Riley House

“In 2018, Bill Morris had asked me, ‘Yo, what song do you want me to play before your main?’ I said how about some Metallica? Let’s go! So he played Enter Sandman, and I won it from there. So last year, when I was down there, Bill asked me if I wanted to pick the song again for the main. I told him, ‘If you play Tool, right now, I guarantee you I’ll win.’ So while I’m rolling into the gate, Tool came on, and I looked over at my parents and just nodded my head. Right then, they knew - that I knew, that I was going to pull it off.”

MUSIC FLICKS THE SWITCH

RILEY: Music is a big part of our lives, outside of BMX. My father and I go to a lot of concerts. Right after the Houston national, we’d gone and seen Tool, on that Sunday night. When Tool comes on the radio, me and my dad fangirl-out hard. I’ve seen them live four times now.

Maliek (Byndloss -2013 No.1 Amateur) told us the same thing. They played Eminem, Lose Yourself, when he got in the gate. He said as soon as he heard it, he knew he had it won. It’s crazy how music can flick that switch.

RILEY: That’s it. It flicked the switch hardcore, baby. Big time. I’ve never felt that feeling inside of me, like when I was behind that gate. I had lane eight, the No.1 title was on the line, all the odds were against me. Affoo next to me in lane seven. Cam was in there. But I knew in my mind that I could do it.

YOU’VE JUST GOT TO WIN

RILEY: I was down by the finish line, warming up, and I asked one of the ABA workers, ‘Yo, can you see what I have to do to get the title right now?’ I already knew that I had gate eight in the main. So basically, they say, ‘You’ve got to beat Cam Wood, you’ve got to beat Kye Affoo, and Nick Adams.’ I would’ve had to beat Jesse Welch too, but he went out early. Basically, I just had to win. We were all up there in points.

Then when I heard the (title-chase) video, with that Monster-Energy voice, talking about Cam and I going at it all year long, hyping it all up, I was like ‘Let’s go boys! I’m ready!’

We were just re-watching the video, and if Brayden Kempel hadn’t unclipped in the first turn, that hole might not have been there for you to dive low to hit the pro set.