramp rider, so I was calling myself a ramp rider.
I for ever will be addicted to vert riding even if I don’t ride vert much these days. I enjoy tricks on parks as much as big jumps on trails and recently enjoyed working on new (old) flatland tricks. Let’s call that being a freestyler.
Who were the riders who influenced you when you were younger?
First, any of the freestylers that appeared on bicross magazine posters, on my kid room walls. When started riding ramps I was amazed how smooth were Brian Blyther and French Michel Delgado.
Always loved Joe Johnson style (during his Haro period), perfect airs and perfect landing whatever he was doing. Then Mat exploded everything and showed that anything could be done or at least tried. I was looking up to a lot of top ramp riders back then, for various reasons. I could name a lot from US, UK and France.
I was influenced as well by riders like Joe Rich or Chris Doyle, they could kill it on any type of riding.
Who are the riders who influence you today?
Dennis Enarson for sure, as well as Tom Justice, Boyd Hilder, … the kind of riders that have it all, tricks, smoothness, style and can shred anything with a big smile on their face. I like guys with generous riding, who go big and send good energy like Morgan Wade, Mike Hucker , or French Maxime Charveron or Pierre Tortereau.
Then for vert riding, Jamie of course. No words for what he has accomplished. After riding at the top European level for years, being able to explode his own limits and dominate the sport like he does is so amazing. Then I thought that Steven Mc Can would be the one from the next generation to take Jamie’s crown, I loved the way he was riding, unfortunately he has stopped.
Your bag of tricks is pretty impressive. Is there anything you struggle with trick wise?
Can’t do hang five since day one, and gave up.
I could pull tail whips on jumps in 1992 or something with foot on the top tube of course. It took me more than 20 years to get them pedal to pedal.
Never could tooth pick correctly but feel confident that it will come… and my biggest frustration so far is the cancan lookback on vert, for me the best looking trick ever. I worked hard for a long time without getting it correctly but I will work again to get it, no choice.
And what sort of tricks do you find come easy?
Always been comfortable with back wheel lip tricks variations and rotations, DMC style. No footer stuff on jumps as well.
What was the last brand new trick you learned from scratch and how long did it take you?
Got some new tricks this year on park or vert, they came quite easily as I mentally could completely see them. But the verry last things that I learned, thanks to lock down, were flatland tricks.
Double tail whip and the flail boomerang (thanks to your tutorial Neil), they are all basics, but it took around 4 or 5 sessions. It reminded me how hard flat is, and how good it feels when you finally pull a trick off after tons of tries 🙂
BMX has come a long way over your lifetime. What’s your view on modern BMX?
I’m amazed how far things have gone, we were lucky to meet that sport from the verry beginning and see it progress years after years and to be a part of it. I love BMX today; it feels that any aspect of riding has been explored and pushed beyond any expectation. Impossible stuff on flatland and street, incredible style and flow on concrete parks or trails, unthinkable tricks on whatever…
Some riders will become athletes for the Olympics, other will keep pushing it just for pure love of the sport, and that’s OK. I like the idea of mixing all this, we can ride any discipline, go for oldschool tricks or brand new ones, enjoy riding with younger or older, etc…. It’s an unlimited playground.
How do you fit BMX into your life now that you’re an older rider?
BMX is more important than ever, I have even more time to ride now that our 2 boys are grown and have left home.
Always had great support from my wife and kids, we used to move a lot all together on BMX contests or jams, I feel lucky and thankful. I always had a full-time job on one side and a full passion for BMX on the other side. It’s like being 2 different persons but it fits fine. It’s always funny when your colleagues tell you what they did for the week end, like standard family or adult activities, and then you hesitate to tell them that you went to a BMX jam, with a bunch crazy younger guys that at night got drunk, burned some stuff or did fireworks fights
What’s next for you?
I’m really curious to see how far I can push my riding, so will keep doing it as long as I can.
I want to try bigger stuff as well, must travel and at last ride a big air. I want to know how it feels to get full speed in front of a massive quarter pipe and see what happens. If anybody else is into this why not plan it together (Dean Johnston ?)
Any last words?
First thank you for this interview and the good job with the Ride On page, the community is really great.
Classic thanks to family, riding mates from now and back in the days, brands and shops that helped, etc…
It’s incredible what this little bike brought to our lives…. Thank you BMX
