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LANCE RUSSELL KICKS OFF 2022 WITH A BANG
There was no rest over the Holidays for Lance Russell. The foam pit was in full use, practicing for the 2022 tour with Freestyle Kings. Lets get a January / February update from the man himself -
Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out Kawasaki News! With so many Freestyle Kings shows coming up, I knew I had to train hard in the lead up to the year. I did so many 360’s into the foam, I worked on body varials (jumping off the bike, spinning around and grabbing back on) and even learnt Ruler Backflips!
Late December we rode in Melbourne for the ‘Keep It Reet’ Drift Car Events. That was a crazy atmosphere with cars sliding all around us as we were jumping. It was actually my show since I broke my foot in a silly accident I had on the airbag. We smashed out the drive to Melbourne in a day, rode all night and made the long trip back straight after. That would have to be my quickest trip to Melbourne!
We ended up giving away a 2022 Kawasaki KLX110RL to a member of our fan club, known as RY LAND. We put all our members names into a barrel and draw out prizes every week. A well deserving family won this amazing bike and I couldn’t be more thrilled to deliver it to them!
First stop of 2022 was Crookwell, NSW. Crookwell is right near the wind farms near Goulburn, NSW. This small town had its biggest turn out for the local show in 40 years. We made sure we put on a great show, and I ended up landing my first Ruler Backflip here after learning it in the foam pit. With hundreds of kids watching on, the Crookwell Show was a special one for me.
We only just got home from the Crookwell Show and we were straight into a 3:00am start, riding for Channel 7’s Sunrise Morning Show. We did over five live crosses promoting the Freestyle Kings LIVE Gosford event. That was a crazy experience, got some nice one on one time on air with weatherman/comedian Sam Mac and craziest part was jumping through flames! We usually jump with flames next to our jumps, but this time we literally set up the flames underneath us, and jumped straight through them. Video doesn’t do this any justice. The heat you feel while jumping through them was intense, we had to be careful that our jerseys didn’t singe.
I was then lucky enough to work with the huge gaming computer company RAZER + NVIDIA. We had a huge film shoot with them leading up Freestyle Kings LIVE. I'm lucky enough to be using the new Razer Blade 17 laptop as a tool for my training. Because it can handle our 4K footage with NVIDIA Studio, we were breaking down footage with all my foam pit tricks, seeing what I was doing wrong and exporting full quality video edits on the spot. It was one of those things you never knew you needed in motocross. It’s let me progress so fast. The full edit came out great. See it here -
I then hit Coast Motorcycle Centre in Gosford, NSW with the Kawasaki team for a meet and greet! It was awesome to see such a great motorcycle shop in action, full of motocross fans and full of off-road Kawasaki dirt bikes. It was good to bump shoulders with Robbie Maddison again, he is a great ambassador for Freestyle Motocross and it was humbling to sit next to him signing autographs. The people who came to our meet and greet were awesome and I had an good time chatting to so many of them!
It was now time to put the helmet back on and hit Central Coast Stadium. Turning up early to the stadium, thinking we had hours of rest was an obvious mistake. Within 5 minutes of arrival, we were told to gear up and do a Studio 10 live cross. Back into rush mode we did exactly that and had a great chat to them and also NBN, Fox Sports and STAN Sports. That was followed by hours of practice and rehearsals.
As the sun started to set, the crowd started to roll in. The crowd filled the stadium to 7,000 strong. (We had the crowd at one side of the stadium so they could sit as close as possible to the jumps). Earlier in the week I came up short on a jump, so I was feeling pretty sore. I knew I had to go for the 360 Heel Clicker in Best Trick for the competition segment and I was feeling pretty nervous. Only a handful of riders can do the 360 so it’s a mental block to overcome.
The first half of the show was flawless. I felt great and did my best for the huge crowd. As the second half came on, it was straight into Best Trick. Watching rider by rider go for each jump I knew my moment was getting closer and closer. Pat Bowden landed his trick, I started up my bike again, rolled around to the run up and went for it. The 360 didn’t go as flat as I planned but that was ok, because it meant I was keeping it safe and guaranteeing that I would land back on my wheels. Next moment, feeling like time slowed down, I saw I was coming up short and not making the jump. Luckily Freestyle Kings make the safest landings possible for our shows. The new AirBag landers are made with heavy kevlar and cost about $75,000 each. Although because they are inflatable, it has drastically reduced injury by 99%. I literally planted my front wheel into the top of the landing, face planted, rag doll flipped down the landing and got straight back up! Literally walked away from one of the biggest crashed I’ve had.
That was such a confidence booster to know you can make such big mistakes and escape injury. Freestyle Kings have gone above and beyond with their safety in motocross and I am very thankful that the future is looking safe for the next generation of riders.
