From there your profile exploded . FMX was gnarly back in the day and there were parties everywhere . What are some of your craziest memories ?
Man , just moving in with Damian Sanders , who was the first person to backflip a snowboard . They got paid to make cool videos and that ’ s what our goals were too , to bring the snowboard lifestyle to motocross .
Racing was so preppy back then , and if you had a dirt bike you either raced enduros , motocross , desert or supercross . Everyone had to act a certain way or get fired by their sponsors ; the racers couldn ’ t let the world know they partied like any other human being and loved having a good time off their dirt bike .
When they saw us wearing baggy pants over our boots , Metzger doing heelclickers and people launching all these hills and jumps , people were like “ wow , this is something new and something we ’ ve never seen ”.
One of the funniest things was magazines like Motocross Action and Dirt Rider bagging out freestyle , saying it as bad for the sport and people are going to get hurt doing this sh * t . But seriously , within a year they had all changed their tune and were wanting to jump on the bandwagon . It was funny to see .
Was there much pressure to try and make Crusty 2 bigger and better than the original ?
Definitely . People started asking if we were going to make part two and how we were going to do to top the first one . We thought we better do something big , and without even really trying , we got the shot when I jumped into all the bikes on top of the Glamis dunes .
“ I just saw the rut off the take-off and the blue sky . I looked at McGrath and he said “ you know the deal : fourth gear tapped ”
Hah that ’ s right ! I ’ d forgotten about that jump . What happened ?
I was on an old 1992 RM250 and the power valve ended up being disconnected from the bottom end , so it ran fine downhill and on the flats , but as soon as you put it under load and tried to climb a dune , it just bogged .
We were at Glamis with the pros for the first time , and I wanted to hit all the big jumps with Jeff Emig and Jeremy McGrath – they were on brand new bikes and I was on this old roach , with the engine mounted into a 1995 frame Greg Albertyn had given me . I don ’ t even think the engine mounts lined up and it was missing bolts !
Anyway , I had to assemble the bike out there at the dunes and everyone got sick of waiting for me , so they went out to a dune called Competition Hill and said to meet them there . I rushed around and finally got the thing going , and when I met the guys they were taking turns hitting this jump . I didn ’ t test-run it . I just saw the rut off the take-off and the blue sky .
Seth Enslow
I looked at McGrath and he said “ you know the deal – fourth gear tapped ”.
You just hit it straight up ?
Yeah , I just went for it . As soon as I left the lip I saw people and all these bikes sitting on the safety deck and I didn ’ t have enough power to clear them . I was thinking “ f ** k I ’ m going to land right on these guys !” and people were scrambling away like ants . I landed right in the middle of this stack of bikes and it ’ s so lucky that I didn ’ t get a handlebar poke through me . I hit the first bike , front-flipped over the rest and landed on my feet and walked out of it . I only broke a clutch perch on my bike and ripped my jersey , but I blew tyres off threewheelers , put holes in gas tanks , and bent the frame and crushed the radiator of one of McGrath ’ s brand new 1996 CR250 practice bikes . ( laughs )
I did a lot of damage , but I looked at Dana and said “ well I guess we got the shot for part two didn ’ t we !” ( laughs )
That ’ s so gnarly . You ’ ve had some insane jumps over the years . Which one stands out as the one you ’ re most proud of ?
I ’ d have to say the 301ft jump I did at Calder Park , in Australia in 2008 . My lifetime goal was to jump a football field at 300ft , so that was ‘ mission accomplished ’, and I don ’ t feel like I have to jump any further than that .
That ’ s when I decided to jump on the Harley the next year . Evel Knievel died and his son Robbie had never jumped a Harley – he ’ d only jumped a CR500 – so I thought it was time to pick up the ball and see how far I could launch a Harley Davidson . A year later I set the Harley world record at 183ft . u