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Instagram Pro

It’s a term that gets thrown around to demean a lot newer rider’s prohood. When you call someone an Instagram Pro, it conjures up the image where the person in question is more social network savvy than good on bikes. Like they amassed a following and use that as weight to reap some type reward in the industry. It certainly exists and it’s nothing new. It’s like someone getting an honorary PHD from somewhere when all they did was act in a few movies. I think of Brandon Begin as an Instagram but not for the reasons above. He’s one of the front runners for what I consider contemporary BMX style that’s focused on grinds. Combined with his own strong aesthetic style on and off his bike, he’s tastemaker of today’s brand of riding. I think Brandon Begin as Instagram pro because he’s really a frontrunner in utilizing Instagram as a medium of it’s own sort.

Video sections or contests. That was pretty the only paths that existed to be a pro in BMX through riding. You were either or both in the early days but as riding progression got pushed, it got hard to do well in both. For a while it was just that but then web videos came along. Web videos were really no different that video sections. There wasn’t any hard backing like VHS tapes or DVD’s so the money flow wasn’t as good but the process was very much similar. In the early days it’s the web video that was the Instagram clips of the day. Throwaways you compile and give away for free for extra promotions. Clips that would otherwise be left on the chopping board had a way to be useful. As web videos got more serious and demand for free and better content arised this mentality died out a lot. Web videos were what many professionals were risking life and limb for cause they got the views and hard copies didn’t. In the end, being a pro is just about face time and promotion. Through the web that can be done on a level that paid hard content can’t compete with. For a while this was how it was but then as the digital age subsided and the social networking age began, this format while still popular will be challenged.

That’s where Instagram comes in. You can’t make money directly off Instagram content so for a while it was what the web video was to DVD’s in the early days. B-rolls and just extra promotion. As social networking grew to the extent it does today. The mentality shifted once again. Here’s a platform that plenty of people are literally glued to and there has to be way to utilize it a further extent. That’s something Instagram pros understand. This shift in dynamic of culture that BMX always had a problem transitioning to. So these Instagram pros are no longer really b-roll stuff necessarily on Instagram and making waves in views and notoriety through this platform. Problem is there is no way to make money through it directly but the idea is if you can amass a following you can use that type of social weight to barter what you want. With the popularity of all this, Instagram became the medium of choice and often times the only medium that a lot of younger riders are adopting unsurprisingly.

The problem with all that is that Instagram Pro is still a bit of a stigma. In film theory there is a commonly accepted form where the longer you hold a scene, the more the viewer immerses themselves in it. When we’re faced with constant cuts, your forced to realize your watching a movie. I think video sections act in that type of way where we get a better grasp of someones skills when put into a longer format. With the way Instagram works, quality is diminished and quantity is expected. Quality will be mixed with throwaways and the rider’s skill will seem more lacking in a sense than a video section where it takes years to compile and anything deemed throwaway is thrown away. Even though a lot of these Instagram Pros skill wise are no different than pros that are not. If you’re forced to see an artist’s sketchbook constantly it will quite possibly take away from the final product. I think Brandon Begin and a lot of Instagram pros face this kind of problem cause their sections often feel lackluster. The OSS video one above was absolutely amazing but as his following grew and his grams clips got better everything after while good felt a bit lacking.

This is no way is any shot at any type of rider including Brandon. Every medium has it’s pros and cons and as Instagram is it’s own medium it certainly no different. It’s why Dave Krone’s X-Games sections still rings strong to me a while after everything surrounding subsided. Dave Krone doesn’t ever put out footage anywhere. When you watch Brandon’s gram clips you see the direction he’s headed. You watch his sections you already know the level of riding he’s capable of at the time. Brandon could easily be one of those pros who don’t utilize Instagram like that and drop section that are groundbreaking each time but with that type of medium/format, he would lose a lot in following which is important thing for BMX rider today. It’s the same type of mentality as someone who eats the same thing every day compared to having that one thing once in a while. When you have bits of it everyday it just becomes a thing but if you have a bunch of it one day, it becomes a feast It’s a catch 22 that I think every pro rider understands.

In the end I don’t think it really matters necessarily. Instagram is certainly more important than videos in a industry type way and it’d be stupid not to utilize it. Sure being a strictly video section rider gets more respect but respect in BMX don’t pay bills. I don’t even think Instagram does either but it’s a format that the outside world can understand and that’s where the money is. I always bring up art as a comparison to riding cause yaddy yaddy yadda “bmx is an art form” but with all this the key is that presentation in itself is something to be aware of. Video sections are that much more serious and people will expect more out of it. In the con side is that there is so much content out there, that unless that person is truly next level it will be lost. Instagram the riding is constantly reinforced and the person’s name becomes something to be reckoned with if that person is good enough. At the same time everything that person does will become a routine and tiring in it’s own way. It’s harder to truly make a dent in people’s skulls.Brandon seems to have embraced the nature of Instagram and that’s half the reasons he’s the rider of clout he is today. It’s interesting to see a rider on his skill level to do so cause usually a lot of riders on that level do the opposite. In the end it’s hard stuff either way so everyone should ride contests.

Brandon Begin

DeadBoy by Bones

“Brandon Begin OSS Video” (2014)

Edited by John Hicks

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