Dustin Schaad

the dark horse

Dustin Schaad is a freeride mtn biker currently living in Salt Lake City, UT. Formerly from Marietta, Ohio, Schaad taught himself how to ride a bike at age three. After receiving his first mtn bike for Christmas at age 11, Schaad says, “I basically tried to send everything in sight, including the family barn.” Now an accomplished all-mountain rider, Schaad is pushing the sport everywhere but on trail. His versatile riding skills allow him to tackle many styles of riding all over the world. Photos of Schaad’s freeriding feats have appeared in core publications including Bike magazine, MTB Bike Magazine and Decline Magazine. Dustin’s photos have also been used to promote and sell products on Backcountry.com, Pinkbike and Vital MTB. Dustin continues to work with elite photographers and videographers in his quest to capture the most original shots of freeride mountain biking. Dustin’s passion and creative vision is to progress the sport in a direction that has yet to be seen.

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Dustin Schaad, Virgin, Utah photo:Adam Clark

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Dustin Schaad, Virgin, Utah photo:Adam Clark

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Crisp

Stainless Steel Water Bottle

Q&A

1.) Who are some of your favorite people to follow on Instagram?

@camzink / @bushywayne / @acpictures / @andreulacondeguy

2.) What have been some of your toughest challenges this past season? How did you overcome them?

Some of my toughest challenges would be finding people to ride with. Being a big mtn rider and building my own lines, it's tuff to find other riders that like digging, but also like going big. Luckily there's a few other pro athletes in my area, but finding time to ride together is always hard with each of us traveling a different time.

3.) You took one of the gnarliest crashes in Redbull Rampage history, only to go back and redeem yourself. What was that feeling of redemption like?

It was one of those crashes that the world watched - so going back for Redemption was the only thing on my mind. Redemption was only for me though, not for the competition. I didn't care about the comp, I just wanted to go back and stomp my line for myself. Being down there solo and in the sloppy conditions that I had, made for a great feeling once I stomped the line - the feeling was all time!!

4.) Favorite Discrete product?

All of it duuuude!

5.) Favorite thing to do outside of biking?

Skiing, paddle boarding, relaxing

6.)When and where did you learn to bike? Who did you learn from?

I first rode a bike at age 3, took the training wheels off at age 5 and off I went! Grew up racing BMX then transitions into mtn bikes at agle 16 - been riding big bikes ever since.

7.) Which athletes did you admire most growing up, and who do you look up to now?

I admired a few of the my local BMX racers - they were all I knew of and they were bad ass!! I didn't really have access to all the media stuff growing up so the big names never really did it for me. I would say I look up to all the riders that are pushing the level of our sport and keeping the passion alive!!