Family, career, sponsor obligations… It’s all a balancing act. In the latest installment of Unplugged, Cam McCaul shows us how the call of a balanced life and family can blend effortlessly with the call of the dirt. Join us in our visit to Bend, Oregon along with a surprise visit from fellow Fox rider, Kirt Voreis.
when i was younger i used to think families suck cuz they cut into your riding time. but if i didnt have a family, i'd be a lazy alcoholic without an excuse to escape the house for long rides. now, im just an alcoholic.
I've found balancing riding and family to be pretty tough. I used to ride every day and now I'm lucky to hit the trails once a week for a couple of hours. Maybe if my job was in the bike industry and make a living off youtube videos...
Same. Best thing I did was move next to park with trails. They’re not epic or anything but still fun and it allows me to get in a 1-1.5 hour rip during nap time or before everyone else wakes up. Combine that with indoor training and you can get super fit even as a working parent.
@SangamonTaylor: Yep. I sold the care and commute to work on BMX (wearing a helmet & hitting features on the way home). I keep a jump rope and #25 plate in the trunk for parking lot workouts while the kids are at whatever. I don't have a garage/can't work out indoors; so its 3x/week outdoors bodyweight stuff rain or shine. Most weekends I am at the skatepark on BMX with my kids & their scooters. I rode my first enduro in the 40-50 yo class last weekend, had a blast, and placed 5th on my sub-$1.5K hardtail. I def feel lucky to hit the trails once a week. I'll take it!
I don't have kids, but I am building up a business, so I can totally empathise with having no time. I've found a couple of things that have helped me:
1) Learning and practicing skills. Just doing manuals, bunnyhops, rocking and other trials type stuff is a great workout and you can achieve something really meaningful with regular 20 minute sessions (so far I've learnt to bunny hop from scratch and get to the balance point for manuals, plus some wheelies skills) - and because it doesn't require going anywhere, you can do it in the drive/road, so all 20 minutes are actual practice. Plus the kids could join in!
2) Doing 10-20 minutes of bike specific strength work and stretching, so that when I do hit the trail I can still actually get into the right shape on the bike.
I tend to now do 10 mins of stretching every day, and do the 20 minute practice on the bike and 20 min strength sessions on alternating days.
That’s it’s Cam McCaul I’m coming over for an old guy shred sheesh… I‘ll hit that action any day… just for d as shits and giggles…. Seriously coming soon to a You tube Vid near you… thanks for being legitimately a SWEET AMBASSADOR FOR OUR SPORT ! Proud to have you in our local … great dad , great role model for anyone, thanks @CamMcCaul..
makes kids and wife look like fun accessories to a self-centric play lifestyle. doesn't show any actual moments of being backseat to family priorities. sells cool guy lifestyle well though, and in turn, products
Mom gets a European luxury car, she takes care of the kids, that’s the deal I thought the video would be more family centric too. I wanted some tips and tricks, staying up till 2am would wreck me.
I get what you're saying. Plenty of content here - as with anywhere on the interwebs - involves suspension of disbelief. Because marketing, as you duly noted. "Don't try this at home" applies to all celebrity lifestyle content, including their homes...
@gticket: they should have included when daughter is crying: "I miss daddy, why is he always off doing bike stuff?" while mom is doing all the domestic work and scrubbing his dirty knee pads. Or any difficult moment that is a big part of an effort to 'balance' ride life with family needs - like telling your bros you can't make the group ride bc you committed to a family thing. 'Balance' here seems more like: be a fun silly dad, get yr kids to do what you like to do then take off and go ride wich your buds! My dream surely but mostly unrealistic.
@queueup: he took his lumps and was persistent, became a top level pro rider - it’s his career. He earned it all and by the looks of it has done a fantastic job providing for his family off of it. So much saltiness in this thread. You make your own destiny, he’s just better at it then you.
@sb666: Not undercutting him or his achievements at all - rather criticizing the video. Doesn't show any of the challenges that go along with balancing career and family. 'Balancing' in the title suggests more than heading out for ride shoots, sometimes bringing the fam. They make the family seem like background fixtures, which is def not reality, pro or not. And 'providing' for a family by earning a healthy income isn't the same as balancing career and family. Plus sacrifices are often made by family for one person in the fam to achieve lots of success. Vid doesn't show this either but I bet it's a part of their story. Family life is not all rosy 1950's homevideo centered around dad being cool. Certainly this forum is for all types of comments. Mine is for more reality not just high 5s. I do those too though. FTR I am doing just fine comparatively. Thanks.
So is it safe to assume that none of you negative commenters has a job? He’s going to work…your kids miss you when you’re working too. Just because nobody wants to film you doing your boring job, don’t hate on him because his doesn’t suck. I love my job too and I don’t feel bad about the time I spend doing it. Would his family life be better off if he was assistant manager at The Linoleum Outlet in Bend and home by 630 every night? Your work/life balance is different than mine, which is most likely different than that of Cam. So openly and proudly ignorant.
Saw this a weekend ago. Went to Skypark, no lift assist. E-Bikes everywhere until about 2pm, then only normal bikes. Moped batteries don't last all day when climbing 4k feet over 15-20 miles.
They did 12 laps in 3 hours while you did 12 laps in 6. Are y'all really that smooth brained to understand that going uphill faster means you can get to downhill faster?
@Mullet-Bullet: Also possible that the ebikes did 10 laps in 4 hrs, rather than 12 laps in 6 hrs. (some folks use more or less pedal assist, and we didn't get passed by ebikes twice each lap)
I think a decent point though is, did the ebikes allow the rider to ride as much as they wanted... or did they stop because the battery ran out.
At some point, a current ebike isn't going to cut it for those who want to ride long distance and more elevation. And grinding uphill after the battery is depleted seems like something only an itty bitty fraction of ebikers are willing to do for any decent stretch.
There's also something fulfilling about earning your downs. But someday most bikes will be assisted as batteries get lighter and the cost/weight penalty shrinks. "Non-pedal-assist" will be a cost and weight-saving option rather than the norm. Trail systems that can grow will expand to accommodate longer rides per rider, and congested trail systems will be more highly contested. Achieving Dangerholm-sized thighs will require more miles and more trail maintenance per human-generated Watt.
1) Learning and practicing skills. Just doing manuals, bunnyhops, rocking and other trials type stuff is a great workout and you can achieve something really meaningful with regular 20 minute sessions (so far I've learnt to bunny hop from scratch and get to the balance point for manuals, plus some wheelies skills) - and because it doesn't require going anywhere, you can do it in the drive/road, so all 20 minutes are actual practice. Plus the kids could join in!
2) Doing 10-20 minutes of bike specific strength work and stretching, so that when I do hit the trail I can still actually get into the right shape on the bike.
I tend to now do 10 mins of stretching every day, and do the 20 minute practice on the bike and 20 min strength sessions on alternating days.
My worst injury this season is a pedal slip while riding with my 9-yr-old. 6 weeks later still waiting for it to scab over and finally heal.
I think a decent point though is, did the ebikes allow the rider to ride as much as they wanted... or did they stop because the battery ran out.
At some point, a current ebike isn't going to cut it for those who want to ride long distance and more elevation.
And grinding uphill after the battery is depleted seems like something only an itty bitty fraction of ebikers are willing to do for any decent stretch.
There's also something fulfilling about earning your downs. But someday most bikes will be assisted as batteries get lighter and the cost/weight penalty shrinks. "Non-pedal-assist" will be a cost and weight-saving option rather than the norm.
Trail systems that can grow will expand to accommodate longer rides per rider, and congested trail systems will be more highly contested. Achieving Dangerholm-sized thighs will require more miles and more trail maintenance per human-generated Watt.