FreestyleXtreme Magazine Issue 6 | Page 80

Sounds rad! Have you been doing
much with Smoking Seagulls
lately?

the score you gave them, rather
than just having a random guy
shout out a number and that’s
where you finish. But it’s definitely
hard. Anything that is judged is
rough, because it’s opinionated. My
opinion isn’t the right answer, but
I’m qualified to be a judge because I
can give an opinion and tell you why
I gave a certain score. As long as
you can back up your choice you’re
pretty solid to do it.

Smoking Seagulls is like some silly
brainchild that I play around with. I
don’t know! It’s like a never-ending
project [laughs] but it’s usually
on hold for the purposes of life,
survival and all the responsible
things that you have to do. I get
time to throw some things at it every
now and then. We’ll always try and
help support things like See See
Motorcycles. It’s always there, you
know.

How would you say FMX today
compares to how it was back in
around the 2002 era?

What are your local riding spots
like back home?
I live in Nevada, and we have a lot of
open state land. I can drive my van
for like ten minutes and then legally
ride as far as I can. If I could carry
50 gallons of gas, I could run it you
know. I like that - I really like just trail
riding. I like all kinds of bikes – all
aspects and all disciplines, not just
FMX!

A big part of Smoking Seagulls is
custom builds right? What was
the last bike you built?

© RED BULL CONTENT POOL

FMX nowadays is a little different
you know. I liked it more before. Not
just because that was ‘my day’ or
whatever, it was just fun to me back
then. I got into it because it was
just something that I did. People
didn’t really understand it, and we
were just doing it for fun. Then
somehow it kind of became work.
At first there was a lot of passion in
FMX, because it wasn’t something
you could do to make a bunch of
money. It was driven by the attitude
of ‘aah this is fun, let’s keep doing
it’ or ‘I’ve got enough cash to live
on for a bit longer…’ etc. After that
period I came across a few good
years. Then everybody kind of got
super serious. Nobody used to train
for anything [laughs]. Granted some
of the stuff that is done now in FMX
is totally nuts, but still… Back then
it was all new at the time too, so it’s
all quite relative right? Then sure
enough tonnes of sponsors got
involved and suddenly everyone’s
got NASCAR style super package
graphics kits which all look the
same and I guess it starts to lose
me a little bit. It’s still really fun to
ride and riding still gives me a lot
of enjoyment. I just try to give back
and put in my two cents, I don’t care
if anybody likes it, but it makes me
smile!

We have a motocross track about
fifteen minutes away from where I
live. I helped the guys get it going.
As I mentioned we live in Nevada,
which is kind of an outlaw state. The
moto track is actually right in front of
the local brothel [laughs]. The dude
who owns the brothel probably
had about 15 acres available, so
he donated the property to us.
Essentially we lease it for free, but
we give him a chunk of whatever the
track makes, and if we run events he
will get a portion of the takings! He’s
like the ‘mob boss guy’ [laughs].
It’s been going for about four years
now, so the facility is pretty good!
It’s a little small – kind of similar to
Starwest MX in Southern California
with 1m 30s / 1m 40s track times,
so not ‘super outdoor style’ or
anything, but fun to go and ride
outside and slash some wet berms
on. We have about five FMX ramps
out there as well. Adam Jones still
lives quite local to me, and he puts
some time and cash into the place
and helps tune it up now and then.
We’ve got a few good locals who
come and ride, and people are
always passing through and stop o ff
for a ride so it’s always good fun.

Yeah man. In fact the last bike I built
was this little XL500 over the winter
for The One Motorcycle Show that
See See Motorcycles puts on in
Portland. I think this is the fifth year
we’ve done it and it’s always a good
time. If you ever happen to be up
north in the States in February, it’s
definitely worth checking out. So I
had this ’78 XL500 and made this
sh**ty little chopper out of it in about
a week [laughs]. It was a gift from a
friend. He’s one of the fabrications
dudes that I look up to a lot, and
this guy is like a fu**ing wizard with
anything you know! He gave me
this bike pretty much when I first
met him. He was like ‘ah you will
probably do something with this’.
It had just been sat by the beach in
Newport for like ten years or more
you know. It looked like it had just
been pulled from the bottom of the
sea [laughs]. Then it just sat in my
backyard for a few more years and
I finally found some time and was
like ‘yeah. I’m finally going to build
this thing!’ I ended up just hashing
it up with a little bit of everything
you know; BMX parts, road bike
parts, home-made fab parts. In the
end it turned out pretty sweet! I ran
an old 70’s Yamaha 125 moto tank
on it. I made a seat, subframe and
fenders for it. It was actually my first
‘official fender’ that I made from
scratch which was cool. I like fab
stuff because I’m always learning
something you know – getting to
do something from start to finish. I
don’t get to do that very often, and
haven’t done in decades. It’s like
every time I start something new u