Travis Pastrana: 'Jumping from a plane without a parachute is not the scary bit'
You’re bringing the first Nitro World Games to be staged outside the USA to Cardiff in May 2020 – er, what is it? Basically, the World Games is the big air of action sports. We’ll be bringing the best competitors in the world with us – these are the world championships – but this is also the only action sports top tier championship event that has open qualifying. We wanted to find an area in the UK that had mountain biking, surfing and zip lines, so Wales fitted the bill. Also, we needed an enclosed stadium to take out the elements. The Principality Stadium is perfect.
You’re going to ride motorbikes all over the pristine Principality Stadium turf. Have you ever faced a big, angry Welsh rugby player before? Ha! We won’t rip anything up, we promise.
What’s the allure of doing silly things that might hurt you in front of lots of people? Well, we’re constantly evolving the ramps to make the landings safer, so that aspect of is much smaller than it once was. My wife [LynZ Adams Hawkins] is a multi-X Games gold medalist, my four- and five-yearold girls are already riding bikes, so I know we need to try to do whatever we can to keep everybody healthy. Yes, it’s still dangerous and it still hurts, but mostly it is a calculated risk and the guys can get back up.
Is your backyard full of ramps for your kids? We have airbags, foam-pits and, well, basically, it’s a ramp graveyard.
You’ve broken more than 90 bones and had 25 concussions. What bits of you are broken, falling off, bent the wrong way or bleeding today? I’m in as good health as I can get at this point!
You once separated your spine from your pelvis when a motorbike landing went wrong – but you reckon breaking your ankle was worse. How? I almost bled to death when I shattered my pelvis when I was 15 and though I didn’t break my spinal cord, it just wasn’t attached to anything. I spent two weeks passing out, got my back fused, then I was in a wheelchair for four months. But six months after that I was back riding and eight months later I was 100%. When I had my ankle injury in 2011, I was barely walking eight months later. So the ankle was worse because it took me off the bike for longer – which was tough for me mentally.
You completed one of the jumps Evel Knievel couldn’t – landing the Caesars Palace fountain jump – how did it feel to go one better than him? That was a lot of fun! He was a pioneer of action sports, he showed everyone you could fly a motorcycle and brought the showmanship with it. It was a chance for me to show my father’s generation how far stuntmen have come and to show my kids’ generation where stuntmen came from. It wasn’t about besting Evel Knievel at all.
Evel Knievel changed his name from Robert Knievel. Ever been tempted by Bananas Pastrana(s)? Ahahaha! Not yet …
Last time you were in London, you did a backflip across the Thames on a bike. Is that the best way to beat the traffic? Without a doubt, the flow was great! That was one of the stunts that Mike Metzger, one of the icons of the sport, attempted back in 2006. He broke his back and fell in the water but it made me think: ‘Ah, could be done.’
You once Thelma and Louise-d it into the Grand Canyon on a bike, parachuting clear at the last minute, did you have to go back and tidy up the wreckage? That was fun but I kinda messed it up and almost died, which wasn’t ideal. I wasn’t wearing any pads because I figured either the chute would open and I would be fine, or it wouldn’t and I would be dead. But I hit the ground on a really steep downslope and tumbled through some cactus. The bike exploded at the bottom and there were pieces everywhere, but we did clear it all up.
How wise is it to disembark a plane by jumping out of it without a parachute, as you did in 2007? It was kind of pass or fail, that one. It was really a trust test to see whether my friends with parachutes on liked me enough to grab me in the air. It turns out it was illegal and I got in a lot of trouble. Oddly, jumping out of a plane without a parachute is not the scary bit; the clinging onto your parachute-wearing friend and hoping you don’t fall is.
You’ve had a go at motocross, rally, Nascar, and, er, racing camping trucks – ever fancied F1? Formula One isn’t for me. You have to be meticulous and perfect every time. I’m never going to be perfect, I’m going to be sideways or in the air. My attribute is taking risks other people aren’t willing to and working out how to survive them. I need cliffs on one side and trees on the other.
So, for you, F1 could be improved by 100 foot drops and oil slicks? Well, I didn’t say improved, but I would have a better chance of winning!
On to the serious stuff, Travis. Chocolate or cheese? Cheese.
What was the last band you paid to see? Ozzy Osbourne at the LA Forum on New Year’s Eve. It was so good. Rob Zombie was the support act and he’s my five-year-old’s favourite. She heard one of his songs in a movie and went from Taylor Swift to Rob Zombie overnight.
Favourite TV show? The Simpsons. What would you put into Room 101 [Small Talk explains for the 1,000,000th or possibly 1,000,001st time what Room 101 is, yet still finds itself asking this question]? This is Catch-22 because I survive on social media, but social media.
What would you have for a last meal? Ice cream and steak.
Most famous person in your phone contacts? Vanilla Ice.
Wow. Tell us a joke. What time is it when you go to the dentist?
[Small Talk doesn’t know] What time is it when you go to the dentist? Tooth-hurty!
Let’s leave it there, Bananas.
Thanks, Small Talk!
• Tickets are now available for the Nitro Games in Cardiff on 23-24 May 2020