This brought me back to the days of elementary school Scholastic book fairs. My parents never gave me much to shop with at those, but what few books I did manage to accumulate from them tended to be books like this. I remember an unofficial biography of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, some super-slim book on Tony Hawk, and something else about this man, Travis Pastrana. This was before the days when the internet was as readily available as it was back then, when we were still back on dial-up and the only computers available to me were the ones in the school computer lab and the one at home we had to share with the entire family. This, then, was my best way of learning more about what I was interested in. Back then, it was definitely wrestling and extreme sports. I continue to follow both, but they haven’t carved out a huge chunk of my life like they did back then. I blame that on the stagnation of most extreme sports and the WWE going down the toilet quality-wise long ago.
Anyway, since the early days of my love for extreme sports, two names have been my biggest standouts: Travis Pastrana and Tony Hawk. Whether it be their accomplishments, or their personal life, I find both uniquely interesting. Tony Hawk of course spawned a series of insanely popular games and Travis Pastrana went on to spawn the Nitro Circus tour that I hope one day to attend. (Hopefully when Pastrana himself is not out due to injuring himself in a base-jump gone awry) But this book here was written before Nitro Circus had even become a reality, and when base-jumping was still a novelty to Pastrana. He produced videos under the Nitro Circus banner, and did a couple base-jumps, including two off a dirt bike into the Grand Canyon, but both have come to define him in a far bigger and different way at this point in his life. Still, this book makes for a fascinating look into Pastrana’s early life.
At times, it’s alarming to read as an adult, especially in light of what’s come out about CTE. His discussions of his own concussions, and disregard for medical advice pertaining to them, and his talk of BMX riders such as Dave Mirra (RIP) being the toughest extreme sports athletes out there because of concussion-related reasons was very unsettling. Mirra went on to kill himself and it was discovered he had advanced CTE, which many guess probably had a hand in leading him to that act. It’s one thing to hear about Pastrana severing his spine from his hip, an extreme rarity for an extreme guy, but it’s another thing entirely to hear about him treating his brain like a squash ball. My thought process is, if it were my kid, I’d rather they make themselves into a veritable cripple later in life with a laundry list of other injuries than turn their brain into mush with concussions. One of my favorite wrestlers growing up, Chris Benoit, is now infamous for killing his wife, son, and himself, probably in large part because of advanced CTE from years of head trauma. Then there’s the aforementioned Dave Mirra. And that’s just naming two of the more personal cases to me; there are plenty of other cases of athletes whose CTE has had disastrous effects. I sincerely hope Pastrana has wised up some in the years since.
The rest of the time, however, it’s mostly just a fun tale of how far a kid will push himself to have fun. Because that’s what Pastrana’s entire career has been about for him. Whenever he try-hards, so to speak, his performance suffers because he’s not enjoying himself. And if something stops giving him that spark of joy, he’ll find himself drifting away from it. It’s why he went from motocross to freestyle. It’s why he likes rallycross, feeling it’s motocross only better, fresher, and more varied. Don’t let it get confused, though: he remains driven to win throughout it all. In one case, just to prove a point to his coach, who thought he was a dumb, lazy freestyler, he not only rode an entire motocross race with a bum shoulder, he won it, despite an injection into that shoulder and a drug cocktail being the only thing keeping him going. Some may consider Pastrana reckless or stupid, yet I think that goes for practically any athlete going. Their bodies are merely their vehicles, and if they have to drive them with a flat tire or two or three or four, they damned well will. Again, though, I hope Pastrana gets a bit smarter about that, especially now that he has a wife and kid and had that base-jump scare (not long after one of his friends died similarly). At the very least, he’s gotta stay kicking long enough for me to see him live.