Hi, I’m Reef Denton and I’m 14 years old. When I was three, my parents took me to Nitro Circus and ever since then I’ve loved dirt bikes. My Dad told me if I could ride a push bike properly, he would get me a dirt bike. So, after some practice on a push bike he bought me a PW50. We went riding heaps at paddocks and at tracks, but then we moved to Whitianga; there wasn’t anywhere local to ride, so we stopped riding. In 2020, I met one of my best mates who had a dirt bike and he took me to a track to ride. After that day I had the bug for it again so after lots and lots of asking and begging I finally got one for my birthday. We started going on trail rides until I discovered racing. From there I’ve just been trying to get better and better. I have already had a few nasty injuries, but I am still determined to keep going.
In MX you don’t really do tricks, it’s more of a combination of corners and jumps. In racing, a lot of people say ‘jumps for show, corners for dough’. I love jumping the most, but I know I have to get really good with my corners if I want to win. It might not seem like it but there’s a lot that goes into executing a corner well, such as: body positioning and posture, throttle control, and what gear you’re in. Corners are one of the key things to master. But there is one little trick in MX called the ‘whip’. There’s no better feeling than throwing it sideways over a jump. I can’t really explain how to do a whip since it just comes with progression – as you get better, it just comes naturally and whips are so much fun!
Words by Reef Denton
