Hey guys, the FMX community has takin a big hit for the worse this week. X games gold medalist and a very good friend of mine, Jeremy Lusk went down hard in Costa Rica over the weekend. He was towards the end of his run from what I could see on youtube and went for a seat grab flip, he was a little under rotated and also got sideways as he was getting back onto the bike which left him off balance and heading to the ground head first. He went down and was immediatley unconscious and still is as of right now. I know every one of us on tour in New Zealand had our hearts ripped out when we heard all the possible rumors. They were saying he had flat lined twice on the way to the hospital and his odds of living weren't looking good. I know I have been in the weirdest state of confusion through all this because Lusk is the guy that always gets up and walks away no matter how bad the crash was, so seeing this makes me realize the severity of the situation.

I fully understand the risks we take on a daily basis and at any moment it could be the last time you put your helmet on and throw a leg over your motorcycle, but to hear something like this happen to someone you look up to and respect, it's just the worst feeling in the world. I've watched Jeremy move up these last couple years and turn into one of the most gnarly dudes in FMX. He went from a mid pack guy at Dew tours in 2006 to X games gold medalist and FMX rider of the year in 2008. For him to work so hard to get to the top and then have something like this happen is heartbreaking. This issue though is beyond the world of dirtbikes, his life is at stake right now. Every single person in the FMX community is rallying and trying to set up benefits to get him airlifted back to the states to get the best treatment possible. I feel so helpless here in New Zealand, all I can do is pray and really hope for the best, and know that Jeremy can fight this battle. I am glued to the internet and my sidekick right now, waiting for any info I can get. The last I heard was tonight was going to be a critical night in this process, he wasn't doing the best and they really got to watch him and keep him fighting. I will be sure to post anything I can up as soon as I get info. Please take time out of your day to pray for Jeremy, it will help.

Hey guys!! Now I know I am supposed to sit here and type about how cool freestyle motocross is and how bitchen my life is, but I got to start this thing about with some superbowl talk!! I had the luxury of watching the superbowl from a fine pub in New Zealand, it was the only place in the whole town airing the superbowl and there was 6 people in there watching it, not the usual superbowl crowd I'd be used too, but it was cool to watch the game without a bunch of drunk people yelling at every penalty saying how that call was bullshit. I made some of the riders off the tour come with me and actually got them into the game which is cool, most of them are from Australia so unless it is AFL or Rugby they hate it. Now to the football......I must say I was super pumped to see the Cards do what they did, I bet there's not too many people who picked them to go all the way and those are the type of teams that get me excited when they do make it to the end. They played a hell of a game, they came so close but friggin Ben and Santonio handled the business. Nothing better than a Superbowl that the winner isn't decided until the final drive, I loved it!!

As for my life, right now I am just pluggin away on the Crusty tour, New Zealand has been awesome so far, really nice place to be and the fans have been awesome as usual!! Cam Sinclair has landed all 3 double flip attempts which is awesome, he's a good dude so it's cool to see him pull it off!! I have three more weeks here then I will be back in the states and quickly back to the compound to get to practice for the summer. Damn time flies!! Well I am off to the pub for the afterparty!! Can't be missing a good time so I will be talking to you guys soon!!

The last time I left you guys, I had mentioned I had two weeks until New Zealand so I was going to get after it
and ride a bunch and get dialed for the tour. Well I just got a call that Jim Mcneil just broke his thumb and they need me to come over ASAP to fill in for him!! Holy smokes!! In 48 hours I went from chillin in Vegas to driving home to Reno to packing up and now I'm a day away from catching a flight!! I am really bummed for Mcneil. In my last blog I mentioned how much fun we had riding a couple weeks ago and he's just a down to earth guy that seems to constantly have bad luck!! I am happy to go over and ride for the New Zealand fans for sure, but I didn't want it to come at the expense of my buddy getting hurt!!

Other than the rush to be ready I had a good week down in Vegas! Sunday I got to hang on stage and watch the punk legend band Pennywise play which was sooo rad! From the concert we all ventured to the ever dangerous place....Wasted Space!! The band came over and hungout and we did some minor drinking, and then they played Bro Hym up on the stage which then led to Fletcher, the guitarist, breaking a guitar over the Wasted Space drum set!! I thought it was awesome, I'm sure Hart wasn't too pumped though!! I got into the program on Monday and started doing some riding. It was fun because Josh Hansen and Troy Adams, Hart's supercross team riders were out there riding with me. I could watch them pound out laps on the track and then I could go do some riding, usually I was joined by Hansen who can throw some massive whips off a ramp!! I shot some photos on Tuesday with a french photographer. We stayed out there until dark to get some pretty bad ass sunset shots, to this day I am still trying to persuade him to run one on a cover!! You know me, the constant pain in your ass haha!!

I just got into my house up in Carson City now. I am pretty much packed and ready to go. I am going to spend tomorrow with my dad doing some snowboarding before I leave the family for another month. I am a only child so my parents aren't too thrilled with my schedule at times!! Now that I am all settled, I am really looking forward to getting to New Zealand and seeing all my pals over there, if it's anything like the last three tours I've done with them, it's going to be a blast!!

Hey guys, just got done with a pretty eventful couple weeks. Even though it is our so called "offseason" I am still staying busy. Last week I flew into Dortmund, Germany to ride a demo for a supercross race there. I had done the show in 2006 and 2007, but missed last year due to surgery. It has always been such a fun show, I am a fan of racing so to get to watch some racing and then jump for a bunch of crazy germans is a good time!! This was also my chance to get my career turned around and make something of myself from now on. I decided in 2009 I am going to put a 100% into this stuff and Germany was the perfect start! I felt great on Friday night and had a blast riding with all the European kids. I went to bed early (no drinking haha) woke up Saturday and went to the venue to ride practice, something I had never done at the event before!! I hit the ramp a few times and then started working on some seat grab flips and under flips. I felt good about myself for a change!! The rest of the weekend went well, our other 2 shows went really good and I left Germany on a positive note!

The day after I got home from Germany, I hopped right back into the F-150 and took the 4 hour drive down to Phoenix to ride with Jim Mcneil and film for the new moto video coming out, On the Pipe. This really helped me out with my confidence and getting my head on straight. The first day the set up had a double double, first one being a 75ft ramp second one a 85 ft dirt jump, 5 minutes into riding the section we were flipping both jumps and getting some killer footage with the helicopter!! We then moved over to the 115ft ramp like they use at X games. I was pretty nervous to hit it at first, since we don't get to practice that jump often, luckily Mcneil hit right away and then I followed, 2 jumps later I flipped and then gave myself a high five! I know a lot of guys flip that ramp and do all their hard stuff off it, but I have only flipped it at one event, X games 2007 so to do it again and know that I can do it helped me a ton!! The next day we went and did some free riding, hit some pretty big 4th gear jumps and got more shots for the video. That was also the first time I had been free riding in awhile so that was nice to get out and hit some different jumps!

I am now back at home here in Vegas relaxing for the weekend, and watching hopefully some really good football tomorrow!! Monday I will be back on the bike and riding 5 days a week for the next couple weeks until I leave to New Zealand!! I am excited to ride and learn new stuff so I kind of can't wait for the week to be here!!

Hey everyone, happy new year!! I am pretty glad to have the new year upon us to start fresh and see what I can make of 2009. 2008 was ok, but really nothing to brag about so I am hoping something cool happens this year!! I had a nice couple weeks at home with my family. We spent the day after christmas snowboarding which was awesome. It snowed all day on christmas and then the next day was perfectly sunny!! I got my mom and dad to go as long as all of my best friends so it was a blast!! Two days later I was off to Vegas to start preparing for the year. I also got to check out Robbie Maddison's jump at the Paris on NYE. That guy is crazy!! You can't really understand how serious of a jump this was unless you saw it in person. I was really nervous, it almost felt like I was the one jumping. Whenever you have a friend of yours out there laying himself on the line you feel for him. I was really hoping everything was going to be alright!! Luckily in true Maddo fashion he pulled through, and then had one hell of an afterparty!!

I spent the last couple days recovering from the whole new years festivities and now I have been getting back on the bike. I have actually set some goals with myself this year, and for the first time I feel like if I don't achieve them I will let myself down! They aren't crazy goals like I am going to win every contest or something like that, they are realistic goals starting with some tricks I'd like to learn, then moving into maybe top 5's at the contests. If everything is going good I would for sure like to be on the podium towards the end of summer! Everyone always says I am really hard on myself, but I always think I am realistic. I know where my run stands with the top guys and I honestly don't feel that it's a competitive run. If I could learn a couple flip tricks then my attitude will change, but for now I feel it's an uphill battle, one that I am willing to work at! It's crazy to me right now because I feel like 2009 is already moving way to fast. I am already starting my season this week in Germany, doing a supercross demo, then I have two weeks off then off to New Zealand for the Crusty tour, all of February, couple more Europe shows in March and April then Capital City Crusty tour in Australia May and June then right back into contests!! It's crazy how it all blends together and makes a year fly right by!

I guess I better get to work now, more riding less typing! One last thing I wanted to mention is I will be doing video blogs for EXPN.com starting this month so be sure to check them out if you get a chance!! It's going to be more about my personal life and messing around, not so much actual riding which I think should be pretty cool. Take care everyone!!

Hey guys, it's been awhile!! I've been meaning to write on here for some time now, but kept getting sidetracked! Between flying overseas and last minute christmas shopping I was slammed. I do have a pretty good story though.....So I fly to Tahiti last week to do a demo there alongside Adam Jones, Dustin Miller, Nate Adams and some others. They were going to have BMX and skateboarding as well so I was pretty excited. So a week before the demo Adam and I were informed that there are no Honda 250's on the island so we would need to ship our bikes. So last minute me and Adam paid my dad to do a Los Angeles trip to drop off our bikes at the shipping yard, 7 days before the event. So we fly over there, 1st class I might add! The promoters really made sure they did it right so that was a good thing. Anyways we get there, check out the scene, do some snorkling and get sunburned. It was a cool first couple days. Well two days before the show me and Adam are informed that our bikes might not make it. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't all that bummed. I mean it sucks not to be able to put on a show for the fans down there, but it would be an actual vacation for once!! Well Friday, the day before the show it is a fact, our bikes will not be there, in fact they never even left LA haha! I guess it was 9,000 bucks one way to get them there and once the promoter found out they probably wouldn't make it he just canceled the shipment. So me and Adam basically got paid to have beers on a island!! It was also fun for once to check out the show minus the stress. I got to watch all my buddies ride and put on a good show and watch some killer BMX and skating!! Not a bad vacation!

I got back from the 85 degree Tahiti weather, right into a crazy snowstorm!! Talk about shock! I loved it though, we even got to have a white christmas today which is something I haven't witnessed in years!! Today was excellent, I love spending time with my family and friends, it's my best method of relaxing!! Tomorrow I am going to hit the mountains to do a little snowboarding and hang with my buds. This is my last weekend up north, Monday I head down to Vegas for a month to get back into the FMX mode and get ready for the New Zealand leg of the Crusty tour! I want to be on point in New Zealand, the Crusty guys have always been cool to me and they've put up with me for 2 years now so I really want to be riding at a 100% when I show up, hopefully even bring some new tricks to the show for the NZ fans!! Well I hope everyone had a merry christmas and got a lot of fun presents!! I'll keep in touch throughout my Vegas trip and let everyone know how the riding is coming along. I will also be doing some video blogs for expn.com starting in January, so keep checking in for those, it could be entertaining!!

Howdy yard, just got off the plane from Switzerland!! I had a blast, the show was really good and the supercross racing was awesome! I got to ride with fellow american's Jeremy Lusk and Lance Coury so that was cool. Lusk is one of my good buddies in this sport so anytime we get to ride for fun together it's.....fun! This was the first time I have got to ride a show with Lance, he's an up and coming kid and proved this weekend that in the next couple years he will be up there with us at the major contests! It was nice to just do a demo at a race, we got to watch the racing and be a fan and then jump during their breaks, a nice change compared to just doing the same thing over and over all night and for two consecutive nights. Geneva was also a memory for me. I went there in 2000 for the same race, but at that time I was racing and doing FMX, it was also my first ever trip overseas, so to come back and see that nothing had changed was nice. We rode in the same venue, stayed at the same hotel, and the crowd was still as crazy as ever!! The only downfall to the trip was missing my connecting flight from LAX to Reno, and the next flight wasn't for 4 hours. Nothing like traveling for 16 hours only to have to wait for 4 more hours before you get to get in your own bed!! I am now home for one more day before I fly to Salt Lake to do some promotional stuff with one of my sponsors, Skullcandy. They make headphones which really has nothing to do with a dirtbike, but just in a year they have been one of my favorite sponsors, so anything I can do to help re-pay them I will. From Salt Lake I head to Tahiti for a week to do a couple demos and have one hell of a vacation!! I never heard of the place or knew where it was at until last week, but now that I've done some research I am pumped!! As you can see my schedule never slows down, but I am ok with that. I believe in busting your ass to have the things you want so I have stuck to that my whole career...seems to be working!!

Hey guys, figured I better get in here and write a quick update and let everyone know I am still alive!! There's not really much to write about. After Russia I spent a week on the couch being sick, so I decided to do a fantasy draft on Madden 09'. I felt I did ok in the draft. I used the Falcons team because I think they have the best looking uniforms!! From there I went on to draft, Jared Allen, Willie Parker, Calvin Johnson, Joe Flacco and other fine athletes. I was 1-0 and not even 2 minutes into my second game Flacco got hit...bad....broke his elbow out for the season, so I was stuck with Kerry Collins.....I haven't played a game since. Once I was feeling better and over Madden, I went out and actually got productive! I rode FMX one day with my buddies Matt Buyten and Brian Foster. It honestly amazes me how much different I feel practicing now and practicing over the summer when you have all the pressure of contests. We rode for probably an hour, and all I did was a couple of flips, a lot of whips, and did some trains with Buyten over our double double section. If this was July I would have done about 900 flips in a hour and said a lot of swear words in my helmet. Sometimes I wish I was a skateboard guy, I could get pissed off and wing my board and throw a fit, but I did that once on my mini bike, I threw my bike down, ripped my helmet off and threw it and looked up and saw my pops who looked like he was a 100 times more pissed off than me so I gathered my belongings and hid in the trailer....lesson learned!! I also took some time and did some mini bike riding with my buddies and then had a very lovely thanksgiving with the family!! I am now getting ready to do a couple more days of FMX and then head to Geneva, Switzerland to ride in a demo with one of my good buddies Jeremy Lusk. I am pretty pumped to get over there and ride a show and hopefully perform well!! I will post everything up on Monday when I get home!! That's all for now....bye bye.

Hey guys, sorry it has been so long since I have typed up a most breath taking blog. I was pushing to get ready for a contest in Moscow this past weekend so I didn't get to write anything up before I left. Moscow was a trip, the surroundings, the people, the Vodka...it was all an experience!! I went over with a good friend of mine, Todd Potter which was cool. It is always nice to have people you're familiar with when you go to an unfamiliar area. When we arrived I did the usual jet lag nap, crawled into bed at 4 p.m. and didn't come back to life until 4 a.m.!! I don't know what it is about flying overseas, but I can log some hours in the sack when I arrive every time!! We went to the venue Friday to check everything out and put our bikes together. We were supposed to practice as well, but the course was really soft from all the weather they get so they had to make some adjustments to the course. We took that time to do some sight seeing which was cool, I have never really got to check out anything when I go places so I was pumped to go be a tourist. We went to the Red Square, I think it's called? The place was killer. I have always seen it in the movies and in pictures, but to actually be there and check it out was awesome! The one building, that looks like Candy land was my favorite! After that it was back to the hotel for some dinner and then to bed to get ready for the contest on Saturday. You see that my new attitude is already kicking in, I was in bed at 10 p.m. not out drinking, atta baby!! Practice was basic we just pretty much rode and had some fun because the course was your standard circle course with 2 ramps, which is fine by me when I am overseas! For the contest they broke us up into groups of two and had us go out and do 4 tricks no flips, then 3 tricks 1 flip, and then the finale which was whatever the hell you wanted to do! It was cool because the whole show was a build up. The crowd was pumped even on our first runs with standard tricks so I knew the rest of the show would be awesome! I was paired up with Danny Torres, if you have never heard of him, you will...soon. He's a kid from Spain that is riding probably better than anyone I have seen in awhile. He has great standard tricks, all the hard flip combo's and now 360's so I'd say he is going to be pretty tough to beat in the future! The show went great, pretty much everyone made it out alive, Torres won and I was headed back to the hotel for....you guessed it, more sleep haha!! Sunday was the same show, everyone rode even a little better and the crowd was once again really pumped and into our riding!! Torres again won, I finished second, and a kid from Russia rounded out the top 3. After the show we were all doing burnouts and high fiving the crowd, I rode by Potter doing a wheelie and he stuck his hand out to high five me...I tried to kick his hand and landed right on my ass. I for some reason spaced the fact that the foot I went to kick his hand with was controlling my back brake during the wheelie, so I went to far and went sliding across the cement!! By far the highlight of my trip haha. I am now home for a couple weeks. I can't wait to spend some time with my family and be a normal person before things get crazy again. I leave to Switzerland right after Thanksgiving and then to Tahiti from there, so I got a couple more enjoyable flights ahead of me this year!! I will post back later this week, it has actually been nice at my house so I am going to do some practicing and try to start getting a jump on the crowd for 2009!!