A working stuntman for 25 years, member of Stunts Unlimited and the original Team Extreme, Grandpa doubled Roy Rogers, dad doubled Robert Redford, started stunting in "The Fall Guy" TV series, flipped a Hummer in the movie XXX (approximately 160 feet in the air, with two
rotations).
www.stuntsunlimited.com
I started riding on my little Mini Trail 50 with the split-T folding handlebars in Aqua Dulce, California, where I was raised. With the little fat boy T-neck handlebars, I felt like a little girl. So I was like, "Dad, I need a real motorcycle." Then I got my Kawasaki MC90. Then it turned 1976 and I was reading all the moto magazines and it was either the YZ125 or the RM125. I chose the Suzuki, got it for Christmas, and it was on.
My parents supported all the activities that we did. My mom's father was one of the biggest, real-deal cowboys and professional stuntmen, her husband and uncles were stuntmen, she was surrounded by them and didn't know anything else. She was in the church pews in the front row a lot down on her knees giving it a little grace, hoping everyone came home just all good.
Motocross is one of those sports where it gives you such a perspective. If you're riding at speed, you gotta be way ahead and you gotta look way ahead, which crosses over into stunts. You can't just be zeroed out on your target. You gotta be relaxed at speed. In stunts things happen quick. Motocross teaches you how to be on the throttle and be all crossed up and sideways so you're all out of control but still in control, like a controlled-type chaos. One of the best crossover sports you can do for stunts is motocross.
A couple of the motocross stunts I've done are jumping through windows and jumping through barn walls on fire. One of the times when I jumped out of a barn and I was on fire, it got kinda critical because there were a hundred horses that I had to get all involved with, and that got kinda tight. The fire was everywhere and it was cookin'.
I've run the Day in the Dirt Ironman class (five races in one weekend) every year so far, even when I have to come back from the hospital and take some special jingle-bell medicine, I make that race and I get to that stage.