Ride UK BMX

2012 was both the best and worst year of Brett Banasiewicz’s career so far. He competed in the BMX Park discipline at the X Games for the third time, equalling his best finish of fourth (previously achieved in 2010), and then went on to top the podium in the BMX Park final at the Dew Tour’s Pantech Beach Championships in Ocean City

It all looked to be going so well for the teenager from South Bend, Indiana, but soon after his Dew Tour success he crashed in practice at the Vans Invitational at Virginia Beach and was rushed to the nearby Sentara Princess Anne Hospital where he was put into a medically induced coma to help reduce swelling on his brain.

Brett had become a professional BMX rider at the age of 13 with the help and support of his parents Bill and Lisa. He finished 11th in the Park competition on the Dew Tour just two years later, and went on to pick up victories in the Dirt competition in both Chicago and Portland on the Dew Tour in 2010, and in both Dirt and Park at FISE Montpellier in 2012.

After 15 days in the coma he began a gradual recovery, ending the year with a nomination for the Number One Ramp Rider award at the Ride BMX NORA Cup. He is now back on his bike, as fit and strong as before, sponsored by DK Bicycles, and working as a manager at the Kitchen BMX and Skate Park in South Bend.