Happy New year everyone.! I know, I know, it’s hard to believe that 2008 is already here. I can’t believe it, I’ll tell you that. It seems like 07’ was a flash until I really start looking back at my year and think about all of my amazing travels of the year. I’ll point out my highlights of each month of 07’.
I’ll jump right into January: it was the last day of the month where I broke the world record for step-up at 35’ 6” or for my Euro fans, that’s 10.75 meters. I did it within the specifications for X-Games competition, so I was hoping that would get me into Step up at Summer X in August.
February was a great month as well. I did a lot of cool stuff, but my highlight was definetly getting the chance to ride my friend Robbie Maddison’s now annual Red Bull X-Ray freeride event in Pikton, Australia. It has one of the coolest freeride lines ever put together and the crew from On the Pipe 4 was there to document it. So you gotta check that out.
One of my checkmarks on my todo list was fulfilled in March, as my bud Jeff Tilton and Rd Bull put together the opportunity t do FMX demo’s at Supercross. Tilton, Tommy Clowers, Jake Windham and myself were given the chance to ride 6 of the Supercross rounds on the TnT Setup an hour before the races got underway. It was a big hit and hopefully I get that chance again.
April was hands down my favorite month, due to one event. Hopefully most of you have seen it on Fuel TV by no,. it was called The Great Ride Open; a 14 day road trip that Included a cast of ix top FMX riders and and some of the best terrain that the Southwest U.S. has to offer. Another Jeff Tilton inspired project that I am greatful to have been a part of. Seriously though, the trip changed me as a person as well as my attitude as to why I ride my bike. Good news too, we start filming this spring for the second season!
May was the month of the Quarterpipe for me. First off, it was the second annual Doug Parsons Quarterpipe challenge. This year it was dubbed an actual contest and had the riders going bigger than ever to try and bring in some extra coin. I’m happy to say that I won the event and was rewarded with some cool media exposure and some newfound knowledge of a new, super technical aspect for FMX. I brought it with me to the second stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters tour and went really big on the Quarterpipe that they built there (unfortunately I choked on my tricks and finished poorly).
I have to say that June is a hard month to pick a favorite. I was flat out busy all month. I guess not too busy to celebrate my 30th birthday though. We ended up having a pretty big get together don at my ranch. Nothing out of the norm; just a bunch of family, friends and a good ole fashioned day of riding to keep everyone happy. Cool presents included a blown up pic that was framed of my whip over the infamous Louisville step-down, a custon skinned Gutar hero Guitar courtesy of Ogio and a Cowboy hat to remind me that yes, I am a redneck at heart!
July was a busy one as well. But to break the monotony of the American lifestyle, I headed to Europe for 2 weeks and did some events fro Red Bull in Poland. It was really colol do do dems with my good friend Jimbo Verburgh and crew at some really unique locations on the seaside of Poland. I met some really cool people and had and amazing time.
Ok, I’ll have to go on a rant for August. I had an amazing month. It started with winning the Gold at the Summer X-Games in Step up (highlight of my career so far, I still cant believe it). I really didn’t have a day to spare all month, but still headed south of the border to Baja Mexico to film for the Transworld Movie called “Why”. It was unreal, as Todd Potter and I got to ravage virgin landscape nearly a hundred miles from civilization. We rode trails, hit tons of new jumps and I even got to surf a perfect point break without another person to either side of me for literally miles! Check out the movie to see how it went down.
September was pretty mellow. You know standard…… haha, yeah right. My big adrenaline rush of the month came at the Miller Motorsports park in Salt lake City as I was involved in a 4 way duel at the celebrity car race during the Nascar West series. I had driven my car to the limit trying to keep the pace with Pastrana and I unfortunetly drove too squirrelly and roasted my tires and brakes. On the last lap, 3 corners from the checkered, I tried to outbreak Chad Reed and Andy bell while not having any brakes. I know, you may say that does not make since, but after hitting the wall at 90mph, you may start talking silly as well. Sliding into a wall at 90 is so far the biggest adrenaline rush I have ever had. Even if it cost $18,000.00 dollars, it was awesome!
I decided to spend 2 weeks in Florida during October. My son Josh wanted to go there to celebrate his 5th Birthday, so I decided to do my now semi-annual show at my old home/local track Dade City Raceway on Halloween weekend. And since I was going to already have a big in town, the Dew Tour was coming to Orlando just 1 week before, so I was given a wildcard to ride there. I could go on and on, but there is something about returning home that really makes me want to stay. I don’t know if it’s the Family, Friends or just the good ole humidity, but I love stepping off of the plane in the good old F.L..
November started awesome as Red Bull and Travis Pastrana collaborated to have the movie premier of Thrillbillies (aka, Nitro Circus 5) at the ultimate SoCal fall/winter weekend destination, “Glamis”. It was a production like no other of its kind, I really can’t even describe it. Its another one that could make a story in itself, but to keep it short, I’ll just say that it was rad to ride the dunes on my 450 for 3 days and hit jumps flat out as fast as my bike would go only to come back to camp with a bunch of friends and expensive dune toys to tear up the night with. I have to add that later in the moth I did the A Day in the Dirt race with my little Brother Ricky and had a blast. Lil bro made me proud as he took my KTM to the front of all of the Pro races, beating some big name s and talents. In a nutshell it was top 5 weekends in a long time.
December was one of my busiest, but I’ll have to share my obvious favorite. Even if its not as big time as X-Games Los Angeles, X-Games Dubai was special to me because I brought home a Gold Medal for the first X-Games whip contest ever. My buddy “Huck-a-Chuck” Caruthers gave me a run for the money but unfortunately hit the dirt hard and got knocked out. This trip was amazing to say the least. Besides the Gold Medal, I had a killer time.
So there ya go…. Wow, that really turned into a mission.. Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. Stay tuned, hopefully 2008 is even more eventful!
RR
