Where did the motivation come from? Was
it your brother that was a role model or was
it like, okay, I have the chance, I have all the
ramps here so I can do it?
For me, I was always motivated to learn fast,
to go bigger than other people go. It was
always my motivation to get better in the sport
and to be one of the best guys out there.
That’s why I decided to do the backflip - my
first backflip at a really young age. Then last
year, deciding to do the double backflip was
just to get better and maybe to have a step
in front of everyone - or to have a better trick
than all the guys out here.
Was it something you planned way ahead
or did you just realise now was the time?
When did you first think the double was a
possibility?
I think three years ago was when I started
thinking about double backflips. So we got
a ramp at home, which is like 3 metres high,
and I tried my first double backflips into the
foam pit.
I got hurt a lot of times. It was not fun,
because I always got around one and a half
times, so I landed upside-down in the pit. In
some ways it’s super hard in the foam pit and
they always had to dig me out of it. After a
while I stopped because it didn’t really make
sense to try them.
Then about one year ago, I started again with
another bike. I switched from a 350 Husqvarna
to 450 and used another set up. I just changed
a lot of things to make it possible to do the
double backflip. After a couple of days, it
worked really well and I felt really good on it. I
just kept on trying and just performing it better
and better. It worked out really well.
How much extra does it take versus a
normal backflip?
The first time going for a double backflip is
really something special because you need to
continue the rotation after you’ve done one
backflip - that’s the main point of a double
backflip!
If you don’t continue pulling your bike around,
you’re done because you will crash. So you
need to continue pulling and leaning back on
the bike - and the feeling, trying this for the
first time, is really something special because
you don’t know if you get it around or not. For
me, the first time, I always crashed really hard
in the foam pit and yeah, it was not really fun
at all.
How many attempts before you took it to
dirt?
Before I went to dirt I maybe did about 70 tries
in the foam pit. I don’t think that’s a lot, but I
felt really good. u
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