Yeah, I used those ramps to my
advantage. Hitting them during Nitro
shows and at Nitro World Games
has also given my career a good
boost.
Do you cop any heat from other
riders for using “cheater ramps”?
Oh, constantly. (laughs) I’m actually
sitting in a hotel room with Sheeny
at the moment and he calls me out
every time I jump the mechanical
ramp!
There are a lot of riders who don’t
agree with them and I actually
don’t agree with them being used
outside of shows or contests where
everyone has a fair opportunity to
use them.
Why’s that?
Because even if you make the same
ramp off the same plans, they all feel
different somehow. They’re never
consistent, so if you have them in
competition you need an airbag to
practice safely and be fair for all
riders.
Unless organisers can come up
with a set ramp that everyone in
the world can somehow access, it’s
important that it’s fair and everyone
has the same opportunity.
Nitro’s approach to using the ramps
is really fair, though. Months before
the World Games they sent an
email out offering for riders to go to
Travis’s before the event, or use the
airbag facility at Pala, to get dialled
in. Nitro was even willing to give
out the plans for free, so we could
build one to train on at home. That’s
pretty awesome, and proves they’re
just trying to progress the sport
and make the evolution as fair and
accessible as possible.
Then we had several days of training
at the event to try and land whatever
we were chasing in an environment
that was safe-ish.
A week later we rocked up to Red
I thought the set-up at the World
Games was a lot fairer.
So, take us through your Front
Flip Rock Solid that won you gold
at the World Games. How much
effort went into landing that?
It was a solid six months of getting
beaten up over and over again
trying to make it work. Even off a
mechanical ramp it was hard to do. I
still had to throw my weight into the
Front Flip as hard as you throw your
weight backwards for a Backflip.
Then you have to go smoothly back
to the seat-grab, do everything
calmly, then getting from the back
of the bike to the front while it’s
spinning away was the hardest part.
I’ve done Double Flips and other
stuff, but that trick was by far the
hardest thing I’ve ever done as
there’s so much going on.
Will you ever attempt it again?
Aaaah… hell no! (laughs) I never
want to put my body through that
amount of pain again! No-one saw
what I went through at the 50-60
Compound learning that trick for
six months. The boys consistently
fished me out of the foam-pit week-
in, week-out. I bruised the cartilage
in my chest and took all sorts of hits.
At Nitro World Games, I rod