T
hereseemstobea
common belief in
action sports that the
progression of freestyle
motocross is flatlining
and the sport is
destined for the
scrapheap. Practically every
combinationofuprighttrickshas
now been done upside-down, riders
arespinningliketopsabove,beside
andbehindtheirbikesinallmanner
of varials,andwe’veseenasmall
explosion of ludicrous rotations off
quarter-pipe ramps.
Despitealltheseadvancementsin
the technicality and difficulty of the
tricks,freestylemotocrosshasalmost
become... boring.
Turnsout11-timeXGamesmedallist
and Nitro Circus founder Travis
Pastrana,andNitroCircusCEOand
ChairmanMikePorra,hadbothbeen
thinkingthesamething.Lastyear
theyintroducedarevolutionary
contestthatwasallkiller,nofiller:
three hours of action sports contestsbeamed around the United States on
primetime, mainstream television.
There were new formats and judging
criteria,anextremelyheavyfocuson
both safety and progression, and riders
qualified based on their merit, not the
sizeoftheirprofile10yearsago.In
their first year (2016) they smashed it
out of the park.
5.6 million Americans watched the
inauguralNitroWorldGamesand
their reward was to witness a
staggering 68 world-first tricks
stomped across FMX, BMX and skate.
FromtheopeningBMXTripleHits
runrightthroughtothefinalFMX
Best Trick attempt of the 2017 event,
itwasobvioustheridershadn’tbeen
sittingbackandpunchingconesover
the past 12 months. Across the board
the level of tricks was generally
higher,althoughithastobesaidthat
thenumberofworld-firstslanded
wasn’t anywhere as high as in 2016.
Still,thethree-hourshowpacked
more punches than a “best-of-Jason-
Statham” Youtube video and againNE
STYLE
http://www.adbmag.com.au SEPTEMBER 2017 | 81ANZACs dominated the second-ever
Nitro World Games at Salt Lake
City, Utah, and proved the
progression of freestyle
motocross is far from done
Levi took out the FMX category
Bink finished sixth in FMX