been waiting for since the turn of the
century. A film that I hope will inspire
the next generation to think outside
the box.
You were doing it for the love of the
game at this point?
Lucky for me, Nitro Circus was built
on a wing and a prayer. We decided
to split the costs 50/50. Whatever I
paid, the company would match. We
both knew we would probably lose
money on this project, but also that it
was our responsibility to the future of
action sports to help maintain some
of the soul that made it so popular in
the first place.
What filled your thoughts as you
started envisioning the movie?
My plan was to build ramps of
all shapes and sizes. We weren’t
biased to dirt, wood, metal, concrete
or scaffolding. We tried every
different radius and height and even
experiment ed with an old Paris
Rosen design that he calls the ‘Bed
of Roses’. True, the Bed of Roses
helps make Front Flips easier and is
probably cheating, but Nitro Circus
is not a competition. Our job is to
entertain and find ways to do things
that weren’t previously possible. At
the end of the day, you still have to
rotate a full size dirt bike over your
head and land it within a few degrees
of perfection.
I heard Jolene Van Vugt dialed in
some Frontflips?
It couldn’t have been more than ten
seconds after I told Jolene we were
filming for a movie that she asked
about the Bed of Roses. Since I’m not
a very good teacher and at the time
had crashed all five of my Frontflip
attempts off that ramp (and was still
in the process of recovering from a
broken leg from that ramp) I decided
it was in Jolene’s best interest if she
hit it without any of my bad habits.
By the end of the day’s foam pit
session, Jolene had Frontflips down
better than anyone I had ever seen.
But Jolene would elect to put the
moto Frontflip on hold, because she
had already set her sights on another
goal; to be the first woman to land a
Double Backflip on a BMX bike.
She’s not one to do things on a
small scale is she?
Earlier in the year Jolene became
the second girl in history to land
58 | FreestyleXtreme.com
a Frontflip on a BMX. The first girl
did that trick over a five-foot jump.
So naturally, Jolene landed her first
Frontflip over a fifty-foot double.
Similarly, Jolene had her sights set on
one of the biggest BMX jumps ever
built for her Double Backflip debut.
Nitro Girl was going to have the most
epic summer of any woman in the
history of action sports - or she was
going to go down swinging. Either
way, you could be sure that Jolene
put in the work. For the next six
months, Jolene was either in the gym
to help her withstand a crash without
injury or jumping into the foam pit
or air bag. I was scared for her but
I admired the determination. I knew
she wasn’t one to back down.
Talk about that feeling you get
when you finally know something is
possible?
For anyone in action sports, there
isn’t a better/scarier feeling in the
world than knowing something is
possible. One of the worst days of
my life was the day I got a Double
Backflip all the way around in the
foam pit. Similarly was the day that
Bruce Cook landed his first Double
Frontflip into the foam pit or Josh
Sheehan landed his first Triple Back
Flip to the BAGJUMP. When you get
something to a point where you know
it’s possible, you are burdened with
the understanding that you will either
ruin yourself or you will land it; either
way, you are committed!
£ Bruce Cook sends
his first Backflip since
crashing on the Double
Frontflip
Bruce didn’t fare so well on his
Double Frontflip attempt…
Most of the time it works out, but
Bruce Cook ended up with a bad
roll of the dice. Just as we started
filming this movie, Bruce broke his
back trying a Double Frontflip and
paralyzed him-self from the waist
down. But his never-say-die attitude
and love for the sport had him back
on the bike and he made it his
mission to become the first paraplegic
to ride away from a Backflip on a dirt
bike.
Jolene and Sheeny both
accomplished their goals, but the
greatest moment of filming was quite
possibly when Bruce was able to
overcome such long odds in such a
short amount of time. He landed that
Backflip less than a year after his
life-changing crash. I have never seen
such an emotional group of people
after a trick was landed. For Bruce, it
was more than just a Backflip, it was
regaining a part of his life that he had
feared might be gone forever. u