It was a cloudy day as kids gathered in clusters, eyes wide and jaws dropped as bikers Ricky and Dan flew into the air. Students and staff watched in complete awe. To understand what brought everyone there requires a rewind, back to the years before Fortnite and iPhones.  

Dan Hubbard was inspired to ride motorcycles just like his brother who was a motocross racer. Motocross racing is a sport in which racers ride over rocky, muddy and grassy roads while riding a motorcycle. But his dreams to ride motorcycles were to no avail. “My parents didn’t want me to because they were worried I would get hurt,” Dan said, “so they bought me a bicycle.” His first bike was a Schwinn Stingray which came out during 1963. “I started jumping the bike like I had seen other people doing, imitating the motocross riders.”

Even though he is now a professional, Dan sometimes feels nervous while performing. “I have butterflies in my stomach when I do big events, [but] not as much as I used to when I was first starting out,” said Hubbard. “The cool thing is, when you try something new, you can take those butterflies and turn it into something positive.” Dan accepts the fact that when first starting out at something, it’s normal to feel anxious. But as that happens more and more, your nerves start to disappear.  But Dan doesn’t only do motocross racing. He also MC’s for major events. He has announced many supercross shows as well. Dan says, “I just started announcing supercross stadiums, I had a little bit of butterflies the first time. I was a little bit worried. The first time I tried out but I liked it. I really enjoyed it because I was so confident.”

He and Ricky also travel around, doing these shows to help spread a message of kindness. Dan states that is one of the main reasons he and Ricky enjoy doing these shows. They told us, “it allows us to speak and talk about our message of kindness and allows Ricky to share the tricks that he worked really hard at.”