Salutations!
I'm Phil. I was told to start out the story by introducing myself. Unfortunately, I suck at that kind of thing, so this will most likely be a feeble attempt. I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin chasing goats off of BMX jumps. I am an aspiring action sports athlete/filmmaker/journalist. In other words, I try to do more things than I'm actually capable of doing. This frequently results in mediocre skill levels in each discipline, but at the same time, swell video footage is usually gathered. My brother, Pat, is a three-time U.S. National Trials Champion. He can ride a motorcycle over stuff that I can barely climb over on my feet. Our initial inspiration, like most young riders, was our dad. Papa Smage is the current National Trials Champion in the +50 class and the man responsible for getting us into trials riding. Throw in our moto-shredding brother David, wild "Uncle pdB" and the conflict-provoking master "Uncle Circe," and you have an influential enigma that is sure to create something. The Smagical Adventure began, unknowingly, the first time my brother and I threw our legs over trials bikes. Although it was love at first ride for Pat, the relationship between me and those funky-looking machines took a while to blossom. So while Pat was busy plugging away at becoming the best, I got "sidetracked" with motocross, snowboarding, snowskating, etc.
As our riding level improved, we traveled to more events throughout the country. Pat began to gain national recognition with youth championships, and I followed suit climbing the ranks. Eventually our riding became dialed enough for us to start putting on riding demonstrations at races and motorcycle shops. This kicked off our traveling circus known as the Smage Bros. Riding Shows. From our announcer Rex Kwando to builder-Binz, the crew made it easy to create entertainment.
It was around this time that I began getting more serious about one of my winter activities called snowskating, which is essentially skateboarding on the snow. In turn, I purchased a computer to edit my snowskate footage. This created a newfound love for filming and editing, which led to me documenting everything. Our demos and races were transformed into video segments. I even found myself filming the riders in front of me instead of studying the sections at the Trials Nationals. As the trips added up, so did the hours of video footage. Eventually I realized some of this footage may be entertaining to more that just my small group of friends, and the Smagical Adventure DVD series was born. With a newfound purpose to film, my time became more about stacking footage than spending time practicing on the trials bike. Each winter I would get pulled further and further away from motorcycles with snowskating and snowboarding. While I was spending time filming tricks and chasing the snow, Pat was staying sheltered from it in our indoor riding building affectionately dubbed the "Sherco Shed." Our dad, Noel, and his riding buddies had constructed an indoor trials arena to play around in during the snow-filled months. This quickly transitioned into a training building built purposely for Pat to hone his riding skills when riding outside wasn't an option. Winter after winter I would spend more time on the road snowskating, and each spring Pat would be that much better than me on the bike. I soon realized that my days of challenging him at trials had come to an end. This pushed me even further from nationals and more toward riding shows. The year was 2006 and Pat, only months after his 16th birthday, had just won his first Trials National in the Pro class. He topped 10-time champion Geoff Aaron in what was seen as a huge surprise to the trials community. During his stay at the top of the U.S. trials scene Pat did what no American had done in over 30 years: He traveled overseas to the trials mecca of Europe and won against the world's best in the 125cc class. Not since the '70s and Bernie Schreiber had an American tasted the champagne spray from the top step of an FIM trials event podium. Unfortunately, he suffered an untimely back injury in the form of Pars Defect. He had developed tiny cracks on the sides of many of his vertebrae due to the constant impacts he delivered to his back. This caused him to miss many events and ultimately lose track of his world championship goals.