Crazy, maybe, but Pastrana prepared for big jump
December 30, 2009
Travis Pastrana knows a lot of people think he’s crazy.
The action sports wild man has a different way of looking at the stunts he’spulled off, most of them on motorcycles but also some as off-the-wall as jumpingout of an airplane without a parachute.
“It’s a calculated risk,” Pastrana said.
His biggest stunt yet will come on New Year’s Eve when he’ll try to shatterthe world record for the longest jump in a rally car, from the Pine Street Pierin Long Beach, Calif., onto a barge anchored in the harbor, with the Queen Maryin the background.
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“It looks absolutely ridiculous,” Pastrana said with a laugh during atelephone interview while he was inspecting the ramps he’ll take off from andhopefully land on. “It’s going to be spectacular. Definitely scarier in personthan on paper, but I’m looking forward to it for sure.”
Pastrana is scheduled to take off at midnight EST, live on ESPN.
The current record is 171 feet set by Pastrana’s Subaru teammate, Ken Block,in a rally car in November 2006. Pastrana wants to break that mark by more than100 feet. To do so, he’ll have to clear at least 230 feet of water between thepier and barge.
“If I land where the current world record is, I’m landing in the water. I’mnot even getting to the barge, let alone the landing,” Pastrana said. “I don’treally have a choice there.”
The latest installment in Red Bull’s New Year, No Limits series could bespectacular or disastrous.
That’s part of the challenge for Pastrana.
“I actually get a lot more pleasure out of the whole process of what goesinto making these things work,” he said. “At the same time, that’s why youlove to bring it to the masses. Red Bull has been just awesome every year inkind of letting their athletes pick some stuff they want to do and make theimpossible possible.
“No one’s really flown a car, and just figuring out the dynamics of thatthing, you’ve got to look outside the box again. That’s how our sports progress,is you keep innovating.”
Pastrana was the first to do a double backflip on a motorcycle. As part ofhis Nitro Circus TV show, he rode dirt bikes off a ramp into the Grand Canyon,parachuting the rest of the way down. He also jumped out of a plane without aparachute, confident that a fellow skydiver with a parachute who jumped out atthe same time would catch up to him and guide him to earth.
Pastrana, remember, is the guy who announced himself to the action sportsworld when at age 15 he celebrated an X Games gold medal by jumping hismotorcycle into San Francisco Bay in 1999. That stunt got him into a fair bit oftrouble, and he lost his prize money and medal.
While his stunts seem crazy, Pastrana said he’s not reckless, especially inhis approach to the New Year’s Eve stunt.
“Safety is the No. 1 priority,” he said. “I’ve never actually beeninvolved with anything that they’ve taken as seriously because there are so manypeople watching and definitely we want everything to come across well and helpthe sport progress, as opposed to saying, ‘We’re just idiots doing stunts.’We’re professionals and we’re all working together to make sure it’s safe and asfun as possible.”
Pastrana will have a 1,000-foot run-in to get the car up to about 100 mphbefore hitting the takeoff ramp.
“There’s kind of sweet spot on the backside of the jump,” he said indescribing the best-case scenario. “If I hit that, be able to stop, no problem,in time before I hit the end of the barge, then I can do some doughnuts and thencelebrate.”
A lot can go wrong, including a malfunction with his car, overshooting thelanding ramp or going short.
“You can knock yourself out, then land in the water and drown, I guess,”he said. “That is something that’s a very, very small chance and something thatwe understand what we’re doing.”
The toughest part, he said, is that there’s only 100 feet from the end ofthe landing ramp to the end of the barge.
“So I land all the way at the end of the base, I’ve got to take the Subarufrom 90 mph probably to zero, within 100 feet, which is a difficult task. But aslong as the car sits down well and doesn’t bounce too much it shouldn’t be aproblem.”
Action sports athletes often are over-enthusiastic and under-prepared,Pastrana said.
“But on this one we really are prepared. It’s a live event, which alwaysmakes it tough. The weather is a huge factor. The more calm the weather is, thebetter I’ll feel about it.”
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