Did your dad have a big influence
on your career? How would you compare your
riding on each?
For sure. He’s always around me
and took me to all the contests and
everything growing up. He is always
like my right-hand man. Now he is
retired and my schedule is so busy
that he doesn’t go with me as much. I am not as good on my dirt bike. I
am good at a lot of things, just not as
good at like, the flip tricks and stuff
on my dirt bike. But everything else I
think I am better on my dirt bike.
How do you approach new tricks
with that work ethic? Are you
one of the guys that looks at the
science behind it or do you just
literally feel it out and use your
intuition and talent?
I really try to do it the smartest way
that I can. If it’s something that I can
just learn and I know that my skill is
there to learn safely, I will do it that
route.
But not if it’s something really gnarly,
like the Double Backflip and stuff
like that - where you really have no
business trying it until you figure it
out. So much of it’s the ramp and the
snowmobile and everything. It just
takes a little bit you know?
I’ve seen a few videos of you riding
FMX at your compound - is that
(MX legend) Guy Cooper’s place?
Used to be. Keith Sayer, my business
partner and friend, owns it now.
It’s Racetrack Montana. We built it,
all of us. About five different riders
spent a couple of summers out there
just building it. There is an outdoor
motocross track, there’s a supercross
track and there’s a s**t-load of
freestyle motocross jumps - and
then you can freeride right there too.
Primo.
How much of a balance do you
strike between FMX and the
snowmobile these days?
I’m on the edge of getting a new
motorcycle right now. I haven’t
had one for a couple of years, just
because I decided I was spending
too much time away from my family
at home and I didn’t think it was fair
to them. I got rid of my motorcycle so
the only time I was gone was riding
my sled for work, instead of both.
Is it hard to switch between the
two?
I don’t think it’s much different,
especially for me because I grew up
riding both.
It kind of sucks, man - if I just had
spent more time on this bike and
really put in the work I could have
been where I am at on a bike instead
of on a sled, but it’s all good.
I guess FMX is a bigger market but
with much more competition…
The dirt bike market’s a lot bigger, but
I think it’s a lot harder to make it in.
There are a lot of really good dudes
and it doesn’t even matter anymore.
It’s more of a demo sport and there
are so many guys that just want to
work that are very competitive.
back at your career you have
accumulated a mass of X Games
medals, where do you keep them?
They are just in a shoe box in my safe,
man. I am going to put like a thing
together - but I didn’t want to do it
until I was done - like a little trophy
box and put all jerseys up and stuff.
I have kept a majority of my jerseys
too.
Which one of those medals means
the most to you?
I don’t really feel like any of them
really mean more than another one. It
was all just a big part of a big puzzle.
It’s not like you win X Games, it
changes your life and you are rich.
It’s just another thing to put on your
resume that helps you keep your
show value high and your sponsor
value high and keep people happy.
What kind of difference is there
between riding on snow and riding
indoors here at Masters of Dirt on a
snowmobile? How gutted were you not riding
away the double flip at the most
recent Winter X Games? You were
pretty close.
I would prefer to ride on snow - that
is what I am really good at you know?
On snow, you will get every trick you
seem me doing at X Games. You put
me in here, you know they are not
made for this. It is hard because I have put so much
time, so much money into it and to
go there and have it not work - and
then my sled was destroyed so it’s
not like I got to go again. It just sucks.
Emotionally, it’s hard.
They get hot, and when they get
hot, they lose power. When you lose
power, it’s hard to make that jump and
it is dangerous. People don’t always
understand stuff like that. You know how much it takes to spend
two to three months away from your
family to train for something. I spent
$40,000 on the project so I was highly
invested to go there. Basically, for
me it was win best trick for probably
what would be my last time, and say
goodbye to a sport that I fell in love
with. Not retire from the sport but
kind of done with competitions. It’s
really hard to make money competing
anymore. There’s not enough big
sponsors.
How do you stay on top of
managing the heat?
We try to put water on them if we can
and they have radiators and stuff.
Sounds like a lot of work! Looking
£ Testing the
limits on the
set of The
Doonies 3
In terms of that trick, are you the
type of person that goes back and
watches the footage painfully on
replay or are you just not going to
watch it again?
I think I watched it once with my
wife when we got home. Not really
to watch the jump, because I knew
exactly what happened, but to see
how they made me look on TV and
see how I felt about what was said or
whatever. I was happy with the way I
was portrayed. u