If any of them did it just for the money they would find a new job. A favorite bike rider of mine named Edwin Delarosa is a prime example. He is in the top 5 Street riders of all known professional BMXers yet makes less that 20,000 a year.
Ride BMX integrates its information of BMX about every group so each area can catch a person's eye. There is no Street rider section, there is no Park rider section or etc., but there is usually a featured competition that holds information of every group in order to bring the people together and appreciate every aspect of the sport they have chosen to do. Since BMX has become so commercialized the main point, to have fun, has gone unseen by a lot of its clients. People in one area argue why its better than other areas, and it causes a separation which is bad for the magazine itself. Focusing on trying to get people to come together makes it easier to capitalize. Forms of mass communication works best when there is a very centralized group to convey a message to.
Personally this magazine has changed my outlook of who I want to be. It has made me braver, stronger, weirder, and more modest than I ever thought I would be. Almost every article and interview has all three of those characteristics. Braveness is obviously a quality in many articles because to do many of the tricks you need bravery, because if you are worried about falling you wont make it though your trick. Strength comes from articles published about how the professionals train. They don't only ride to get better, they lift weights and exercise to be the athletes they are. Weirdness comes from stories about professionals such as Ryan Nyquist, one of the few millionaires of the industry, who eats his scabs (I don't do this, but I don't feel so bad about the weird things I do). And lastly modest because the people who I look up to the most started so long ago when BMX was nothing an if it wasn't for fun, it was pointless.
