Ricky MontiMat Rebeaud gets back up to speed in his foam pit after spending months off his bike.

Mat Rebeaud was the most dominant rider in freestyle back in 2008. He won all but one (second place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Jeremy Stenberg) of the Red Bull X-Fighters competitions that year and placed second at X Games to the hard charging Jeremy Lusk. After a so-so season in 2009, the bad luck started.

Practicing in Southern Calif. before the 2010 season, Rebeaud crashed, breaking an arm and collapsing a lung, before being airlifted to safety. That year he came back tentatively at X-Fighters in Moscow before taking his only podium of the season, 2nd to Robbie Maddison, in Madrid. This past March, Mat was reportedly at the top of his game and was practicing at home when disaster struck again, breaking his femur while jumping into his foam pit.

In July, one week before X-Fighters in Poland, Rebeaud had to undergo a second surgery to remove the screws at the bottom (close to the knee) of the rod in his femur. The screws were supposed to float a bit inside the hole they were in and at some point he put enough pressure on the rod to jam them into the bottom of the hole. The doctor was worried that they could bend and then that would preclude being able to remove the rod later, so they had to come out right away. As of this week, Rebeaud made the difficult decision to sit out of the final round of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour in Sydney, Australia. I caught up with the Swiss rider at home.

A day in the life with Mat Rebeaud

Italian photographer Ricky Monti spends the day in Payerne, Switzerland. Gallery

ESPN.com: So what are you up to right now?
Mat Rebeaud: I'm in my car, driving back from Neuchâtel to Payerne. The weather is beautiful here in Switzerland right now, so it's nice to be out.

You came into Poland this year and obviously you really wanted to make that a comeback. What made your decision to pull out?
On my first practice my leg was pretty okay -- I could ride alright. My leg got tired super fast and in the beginning I didn't have too much pain, but by the end of the first day I was in a lot of pain. In Poland, I knew that it would be three days of riding and I just knew that I could never make it through the third day, you know? It was a hard decision because I worked hard to ride in Poland. I got this surgery the week before Poland and I was thinking, "Maybe I can make it", but it was too painful to ride.

So you actually injured your leg when you were doing the Volt, right?
Yep. I'm pretty mad because I got the Volt dialed perfectly and it was two weeks before Dubai, before the season started. I was feeling good, I had the big tricks -- I had the Volt in my pocket and, you know ... But that's the sport -- you work very hard and it didn't pay out. All the work I did last winter; that will help me for the next season. You never lose it.

I remember talking to Maddo right before X Games about the pressure of pulling out of a big event. How hard is it to pull out of something like Red Bull X-Fighters Australia when you have sponsors relying on you?
You know, it's a really hard decision, but it doesn't come from the sponsors. I'm very lucky because all of my sponsors are behind me and nobody pushed me to come back. It's more hard for the heart. It's just like you put so much dedication and you work so hard to come back and you really want to do well. For me to ride X-Fighters, you know it's almost the main thing in my life right now. When I wake up in the morning until I go to bed, I only think of how to find a solution to ride the next X-Fighters. You have to be smart and say, "It's not possible. I can't do it. I tried my best but it's not possible." But the decision to not ride? It's really hard. That's just the way it is.

Ricky MontiWhile unable to ride his dirt bike, Rebeaud has been hitting the gym four-days a week.

What are you doing off the bike to train? Is there anything different you do compared to the other guys?
I think right now everybody works hard. I've got a trainer and I work four times a week at the gym. I have to do a lot of bicycle work now and I have to do one hour of cycling every day for my leg. Obviously the thing that I love to do is ride my dirt bike, but right now I spend way too much time on the cycling bike and at the gym than I really want. I want to be at my practice place and spend time on my ramp, but I still have to wait a little bit.

In the minimum time you've spent on your bike this year, have you learned new tricks or tried doing 360's? Because obviously Nate Adams has been placing really well with those.
Yeah, for sure I tried the 360 and it's a very hard trick. I'm working more on the flip because that's more of a trick for my style and you know the 360 and the underflip are pretty close tricks. Then when I see Nate has pretty much won every event, I realize that I really have to add this trick to my runs next year.

Okay, since you have been a spectator for the past few months now, who is really impressing you out there over the past few months? Who do you think has looked really good?
The guy who impressed me most is Josh Sheehan. He's got such big extensions and I think he is still a little bit young. He's made a few small mistakes at the X-Fighters events, but I think it's because of the pressure that you have the first time you go to the event, when you have that crowd and this kind of big event. For the future I don't think he will have many more missteps and I think he'll be a big competitor for the win.

That's a bold prediction. I like it. So, what does it feel like to win and have the attention of the entire crowd as you stand in the middle of the stadium? The moment you know you're number one.
It's hard to explain. I don't think you realize in the moment because everything goes so fast. You stop and you have this point where you understand that you have won and you see everything going on around you, but I think it is more the day after when you see the pictures and you watch the video. It's pretty much the day after when you realize what you just did.

Ricky MontiBreaking a femur is no fun, and as you can tell by his x-ray, Rebeaud did some damage.

It's got to be such an unbelievable experience.
Yeah and I'm the lucky guy who has already had it. (laughing)

And in 2008 you had it a lot!
The thing is ... the hard thing about this sport is that winning X-Fighters is like a drug. It's super hard to get this feeling, but once you get it you want it more and more and more.

Since you haven't been riding your dirt bike too much lately, what have you been doing in your hometown of Payerne to keep yourself busy? Just eat chocolate and cheese all the time?
(laughs) Sometimes, but the cheese is only for the wintertime. You have fondue when it's cold. There are lots of things to do in Switzerland that are very cool, but when I am quiet and in Switzerland I just try to spend time with my friends and with my family. I know that when the season starts there is no way to see my friends. It's pretty funny because when I'm really busy I am so happy to come back to Switzerland and to smell the fresh air, but at this point it has been five months since I've last competed, so now I'm over Switzerland and ready to travel the world and ride my dirt bike again!