An Interview with Albert Ocampo
Tell us about yourself
I learned how to ride bicycles on a neighbor’s old 16” bicycle with solid tires. He got a new bike (with actual pneumatic tires) and so he taught me how to ride his stupid old bike so he’d have someone to ride with. Once I learned the basics of balance, pedaling, and braking, I rode around gleefully, zipping up and down their driveway trying to keep up with him on his new bike—and immediately and unsurprisingly plowed straight into a large, prickly cactus, those piece of shit solid rubber tires offering very little traction for either steering or braking. Nevertheless, the exhilaration of speed, freedom, and fun that the bicycle possessed was strong and I persisted. (Once my parents plucked out all the cactus spines from my arms and hands, that is.)
I soon graduated to a bicycle of my own—replete with real honest to god tires with air in them—and the rest is history. This inauspicious beginning foretold the many pitfalls, pratfalls, wrong turns, and general missteps I’ve made during the course of my journey, and taught me the persistence and fortitude necessary to becoming the dominantly mediocre Masters Men 35+C cyclocross racer* I am today.
All jokes aside, I was quickly consumed with bicycles and they’ve been an integral part of my person since I first learned to ride, my interest turning to obsession after going to the local BMX track for the first time with my cousin Lou, then noticing quickly that all the cool older kids** all rode BMX bikes in the park after school, where I saw someone attempting a tailwhip for the first time. The BMX and skateboard magazines helmed by Andy Jenkins, Mark Lewman, and Spike Jonze informed my worldview and inspired my interest in design, culture, music, photography, and media, and I can easily draw a through-line directly from this interest to my current career as a designer and creative director.
I ride as my primary form of exercise, stress relief, and recreation, which can take one of many forms these days: road, cyclocross, gravel, MTB (trails and dirt jump), and of course BMX (street, park, and dirt) but ultimately I ride (and race) all these different kinds of bikes for the one motivation that I likely share with you, dear reader: fun.
Albert Ocampo lives in Los Angeles with a corgi named Noodle and a 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo Estate.
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* I have been in Masters 35+C since 2017, and during my best season, I only finished sixth.
** Including Frank Garrido. Can you believe that I once thought Frank Garrido was super cool?
Tell us one positive thing you took away from 2020
Ultimately 2020 felt like one long cycling off-season for me, so I took advantage of all the time I spent not training for assorted road and cyclocross events to do all the other things I love to do but haven’t had much time for: cooking, cocktails, playing music, photography, and riding bikes just for fun. Turns out I am a much happier person when I am a well-rounded person that gets an adequate amount of sleep.
Tribute
Feels a little trite to say my mother, but there you go—my mother. She was a little immigrant Filipina working as an architect at all these badass firms in the 70’s (hint: not a lot of diversity back then) working on huge projects like EPCOT center, Staples Center, LA Metro, Pacific Design Center, and The Getty Museum. Her favorite aunt was an art director at J. Walter Thompson* in Manila, so when I decided to become a designer, I didn’t get the typical asian mom “Why don’t you go to med school or become a lawyer” schtick and was free to pursue what I wanted.
After she succumbed to lung cancer, I actually started riding road bikes in order to participate in the Fireflies West SF to LA charity ride (twice), personally raising almost $20K in her honor for The City of Hope’s cancer research and treatment efforts. #fuckcancer #forthosewhosufferweride
* I would later go on to become an art director at J. Walter Thompson in NY, the one job I didn’t have to explain to her.
What’s Next
It’s really hard to tell when things will look anything like normal again—given that we’ve only had an adult in the White House for a couple of weeks—so while I can’t plan for anything concrete yet in terms of events, I can say unequivocally that I am really looking forward to group rides again. I haven’t ridden my road bike since August probably—I don’t particularly enjoy solo road rides and for reasons I won’t get into here, I’m being ultra careful about Til then, MTB or gravel either solo or with a couple of people here and there, and lots of time on the dirt jumper and bmx. Off the bike, super hyped on working with my dude Matt St. Gelais on some new Visitor Co. soft goods AND hard goods. Watch my insta for progress, it’s gonna be 🔥