The Biggest Week in Action Sports: FMX Triple Backflip & BMX Quad Backflip

every sport has its own holy grail which establishes an athlete or team as the best in the world american football has the super bowl for baseball it's the world series [Applause] but in action sports it's a little bit different the best athlete in the world is determined by who can land the biggest most difficult and often most dangerous trick unlike traditional sports this title is not given on a frequent basis the stakes are simply too high like a solar eclipse long periods of time happen between world record tricks yet in the last week of april of 2015 the stage was set for something extraordinary in a strange twist of events three of the world's best action sports athletes found themselves at legendary travis pastrana's compound in davidsonville maryland with the purpose of attempting two unthinkable stunts josh sheehan would attempt a triple backflip on a motorcycle while jed milden and james foster would compete head to head to become the first person in the world to land a quadruple backflip on a bmx bike the odds of landing on the moon would be better than just one of these tricks being landed having both of these tricks completed in the same week is unfathomable yeah buddy yeah jen this is their journey in the 1990s the sport of freestyle motocross was evolving quickly fmx started as a loose underground movement of creative expression on a motorcycle however with the creation of organized competitions fmx became formalized at the 2000 gravity games kerry hart shook the foundations of fmx by attempting a backflip a backflip was something that everyone had talked about for years um you know they've done them on bmx bikes but no one knew if it was possible mike metzger myself caleb wyatt everyone had kind of joked about it talked about it but carrie hart came out at gravity games back in 2000 and built a lip that was ginormous compared to anything else that was out there it was almost vertical that day i was just a train wreck you know everyone out here knows the impact this will have on the sport of freestyle motocross if kerry hart pulls off a back flip kerry didn't just hit it he launched it [Music] [Applause] you know i landed hard and kind of exploded but i got to wheels and kind of proved that it was possible to do everyone's like well it's a one-time trick it's a stunt it's not something you can do over and over again metzker stepped up the game and he's like i've got it i've got it on lock i've got no footed backs and one handed backs and metzger and i went back and forth i knew i was going going to be doing flips and going head-to-head with pastrana again backflip number two from mike metzger [Applause] there it is a backflip yet again for mike metzger i did one run as a joke and i just flipped the same jump over and over again and just did like one footer then a no footer then a one-hander and they were all worlds first because no one had never you know seen that done so the judges didn't know how to judge it the crowd was going [Applause] they were nuts off dirt lips off everything like stuff that was like next level and everyone behind them might as well just going home because it was done well at least it gives us something to look forward to next year with the backflip there became a fine black and white line if you do the backflip you can proceed and possibly make a career out of freestyle motocross if you don't you might as well pack up your bags and quit other riders that couldn't believe that the backflip came into play it really put a stop to their so-called freestyle career i don't want to have to do this ever like i don't ever want to have to do backflips and i remember being pretty mad about it you know i pretty much figured like all right my fmx career is about over i'm just gonna ride out the wave as long as i can go up the ramp and i remember sitting that corner going all right dude at this moment are you gonna backflip are you gonna retire are you gonna be just another wash up or be in the game and i just said all right dude you're going for it and then i something went through my head i'm like dude you could die right now once the flip was recognized as far as like whoa we have to do it and the progression of hanging off and doing every single trick upside down started happening the action sports world is full of astounding athletes tony hawk matt hoffman kelly slater danny way and many more travis pastrana has earned a spot at the top of that list whether it's as an athlete or founder of the nitro circus it could be argued that nobody has done more to push action sports than travis just as the rest of the freestyle motocross field was trying to incorporate single backflips into their repertoire travis did what he always does pulled out his little magic ladder climbed up to a level all by himself when he did the double backflip in 2006. [Applause] well i was trying not to worry everybody but everyone kind of found out anyway go out for a double flip so might not exactly have the preparation i need but i never do so uh it's all nitro babe this is why the kid fills stadiums this is why people love it this is what makes travis travis [Music] [Applause] this will go around right around the world i mean everyone will hear about this i'm still in shock and i can't believe what just happened did not see that working did not do that after travis landed the double backflip he didn't have much time to celebrate before everyone started to wonder if a triple backflip was possible in parallel to pastrana's quest to see the triple backflip landed two other nitro circus athletes have their sights set on their own goal jed milden and james foster are in a two-man race to become the first person on the planet to land a quadruple backflip on a bmx bike jet and james are both world-class bmx athletes that come from very different backgrounds james's story about how he became a bmx pro makes total sense he grew up in the action sports hotbed of southern california he experienced the bmx scene early in his life so his path really isn't that big of a stretch jed however has a little more of an unlikely story he grew up at the bottom of the world and a little town of taupo new zealand there's no bmx scene there there's really not a lot from which to draw [Music] inspiration he really had to make a proactive effort to get involved and make a dent in the bmx world to see how he stacked up against the top writers in the world jed packed up his bike and entered some competitions in the united states although he felt good about his writing he didn't get very good results from the event judges that was a moment in my life in my career that motivated me to to go big to go bigger he was now convinced that he needed to do something big to get recognition he figured a triple backflip would do it the race for the quadruple backflip is really just a continuation of the race for the triple backflip that the same two athletes jed milton and james foster had back in 2011. james foster actually had plans to be the first person to attempt the triple backflip on a bmx bike he was going to do it at the nitro circus show at the mgm grand in las vegas in 2011. we call it foster and he's like yeah i'll do it for the show i'll do it first time in the show he's like i kind of want to do it before just to get it down i said no no let's do world's first in the show at this point nobody had really talked about doing a triple flip at all what james didn't know was that his friend and rival jed milden had his own plans to be the first person to land the triple and jed had the advantage of knowing when and where james was going to attempt it a week and a half later foster's on the plane coming out to do his world's first triple backflip and all over the internet jed milden first rider to ever triple backflip a bicycle james didn't actually know i was doing it but i knew he was doing and i knew the date he was doing it so i put it four days before him yes very cheeky but you've got to do what you got to do to be the first in the world i was pretty bummed just because i didn't know he was going to do it and i'm i get get a call like oh world first triple backflip and just blew me away in much the same way that travis began to question whether or not a triple backflip could be done on a motorcycle after jed landed his triple he immediately started to wonder about the quadruple backflip on a bmx bike the triple backflip started out as soon as i was able to land the double backflip whenever you do something everyone always asks what's the next big thing travis has this ability to take the impossible and make it possible because his ability allows him to exist in a realm that other people just can't see what looks crazy to you is actually perfectly legitimate to him because he sees the numbers he's like neo like when he sees the matrix once travis started to think that the triple backflip on a motorcycle as possible it triggered a sequence of events where travis began probing and testing any chance that he could get one time when we were filming for a nitro circus shoot travis was doing a motorcycle base jump in the grand canyon and it was the first time that he really had the space and the air time to do three rotations i was able to get three flips around however i was about 400 feet below my starting point which really isn't an option because you can't drop 400 feet and live to tell the tale if you're trying to ride out of it but at the same time it kind of gets you thinking okay maybe it's possible and be careful what you asked for because you just might get it so red bull built me the ramp they rented out an entire hot air balloon hangar in long beach and we got all this press there and all this media there and got some of the top uh aerial skiers out and some of the top olympic coaches with frank baer um helping me on trampolines learned triples and and um it wasn't even close i could get two around but even with this huge setup and renter's quarter pipe ramp and i failed it was the biggest failure that i've had in my life is the biggest catastrophe that i've had as far as um you know a sponsor believing in me backing me for me to say yeah it's gonna work and i could you know i could land on my back tyrone too i've been wanting to do the triple backflip for probably six years now and we've gone through so many ramp renditions and so much money from so many different sponsors and even i mean my company is like you know what we're out like this it's we're chasing a pipe dream it can't work travis had an epiphany when he was watching a ski jump event he noticed that the geometry of the ski jumps were set to maximize air time and rotation we started talking with skiers and said okay how do you guys get so many spins you guys are doing four you know someone's talking about doing a quint flip and they said well you have to have a really mellow entrance and then you g out really really hard in the center and then you have to allow your body your suspension for that matter to decompress as you're going off the lip so it gives you that that ability to center your your gravity as opposed to just being so compressed when you go off that nothing's working the geometry of the ski ramps made a very big impression on travis from that point he knew he had to figure out a much different ramp setup than he had previously been using this was a process that would take a lot of time and money once travis got to a point where he felt like he had a solid ramp he needed some other riders to jump it so he could get some crucial feedback he called thomas paget and josh sheehan two of the best fmx writers in the world to join him at pastrana land i'm even afraid to hit it to the back jump [Music] i mean what kind of sport are you gonna do here um who's coming to jump when tom and [ __ ] showed up at travis's house for the first time and saw that monstrosity of a ramp that travis built they were shocked they were speechless nothing like that has ever been built in the history of fmx a couple of years after jed landed the bmx triple jed approached travis pastrana and the nitro circus about his desire to attempt to quadruple backflip he knew this would require the involvement of partners who had the capability of pulling off big stunts because jed is a nitro circus athlete pastrana and his management team put a plan in place where jed would attempt the stunt from a location near his hometown of taupo new zealand this time however jed's plans did not remain a secret the second that foster found out that jed was uh setting up to do the quad down in new zealand he got on the phone and called nitro right away and said that he wanted to try it too because james is also a nitro circus family member it was an easy decision to include him i've got tons of respect for jed you know we're really good friends and we've been riding together forever but after watching him get the triple flip before i did there's no way i was just gonna let him do the quad without me getting a chance to go for it with everything out on the table jed and james decided to have a head-to-head competition rather than sneak around trying to foil each other's efforts a plan was put into place where the riders would attempt the quad at exactly the same time on the same day jed was set to jump near his hometown in new zealand while james chose to base out of pastrana land in maryland once we had the dates set and the plans in motion at that point it was really just up to the athletes to get their ramp styled in and get as much practice as possible as the riders were working towards their collective goal there was a big difference in progress being made in new zealand the poor weather had jed nearly at a standstill the weather out here on the franklin farm has been crazy we had rain and then the other day i went to go ride the jump and it was like 50k an hour headwinds what the hell but in maryland james already had his ramp dialed in and was doing great with his practice jumps [Music] he just did his second quad flip off of it bang wheels on dirt wow that was absolutely without a doubt no question the best one i've ever done by far had that been a landing i would have written that away after being extremely frustrated because of the weather jed finally caught a break as you can see by the glow on my skin from that sun she's finally popped out the airbags in position that noise you can hear in the background is the pump blowing it up and we're moments away from testing out the quad flip jump thank you sir oh first roll at the buddha i want it's a straight jumper and she set me in for a becky jed is initially excited when he takes his first run off the ramp yet when he starts to go for the quad jed hits a wall not only is he fighting with the weather but he is now dealing with a ramp that is not giving him the rotation that he needs this is a very frustrating realization as jump day gets closer and closer the nitro circus production team grows concerned with jed's lack of progress in an effort to help jed's cause the nitro circus management sends a team of people to help him try to dial in his rap and landing this is an attempt to level the playing field with james i had a phone call from jed and uh it was a little bit concerning to hear you know a week out that that this is the kind of the first time you know i really felt some uh fear from jed and the fact that this wasn't potentially going to happen so we sent the whole crew over we're here now in a day's time history's going to go down with the first ever quad flip this is maybe the little kickstart you need to to get going it is now the day before the scheduled jump the hope is that jed will be able to sneak in a few practice jumps and build his confidence however once again the wind is so strong that it is simply too dangerous to jump the best he can hope for now is that he can practice a bit tomorrow before jump time arrives [Music] when the new day breaks it's beautiful in maryland and james is confident unfortunately for jed he's facing much different conditions it's morning of jed's jump it's freezing out here it's three degrees celsius there's an inch of water on everything the lander we just put up last night and it's soaked now we're only three hours away from the jump it's gonna be tough today the scheduled jump time has come and gone james has perfect conditions but continues to delay in hopes that jed will get some good luck i sat on top of the roll end for about 45 minutes fully padded up helmet on pad's on ready to drop in at any moment this morning is ready to drop in on the countdown for the quad flip with my mate james foster i guess i'm in a quite a bit of a disheartening situation right now with uh mother nature just out of curiosity because this is possibly the scariest thing that's ever happened hypothetically is there a time when you guys are like the the wind's not gonna calm down we're gonna do it tomorrow or do we just send foster after it is clear that the weather isn't going to cooperate jed gives james his blessing to continue on without him this is a huge act of sportsmanship man bro how are you i'm sitting on the top of the roll and staring at this thing dude drop in and stomp it this is probably the gnarliest situation ever and it's just getting earlier since jed will not be jumping there is no longer a need for a countdown all he can do now is sit in silence and wait for a phone call that will report james's success or failure after all these months of anticipation and injury hard work james is now staring down the barrel of what could be the biggest trick in bmx history okay one two three where did i go you went right you went right right to the right of it you had the four rotations james is very close to landing but drifted a little too far to the right missing the landing altogether my first attempt at the quad to the landing felt perfect to me rotation felt perfect you know i spotted the landing opened up and like i honestly when i opened up i was like i'm riding away i got this like i just i just pulled it and then the next thing i know i hit the dirt to the astonishment of everyone he walks away from the crash and is able to dust himself off and take a second run [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] james is not so lucky the second time around he under rotates gets jammed by his handlebars and breaks several ribs due to the severity of his injuries he cannot continue with james on the sideline with injury jed finds himself in the position of having an unrivaled shot at being the first to land the quad it wasn't really just me anymore you know i had this whole team of people that were there trying to achieve one thing trying to achieve this dream of mine so i don't really want to let anyone down it seems he has been a little unnerved by challenges he has faced up to this point jed finally gets a break in the weather but his mental state is a bit shaken yeah get it come on on my first go at the quarter new zealand i just went massive we had that elusive easterly tailwind and she was there in full force that morning and it boasted me to the moon and i knew it's kind of straight off a take-off i kind of tried to slow it down but no go jed went for it and it didn't go to plan he ended up hitting pretty hard kind of hurt his spine real bad and was unable to try again he's kind of in a similar situation as foster right now and we're just trying to re-evaluate how we proceed um who's coming to jump the ramp that travis built for the triple backflip is colossal just jumping the ramp would require the three riders to step way out of their comfort zone nothing like this has ever been seen in the fmx world when i got this invite from travis saying like hey we're doing this thing again you want to come back i'm like yeah sure i'm so excited about it it was a big mistake thomas paget had the by far best reaction why i mean there's a word that's this in my head it's why that french accent like just asking himself like like why did i show up here why are you doing this what the hell is i think [Music] no one had ever hit a ramp that big and tried to do any kind of tricks off it so when pasha and cheney came out um you just took it one step at a time like let's just try to jump it and it wasn't even jumpable it sent you upside down [Music] it was alarming for everyone to see how high they were actually going when the boys started hitting the triple jump ramp the pov footage is kind of the one thing that really shows how scary it is after several rap modifications and a lot of frustration for travis they seem to find the right configuration travis is really trying to go for a triple flip and we really started talking about it and he has everything in his head of how he wants it and i think it turned out to be more than we originally expected everything that travis had thought you know worked but there was aspects that didn't work when you come into this i'm hoping that you get jeed out right here and then your suspension will stay in but it'll be magic manageable enough that you're not gonna be so glued to the ramp that your bike will start unloading on the flat on top yeah if that doesn't happen all we have to do you see the first section of ramp yep get rid of that dig that down like two feet like we did before and then and then we'll continue that down nate wessel is the hardest working most creative ramp builder i've ever met in my entire life and something that most people don't understand is how much time it takes to build one single ramp we're talking a 37 foot tall ramp and we've got to figure out the physics to make sure that it's wide enough not to not to move right or left and then looking at the top to make sure it doesn't give because if it gives when the front tire takes off then it rebounds every intricacy of this ramp has to be perfect the fact that these people are coming up with these concepts to break these world records it's mind-boggling you're the one that's gonna be trying that out for everyone else you're the guinea pig for the rest of the world these guys are absolutely nuts and they're completely and totally motivated by the fact that that progression is their lives and and they're not going to be happy unless they're doing something that is so above and beyond what is humanly [Laughter] [Music] possible you okay brother we realized that uh thomas paget who's possibly the best in the world he couldn't even do it because he wasn't tall enough he wasn't strong enough even though paget is known for being one of the most innovative fmx writers in the world he makes the decision that the journey for the triple is not something he wants to continue he bows out honorably it is now down to travis and josh sheehan to continue the push [Music] it was probably our 12th rendition of the ramp i had hit it and i just i wasn't getting the pop but i'm like [ __ ] we've got this little extra extension i think with the 450 you've got more power you're stronger than i am i'm like just give it a shot sure as can be he just pops and this thing rotates so fast he does two flips and bails out and he's still on the way up and at that point i'm like it's going to happen what if i rotated three you would have three like yeah there's been a way faster and then i let go like i would have really high school i'm glad you hit that ramp again once you start doing bigger tricks bigger jumps going faster in it everything is getting bigger but the margin of error just gets smaller and smaller and smaller you go an inch to the right that equals going a couple feet to the right off the jump and that means you're gonna miss the entire landing and who knows what's gonna happen after that it's scary never been this sore but it's not like just i haven't just had one hit it's my tailbone my lower back all around me front there it's just oh it's just gone into the handlebars down to the ground josh came so close to missing the airbag and if that would have happened it would have been fatal there's no way around it i know for me that really burned into my mind the magnitude of this stunt even with the latest modifications to the ramp that allowed sheehan to get the triple around travis was struggling and hit a wall to make matters worse he had been knocked unconscious several times just jumping into the airbag blood everywhere knuckles butt arms feel broken and bruised it's the bag jump's sick but it hurts there's only so much your body can give you you know i mean it's like how long can you go before you just have beat yourself to the point you're not able to do something you know what you want to day in and day out anymore [Music] with this progression in our sports with the the next big thing there have been serious consequences to those actions because some of those you can't bail out of safely especially a triple backflip i need help hey travis hold on buddy one thing that people don't understand going to a flat bag it looks very cushiony but you know travis has knocked himself out trying to pull the triple six or seven times look when someone like jarvis pastrana who's visualized this thing in his mind a million ways to sunday but has knocked himself out just trying to do the trick into an airbag and he rolls away and decides to pass the torch that's real that's really really real that's like the most psychotic human on this earth is like that's too much for me this was a rare moment in travis's life where he wasn't able to overcome physical limitation for me with my skill level to get that trick around i would have to be somewhere in the realm of 120 feet off the ground i definitely wish that i was better i feel like that's every what everyone says when they're you know coming in second or at this point just bowed out of the race you know i hate quitting but for me i'm just not okay with the consequences on this jump the triple backflip has come down to one sole writer josh sheehan come down to to me never thought i'd do a double flip long time ago but here i am about to try triple knowing that josh is is as capable as travis of doing this trick i mean it's a huge honor for him but it's also like i said it's this it's this collective effort to push these the sport forward so the fact that you know it's not some there's not this animosity and it's not this fight to the to the win it's more like well you know i i came up with this and i really can't do it you're fully capable maybe it's time you take it travis has chased the triple backflip for too many years not to see it come to fruition so when he put his bike away he diverted all of his energy and expertise to supporting josh sheehan's continued journey to get the triple done although josh is feeling very comfortable with his rotations he has to interrupt his effort for the triple to join up with the nitro circus tour in australia with the triple being put on hold again and jed and james recovering from injury from the bmx quad attempts success for either project seems a long way off both jed and james have spent several weeks recuperating from their injuries the production team has received an update that james is doing much better jed however has gone off the grid and everyone suspects that he may have given up on the quad in this state of uncertainty the production team has put both the bmx quad and the moto triple projects on the back burner the nitro circus tour has started again in australia josh has hurried back from pastrana land to join up with a tour james has recovered enough to be able to perform as well the biggest surprise is that jed has resurfaced and shown up in australia to join up with the rest of the athletes on tour performing with the nitro circus has been a good diversion for the athletes jed and james have now recovered from their injuries from their first attempts at the quad with a fresh perspective they decide that they want to get serious about attempting the quad again but this time jed wants to join james at pastrana land because he concedes that foster has built the right ramp josh sheehan is also eager to get back to maryland to try the triple backflip all three athletes approach nitro circus management and request that another session be planned at pastrana land due to such a heavy touring schedule the production team has found just one week of availability at the end of april where both stunts would have to be crammed in [Music] otherwise things would have to be put on hold for at least another year all three athletes know that the likelihood of pulling off their respective stunts in such a short window is not good but they're willing to take the chance with the date now set the athletes will head back to pastrana land as soon as the australian nitro circus tour is over unfortunately james has come across bad luck yet again just before the tour's end he crashes hard in the show while doing a triple backflip his injuries are bad enough where he won't be able to join josh and jed in maryland he is heartbroken this all came down to one week it wasn't that we were going to trav's house to pull one of the biggest tricks in action sports we were given the task to pull two of the biggest tricks in action sports in two different disciplines in a matter of seven days the odds of our athletes pulling off in the same week a quadruple backflip on a bmx bike and then a triple backflip on a motorcycle i would stack those odds up against us figuring out how to land either the bike or the motorcycle on the moon when you do an event like this or a world's first there's so many moving parts and really to get all the teams worked together and it all to be perfectly aligned so those guys can go do their job is almost impossible construction of the ramp you know the team of people it takes to create that you got to design the thing the budget's raised the expectations based on the budgets you know everybody's schedules and time periods periods to be there to shoot to film so it starts to get out of your control where it's not on your terms anymore to go from concept to actual execution it's unheard of you know in such short time you know the mental and physical abuse you put on your body it's seriously it's next level josh and jed have now returned to pastrana land in maryland where they are met by an army of people there to help accomplish the goal there are only six precious days to accomplish these two monumental stunts every hour is crucial there's going to be utter chaos at pastrana land this week we have had to essentially create a city of infrastructure to pull this off we have producers camera operators sound guys builders welders heavy equipment specialists medics the list just goes on and on when we converged on trav's house everyone had one mission and one goal and that was to make those two tricks happen in the safest environment that we could and we weren't leaving until that happened so yeah first day practice in a while it's been what nearly four months when i last hit it so you know if i'd be a little nervous for the first one i haven't done one in a while but we'll get a few done and see how it goes [Music] when josh got back to pastrana land he was struggling a bit with the triple and i think it was because he had just gotten off of tour where he was consistently doing double backflips and i think he had just lost a little bit of the muscle memory for the triple one of the issues that arose was [ __ ] wanted to make sure he could land like three or four solid back to back to back before he was confident in removing the airbag and for the first couple days that wasn't happening with only a limited amount of time he had to get it done by the end of the second day josh is starting to shake off the cobwebs and is getting three rotations around fairly consistently his positivity is bolstered when he receives the welcome surprise that several of his friends have made the trek from australia to support him during what could be the biggest moment of his life it's awesome to have mousey friends here really takes the load off the whole thing i can kind of relax a lot more just feels like i'm at home nine of josh's friends came from australia they literally jumped in picked up hammers helped move the airbag literally put the sheathing on sheeny's lander if those friends didn't show up we wouldn't have the manpower to finish all the boys that are here you know we're good friends back home and i think above all else we just want to see him do good if you've got that key ingredient you know they'll do anything for him the presence of josh's friends seems to take his mind off the danger of the stunt for which he is preparing [Applause] you gonna waste any more good ones are you gonna take this fluffy little bag jump out of there and hit this thing to dirt that was not i think i'm ready that's it we can pull the bag down build the lander hell yeah man good to go you know i never thought i'd say this but i think you might not die tomorrow that's pretty impressive man after landing several triples into the slope bag josh's confidence is at an all-time high he feels like he has put in the work and is as prepared as it can be at last he makes the call for the crew to remove the airbag and prepare the landing for the final stage [Music] while josh and crew are preparing the landing ramp for the triple jed is just a few yards away practicing his rotations into the flat airbag this is the first time that he has hit something other than his rap in new zealand probably the best of my mindset just to drop straight in and quad [Music] hmm it seems that james foster's ramp suits jed very well jed is improving quickly [Music] [Applause] the feeling of finally getting the quad around at pastrana land on james foster's setup is incredible it's really rewarding especially after spending the last nine months on this project today was i feel the breakthrough that's the jet brewery now man after jed makes such good progress at pastrana land he calls james foster to check in on his recovery and to see if james is well enough to jump back into the race hey bro hey man how are you i'm good man how are you doing i heard you uh i got four rounds that's awesome all right cheers yeah i was just ringing to let you know so yeah yeah had the option of coming out if you wanted i called dove immediately and was like hey book me a flight i'm coming out there for best buddies but i want to do it first you know obviously i worked really hard on it i wrecked myself a bunch trying to get it done and after going through all of that if he goes and does it i'm not gonna be psyched [Music] it has been nearly 10 years since travis pastrana started blazing the trail toward the triple backflip now the torch has been passed to josh sheehan josh is the only person who has the ability to carry on after all the blood sweat and tears the day has come for josh to flip his way into the history books or face the dire consequences of failure i'm probably the closest one to understand what's going through josh's head and i didn't even sleep knowing that i was going to do it to an airbag i think mentally i'm pretty good i slept till pretty much seven this morning and laid there maybe dozed off for a bit more i just try to think of other things i know that if i think of this my brain just starts ticking and thinking stops you from doing other things so i just you know kind of tried to ignore it just tried to convince myself that it was just another day in the air bag from our production standpoint it's very complicated we've got 25 cameras being used that day drones flying people up in scissor lifts but the main thing that we all have to be cognizant of is that this is sheeny's call he's giving me a time uh in the early afternoon the day before when he feels most comfortable wants to do it so that's kind of our mark and that's where we need to be ready to joshian i would say this if you wholeheartedly in your heart believe that you've got this thing then go out there and send it but if there is for any reason any fiber of you that thinks i'm not so sure that i want to do this then don't let any of this stuff any of the hype none of the cameras none of the history behind it don't let any of that get in the way man because you're not any less of a man if you walk away i think josh can do it but i have a massive mixture of emotions about the thing and i would like to just sit them down and say josh no [Music] honestly i think this trick is so far beyond the realm of what people can really comprehend this is simply josh sheehan wanting to push the human spirit to push what's possible and to push himself yeah i look at freestyle motocross and this you know the triple backflip is so dangerous if i look at the sport of freestyle in general how dangerous it's been and to take it to this level is just it's hard to explain you can't put in words right i mean there's there's a million things that could go wrong in that situation and only one that can go right the consequences are are huge it's life and death and i hate to say it but that's what it is if i was to not make the jump but i don't even want to imagine what would happen then it'd be it'd be pretty insane pretty gnarly they'd do a lot of damage you know if if i didn't make the jump it could quite easily be death it's quite a tumble down to the ground [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is a bogan from perth that just did the biggest trick in action sports and potentially the craziest stunt that's ever been done and he is just joshy an inspiration to the working-class man and an inspiration to me [Music] the moment he landed safely and rode away the celebration began everyone was just so elated to see that he was okay and achieve this goal that he worked so hard for but for us you know we celebrated for a minute but we quickly had to realize we got gotta turn our focus back on the quad if this were normal circumstances and josh landed a triple backflip on a motorcycle there would be a two-week celebration but we didn't have time to do that we basically had to say good job buddy move aside we've got a quadruple backflip that we've got to accomplish now two big stunts in a week is awesome but to put them back to back and have to change location from one to the next galloway so we can start moving stuff so we tear things down and rebuild them down here and recut and all that kind of stuff everything had to play almost to the hour and the second that the trip was done we moved on to the quad it is the morning after josh landed the triple just two days remain before jed and james need to report to the nitro circus tour again the crew is hard at work moving the landing from the moto side to the bmx side james has now arrived and he hurries to the jump site to check out the scene he is disappointed to learn that the flat airbag has already been removed so that the final landing and the slope bag could be put into place he was hoping to get some practice into the flat airbag the biggest difficulty for me was that i hadn't hit the ramp to the flat airbag i got there the day the real landing was going up so i just had to guess how far i thought i would go i think if i hit the ramp at this gap right now i'll probably land at the top of the landing i think i'm gonna move the take off two foot closer i just don't want to risk going short you went four feet um i'm haven't i'm having second thoughts let's go back two feet sorry i always really watch closely on the confidence of the athlete before they're about to do something so when you see somebody start to second-guess and question and go through that inner turmoil that's when it starts to get nerve-racking get it get it a very familiar and extremely unpleasant feeling i miscalculated the gap because i wasn't there going to the flat bag so i couldn't actually measure the gap and i came in front tire on top of the bag barely made it to the bag still spinning like i didn't have time to open up and my crossbar hit me in the chest in the same spot that i just broken all my ribs you know a bunch of times before james's injury is a devastating blow for everyone he has worked so hard for the quad and has come close to pulling it off sadly his effort has only produced several broken ribs a decision is made to call it a day to regroup [Music] the sun has risen for the final day of an odyssey that has required the heart and soul of three larger larger-than-life athletes this week josh sheehan has already achieved something that will be remembered for decades to come the thought of jed milden landing the quadruple backflip in the same week is nothing short of unbelievable if he pulls it off it will be the biggest week in action sports history james foster's effort to land the quad has been monumental but his luck has run dry and jed stands alone at the top of the ramp jed will take some runs to the slope bag and if things go well the bag will be removed and the final landing prepared the practice jumps were horrible and it rotated one out of six but the one i did rotate i under rotated and just front wheel whack whack whack down the landing chad had gone a couple times without much success came to me and said dude i need a break i need a nap i need i just need to get away and get my head cleared it was much different than sheehan doing the triple sheen is calculated he wants everything to fit in a neat tidy package but jed is this kiwi that operates under a different system so we were basically just on call for whenever he felt the moment the inspiration whatever it was that he needed we were just kind of there waiting i went down to uh hubert and i was like yo what do you think i should do oh i'm stuck around on that airbag you know what i mean well i understand if you want it just get it you know sensing goofing around with it ain't setting no records on an airbag first thing to my mind and usually the first thing comes out of my head you ain't gonna send the world records to an airbag to be honest it's true you got 35 other people that would hook it to an airbag all day long because the consequences are a lot slimmer if you want to run it out you got to run it out okay let's do it in a moment that defies logic judd decides he wants to remove the airbag and go straight to the final landing the task of taking down the airbag and preparing the final landing is a lengthy process at this point there were only a couple of hours of sunlight left between jed's poor performance to the airbag and time slipping away the odds were not in jed's favor just find that snap man [Applause] yeah buddy yeah [Applause] jed's first attempt looked good until the final moment but he over-rotated and landed violently to his back most humans would not walk away from a hit like that i'm cool i'm cool take your time kind of rocked me a bit i stood at the bottom trying to process what just happened i was fine so i was kind of excited that the landing worked i was able to take a crash on it and get back up and it didn't break me [Applause] that's it nope i went back up and centered again didn't get the proper pull that i wanted so i only spun three flips and i tried to just let out and land on my bum it just cartwheeled me planning had no slip in it whatsoever and it just grabbed me and just cartwheeled me down the landing and i was stoked i was like oh wow i just fell from that high and i'm fine this is awesome after two excruciating crashes jed hikes back to the top of the roll-in [Applause] [Music] [Applause] find it and lock into it man [Applause] [Music] let's do it jed's third attempt is even worse he lands on his back and hits his head on the wooden landing just landed on my back wheel and i hit the back of my head and then i was pissed you good yeah i'm fine it seems inconceivable for jed to be able to continue yet he has that crucial ingredient that sets him apart from the rest of the world he has the ability to ignore the pain and redirect fear into motivation and clarity in this state jed takes himself back to the top of the ramp [Music] you got it yeah dude get it man get it let's do it you got it warriors you got it brother that's it three four it's plenty to bring my mom hello i'm on yeah hi that's jed oh hi dude where are you i'm at travis's house you're not going to believe what just happened what i just landed the cord flip [Music] i can now say that i watched with my own eyes josh sheehan pull off a triple backflip on a motorcycle [Music] days later i see jed milden pull off a quadruple backflip on a bmx bike [Music] [Music] [Applause] and i hear those words coming out of my mouth and i don't believe it i think it's going to take some time for me to actually acknowledge the truth of what happened [Music] it's so hard to force progression sometimes those things just happen in the heat of the moment like at a competition or just a session that's happening so to try to force something that big and that monumental is unbelievable the fact that they did it and they accomplished it and now everyone else has to deal with that they did that is unbelievable the athletes pushed themselves the crews pushed themselves and it wasn't for one single person it was for everybody even the athletes that you would think should not be helping each other because they're going for the same goal help each other give moral support give advice and with nitro it's all about that one goal which is family first i've never been more nervous more concerned more afraid of the unknown than this past week but i couldn't be more excited for action sports more happy for my colleagues my friends all the people that have built these ramps designed these airbags the landings and everyone's tired everyone's worn out and we had such a fine amount of time to do it but the fact that they were both able to be successful shows us that we got the right crew that these riders are the best in the world and it's an honor every day to work with these guys to finally accomplish it to finally land a triple on a hard landing right away from it it's awesome i just it's still sinking in such an amazing feeling thinking back now on achieving the quad flip pretty surreal gives me this epic belief that whatever i want to do now i can go do it's amazing it makes you think what else is actually possible in this world you know something as silly as a quad flip is possible hopefully other people can be inspired by this and go do what they want to do in life because literally anything's possible you just find your strengths and you pursue them

Channel: Nitro Circus

Views: 1,431,275

Rating: 4.9083433 out of 5

Keywords: Nitro Circus, Travis Pastrana, Nitro Circus Live, FMX, BMX, Skate, Scooter, Inline, stunt, stunts, action sports, extreme, ramp, ramps, epic, fail, awesome, best videos, top talent, world first, most dangerous, best stunts, crashes, wheelz, triple backflip, motorcycle stunts, BASE jumping, stunt gone wrong, toys, nascar, best stunts ever, crash, josh sheehan, jed mildon, james foster, motorcycle triple backflip, bmx quad backflip, biggest week in action sports, world record

Id: GyBS2bnHXlo

Length: 61min 31sec (3691 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020