← Life Wide Open with CboysTV
Life Wide Open with CboysTV
Travis Pastrana on Passion VS Money, His Worst Crash, & Electric Vehicles in Motorsports
00:57:34
Loading summary
Transcript350 lines
- [00:00]
Travis Pastrana
My goal now, honestly, with starting a YouTube channel is to be like, you.
- [00:03]
Host 1
Guys, he's gonna do a burnout. Let's go.
- [00:06]
Travis Pastrana
He sees that I'm okay. He starts yelling and I'm laughing. I'm like, did you see that?
- [00:11]
Host 2
And then you just go straight for.
- [00:13]
Travis Pastrana
The backflip because I crashed anyway. It sucked. I might as well look at it. But he goes, I want proximity to near death situations. You're too stupid to ever make it as a racer. And thank God, freestyle came out. You know what? I turned down a multimillion dollar contract to race motorcycles because I wanted to try racing cars. There's no amount of money worth what you're going to put your body through.
- [00:33]
Host 3
Well, Travis Pastrana man, thank you for coming. This is quite an honor. Being the Life Wide Open podcast. I think there's no better guest to have that, quite honestly, lives their life Wide Open more than you.
- [00:44]
Travis Pastrana
I really appreciate you guys having me on. I like the three wheelers. I like you guys went to Nitro Circus this last week. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, thanks for. Thanks for the support, dude.
- [00:51]
Host 1
I mean, we wouldn't be here without you. And I know you hear this all the time, but, like, we grew up watching Nitro Circus, like, wanting to be just like you. And we're not. We're nothing like you.
- [01:01]
Travis Pastrana
We.
- [01:01]
Host 1
We can't ride like you. We can't do. But I mean, I think without what you've done, we wouldn't be making the videos and we wouldn't be sitting here right now. So it's super, like, it feels really weird for me, like, sitting here with you on our podcast. It feels so cool. So thank you.
- [01:16]
Travis Pastrana
It's been awesome to be able to make a living, never growing up, just living life Wide open, having a lot of fun. So I. It's. It's always really cool when I see, you know, people coming up that did watch Nitro Circus or that, that, you know, and like, my dad said, he's like, it's nothing new. He's like, we've been towing stuff behind cars and doing all this stuff. He goes, it just. We finally have a platform now with, we had DVDs before, you know, YouTube and now you guys. With YouTube, you can actually go out, have fun with your friends and, you know, try to make a living, travel in the world, do what you want to do.
- [01:43]
Host 1
Yeah, dude. We hear the same thing, though. It's like, dude, if. If me and my buddies had video cameras and YouTube back when we were young, we'd be bigger than you guys, you know, all that. But no, I was pumped to see Andy Bell hop out of the van, dude. I was like, what? Dude, that was. That was six. Because like I said, we've just been big Nitro Circus fans for a long time. So.
- [02:00]
Travis Pastrana
He hasn't cut his hair.
- [02:02]
Host 1
That's why I didn't really recognize him right away. He had the sunglasses, the hat on, but yeah.
- [02:06]
Travis Pastrana
So literally, Jimmy Johnson way back when was like, hey, you got to be the biggest fan. And no matter what, through thick and thin, until. Until I won a NASCAR race, he couldn't cut his hair. And then he kind of liked it, so he just kind of kept running it super long and like in a mullet. So, yeah, he's here to finally get a haircut.
- [02:22]
Host 1
It's a good friend.
- [02:23]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah. 15 years.
- [02:25]
Host 1
He's doing it today.
- [02:26]
Travis Pastrana
Only if I win. Well, that's what he.
- [02:28]
Host 1
Only if you win. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [02:29]
Host 4
We made a big competition with Ben.
- [02:31]
Host 1
Yeah, we made a deal. If Ben wins, we're going straight to Vegas.
- [02:35]
Travis Pastrana
Straight to go to Starks.
- [02:37]
Host 1
Yeah, yeah, we're taking the Starks of Vegas.
- [02:38]
Travis Pastrana
The rule has always been with, with here that you have to ride the vehicle home. So like the helicopter, you have to fly.
- [02:44]
Host 1
Money a couple charges.
- [02:45]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, it's going to be interesting.
- [02:46]
Host 3
We'll figure it out. Honestly, that seems like the least of our concerns right now is how we're going to get our Starks home. That's pretty low on our figure out list.
- [02:55]
Host 2
Pretty wishful thinking to have that problem.
- [02:57]
Host 1
This race has real actual drivers like yourself, and then it has people like Ben. Have you seen the video of him hitting the tree in the hoonicorn?
- [03:06]
Travis Pastrana
Well, that was like a really short video.
- [03:09]
Host 1
Yeah, his quick one. I mean, it was first turn, it.
- [03:11]
Travis Pastrana
Was a long video. I'm just saying, like, you know, I, I was all excited to see it go, like went into a tree.
- [03:17]
Host 1
It was secondary. Yeah, yeah. So anyways, luckily there's. There's no trees today.
- [03:23]
Host 3
I just got done with like pretty much an hour long podcast of Cletus just cooking me on it, so. And then everyone I've met here has brought that up immediately. So I've figured out that, you know, word has spread that I'm a part of this race and I think it's going to actually do me a favor because they're going to just get out of my way.
- [03:40]
Travis Pastrana
But I mean, you got guys like Greg Biffle, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time. I actually, you know, I hired a ringer because this is a, you know, a two person race. So the first person's job is just to not crash the vehicle. Are you going first?
- [03:52]
Host 3
Yeah, dude, I'm going first. What are we doing?
- [03:54]
Travis Pastrana
So the second person then is really 99.9% of the race. However, I'm going first, so I'll be with you. Just like, I'm here for the show, man.
- [04:02]
Host 4
There's backup cars for a reason.
- [04:04]
Host 3
Yeah, the boys were just joking. Like, oh, damn, dude, we should have thrown some tree stickers on the back of people's cars. So I'm driving around. Where is the tree? I mean, you're sitting pretty good. You got Noah, who is actually a NASCAR racer, who, who we got the privilege of meeting when we were at Talladega. Great, dude. But, yeah, as soon as I saw that that was the lineup, I was like, dude, we're so cooked.
- [04:24]
Travis Pastrana
There'll be your guys that are up front every time, but at the end of the day, there's probably a half second difference between the best car and the worst car. And Cletus doesn't stack it. Like, Cletus has been in the worst car quite a few times where you can tell, like, okay, this person's good, but I'm just, I'm flogging those straightaways. Or like, my first time, we could qualify. Well, we ran okay, but it didn't have first gear, so went to last every restart. So as long as it didn't restart, like, you're coming up. So they're old, you know, Crown Vicks. There's going to be a difference. Now, generally, one of your top drivers is going to win because one of them is going to be in a car that's decent. But, you know, Greg Biffle jumps in and like I said, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time, and he goes out there and he's running, you know, seventh, eighth, ninth. To some YouTubers, that makes no sense. But at the end of the day, it's a low horsepower car. You're pretty much wide open most of the time. This is a cool track because you got some. Some zigzags. Yep. No trees, though.
- [05:10]
Host 3
Do you have any advice for me?
- [05:11]
Travis Pastrana
I haven't won yet. I hired a ringer. Get a better person to run the second half. Oh, my gosh.
- [05:15]
Host 3
I got Mike, dude, I got this. I got Camel Guy.
- [05:18]
Host 1
Slow and steady.
- [05:19]
Host 2
Yeah, we have a flawed plan. It sounds like.
- [05:21]
Host 3
Yeah, I told Cletus this too. I was like, well, I know that you didn't invite us here for the Competition. So I hope that we can at least provide on the entertainment factor.
- [05:28]
Travis Pastrana
You know, the sickos came out, that whole group, awesome athletes, worst drivers. I was like, what? In every group there's like one redneck that can just drive. You know, they didn't have that. But he stayed on the lead lap and actually had a decent finish at the end. Because we'll all be bumping each other. I mean, Cletus and I will be spinning each other every chance that we get. Like we were one, two and spun each other back to like almost completely out of the race. But it was great.
- [05:51]
Host 3
So, you know, bumpin's racing, right?
- [05:53]
Travis Pastrana
Robin's racing.
- [05:54]
Host 3
Harry Robins racing shows what I know. Well, it's just a movie quote, dude. So you've done so many different things as far as, you know, racing motocross to freestyle to rally car. Is it kind of fun being a part of just something that is just like, so just low risk, I guess you could call it of like, you know, what's on the line as far as, you know, sponsorships or anything like that. But you just get to go out there and have fun. When you've done, you know about every race that you can imagine, at the.
- [06:22]
Travis Pastrana
End of the day you have, it's already lined up. There's going to be a completely sold out crowd of car enthusiasts, of people that love motors, they love, you know, they might be rooting for one of their favorite YouTubers, rooting for one of their favorite drivers. They come from all over the country and they stay and they clean up the trash. Like they, at the end of the race, they feel like they're part of this. It's so cool. So everyone goes out, signs autographs, but what other event can you fly in in the morning? Like not even that early. You go, you hang out, you sign autographs, you talk to everyone, you talk cars, you have fun, you meet some of your, your heroes, some legends, some past drivers, some, you know, up and coming celebrities, whatever it is. And then you go out there and you have the best time that you can possibly have. Destroying your Crown Vic where, you know, at the end of the day it's not a fast car. You're not going to hit anything that hard.
- [07:06]
Host 1
Then you just wipe your hands and walk away.
- [07:08]
Travis Pastrana
That's it. It's beautiful.
- [07:09]
Host 1
So obviously the Starks are the prize of today. What do you think about like the electric Stark Vars? I know you post a video a while ago riding it.
- [07:20]
Travis Pastrana
So electric is kind of killing motorsport in general. But as a Rider and a driver. Like I love them there. I mean, I don't mean that negatively like it's my dad. It doesn't matter how fast they are. Like I literally, I put them in a car. 0 to 60 in 1.2 seconds. All wheel drive, thousand horsepower with an extra 200 horsepower boost. The car is the most fun thing you could ever drive. And you'd be going 100 miles an hour. Break the wheels loose and do a donut and never worry about stalling it. It just makes driving so much simpler. So these things, as soon as people really figure it out and they get the brake where you don't have to change your foot to, to where the brake goes and I can like you can literally almost flip over frontwards and almost loop out in the same jump. So like a double backflip on these off a normal ramp, I can do like I'm doing a backflip, a single flip really wide open, just cuz so much more torque and it'll spin too. So triple flips on these are so much easier. And the guys are thinking quadruple flips are easy. No, no.
- [08:12]
Host 2
It's just a crazy statement though.
- [08:14]
Travis Pastrana
But even front flips, like when you, if you're wide open on the gas and you, you hit the brake for whatever reason, you, you know, you don't have to worry about the, the clutching, you don't have to worry about stalling. I'm thinking like bike flips, like what they do in, in BMX world that you can't really do on motorcycles because of the, the gyro. Like you can hit the brakes, lock everything down and then start it back up and not worry about stalling. Like there's. I wish I was younger. Cause the, it's. I'm just old and crippled.
- [08:37]
Host 1
But it's going to push the progression of the sport. You think it's going to be great. Even though a lot of the old timers, like you're kind of, I think alluding to your dad, don't like it.
- [08:46]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, it's just if it doesn't make noise, that, that feeling, the smell of.
- [08:50]
Host 1
Gasoline, I feel that.
- [08:51]
Travis Pastrana
But at the end of the day, like my kids growing up, they can, you know, we're watching supercross or something in the backyard and their friends can all be riding motorcycles, you know, and they can all be on their, their go karts and then whatever. And as long as there's no dust, no one really cares. So it allows, it just opens up so many more tracks and opportunities.
- [09:08]
Host 1
The neighbors Love it.
- [09:09]
Host 3
Yeah, our neighbors are.
- [09:10]
Host 2
What about like the urban Moto? Like we. The skate parks and the start with the Starks and stuff like that? I mean, cool. You can kind of get away with it, but it also might not be the best. You know, got Starks flying around the skate park with little kids on scooters.
- [09:23]
Travis Pastrana
Like, I mean, I'm kind of against that part because eventually we're just going to get shut down and thrown out of everything. But the fact that they are quiet enough that you can do it is. Is pretty cool.
- [09:30]
Host 4
You really got into freestyle motocross and the bikes started progressing through that. But I would feel like gas bikes are pretty similar to what they would be. I mean, I don't know, what do you say, 2004 to now there's not massive change. So short of going to electric, do you feel like you would have been better if you had the bikes now versus the bikes you had when you were a kid?
- [09:50]
Travis Pastrana
No, not. Not really. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, if you watch Supercross back in 96, like it's so slow compared to Supercross in 2005, compared to the riders get in better shape. But by the time you get great at your sport nowadays, you no longer love what you do. By the time you get good enough to do what you love, you no longer love what you do. Because these kids are starting. I mean, I started at 4, but it was about having fun. Like, no one was pushing you. Oh yeah, let's go. You're going to make a living doing this. It was trying to push you the opposite direction. Like, what are you. You're wasting your time on skateboards and BMX and all this stuff. And now you can go to the Olympics doing this stuff. And it's gotten so much more difficult to be the best you have to be. So it's taken a sport in my opinion. I mean, motocross always been around, but you have all these sports and freestyle and X Games that were all about having fun. Now you put it into the Olympics and it's. It changes the sport.
- [10:35]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [10:35]
Travis Pastrana
You know, the video parts aren't as. As big, but then. And we used to have a year to make a video part. You guys have to do a video part every week. Yeah, it's tough.
- [10:42]
Host 3
It's interesting how social media has played a factor in that of, you know, everything is so readily available now where you're scrolling Instagram and you might see somebody do a double backflip and you might not even finish the video because it's like the next thing that you see is going to be just as insane. Whereas when you did the first double backflip, one of the greatest X Games, but, like, you had to be watching X Games to, like, see that. And I think just X Games in general was probably, like, you know, at the peak when you had to be, like, physically watching it. Yeah. Like, what do you think that, like, social media has played a factor in just, like, elevating the sport of freestyle motocross and, like, how much crazier the tricks are getting?
- [11:23]
Travis Pastrana
Well, it's made it reachable. Everyone says, how do I get a nitro circus? Or how do I become dude? If you're doing something that no one else is doing, you can be in anywhere in the world, from any walk of life. It's going to get you wherever you want to go. The hard part is that everything is visible and they don't show. They do show the crash, but they don't show the injuries, the. The everything else. I think it's a. It's a catch 22 because it's like, in your face all the time. And before, if you came up with a good trick, you could save it for six months and come out at X Games or Gravity Games or whatever the event was. Now, as soon as you do it, it's online, and you have to do something better next week, not even next month.
- [11:56]
Host 3
Where's the line in the sand get drawn of? Like, you know, this is. This is how crazy the sport can get until it's like you're trying to five backflips, and if you don't land it, you're dead.
- [12:06]
Travis Pastrana
No, but it gets more creative. You got, like, Axel Hodges. He's like, all right, I don't want to do the flips. He's doing flips now and stuff, but he's like, I'm going to do, like, land and wheelies and all this other fun stuff. So it's. It's always about being creative and finding, like, you guys. It's. You're not reinventing the wheel, but you're like, what do I really love to do? And at the end of the day, Cletus has proved it out here. If you're passionate about something and you love it, you're going to do it anyway and you're going to find people that are passionate about the same thing.
- [12:30]
Host 1
No, I think for sure, though, like, when you're passionate about something or you just want to do it, the end result's gonna be so much better than if you're just doing something for money or clout or whatever.
- [12:40]
Travis Pastrana
But.
- [12:40]
Host 1
And that is a testament of today. You look at the lineup of people that are coming here, like huge, huge names and like, they're just coming literally for fun. No one's being paid to do this. They're coming cause they love driving. They love, you know, this scene. I mean, I still go back and watch your double backflip. Dude. It's so lit. It's just so lit and like it was packed, jam packed in there.
- [13:02]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, well, you get, I mean, Tony Hawk's 900 and now there was literally an 11 year old that was warming up with nines, going for tens and you're like, when did this happen?
- [13:10]
Host 1
Yeah. So do you think that it happened? Because now it's like the training regimen is just. People are crafting a training regimen. I can't imagine people were training as hard back in the day versus now, like in terms of like fitness. Do you feel like they're.
- [13:26]
Travis Pastrana
No, definitely. Oh, motocross. A little bit. But now there's so much more at your fingertips. I mean, success leaves breadcrumbs and. But the thing was, it used to be the Metal Militia and you know, Brian Deegan crushed the dirt. People just went out like Jeff Emig and McGrath were the top racers and they were still doing freestyle. They were going out and riding and having fun. At a certain extent, racing has lost a little bit of that passion, but at the same time, not taking anything away because these guys work so much harder. They put their whole lives, their parents have sacrificed, their family. And if you can get on top of a sport nowadays, I don't care what it is, you have dedicated, sacrificed, you've blood, sweat and tears. And I have so much respect for anyone that's made it. But that's why events like this work. It's not about the money. People just love driving. They love being around people that are passionate and having fun. And it's really cool to be able to come out and meet you guys, hang out and have some fun.
- [14:15]
Host 1
How about. So like you mentioned Metal Militia back when it was Brian Deegan versus Travis Pastrana. Like, did you guys actually not like each other? Or maybe he, I don't know, like, how did you feel like, towards each other? Like, do you think you would ever like get in a physical altercation back then? Like, was it possible or was that even like.
- [14:34]
Travis Pastrana
So the, the funniest part about that was in the start of freestyle motocross, you had Mad Mike Jones, Clifford the Flying Hawaiian Adam Tante, Cowboy Kenny Bartram. Like, we just wanted to figure out how to ride a motorcycle and have fun and to make a living at it. And everyone was building the sport in any way they could, building their image, building whatever we could to. To be able to go and do circus tricks on a motorcycle and to be able to travel the world with your friends and find cool places to ride. So I was just this goody two shoes straight A student racer that happened to really like freestyle motocross. And Brian as a showman was like, hey, I got a way that this is going to work. Like, Brian went to a level so far above and beyond, like, he didn't have a trick for Gravity Games one year. And he told all the producers and everyone at NBC like, this has been for YouTube, like, it's a big network. And he's like, I got the biggest tricks. I'm not showing anyone. I got the biggest tricks. It's going to be. It's. Everyone's building up. Brian D in the middle militia. He picks a fight with a police officer the day before.
- [15:31]
Host 4
Wow.
- [15:32]
Travis Pastrana
Doesn't post bail.
- [15:34]
Host 1
What a businessman.
- [15:35]
Travis Pastrana
And the whole thing was all the man's keeping him down. And I'm like, dude, oh, he would have crushed you. Like, I wouldn't grab it again.
- [15:42]
Host 3
So he just took the rug right.
- [15:43]
Host 1
Out from under you completely.
- [15:45]
Travis Pastrana
I'm like, what he didn't have? He had nothing. But like, he's, he's a very smart human being. I wouldn't have gone the same route, but it was. I mean, Deacon was great because he knew he did work hard, you know, despite what his image and everything. And he knew exactly what he had to do and when he had to do it. And even if he didn't have it, he would go for it anyway. And I think that's what the crowd liked because he's like, well, I haven't won in two years. I gotta send something big. And he'd go out and he'd be willing to die. Literally.
- [16:07]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [16:08]
Host 3
So were people taking sides as far as, like, you know, I'm. I'm Team tp. We or Team Deegan. And would they have any kind of, like, altercations?
- [16:16]
Host 1
Like, if you were walking down the street and you saw someone in some metal militia gear where you're like, oh, fuck.
- [16:20]
Travis Pastrana
I was just too goofy to realize anything was going on. Honestly, Deegan was great. Like, he. My parents would come up, he's like, hello, Ms. Pastrana.
- [16:27]
Host 3
Oh.
- [16:27]
Host 1
So he was pretty cordial behind the scenes almost.
- [16:29]
Travis Pastrana
He was but it's not that he didn't believe anything. Like, he was. He was honest. He just figured out a way. He's like, look, this kid, there has to be an opposite. There's gotta be. There's gotta be a fight, there's gotta be a show. I was. I just didn't know that I was part of it. I was just. I was just me.
- [16:43]
Host 1
So that answers my question. Yeah, yeah.
- [16:44]
Host 4
It's kind of like a wwe, almost like you had the heel and you had the. I can't remember, what do they call it? Like, the good guy and the bad guy.
- [16:50]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, exactly. I just didn't know I was playing a role. Thank goodness that Deegan did because it helped us all the way through. Unfortunately, like, as a teenage kid coming up, like, you know, kind of dorky, straight A student guy, like, Deegan had all of the girls, all of the really, like. Yeah. All the parents were like, ah, go get him. His line is like, just strippers and stuff.
- [17:12]
Host 1
If I feel like you would have been in Metal Militia.
- [17:14]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah.
- [17:14]
Host 3
The whole time. I just picture. I just picture effing in that.
- [17:18]
Host 2
I did run a rock a lot of Metal Militia gear over the years. I will admit that.
- [17:21]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [17:22]
Host 2
But I was never not on Team Pastrana.
- [17:24]
Travis Pastrana
Oh, thanks, man.
- [17:25]
Host 2
Dude, what year was it that you guys were both going for? The three 60s.
- [17:28]
Travis Pastrana
You see now this, this was 2002, La Coliseum. It was absolutely awesome. So I didn't know, like, YouTube was just really starting and my friend posted something on the Internet. Deegan saw it. So my friend, Chris Haynes. Thank you. Chris posts this on the Internet about a month and a half before X Games. Deegan sees it has a foam pit and gets. It doesn't qualify as well, does it? 361st names at the militia twist. I'm like, how did you. He's like, yeah, I saw it. I saw it on the YouTube, man. You should check it out.
- [17:59]
Host 3
Oh, I got leaked.
- [18:00]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah. And that was the first of. Of many, many leaks. Now that's, you know, but now it's a. It's a platform that's not just a leak platform. It's a. You can, like, literally, you guys are.
- [18:09]
Host 4
Doing it back then those, like, kind of. You just posted it and you weren't expecting people to see, you know, you saw it.
- [18:15]
Host 3
Has anyone recreated the TP7?
- [18:17]
Travis Pastrana
Not yet.
- [18:17]
Host 3
So this dude, that's the craziest, like, two date. I've said it on this podcast multiple times. That is the craziest trick I've ever seen done.
- [18:25]
Travis Pastrana
So it Was easier to add a flip. So with the dirt bike, the only way to really start the rotation, like you can get it spinning real fast in a flip, but it's not like a BMX bike or something or a scooter where you can kind of spin it off the lip. So you got to, got to pull the flip first. And it's so hard. Like you can do a backflip 180 pretty easily because you pull a flip. And as hard as you can pull and as hard as you can spin, you get a half of a, a rotation of spin to a full rotation of flip. So I was like, it's going to be easier to add a flip. It's like just, I'm going to do a double cork 1080 or you know, or whatever.
- [18:54]
Host 3
Yeah, it makes sense.
- [18:55]
Travis Pastrana
So that was actually way easier. So I started doing on mountain bikes and I'm so inconsistent with like the backflip 360.
- [19:01]
Host 3
Just add another flip flop. Just had a flip. Would that have been easier on a stark ways with the electric torque?
- [19:08]
Travis Pastrana
100%.
- [19:08]
Host 2
Did I hear rumor that there might be like a triple 720 maybe in the works?
- [19:13]
Travis Pastrana
Not for me.
- [19:14]
Host 2
Not.
- [19:14]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, no. No one's completed any like even a backflip with the twist yet. So they're still catching up to 2012. But that is pretty cool.
- [19:23]
Host 4
That's what I mean. Like on technically, older technology, people are still chasing what you, the bar that you set.
- [19:30]
Travis Pastrana
So most people, they wanted to win. For me, racing was winning freestyle was, it was always about fun. So even when there was money involved, like I was always a racer at heart. And I'll be like, all right, I don't even care really. If I win this event. I want to do something cool, something that's never been done, something that pushes myself and the bounds of what can be done. Like on a motorcycle in general. And I would use kind of all the money that I made in freestyle to build ramps and just, I mean we had a 44 foot tall takeoff ramp. We were going over 100ft in the air trying triple backflips. And most people just showed up, looked at the ramp, giggled and left. Never came back.
- [20:02]
Host 4
When did airbags come into the landing?
- [20:05]
Travis Pastrana
Carrie Hart actually started with an airbag before even the foam picks. We thought, you know, being a petroleum product that that foam wasn't going to be a great idea. They didn't have the double compartment. The technology wasn't quite there. So like Carrie actually dislocated his shoulder and broke his collarbone first. Time on an airbag. He landed on it fine, Did a backflip. He's like, I did it. And then it bounced him off onto the ground where.
- [20:23]
Host 2
So the first airbag was more just like a bouncy castle.
- [20:26]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah.
- [20:26]
Host 2
Just one chamber full of air.
- [20:29]
Travis Pastrana
So as stunts and as everything gets better. But we actually worked with a company called Bag Jump out of Austria. And Josh Ian could only do about three triples attempts a day. So he would drop about 60ft out of the air onto a flat bag. And with a motorcycle on top of you, like, it was just bad. Like piss and blood. Not. Not a good thing. Like. So he's like, what if we can get the bag flat? Because, like, even with front flips, anything you're doing, how you're landing on a flat bag is totally different than you're going to land. So we developed the first bag on an angle. And it was cool because when we got hit up by all this, like snowboarders and, you know, Olympic committees from all over the world, like, oh, how'd you do this? And then back jump took it. And they perfected and made it a lot cheaper eventually. But it's. It's cool to be on that kind of forefront of safety. Yeah.
- [21:10]
Host 3
Your compound, Pastrana Land, I mean, just legendary in itself. And I think anyone growing up that watched Nitro Circus or Freedom Factory looked at having a compound like that and was. Just dreamed of it. And especially with us, when we got our shop and we built our tracks and everything like that, you just kind of chip away at it and eventually you got a cool compound. Is that kind of what the case was with Pastrana Land? Did you just get a piece of land and add a ramp and a foam pit and just kind of just continue to build onto it and make it into what it is.
- [21:42]
Travis Pastrana
My hero growing up was a guy named Guy Airtime Cooper. He was on Suzuki, was Mr. Suzuki, they called him. So I was on Suzuki. I'm eight years old. This guy is, you know, a multi millionaire. And he comes around the corner in a beater car just flogging this thing and just like smashes into the side of his shed. Didn't even know we're there. He's just doing it because he just. Yeah. And I'm like, this guy's awesome. My mom's like, can you believe this guy? That's just. He's like literally has. He's got blood on him from whatever. From this morning, he's covered in just Oklahoma red dirt. All you can see is the whites of his teeth, just giggling. He's like, that doesn't seem like someone that has a lot of money.
- [22:17]
Host 3
I'm like, you were like, that's the dream.
- [22:19]
Travis Pastrana
This is, this is what? And he had tracks and motorcycles and go karts and it was just, it was Cooper Land. So that was always my goal was to have like a little Mini Cooper Land. And over the years it's become like a Mega Cooper.
- [22:30]
Host 1
It's a, it's a full on compound.
- [22:32]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah.
- [22:33]
Host 3
But I think anyone dreams of going there. Our buddy Gavin's been there. Hopefully one day we can come. Quite honestly, we're pretty scared because being forced into doing something like a backflip, not forced into it. But I feel like you have to. When you go to Pastrana, the hard.
- [22:46]
Travis Pastrana
Part is when there's like an 11 year old girl doing a backflip to dirt and you're like, not to be sexist, but you have to like. It was cool. The blocks came over and Kira, Ken's middle daughter, like doesn't really ride dirt bikes. And we were trying to get Mike to do it. Mike is like, I don't, I don't know, I don't think I want to. Kira just comes out of nowhere and just like launches it. Like seat bounces. She was so high. And I'm like, this is, this is awesome. It's a place that people either go and they go all out. They're like, I'm going to do everything and they get hurt really quick or they go, I'm not touching anything here. And then they don't get to experience any of it. So it's, it's rare that we find that crew. Like the Sickos came over. Like those guys were just a crew that I didn't know a lot about. And you know, five of seven of the guys went to dirt on day one.
- [23:26]
Host 3
Yeah, that's pretty.
- [23:27]
Host 1
They send it. They send it.
- [23:28]
Travis Pastrana
That was awesome.
- [23:29]
Host 4
But they've got good aerial awareness. Like they do flips on skis and stuff like that, which I feel like I know for 100% I lack.
- [23:36]
Host 3
Ryan did a backflip on a stand up jet ski. It took up three years.
- [23:41]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, but I did it.
- [23:43]
Host 2
Never give up, ever.
- [23:44]
Travis Pastrana
Certain.
- [23:45]
Host 1
So you mentioned like the money and like putting it back into your compound. How much like different was the money back in say 2003, 2005 in freestyle versus now. Was there quite a bit more money? If you took first place at X Games, I would imagine you get a pretty good prize.
- [24:01]
Travis Pastrana
Freestyle was huge. Heck, from 90 you know the early 90s when X game started. Then freestyle motocross got brought in in 1999. So we had just started. Our first ever, like, freestyle world championship was in 98, which was awesome because Mgrath were judging. Yeah, it was good. I crashed and they gave me tens. It was kids. Like, this is great, but. Sorry, tangent, but when we got to go to X Games, I mean, my grandma was watching. It was before, you know, the Internet. So it's like people had to watch. It's on espn, right? It's on a regular network. Like, that was.
- [24:30]
Host 1
It was so cool for you cancel your plans to be there to watch it live.
- [24:34]
Host 4
I remember that when X Games on in the summer, it was like we didn't go outside for a whole week because you were watching X Games.
- [24:39]
Travis Pastrana
For me and my ADHD friends, it was the only TV we watched and we did not miss anything. You know, watching Mira and Hawk. Yeah, that was so cool.
- [24:47]
Host 3
CJ used to watch Fuel tv. It was later, but Fuel had like all the channels like that firsthand.
- [24:54]
Host 1
You'd have an episode on there. But yeah, like, so, like, the money was obviously greater. Like, are you able to say, like, if someone took first place, like, what kind of prize, like, cash prize was that?
- [25:03]
Travis Pastrana
If you're able to say, yeah, no, in 99, the first place was. Was $10,000. And generally there weren't a lot of sponsors that were like, Suzuki, I had to buy my own motorcycle. Like, Suzuki paid me as a racer. And they were like, if you take one of our bikes that we're giving you and do this freestyle stuff, like, you're fired.
- [25:17]
Host 1
They didn't want to touch it.
- [25:18]
Travis Pastrana
Nobody. So it was kind of a weird little world that I was working in. But it's $10,000 for the first year and by 2003, it's 50 grand for first. And generally there'd be a sponsor like a DC Shoes or, you know, whatever energy drink or whatever, you're getting double that, triple. You could go to X Games, and if you had decent sponsorship, you could win, you know, one. One year I won like three gold medals, and each one of those was 50 grand. Plus it came with a, you know, a 50 grand bonus or you had medical bills that were bigger than that. But still, like, it was. It was your one chance to just to. To go.
- [25:48]
Host 3
So is there more money now? Like with social media and sponsors, is there more money?
- [25:54]
Travis Pastrana
Yes, but it's very. It's very different. Like, even racing, you know, Jet, Lawrence, maybe Deegan, could be exceptions. They've gone beyond motorsport, if you will. Yeah, really taking that whole next generation up.
- [26:05]
Host 1
Cletus, he's going to do a burnout. Let's go. God, that thing's sick.
- [26:14]
Host 4
That's the fourth burnout I've seen him do today.
- [26:18]
Host 1
He does that all day long.
- [26:19]
Travis Pastrana
Smells like the Freedom Factory.
- [26:20]
Host 4
Kind of sounds like your truck been squeaking a little bit.
- [26:22]
Host 3
Yeah, it's got a little squeak. Mine's got more of a. Of a tick and a rattle, though.
- [26:26]
Host 2
So he doesn't have a hole in his bumper either.
- [26:28]
Host 3
Yeah, that thing's a little bit different than mine.
- [26:30]
Host 4
You think the, like, Moto guys are getting the money they deserve? I feel like they're underpaid right now.
- [26:34]
Travis Pastrana
Look, at the end of the day, if you're able to do what you love for, for a living, you're going to do it anyway. You know, I was like, red Bull Rampage. You know, they were doing it for free. And then Rebel steps up, gives them a little bit of money. Someone gets hurt, and they're like, well, why aren't you paying them more? And they're like, well, these guys are doing it anyway. We're giving them something. You know, for me, I've always thought I've been very fortunate to do what I love to do. And so my uncle was quarterback for Denver Broncos for two years. He got knocked out by probably before your time, but I mean, definitely for all of our times. But he got knocked out by Hightower from Police Academy. There's actually a pastrana rule in the NFL. At the time, the quarterback was the only one allowed to call timeout. So it was the first year they had, like, the. The playoffs. And my uncle is knocked unconscious. His teammates trying to. To get him to take his hands and put them together. So after that, then the coaches are allowed to call timeout too. So. Yeah.
- [27:18]
Host 4
And it's called the pastrana rule.
- [27:20]
Travis Pastrana
Well, no, but that's.
- [27:21]
Host 4
We're calling it that for sure. Yeah.
- [27:22]
Travis Pastrana
Wow. But long story long, my uncle is. He was never quite the same after just a lot of confessions. They just didn't know a lot back in the day. His knees, they just, you know, inject him with whatever and just, hey, keep on going. So he destroyed his body and then became a, you know, health teacher in low community college. And my dad said he's the best athlete that's come out of our town, maybe our state. And he's still working construction and he's teaching health at the local community college. He's like, you're never going to Make a living doing what you love to do, but any day that you cannot get up and do construction, do it. He's like, I would give anything to be able to take one lap around the Daytona or to do whatever. So I kind of came at it with this different mentality where everyone else was like, oh, I gotta win. My dad's like, look, just work hard. If you love it, do it. If you don't, it's not worth the physical. There's no amount of money worth what you're gonna put your body through. So he was the guy on the pitboard. Like, my dad's a Marine and, you know, he's tough. Like, you know, work hard, but at the end of the day, he's the only dad that had slowed down on the pitboard. Like, if I was going to control or like launching, it's like, just don't do the big jump. You're gonna kill yourself.
- [28:25]
Host 4
You know, man, that did not work.
- [28:27]
Travis Pastrana
With you, I bet.
- [28:29]
Host 2
Say, was it like reverse psy. Like, he knew what he was doing. Slow down. You were only going to twist it wider.
- [28:34]
Travis Pastrana
No, like, so there's one year. So I was. I'm 11 years old and I was pretty big for the ADCC motorcycle at that time. And we basically mortgaged completely out. And the dad's like, look, mom too, you know, hey, we'll. We'll work two jobs, we'll figure out how to make this happen. Or all my uncles are taking, you know, basically pay cuts to, to get the gas and everything. So we go out and he's like, we have to win this championship. And I'm dominate the first two motos, three Moto format, and there's this big jump that frickin Ricky Carmichael's doing. And you're 11. So he was like, he's 14 and he's on a big wheel, so he had like, a little bit more power. And I'm like, I can do it. That's like, just, just win. Like, look, we've literally, we've spent every last time we need this championship. Like, we just. If you want to race motorcycles, you have to. You just don't do the jump. I'm like, but I can make it. It's like, we. Nobody cares. Like, literally no one cares. Just win this championship, please. Let's get Suzuki happy. Like, we're going to get sponsors. They're going to give us, like, enough money in Suzuki bucks to like, pay for gas to get home. Last lap, hit the jump, landed two black eyes, bloody nose, didn't Break anything because the motorcycle, the hub, like the whole, the whole wheel collapsed, forks went on the ground, broke the bike off, like at the handlebars.
- [29:43]
Host 1
You cased it that hard?
- [29:44]
Travis Pastrana
Oh, it was bad. It was 50, 50. Just the front end of the bike went that way. The back, so, you know, face plant, like, it was a hit. My dad came over and he was deciding whether he was going to be super, super pissed off or like worried if I was actually alive because the bike, he just sees, it broke in half. So he jumps over the gate so he sees that I'm okay. He starts yelling and I'm laughing. I'm like, did you see that? And he just starts laughing. He's like, okay. He's like, well, if I learned anything from his brother, it's that you do this because you love to do it. We're giving you an opportunity to chase your dreams, however far that may be. And you're going to. At 16, you're going to be working construction with us or you're going to join the military like the rest of us did or whatever, but you're too stupid to ever make it as a racer. And thank God freestyle came out. Yeah, that's kind of my life in a nutshell.
- [30:27]
Host 1
Wow. Don't do it. Don't do it. I'm going to do it.
- [30:31]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah.
- [30:31]
Host 3
Impulse thoughts one on that one.
- [30:33]
Travis Pastrana
I just, I thought I could make it.
- [30:34]
Host 1
Realistically, going to freestyle was the best thing that ever happened to you. You just became an even bigger star.
- [30:40]
Travis Pastrana
Like, so, I mean, racing like the motorcycle industry. The racers will never forget me. They're like, you came out at 16. I was the youngest person when outdoor national championship went over represent the U.S. in motocross nations, won the motocross nations, won the supercross the next year at 17, like, it was a great start and I just wanted to have fun and I want to do freestyle. And then Carrie Hart does a backflip and like, oh, let's try that. And I break my foot halfway through the season. I didn't miss a race, but like, just, you know, there was just those things that Roger De Costa is like, dude, I'm paying you to do. And I would, I would work hard. Like I put in the time I'd running, bicycling, doing everything. It's just when everyone else was resting.
- [31:15]
Host 1
You were having fun.
- [31:16]
Travis Pastrana
Still riding my dirt bike, I was what I loved to do do. And I was very fortunate that my parents allowed me to kind of chase these dreams. And, you know, I turned down a multi million Dollar contract to race motorcycles because I wanted to try racing cars. And I put every dime that I made at motocross. My dad's just shaking his head. He's like, you, why? But, you know, and, but it's because of him. It's because of, of my parents. It's because they always allowed me to chase my dreams. And if I did exactly what everyone wanted me to do. The oldest ever supercross champion was 29 years old. Like, I'm 41. We're here at the Freedom Factory. We're still living this, this dream. And it's, I mean, yeah, it's, it's different now. It's changed. I'm a little bit older, a little bit more crippled, but like I still have fun every day waking up. And now I get to do with my, my wife, who's three time X Games gold medalist. And you know, my kids, they went into cheer. I thought, you know, the tumbling and the flipping and stuff was going to lead them action sports. But it's great because I can go to a cheer comp and not one person recognizes me all year.
- [32:08]
Host 3
Oh, cheer dad, huh?
- [32:10]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, oh, yeah. I'm just, I'm there.
- [32:11]
Host 3
You know, you've been famous for a really long time. Over two decades now, right? Does it get old?
- [32:17]
Travis Pastrana
So we were on, on vacation in Europe this, this year and guy comes over and our waiter and he actually starts crying. He just pushes like my wife aside and like, can you take a photo? And she's like, really? He barely speak English. Yeah, and we can't get away from it. But what's really cool about that is the day that, that stops is the day that I can't go out and crash cars and ride motorcycles and hang out with my friends and fly around the world. Now my goal, not honestly with starting a YouTube channel is to be like you guys, it's to have this group together. Like, I wanted to have my friends together and, and travel the world and we did that. Now I, I don't really want to travel the world. I want to be with my family. And the YouTube's given us a chance to all of us that are a little bit older, that don't really want to be the best in the world. Yeah, we still want to push ourselves and, and sometimes that's doing stuff that's never been done, just taking that mentality and trying to get what we do.
- [33:09]
Host 1
And that's something I really admire about you, is how you, you set up camp, you know, in Maryland, where you grew up, and then you still have all of your best friends around you. Like, you got Street Bike Tommy. And Andy Bell hops out of the van. Like, it is very much so. Like us, like I said, you guys are just a lot more skilled. But, like, we grew up, you know, a small town together, and. And now we're hanging out doing all this stuff.
- [33:31]
Host 3
Is there any advice that you would have for us? You know, being that you've done so much with your friends, you know, just ways to avoid conflicts that you've maybe had?
- [33:40]
Travis Pastrana
Not really. I think in the end, people grow apart and most of the time grow back together because what you. It's hard because a lot of times there's just so many hours, like, everyone sees the good side of it, but, you know, editing the videos and getting stuff out and trying to get the sponsors and figure out, you know, how it's actually going to be sustainable. It's not easy. You guys have done awesome. But the. The biggest thing for us was that, like, Andy Bell, at one point, he goes, hey, it's not enough money for. For me. Like, it's $50,000 that we were all going to get to do a movie. And Andy goes, I can't put my life on hold for $50,000. Like, I got a wife, I got a mortgage, I got, you know, I can't quit my job for this. So he went and he said, but I think I could be a producer. I could be a director. I could do this. So he started Sweatpants Media, and they had the second biggest commercial last year. He's going on to win Emmys and all kinds of stuff, and now he can run his production company, and he's the big boss that doesn't really have to be there. So he can come on and he can produce all this stuff, and then he can hire himself as the stunt driver for the stuff and to be doing it again.
- [34:46]
Host 1
So.
- [34:46]
Travis Pastrana
And a lot of times people will go away, but most of the time they'll come back, like, you know, at the end of the day. Street Bike Tommy is still hanging Sheetrock, and Jim Dechamp is now working. He's a crane operator. And Jim, we only see on the weekends. Yeah, but he still comes over and he puts on mountain bike races up Pastrana Land, you know, three, four times a year. And we go out there and we still push super hard, even though it looks like we're all out of shape and we are, but, you know, it's still fun.
- [35:10]
Host 4
Now, I'm sure you got billboards and whatever. You know, there's like, A home of Travis Pastrana when you drive into town. But, like, what did your town think of you hooligans as kids? Like, were they on board or were they, like, I don't know about these guys.
- [35:23]
Travis Pastrana
We were pretty goody two shoe, if you will. Like, I mean, we.
- [35:26]
Host 4
Okay, we did.
- [35:27]
Travis Pastrana
The only thing that I'm amazed at was that we lived on a postage stamp. I mean, we used my dad's, like, and my uncle's construction. It was on, like, a half acre. So that's why I did freestyle, because it was always, you know, you had, like, three piles of dirt, and they were always leaving and coming back and rock piles, and it was basically like, just build a track and, you know, race around the shop. But that's in the middle of Annapolis. It's a mile from downtown Annapolis, and. And no neighbors complained, so I. My dad was 1 and 9, and they were like, all American football across. So, like, and then construction. So the town knew us. You. You grew up. If you were in the town, you were with one of my uncles or aunts or, you know, the family is. Is pretty big in that area, so they drove too fast. But, yeah, they had a general respect for.
- [36:07]
Host 1
For the law, so they liked you guys.
- [36:09]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, we didn't cause a lot of disturbances other than the fact that we're. We're loud, and we were surprised when we.
- [36:14]
Host 4
We got to hang with Greg Godfrey, and some of, like, went to those places in Utah, and we couldn't believe that some of these zones that you thought were, like, way out in the middle or wherever, and you're like, oh, it's just right behind the trucking shop.
- [36:28]
Travis Pastrana
Like, it was just.
- [36:29]
Host 4
You guys had just carved what you needed into this little zone.
- [36:32]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, everyone, even people, think, like, Pastrana land is huge, and they go around back. It's just a ramp graveyard. But we build everything. It's 20 acres. Like, we've got some trees around the.
- [36:40]
Host 4
Outside going there for 20 acres.
- [36:42]
Travis Pastrana
There's a lot of building, but, you know, it's our friends now. Like I said, like, Andy is a producer, and we get. Nate Wessel is a welder, and, like, our whole crew, no matter what we need done, no matter what we need built, we've got access to everything. And that's. That's kind of what's really neat about. About being there and being home with the YouTube channel.
- [36:59]
Host 3
Do you guys want to continue to do, you know, things outside of maybe dirt bikes and just the general motorsports that you've been doing?
- [37:06]
Travis Pastrana
Without a doubt, my Goal is to be able to build fun stuff. Go kart tracks, drift pads, anything. Even what Cletus is doing here, like, really want to build a next level, like Nitro Cross style. Can am course that is like hell track scary to. To drive and then just start inviting like guys like you and me, like, all right, let's go.
- [37:23]
Host 3
Have at it, dude. We will flip a Maverick so fast. That is one thing that we are guaranteed to do.
- [37:28]
Host 1
Every single one.
- [37:29]
Travis Pastrana
So that normally happens. But it was cool. We had Noah Gregson come over because he was going to drive the side by sides this weekend at Nitro Cross. He was on two wheels in the first turn. He had never driven all wheel drive in his life. He never flipped, he never broke anything. He never hit a tree. I've never been so impressed.
- [37:44]
Host 3
Well, he's also a professional NASCAR racer.
- [37:47]
Travis Pastrana
But some people just. They're like, oh, nascar. Those guys, you know, they just turn left. No, those. They're not only the best drivers, but they drive five times a week and every lap is on the clock, man.
- [37:56]
Host 3
Anyone? That's just saying you just go fast and turn left. I don't think has been to a NASCAR race and like experienced it up close. Like, it's. It's insane how fast they're going.
- [38:07]
Travis Pastrana
So street bike Tommy, we were doing a drift pad. He's like, why I could beat anyone at nascar. I'm like, like, all right. So we get out and he's like, well, I'm good. Until the car starts sliding. And I thought, Tommy, you're just aiming it until the car starts sliding. Like, I was going around a corner and I was drifting this whole corner and freaking. My. My teammate Trevor Bain comes around the outside of me at Bristol first time. There's like, what are you doing? He's like, well, what's. What's sliding? I'm like, dude, I'm sliding the whole corner. He goes front or rear? And I'm like, rear. He's like, well, then tighten it up. He goes until the car is sliding all four wheels equally. And then if one starts sliding more than the other, the front or whatever it. You. You change your. Your entry and then you change. We have these little fans that go to like, basically just diverts air under the tires. They're like, you got to have the. The air pressure has to come up to temperature equally. So it's not just driving as fast as you can.
- [38:53]
Host 1
It's so technical.
- [38:54]
Travis Pastrana
Oh, it's. It was amazing. So I learned a lot that I didn't know I was Cole Trickle put me in the car. I could drive, could do a couple laps good. Could never figure it out to the end.
- [39:02]
Host 3
Oh, my gosh.
- [39:02]
Travis Pastrana
I.
- [39:03]
Host 3
That's going to be me today.
- [39:04]
Host 1
I'm just trying to figure out how.
- [39:05]
Host 3
To not hit the wall.
- [39:06]
Travis Pastrana
It's going to be fun.
- [39:07]
Host 4
How long did you race NASCAR? You got to do the Daytona 500, and it's like the dream of any guy who's ever driven a car ever.
- [39:13]
Travis Pastrana
So driving the Daytona 500, I literally went to NASCAR. So I won four US rally championships, and it was either go to Europe and chase the WRC or try something else. And I'm like, man, I don't know anything about nascar. Let's go. And I showed up to the first race with a. A T shirt that said boring in nascar. Font got my ass kicked. And I was like, all right, not. Not physically, just off the track. I'm like, wow, these. These guys are actually really, really good. And they all, like. Everyone's like, oh, it's a good old boys club. You'll never get in there. Dude, everyone helped out so much. No, Evan, it was just a.
- [39:42]
Host 1
It was rad not to call Evan out, but I'm going to. You feel the same way about nascar. You're like, they're just turning left.
- [39:48]
Host 2
No, no. I was stating at. From a spectator's point of view that I didn't think it was the most exciting form of racing to watch, like, on tv, but I knew it's all. It's all strategy when, like, they're all on the same track. I never thought that you didn't have to have skill in just.
- [40:05]
Host 3
Well, as soon as the cameras are off.
- [40:06]
Host 4
Yeah.
- [40:06]
Host 1
NASCAR's Cheeto. I think we have a podcast. You saying all you got to do is turn left and push the gas.
- [40:12]
Host 2
Yes, but I'm saying from the. From the.
- [40:15]
Travis Pastrana
I said it.
- [40:15]
Host 2
But what I meant from the viewing standpoint, like, I guess I'd rather watch, like, a drifting or something.
- [40:20]
Host 1
Yeah, fun to watch.
- [40:22]
Host 4
Action's fun to watch, not strategy.
- [40:24]
Host 1
So we're big NASCAR guys. As of recently, actually, we went to.
- [40:27]
Host 2
Our first race, especially when they gave us free drinks.
- [40:30]
Host 1
Yeah, that was a good part, too.
- [40:32]
Host 3
That worked out.
- [40:32]
Travis Pastrana
The cool part about NASCAR is, like, literally, anyone, not anybody can win. But the best average finish this year was 12th place. That's, like, unheard of.
- [40:41]
Host 1
So many things can happen.
- [40:42]
Host 3
Crazy. We went to Talladega, and there was a crash over the finish line. Well, thankfully, no one was hurt. But it was so electric. Oh, my God. We're just like throwing our drinks in the air. We're high fiving each other.
- [40:55]
Host 2
The car goes on its side, riding the wall like right there in front.
- [40:59]
Host 3
Of us across the finish line. It was so insane.
- [41:01]
Travis Pastrana
My first run at Daytona, following Tony Stewart, I was like freaking. This is awesome. Like kind of getting bounced around. Last lap, someone hits Larson. He goes up. His car disintegrates. And it's like in the the fence, you know, you're going 200 miles an hour. I didn't know where to go. So I go across the grass and I'm spinning backwards through the grass at 200 miles an hour. And I, I still got 10th and I was so bummed. I'm like, man, Tony, he won the race. We could have been like, it could have been top five. And that's like, dude, I would have given anything to be going backwards across the grass. 200. That looks awesome.
- [41:30]
Host 3
How come you never got into riding snowmobiles?
- [41:32]
Travis Pastrana
Cuz dirt bikes are snowmobiles. But you do it in the warm.
- [41:35]
Host 3
You don't cold.
- [41:36]
Travis Pastrana
No.
- [41:37]
Host 3
I can't blame you.
- [41:37]
Host 2
There did backflip a snowmobile though, didn't you?
- [41:39]
Travis Pastrana
That was my first time on it. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. My friends are horrible. They said it's like a four wheeler. It's not like a four wheeler. You guys, you guys all lied to me. No wheels, so I couldn't turn it at all. But I'm like, the jumping seems fine. There was like a little, you know, a hill and like we'll hit the freestyle ramp. Can't feel my fingers, can't feel my feet. I got mittens on.
- [41:55]
Host 3
Hard to hold onto the bars with mittens.
- [41:57]
Travis Pastrana
It was. So I, I jumped it once and I went all the way to flat. Like because it doesn't have gears. Like I was kind of like the stark. I just, I don't know, Hard to gauge. Yeah, I didn't gauge it correctly. So I over jump. So I like just slam and fall off. And then someone's like, you said you could flip anything fine. So I can't feel my fingers and the glove, the mitten blows off my right hand and I'm upside down doing a one handed backflip. And I'm like, oh, I see this. There's the ground. So I jumped off and I penguin dove down the landing. It was ice.
- [42:23]
Host 3
Oh, you were going, you were going straight to snow.
- [42:27]
Travis Pastrana
It was a metal ramp set at 75ft. Because why would you try it at 41st or something, right?
- [42:32]
Host 3
Yeah, yeah. So first like hour of Riding a SnowMobile?
- [42:35]
Travis Pastrana
No, first five minutes.
- [42:35]
Host 2
So you overshoot the first one and then you just go straight for the backflip.
- [42:39]
Travis Pastrana
Cuz I crashed anyway. It sucked. I might as well look cool.
- [42:42]
Host 2
That is so insane.
- [42:44]
Travis Pastrana
And then I didn't try it again cuz luckily the sled kind of like disintegrated on landing. But I was fine. I was just penguin sliding down the landing. Like, please don't land on me.
- [42:51]
Host 4
It's a nice thing about snow.
- [42:52]
Travis Pastrana
It's a little bit of cushion. No, this was ice.
- [42:54]
Host 4
Yeah, ice doesn't have much cushion.
- [42:55]
Host 3
You've never rode in the mountains?
- [42:57]
Travis Pastrana
Yes. Andy Bell took me to the mountains and they were very disappointed. They took me because I was stuck. The entire did nothing made sense. So I got on one that had like a track on the back of the motorcycle and then I can.
- [43:08]
Host 3
Yeah. Snow bike.
- [43:09]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah. But then it was like an underpowered.
- [43:11]
Host 3
Like 125 that they don't get around that well.
- [43:13]
Host 4
And now you're like half metal. So the metal can't feel good in the cold.
- [43:17]
Travis Pastrana
Right. Need a hot tub all the time. Yeah. And everyone's like dressed for it. But then you dress warmer and then you're sweating, so then you take it off and then you're frozen. It's just. No.
- [43:26]
Host 3
So our friend Levi Lavalley, he's the man. He is the man. When we had him on the podcast, he said that when he had talked to you, you said that you're very jealous of Levi Lavalley because of the way that he's built.
- [43:36]
Travis Pastrana
Yes.
- [43:37]
Host 3
Short and knows how to take a fall because he can just kind of roll out of it. Whereas you are taller, more lengthy, and you kind of more frail.
- [43:46]
Travis Pastrana
We always called Greg Godfrey the muscle hamster. But if there was any other muscle hamster, sorry, Levi, like he's gotten away with stuff that would have killed a mere mortal.
- [43:55]
Host 1
That's him.
- [43:55]
Host 3
Like, Evan, stand up and kind of get a reference here.
- [43:58]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [43:59]
Host 3
So like Levi's about the same size as Evan.
- [44:01]
Host 2
He's got to be a little tall.
- [44:02]
Host 3
He's in a way better shape. Doesn't have as much going on down here, but yeah, I mean, even with Evan, like, the dude knows how to take a fall. I think that's a big part of it.
- [44:13]
Host 2
You kind of have to. It's like survival mode. You take the fall or don't.
- [44:17]
Host 3
Yeah, but it's like a cat, you know, You've kind of alluded to a couple crashes that you've had and injuries. I heard that you've had 35 different surgeries this year.
- [44:25]
Travis Pastrana
I got my 40th operation.
- [44:27]
Host 3
Which one is the worst?
- [44:28]
Travis Pastrana
Anyone that keeps you from doing what you love, Man. It's honestly the. I got a knee replacement that sucked. I got a. I'm going in this year for actually next month for a new hip.
- [44:36]
Host 4
I was going to ask that what was the worst injury, not because of the pain, but, like, the one that you miss. And maybe not like a competition, but maybe you were like, oh, you and Lindsay were going to go on a trip, and you couldn't go because you were hurt or something like that. Was there ever one that you were like, man, this one really wasn't worth it or sucked most?
- [44:52]
Travis Pastrana
No. I think everything kind of led me to where I am now. But definitely I had the flu really bad. I was in the best shape of my life. It was one week from the start of the championship, and I've been sick for a whole week. And I was like, I'm just going to go ride the hills at Castillo Ranch, and Greg Godfrey's there, and the film crew's there, and it was a big step up that we had built. You ever seen something that you look at it and you're like, it works. Like, the physics work. Everything mass out, and you come up to it and you just have this gut feeling. You're like, something's not right. You had that?
- [45:20]
Host 2
Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely.
- [45:22]
Host 3
Pretty often, actually, on everything we built.
- [45:25]
Travis Pastrana
Believe it or not, for whatever reason, your gut is usually right, and whether you. You manifest that. So I hit this jump as fast as the bike would go. Just tapped out fifth gear on a 252 stroke, and I hit it, and my legs collapse, and I'm going up. And it was the funniest thing because I was in the air, and I'm freaking out because I'm going over 200ft up a hill, over two barbed wire fences.
- [45:45]
Host 2
Yeah, actually, I know exactly what you're talking about now. Right into the hill, and I'm going.
- [45:49]
Travis Pastrana
Over the bars, and I'm like, I have to get off. But I'm going 70 miles an hour, and I'm 30ft off the ground. I'm like, this sucks. So I jump off, and I had this feeling for a split second, and it was like, everything kind of slowed down for me, and I giggled, and I was like, well, this is kind of cool. I'm flying through the air, guys. And then it hurt really bad, and I blew up my knee, and I pretty much ruined my racing career. But because of that, Jump. And it seemed like the worst thing ever at the time. And even my dad was upset. He's like, dude, you committed to racing. Just like, what the hell are you doing? And it allowed me to then take a step back from racing, get into car racing. And yeah, it changed my life to where I can still be driving events now. So it was. Hindsight, it was pretty good, but at the time it was pretty devastating.
- [46:32]
Host 4
So the feeling of going flying 70 miles an hour just as you're going up into a hill, God, I bet, yeah.
- [46:40]
Travis Pastrana
But it's just like, I've just never had that before where you had time to like be panicked and be like, no, I'm cool now, this is going to suck. But it doesn't suck yet.
- [46:51]
Host 2
When I think about, what was it, early 2000s? You're on a 125 and you case bad.
- [46:56]
Travis Pastrana
Got to be more specific. Oh yeah, yeah.
- [47:01]
Host 2
What year was that?
- [47:02]
Travis Pastrana
So that was 1998. Actually. Signed my, my pro contract in a. My 15th birthday. I signed my pro contract for Suzuki in a, in a wheelchair at that point. So I got a question for you guys. Have you ever woken up and you think you're dreaming but you hear and you're wondering what. Who's making that sound? And you're just like, you just like, I want to sleep, man. Who making that God awful noise.
- [47:24]
Host 1
And you were making it.
- [47:25]
Travis Pastrana
You can't breathe. It's stopping when you, when you're stopping. Yeah. Anyway, sorry.
- [47:29]
Host 1
Yeah, no, it's funny that you bring up the concussion thing. Like I've had like kind of a weird string pretty much for the last decade. Like I've just had a lot of concussions and like, it's just tougher for me now. Like small things can like make it almost feel that way. I oftentimes think about like, like feel like I have a concussion even though I don't. And it goes away after like a day or two or sometimes a week, sometimes it takes a month. My question to you is like, how do you like, if you have a, do you have even a protocol after you knock yourself out or, or if you do something and, and does it ever, you know, you give yourself symptoms.
- [48:01]
Travis Pastrana
Interesting thing about concussions is, you know, had a great opportunity to go down to some of the top military doctors through the boot campaign and they invited three of the Nitro circus crew just to actually kind of do more data, more testing and whatnot. Generally on a dirt bike, if you're not as prone to like CTE and that kind of stuff. Because if you hit your head hard enough to have a concussion, you probably have something else that's. That's keeping you down. The interesting thing is the doctors down there said, look, if you're in an action sport, if you're in a contact sport and you've made it to a professional level, chances are you're. You're predispositioned to be able to take a pretty good hit. So it was interesting that a lot of the top freestyle motocrossers and top racers, our grandfathers were almost all boxers. My granddad was Golden Globe boxer. Like, I don't know, Genet or whatever. Just seems like the people that are able to make it long enough to get in there have ancestry of people that like to get hit. Or maybe that's just the next step. I don't really know. What's interesting talking to the doctor was, he's like, I could have someone that is knocked out cold for 15 minutes, and I would, you know, do the test or whatever, but I would put them right back in, and they're fine. And you have some people that don't even get knocked out that he goes, they could never come back to doing stuff. So each head injury is unique, and they have protocols in there to generally help, because no athlete's ever going to say, oh, I'm not. Well, they're going to lie and they're going to get back out there. And the protocol is just a general. But the only person that really knows if you're okay to get back out there is the person that. That had the head injury. And sometimes you could have no real concussion. And you. I was throwing up for three months, and I didn't even get knocked out. Wow. You know, sometimes emotions are different. Like, one of my buddies, he was like, his mom said something. He yelled, his mom. He's like, well, what? Just like. And then you start crying. You're like, whoa, what's. Why am I crying? Like, what is going on? So definitely something that knowing more about is. Is good because even the people around you kind of have to understand that you got to take it easy during this time. Like, if you hit your head in the same spot twice before it heals, it's. It's a problem.
- [49:52]
Host 4
It's kind of what happened to you.
- [49:53]
Travis Pastrana
Right.
- [49:53]
Host 4
I mean, there's like two injuries, short succession.
- [49:56]
Host 1
Yeah. Similar. But no, I'm doing. I'm doing a lot better now, so. But I. You just kept bringing up. And I. I've always thought of you whenever, like, I would be going through Those times, I'm like, man, how was he? Like, okay, you know, and it was just like an insp. No, I mean, you are like. You're just like. You're. You're thriving. And I was just like, man, like, I mean, it's just inspiration, quite frankly. Like, I'll be okay. You know, it's.
- [50:18]
Travis Pastrana
It's a tough one. It's probably the hardest because it's not like a bone is. You know, six weeks, you're healed, pin and plated, you're back on. But a head is. Is something that. And no one really else can understand what you're going through. So it's. It's a tough one, but glad you're glad you're doing it. Yeah. Yeah.
- [50:30]
Host 1
No, Evan's crying. Oh, dude, I really.
- [50:32]
Travis Pastrana
He's sweating so bad when he closes door.
- [50:35]
Host 1
You're crying.
- [50:35]
Host 2
Sweat in my eyes, bro.
- [50:37]
Travis Pastrana
Dude, you do look like you're crying. It's okay.
- [50:41]
Host 1
He runs hot. He runs hot.
- [50:42]
Host 3
Yeah.
- [50:42]
Host 2
Dude, I don't know what happened.
- [50:43]
Host 1
You were sweating after the plane last night.
- [50:45]
Travis Pastrana
Might have been the whiskey.
- [50:46]
Host 2
The plane ride was hot, dude. No whiskey, no dark liquor.
- [50:49]
Host 3
So, Travis, one of our biggest idols growing up, you know, with someone like you, someone like Rob Dyrdek, but also Ken Block. And, you know, we were such big Ken Block fans when his passing, it was just devastating for, you know, everyone in the action sports world. I'm just curious, as someone that was close with him, what you thought his impact on the action sports world was and how prevalent it is now that he's gone?
- [51:15]
Travis Pastrana
That's a. That's a. That's a tough question. A very long winded answer needed for it. But in general, you had a businessman that loved to ride motorcycles, that loved to drive, that love to snowboard. And after he was able to sell DC Shoes and then still run it, he was able to build the sport of rally. And when no one, everyone was like, well, you can't. Like, what kind of. You're gonna do a Gym Khana video? Like, what are you doing? And he's like, I'm just gonna go have fun in my. My car. And just because he could and because he knew the business stuff, like, he shut down the Golden Gate Bridge just to see if he could do it, to do donuts on it. He shut down the 10110 intersection because it's the busiest intersection in the world. His mind worked very differently than, like, I was all about, hey, let's go drive and have fun. He was like, what can I do that? No One else can do and how can I do it better than it's ever been done before? He was thinking, two, three years out. I'm thinking, like, two, three hours out. If I ever had an idea, I would run it by ken. And he was the first one to be like, that's stupid, you know, or whatever. That's great, or. But let's do it right.
- [52:22]
Host 1
Tell you how it is.
- [52:22]
Travis Pastrana
But yeah. So he was personally lost. I think a lot of people lost that. Like, he was the guy that. That I went to whenever there was anything in life or anything. Like, he was just a. Just a solid human being. Great family man, you know, great businessman, amazing driver. He was the one that was able to really take whatever he did and turned it to gold. And not just that, but he took the people around him. Like, for example, in rally, he took everyone in the u. S. Championship and made us all heroes so that when he beat us, he could be beating.
- [52:54]
Host 1
That's awesome.
- [52:54]
Travis Pastrana
You know, he's smart. We're smart about what he did.
- [52:57]
Host 4
That's so cool. I mean, he was. Yeah, such an impact on so many different industries. Honestly, how cool is it to be able to do a gymkhana?
- [53:06]
Travis Pastrana
So I had been bugging ken for. For the longest time. Like, oh, oh. If I had that, I could do that. You know, like everyone says. And he's like, hey, we're going to do the final scene for Jim kind of 10. I was like, sweet. He didn't. Literally didn't tell me. So he brings me out there. And they couldn't start the motor because it's like $10,000 to start this stupid thing. So they didn't bring the engineer out to do it. So I'm pushing the car. So I'm like, you brought me out here to push your car so that you could, like, stop in the last scene and him driving. But they couldn't. So it was pretty funny. But he's like, all right, now get in, like, what? He's like, get in. This shot that we're doing is you getting in the car, and you're going to pretend that you're stealing it and you're going to start the next gymkhana. And I was so excited, I completely forgot, oh, my God, the monster. And I just got fired by all my sponsors. But now what's interesting about that is he was currently selling hoonigan. Now he needed to prove that without ken block, Jim khanna could continue doing what jim khanna does. And he basically came to me. He's like, we need 20 million views on this, on this video. That's not me. He goes, the only thing that I'm going to say is it has to be an epic build because I don't care what sponsor use, whatever. It has to be an epic build, has to be an epic location. And you can't do too much of this nitro circus flying bs. He's like, you can have a couple jumps, they got to be cool. But he goes, I want proximity to near death situations. I want this to be a gymkhana with your flare. He's like, go. And it was, it was the second highest like viewed Jim K. Which was an awesome. But it was Ken, as a businessman and as a friend to be like, all right, I'm going to give you this opportunity because you've talked so much crap. And at the end of the first day of filming, like I actually was doing donuts, the car caught on fire. It's late at night. We had, we had rain come in and it's supposed to be foggy the rest of the time. We had Covid. So it was our last. Like we had three days to shoot this and we're a day behind after day one. And I caught him almost crying and he goes, all right, that's all I wanted. No matter how this does, you calling me in tears has made my entire life. So it's pretty.
- [55:01]
Host 4
Wow.
- [55:02]
Host 3
That was the Florida.
- [55:03]
Travis Pastrana
No, no, that was Maryland.
- [55:04]
Host 4
Was that the one where you jumped at like 16 super fast over like.
- [55:08]
Host 1
Like a hill in the road above the power lines?
- [55:10]
Travis Pastrana
Yeah, we figured that out with a projectile calculator. But the downforce on that Subaru was like I took off 140, which I thought was like at least 5, 10 miles an hour faster. I needed to go. It was like the hand of God reached out. I was like, just really had a, had a 28g impact. I was like seeing stars.
- [55:29]
Host 2
Yeah.
- [55:31]
Host 4
That speed on a two lane road.
- [55:32]
Host 3
Nonetheless, had you been driving over that road like, yes. Your entire life? And you were like, I wonder how fast I can hit this.
- [55:39]
Travis Pastrana
I thought I could make it. So it was. The world record is 260, 269ft. So that was about 250 to the lip. And I was like, you can go 3:50 on this because you're just going to keep falling down this hill. And no kidding, because it had like a bump in the road a week before we went. They repaved it.
- [55:57]
Host 3
No, shut off. So I was like, you didn't tell them? Like they didn't know what you were.
- [56:01]
Travis Pastrana
Doing from the time we scouted this road, I'm like, dude, I know, like I ride a road bike on this. Like when I was actually in shape and used to ride by, I'm like, I rode over this every day thinking, man, you could probably hit this thing if you had a really fast car and make this big old tabletop. And they flattened it out. So we had to do. We had to fake it or not fake it. We had to build like a little, little kick at the top.
- [56:18]
Host 1
Last question to bring it out. Really quick one. I don't know if you can even answer it, but out of all of the Subaru body styles, which one do you think is the best? Good looking. Because we're all Subaru guys. Like, we grew up just thinking the STIs were the sickest car on the.
- [56:32]
Travis Pastrana
Street, to be honest. Like that. When I think of a Subaru, I might not have been like the best looking body, but the 555 World Rally car from McRae era, like the 95 kind of era, the Group B era was, was amazing. But yeah, kind of that, that 2003 STI was, was definitely my favorite.
- [56:53]
Host 1
My favorite is probably like the 06, like the Hawkeye. I just, I don't know. That's just what I like. When I was a kid, you see that driving on the street, like mom look, you know, and they just looked awesome. But our cameras are over. Our cameras are overheating.
- [57:06]
Host 4
We appreciate your time today.
- [57:07]
Host 1
Yeah, thank you so much. This is like checking off a big goal to have you on here. Like it almost seemed unattainable.
- [57:14]
Travis Pastrana
Let's get you guys out to the house. I'd love to learn from you guys, whatever. Like even just film style, like we, we kept filming, we were just over producing stuff and the stuff that's done the best is just phones. I love to see how you guys.
- [57:27]
Host 3
Next time we hang out, hopefully at Pastrana Land.
- [57:30]
Host 1
Thanks guys.