Banquet Follow-up / Backflip Practice / The Misfits

By Zac on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

So the banquet went off without a hitch in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend. Much of the same as expected, everyone cleaned up, crappy banquet food, and sitting around forever waiting for everyone to tell how their season went. On the plus side, Duro Tire won Sponsor of the year award, I didn’t forget any sponsors in my acceptance speech, and some decent shots were taken and are posted here Awards Banquet if you want to check them out. I began itching for excitement so attempted to call my longtime partner of crime and Motocross phnom Mark Kendall to get him drive down from Canton to liven things up, he explains he has to get to bed because he planned on waking up early to go ride a foam pit…. WHAT?! A foam pit 2 hrs away? Yeah I was all over it! Immediately after a late night quesadilla I woke at 7 am and hit the road hard northbound to Canton. (did I mention I had to be in Louisville, Ky that night for a Misfits show at 7 pm?) Once we met up and drove out to some guy’s house we were awestruck with the playground he had in his backyard. There were random placed dirt mountains that were lipped to the moon and placed around a 120 ft apart, 3 or 4 steel ramps, 3 wooden ramps, a 80X40 foam pit, and a mega ramp roll-in built 50 ft off the ground in some treetops! WTF! Our mouths were gaping and we were geeked out like lil kids.. we knew it was instantly ON! Turns out this guy (who’s name is Ben) has several Pro Freestyle guys rolling though on a regular basis there and is a really cool guy to let us ride there. Mark brought his 110 and a couple of his local buddies that ride 110s rolled out with us. The night before I instantly mentioned backflipping when he started to pronounce the word FOAM. (and never have rode a 110) so I got on the bike and cruised around for about 5 minutes so that I could get a feel for it. Luckily for me it was decided that I would be the second one up to attempt insanity this time. We all watched Mark’s buddy Guth attack the ramp. (Ben instructed to stay committed no matter what and do not throw the bike because it will come at you like a falcon with fully extended talons) Just so happens Guth decided to bail halfway around on his first rotation and had a 120 lb dirtbike footpeg shoved in his neither region. I though he might have been knocked out as well since the bike made a nasty crunch sound while slapping his helmet. Once we started to dig him out we realized he was screaming and laughing at the same time and was muffled by the foam. So Guth most likely has a softball sized bruise someplace not so desirable as you read this. Ok, Bike landed on him footpeg stabbed him in the gooch - walks away, no problem…. my turn. I became so focused on not chucking the bike and allowing it to fall into me so much that I didnt focus of flipping. I landed directly on my head upside down in the pit, heard a few crunches felt no pain and was good to go! Game on! Dig me out so I can try this again!! By 2 more attempts I had it figured out… Flipping over half the distance of the ramp and even slightly getting cocky with it. (sorry no variations) By the time we left I had landed at least a dozen flips clean… Sooo much fun. Definitely great practice for what is to come! Welp… Off to Louisville! We arrived at the Coyote in Louisville just after the opening acts were finished and 20 minutes before The Misfits were to go on - talk about timing!! My favorite band appeared in front of me in a bar full of filthy punk rock kids and the horror show pretty much rocked my socks off more than I had hoped for. Fast, loud, sloppy, and scary, (much like my riding style) I love punk rock! Within 2 hours later I was home in Henderson, 11:30 pm and in bed. Did this day just happen?!!! Heres the pics I keep looking at to remind me it did! (click on them to make larger)