Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, and we've probably brought you by Crocodess
Effect for this July 11th, 2025.
Have your host James here.
We're joined right now.
Thanks to our friends at the Visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau, we say a shoutout to Meredith
and Haley and the gang over there.
We're talking BMX today.
Central Wisconsin BMX actually got a big event coming up in August.
We're going to get to, I'll let you guys introduce yourself so the audience can put a voice
to the name.
We'll start with you, sir.
Oh, yeah, I start at the end here.
We gotta do it that way.
That's good.
My name's Pat Fody.
I'm a local writer, dad, and volunteer out at the BMX track.
Thanks for being here, Pat.
Appreciate you.
I'm Addison Moran.
I'm a local writer as well, and a volunteer.
And Addison, that voice is going to be familiar to the audience out there.
She's joined us a handful of times over the last couple of years, really.
She is Miss Northern Lights Teen and the former Miss Wisconsin Rapids Teen.
Congratulations again on that, Addison.
It's awesome to see you again.
Thanks for being here.
Yes, thank you for having me.
Guys, I want to get into what Central Wisconsin BMX is for a start.
This is a club that started back in 83.
It's hard to think that it started that long ago, Pat, but it started a while back.
How long have you been a part of things, Pat?
See, I started racing when I was five, so that brings me here.
Gee.
Yeah, it brings me to 28 years out and off again.
I've been involved.
Right up.
Yeah.
Addison, how long have you been involved with it?
I'd say around five years.
Couple around that collect.
In my defense, Pat, I didn't know how old that would make me feel when I asked that.
No, no,bridle.
I'm joking.
I agree.
Yeah.
It's such an awesome to have you two in particular in here with the age difference, but it shows
so much of what we want to get across here with BMX is there is no year to old for this
or you're necessarily too young for this.
It's really something that's so great for all ages, which makes it such a great family
sport, and I don't know that we have enough of those anymore, we could have enough of
those.
Definitely not.
I would say it's like kind of similar to golf for that age range, you can bring anybody
along.
You know, we've got grandfather's out there racing, I've seen grandma's, there's actually
a gal down in Illinois and she's like well into her 70s and she's just out there having
a blast with everybody.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember I went to Lincoln and I remember when they were working over there and it was
this first being built and you're kind of seeing images of what they're hoping it's going
to be in that and we talked about, there was a lot of conversation about the different
things that that park would bring economically and some of that.
I don't think anybody could have pictured what would happen over there and how not only
the explosion of BMX in this area and the support of what they're doing over there, there
is a partnership between the City of Wisconsin Rapids and Central Wisconsin BMX, which is really
cool to say and see.
But the fact that it's recognized as one of the top tracks in the Midwest, that people
travel from states over to come over here and whether it's play or compete, they want
to be a part of things at that track.
It's pretty cool to see and it got to be pretty fun to see it being a part of it.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
With the length of time I've been involved, I've gotten to see that track girl.
So I started out with the old track out on south on 13 by little critters bar back when
I was there.
So when we moved, I was in like junior high, maybe I don't know, in elementary school still,
but I remember being a part of shoveling the dirt, bringing in a new facility before
there was a fence and you could get in there right whenever you want to, kind of escape
and have some fun.
I have seen to remember that myself.
It's such a fun thing about it and I could talk endlessly about Central Wisconsin BMX.
They have hosted state regional national finals, they've got state championship, they've
hosted that nine times, nor central gold cup finals once, USA BMX, Canada BMX, Badger
State Nationals, five times, so many different things have been going on over there for many
years that have been really cool to see.
But one thing before we get into nationals and let the audience know about that a little
bit more is something I kind of touched on before and encouraging, you know, whether you
want to do this for fun or you want to get out there and be competitive or anything like
that, it is really one of those sports that's for everybody.
And especially if you want to bring the family involved, is that something that I think
is a fun part of this and Addison, you told us how long you've been, well, how did you
get involved with the BMX?
A really funny story.
My brother and my grandpa went to just go watch one time and then my brother joined and
was like, I can't just sit here and watch him do this.
So I went out and I tried it and I ended up being better than him.
I was just going to say it right on, sibling rivalry can create some great things, my sister
and I went through a lot of that too, and Jillian beat me in a lot of things, thanks for
that reminder.
Yeah.
No, it's awesome.
That is exactly what we're talking about here, you know, and Riley's not going to like
that comment.
Oh, no.
No, no, no.
Not even here to defend himself, but it's such a great note on what this is and what
it does.
It's fun to compete.
It's fun to win.
It's fun to win.
But it's so much bigger than that.
I mentioned economics and what central Wisconsin BMX has been able to bring into the city
economically has been made an impact and been greatly a great part of this.
But it's also the gift of being able to give families and kids like you, Addison, an
opportunity to get out there, have some fun, do something you're outside, you're doing
things like that.
And I think too, and Addison, maybe you can speak to this better than I can, I'm just
speaking from a, I rode bike like crazy, but I didn't compete.
I didn't do a lot of those things, but I was in competitive sports.
I was in track, I was in football, a lot of those.
And one of the things that I learned from athletics was, yes, again, it's great to win
in everything, but how to work with each other, just working with others and working with
kids that I didn't know that well or anything, the confidence that it gave me and whether
I was good or not, just going out there and playing, just putting that uniform on or
some of those things.
It built things in me that I didn't have before.
And you're able to do that with BMX with kids and kids your age or of all ages, really.
And we don't, again, have enough opportunities in life to do that, to just build you guys
up.
I don't know if you're going to be, you know, ride BMX professionally, I don't know what
you're going to do.
You're going to do something awesome.
I know that.
But whatever you're going to do, sure would be good to have some confidence with it.
Sure would be able to build you guys up in everything and in a very strong and supportive
way.
And BMX Central Wisconsin BMX does that a lot for a lot of kids out there.
Absolutely.
It's a rare sport for community.
I probably couldn't hit this nail on the head more often, but it is a sport where you
can walk in the gate and you will be scooped up by somebody immediately and brought into
the atmosphere.
Yeah.
I don't think I have connections outside.
I have extremely well-good connections throughout BMX and like, that's just some of my closest
friends that I'm going to have for the rest of my life is just the community that comes
with BMX.
I remember not knowing anyone and I was, I was timid and I was scared going into it.
But now that I know that I'm going to have so many friends throughout the sport is just
amazing.
You know, and with this, so we see this a lot more with kind of a net your traditional
sports or some of the sports that are so well covered and known and everything.
A lot more kids are getting into a lot of those and fringe sports is what they call
about.
I don't necessarily like that term, but I will say the BMX is one of those ones that I
first think of when we're talking about, oh, I kind of like the idea of athletics, but
I don't have any interest in football or basketball or something like that.
And you know, you bring this up and all the sudden it starts peaking some interest
here a little bit and everything.
So for every kid that is into those other sports, there is something like this here that
I encourage families to have their kid try and again, this is one of the cool things
about this sport.
For one, it can, I'm not saying that it's cheap by any means, but it's not necessarily
the most expensive sport like some other ones that I've mentioned before or something.
It's also one of those ones.
Most kids are going to have a bike anyway.
I mean, you know, you got a bike and you need certain bikes for certain things I know.
But if they're riding, they can probably get into something like this to for fun and
having an enjoying time.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I worked at the local bike shop through high school and it is as expensive as you
want to make it.
You know, you got, you got dads like me who go way over the top for their kids and, you
know, kids have no idea what they're riding.
But at the same time, they're competing with kids who have that loner bike from the track
because it's a great option when you're first starting.
Or they buy that Craigslist or I guess Marketplace these days bike and they compete just
as well.
It really is not about the equipment.
Even if you got crazy dads and moms, I guess.
But in the community is different, you know, cycling isn't like most sports.
It can be competitive, but it's also a hobby.
You know, I look around my brother's a great example.
He's a collector.
He still loves everything BMX.
He'll never catch him at the track.
His daughters more unlikely aren't going to show up to the track.
They're just, they're not into it.
But it goes so much further past the track.
There's other ways to experience the sport of BMX than necessarily physically at the
BMX track.
It's a great note, Pat, especially to anybody out there who has an interest, but maybe
you don't want to necessarily get on a bike or something, always looking for volunteers
out there, always looking for people that want to give a hand and find out more about
the sport.
That's a great note on that.
And such an open community too, like come one, come all looking for anybody.
If you like bike, you're going to, you're in the right group and everything.
So encourage people to find out more.
We'll give you information on how you can do that before we wrap up today.
Do want to get to Nationals, US BMX Nationals coming up in August.
The August 1st through the 3rd Nationals will be taking place.
When I say Nationals to you guys, and let's say that I don't know anything about Nationals,
what can you, how can you explain this event to me?
Yeah, that's a big question.
I asked the tough questions.
There's nothing, no, it's, as far as the event itself, it's, it's, it's, as far as the
event itself.
If, if somebody is, just wants to check it out, man, you guys made it sound really fun
and exciting.
I want to see what this is about.
What are they going to experience?
What will they see through Nationals?
What kind of a competition goes on?
It's fun, but it's tough.
I think that Nationals are for experience, like I think my first national, I was like 13
and it was, it was definitely, it was extremely difficult for me, but it was still really fun.
Like it's so fun to connect with people from around the country, around the Midwest and
seeing how many people can come and support.
Yeah.
So Beatmex handles it a little differently when we talk Nationals and Regionals.
You don't qualify up through like state and then to regional and national.
They're all kind of their own bodies of point systems and titles.
So anybody who is racing, whether they're amateur professional, can show up to the National
and participate, which is pretty unique.
I didn't know, I did my homework and I didn't know that.
It doesn't, it doesn't really take away from your normal races.
You're just going to have a deeper pool of people to race.
So Beatmex has skill levels, novice intermediate expert before you go professional and there's
a few other, other classifications like cruiser, but in the grand scheme of things, you're
going to sign up at a national and you're going to race your age group and you're going
to race your skill level.
You're just instead of having maybe four guys at your local or Gels, I'm sorry, Addison,
at your local race, you're going to have maybe 20, maybe 30.
I've participated in races in my youth where I had 78 riders that were in my class.
And that was the biggest event of the year, but still, it's not really any different.
It's just more people, more competition.
It makes it fun too, more than 375 sanctioned tracks and 70,000 members across the US and
Canada.
And you got different people from different walks of life coming here to be a part of this
one out of that group of people.
You got riders from all over the age range.
I mean, it was seeing very, very young riders to much older riders, much older than you
might think out there.
And all the skill levels as Pat was touching on there, it's such a cool event.
And this was one of a number of the 30 race track series, right?
There's about 30 of them, these events that go on throughout the year.
Yeah, so it's three nationals a year.
Yeah, so for your point system, you've got to have 10 scores, I think, now, Greg, Addison.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's changed a little bit since I came back.
Yeah, so I believe it's 10 scores, but you can get three scores on a weekend for
a national.
So you're not, you're not traveling as much as people may think to qualify for that national
member.
Right now, right now, with the if there's a lot of different races going on throughout
the day to throughout throughout these couple of days.
So you have multiple opportunities to check this out, although we encourage it to tend
every single day.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
And I think that if again, if you're somebody walking into this, I think there's a lot
more people than you guys might even realize that enjoy this sport, but maybe you've been
hesitant to jump in or hesitant to show up at one of the events for fear of not knowing
what's going on, or, you know, this is something us midwesterners do all the time, where
we want to support something, but we just don't want to bother anybody.
Yeah, we don't want to bug.
Yeah.
You got things going on.
I want to bite.
No, no, this group of people in particular, as Pat was touching on, at the moment you walk
in there, going to scoop you up and look, what do you need?
Yeah, what if you don't know what's going on?
We'll tell you.
We'll help you out.
And it's, and I don't say this lightly, I think it's a one of the more easier sports
to catch on to, and figure out what's going on, how to keep up with everything that's
happening.
Yeah, definitely.
Just because of, you know, being scooped up, the community of it, that's, that's really
where it comes from.
You walk inside that gate and you're 20 feet away from a rental helmet and bike.
Yeah.
People don't realize that.
No, no.
It's pretty strategically placed.
Yes, yes, yes.
You need a long sleeve t-shirt, tennis shoes, and a long pair of pants.
Like you can walk into the track and that's all you need, and you can get a loner by
you can get a loner helmet, like that's all you need to try it out.
Like it's that easy.
Give it a shot, and you might just be as good as Addison one day, what might be.
It is, and I should have mentioned this a million times already.
This is free and fun to watch.
No admission to the parking is ten bucks, but outside of that, you're just going to go
and have a good time.
And how many times will we get to say that?
You know, it's a free event as big as, and, you know, well, it's, it's big around here
and everything.
In certain areas, this is just, I mean, this is a super bowl, man.
They love these events, and we're going to have a really nice impact here, not just
with people, but economically.
Once again, I wanted to come back to that, especially considering this, the Badger State
Nationals have created an economic impact of over a million dollars for areas.
Like that's something that doesn't exist without the work of you guys and, and all your
friends and family out there and all the volunteers.
Yeah, we can't think CWBMX, volunteers and board more, they're great people, they put tons
hours in an facility and, you know, that, and it isn't on profit.
So there is, there is no results for those volunteers, they're just there to help and
grow.
Because that's all they want is for the community, for it to grow and for people to enjoy
the sport more.
And as I started with this, you know, we didn't know what was going to happen with that
parking the first beginnings of it and everything and to see where things are now.
Like that, that's incredible.
And it's, and it's a credit to all of the involved that you guys just sat there and everything.
And this community supporting this and we encourage you to support it.
You can find out more about the things that we've been talking about today at CWBMX.org,
CWBMX.org.
You can also go to US, USA, BMX and get a hold of them, find them on Facebook, encourage
you to do that, everybody.
Central Wisconsin BMX, subscribe to their page, share their posts on your page.
You never know who might see it otherwise, it wouldn't have otherwise and keep up the
date.
And let's go away to reach out to them as well through the Facebook page.
You can find out maybe about volunteering or maybe answer some, fill in the blanks of
some of the things if we talked about today.
Anything else guys?
There is no science to miss.
You can sign up anytime of the year, whether it's through the website at usbmx.com or if
you just show up to the track.
We talked about the parking fee, that parking fee only applies to the national weekend.
So if you choose to come out and check the sport out, there isn't a cost if you come on
a regular Sunday afternoon race or a regular Thursday night race.
You can find on the regular schedule on the website.
You can also register from there.
There's a great easy way to online register.
Again, the Central Wisconsin BMX, Badger State Nationals are happening Friday, August
1st.
Friday sign up starts at 8 a.m., the racing will begin around 1.30.
They will have practice schedule up there for you Saturday, August 2nd things will continue
and wrap up on Sunday, August 3rd.
Have a great time, you guys.
We don't get to talk to you in between then and everything.
Enjoy yourselves out there.
We'll be promoting this event on our morning show and everything and make sure you guys
got a nice crowd.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for the time.
You did too good of a job.
You're going to have to come back.
And it'll probably be back for something.
I'm sure it's up.
You'll see me.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
And thank you to everybody out there for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids
Report.
Thank you for being with us here at WFHR.com.
