FMX rider Levi Sherwood, who became the first Kiwi to win a freestyle gold medal at the X Games, says the journey to the top has had its bumps and bruises.
The 25-year-old locked down gold on his second run when he produced the inspiring yet dangerous no-hands double backfliptrick, scoring 92.33 to beat out Australian duo Josh Sheehan and Clinton Moore.
But the rider nicknamed the "Rubber Band Man" told Radio Sport's Daniel McHardy it has been a sketchy road to pulling off the inspired double back flip trick.
"I always went there with the goal of winning freestyle so I'm pretty stoked to take home a first gold medal after all of these years and obviously winning best trick was the icing on the cake.
"I've got the set up at home now to practice. It just takes months and months of practice. We learn a lot of our tricks in the foam pit and now we have air bags to practice on before we got to dirt and take it to the competition.
"It's definitely dangerous even though we're still learning in the foam but I still see people getting hurt all the time doing it. If you treat it like something you're not going to get hurt in I guarantee you will do. You still have respect for what you're doing and what you're jumping into."
Levi Sherwood flips during Moto X Freestyle at X Games Minneapolis. Photo / Getty
The Palmerston North-raised rider had previously won three silvers in 2010, 2012 and 2015 before claiming his first gold last weekend.
Sherwood said the scariest part of the job is the unknown of learning new tricks.
"The first time you ever have to learn a new trick you're packing yourself.
"We're still learning so you have no idea what is going on. So that's the time where things go wrong.
"It's only down the line where you start to understand the trick a little bit better and start to be calm with it."
Levi Sherwood celebrates after scoring a 92.33 on his 2nd run. Photo / Getty
"I had never done that before what I did in the best trick. It was a cool feeling. I knew I had to do something more than what I had done the night before. I just had to throw it all out there.
"I knew I had something that no one else could do I didn't know whether that would be enough. Simply because you don't know what the judges are thinking.
"A few weeks ago I did the double flip for the first time in competition at the Nitro World Games and I couldn't talk to anyone for an hour before hand. I had to stick to myself and go over and over it in my head to make sure I had it all right.
"It's an unreal feeling. When you go through that and come out the other side having landed it and finished in first place it's amazing."
Sherwood has a few months off before heading to Australia to ride a guest trick event where he says he's yet to invent a new trick.
