Back in the saddle with Aiden Parish

Welcome to INTENSE, Aiden! You joined the team a few weeks ago and have been on the constant go since. What have you been up to since you jumped on the program?

Since I joined the intense program, I was living in southern Utah moved out in April then decided to hit the road and live in my van, starting off with the zink invitational, then made my way to southern California for a week or so, then up the coast to Oregon stopping in Northern California, Bend, and Pacific City on the way.

You had an accident back at Rampage in Oct. it’s been just over 6 months since you broke your femur. What’s then process in getting back on the bike been like?

The femur was a tough one. two years ago i tore my ACL on the same leg as I broke my femur so it compounded the injury, causing my knee to get a lot weaker and my femur to be very painful. My process was hitting the gym six days a week, going off pain management. started off with trying to get the mobility back, then slowly gaining more muscle and doing more active movements. The pain management was the hardest part and I was told to train off of that. Most days if it was super painful, I would take it easy, but if it wasn’t, I would try and train as hard as I could. After a while once I was feeling confident in my ability to walk with just a cane, I slowly started riding the E bike that I had that really helped me gain a lot of muscle. At first, it was hard for me to even stand up off the pedals, but slowly overtime I was able to get more comfortable and build up the strength to go longer trail rides, and then eventually easing my way into riding, small jumps and or steep shoots and small drops eventually building more strength to ride bigger stuff. But it wasn’t until the very last week of me living in the desert, at the end of April, I was able to hop on my big bike again and start hitting jumps and bigger drops and doing more tricks.

Zink invitational was your first time back on the bike competing and your first time competing on your Tracer. How was that?

It was a little nerve-racking, but it was fun. I did not come into the event with the mindset to win. I came into it with the mindset to have fun and hang out and ride big jumps with all the homies. I had only had about two weeks of riding my big bike before this event so I was not very confident in my abilities to go all out. I wanted to take this as a time to build myself back up and try to relearn and regain a lot of the skills that I’ve lost. Riding it on the tracer was really fun. I’ve never had a single crown big bike before so it’s been fun getting used to something different and a lot lighter and smaller. I’ve been super stoked on how the bike rides and feels and it was good to get to test it out on some bigger jumps at the event.

What INTENSE bikes are you currently riding?

Right now I have a small 27.5 tracer with a 180 fork in the front. I have the DJ, and the new Tazer E bike, as well as an old prototype traser alloy frame that fits a dual crown.

How are you enjoying the Tazer and how does it differ from other E-MTB’s you’ve ridden?

The tazer has been really fun by far the best E bike I’ve ever ridden it’s a full power so it’s a lot heavier than what I’ve been used to but the power of the motor makes up the difference. The bike is super playful for a full power E bike and gets me up the trail super fast. I’m able to do a ton of laps within an hour not having to worry about the battery or me getting tired on the uphills. I love the fact that you can go into the app and tune the motor to the specs you want, right now I have everything cranked up to the max so it’s just feels like a motto without a throttle. This bike makes me want to ride it more every time I get off of it. The only other E bike I’ve ridden was YT decoy SN and the decoy I’ve been liking the intense a lot more because of how nice the Bosch motor is and how the suspension feels under me.

What are some of things that make you most excited to be repping INTENSE?

The future, we have a lot of exciting things planned and a great team behind it. I’ve loved working with everybody and they are an incredible brand who’s very motivated to get shit done. We’ve got a lot of cool up-and-coming things in the works and a lot of sick video projects as well and I’m stoked to be a part of it all.

You’re currently up in the PNW hearing up for some summer events. What’s on the plate these next few months?

Currently, I’m up in Mount Hood, Oregon hanging out with the in the Hills Gang Crew and I’ve been helping them with one of their big build projects and been doing a lot of filming. Here soon I’ll be making my way up to Kamloops for a couple weeks to try and get as much riding in as I can, whether it’s jumps or free ride then I’ll be making my way back to Mount Hood, Oregon for a few days before flying out to France for Paul coudercs backyard battle. After that I’m planning on going up to Whistler for crank Works then directly after I’ll be in Bellingham for woolly fest. then I’ll be back down in Oregon before hopefully flying out to the UK for Sam Hodgy’s backyard battle which is at the end of August. Then slowly making my way back down to southern Utah for another winter.

You were initially chasing podiums as a racer, but soon moved all your focus over to freeride. What sparked that?

Growing up, I raced BMX for seven years then as I got the mountain biking I continued to race. it got harder and harder each year while aging up from category to category that you had to be so on point in order to be top 10 or top five in any race that I’ve went to. I got the opportunity to go to Wyeast Mountain Academy, which is a boarding school for action sports and they have a mountain biking program and during that mountain biking program, I slowly stopped training as hard for races and started riding my bike and having more fun because I don’t find peddling uphill and doing 10 laps every day fun, it was way more fun to hanging out with Homies riding jumps push each other to learning new tricks. So after my first winter at the school, we went to the Fox U.S. Open in Killington and there is a downhill race and a jump jam. The jump jam was the day before the downhill race and I had a so much fun getting to ride with all the Homies doing big whips doing tricks and everyone in the crowd was going crazy. the next was the race and i had the opposite experience I got 28th and didn’t have fun and i was all stressed out and from that point on I realized I’m not fit enough to be a racer and I don’t find this fun anymore. I want to be the best at what I’m at and when I got 28th in the race, but way more reaction from a big crowd at the jump jam that’s when I realized that I wanted to pursue free ride, then once I graduated, I moved down to Virgin Utah, where I was able to ride big jumps and steep chutes.

Any advice for up and coming riders?

My advice would be to have as much fun as possible, train in the gym and push yourself within your limit. if you’re not having fun then what’s the point of doing it and also do it for the love of the sport not for anybody else or Instagram views.