The Red Bull Ammo Camp is attempting to resurrect me from the FMX graveyard.
November 11, 2009, 2:34 AM
By: Ryan Leyba
The answer to your question is YES — my body feels like it's been hit by the bat of Yankees player Hideki Matsui — over and over ... and over again. Besides that, day two of my non-official FMX comeback went surprisingly well! I'm not going to get into the details like I did on day one, but I'll try to fill you in on what went down today without boring you.
Zan Bartolli
Day two is through, but I have yet to produce a photo worth your while. If all goes as planned, day three should be the day that all comes to an end.
Red Bull Ammo Camp Day 2
Day two started off with an early Drake McElroy-led riders meeting at the Red Bull hospitality rig, which then turned into a video review session from the footage shot yesterday. Red Bull hired a videographer to film the entire camp so the riders can then watch the footage to analyze their riding and tricks. Since this obviously didn't involve me (due to me not pulling any tricks on day one), I decided to get a head start and warm up on the non-death-defying-sized jumps. I picked up where I left off on Drake McElroy's Honda CR250 (two-stroke), but for some reason I felt out of control on the thing. Since Red Bull had two Honda CRF250's and two CRF450's, I decided to give the four-stroke a shot in an attempt to smooth out my riding. After spinning a few laps on it and hitting some of the smaller jumps, I realized that the CRF250 four-stroke was the bike for me. As kindly as possible, I informed Drake that his bike sucks and that I'd be riding Red Bull's CRF250 for the rest of the Ammo Camp.
While Drake continued schooling Keith Sayers, Lance Coury, Jack Rowe and Jeff Fehr, I decided to ditch school and hit the ramp on the new bike just to get it over with. I made a few test runs, but I quickly realized that it may be a bit underpowered, so I had the on-site staff (Yes, the Red Bull Compound has a full-time on-site maintenance staff!) move the ramp up three feet. After a few quick test runs, I hit the baby and it was on from that point. I must've hit it over 50 times, just getting the feeling back, but I decided that I'd save my tricks for day three.
After lunchtime, Drake's pre-planned camp schedule called for an afternoon foam pit session. First off, let me tell you that the foam pit at the Red Bull Compound is the most high tech, state of the art foam pit in the world. Local boy Lance Coury kicked off the foam pit sesh, followed by Jeff Fehr, Keith Sayers and myself ... yes, myself. I don't know what special powers Drake McElroy has over me, but when he tells me to do something, I just do it. Maybe because I know that he wouldn't tell me to do anything that would kill me. So, yeah, I hit the freakin' thing. 80 feet, second gear pinned, straight jump with no flip or anything fancy and it was probably one of the most exhilarating things I've done on a dirt bike. Since the pit is so massive and high tech, it honestly felt like I jumped into a group of clouds.
Red Bull Ammo Camp Day 2 Reflection
Two down and two to go. Today was fairly progressive for me, especially since I found a bike that I feel comfortable on. As I'm projecting, tomorrow will be the day the limbs begin flying off the bike. Kiss of Death? Tweak Air? Hart Attack? Who knows ... I'll be happy if I even remember how to take my feet off the foot pegs.
Thanks again for all your support and I'll see you tomorrow! Also, the reason for lack of photos and video is because I don't want to show you photos of me unless I'm getting absolutely sick, so if all goes well, expect to see some bangers from Garth Milan tomorrow or Thursday.
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Contributors
Ryan Leyba
Leyba is a bitter, retired FMX rider that likes to sit in his cubicle and call the professionals of the sport wussies for not pulling 360s and double backflips. He claims he quit riding FMX before flips were even invented... yeah, right.
Cliff Talley
Making FMX videos exciting is easy. Making them look good is not. Cliff Talley does both of these well and still manages to find enough time to piss off his neighbors with his Travis Barker-esque drum skills.
Chris Tedesco
You've seen his photos on the covers of Transworld, Racer X and more. You've also seen his tequila shooting skills at your local dive bar. Ladies, Chris is single and looking to mingle.
Grant "Goba" O'brien
FMX in Australia wouldn't exist if it weren't for Goba. Well, maybe it would, but it wouldn't be nearly as cool. I don't know why, but we can't quit calling him gobalobadingdong — it just rolls off the tongue.
Tes Sewell
Tes is the dude that's always involved in everything that's going on in FMX. How he does it, we don't know, but that's the reason we hired him to share his plethora of FMX wisdom in the form of a monthly column.
