Way back when, when is was 17-18 (so 02-03 timeline) I used to do freestyle demos for Monster Jam (I believe that's what they called it back then). My intentions were to get my feet wet first with doing demos then try to compete but due to being young, extremely dumb, bad decisions, bad attitude and very little support, besides my brother, I ended up getting out of it. I don't really keep up with fmx anymore as I feel after the foam pit became a training staple the sport kind of lost it's luster. Not taking away from the current riders because they are doing some insane, high risk stuff, but you know they practiced it into a foam pit for several months beforehand and have it pretty dialed come showtime. I do think I remember reading somewhere that Adam Jones was one of the only guys that learned the majority of his backflip tricks straight to dirt which is insane. Carey Hart doing the first ever backflip, for the first time, over dirt at The Gravity Games is probably the most intense thing the sport has ever seen as well as TP's double backflip. I mean you could feel the tension and anxiety in the arena through your TV screen.
My very small, semi-professional stint was fun while it lasted, but I wasn't a mature enough 17 year old kid to be able to make any wise decisions with what I had going on at the time. I was able to give the sport 2 new tricks "The Rigormortis" which was a dead body to sterilizer and "The Highlighter" which was named after the fallen rider Adam Pierce and is a vertical dead body and the trick made it into the MX vs. ATV video games and Adam Jones is still doing the Highlighter today in his runs which is super cool.
Here's a pic of me doing the Highlighter at the first demo I did back in 02 I believe and a double grab on a 300lb Cannondale haha. Some of the funnest and darkest times of my life.
You didn't know if they would land it. The crowd was on the edge of their seats the whole time back in the day. 
