Seth wake up time to ride let's do this
This is hands-down the best guest room I've ever stayed in and it's on top of Eric Porter's garage in Utah
I'm Eric Porter. I'm a
pro mountain biker for Diamondback and I
Think I like to do everything on the bikes. That's that's my specialty if Eric seems soft-spoken
It's because he doesn't want to wake up his family. This is his home and these huge doubles are in his yard
Three years, just to buy this house, you know, since I was a kid and dreamed of having the backyard riding set up
You heard it from Eric. This yard is a dream come true
one acre with a pump track water slides a one-story rolling and massive floaters
But each feature has a story and so does this house and Eric!
And then in Louisville had a really big street scene like metal bikes was there and Jimmy the van and all those guys that hold?
Metal bikes crew so we'd go street riding every night and the skate park had just gone in did one summer
On brakeless BMX. So I had pegs on the pegs no brakes and started sliding ledges and
One night
I'm like I think I'm gonna do it real bunny hopped up and my back peg hung up on the top
Upright and just stopped me threw me forward first thing. I remember is staring at my parents kitchen with a handful of teeth like
Yeah, what do I do? As I was meeting people I was the toothless kid from Kentucky, which was pretty funny
Got into slopestyle
Almost by accident being right place right time. I was racing semi-pro and maybe getting top-five
Crankworx had the first slopestyle. It's called joyride that year at Whistler
I got on the list to ride those things and ended up getting second place at that first grade works with behind bear claw
So from Kentucky moved to Durango, that's where things happens riding and then from Durango we moved to, New Jersey
That's where Aaron chase and jeff lenosky lived and that's where I needed to be
To ride and we went to Woodward all the time. We just duck jumps all day. Everything else is awesome
Now a year out east was it was super fun? But my wife's from Alaska and I've always wanted to be in the mountains
So we had to get back to the big mountains and park sitting and then I'd be in the spot we tried for
three years to get this house finally came together after all kinds of just working and saving up and
Continuing putting offers in and talking to the owners first summer. I actually started put the first jump in
Which is the trick step up now and that was because the neighbor to the back he had been moving dirt
And so I just walked back there and asked him if I could buy some dirt off him or trade him for something or whatever
Just to put a lip in front of and have some fun the next year
The Diamondback was having a bike launch in, Utah
so I proposed the idea that we build jumps in the backyard that year we brought in another I
think 45 dump truck loads of dirt
Yeah, so we didn't go a little we were big so the water sides are from Matt Barringer's house a probiem exer
We got to be friends once I moved to Utah and started riding and I'd go up and ride his yard
Which was legendary for the water slides and the weird features satellite dish and all this stuff a couple years ago
He ended up selling his house. He had a year of a lot of the slides and all this stuff
So just before that I said to myself after the you know, three or four years of maintenance on the air
And I'm not putting anything else in this yard because I don't want to take care of anything else
I don't have time, but she can't turn that down. It's the to cool and to unique so broad. Everybody's race truck trailer
we filled the thing up and
Got like a hundred and something feticide now
Yesterday I asked Eric if we could build a new feature together
Originally my theory with building the Yard said the pumptrack to warm up and then big jumps people show up and they either
Know they know how to ride him or they know that they don't know how to ride him
It's just here they are and then after having kids push bikes were great on the pumptrack. They figured out a ride there
That's mean they learned how to ride on a pump track two years ago
Maya was old enough to start hitting some jumps
We built a lion for him on the left basically since the end of that summer
he's been begging me to build a jump next to the
step-up for him next to my step-up to build a landing entirely of dirt would just not have been practical that day and in the
Desert would last a long time
With pine he collected in the forests. Eric uses a chainsaw fitted with an Alaska mill to make his own dimensional lumber
You know, he's like can we build it today I'm like it's more than a day project I'm telling you
It's like a week and we need people and sort of you know
It's when he dirts all this stuff and then I don't know what it was
You know you and I just decided I think we got this
With this retaining wall a little dirt off the back of a few landings in an old transition
That was just laying around we were able to build this double and just half a day
But the dirt would need to harden overnight
This morning the jump is ready to send
Milo has never jumped a proper double like this. So eric is attaching some wood in the middle for him to get used to it
With Milo's first double out of the way. I was ready to conquer some demons of my own
Since I arrived at Eric's house two days ago. I've been petrified of sending any of these doubles
They're like little versions of what you'd see in a slope style competition
With steep wooden lips and abrupt gaps with no case pads and landings
But as scary as they look they were crafted by a master Kelly McGarry
He used to stay here for about a month a year
It's you know, he was a part of our family and you know, the kids loved him talking about him all the time. So it's
Really cool to me to have this legacy hear from him
so Kelly built this deck and the roll in and then all of the lips for the jumps they're his
Proprietary design style. It's funny stuff had people ask me. They're building lips. What's the training on that one or that one?
I'm like, I honestly don't know because I built those with Kelly and
He drew it out. And I don't remember. It's a you know, he's I wish I did but
Yeah, he knew what he was doing and they work really well because of it oh
God you're Gordon. Yes. All right
There's no reason not to go for you get one chance in life
This is it like you we don't have more Mario's like you're saying, you know
Nice at work though, huh?
Getting hurt isn't even an option
So yeah
That was a big I think you're the first one to hit these jumps on a trail bike
If you have a big dream that you wanted to accomplish you just put everything into that
I wanted to ride my bikes for a living. So I sold everything and just lived in a minivan
it's gonna take sacrifice to make a huge dream come true and it wasn't like it all just happened like that it was
One little thing after one little thing and looking back now. I'm like, oh
Somehow this is mine, whatever standing in the way of your goals squashing sell your furniture ditch your car pick up and move
Stop making excuses
If that's the blueprint to happiness
Eric and Megan are living proof
Thanks for riding with me today and I'll see you next time
I don't know why I thought that was nowhere down fun. Okay, I'm sorry that
Was amazing