MR NICE GUY – NATE ADAMS INTERVIEW 

Born in Pheonix, Arizona, Nate Adams started riding at eight-years-of-age after his Dad brought him his first dirt-bike. Then after a few years of learning the secrets of riding he started racing at an intermediate level for five years or so until his passion for jumping turned his focus towards freestyle. In those early days Nate would ride two to three motos at his local track and then spend an hour with his mates on a big big table-top practicing Heelclickers and the basic tricks, which would eventually lead him down the path to win a freestyle world championship. Nate is the nice-guy of the sport. A guy who takes his profession very seriously, but also one who can see the fun side, which is why he’s delved into the darkside and joined the Crusty Nine Lives tour in Australia. Nate popped into the Freerider office before the Brisbane stop to talk about the tour, his X Games gold medal loss, and how he learns those crazy Flips.  

Nate, where are you living now: I moved to Temecula, California, at end of 2003 to be closer to Metzgers foam pit as I chipped in some money towards it, and I wanted to learn new tricks, but then it burnt down so now I drive eight hours north to Dustin Millers place at Reno to ride his foam pit for practice. Is the foam pit where you’ve learnt all your variations of the Flip: No, I’ve never learned a variation into the foam pit, I’ve only ever learned the 360 into one. I first tried the 360 on a TTR 90 and then progressed to my 250. So is it just a case of slow progression with learning the variations on dirt: Yeah, I started doing No Footed Flips for a while, then I started bringing my legs up until the inside part of my knees would hit my elbows. I did this about five times in a row, and I was like, all I need to do now is bend my knees and wrap my legs around, and the next time I just did it and there it was. It’s all about making it one smooth movement through the air with a perfect rotation. At this stage I think the No Hander Flips are the hardest because I’ve only been doing them for a few weeks and I’ve probably still got in my head that they are the hardest. I actually crashed pretty hard the second day I was learning them. I think I let go of my bars unevenly and they turned, and then I couldn’t find them on landing, which meant the front wheel was crossed up on landing and it then high-sided me. I haven’t had any problems on the tour though as I’ve just been riding towards the ramp with my hands pretty loose, and then as I start to Flip I gently let my fingers off the bars and then my hands instead of in one hit, which can unsettle the bars. Is 75-foot a good size gap to Flip off: I think it’s a perfect size gap to Flip over. How much further could you push it: It’s hard to say. I Flipped 90-foot on ice at Winter X this year in third gear, but that was pretty gnarly. We only had a few minutes of practice and I hit the jump about five or six times. I was feeling pretty nervous before the first Flip attempt, but everything worked out perfectly. How different is it on the ice: The worse thing is it’s such a high elevation up there and the bikes run pretty flat. It’s kinda weird as you don’t get that pop in your motor to drive you around. You just have to gain a lot more speed and carry it off the jump. The ice is kind of slicky and tacky at the same time. I mean you can do like nose wheelies on it and stuff, but at the same time you kinda spin on it a little bit. Getting back to Crusty, you’ve pretty much got to Flip on call so how has that been: Yeah, it’s more like a theatre show than a freestyle competition. You have to know your cue, know what you’re doing and be there on time. I was kind of nervous about it at first before the first show, but when it comes down to it I think the pressure helps me to perform. Have you had much input of what you do in the show: No, not really. I was just told what to do and everything seems to work out pretty good. My intro is kind of like the “All American Boy” theme, and I dig it. It kind of gives the fans something to identify me with. At Summer X Games 2003 you had a near perfect run in freestyle both technically and variation of tricks wise. Were you bummed at not winning gold after Pastrana crashed in his run: That’s how I felt at the time for sure, but I’ve kinda thought back on it and there’s parts of Travis’s run that could of influenced the judges to beat me, and there’s parts of his run that made me think that I definitely should have won. Travis did use one jump that no one else used, which was the transfer from landing to landing, and I just read a quote from another magazine just the other day, where one of the judges said, “Travis didn’t do everything in his qualifying run and saved things like his 360 and Transfer for the final”, where as I look at it like, I don’t even want there to be a chance of me not making it to the main so I did everything in my qualifier, and did the same for the final, and this is what let me down as far as the judge was concerned. But I don’t understand how my run can be the best in the qualifier and not in the final when Travis crashed his brains out. I can understand it’s easy for the judges to get caught up in the excitement of a new trick being thrown down, but in my mind, they had a riders meeting before the event and explained the rules clearly. Everyone knows in freestyle that if you crash, not just a slide out in a corner but a major crash while attempting a trick, your run is pretty much done. Then if you attempt another trick once your time is over, it’s just for the crowd and not for the judges. So everything at X Games pretty much went out the window for me, and it made me really mad. Were you happy with the Big Air results: That one I’d say was more legit. Deegan did a really good 360, and I did a pretty good Flip Heelclicker to No Hander Lander, so it was up in the air and could have gone either way. I wasn’t doing 360s so I respected Deegan for doing them, and he wasn’t doing what I was doing so I’m sure he had respect for what I was doing. It was just up to the judges really. Going into the Gravity Games were you kind of thinking to yourself, what have I gotta do to beat Travis: My mind-set going into that event was like there’s no way you can beat him. He can do anything he wants and is going to win. Because he’s always going to have one new thing to do and it’s going to be big. I think he has more natural talent than any other rider out there so he’s going to use the course better, plus be more exciting to watch. I really thought there was no way I could beat him so I just rode my best aiming for the silver but ended up winning, which really blew my mind. Did the gold medal restore some faith in you: Yeah it did for sure. It gave me a lot of confidence and took a huge weight off my shoulders. It made me feel free of a burden, like I could sleep easier or something. It was a good feeling. When I think back about that Gravity win now it’s kind of not real to me, it’s kinda like ‘Wow!’ it was a huge accomplishment and I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. So it’s X Games gold this year: Yeah, definitely an X Games gold this year. Have you got something new: I’ve been working on 360s, No Handed Flips, and learnt Nac Nac Flips in practice the other day. I also want to learn Seat Grab Flips, and basically just have a bit of everything. I just want to be solid like I have been the last couple of years. Getting back to Crusty, how’d the whole deal come about: I just got a phone call from my manager asking me if I want to do the tour and I was kinda pumped that I got invited. It was like for sure I want to do it. Deegan, Faisst, Twitch and the boys are known for pulling pranks 24/7, and causing havic. Have you been in the firing line on the tour: Yeah, there’s been a little bit of teasing and stuff. Like the other day we had a food fight, it was four of them versus me and I did pretty good. Faisst has got the worst aim though. I didn’t have to move. I even gave him a free shot and he threw food at me from 15 feet away, and he still missed me and I was standing still, which was pretty funny. But then they all wrestled me down and ripped my underwear up my butt-crack and off of me. It was all good and I’ll get ’em back. You’re obviously a lot different from the Crusty crew. What are your beliefs and how do you handle some of the shit that goes on: I have a Christian faith, and a lot of what happens is not really my deal. I just kind of stand back and watch it all happen. I just stick to my own game plan and do my own deal. You’ve pulled on a really big sponsor being Target, do they look for more the image you have over say the bad boy image: Definitely. They were looking for someone that is clean cut, up and coming and has that hard-working, gonna win attitude, and I just happened to fit the profile. So do you get a free Target card or something: I get like gift cards and stuff a lot, but basically it’s just a salary thing, and they’re going to run two big bill-board ads on both sides of a building at this years X Games, down-town L.A. Then on the other hand you’ve got sponsors like DC, Dragon and Yamaha: With DC it’s more like family, and once you’re in with them you’re in for life. They’re not going anywhere, and I don’t have to worry about if I get injured and out for a year, which makes it really secure. It’s more like a relationship and not like, “What have you done for us lately”, type thing. I feel really fortunate to be hooked up with them. Dragon also treat me really well. I got my deal with Yamaha at the very end of last year and everything’s working really good. I love the bikes, they’ve got a really strong motor, and all the guys like Mike Gearer and Terry Beale at Yamaha hook me up with any parts a stuff I need so it’s great. Nate, can you finish up by talking a little bit about your new film you’re producing: Yeah, I’m making a new film, which is kind of exciting. It’s going to be more of a documentary type film. It’s going to show more me as a person opposed to just me riding so viewers can get more of an insight into my life. There’s going to be a lot of just joking around, and not so much staged type stuff. My cinematographer, Rich, is pretty much going to have the camera rolling 24/7 following me around, which will allow people to see how serious I take everything, and me goofing off in my free time. Thanks for your time Nate, and good luck at this years X Games and with your new film: Thankyou.