1999- Attempted my first backflips. I attempted somewhere between 15 and 20 throughout the course of a few weeks if I remember correctly. I carved a jump out of a dirt pile approximately 4′ tall near my neighborhood. Kept landing upside down.
2006 – (pretty sure) Did my first backflip at Centennial High School (where I went to) on a semi-large dirt jump approximately 5′ tall with a distance of perhaps 8′ to the landing. I tried a solid 12 earlier that day and kept crashing hard, even having to carry my bike to Sunset Cycle to fix it up. It was when Phil Book told me not to pull back hard, but rather go with the curve of the jump, that I finally landed one. Phil Book, Derek Peterson, Tim Bertrand and a large number of other people were there, either as bmxers, lacrosse or soccer players nearby.
2014 around Christmas time-I finally started riding a training facility with larger ramps than the free ones at local skateparks. This training facility is known as the Twin Cities Fantasy Factory. From here on my trick vocabulary was about to explode from where it previously was.
Arial Tricks Prior to 2014
-360
-x-ups
-barspin
-No hands, No feet, one hand, one foot, no footed one hander, nothings, one hander one footer, etc.
-Superman
-Can-Can
-No Footed Can-Can
One Handed no footed Can-Can
Backflip (once, at CHS dirt jump)
-tire grab
-360 tire grab
-turndown
-360 turndown
-frame stand lander
2014 Arial Tricks
-Relearned flips after 7 or 8 years
-Superman Seat Grab
-Superman to No Footed Can-Can (Washington County Fair, inspired by Dallas Wiemer)
-Superman to Pendulum (Washington County Fair)
-Superman to Tuck No Hander
-Nothing superman
-nothing superman to can-can
-nothing superman to no footed can-can
-nothing superman to pendulum
-Super Flip
-Turndown Flip (First show I ever did. Open Streets of Minneapolis)
-Can-Can Flip (I think Milaca County fair… the one with the terrible wood/sand runway. Also where I did an interview for a radio station and sported their sticker on my helmet [still on there])
-No footed Can-Can Flip
-Pendulum Backflip
-No handed Flip
-No hander to no footer Flip
-Nothing Flip
-Peacock Backflip (This one got my name out there in the bmx world. Mat Hoffman reposted this on Facebook, Instagram, talked about it to a lot of people and even sent me a personal email congratulating me on it! Receiving that email was one of the most fulfilling moments in my bmx career, if not the most.)
-Double Backflip (Last show of the season in front of Penn Cycle in Richfield. I had just learned the heart-breaking news that my grandfather [my best friend and whom I’d lived with, in addition to my parents, bro and dog, since I was 8] was unresponsive on my way to the show. I hadn’t even tried one in the foam pit in probably over a month. I was in a different state of mind during that show than I’d ever been while riding a bike. I believe that had a lot to do with me throwing a double flip.)
-Double Fork Grab Backflip
-Double Fork Grab to no hander Backflip
-Double Fork Grab to Nothing Backflip
-360 Flip (ALMOST LANDED! Put a foot down so technically it didn’t count)
-one handed can-can
-tire grab can-can
-tire grab no footed can-can
-Pendulum
-One handed Pendulum
-Triple no footed Can-Can
-One handed triple no footed can-can
-Double Pendulum
-One Handed Double Pendulum (last show of the season. Same day I landed my first double backflip. In front of Penn Cycle in Richfield.)
-360 Double Tire Grab
-360 Tuck no hander
-360 No Footer
-360 one hander
-360 one handed tabletop
-360 one hander no footer
-360 one hander to no footer
-cliff hanger
-Cordova
-ALMOST LANDED a cordova backflip. Rolled away
– Cannon Ball
-One handed Cannon Ball
– One handed no footed frame grab
-No footed double frame grab
-Tailwhip
2015 Arial Tricks
-360 Tailwhip (1/20/15 at the Factory)
– Bar spin
_ Truck Driver
– Truck driver to no footer
-one footed x-up
-360 One footed x-up