Captain Safety - A Career of Managing Risk
Balancing safety with progressing and having fun on the bike is no easy task, but developing a risk treatment that works for you and your family can be key to success!
Eric Porter is a Professional Mountain Biker and YouTuber, sharing adventures with his family on their channel PorterMTB. He has competed in many aspects of our sport including Slopestyle, Downhill, XC, Enduro, Dirt Jumping, and Trials, but finds the most enjoyment on big backcountry trail rides in the alpine. Eric has also spent the last seven years running his local trail advocacy non-profit, Wasatch Trails Foundation, and his mission is to grow the sport of mountain biking by getting more families outside and on trails together.
Captain Safety
I think of myself as Captain Safety, which is an odd title since I’ve made a career out of doing dangerous activities on my bike in the mountains. I’ve shot videos on the infamous death-defying White Line Trail in Sedona, I’ve been mountain biking through literal minefields in Iraq, bike-packed in the Indian Himalayas in a snowstorm, and competed in Crankworx Whistler Slopestyle. The stories of near misses are endless, and the list of injuries amongst my friends is just as long. While I’ve been called many things by people outside our sport, like “daredevil,” “adrenaline junkie,” and “risk taker,” I actually consider myself more of a risk manager. In other words, I like to do dangerous stuff, but I want to do it as safely as possible.
As a father, my #1 job is to protect my kids. I want to keep them safe at all costs, of course, but doing that from an injury perspective then exposes them to the risk of not living life to the fullest by keeping them inside and away from anything “dangerous.” This isn’t a healthy way to live either, and it definitely doesn’t prepare them for the real world.
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