It’s cool having that kind of support,
man.
That’s the only way it could happen.
How did you practice for the run
into the loop? Did you speed check
yourself?
Dude, this is where the story gets
almost disgusting - it makes my belly
shake, you know. We were doing it
in February/March in South Africa.
The team was meant to be there for
four weeks, but it took us four weeks
just to build the thing. The loop was
finished literally the last possible night
we could have done it. We were all
working in the dirt until midnight then I went to bed to get up at five
and start preparing to hit it.
Mentally preparing?
I’d been trying to mentally prepare
myself probably since the previous
September, because I had a good
feeling that it was going to happen.
It was just a lot of meditation, a lot of
thinking about the process of riding
it - kind of accepting what could
happen to you if things went wrong,
and being okay with that. Really dark
stuff, man. It was really messed up
now that I think about it. I would never
do this again, but at the time it just felt
right. I only had about maybe three
hours with that loop before I had to
hit it.
Did you have any science to help
you as well, did anyone work out
the speed that you needed to enter
it, or was it just gut stuff?
I had a couple people take a crack at
it, but they all came back to me with
different answers.
Oh s**t.
I was like dude, I can’t trust these
guys. At the end of the day, it’s my
life. So I decided I would make runs
past the loop and have someone film
it - then watch it back and decide
which speed was going to be the
best.
The day before I was going to hit it, I
made maybe five runs with different
speeds. But it was too late and we
didn’t get the chance to watch them
properly. I watched them on the small
camera screen and I kind of got a
feel for what speed I wanted to go.
I tended more towards more speed
rather than less speed. The physics
taught me a lesson about speed...
So what happened?
It was gnarly, man. It happened really
94 | FreestyleXtreme.com
“
I came across
guys doing loops a
hundred years ago.
At first I thought it
was fake, but after
a bit more digging I
was like wow, this is
actually the birth of
freestyle mountain
biking.
quick. I remember I was on the dropin and I just thought I couldn’t live
with not trying this. I felt like if I didn’t
roll down the ramp I’d be dead inside.
I’d be dying every day. I just dropped
in and gave it my best.
As I touched the bottom transition
I couldn’t move and I knew I was in
trouble. I pulled so many G’s that it
wouldn’t let me lean. As soon as I
realized I couldn’t lean, I was just like,
oh no. Before I knew it, I hit the top
transition and it just doubled the force
on me, and my chest pretty much
smoked my handlebars and then I got
thrown out the side. As soon as I went
out the side, it was just like you’re an
idiot, you did it now. You did the one
thing you’re not supposed to do.
I took a deep breath and shit got
really real, really quick. As soon as
I saw the ground, I knew I wasn’t
going to die. I saw it and I was like
all right, you know, you’re going to
live. I thought that maybe I’d lose
my legs - and I just hit the ground
the best I could, because I’ve hit the
ground quite a bit. Just hit it the best
I could but unfortunately I landed on
the freaking run-in - so it was like
cement hard. I rolled over after I hit
the ground and wiggled my toe - and
I was the happiest man in the freaking
world. Everyone was freaking out and
I just felt so bad because everyone
believed in me so much and I just felt
like I let everyone down. That was
tougher than anything else.
I hundred percent should have died.
I don’t know how I survived that,
you know? My ankle cast is getting
off next week, which is insane. My
wrist is going to be a little bit longer
because they did the surgery three
weeks after. It’s insane. I am super
lucky - especially when you see
Steve Smith passing away and Kelly
McGarry, Dave Mirra. This has been a
horrible year for bikes.
It’s been terrible. Where does that
leave your desire to go back and
accomplish the loop? Is it done and
dusted?
You know what man? It’s definitely a
hundred percent possible - and you
could for sure even make a bigger
one if you wanted to. The error was
trying to squeeze it into too small of a
time. I had too much on my shoulders
and paid the price. Whether or not
I’m going to do it again, I can’t really
say. Everything would have to be
absolutely perfect, because I’m never
putting myself in that kind of danger
again.
What’s the plan for the rest of the
year? Any other projects?
I’m just being real present at the
moment and trying to get he