ACP Learning to Backflip from Travis Pastrana (Service Drive Revolution)

So, you know, I grew up like. Like I say, at 7, I rolled the truck, right. I was also riding dirt bikes and messing around. So I'm used to that world. So it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to do the other sort of stuff, like tricks, right. I never got into motocross tricks, but he said, okay, CB you're going to backflip the bike. And he said, and you know, I'm smart. I can listen to somebody. This guy invented back flipping motorcycles, right? So he's like, okay, C.V. it's real easy. Just wide open, top of second gear, lean back as far as you can and never let go of the bike. Like, I can do that. Lean back as far as you can.

So second gear, wide open.

Wide open from the top of his driveway up to a quarter pipe and into a foam pit. And just lean back as far as you can. Never let go of the bike. Okay, so.

And so in that moment, you're like, I can do that totally.

And he. And he gets on the bike and it's just like a little. They use like a 110 kind of pit bike just to practice it, right. So I'm like, great. And he does it like literally. He's got a red bull hat on and he's like flying upside down past me and he's like, just like this acpc. And he lands on the wheels right into the foam pit. No problem. Gets plucked out by the little crane. Now, the previous day, I think it was Andy Bell from Ogio. There's a tendency when you compress on the ramp to compress your stronger side. And so people tend to tweak, right? Because most people are right handed. And so there was a big sign at the top of the ramp that said no right turn because he had the previous day tweaked off and missed the foam pit and landed on the Bobcat, which is a bad direction to go.

And how did that.

It landed with, I think, I don't know if it was an airlift or a. Or at a hot. Just a normal ambulance. He's got a pad there to land a helicopter at. Because it happens there. Yeah, so.

So in the thought process of making the foam pit bigger, there was one.

Guy, sweet bike, Tommy, overshot the whole ramp to the left, you think?

But so that had happened the day before. The day before, and you were there.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, wait, so the day before somebody gets airlifted out. You don't know. Or ambulance airlifted out. You wake up the next morning, Travis is like, today you're going to do a backflip and no. Doesn't phase you whatsoever.

That's not going to be me.

Okay? And so the, the secret is, how do you keep that from happening?

Well, well, there's a sign, no right turn. So he's okay. Okay. Lean back as far as you can. Don't let go the bike and don't turn right. Okay, I can do that. That's another thing, like I think for any racing, and you can say this for business, I think you have to just believe that. You have to believe in yourself and believe that. When I go past a crashed race car or rally car, I'd be like, oh, that guy screwed up, it's not going to be me. Doesn't make me lift in the next corner because that guy screwed up, it's not me. So you have to have a little bit of a lack of imagination or.

I don't know, I think that that happens in life too. Like.

It'S funny. Have you ever heard of Tim Larkin?

Another name.

So he. Great guy, written a bunch of great books.

Just an amazing guy. But, but I. He teaches self defense and he's kind of a badass, but he, the first time I saw him speak, actually, he did this thing in front of the room where he, he asked for two volunteers and he, he has one person get on all fours on the floor and then he has another person standing above them that's going to kick him in the ribs. And then he asked the audience the question, like, so what would you do? And then everybody in the audience is like, well, I would drop to the floor, I would roll or whatever. And he's like, why get up and kick him? Why do you assume you're the person on the floor? And so I think in life, like a lot of people just assume they're the hunted and not the hunter.

That's a good point.

And I think that carries through business, through motorsports, through anything, is why do you assume you're the one in the weaker position?

Totally agree.

It's not a very masculine alpha mindset.

And look, in a lot of ways, I'm not that alpha masculine guy too. I wasn't the tough kid in school or whatever. I was kind of the smart kid, but.

That got me over the line. And I will tell you to confirm your hypothesis, like at the Baja 1000, most, not all, most of the top guys, a lot of them are big business guys. They got casinos, they got construction companies that allows them to have the money to buy the million dollar trophy trucks, but they're also those guys. They're like, when they're going 100 miles an hour through the hunters. Yeah. They're like. And they're doing that to take their minds off the business that they're where they're hunting people, too. But when they're a hundred miles an hour across the desert in a million dollar truck, they're like, I'm the guy, man. I'm the guy. And I'll tell you what, when I'm behind the wheel, like, the reason that I'm sending tingles up my spine just thinking of the feeling of being there, being behind the wheel with the gear on, and, like, seeing the green light in a rally route. I am the guy, man. That's how you win. That's how you win.

Yeah. I love that. Like, when you go buy a car that crashed, you're like, that's not me. He messed up. Like, I'm not going to mess up. That's because that feeds your subconscious. Like, it feeds like that context and that perspective drives. Like there is this weird higher thing. We don't understand that you. You do kind of like set. Set the. The path, right?

You program your own brain, man. Yeah, it's like, it's funny you should mention this. Like, when I was a kid, I remember I still carry it in my wallet. I don't have it right with me now, but I wrote out a poem of the man who thinks he can I run on Reddit somewhere, right? That's like, you know, basically, life's games don't always go to the stronger or faster man. Sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can send tingles up my spine, too. That's. That's how I want to race, man.

How old were you?

I think I discovered that poem when I was like 12 or something. And I wrote it, wrote it out longhand and folded up in my wallet and pretty much had it in my wallet my whole life.

Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, so you're. So you're going to do the ramp, and Travis does it, and he shows you, and you're sitting there and so you see him do it. And then what do you. Do you remember what you observed from him doing it versus what he told you to do? Like, did he do exactly what he told you to do?

Well, it's a little hard to say. It's a little hard to put yourself on the bike while he's doing your watching, but I watched him do it and I mean, I've watched him do it. A thousand times already. Like, we'd done the X game several times together already. And he would not only compete in rally and rallycross, but he'd also do best trick and freestyle and all that, right? And so we'd seen him, man, I saw him. I saw him have some bad crashes too in the day. But, you know, he's so natural on the bike. He's also a big guy, fortunately, like, I'm six' four, he's six' one or something, which is unusual in that sport. So he's lanky. But he did on the bike and just landed on butter. And I thought, well, I can do that. You can do it. I can do it. I mean, he still Travis, but I can do it. So I got on the top of the bike and all I wore was a helmet. And just in shorts and sneakers or whatever and go to the top of the ramp. And I'm like, all right, wide open second. Lean back as far as you can. Don't want to go to the bike. And I'm just about to hit the ramp and Travis runs out in front of me waving his hands like, acp, acp. Stop, man. Not that we don't think this is gonna go perfectly, but we wanna go get the video camera. So he gets on the bike. Cause they were doing Nitro Circus at the time, right? Goes up, gets the camera, comes back down. Okay, okay, okay, go. Sorry, man. And he's operating the camera. It's like still a video camera, I think. And I got back on the bike on top of the driveway and come down, and now I'm 64 and I got 37 inch arms, right? So I'm. I'm long and I'm leaning back so far on this 110 bike that I'm like. My hips are like behind the rear fender. Like the front's almost off the ground already, right? I'm like riding it like that. And in retrospect, that wasn't how Travis wrote it, but I get up to the top of the ramp and I do a perfect backflip straight up. And we come back down on the edge of the ramp. The bike lands on me, and we slide back down the ramp like Wile E. Coyote, like, right? Really? Totally. And it landed on my leg. My leg eventually turned black from my hip to my ankle. I had a good height and it came down and the bike landed on me. I slid back down. And Travis runs up to me. He's like, acp. I can't believe I've never seen anybody do that, like, straight up. Don't lean that far back. So I'm like, okay. So then I go to get back, like, limp back on the bike. He's like, you're going to do it again? Like, of course I'm going to do it again. You know, I'm going to lean not so far back now, but now I don't know how far. Like, some lean, some far back. Like, a bit far back. Get up to the top of the ramp. It's the same kind of thing. I'm like, I got my butt out leaning far back. Go over to the top of the ramp. Bike flips out from under me. I go face first into the foam pit, face down. Bike lands on my back, still running, fuel running out. I'm like whiskey throttled wide open with the bike on my back. And Travis jumps in the foam pit, turns out the bike. Acp, I can't believe you didn't let go of the bike.

You only told me two things, man.

So. So then he's like. And so then there was a dude there named. They called him Haterade. He was from Tennessee and big over bat, and he was one of the characters on Natural Circus. He's like, I used to. You're so stupid. It's not like this. It's like this. Oh, shit. And I got on the bike, stuck it, like, just third try up and land on the wheels.

Wait, so the thing lands on your leg, lands on your back, and you're not hurt?

I was hurt, but I got back on. I had to. I had to do it, man. I had to stick it.

That is not me.

And then. And then Travis, he picked me out with the bobcat. He's like, acp, that was awesome. You got so much, you know, English on that. You flipped so hard, man. Just go in third gear.

You'll do a double. Let's go.

I'm like, okay, I'm gonna. I'm just gonna call it there, man. I can already feel my legs, Robin. And I didn't do a double.

So then the leg turns black and blue.

Yeah, I had to race the next week. I had. They had to, like, wheel me around and put me in the race car.

Really? Yeah.

It was gnarly. I couldn't articulate my ankle.