Gravel911
28th November 2008, 21:37
Josh Coppins fuming
Ex Sunday Star times:
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Very interesting read did anyone else see this report?
FUMING: Josh Coppins has put retirement on hold as he waits for the next generation of Kiwi motocross riders to front.
Metaphorically speaking it's there, right in the middle of Josh Coppins' forehead. A switch, off for now but begging for a figurative flick.
It's Coppins' weak spot, and he can't help it. When the switch is tripped, bile spews forth. Trip it again and the same broth erupts.
Coppins, one of our many motorsport Mr Nice Guys, is hosed. His patience is wearing thin. For nearly a decade he has been flying our flag on the world motocross stage, getting rich; richer than he ever imagined.
While counting his pennies he has been waiting for New Zealand's production line of bike talent to crank into gear. Waiting for someone to become his heir - as he was heir apparent when the brothers King, Darryll, Shayne and Damien, racked their bikes for the final time.
But nothing. No one is coming through.
Absurd as it may sound, he has even started to question whether he may have played a role; might somehow be at fault.
Time to flick that switch. "I think a lot of the kids might have been seduced by the sport's, and my, rock star image," he says. "There are kids out there who work hard but the majority of them saw what happened with the King brothers, who were very successful in Europe.
"Then I came along about the same time as Ben [Townley] and they saw the nice lifestyle. They saw all the sponsors come on board and great cars, the nice houses, and flying business class. They saw all the luxuries and thought it came easy, because [long pause] there were quite a few of us doing it.
"We were everywhere they looked but [his speech quickens] what they didn't see was the hard work, the hard work that went behind it and now they have missed the boat.
"Unfortunately training isn't just cruising the streets in your pimped out van with your girlfriend on the seat beside you."
THE KIWI motocross cupboard is, as you might have gathered, a little bare.
Katherine Prumm has been dominating the burgeoning international female bike scene, but with respect to the current crop of riders, Coppins is fast approaching retirement with no obvious successor in sight.
A couple of talented riders have come on the scene but for a variety of reasons have been content to ride in New Zealand with the odd foray into Australia. It's a lack of endeavour that Coppins struggles to comprehend.
On a flying visit home earlier this month he told the Sunday Star-Times the lack of a successor had played a part, albeit a minor one, in his decision to put retirement on hold.
This year was supposed to be his last but he has signed a one-year extension to his contract with Yamaha and if all goes to plan he'll have a final crack at the only title that has eluded him: the motocross world championship.
The decision means he will have less time to spend on his beloved Motueka farm where he hopes to discover the next Josh Coppins. As one of the New Zealand's top paid sportsmen, Coppins has used that wealth to transform his property into his own private playground.
Pastures have been turned into a shrine to his sport, with a massive workshop containing the 20 or so bikes he has collected throughout his career. He's also fashioned thousands of tonnes of dirt into a couple of world- class bike tracks that are among the best in this country.
His aim is to start an academy so he can pass his skills to the next generation.
"The place is ready," he says. "I have spent hundreds of thousands on the workshop and facility.
"The workshop is done the tracks are done and the irrigation is done so that side of it is all pretty much sorted.
"It's just a matter of really deciding if that's exactly what I want to do and the route I want to go down.
"It's something I am interested in doing but I'm just not sure if I want to do it. It's something you'd want to do properly or not at all."
Coppins, 31, is extremely candid about the material rewards on offer in his sport. Honest enough to provide facts and figures on his salary and other earnings in his biography Josh Flying Kiwi!
His base salary contract with Honda in 2002 was $500,000. He was pulling in about $200,000 more a year in prize money. His annual wage, with endorsements, is now considerably more, meaning Coppins is earning comfortably more than all but one or two All Blacks.
He owns a couple of industrial properties in Nelson. There's the home in Bath, England, and his other European base Belgium, plus the giant truck converted into a motor home in which he tours Europe.
When you add to that his collection of bikes (20) and cars, no wonder kids have been seduced by the life of a motocross star with the pimped out Motueka farm.
"It would be great if I could help them and others get into the sport because that can be the hard bit," he says. "Not everyone can afford a bike for starters, so I have this idea of starting up an academy [on his farm] after I retire so I can try to help the next generations come through and have the opportunities I have been lucky enough to have."
While stardom has helped Coppins' bank balance, there's something else he craves more than money.
A career-defining opportunity opened for him at the end of 2006 when 10-times motocross world champion Stefan Everts retired.
Coppins was contracted by Yamaha to fill Everts' saddle.
Within a couple of months of joining the team and starting his campaign he'd built virtually an unassailable lead in the championship. But disaster struck when he blew a knee and broke a collarbone. His lead vanished.
He made a hasty return to the bike with two rounds remaining; but it was a decision he would later regret as he had not recovered fully and the legacy of that early return led to a problem- plagued season this year, finishing a creditable but unfulfilling fifth.
"If [2008] went well I would probably have got out quite content but I'm not content at the moment so I want to keep on trying.
"I'm not prepared to walk away just yet so I can't even say if [2009] is my last until it comes times to negotiate a new deal - and how motivated I am. It's quite a tough time in my career because before last summer I was not even considering retirement. I was not even considering life after motocross. It was just about me, me, me."
But the pending arrival of his first child in January and another year that didn't meet his exacting standards means Coppins is going to give himself what will probably be a last chance to makes his dreams come true. And it's another year for the next big thing to arrive out of the woodwork in New Zealand.
"All of sudden things have changed a little bit. In one way it's good because I have grown up and in another way it's not because I'd prefer to concentrate on the job at hand," he says.
If his year goes to plan, Coppins will pull stumps on his career and split his time between fatherhood and a job working behind the scenes with Yamaha in Europe.
"I have acquired a good lifestyle and if I want to maintain that then I am not there yet. I need to sustain the income I have now for another few years and invest it wisely, so I won't be cutting ties with Europe just yet. I have acquired tastes and want to keep that."
Ex Sunday Star times:
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Very interesting read did anyone else see this report?
FUMING: Josh Coppins has put retirement on hold as he waits for the next generation of Kiwi motocross riders to front.
Metaphorically speaking it's there, right in the middle of Josh Coppins' forehead. A switch, off for now but begging for a figurative flick.
It's Coppins' weak spot, and he can't help it. When the switch is tripped, bile spews forth. Trip it again and the same broth erupts.
Coppins, one of our many motorsport Mr Nice Guys, is hosed. His patience is wearing thin. For nearly a decade he has been flying our flag on the world motocross stage, getting rich; richer than he ever imagined.
While counting his pennies he has been waiting for New Zealand's production line of bike talent to crank into gear. Waiting for someone to become his heir - as he was heir apparent when the brothers King, Darryll, Shayne and Damien, racked their bikes for the final time.
But nothing. No one is coming through.
Absurd as it may sound, he has even started to question whether he may have played a role; might somehow be at fault.
Time to flick that switch. "I think a lot of the kids might have been seduced by the sport's, and my, rock star image," he says. "There are kids out there who work hard but the majority of them saw what happened with the King brothers, who were very successful in Europe.
"Then I came along about the same time as Ben [Townley] and they saw the nice lifestyle. They saw all the sponsors come on board and great cars, the nice houses, and flying business class. They saw all the luxuries and thought it came easy, because [long pause] there were quite a few of us doing it.
"We were everywhere they looked but [his speech quickens] what they didn't see was the hard work, the hard work that went behind it and now they have missed the boat.
"Unfortunately training isn't just cruising the streets in your pimped out van with your girlfriend on the seat beside you."
THE KIWI motocross cupboard is, as you might have gathered, a little bare.
Katherine Prumm has been dominating the burgeoning international female bike scene, but with respect to the current crop of riders, Coppins is fast approaching retirement with no obvious successor in sight.
A couple of talented riders have come on the scene but for a variety of reasons have been content to ride in New Zealand with the odd foray into Australia. It's a lack of endeavour that Coppins struggles to comprehend.
On a flying visit home earlier this month he told the Sunday Star-Times the lack of a successor had played a part, albeit a minor one, in his decision to put retirement on hold.
This year was supposed to be his last but he has signed a one-year extension to his contract with Yamaha and if all goes to plan he'll have a final crack at the only title that has eluded him: the motocross world championship.
The decision means he will have less time to spend on his beloved Motueka farm where he hopes to discover the next Josh Coppins. As one of the New Zealand's top paid sportsmen, Coppins has used that wealth to transform his property into his own private playground.
Pastures have been turned into a shrine to his sport, with a massive workshop containing the 20 or so bikes he has collected throughout his career. He's also fashioned thousands of tonnes of dirt into a couple of world- class bike tracks that are among the best in this country.
His aim is to start an academy so he can pass his skills to the next generation.
"The place is ready," he says. "I have spent hundreds of thousands on the workshop and facility.
"The workshop is done the tracks are done and the irrigation is done so that side of it is all pretty much sorted.
"It's just a matter of really deciding if that's exactly what I want to do and the route I want to go down.
"It's something I am interested in doing but I'm just not sure if I want to do it. It's something you'd want to do properly or not at all."
Coppins, 31, is extremely candid about the material rewards on offer in his sport. Honest enough to provide facts and figures on his salary and other earnings in his biography Josh Flying Kiwi!
His base salary contract with Honda in 2002 was $500,000. He was pulling in about $200,000 more a year in prize money. His annual wage, with endorsements, is now considerably more, meaning Coppins is earning comfortably more than all but one or two All Blacks.
He owns a couple of industrial properties in Nelson. There's the home in Bath, England, and his other European base Belgium, plus the giant truck converted into a motor home in which he tours Europe.
When you add to that his collection of bikes (20) and cars, no wonder kids have been seduced by the life of a motocross star with the pimped out Motueka farm.
"It would be great if I could help them and others get into the sport because that can be the hard bit," he says. "Not everyone can afford a bike for starters, so I have this idea of starting up an academy [on his farm] after I retire so I can try to help the next generations come through and have the opportunities I have been lucky enough to have."
While stardom has helped Coppins' bank balance, there's something else he craves more than money.
A career-defining opportunity opened for him at the end of 2006 when 10-times motocross world champion Stefan Everts retired.
Coppins was contracted by Yamaha to fill Everts' saddle.
Within a couple of months of joining the team and starting his campaign he'd built virtually an unassailable lead in the championship. But disaster struck when he blew a knee and broke a collarbone. His lead vanished.
He made a hasty return to the bike with two rounds remaining; but it was a decision he would later regret as he had not recovered fully and the legacy of that early return led to a problem- plagued season this year, finishing a creditable but unfulfilling fifth.
"If [2008] went well I would probably have got out quite content but I'm not content at the moment so I want to keep on trying.
"I'm not prepared to walk away just yet so I can't even say if [2009] is my last until it comes times to negotiate a new deal - and how motivated I am. It's quite a tough time in my career because before last summer I was not even considering retirement. I was not even considering life after motocross. It was just about me, me, me."
But the pending arrival of his first child in January and another year that didn't meet his exacting standards means Coppins is going to give himself what will probably be a last chance to makes his dreams come true. And it's another year for the next big thing to arrive out of the woodwork in New Zealand.
"All of sudden things have changed a little bit. In one way it's good because I have grown up and in another way it's not because I'd prefer to concentrate on the job at hand," he says.
If his year goes to plan, Coppins will pull stumps on his career and split his time between fatherhood and a job working behind the scenes with Yamaha in Europe.
"I have acquired a good lifestyle and if I want to maintain that then I am not there yet. I need to sustain the income I have now for another few years and invest it wisely, so I won't be cutting ties with Europe just yet. I have acquired tastes and want to keep that."