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INSIDE THE INDUSTRY » SQUAMISH, BRITISH COLUMBIA
From the trails to the shop
Wayne Hodder takes his passion for motorsports to work every day
by KIRSTEN ARMLEDER
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SLICK TRICKS: (Top) Wayne Hodder tears up the powder in Vernon, B.C.; (Bottom) Hodder rode in the 2006 and 2007 24-Hour ATV & Dirt Bike Marathon in Hope.
—Skippy photos |
Name: Wayne Hodder
Position/company: Mechanic/technician at No Limits Motorsports in Squamish, B.C.
Products and services: We do all the BRP products: Sea-Doos, ATVs and snowmobiles. We are also carrying Kawasaki this year and doing the KTM line. We service all of the products we sell and we have a full parts department.
Past lives: I grew up around mechanics. My dad was a mechanic and I always had bikes and was around cars. After high school I went to university for a few years and then I went to BCIT and took a motorcycle mechanic course. I worked at Pacific Yamaha/BMW in Richmond for a few years and then got out of that scene for three years and did some odd stuff here and there. Then I got back into the business and started my own shop up in Whistler called Sick Sleds. I had that for two years and then my business partner wanted to get out of it. I was kind of in limbo—whether or not to keep the business going just myself—and No Limits had new ownership and needed a service guy, so they came along and made me an offer that was hard to refuse. So I shut down the shop and moved here.
What is the shop like? It was fairly small but we’ve expanded a lot in the last three years. Since the new owners have taken over they have brought in the ATV product line, the Sea-Doo line, the KTM street bike line and Kawasaki. The store is twice the size that it was back in ’02/’03, so it’s growing and business has been increasing rapidly.
Describe an average day for you: We open at 9 a.m. and the first half hour is opening shop and moving everything into the service area. Then the service/ parts manager and I discuss what’s on the agenda for service work, what needs to get done and what parts have shown up.
What do you like most about your job? The demos. I get a free dirt bike every year that’s just mine, so I trick it out—put all my parts and accessories on it. At the end of the year I strip it down, put it back to stock and they sell it. And it’s the same for a sled. We also have two Sea-Doos and three ATVs that are demos, so that’s a good perk.
What do you like to do away from work? I dirt bike and snowmobile. I spend a lot of time at the gym too. I went to Europe for three weeks this summer but besides that, I think I went dirt biking and camping almost every weekend.
What is your greatest achievement? Dirt bike-wise, my major achievement was that this year I won my class at the Monkey Wrench Cross Country race at Lytton, B.C., in July. I was pretty stoked. Also, having my own business was always something I had wanted to do. I definitely learned a lot from it. We didn’t make a lot of money but we were busy and made a lot of connections—and it ended up getting me this position that I’m in now.
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