Had I cased the jump, or crashed that first day, that might have been a wrap on my FMX career, but instead, for whatever reason, everything went perfectly. When I look back now I realize just how much luck there has to be in the initial part of an FMX career. I was riding these tiny little ant hill landings back in PA, and this thing looked like I was jumping over a damn mountain! Once again, ignorant little Adam didn’t think about it, I just started the bike up, did a test run, and then just jumped the thing. I went over and looked at the landing and it was freaking giant! I had never seen anything like it before. I didn’t touch the thing before riding it, no suspension work, no warm-up day on a track, we just showed up at the evolution freestyle park and unloaded. My parents bought me one of Mad’s old FMX bikes, a 2002 KX250. He spent the whole day working inside on Mike’s bike, and I spent the whole day wandering around outside in the parking lot and sitting in the van by myself….welcome to California, haha!ĭay two was ride day.
#Freestyle dirt bike jump ramp pro
Day 1 of arrival we head to Pro Circuit so Kibby could get Mike’s bike ready. Like I said before it was just my ignorance of not thinking about the whole picture. I was basically completely alone, but I didn’t care, I didn’t even think about it. I was such a young dumb kid, with no connections at all out there. Just swapped out of the driver’s seat until we made it all the way to California. Man did I get a lesson in punk rock in those few days, and as far as I remember we never stopped. So the day comes to hit the road, my parents drive me to Mad Mikes’s house to drop me off, and Kibby and I take off for California.
#Freestyle dirt bike jump ramp full
I mean I was in no way prepared to go ride a professional FMX event…to be honest, I didn’t even know what a professional FMX event looked like! I had about 6 tricks in my bag that were mediocre for the time period, and full FMX runs in those days were roughly 12 tricks for a 90-second run. I didn’t imagine where I would be in a day, a week, or a month, I was just like, ”OK, I guess I’m going to California.” Had I thought about it any more than that maybe I would have gotten worried and ended up blowing the whole thing. I never looked at the situation as a whole. I think the only thing that helped me through the situation was my ignorance. Luckily it worked out, so that was the extent of my ramp riding experience before my journey to start my professional career began.Īnyways here I was a 17-year-old senior in high school living a normal life when I find out that in two days not only am I leaving the state of Pennsylvania alone, but I’m driving all the way to California with an Australian guy I don’t know to embark on this journey. I remember thinking “I think the FMX guys hit the ramps in 2nd gear?”, that was all I had to go off of, so I said screw it and hit it medium in second gear. So here I am standing in front of this FMX ramp for the first time, just me and my dad, and I had no idea what this thing was going to be like. I remember showing up at this ramp and another guy was supposed to meet me there, but he didn’t show up. At this point, I had hit an FMX ramp once, and it was a very homemade ramp, to put it nicely…nothing like the ones the real pros were hitting.
Mike was impressed enough at that dinner to make a phone call to the IFMA big wigs, and wouldn’t you know it I was set to jump in his van two days later with his mechanic Kibby to go out to California and prepare for my first professional FMX event. After a long stint of not seeing Mike we finally met up again, and I brought some pictures my 10th grade English teacher, Greg Geibel, took of me doing some “freestyle” off the biggest jump at our local track, Switchback MX. Throughout the years my parents and he kept in contact, and every so often we would meet up for dinner. When I was 10 years old he gave me my first pointers for riding tracks and trying to get faster. Mad helped me as a young motocross racer before FMX was his, or my thing. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so let’s see if you can guess who that was…any idea? Well for all of you who aren’t geographic experts for the FMX community, it was Mad Mike Jones. When I was a young kid I was helped into the FMX scene at 17 by one of the OG FMX legends.
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