Sparky
My name is Marc Chennell AKA Sparky. I have been fascinated by anything on wheels from a very young age.
My mum told me that when I was a baby I would reach out of my pram with my hands clenched and roll my clenched fists as if I was revving every time I heard a bike.
I had my first bicycle at the age of two which my dad made for me as there was not one small enough and by the age of two-and-a-half my stabilisers came off.
“At the age of 4, I was lucky enough to be bought my first motorbike”
At the age of 4, I was lucky enough to be bought my first motorbike which my parents figured was best due to my fascination for motor cycles, (so that I did not kill myself when I got old enough ) which my dad taught me to ride.
On my fifth birthday I made a film for ‘That’s Incredible’ (which was an American TV program about extreme stuff ) in which I jumped my 50cc PeeWee over 10 double decker buses … bought by the film crew from Hamleys!, and made to look real on screen.
I used to practise in fields as I was too young to join a club until I was offered the opportunity to use a practise circuit by the Slough Aces motocross club, which was rather boring as it was just a flat circle for testing, but the club members were very friendly. Shortly afterwards I was invited to join a trials club even though I was under age. As my parents had done some research and found that Trials was one of the very few sports in which no-one had ever died (the other was badminton!) so they joined me up.
That summer I was asked to join their display team, and had a wonderful time showing off at various carnivals and fairs around the South of England. I was the little one on the end - all the Mums said: “Aaah” and all the little kids watching wanted a motorbike! I rode with the team for two years - officially six years old for both of them!
Later I joined Surrey Schoolboys Trials Club as well as the others I was involved with and began to compete at national level.
This is when I started trials riding, competing up to a school boy level. Trials taught me the art of balance and gave me the determination never to give in to the seemingly impossible.
I felt an outcast at school, because I could not express myself through the constrictions of an academically orientated environment. Later I was discovered to be severely dyslexic. The frustration caused by this pushed me into a destructive downward spiral. The only thing I found which could break this cycle was riding!
The reason I started doing what I do now was down to the pressures in my life at that time. It was a way of channelling negative energy, in a more positive form. I want to break through the mundane realities of day to day life.
“Changing people’s perceptions of what is humanly possible on a bike is an exhilarating feeling second to none”
I feel it is something that I am good at. I always knew I had an undiscovered talent. Being on the bike makes me feel complete, it is part of my physical make up. Riding makes the rest of the world stand still. Stunting allows us to bend the laws of physics. Changing people’s perceptions of what is humanly possible on a bike is an exhilarating feeling second to none. There are a proportion of people who do not fit in to the stereotypical forms that society dictates to us.
