Yardbarker: Motocross

Heartache

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:42:05 -0500

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.

I love football!!

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:45:55 -0500

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!!

Panic Attack!

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:37:03 -0500

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!!

What is this world coming to?

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:31:43 -0500

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!!

Geneva to Tahiti!

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:35:18 -0500

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!!

Bed head

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:48:29 -0500

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.

From Russia with love!

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:50:24 -0500

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!!

No more pressure for 2008...yesss!!

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:22:04 -0500

The 2008 contest season is officially over and I feel great about it!! Not because I did good, because it's nice to have 7 months of no stress and pressure to ride. This season had its highlights for me, Summer X was cool and Mexico X games was cool, but other than that I can't say I was excited to be at the major comp's this year. The Dew tour staff must think we either ride mini bikes or we are all rookies because our course's constantly kept getting more easy. This weekend in Orlando one of our dirt jumps was the cutest little thing I've ever seen. It was built into a tabletop so the actual gap on it seemed like it was 10 feet!! It had me shaking before practice, I was so nervous to go that big!! That was one thing that always kept riding fun for me was wondering what the course was going to be like each week. Back in 2005 and 2006 we had some scary courses which was awesome, when you put a good run down on a crazy course you feel you accomplished something. Now you got guys that aren't all that good at riding a bike at the top of the results because it's all ramps......and ramps are easy as hell to trick. Aside from me complaining I really am excited to get into this off season. I will be going to Russia for the first time ever to ride in a demo there, as well as Mexico City, Switzerland, Dubai, and Tahiti in the next two months. Once 2009 comes around I get to head to New Zealand and Australia for the Crusty tour again and that is always a blast, I can't wait to see all those guys again! I will also be living in Vegas for the most part during the winter so I can ride and train and try not to keep getting beat so bad. Now that I know we will be dealt beginner courses I am going to have to get really gnarly on the tricks. Sucks but that time has come haha. Right now I am spending a couple weeks in New Jersey with some buddies, relaxing and not worrying about anything moto related. I am sure at the end of the two weeks I will be excited again and probably get down to Vegas and ride!! I want to take a quick moment to thank everyone that supports me and what I do. I love writing this blog and doing the TV for Fuel TV, it's stuff that interests me and is cool, so it's nice when I get a good reaction from you guys, the fans, on here, or MySpace, or even at the events, so don't be bashful to leave me a message!!

Fat guy in a little coat

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:28:45 -0500

Hey guys, just got back to the house after being in Vegas for the weekend. I went and checked out the US open, supercross at the MGM. The racing was ok, I kind of got bored so I just took some time out to kiss the butt's of my sponsors and make sure they still want to cut me a check in the future. Saturday night I was at my old stomping grounds, Wasted Space in the Hardrock. I don't know what the deal is, but that place is almost better than being at home. There are soo many girls there that no matter how bad I am at talking to girls, the odds are still in my favor to get at least half of a phone number! The highlight for me was watching my roommates band, The Main Event, play. I have watched these guys work from the ground up to become a band so it's always exciting when I get to watch them rock everyones socks off!! The last song they did was Bro Hym, a cover by the punk band Pennywise. They played it for Carey's fallen brother, Tony Hart, and to make it extra cool Carey came up and played bass. It was really an awesome moment to watch the band plus Carey get the crowd going with that song. It was the ultimate tribute to Tony. After the band played we all just had a good time and of course like most moto related after parties some meat head had to start ripping the sleeves off of our shirts. Someone got too aggressive with my sleeves and ripped my whole shirt off!! The bouncers quickly ejected me out of the club, but lucky for me one of the very sexy Rockstar girls came to my rescue and let me wear her kids extra small sweater. I wore it with pride the rest of the night and even cut up the dance floor with it on!! Hope this blog was entertaining!! I'm off to Orlando for the last stop off the AST Dew tour!!

Too much time, too little to do!!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:55:50 -0500

Suppp dudes!! Well I've had a nice week off so far, I still rode my bike and handled business in the mornings on the course, but it was nice when Thursday came around and I wasn't packing my bags and hopping on a flight for the weekend. Riding has been going pretty good, I have actually been making myself practice tricks that scare me so I can do better in contests, where before I would be so scared of the tricks I would just skip them haha. I also got to get some more tattoo's which is the most fun, but terrible thing ever!! Nothing like sitting there with a needle digging into your arm for 4 hours!! Other than riding, I have been trying to get my personal life and future set up. I just purchased a house in Las Vegas, which is perfect for me. Up here in the Northern NV we get snow and really bad weather in the winter, which I love, but it is impossible to ride in. The house in Vegas gives me a winter type get away and I can ride down at Carey Hart's FMX course and stay on top of my game, instead of sitting in my house for a month watching it snow. I also am digging the backyard up for a pool/hot tub, this I am really excited about!! It's always soo hot here in the summer and after coming home from riding I always just want to go swimming, so I took care of the problem!! Plus for my 2009 Yardbarker edition of cribs, I got to step my game up!! Well that's about all for now, I'm going to get back to some Madden 09 and see if I can keep myself from wanting to throw my controller through the TV when I throw an interception!!

Cry me a river

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:23:05 -0500

Another week down, another major contest down, and finally a week off!! I just got done riding the LG action sports contest in Pomona, Ca this weekend. LG is always my favorite contest of the year because the course's have always been super technical, something that helps my riding ability and hurts all the rookie kids that don't know how to ride very well. This years course was pretty damn hard, but very fun. It had lots of options, and dirt jumps which are always more fun and challenging compared to the standard competition ramp. It was also a format very similar to X games which was head to head. I like head to head because you can go up against anyone and have a chance. You're not giving guys 2 runs to sort out everything, you get one chance to ride your best or else you're out! A lot of the guys complain about it, but I think the complaints come from the guys who doubt their ability and need two tries to get the business done. When the brackets came out, of course I was paired up with my best friend and travel mate for the weekend, Dustin Miller. Alls we could do is laugh about it and make little bets with one another. One bet was whoever won had to buy Del Taco on the way home, so in a way I didn't want to beat him, because I didn't want to fork out the whole 5 bucks that Del Taco would cost!! (Joking!!) Dustin actually made it really easy on me and messed up a couple tricks in his run, which I was bummed about. He's been on the comeback trail as of late and to be honest I really wanted him to ride good and show everyone in the industry that he can still compete with the best of them. I put in a decent run, kind of played it safe since Dustin messed up. It worked to my advantage and I moved on to the next round against.......my other good buddy Adam Jones!! Haha go figure! I knew pretty much from the get go that Adam had me covered, but I still went out and gave it a 100% because if I could move on I would have been no worse than 3rd, which I really wanted!! To no surprise though Adam got me and I was done for the night. I quickly loaded up, finished up some TV work with Fuel and was on the road back to Reno at 11:30 P.M. I had to be back in time for football today!! On the drive back me and my mechanic and Dustin got to talking about what our sport had come too. I kind of feel distant from a lot of the riders because they are so competitive they tend to look at you as someone in their way to making it to the top, not a friend anymore. I hate that more than anything. I'm the guy who has always just enjoyed doing what I do. I like going to the contests and seeing everyone and riding with everyone, but now that vibe isn't there. Everyone is constantly bitching about how bad they got judged and thinking they should have won or been top three, and if you luck out and beat them like I usually do they take it personal and seem to be upset at me or anyone else that beat them. It's not our fault, we all go out and give it a 100% but at the end of the day it's 5 judges opinions, whatever their word is, I don't think it's fair to be upset with a rider/friend because he got the better end of the deal. It just bothers me to the point where I don't even like being around anyone at the contests, I don't need to hear everyone talk bad about everyone. This weekend I parked by out by myself and hung out with people that were fun and it kept me a lot less stressed and aggravated. That's just my take on it, but it for sure seems like in the last couple years this sport has taken a turn in the wrong direction, we are too small of a group to be like this.....

Mexico X games...

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:19:32 -0500

Hey guys back again after a little time away from the yard. I have been super busy this month with a major contest every weekend so far, but everything keeps going well! I headed down to Mexico City for the international version of X games this weekend. It was cool, it is for sure a lot more low key than the America version of X, but still a lot of good athletes showed up and were ready to perform, me I wasn't one of them haha. I got off the plane and for some reason me, my buddies thought it would be cool to grab some good mexican food and Corona's. Well 4 taco's and 15 beers later we finally made our way to bed. The bad part about this deal is that the elevation in Mex city is 8,000 ft so you get more wasted than usual, which we didn't know, so I woke up feeling not so good. We had to be at the arena early to put our borrowed bikes together and then get practice going. I slept in, got there late, was the last one to put my bike together and barely got to practice!! So responsible I am!! Practice went good, it was a fairly basic course so there wasn't a whole lot to learn thank god. Being hungover and trying to hit gnarly jumps isn't a good combo! Needless to say I was in bed at 8:30 Friday night which was good because I had best trick and step up the next day. I showed up to the arena actually feeling pretty good, hammered out practice and got ready for the show. I didn't have anything crazy for best trick so this was basically just a mess around event for me. I went out and did a off axis type underflip and then a holy grab which is where I throw the bike out from under me and catch it and get back on it before it lands. The crowd was actually pumped on it, and I think I got one of the loudest cheers all night, so that was awesome. I moved on to step up which still scares the hell out of me. For some reason on this night four of us battled back and forth in what I think was one of the best step up comp's ever. Finally I hit the bar at about 32 ft as did Tommy Clowers. Myles Richmond and Ronnie Renner continued to go at it, with Renner finally coming out on top. Sunday was our last day there, we had FMX and best whip left for competition. I went out did what I had to do in FMX and luckily it was enough for another bronze medal, my second one of the year so I was super pumped!! By the time best whip came around I was beat from the travel, drinking, and hectic schedule so I went out and just had some fun with it. I would team up with some of the other riders and we would do little trains which the crowd really seemed to like. After whip it was right into the mechanics area to tear down the bike, pack it in the golf case and get to the hotel and get to bed since we had to be up at 3:45 am to catch our flight. I got home sat on the couch, watched Brett Favre throw interceptions, got on MySpace for a few then hit the sack. I made myself take today off and went and had a round of golf with my dad which is cool, I don't get to spend as much time with my parents as I'd like to so I try and take anytime I can to see them. Tomorrow it's back out to the course to ride and get ready for my next contest which is the LG action sports contest in Pomona, Ca this Saturday. Well I have typed enough, it's not fun anymore so I'm out of here!!

Salt Lake AST Dew tour

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:45:39 -0500

Hey guys, finally got a second to myself here to update everyone on things here in Salt Lake. We had practice Wednesday and wouldn't ya know, it rained for about 3 hours, so in typical Dew tour fashion we got to sit around bored and get unmotivated. Luckily it cleared up and we got some decent track time at around 5, which was just a short delay from the 9 am start we were supposed to have. Prelims were yesterday and everything went well. I had some little mess up's in my first run which sent me to the LCQ, but I wasn't too worried and I luckily pulled a good clean run the second time to make it into the finals. Today we just had some practice and then I pulled out the trusty video cam and started filming some of the sights and sounds of an AST dew tour. I'm going to try and start doing that a little more to give you guys an actual look and what goes on at and around a contest, since I can't ever seem to put it into words well!! Well tomorrow I'm really hoping to have two good runs and ride good for myself. I know my tricks aren't competitive with the top 3-5 guys anymore so until I learn some new stuff I am just going out to ride for myself and give the fans a good show. We finish the finals at around 2 pm tomorrow and I can promise you the van will be on I-80 heading to Reno no more than 30 minutes after the finals, why, you ask? Football on Sunday, haha. With my schedule I really have to value the times I get an open Sunday so I'm willing to take that sacrifice to get home late Saturday night to sit around and do nothing but watch games on Sunday!! That's about all from here, I will have a blog up Sunday about the finals, let's hope it's a positive one!!

Poland and Football

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:55:31 -0500

It's 3:30 am and I am sitting here wide awake watching NFL network getting all caught up on everything I missed while in Poland. The X fighters in Poland this week was an awesome time. It was the first time ever that a contest was put into teams and disciplines. My team was Mat Rebeaud who was doing Speed and Style and Quarter pipe, Jeremy Lusk who would compete in the FMX part of it, and myself doing step up. Bad luck hit us right off the bat when Jeremy Lusk went down hard prior too the contest, so it was just me and Mat against everyone else. We didn't fare too bad, I tied for 2nd in step up and Mat won the FMX part of it, took 2nd in speed and style, and third in the quarter pipe. I think in the end we ended up 2nd over all to team "Renner" which was Ronnie Renner, Tom Pages, and the ever famous Travis Pastrana, so second to them wasn't too bad! So my riding weekend went good, but when I got off the plane I got bad news concerning football....Tom Brady out for the season. I was so bummed out! Everyone thinks I'm a front runner because I like the Pat's and Tom Brady, but the fact is I like Brady because of the athlete he is. He goes into every game prepared and focused and confident, much like we have to do in FMX or any sport so I respect that and look up to him. On a positive note I am in a close second in my fantasy league and I still got tomorrow's game so things are looking good there!! Well I guess I should get some shut eye now, I have to be up at 8 am to go do a golf tournament up in Reno and then once again get packed and ready to leave to the Salt Lake round of the Dew tour. More blogging to come soon!!

Portland AST demo

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:11:27 -0500

I just got back from Portland for the AST dew action sports demo, and what can I say it was a damn good time! It was nice to show up to an event and have some fun riding with my friends instead of feeling like they all hate me. They invited out Beau Bamburg who is a local from the area and a bad ass rider, Robbie Maddison who is the current long distance record holder at almost 400ft, Adam Jones 2007 X games gold medalist, current points leader in the AST tour Blake "Bilko" Williams, and the Metal Mulisha's Derek Garland, as well as myself. I'd like to say that's a pretty good line up for a demo! The day started off a little sketchy when Beau Bamburg's bike cut out at the bottom of the ramp and he was forced to eject and smashed into the back of the landing, luckily he was ok, but he hurt his hand which sucked because he was going to play the National Anthem on the electric guitar to start the show, so I was pretty bummed about that! Everything else went smooth, they ran some pairs contests where would try to pretend we didn't like each other and we wanted to beat one another really bad and then we ended it with some very unorganized trains haha. Bilko's bike wouldn't clear one of the ramps very good so he was forced to pull off most of the time which messed all of us up and made us basically ride around on the floor looking clueless, and let me tell you I'm a pro when it comes to looking clueless! When all was said and done, I had a blast! We got to sign some autographs for the fans and I even took a picture and signed a autograph for a girl who is a fan of what I do here on YB, so that was killer!! Well this is pretty much my last week at home, I turn the big 27 on Wednesday so that should be interesting. After that it's off to Poland for X fighters, then I'm doing a Golf tournament up in Reno and then the Salt Lake round of the AST dew tour so I got a busy couple weeks coming up!! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted of course!! Take care!!

Cribs

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:25:20 -0500

Hey guys, me and my buddy were bored the other day so we decided it might be cool to show you some bits n pieces of the pad. It's nothing special like you see on the real show, but it's quite the cozy place!! Special thanks to Jorge Alvarez for filming me talking!

Time off

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:03:22 -0500

Hey guys, I'm sitting here on my couch kind of hungover from the weekend, so I decided this was the perfect time to send in a blog. This was my last week I was going to take off so I figured I would have some fun with it. We started with a very random Wednesday night dance party. It started out in my band room, we decided to have some beers and play our instruments, and one thing led to another. Once we were done jamming some random techno came onto my Ipod so we all got up and started dancing around and that set the tone for the night. The last clear memory I have was me and my roomate's slamming a beer and then getting down with some M.C. Hammer!! We recovered on Thursday, kept it low key and then Friday was 80's night at my good buddy Adam Jones' house. I did my best to dress up like a dirty 1980's cowboy. Luckily I had a beard so I shaved it into a nice sideburn/goatee combo. I chose to drink regular Coors on this night because I felt it suited my outfit better than Coors Light. I hustled some people in beer pong, played some badmitten, and then once again was out on the dance floor cutting up some rug. The downfall to this was I was in cowboy boots, so the next day my feet were killing me!! All in all it was a damn good time and I'm glad we all could let off some steam after all the hardwork we put out in July. Tomorrow it is back to work, back to 7 am wakeup calls and hammering down on the practice course so I can finish the last contests on a positive note!! I just got word that I got invited to the Poland round of the Red Bull X-fighters, I will be teamed up with my podium teammates from X, Jeremy Lusk and Mat Rebeaud to compete in FMX, Quarter pipe challenge and Step up. This is the first time they have done a team format contest so I'm pumped to have two of the worlds best on my side!! That's all from my side for now, I'm getting back to watching the Patriots-Bucaneers presason game!!

Smile for the camera!

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:23:42 -0500

Hey guys just checkin in with everyone from a fine Holiday Inn, in Palm Springs. It feels like it's about a 105 degrees here and for some reason I'm wearing jeans and a black shirt?? I'm out here shooting photo's with Blake "Bilko" Williams, for Oakley's 2009 ad's. I guess we get to go to some cool old mines and run down buildings and shoot some real vintage, ancient looking shots so I'm pumped. Oakley has always been awesome to do ad's for because it's not your standard riding shot-hardcore pose type ad, it's more personality and expression and they have always been really open to any ideas that I have for an ad. The one downfall to these ads.........4:15 am wakeup call!! Now ever since X games the earliest I have been out of bed is 10:30 which has been awesome!! Now I've had to wakeup at 4:30 to leave my house to get to the airport, 4:15 to shoot the photos and then 5:30 am to catch my flight home, poor Mike!! Haha, I know my life isn't that bad, I guess I can wakeup early three days to handle some business, but I can bet you come Thursday am I will be right back to no earlier than 10 am wakeup. I've told myself I am going to take one more week off and let the body and brain heal up and then it's back to the grind. September is packed with contests which include the Salt Lake Dew tour, Mexico X games in Mexico city, and LG action sports contest in Pomona. X games gave me a weird feeling of confidence though, even though I didn't do anything new it showed me that if I keep pushing myself and always ride at a 100% I will put myself in the right positions, so I am ready to get back on that bike and make myself learn something!! Well it is 5:30 pm so I'm getting in bed now to make sure I get a good nights rest......nooo I'm playin, I'm heading to the pool to see if I can flex my chest for a female!! On a serious note real quick I want to send out my wishes to Carey Hart and his family, Carey's little brother Tony Hart lost his life in a tragic supermoto incident this weekend. I just met Tony this year, but he was an awesome kid who had a bright future. I promise to get back to posting a lot more on here now that everything is getting back to normal, I also still have video's in the works so hopefully we get those up soon!!

Finally done!!!

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:32:20 -0500

X games is finally done and I couldn't be more pleased with the week. I had some luck on my side for sure, but I also did put in a lot of hard work leading up to this contest so I'll take it!! It was such a crazy week with riding three events, I had never done that before and surely didn't realize the effort it was going to take. Friday was by far the most grueling day, I had to do Speed and Style eliminations from 11-12, then FMX eliminations were 12:30-2, and then I had to go right from the Home Depot center to Staples center and do Step up practice which was 2-3. I showed up at Staples with just enough time to hit the wall of death twice before they cut me off. Now I hadn't done step up in years so to go into live TV with 2 warm up jumps under my belt was nerve racking!! When all was said and done Friday night though I was proud of myself, I qualified for both Speed and Style and FMX finals, and tied with Tommy Clowers for 3rd in Step up, which was huge for me because Clowers pretty much put Step up on the map by being the king of it for so many years at X. Saturday was Speed and Style and FMX finals so I had another busy day. In Speed and Style I had Travis Pastrana in the first round, killer!! I thought for sure I was just going to get destroyed by him and be done in one round, but luck had my back and Travis crashed himself out so I advanced! Typical Mike Mason form though I managed to crash myself out in the second round which was the round that moved you on to battle for the Gold, I was really upset with myself because I felt Speed and Style was really my only shot for a medal. I still got to compete for the Bronze, I was up against Twitch (Jeremy Stenberg) but he ended up beating me by half a point for the Bronze, I was bummed. FMX comes around and I'm up against Nate Adams in the first round, pretty much the worlds best freestyle guy at the moment so once again I thought it was one round and done for Mike. I went out and just had fun, hyped up the crowd and just rode for myself, and wouldn't ya guess it, Nate messed his run up so I advanced which means I was at worst 4th place!!! I was sooo pumped now, I went out for my second run against Matt Rebeaud with the same exact attitude but this time I got beat, which was totally expected, I was just still happy to be this far! I still had a chance at Bronze if one of the guys in the next bracket had a lower score than me and sure enough Twitch gave up half way through his run which secured me my second X games medal!!! It was like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders, I know for a fact that I didn't have what it took in FMX to get that medal, there was 5 other guys out there who deserved it more than me, but sometimes everything just falls into place. It sucks because I keep reading on the internet people saying I didn't deserve it and my run sucked and that bothers me. I'm the guy who goes out and has fun and whatever happens, happens. It's not like I think I'm the most crazy guy out there and my run is perfect, but I guess that comes with the job, there is always going to be people out there who don't like you. Anyways I have rambled on enough, I am just going to enjoy what happend and know that I did put in 100% effort leading up to this. Now I'm getting back to relaxing so I'm leaving you guys....bye!

Fun in Las Vegas...and I still have money in my bank account!!!

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:43:57 -0500

Well finally I am entering the week of X games. I am very excited to get this week underway as well as over with haha. I am so glad I decided to come to Vegas and get into a fresh scene before X. It has been a blast here. I have been able to ride FMX for a hour or two and then hop on my other bike and ride the supercross track to get in some time for Speed and Style. I can't thank Carey Hart enough for letting me, an australian, my mechanic, a photographer, and a filmer all come crash at his pad and use his facility. It feels kind of cool to do the whole two-a-day deal, I feel like I'm in the NFL in training camp getting ready for the season. It has been pretty intense though, it's been 105 degrees here at 6 P.M. so no matter when we ride we still want to die!! All in all I feel I am prepared as much as I can be for this thing, I know for sure my chances in FMX are slim because I haven't really came up with that crazy trick that's going to cut it, but I feel I have a good chance in Speed and Style and maybe even step up so I'm going to give it a 110%! I did have to let loose a little last night, we got to go down to Hart's bar "Wasted Space" in the Hardrock hotel. It was a blast! Carey said he has been having quite the famous crowd in there since it's grand opening 2 weeks ago, Joel and Benji Madden as well as Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie all have been in, so I figured I would really add value to the place, can you imagine what people thought when they heard Mike Mason was going to be there!! Haha, ok I am off fantasy island now so we will just say me and my buddies had a great time. Best part of the night was at 3 am right before we all left, big, fat, old Mike Tyson walked in with a small little white chick, how odd? I wasn't going to say anything to his face though so I just finished my Coors Light and hit the door! Well I have one last day of practice here tomorrow and then I make the drive to LA to get on the X games kick!! I will try and post up blogs daily from there to keep all you guys updated, if anyone is into that! Mike Mason saying byeeee!

The practice course

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:30:51 -0500

Hey guys, finally getting some videos rolling!! The one I have attached is a run down of our course. I know I talk a lot and I got pretty awesome bed head but I hope you guys find this somewhat interesting!! More vids to come soon.
Untitled from NV//HC Productions on Vimeo.

Holy smokes!!

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:13:19 -0500

I love my life!! That's pretty much the only thing I can think about typing right now. I get to ride my dirt bike for a living and then to add to it I got to go to the Playboy mansion last night and check out half naked chicks and dudes boxing! I got the invite from the nice people here at YB, and like I told them, the second I read that email I was booking my flight haha. I've always wanted to go there and check out the scene and it for sure didn't let me down!! The second I stepped foot off that bus I was greeted by the YB filmers to do a little red carpet deal, and about two seconds later a fully naked chick painted up comes over to help out with the filming. How the hell am I supposed to answer normal questions with her next to me?? Luckily I had a couple drinks in me so I handled business well! Once we got in I noticed there was a lot of buff dudes with gel in their hair and kids extra small t-shirts on, so I ignored them and went back on the mission of staring at the chicks. I did catch a glimpse of Chuck Lidell and Shawn Merriman, two dudes that I think are pretty awesome so I got star struck for a minute. Chuck has that permanent look on his face like he's ready to pinch someones head off so I kind of kept my distance with him. Other than that it was just an old fashion good time, we had some drinks, made small talk with a lot of people and somehow I ended up in the game room talking with two playmates for an hour, typical Mase form though I came home empty handed haha. Well I can't thank everyone at Media Zone and Yard Barker enough for the good time. Next week I will get back to business and post blogs about motorcycles, I'm actually working on a small film clip for this site with my buddy, I'm going to break down our practice course and what goes into our normal week in video form so keep an eye out for it!! Till' then, bye!

5 days and counting!!

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:29:53 -0500

Hey guys sorry for the delay on posts, I have been out on a Island with no internet service which turns into no YB posts, not good!! On a positive note everything is going wonderful here, we had another successful show in Townsville last weekend and now I am 4 days away from our last show in Rockhampton and 5 days away from boarding that long flight back to the states. It's weird how time goes by so fast even if you swear it has takin forever. It seems like just a couple days ago I was backing out of my driveway at my house, complaining to my roommate about how I was going to be gone for two months and now after what seemed like a flash I have only a couple days left! Being on this tour for so long has kind of turned us all into a family and as much as I want to go home I really am going to be sad to leave all these guys and the all the great memories behind. It's kind of like your last days at highschool only we don't get yearbooks, which makes it hard for me to find an excuse to talk to the hot babes on tour now, I can't go up to them and break the ice by asking them to sign my yearbook!! Anyways it has been a blast here, I can't thank everyone enough for the great times!! I am looking forward to more tours like this and more fun times!!!

Dirtbikes, Bus rides, and Guitars....

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:31:35 -0500

Hey barkers, you miss me?? Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days, we had a show in the Northern Territory Saturday night, then went straight to the after party where there was an awesome cover band and some decent chicks. In typical Mason form I got buzzed and zoned in on the guitar player and watched him shred and totally spaced out on the girls, my mom would be so proud!! From there we had a early lobby call to hop on a greyhound and take a 22 hour trip down to Mt. Isa, QLD for our next show which is actually on a Wednesday. Now one might ask what we do with 22 hrs on a bus....well it's simple, we had some adult beverages, wore cool outfits so we could laugh at each other, and told a bunch of cool stories, which might be too graphic for this site haha!! We rolled into Mt. Isa at 7 am this morning, with stiff backs from sleeping in the seats and somewhat of a headache from the beverages, so all day today has been pretty mellow. I have just been sitting here watching movies and playing guitar. I'm high centered on Stairway to Heaven at the moment, which I know is a no-no to play if you're watching Wayne's World, but I'm a fan of Zeppelin and really like the song so I'm trying my best to get it dialed!! That's really about all I have to talk about at the moment, we do our show Wed and then take another 10 hour bus ride over to Townsville so hopefully I can have a cool story for everyone!!! And have no fear I know I talk about drinking a lot in my blogs but when I don't party I usually am doing 10 pushups and 15 sit-ups a week in my room, so I'm staying fit!!

Gold Coast Show

Tue, 27 May 2008 07:27:36 -0500

Hey all, just got done with our best show yet this weekend on the Gold Coast. This place is my most favorite place away from home and to be able to do a show here was amazing!! The crowd was huge and full of energy, which is key when we are flipping our dirtbikes, we need to know that everyone is enjoying it or else we get all emotional and feel like we aren't as cool as we thought we were! Everyone rode really well too, it's pretty amazing to see where this sport has got to. 5 years ago there was maybe 3 guys flipping a dirtbike, now we are doing trains of 15 guys all flipping in a row! We even had two of the Aussie boys flip side by side and high five in the air! All in all it was a great weekend, I'm almost a little heart broken that it's over. Three more weeks here in Australia and then I got to get my little white butt home and hit the practice course hard for X games and the Dew tour. That's about all for now, there is a video on Crusty.com of the show this weekend, if you get a moment check it out, it showcases a lot of the cool stuff I just mentioned!! Take care!!

Fear of growing old....

Wed, 21 May 2008 06:37:06 -0500

Hey folks, I posted this blog up on my MySpace and figured I might as well share it here too. It's long and to some maybe boring, but I'm sure a lot of you experience a lot of the same feelings. Lately I have had a lot of time on my hands to sit around and think about everything, growing up, responsibility, riding, my future etc.... It's all kind of scary and overwhelming at times. I started thinking about all the bitchen times I've had in my life that I will never be able to duplicate. As a kid traveling on Friday's after school to the races with my parents and close friends, racing on the weekend and then sleeping in the truck all the way home just to be ready for school on Monday, where we would sit around and talk about the races, or on off weekends having buddies spend the night so we could wake up at 8 am and be ready to ride until dark. As I got older it turned into me and my mechanic and best friend Cliff leaving town for three months to race arenacross in a cargo van with a thousand bucks in my pocket and not knowing anyone or anything about life on our own away from everyone. In those times I met some of the most awesome people, people that even though I might not be in contact with now, will always remain close to me. The low times in my life where I was dead broke and off my bike from shoulder and knee surgeries, confused in life, not knowing if I wanted to continue riding or just move on and have a stable career and settle down. The day Dustin Miller loaned me one of his bikes to start trying out FMX and pretty much started what I've got going now or the day me and him saw that it was raining out so we went to the local bar had beers and then realized, the storm cleared, it was sunny and perfect for riding so we went home and moto'd buzzed as hell, I'm pretty sure Scoot blew out every berm on the track that day and probably crashed once or twice. The year where I was 3rd in points halfway through Dew tour and when the X games invites came out I wasn't invited I remember being so pissed off and frustrated, little did I know the next year I would get my chance and I was fortunate enough to get a medal, something I never ever thought I would do!! Partying until 5 am the morning of the finals in Orlando for the Dew tour, and then somehow winning the damn event ( I don't recommend trying that not for the danger factor but Orlando is the most humid hot place ever and to ride hungover sucks haha!!) Partying at the Hardock in Vegas for Halloween, 2 weeks after Orlando, I was a giant sperm, woke up at 11 am still in my costume on the floor of my hotel, had to ride a show ramp to ramp that night, ended up landing with my leg out and blowing out my knee. I went from the all time high's of my career to an ultimate low and feeling like an idiot. Riding the Cap City tour in Australia, the most fun I have ever had on a motorcycle, the show is amazing and riding with all my buddies in OZ is a blast every year. I think about walking into a hospital in October and coming out in a wheelchair, and just wondering what's going on and how am I supposed to come back and compete and be at a 100% after this. You get that unsettled feeling knowing everyone is practicing and you can't do anything on a bike, I couldn't even go to the garage and at least sit on my bike and make noises on the stand and do nac nacs like I always do when I'm bored. Coming back for my first ride and feeling like a kid getting his first motorcycle, having a blast riding, looking forward to getting up every morning to go ride, that's a good feeling to have again!! I think about all this stuff that has gone on in my life and it trips me out. I never thought I would be riding for a living, never thought I could be a performer on my bike, never thought I would still have the same group of friends after 15 years, never thought that I would have 4,000+ friends on MySpace that are pumped on what I do. I get really bummed out when I think about life when I was 13,14,15 years old, just riding for fun with my friends, I could ride anywhere, anytime and have a blast, chicks didn't matter, partying didn't matter, I just wanted to wake up and go riding. I realize I can never re live those times of my life, but what I can do is make the best of what I've got going on now and enjoy everything I do, whether it be a Crusty show or X games it doesn't matter. I can see my competitive riding coming to an end in the next 2-3 years so I want to go out in style! I know I have rambled on a lot here and I'm sure most of it doesn't make sense, but everything I just typed is basically what goes through my head every night before I go to bed, sometimes it scares me and sometimes it bums me out, but the truth of the matter is I've had a bad ass life and someday I'm gonna realize that and be grateful......

Who invited the wind??

Sun, 18 May 2008 06:59:36 -0500

Hey internet best friends, just checking in to make sure my fan base isn't getting smaller, which it isn't so that is a huge plus!! I'm sitting in my hotel on the Gold Coast in Australia, staring at the ocean from my balcony and also holding onto my hairpiece because it's about 70 mph winds here right now!! Is it me or is the world getting more windy?? With our sport I'm on constant wind searches to make sure it's going to be good for riding and lately it seems like no matter where I am at it is windy. I had two weeks at home in March and wanted to ride as much as possible, but it was windy almost everyday by 11. Now here in Australia a lot of our practice before the shows are windy and sometimes even into the show we are dealing with wind which makes doing your craziest tricks onto a metal and wood landing more scary!! Even spitting out of the rental car window is getting dangerous, you never know if it's going to come back into the car and take out you or a friend! Anyways I was just sitting here pondering the subject and figured I'm going to type about it and get this off my chest, kind of like counseling or something. I have a new video posted too, it's from our windy practice area in Reno. Special thanks to Jorge Alvarez for filming and editing this piece for us, check out his MySpace if you ever get bored on the net, myspace.com/nvhcproductions. That's all for now, I'll be back in a few days to maybe talk about girls, or paying taxes, or football, or maybe even dirtbikes!!!

Killing time

Tue, 13 May 2008 23:23:31 -0500

Well I am at the halfway point of my Australia trip now, 1 month down, 1 month to go. I'm starting to get a little homesick for sure but it has been good times none the less. I got to go skydiving a couple weeks ago which was a blast!!! It was the first time I had went skydiving solo, the only other time I went was tandem so this was a huge rush. I had to pull the chute and control it on my own so I was a little nervous, but everything went perfect!! I also got to catch Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold in Sydney which was cool because they are two of my favorite bands!! Coming from Reno we don't usually get the big name bands coming through so I have to wait until I'm in Australia or Europe to catch up with them haha!! I got to go up on the stage during soundcheck and check out all the equipment, I'm really into guitars so I think I was more starstruck checking out all the guys guitars then I was actually meeting some of them haha. Other than that its been pretty mellow, just still cranking out shows every Saturday night and usually recovering every Sunday because ummm.. I rode too much Saturday night? Next week we get to stay in the Gold Coast which is basically like a really nice Miami so I cannot wait, I'm going to sit on the beach all week and see if I can get my little pasty body tan for once!! That's about all for now, hope all you guys are doing good out there.

My life in Australia!

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:20:04 -0500

Hey pals, running low on time right now as I am getting ready for our next show so I decided to include a video of the tour I'm doing in Australia. It's an insane show and really a blast to be a part of! I will have some good stories for all you guys next week after everything settles down from the weekend!! P.S. I'm the dude in the pink if any of you were wondering!! And yes I said pink!

Freestyle motocross blogging begins!!

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:17:09 -0500

Howdy Yardbarker diehards, my name is Mike Mason and I am a Freestyle moto guy. I'm here to keep you guys filled in on my world. This is my first post on YB so I figured I would use it to introduce myself and my sport if many of you aren't familiar with it, so here goes. I started riding dirtbikes when I was five years old, thanks to my pop's who at the time was heavily involved in the motorcycle scene. He has been taking me to all the races since I first can remember, and ever since I was a 5 year old kid I knew I wanted to ride a motorcycle for the rest of my life, regardless of making it as a professional or not. When I was 17 I decided to turn pro, the sport was starting to take its toll on my family as everything became more expensive as I became better. I was traveling more, breaking bikes often, and entry fees had become too expensive. Turning pro I knew I could at least make 400-700.00 a weekend locally and much more than that at the bigger races so that would help out a lot. I caught my first big break in a series that tours the states in all the major arenas. They had racing and a best trick competition, which was perfect for me because I loved racing, but also messed around with doing tricks in my spare time. It was mainly racers who did the best trick comp and they never had much in the way of tricks, so I was pretty much set to make a thousand bucks a week just from that plus whatever prize money I made from racing, so things were looking good!! Of course with our sport like any sport comes injury, and 2002 seemed to be my year for everything to catch me at once! I had torn some ligaments in my shoulder which caused it to dislocate constantly and I also tore my ACL so my knee would dislocate from time to time. I decided just to fix my shoulder since it was bothering me more at the time. Surgery and rehab went perfect on my shoulder and I was back riding just four months after surgery. The bad news is that 6 months after my shoulder surgery I came up short on a jump at a Freestyle show in Milan, Italy and ruined my knee for good. Back to surgery it was and with a ACL its not quick. It took me about 7 months to recover and get to a 100%. At this point I was pretty much off my bike for a year and when I came back I had lost the drive and desire to keep racing. I was dead broke, my body was feeling beat up, and my mind was not into it. Right around the time all this happend my best friend had bought 7 acres and made a freestyle course on it. I decided to go out and ride with him and just mess around, not take anything to serious and just have some fun riding again. Well it ended up being the best time of my life, hitting new jumps and learning new tricks daily made me motivated to ride again, I decided to focus 100% of my efforts into FMX (freestyle motocross). After my first year I had a good bag of tricks and the backflip, which was pretty much key if you wanted a career in FMX. In 2005, just my second full year I finished third overall in the Dew action sports tour, which is basically the second biggest FMX contest next to ESPN's X games. In 2006 I won some Europe contests, finished second overall in the Dew action sports with one win on the season, and earned my first X games medal, a bronze, in my first apperance! Life was good and I had finally started to see my life long dream become a reality. Like anything good though there is going to be some bad times, in 2006 during my success, I also broke my collerbone, knocked myself out a couple times and tore my other ACL, so once again I was feeling beat up. I went into 2007 not feeling like myself and constantly worrying about my knee. I managed to get another third overall in the Dew action sports tour, but that was pretty much the only highlight of 07'. I decided to take some time off, get my knee fixed and let my body heal up and feel good for 08'. It is now 2008, the contests and demos are underway and once again I am feeling healthy and ready to make a comeback and get back to the top. As I type this I am in Australia doing a 10 week tour and the day after I get home from here I fly to Baltimore to start the Dew tour again. I will be posting frequently and keeping you all updated on cool stories or parties or hot girls, whatever it may be that I come across over here!!! Hope my story didn't bore you too bad, because I am not a very good typer so that took pretty much every ounce of brain power I had!! Take care and stay tuned!!!