What FMX looked like in 1999 (4th in the IFMA!)

Heddles Adventures Guide 16 days ago

Description

Unlocking an absolute BANGER from the vault for Throwback Thursday. 🎥💥

​This is 1999—arguably my second or third FMX competition ever. This was an early event put on by LXD/IFMA, right when freestyle motocross was morphing into a legitimate sport. For the 1999-2000 season, I actually ranked as high as 4th in the IFMA points standings and finished 9th overall out of 35 riders globally.

​Everything changed around 2001-2002 when I transitioned to retire from the USA circuit and bring the sport home to Canada. Back in '99, FMX literally didn't exist up here. I was incredibly honored to team up with a Canadian promoter and help pave the way for the sport to absolutely explode across Canada.

​But back to this exact run: I didn't even have my own bike there! I was riding a machine I borrowed that morning from the legendary OG rider T-Bone Fuller.

​Look at the lineup that day. Literally every founding legend was on the deck: Brian Deegan, Carey Hart, Ronnie Faisst, Tommy Clowers... you name it. Mike Metzger was actually injured and watching from the sidelines.

​My sponsor happened to be sitting right next to Metzger during my run. I threw a brand new trick I'd been practicing, and my sponsor overheard Metzger literally yell, "What the heck was that?!" 😂 hearing that from the Godfather himself was unreal.

​You can hear the legendary @cameron_Steele16 on the mic hyping it up, too. Cam always loved us Canadian riders and we used to joke around a ton back in the day. Because of the poor audio recording on those old 90s handy camcorders combined with a massively loud stadium PA system, it completely drowned out my bike, but you can still make out Cam killing it on the mic!

​Before the adventure vlogs and trail tips on the KTM 390, this was the foundation. 100% raw, two-stroke smoke, and building a sport from the ground up.

​Shout out to the OG Canadian moto crew—who remembers the early days of the sport hitting Canada? Drop a comment below! 👇

​#ThrowbackThursday #FMXHistory #FreestyleMotocross #OGFMX #1999Moto