Page 116 of Shade
I played it cool with ESPN. They’d ask, “Are you going to do it?”
“No.”
“Are you doing it in freestyle or best trick?”
“Neither.”
“You’re just trying to throw us off, aren’t you?”
“Nope.”
What they didn’t know was that I took the double backflip and added a flare to it. On the second time around, I let go of the bike completely, extended my body out, then grabbed it again and landed it.
Landing it is key here. At home, I’d practiced until blood was dripping down my arms, legs, and face. My knees had huge gashes in them. I was sure I broke my ankle and my wrist, and I could barely walk. But still, I was 100 percent certain I could land it clean at the X Games.
Okay. 99 percent.
Then came the X Games. The moment of truth when I was on the roll-in.
I could have killed myself, and truthfully, on the ramp, I figured I was going to, but then thought, let’s go out in a blaze of glory.
All right, I told you that story for a reason. Here are the facts. I didn’twantto do the double backflip, but they’d told me it was impossible, so I proved them wrong. And now I’m working on the triple because if the double could be done, so could a triple.
Knowing all of this, if someone, eh, Scarlet, tells me Ican’tdo something, what do you think my reaction will be?
