About us
The School of Dirt is a motorcycle off-road riding school but there is more to us than meets the eye. Under our umbrella of all the vast and varied things we do, we are particularly proud of the beautiful short films we make for brands. Read on to know more.
We are certified off road instructors for BMW Motorrad India and KTM India.
For our off-road training, we use natural terrain and obstacles to train you how to ride your adventure motorcycle through real world situations so that you are well prepared should you decide to go to Ladakh or even around the world. We keep the numbers small for each batch because we like to know everyone by their first names and the helmets they wear. Keeping the number of participants small also ensures that everyone gets the attention they need while learning the nuances of climbing hills and jumping fallen trees.
In addition, we run adventure motorcycle tours. India has been our playground for over two decades now and we know places to stay and things to eat that no others know about or have the ability to access.
We could give you the google locations to these places but then unfortunately, we’d have to kill you.
We’ve gotten creative too and have shot three short films for Jeep India for their #Jeepmycalling campaign, made owner experience short films for Triumph Motorcycles, product videos for Stanley Tools India, Triumph Motorcycles India, Harley Davidson India and Bajaj Pulsar. Internationally, we have worked with Bike Shed MC, an exclusive motorcycle brand based in the United Kingdom, on a social media content creation project.
OUR TEAM
Rish is one of six KTM India’s Master Trainers and also a ride curator and leader on KTM Adventure Tours. He has experience of years of riding over all kinds of terrain (his idea of a honeymoon was a two month trip across India on his Triumph Tiger!) and is the School’s backbone. He plays the one man many roles act. He is the Manager, Asst. Instructor, Chef, First Aid Responder, Electrician, Plumber and Mechanic at the School. Rish also runs an Adventure tour company in Kerala called Plunge Adventures.
A former business consultant, Rish left the finance world to chase his dreams of seeking adventure around the world. Rish loves the outdoors, is a certified emergency first responder and certified kayaker. He absolutely detests being online. He is an active paddle boarder and is a highly experienced bicycle guy.
Ashik is multi-talented – he’s a photographer, a biker, a martial arts teacher and an emergency first responder wrapped into a bundle of energy. Ashik used to be a sports bike fanboy but he soon forgot all that the day he bought picked up a Street Scrambler.
He finished running it in over two days so that he could get the Vance and Hines exhaust on the bike ASAP. Ashik went on to modify a Honda Navi into an ADV and rode it flat out at 80kph halfway across the country to take part in a bike build off!
He takes brilliant pictures and videos, hijacks Rish’s Tiger way more than he should and goes into rapture every time someone starts his Scrambler. Oh, and in his free time, he’s established himself as one of the best photographers this side of Asia. His works have been featured in projects for international motorcycle and related brands like Triumph motorcycles, Bikeshed, etc. You can ask him to capture your thrills while you are at the School.
Ouseph is currently the only BMW Motorrad International Instructor Academy certified off-road instructor in India. He is also one of KTM India’s Master Trainers and also leads KTM Adventure Tours.
Ouseph’s skills are mainly self taught and we know the real reason he gets his bike through difficult terrain is because he has no option but to make it through – his legs don’t always reach the ground. Nonetheless, he’s ridden over varied terrain, got stranded on a mountain pass in a snowstorm, eaten uncooked goat in Africa and lived to tell the tale and that, we suppose, qualifies him.
Now he has serious certification to back his skills up as well. He’s also a career auto journalist who has fourteen years of experience driving and riding all kinds of cars and bikes all over the world. He told us he used to do it for Autocar India and Evo India and oh, before we forget, he also used to work as a PADI certified Dive Master for the pioneers of scuba diving in the Andamans – Dive India. We like Ouseph – he’s a good teacher but we think his greatest achievement is how he taught his short legs how to handle tall bikes.