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Travis Pastrana landed the first-ever double backflip in 2006. Ten years later, he completed the first Aussie Roll (a double backflip with a 360-degree rotation). However, Pastrana didn’t pull off the first nose-bonk front flip. That distinction belongs to Kai Haase, a German FMX rider who inspired the Wonderboy’s latest — and potentially last — big motorcycle jump.
You might be asking yourself: What in the world is a nose-bonk front flip? The trick requires a rider to jump from a ramp to an elevated platform, “bonking” the bike’s front wheel against the platform’s front edge. The resulting contact initiates a front flip, which the rider completes by landing safely below. Easy peasy, right?
Pastrana set his sights on attempting the maneuver after Haase first executed it at the 2019 Masters of Dirt competition. Two weeks away from a knee replacement surgery, Pastrana knew it was now or never. He couldn’t just do any old nose-bonk front flip, though. With a back flip added to the beginning of the trick, the FMX legend was pushing the boundaries of safety and sanity. That’s been the case throughout his illustrious career.
Nicknamed the Wonderboy, Pastrana won his first X Games gold medal at the age of 15. In total, number 199 has amassed 11 X Games gold medals over the years. He also has an AMA Motocross 125 cc and an AMA Supercross 125 cc championship to his name. Pastrana’s accomplishments aren’t restricted to two wheels, either.
He won the Rally America title four years in a row (2006 through 2009) and earned a World Powerboat Championship crown in 2022. Ever the renaissance man, Pastrana even raced in two NASCAR Series, broke several Evel Knievel jump records, and drove a monster truck in Monster Jam.
Just as lengthy is Pastrana’s history of injuries. He’s torn every ligament in his left knee, broken his pelvis, and dislocated his spine. Surgeries have been performed on his thumb, wrist, elbow, knees, shoulder, and back. All that wear and tear has taken its toll on the 40-year-old stuntman. He currently needs a hip replacement and two knee replacements, which informs Pastrana’s decision to walk away from the sport.
Without all the crowds and television cameras that often surround his stunts, this final jump feels like an anticlimactic sendoff for a titan of the FMX world. If this is the end, after all, Pastrana goes out the way he came in — on top.
