FreestyleXtreme Magazine Issue 9 | Page 66

Bilko, what’s been happening, mate?
Oh you know, just living the dream and
getting ready for another Nitro Tour.
We fly out in the morning, so I’m just
packing all my sh*t and getting excited
about spending weeks on a bus, not
having any personal space and riding
some big shows.
Standard issue then haha. Let’s talk
old-school. How did you get into
FMX?
It kind of happened in a weird way.
I grew up racing BMX and then
motocross like most of the older
freestyle riders did. I broke both my
arms racing the Australian Supercross
Championship in 2004 and my bike
sat there gathering dust and I started
screwing around on mini bikes. Cam
Sinclair told me one day he was going
to try the Backflip, so I thought I’d
go along. We got the set-up sorted,
then Cam said ‘you should give it a
go’. I thought ‘righto then’, got on his
bike, started jumping, then next thing
you know I flipped it. I crashed the
first three then rode out of one, then
Cam rode one out too and that ignited
the fire. After another year of doing
freestyle, riding mini bikes and finishing
top ten at best in racing, it was an
easy decision to put FMX first. I started
messing around in the foam pit, then
twelve months later I was at X Games.

Damn, that’s a pretty quick rise to
the top when you look back on it.
Yeah, for sure. Back then I was
learning new tricks every time I rode.
The deal with my parents was, I
needed to finish my apprenticeship
before I went full-time into FMX, but as
soon as I completed that I focused on
a career in freestyle.
What do you think was your big
breakthrough? Your Cliffhanger
Flip at the 2006 X Games? I reckon
that’s still got to be one of the most
extended Cliffy Flips ever landed.
Hah yeah it was pretty big. It was my
first time at X and I wasn’t aware of
how big a deal it is. X Games is the
pinnacle of the sport and if you’re
doing that, as far as sponsors and the
industry is concerned, you’ve made it.
I did a couple of decent Cliffhanger
Flips in practice, but with Travis going
for the first-ever Double Flip, I thought
I’d just go for it. I pushed it as hard as
I could and walked away with bronze.
It was probably two days before I

“I started
messing
around in
the foam pit,
then twelve
months later
I was at
X Games”

realised I’d come in as a rookie and
podiumed at the world’s biggest
contest, which kick-started my whole
career.
Then the next year you came out
and started throwing the world’s
first Ruler Flips. Everyone was
thinking ‘what the eff is this kid on’?
How did you learn them so quickly?
I built some flip levers and was doing
tiny Superflips, then we were doing
a media call for the Crusty Tour for
a national breakfast TV show and I
just worked on them the whole time.
On one of them I wrenched a fair bit
harder and I thought ‘wow that was
huge’, and then I started getting them
bigger and bigger until I was looking
right through. I was the only one doing
Ruler Flips and when Ogio released an
ad of me doing one on tour everyone
thought it was fake!
A couple weeks after the Crusty Tour
finished, I went to the Baltimore Dew
Tour stop and was doing them flat-out,
but I got too confident and f**ked
myself up pretty good.
What happened at Baltimore?
I messed up my run but thought
I’d thro w a Ruler Flip for the crowd
anyway. As soon as I left the ramp I
knew it was wrong. My bike twisted
sideways but I tried to stay with my
bike, over-rotated and landed at the
bottom of the downy. My left leg took
the whole impact and I shattered my
ankle, all of my toe bones, snapped my
fibula, dislocated my knee and ripped
all the ligaments to shreds.
It was my first contest of the season,
in a year I was expected to win
everything and I f**ked it on a trick I
didn’t even need to pull.

© NITRO CIRCUS

© NITRO CIRCUS

£ Bilko: mid-thrust!