bio

Name: Conall Declan Keenan

Age: 24

Residence: "The struggle" Sarasota, Florida

Profession: CNC engraver/ student

Years riding: I've been riding for about 14 years

What/who inspires you to ride?: Friends and good times inspire me to keep riding. The more I get to ride the more fun I have.   

What does a perfect day consist of?: -Wake up around 9am, on my own, instead of by an alarm clock. -Have breakfast at First Watch or the Blue Dolphin Cafe. -Ride new fantastic street spots all day. -Stuuuunnnnt  -Ride a new skatepark with lots of flow in the evening. -Have dinner at Tijuana Flats. -Play with Final Cut Pro. -Watch a movie -Sleep   

interview 06.06.08

I've done an endless amount of intros for Conall. I think I've said pretty much everything I could to describe his personality, avant-guard riding style, and no BS way of doing things.
He's a busy dude, seriously busy. School, full time work, riding... It's a lot to fit in. And although he probably doesn't think so, he's pretty determined to get whatever he's doing done quickly, and done pretty dialed.

After his vacation to Colombia, we set up this question and answer.

Here's a quick word with Conall Keenan:

1.You just took a trip to Colombia with Pinzon.....what were your preconceived notions? What is the reality?

I have to admit I was a bit nervous going down there. One of my favorite documentaries is "Cocaine Cowboys" and anyone who's seen that knows that some Colombians are ruthless haha. It couldn't have been farther from the truth, everyone we met was super friendly. The thing that surprised me most was that there were tons of talented bike riders. Their bikes were dilapidated most with one piece cranks but they were shredding doing all the latest spins and twirls.

2.Did you ride anything that was super unique?

The most unique spot we rode was probably the street tranny walls under the watchful eye of the guard with a pistol grip, sawed off shotgun. Thanks Napo.



2.5 Who is Napo? And what was he doing? I heard he paid some guards off.

Napo is short for Napolean or Dr. Pinzon, he's Luis's father. He's pretty much the boss of Columbia. He has the ability to bend all rules with eloquent style. I learned a lot from watching him operate. One day we were riding what I think was a port authority. There were near perfect street trannies all across the building, the only problem was the place was gaurded by military like dudes with chromed out shot guns. They didn't mind us riding at first, but we were attracting a huge audience on top of the giant audience that followed us half way across the city from the first spot we rode. The guard was getting a bit skiddish, we were leaving tire marks on the wall so the guard approached Napo about us packing up and leaving. Napo did an old old Jedi mind trick on the guard aka gave him a bit of beer money and he agreed to allow us to ride longer. I was impressed, it takes some serious balls to try and negotiate with a dude with a sawed off street sweeper haha



2.8 And the personal body guards, what was their deal?

"El Flaco" as they were usually referred to as were pretty legit dudes. They were kind of like our baby sitters. Baby sitters who were also trained solders. They were just a precautionary measure. They weren't wearing suits and secret service headsets. They were essential for just making everything go smoothly. They made sure everyone got in the taxis, didn't get run over by wild traffic, drink too much etc. I think they had a great time as well.


2.9 Give us the best story from the trip?

I think the best story was on the very first ride on "la chiba". "La Chiba" picked us up from the air port. Everyone was thrilled to be on the ground and on the way to the resort. Music was blaring, bottles were popping, it was like a club. John Wilson really had to pee. It was a long drive, so he decided to chance it and try and pee in a beer bottle. I'm not really sure if we hit a bump, or something didn't work out anatomically or what, but he ended up peeing all over Chad Moore's back "accidentally". Chad was laughing to hard about it to be upset.

3.What was your schedule like down there?

We were on a pretty relaxed schedule but we did tons of stuff. An average day might have included wake up around 9, hop in "la chiba" (brightly painted, disco tech on wheels) eat breakfast, drive really crazy, go to a gorgeous beach, hop in a boat to an even more beautiful beach, swim, eat whole fish, plantains, and rice, go to a club, go home, play volley ball, slide down the toboggan, sleep.

4. What's your schedule like back here at home?

I usually have class in the morning from 8-9am, then off to work at the engraving shop from 9:30-5:30 then sometimes school again in the evening or meet up with friends to ride, study, sleep.



5.What are you studying in school? Does it have anything to do with advancing your career as a machinist? Actually, I've never asked you what interests you the most.....

I'm not really studying anything in particular; I'm just trying to finish junior college, haha. I'm not really interested in advancing my machining career. I love machining but it's just not what I want to do for the rest of my life, it's . I enjoy learning video editing because it allows me to be more creative, but I enjoy the technical aspects of it too.

6.Did you help with the editing of the Skrillionaire part in the Come up DVD? Any other projects you are working on?

Chad did the editing for the SKRL part in the Come Up DVD. I helped a bit though, I filmed pretty much all the clips I wasn't in and assisted Chad by compiling all the footage so he could pull footy from just one source. Some upcoming projects Chad, Dave and I are orchestrating include a SKRL mixtape. I'd like to try to help get the BMX population away from primarily watching web videos by trying to offer inexpensive higher quality DVD's. I personally am tired of straining my eyes watching youtube videos. I miss the days of gathering around the TV with friends and watching a real video to get psyched to go out and ride.

7.How have productions like the new Lakai video affected what's to come?

Well the Lakai video was an epic video, that did inspire me, but I don't want to do what a lot of other bike companies have done and completely bite skateboardings style. I think the best thing about the Lakai video is they didn't rush it. It took them 3ish years to produce it. They made sure they had plenty of footage that they were happy with then they edited it. No filler. The Lakai video makes me want to go out and ride.



8.With learning the editing process, how does this certificate for final cut
pro work? Self paced, then an exam? Is there a class involved?

Well, Apple has set up authorized training courses through out the country where you can go to learn the software in a classroom, but I'm taking the self-paced approach. I bought the course textbook and am going through them till they're nearly memorized. The classes are very expensive and you still have to take the exam after them. These books/courses don't teach you how to edit they just teach you the tools of the editing program.



9.What's your next travel plans?

Not certain yet. I really want to go to Europe this summer, ride lots and try and find a part time job. The dollar is so weak right now it makes traveling ANYWHERE international a bit of a struggle. I'm going to Providence in August for a Profile trail dog trip. I'm so excited, I've heard so many great thing about Providence from Vic Bettencourt http://circuitbmx.blogspot.com/. I think we're just going to try and hit a different set of trails everyday and hopefully hit up a bit of street.