It’s a great feeling, knowing all the time and effort dedicated to your passion over the years is starting to pay off. As a teenager, I spent every cent I had on dirt bikes.

At 15 years of age, I worked as a check-out chick at the local supermarket, in order to buy my very first bike… a 1983 model RM-80. I paid $600 for a wreck that should have been thrown in the tip, but it was my bike and I loved it.

I had to spend at least 8-10 hours through the week, tinkering, adjusting and fixing things on it just so I could be out riding with my mates on the weekend – some of whom were on current model KX80’s (88-90) that went like stink and had cool stuff like rear disc brakes.

But my old shit box RM taught me how to fix bikes and by the age of 17, I was splitting gearboxes and rebuilding two-stroke top-ends on both mine, and my mate’s bikes.

Riemann advertising product at 150km/h during the 2007 Australian Safari. Image: Rotorvation Helicopters/ADB Archives.

One time while renting a house with a few of my mates, I’d converted the kitchen into a sterile workshop and had an entire KX250 engine spread across the cooking area, with the rest of the bike strewn into the dining room. It was the greatest self-induced apprenticeship I could have hoped for, given the adventures I was destined to embark on in years to come.

Fast forward to now and it turns out I’ve not actually had to own a dirt bike for over 10 years. In 2002, I had been winning a lot of off-road and enduro events in WA on KTM 200EXC’s, which I’d received on a KTM dealer floor plan. Only problem though, I was riding them into the ground to the point the dealer didn’t want to continue giving me support.

I was younger, naïve but certain I just wanted to race dirt bikes. Luckily for me, KTM Australia’s Jeff Leisk decided to supply me a bike direct in 2003 and I went to on to win my first WA enduro championship outright on the KTM 125SX. I backed up the outright in ’04 riding three different models – the 250EXC-F, 450SX-F and 250EXC.

The natural progression was to head east and try to mix it with the best in the country, yet surviving without the line of support I’d had in the west was going to be the biggest challenge. Enter the dirt bike magazine industry!

... and literally going to extremes to get the story – Erzberg 2007. Image: Erzberg Archives.

Let’s face it, I was always going to get smoked showing up green on the east coast – who would justify giving a bike to a mid-packer? Conveniently, the catalyst in my decision to move interstate was the fact I’d lined up work with Australasian Dirt Bike magazine.

Hey presto – I’m rocking up to my first NSW State Enduro on a YZ250 long-term test bike, courtesy of ADB/Yamaha Australia! It was a massive learning curve for me in both fields – competition and media – because up to that point, I’d never railed a rut in my life, never owned a computer and didn’t even have an email address! That was 2005.

I got a lot of shit wrong, stepped on a few toes, made some bad calls and basically fumbled my way into journalism with all the grace of a dirt bike racer who just wanted to turn the throttle.

I often learnt the hard way and most definitely the long way, but I was finding my own way. By 2007 I’d won the 200cc class at Finke, won the 450cc Production class/fourth Outright at the Australasian Safari, and, managed to finish 31st outright in a field of 1500 riders at the most hard-core extreme enduro on earth – Erzberg!

All prepped for the next big adventure... what's he up to? Find out in next next week's Off-Road Observer.

All of which I’d entered as a magazine journalist who was simply there to “get the story”. I wasn’t a professional rider, but I was starting to learn the true meaning of the term ‘getting ink’. I don’t have any tattoos, but I’ve left my mark on more magazine pages over the years than some of the more recognized professionals in the game.

For manufacturers, a sponsored rider only offers value if their respective audience knows about them and can see the products they are using in the environment they were designed for. Sponsorship is simply an advertising function, which is obviously a key part of business.

I think a lot of riders chasing their dream would benefit from having a better understanding of what drives the industry. It’s fine to take, but you’ve got to give back! I guess the moral of this story is, you don’t have to be the best rider out there, nor do you have to win races … just find a way to be seen among the masses!