Nathan Rule - WTF

words Tom Blyth
photos George Marshall


Safe Nath has been my best friend for nearly ten years now and has probably influenced me more than anyone else I have ever met. We went to school together and he got me into riding BMX when I was sixteen or so, by showing me Dig and Ride magazines in lessons. He was also the first person to make me think about abstaining from drinking, even though at the time neither of us had ever heard of straight edge, nor did we know anyone else who didn’t drink. When we were 18 he came to live with me at my parent’s house for a while after sleeping rough for a week in Brough train station and stayed for a few months, even after I moved to Sheffield for university before moving in with his grandparents.
Despite all of the above, you ask Nath who his best friend is and he’s just as likely to tell you about his three-legged cat Winston, as he is me. That being said, he does have a lot of friends to choose from. You see, Nath is one of those people who has a certain enigmatic component to their character that you can’t quite put your finger on, but that people are just drawn to, kind of like Dean Moriarty from On The Road or Huckleberry Finn or something. I seriously cannot think of a single person who has met him and doesn’t like him, and it’s not because he tells people what they want to hear either – there’s no pretence with him, he’s just who he is and he’s unapologetic about it no matter what but people love him regardless.


There are more than a few instances of cobblestone / brick type bumps in this issue. Is this the brick bumps issue? Nathan, no-hander.

He was always the best rider in our scene when we were kids and a bit of a local legend too. It wasn’t uncommon to hear ludicrous rumours about seemingly impossible stunts he had done, like flipping his bike off the school roof for example. These rumours weren’t completely unfounded either, ignore the part about flips and I think he must have dropped every roof in Hull at one point or another, but then it was 1999 after all. Anyway, as you may have gathered, Nath is pretty street. In fact we didn’t even ride a park until we were at least a couple of years into riding, even though we had one really close by, because Nath said they were “gay”. He’s relaxed his attitude towards them a little these days though and rides pretty good on whatever he feels like, whenever he feels like it. Speaking of which, he always feels like riding! Ever since we were kids he’s been waking me up at the crack of dawn, hassling me to go out somewhere that we would inevitably not return from until it was dark again and we were hungry and exhausted.
In the last few years, it seems like there have been a number of factors determined to keep Nath off his bike, he’s endured a very brief stint in the army, moved into a Dutch smack den (and had most of his possessions stolen) to work a job it turned out didn’t exist, had more than his fair share of injuries, and even quit BMX for a little while to develop his gambling addiction. However, in spite of all of these momentary setbacks, he always seems to find his way back to his bike and his friends, which is all he seems to care about. Oh! And Doctor Pepper.

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