Sam Rogers' epic roadtrip spawns new world record: 117 foot backflip
March 17, 2009, 6:27 PM
By: Tim Mutrie
Last month Sam Rogers climbed into his truck in Billings, Mont., and started pinning it south. Well, first he picked up a rental trailer and hitched it to the truck. Then he pinned it down to Rifle, Colo. There, he loaded one of only two ramps in the known world known as the BAR (Big Ass Ramp) onto the trailer. Then he pinned it back north, retracing his route to Billings and then, way, way north, onto to Whitecourt, Alberta, which is about eight hours north of Calgary (if you're pinning it, which Rogers was).
Much like an Olympic long-jumping official, Sam Rogers inspects his landing crater in Whitecourt, Alberta, in order to determine the official distance (117 feet).
This wild roadtrip was all part of Rogers' plan to establish a new world-record distance for a snowmobile backflip (which he also did). But by the time Rogers arrived in Whitecourt, Alberta, for the "Sled Invasion" event put on by the local snowmobiling club, he was in a state of mourning. He was grieving the death of FMX rider Jeremy Lusk, who was a good friend from some international trips together. And yet he had come all this way to attempt the biggest backflip ever done before.
That's sort of the scenario when we caught up with Rogers last month. He was just climbing back into his truck in Billings with the ramp on the trailer off the back. Because he still needed to return the ramp to Colorado. Then he was turning around and pinning it back to Billings. Or something like that.
SAM ROGERS:
"Whitecourt was just awesome man. People were so rad. The most supportive people I've ever met in my life."
Worth the drive then?
"Yeah, we drove all the way up there, pulling the ramps: Two super kickers and then the BAR."
World record distance flip?
"We put on a couple of freestyle demos; one on a Friday night and another one on Sunday. I did the big one on Friday night."
In order to be official-like, the tape was strung from the lip of the ramp across to the landing.
What's the backstory on the record?
"[Daniel] Bodin had it at 109 [feet] from Winter X, and I hit one to 117. I hit the ramp at 80 feet a few times in the morning and then pulled it back to 110. I straight-aired it a couple of times and then I flipped it for the show. It was pretty sketchy coming in so fast; kind of getting crossed up. So it was actually smoother flipping it and straight-airing it, so that's nice."
Nice indeed. "Yeah, it was huge. Especially that ramp, back ten feet further than at X Games, it was popping big. But that ramp's way smooth and that why I wanted to use it."
You went the distance for that ramp. Hopefully it knows that. "Yes, me too. Right now I'm grabbing the ramp and trailer all over again and pinning it to Rifle, Colorado, to drop the ramp back off. Hopefully going to rip 8 to 10 hours down and then straight back."
What's the rush?
"I'm hoping to get some foam pit time in here, to expand my bag of tricks. I'd like to get a Cordova flip, things like that. So I might rip down to Texas, or I'm talking about maybe going down to California. ... I've got the time so I might as well try to get some more sh-- figured out leading into the comp in Jackson [Wyoming, March 28, during Hill Climb weekend]."
Dane Ferguson has said he doesn't sign autographs for kids over 13. Maybe that's why this 14-ish-year-old kid in Whitecourt, Alberta, looks a little sketched out by Ferguson and his Sharpie.
Condolences about your friend Jeremy Lusk.
"Thanks. He was a good friend and it's pretty gnarly, the whole thing. You just don't expect to hear about something like that; a young church-going dude doing down. Holy sh--, man, it's just hard to take in and especially when you're trying to do something like this [WR backflip]. It's like, 'What if something goes wrong?' So I was praying hard nothing bad happened, because if one tiny thing does go wrong, you can go down way hard, obviously."
How did you become friends with him?
"I did a couple of shows overseas with him. I always looked up to the guy from a while back, so getting to meet him was really cool and then we just got to be pretty tight."
You were in Whitecourt with Jimmy Blaze, Dane Ferguson and Kourtney Hungerford, and we hear Blaze pinned it something like 22 hours straight to make the show last-minute style. So how was that? "A blast; way fun. Hanging around all those guys made things better for me, just like family."
Dane Ferguson is known for heaving pieces of his personal gear into the crowd during shows. Here, it appears someone's getting a Ferguson model winter camo jacket.
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Contributors
Tim Mutrie
As a retired ski patroller and Aspen Times staffer, Tim Mutrie has been deciphering two-stroke transmissions since '07. He also covers big mountain skiing in the ESPN Freeskiing Blog.
Vince Castellanos
Vince has been covering action sports for ESPN since 1998 (that makes him, like, old and stuff). He is not the funniest man in the industry, but he has interviewed Mike Mason. Look for Vince's FMX coverage to be ramping up.
