Travis Pastrana: People think I’m crazy – but the crazy ones don’t make it

Travis Pastrana - Travis Pastrana: People think I’m crazy – but the crazy ones don’t make it
Travis Pastrana has had 32 operations in his 33 years, but he is upping the danger levels Credit: Eddie Mulholland

This is the type off stuff Travis Pastrana does of a morning. Sitting astride a motorbike on a barge in the middle of the Thames across from the O2 Arena, he starts the engine, pulls back the throttle and proceeds to accelerate up a ramp.

Taking off from the top, he flies high above choppy waters, before landing on another barge, moored far enough away to be almost in another postcode.

As if this is not ludicrous enough, in the process he performs a backflip, spinning the bike through a full 360 degrees, and so becomes the first man to complete such a high-risk stunt.

The last rider, incidentally, who attempted the manoeuvre, back in 2006 in Long Beach Harbour, crashed spectacularly, fracturing several vertebrae.

“Could not have gone better,” Pastrana pronounced after braking with sufficient ferocity to ensure he did not go careering off into the river on completion of the leap.

“We had about a 20mph side wind, so it was like a golf shot, I had to aim a little to the left.”

Watching his jump, seeing the lack of space he had to work with, the way the two barges bobbed and drifted in the choppy water, the sheer, monumental danger of the act, it was impossible not to reach the conclusion that Pastrana must be bonkers.

Yet speaking to the man widely reckoned the foremost extreme sportsman in the world, he seemed remarkably calm, rational and sane.

“Everyone thinks you have to be crazy,” he suggested, “but the crazy ones don’t make it. You have to be confident in your abilities, you have to enjoy challenging yourself, but what you most have to be is an expert in risk-reward assessment.”

He may make it sound like a branch of accountancy, but Pastrana has been doing ridiculous things on bikes for as long as he can remember.

And he can remember every ridiculous thing with astonishing clarity.

“When you do it, suddenly you are so much more aware of everything around you. Your senses go into overdrive. I could tell you the details of almost everything I’ve done: the temperature, the sights, people’s faces. Even the smell.”

Travis Pastrana - Travis Pastrana: People think I’m crazy – but the crazy ones don’t make it
Pastrana has been in London to promote his show Credit: Eddie Mulholland

The nephew of a former quarterback for the Denver Broncos, he first took up action sport because, as the self-confessed runt of a ferociously sporting family, the only way he could keep ahead of the rest was atop an engine. 

At first he raced in rallycross, hurtling round America on a bike. Then he discovered his inner Evel Knievel and started doing tricks and leaps. It did not always go well.

So he continued pushing himself to come up with ever more complicated tricks, in the process testing medical resolve.

“I’ve had 32 operations and I’m 33 years old. My aim is to keep my age above my operation count.”

During one period when he was unable to ride through injury, he filmed some of his friends doing tricks. In the days before YouTube, he put together a compilation of their leaps and falls on DVD. 

He quickly discovered he had an international best-seller; Johnny Knoxsville, the founder of Jackass, saw it and put him on MTV. Soon Pastrana had organised a live show he called Nitro Circus, which toured the world doing stunt shows, filled with tricks that would make Knievel’s jaw hit the floor.

Travis Pastrana - Travis Pastrana: People think I’m crazy – but the crazy ones don’t make it
Pastrana enjoys a different view of the Thames as he takes to the air near the O2 Arena Credit:  AP

“Evel Knievel’s biggest jump was 150ft; there’s now guys regularly back-flipping 150ft,” he explained. “Knievel was a pioneer, he opened the world’s mind to what was possible. Now we have a different challenge.

“It’s actually hard to do something in reality that compares to what you see in video games or in the movies.”

But that is his aim: to make reality more challenging than CGI. His leap 10 days ago was to publicise the fact his team of stunt riders and trick cyclists will be taking over London’s O2 Arena in November next year, in a show that he promises will be rammed full of the improbable. And what he wants to do personally in the midst of the flipping and spinning sounds terrifying enough to freeze the blood.

“The Everest in our sport will always change, it’s always getting higher.

“But right now, my ambition is to do an Aussie roll – a double backflip – on a dirt bike. I reckon it is perfectly possible, but you need height to get the time to execute it, probably 70-80ft. 

“There’s just one problem: if you go that high and you mess up, then bang. It would be pretty terminal. But I don’t intend to mess up.”

If watching him do just the one backflip across the Thames is anything to go by, when he makes his attempt, it will be the most terrifying sporting moment of the year.

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