Jed, the last three years have
been huge for you. When you
first started riding BMX did you
think it’d ever take you this far?
No, never. It was just a dream,
but the dream has become a
reality and I’m so thankful for
what has happened with it all.
Basically my childhood passion
has grown into a life of epicness.
I didn’t even know about BMX
until I was fourteen. Before that
I had a mountain bike and we
built jumps for that. I spun my
first 360 before I even knew what
a BMX was. When I was ten,
my bike got stolen when I left
it at school, so I saved up for a
BMX that I knew I could jump
bigger jumps on. I bought my
first one when I was fourteen and
started competing a year later in
freestyle, dirt-jumps, park etc.
Fast-forward to the beginning
of 2011. You decided it’d be a
good idea to attempt the Triple
[ ]
Backflip. Where did that idea
come from?
Well I landed my first Double
Flip in March 2010 on a jump I
made. It was big, but not huge
and I got it first go. I immediately
thought “Sweet, now I want to
do a Triple”.
I only did about five or six
Double Flips because it was
rare to find big set-ups like Cam
White’s jumps in Australia and
the Dew Tour. At the time there
was a lot of talk about people
wanting to try the Triple, but
no-one went any further with it. I
guess I saw an opportunity to do
something new and I took it.
There must’ve been a lot of
groundwork, blood, sweat and
tears that went into making it
happen. It’s not like there was
a manual you could read about
throwing a Triple Backflip.
Haha yeah, there was a lot of
trial and error. We used Nick
Franklin’s foam-pit and our
knowledge of making jumps,
but I think we went through five
ramps and four different height
roll-ins before he found one that
worked. I got heaps of bruises
and flat-heels during the testing.
I was working at the time and
I ended up using my steel-cap
John Bull work boots for the
actual Triple Flip attempt as they
had the best protection and were
the most comfortable.
Classic. Take us through the
day you landed the Triple Flip.
We had torrential rain the day
before and the area between the
roll-in and up-ramp flooded hard
out, so we had to drain it. It was
cold and pretty windy with some
big gusts. About 2,000 locals
turned up to support and watch
me, which was awesome.
I hit the jump about ten times
before I landed the Triple, and
p. Simon Makker
£ Jed stomping the world’s
first Triple Backflip!