Make sure to follow Micki Stephan on facebook and wish her a happy birthday today! Every time this inspirational rider gets on to her bike she has obstacles to face that the rest of us never have to think of and yet her attitude is one of the most positive I’ve met! Keep riding Micki, we can’t wait to see what you do! Happy birthday from Magnolia!
I started riding BMX when I was 15. My older sisters boyfriend at the time, did it and I always thought he was the coolest, so he got me a bike and I started tagging along with him. I first started with street then park. I developed a love/desire/passion for it… for the community of it, for the wheels under me. I would ride at 5:30 in the morning before school just to get that stress relief and serenity. About two years ago, when I was 24, I picked up flatland. I fell in love…I was born 100% deaf in my right ear and have only 75% hearing in my left. My equilibrium is non-existing, so the challenge and difficulty is 3 times of a normal person but that gives me an escape, a way to prove myself wrong, a way to challenge a ‘disability’. I get to create my balance point… I have to view it from a totally different perspective than the average person. I love it. I love the challenge and the reward. I don’t ride to compete, I don’t ride to be the best, because I am only competing against myself to be my best. I’ve met some amazing people along the way; Dominik Nekolny, Joe Miller, Alan Young, Terry Adams, Matt Wilhelm, Fat Tony and many others. I love bikes so much, and all kinds. I have now been a bicycle mechanic for two years… It’s my dream job 🙂 I went to two schools UBI and BBI, the journey has been rad. The whole ‘being a girl’ factor will never stop me. I ride bikes and work on bikes because its a family…one that only the other ones in love with it will ever understand, bikes are my life. Flatland is my happy place.
-Micki Danielle Stephan Grind BMX & S&M
