Travis Pastrana was a Moto-X legend before the 2006 X Games

23-year old Travis Pastrana was a Moto-X legend before the 2006 X Games. He didn't need to put his life in insane danger to keep it that way. If you have ever watched Moto X freestyle, where rider jump insanely high and do crazy things while airborne on motocross bikes, you know its no sport for the weak-kneed. But the insanity of the thrill of watching is as close as you can get to feeling a sport without actually playing at it. During the 2006 Freestyle season he lost interest in freestyle. His new passion was rally racing. Then at an event in Louisville, KY, Travis lost to Nate Adams. He didn't have any new tricks and he understood he got beat by the better man that day. And he gave Adams the props on the stage. Adams had been the only person to beat him, and he done it three times. Adams wasn't as gracious and said beating Travis was no big deal because "I'm just better". That was all the spark a competitor like Travis needed. He had managed to land one double back flip, the holy grail of Moto X freestyle previously in practice, but no one believed it. No one could believe it could be done. So he toyed with the idea of doing it at the X Games. No one believed he would. When he wanted a special ramp build they said "You just want the drama". Even he didn't know if he would. His friends, his parents everyone tried to convince him not to. They were sure he would die if he tried it. Coming into the last round Travis was in last place and he needed something spectacular to win. A young kid reached out his hand to him as he approached the take off. "Don't do it Travis", he said. "My Mommy said when you die you're dead forever." He told them to put in his ramp. The whole arena had been abuzz with the rumor. Now that the ramp was up and moved back the rumor became an impending reality. The excitement was palpable. Everyone though they were going to watch a legend die. Travis' mother in the stands thought she was going to see her son die. Travis was sure he would crash and all he could think of was what to do when it happened. How should he fall? He knew he'd crash but he didn't want to die. He took off and hit the ramp feeling good, the first flip went went well but maybe too fast and he slowed it down. Then he realized he was going to slow so he pushed with all his might to complete it. At the top of his arc he barely missed the flood lights by inches. If he'd hit them he would have crashed to the ground from 50 feet in the air. Then the bike hit the dirt and...he didn't fall. He'd made it. Watch Travis Pastrana make history.