ROBBIE MADDISON
sitting in the crowd, watching
guys like Dane Kinnaird and Luke
Urek, guys I had grown up racing
against, and I thought to myself
‘I can really see myself doing this
stuff. I used to have battles on the
track and beat these guys back in
the day’. I knew if they could do
it, I was capable of doing it too. I
went away from that show really
excited, intrigued and motivated
to see what I could do. A short
time later I was doing all the
tricks and started riding events.
I performed well and started to
raise some eyebrows. A lot of
people seemed to like my style,
where I was coming from and
were really supportive of me.
I think quite early on in my career
as a professional freestyle rider,
I realised I had more to give this
sport than just the freestyle part.
I went to ride one of the Crusty
Demons shows, and Seth Enslow
was supposed to do a world
record jump, but he broke his
wrist a few weeks before and
couldn’t ride, so I put my hand
up and said ‘let me have a crack
at this’. I had a jump back in my
hometown in Australia that was
180ft and I was doing Nac Nacs
and Superman Seat Grabs off it.
I figured if I could go 180ft off my
old dirt jump, then with a proper
ramp that could be moved in and
out I should be able to go way
further.
I had no footage to prove to
them that I could do it, so it was
all kind of based on my word
– persuading them I could do
it wasn’t easy. I showed up on
the day in Ipswich, Queensland
and set two world records. I
showed everyone that I had
more to offer than just jumping
FMX ramps. Red Bull have been
a huge support throughout my
career and have definitely been
the wind beneath my wings. They
have given me opportunities
that I couldn’t even imagine. The
ideas and opportunities that I
had dreamt of started to come
about with a lot of convincing
and hard work. From doing the
world record jumps, I dreamt up
the idea to jump the football field.
From there I jumped the 10-story
building at the Arc de Triomphe
in Las Vegas which led to the
London Bridge Backflip, jumping
the Corinth Canal in Greece and
most recently the San Diego Bay
jump. Now that I’ve seen that
people are into these different
ideas and different concepts, I’ve
built off them to dream up some
cool new ideas. That’s kind of
why people haven’t seen much of
me recently, because I’m trying
to keep all this new stuff under
wraps. I really want to showcase
all of this stuff in a cool way. I
wanna stump everyone and just
land it on their lap and be like
‘this is what I’ve been doing’. I
definitely have some cool stuff
coming up so keep an eye out.
Good things come to those who
wait, you know! I’ve been waiting
for the right opportunity to strike
and I think that opportunity is
coming pretty soon!
.......................................................
W
hat would you say has
been the closest call
you’ve had on a big
distance jump?
Man, closest call… Unfortunately
I’ve had a few of them on the
big jumps. The same situations
I’ve been in have taken guys like
Tyrone Gilks. A lot of the guys
that jump long distance – the
likes of Bird, Trigger Gumm and
Seth Enslow have all had major
crashes. To me, these are the two
close calls I’ve had: The first was
in Las Vegas during the lead-up to
when I jumped the football field.
I pulled the ramp back for the
ultimate big jump I was going to
do - 360 ft. It went from 4th gear
on the last jump to 5th on this one
and I just kind of second-guessed
myself. I was in 4th gear pinned
and clicked 5th and held it pinned
- and then when I went off the
ramp I thought I was going too
fast and I chopped the throttle. I
sailed about 300 something feet
just looking at the back of the
landing thinking ‘s**t… I’m going
to hit this’. Luckily t V