Vineyard mountain biker climbs to the top

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Raised on Martha’s Vineyard, with no chairlifts, no mountains, and just barely 300 feet of total elevation, 12-year-old Levi Kochin, a West Tisbury School student, has achieved some of the most improbable successes in the world of youth mountain biking, dominating races across the country, and beating competitors that have access to mountains year-round. 

Most recently in late October, Levi was crowned champion of the Eastern States Cup finals in the under-12 division. However, his biggest race was at the end of September, in the first national race of his young career, where he won the under-12 U.S. Open for downhill mountain biking at Killington, Vt. 

“It was crazy; I couldn’t believe it,” said Levi, ecstatic about his U.S. Open win. “It was my goal from the beginning of the season, and I did not think I was going to be able to win that race, but I ended up doing it. It was very surprising because I was competing against kids from all over the world.” 

For Levi, his love of mountain biking comes from the freedom he feels while racing down tricky terrain: “You just kind of forget everything that’s going on around you,” said Levi. “It feels free, it feels really fun, and exciting.” 

Levi got his first full-suspension mountain bike when he was just 7 years old, and fell in love almost immediately. 

“He seemed to do quite well very quickly, so that reassured us as we started this. Then he truly became very passionate about it after spending some time in the mountains,” said Josh Kochin, Levi’s father.

While Levi trains on homemade, vertical dirt jumps in his backyard, many of his competitors live just minutes from lift-served bike parks and mountains where they can log thousands of feet in descents every week. 

“I feel like the kids off-Island are lucky to ride in the mountains every day, and have actual mountain biking spots,” said Levi. 

Levi’s daily training routine consists of riding on a rutted berm track in his backyard that helps him train in balance and positioning himself on his bike, and a small dirt track with jumps that he has been constructing and reshaping himself since he was 7. He also traverses any rough and rooty trails that he can find around the Island that simulate the terrain he often competes on. 

“We are kind of like fish out of water here on the Island,” said Josh. “The kids he’s competing against live adjacent to these mountains, and he doesn’t have that. We’ve made the most of 15 vertical feet in the backyard.” 

For Levi, the key to maintaining his competitive edge despite not living near a mountain is repetition and confidence. “If I don’t ride for a week, I lose a lot of confidence in myself,” Levi said. “In order to get back into it, you have to do a lot of repetition.” 

Levi has been sponsored by Edgartown Bicycles for several seasons now. 

“Our local sponsor is Edgartown Bicycles,” said Josh. “Jon [Malone] over there has been very supportive of Levi and his efforts.”

“It’s pretty cool,” added Levi. “It’s nice bringing a smaller bike shop to these bigger races.” 

The U.S. Open victory for Levi also caught the attention of Killington Mountain School scouts, one of the few high schools in the U.S. with a full-time downhill mountain bike program. For Levi, his goal is to be a professional mountain biker, and to keep riding for as long as possible. Eventually, he wants to design his own bike frame. “I hope to be a pro biker, not necessarily a racer, but I would also like to try to build a bike, make the frame, and have it fully custom and stuff,” said Levi. 

Beyond racing down mountains, Levi spends a lot of his time studying the sport he loves: researching full-suspension bicycles, engineering, tinkering, and learning everything about what makes a mountain bike tick. “Little things can make such a big difference,” said Levi. 

“He is really a student of his sport,” added Josh. “He talks about the bikes all the time, and started studying the bikes, and it became a great, well-rounded sport in the sense that he’s learning about mechanics and engineering and the intricacies of racing, studying bikes for what performs best.”

For the Kochin family, watching their son excel in a field he loves has been fun to witness, but also scary, considering the dangers of competing in such an extreme sport. 

“As a dad it’s been fun to watch, because he truly succeeded in something he loved,” said Josh. “The part that’s not very exciting is that it’s very dangerous. When you watch videos, the stuff that pops up is not always very positive, but Levi is a very calculated kid. He works and trains very hard.”