Sparing the details of getting my first bike or what got me into stunting first, I believe anyone that watches their first video has dreams of being "starboyish". Not neccassarily furring out their bikes, but achieving a level of status, if you will, of being the best, being known, being recognized. I will admit that even I am guilty of such thoughts in the beginning. Who Isn`t?
Being a realist I understand that I am 27 years old and didn`t even start riding until I was 24. This being said I know competing against the likes of Chauncey, Gorka, or even RedLine Laura, people almost born on a motorcycle, is incredibly impossible. Either way, it did not take long to that adreniline rush of stunting to become an addiction.
With any addiction you want to find a place and people that share that addiction. It gives you a sense of comfort and ease.
Thankfully, other people with our own addiction have that place, Stuntlife. More and more each day, stunters find or stumble on to a place they can share their addictions. I can`t give you the exact numbers, but it spans over almost all countries with the internet connection away from anyone and everyone finding it. The US, Japan, even Katar with countles others.
A great number of people join each day. All sorts of religions, languages, beliefs, and opinions. Some will voice those opinions, but others will join the THOUSANDS of members that have not posted at all.
What does all this have to do with each other? I was once told by a fellow stunter that I had no right to voice the opinions I had do to the fact that I had a fewer number of posts. That, asside from my abilities, I was even less of a stunter due to that fact. Each day as more and more people join and post I`m reminded that there are ever increasing amounts of people on here using the site as a sort of crutch to further lift themselves up or distance themselves from others as a sort of class warefare.
No longer are we just stunters, but OGs, Gangstas, Glamma, Posers, ETC. A community divided instead of supporting and encouraging. Not to say that does not happen, but it becomes fewer and fewer each day.
Now, this may be deleted faster than a thread advertising a different cage company, but hopefully it will be left as food for though, I will never know.
Just as the love for the adreniline rush becomes an addiction, some times the place of refuge becomes just the same. I`m breaking my own addiction and leaving stuntlife, for I do not need the aggrivation of being sot out or verbally shot at by specific stunters making me constantly defend myself, my character, my friends, or my team and on some occasions physically. I`m not leaving stunting because I still feel the same way I always have when getting on my bike.
Though my presence may or may not be missed or felt, I only post this as an eye opener to going mainstream. I highly doubt with the number of people registered that I am the only one that feels this way or the first one to leave due to this. Relating to mainstream in that as the sport becomes ever more popular, more and more outsiders are coming in, but it is food for thought to sit back and think as a "stunter" I feel this way, what will the outside world think of our "community"?