Motocross: Kiwi showing why he's best of flippin' best

Levi Sherwood's performance at Osaka in Japan was described as flawless, which he partly ascribes to a lengthy break before the season.

Freestyle motocross rider Levi Sherwood landed perfectly on his world tour debut and has been an international star since.

Now he is well on the way to a career-best season. The 22-year-old from Palmerston North won the opening rounds of the premier Red Bull X-Fighters series at Mexico City and Osaka, where his performance was described as flawless.

An extreme sport sensation was born when Sherwood made his X-Fighters debut at Mexico in 2009. He claimed the tour title in 2012, has made his mark in the X-Games and is poised for another X-Fighters triumph with three events remaining.

Sherwood is the best in the world at a sport most regard as outrageously scary, to put it mildly. Riding the city streets is crazy enough, but hurtling through the air, treating your 100kg motorbike as a circus prop belongs on a different planet. He chatted to the Weekend Herald from Los Angeles.

Could you have predicted this fantastic start to the series?

I felt burnt out last year but you have to keep riding ... I still managed a second and a third but that's not alright when you are out to win.

This year I'm going out to have fun and winning. It feels like when I first started. I managed nine [months off] in the off-season this time which might have something to do with it. Year to year, you never know what the judges might want.

How do you know where the competition is at? I stay right out of it in the off-season. No one knows what I'm doing and I don't know what they are doing.

Do you need to be at least slightly crazy?

I wouldn't say crazy for myself. I don't like to do stuff that hurts. If anyone thought I'd jumped right into what I do they would think it was crazy, but I started when I was 9. It's got to be well planned. There are a few who are nuts and just hope for the best - I won't name names.

Fear?

Yes and no ... it's something we all deal with and obviously we've all been hurt.

It is scary doing stuff for the first time and there are certain tricks you are nervous of or scared to do. I'm known for the Shaolin Backflip.

It's an all or nothing ... if you don't do the trick you end up landing on the back of your head.

Do you remember the first time you nailed that backflip?

I was 16, riding with friends on a banana farm on the Gold Coast. Going out to try something new doesn't really work for me. If I'm out there having fun with friends, you feed off each other, come up with things on the go.

So what do you ride around the streets?

I don't have my motorcycle licence. That's on my list of things to do. I drive a car.

Your father Dave was a speedway bike rider ... was your childhood spent at the track?

I was at speedway every single weekend of my life until I was about 16. It is so short and intense on those machines. I've been on one but never raced ... it is definitely hard work.

Childhood hero ...

(American) Travis Pastrana. He pushed freestyle to where it is today. I really looked up to him when I was young and still do. He's not afraid ... he's absolutely nuts and one of the guys who is crazy, but in a good way.

Has freestyle motocross joined the sports trends - gym work, psychologists, etc?

No, although I think in years to come it will happen. There is still a pioneering feel to freestyle. The originals are still there. I don't think anyone can understand our sport unless they have been part of it. I know Pastrana had a gymnast helping him with a certain flip ... spin, rotation, axis and all that stuff. But no one else has picked up on it yet.

Hobbies?

I ride for an hour a day and the rest of my spare time is in the garage on my lifestyle block and on the bulldozer building [training] tracks.

If you weren't a professional sportsman ...

I'd probably be an engineer ... sheet metal work, fabrication. That's what I left school to do but ended up moving to Aussie and riding freestyle.

Your best advice for a budding freestyler is ...

Enjoy. Everyone has different motivations - keep the fun in it.

What's the best advice you've received?

I've always learned the hard way, on my own, or from experience.

When will you compete in New Zealand?

I go to the Farm Jam in Invercargill which is world class, but is more for fun. I'd love to see X-Fighters come here.