FreestyleXtreme Magazine Issue 5 | Page 29

Best of 2014 The FreestyleXtreme FMX Awards W ELCOME TO THE FIRST ever FreestyleXtreme FMX Awards! We’ve chosen five categories from the world of freestyle motocross and picked the guys we felt most deserved the win for their outstanding efforts in 2014! And the winners are… The first annual FreestyleXtreme FMX Awards mark the close of our first year of publication by recognising some of our highlights of 2014 Craziest New FMX Trick: Sickest FMX Rider: Taka Higashino JP Although Taka didn’t win a major title this year, he is still absolutely at the top of his game and, we feel, well worthy of our sickest rider award. After two years he’s still the only rider in the world doing consistent Rock Solid Backflips. Seeing him take insanely technical, contestwinning tricks like the California Roll out into the hills and land them off dirt hits in Chasing the Storm solidified our decision. Runners up: Josh Sheehan, Tom Pages, Adam Jones Best FMX Rider Edit: Tom Pagès FR Bike Flip When Tom landed the Bike Flip for the first time at the X-Fighters, he not only won the contest, but changed the game yet again. The fact that this trick had almost been deemed impossible after Kyle Loza failed to land it after working on it for so many years definitely added to the amazement. Tom’s genius initiative to throw the trick off a quarter pipe instead of a regular ramp made this one a no brainer for us. Runners up: Taka Higashino – California Roll; Marc Pinyol Inside Roll; Hannes Ackermann – Porti Air Flip Levi Sherwood NZ / Red Bull - Beautiful Motocross Freestyle Stunts in New Zealand So many edits came out this year, but for us, this one has it all: location, riding, filming, editing, soundtrack – all on point! The freestyle section was mind-blowing, but that huge dirt line at the end is what made it for us. Runners up: Jarryd McNeil prepares for 2015 By: MX Action KOTA KUGIMURA 2014: By: Popcorn Love Records Wes Agee Hits The Hills By: Metal Mulisha All the edits are available on FreestyleXtreme.com/Blog Best FMX Bike: Joel Brown – Yamaha YZ250 When it comes to FMX bikes, Australia’s Joel Brown knows how to keep it real. This YZ250 not only looks unique and badass, but mechanically it’s as sound and customized as they come. Joel is a bike mechanic by trade, and this bike is only worked on by Browny himself. Runners up: Alvaro Dal Farra’s SX 250, Destin Cantrell’s SX-F 450, Genki Watanabe’s KXF 450, Raddest FMX Contest: Farm Jam NZ We feel Farm Jam NZ has everything a freestyle motocross contest should have: an amazing dirt course, a fun atmosphere, unique character, local and international riders, good sponsors, good media, good people running it - and BBQs! Big up the Frew bros! Runners up: Red Bull X-Fighters, Night of the Jumps, FMX: Air Contest FreestyleXtreme.com | 29