CRUSTY DEMONS ON TOUR
Cool, awesome, excellent!
We are here today , it is august 4th and we’re here with crusty demons and Jon Freeman myself, Jason Schuck and and go ahead, introduce yourself there, Joe!
Yeah, I’m joe. And we are joined with Jon from Crusty Demons and we’re going to chat about the history of Crusty Demons, how it was formed, how we got to where we are now. And yeah, I’ll just hand over the mike.
Beautiful ! Oh my gosh, Jon, just the first question here, just kind of curious when you first saw motocross and riders in action, how did that make you feel?
Uh let’s see, freestyle motocross is a whole another thing, but let’s go back to motocross. When I was a little kid, my dad took me to the LA Coliseum to see Supercross, I had never heard of it before. I was riding a little dirt bike on the ranch and had a little, what was it, YZ60 and you know, we’re trying to do wheelies and jump out of ditches and you know, and my dad took me to a supercross and I think it was uh Roger De Coster one. He was winning all those supercross competitions and what supercross was, it was contained into a stadium and you can be in a bleacher seat and you can watch the whole race instead of an outdoor one, you know, goes away from you and then here comes the guys every once in a while.
But Supercross came over from Europe and blew us all away because it was just action jumps, everything in your face. So that was my first encounter of fast racing on dirt bikes. So of course we wanted to emulate, you know those guys and we race up in Ojai California on my dad’s cattle ranch and you know, there was hundreds of acres so we could go till we ran out of gas, you know?
But of course we wanted to emulate, you know those guys that were the fastest guys on dirt bikes and their jumps and and all that. So that was kind of my first encounter that dad took me to Supercross. So many years later after pretty much you know, I got into surfing, snowboarding and my partner Dana was a professional snowboarder and he said, you know everything that we’re doing with these movies, which was uh in snowboard, I’m sorry, in snowboarding uh you know, jumping off cliffs, doing crazy lines, doing all that kind of stuff.
He said, why don’t we go check out, you know what these guys are doing on the dirt bikes, which was pretty much Brian Manley, uh took us out to the desert and showed us that you could go like from sand dune to sand dune. We were, I was blown away, I was shooting like great, you know, film and I didn’t know what to do with that, so I just put it in snowboard films, right, and creatures that happened and uh from there, I was like holy crap, you know, what else can these guys do?
So we started hanging out with Jeremy McGrath, who was the goat of Supercross, and Jeff, another goat of outdoor motocross and supercross. And we started following those guys around with cameras and like you see these guys, you know, at a, at a race, you’re outside the ropes, right ? So now they like my movies, so they let us inside the ropes and we just started goofing with these guys and we came up with the Crusty Demons one.
So when you mentioned the term freestyle motocross, I guess that’s when we were just kind of inventing it, like free riding is what it is. Yeah, we now call it freestyle. Uh and you know, it’s expression on a bike, uh that obviously, you know, it went from jumping huge jumps in the sand dunes in the desert to tricks starting to be formed.
Like McGrath was famous for his uh knack knack, you know, through the finish line and everybody out, he took a leg off, you know, just progressed from there and obviously through the progression of that, we had Cary Hart attempt the first backflip, which was like, ridiculous.
And then we knew it was possible that the dirt bike, it’s not supposed to go that way when uh, when you’re taught in motocross, you’re taught that, you know, when you pin it off the jump, you tap, tap, tap the brake to keep that front end down, you’re not taught to keep the front end going all the way around.
So, you know, guys like Mike Metzger perfected that and then I think pretty much half the guys that were winning, you know, like a freestyle competition back then we’re like holy shit now, we gotta do that, you know, and everybody started getting hurt. So a lot of the top guys, you know, they got hurt and they don’t want to do that.
Yeah, guys like Brian D and he’s like, you know, better notch up if this is what we know. Yeah, and he crashed hard. Uh same with Nate Adams, you know, he came, another guy that perfected that early on and Metzger, but all those guys got man handed on their heads, you know, hospitals, all that kind of stuff.
So that was the beginning of uh kind of getting recognized big and in freestyle. I think the progression of those tricks to the bike upside down.
Absolutely. That’s just, that’s just amazing. It’s absolutely fascinating when, when the guys get hurt, what did you, what did you see in terms of like a typical progression? Because I would imagine just healing time of course in the hospital, but not just physically healing, but mental healing too. Did you, did you see a certain point where you know where it took some guys a little longer than others to get back in the saddle and get that confidence back to, to hit the next trick, you know, that much harder and you know what I mean? If they, if they don’t know, I’m just kinda curious, you know, were they just a balls to the walls, you know, I’m healed, you know ,back in it and there’s like no downtime for the mental recovery. What were your thoughts on that? What did you see what you experience with the riders?
Interesting question because uh, I think the mental part, when guys thought I’m not gonna, you know, do well in a contest if I don’t have the backflip thing and I think the mental part of that, uh, it just chased about half the field away.
They were, they were just, they were like, I can’t get that through my head. I cannot do that. And they had to walk away, you know, or get fifth place or something because the guys that were doing the flips like Metzger and, Nate Adams, Brian Deegan those and Pastrana. You gotta throw that. Yeah. And those guys, they weren’t scared to do it. They got hurt.
Then there was the invention of the foam pit. So yeah, so they would buy old, you know, pieces of foam, like whether it was bedding or I don’t know, they find scraps of that. It was expensive and you got to build a big enough box so you’re not going to hit the bottom of it. So it’s got to be deep enough and it’s got to be wide enough and long enough that if you go astray, you’re not gonna miss the pit.
So the invention of foam pits was pretty interesting and then they started, you know, going upside down and getting it perfected. Yeah, hey, I’m upside down, I might as well do a trick, right? So I think this is like everyone uses whenever there’s a jump and they want to practice that. I think they like all the athletes also, they use the foam pits.
Did you guys invent that? I mean, was that the first time that was introduced? What do you think?
I think foam pits were very individual and I think it was copied where we saw maybe, you know how skiers were practicing practicing, you know those crazy tricks and landing in water and stuff like that. Water in a bike that’s gonna take a while to get the water out. So they looked at, I think gymnastics, they were using foam pits, I think Mexico guys, uh they were doing tricks in into that stuff, but nobody really knew anything about like a motorcycle landing in it.
So the biggest where the motorcycle is once it lands and the bikes either sideways upside down or whatever and you’re in this foam, it’s leaking gasoline, it becomes a fireball. If that thing sparks, what they would do is, they do a couple of warm up laps, get ready to hit the ramp to go in the thing, turn the gas off, there’s enough gas just to get, you know, off the ramp, do the backflip and land in there and then there’s no gas dripping in.
So that’s what yeah, that’s the secret, I was gonna say, you know , just turn the gas off right before turn the gas off, so there’s enough gas to get you, you know, to point A to point B. Metzger, I believe early on, uh, there was so much gas in his foam pit and there was a spark and the thing, it lit up like, you know, a chimney.
Uh, luckily he he got out, but, you know, the guy started worrying about, you know, should we get fire retardant, you know, foam expense
Absolutely. So they, in the early days with turn the gas off?
Yeah, but even with that, they got to be precise, right, they gotta turn turn the gas off right when they’re just lining up to to hit, you know, the ramp. They’re only gonna go 70 ft, so they’re gonna go boom in the thing. So, right when they’re going like that, they reached down and turn the gas off, they got enough to, you know, point to point.
Yeah, that’s great.
Yeah, yeah, that’s early on, that’s freestyle, motocross in, in kind of a progression for you and guys like, Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Emmett, they were like oh look at these guys doing silly tricks then when it went upside down, they’re like I don’t wanna do that. These guys have taken it to you know another level. This is getting kind of serious now, totally a whole different Echelon
You know setting the bar and in order to you know really do that, you know the previous guy, you gotta take it one step higher, higher, higher, higher and just to see that happening and I’m sure that I’m sure that’s kind of your progression with your 21 films right ? I mean you know 21 From the TV series, the video game, you know it’s been 27 years since you know, Crusty Demons of Dirt . So is that what you saw with your progression? You know from one film to another? Just you know more and more tricks and you know, just kind of curious, that’s one question. And then also the second question is when you first started the first film, what were your expectations, did you ever think you would blossom into what it became?
What was the first question? Sorry?
Um that’s you know with the 21 films, each film you progressed more and more with the stunts right? Because as the evolution of the art of freestyle continue to push the envelope, I’m sure through your films, you know the same thing occurred, right? You had, what are we to do next? You know, to capture more people’s interest and thinking outside the box and talking to the writers, what do you think you can do, what can we do for this film? That’s the first question.
Um, I think for me, uh in the beginning, as I was telling you before, you know, we cruise out to the California desert, uh big zambians and we, and you know, some of the desert areas that had, you know, possibilities of big jumps and, and stuff like that. So that was kind of in number one.
Uh, and number two, Crusty number two, I thought more like a surf filmmaker. Let’s go find not the best wave in the world, let’s find the best sand dunes in the entire world. And my friend gave me a postcard, to look at the biggest sand dunes in the entire world. They’re in Namibia Africa, right next to South Africa. Yeah, in the middle of nowhere. Skeleton coast where diamonds wash up on the, on the shore and heavily guarded.
So I think with our films, we kind of progressed by taking dirt bikes around the world in search of like the best places to ride. What’s, you know, the most amazing things that we could do to showcase on film for people to watch in their living room, and live vicariously through our adventures.
In the meantime, we were getting noticed a lot by like ESPN and that was the progression of when X games actually added dirt bikes to X games. That’s when we went up to San Francisco right under the pier. And that’s where Travis jumped his dirt bike into the bay.
So they knew how these guys are radical. Do we want them? But it made for spectacular television. So, uh, it lasts till, till today as we’re talking. And the progression was okay, now we have competition. So the guys would go and uh, you know, practice individually at their own homes and try and keep their tricks secret because they’re gonna come out in a competition. They don’t want to have the other guy to know, you know, practicing .
Yeah, I love it.
Yeah, so that answers the question there.
It sure does. Absolutely Jon, thank you. Yeah. And then when you first made your first film, obviously did you ever, what were your expectations? Did you ever dream that would become as big as it has become?
I mean, the whole Crusty Demons fan franchise never, I never thought of that, you know. I was off making snowboard movies when Crusty was just kinda, I don’t know, organic, it just developed into my hands. And then I thought, oh, you know, maybe this is, you know, a film that we could bring out in the motocross industry and let’s see what they think.
Pretty much my guys were like a handful of knuckleheads except for the top racers, like a McGrath or dynamic, you know, but the other guys were like the misfits, you know, that we’re struggling at racing, you know, and struggling in their vans trying to get around, you know, motocross events and not making money.
And so we scooped up a bunch of those guys that were really good, especially like a Cary Heart, you know, we met him struggling arguing with his mechanic and frustrated in Florida. He’s like, “man I came all the way out here from Vegas and I’m not winning.” We’re like, “hey, come with us buddy, I want to go to Brazil.” He’s like, “wow!”
Yeah that had to be so cool, you know, to be able to give opportunity to guys that were struggling on the race but give them a platform where they can really excel and show their creativity. What, what an amazing, amazing you’re making dreams come true, you know, through these films and a lot of these riders, that’s awesome, Jon, I love it .
Yeah, he won a 125 Supercross main at the colosseum and he was such a rebel that when he was going through the finish line, he threw his bike, it’s a famous shot and the motocross association fined the shit out of him. They’re like, “this is so irresponsible.” He’s like, “I don’t give a funk, I just beat everybody man.”
So I was like, that’s my guy. Yeah, a guy that’s not afraid to think outside the box, you know, that’s what it really takes. You know, like Pastrana. We found him in in Florida on just a whim, we’re following around some of the motocross uh things supercross. And we found this little 12 year old kid, he’s like, “hey what are you guys building over there?”
We’re building a big jump over like an alligator pond. And uh he’s like, “you know, can I hit your jump guys?” And I had Cary Heart, Seth and this other guy, Anthony Pocarobba that brought us over to Florida. And we’re like, “who’s this little kid?” I said, well “ask your mom and dad”, you know, if you’re allowed to hit our jump.
So he went over mom, dad, can I hit their jump? Can you make it, son? Of course I can make it. Yeah. So that’s where we discovered Travis Pastrana. He hit our jump like nothing. And his dad was like on the other side, almost trying to grab him in the air, make sure that he, that he made it. He was like, you know, dad, get out of the way.
What are you doing traveling to these different places?
We would find unique individuals and that progressed our film . So people all over the United States a lot in California from Temecula, that was kind of the spawning ground of racing at that time and now, but then traveling the world, you pick up, you know some South Africans, you pick up some Brazilians, you pick up you know Peruvians, you know all kinds of people.
So yeah and now if you see freestyle motocross, you know it’s huge with the Europeans. Uh then we went to Australia. Those guys they don’t like to lose. So they got to ride with Americans and see what was going on and and then start beating them.
I was watching Outback Attack yesterday and uh yeah, so that that kind of portraits the passion Australians have sport like even though you know Americans invented it, but Australians just you know they, they you know, they are extremely crazy about the sport and I didn’t really see the passion uh like you know in the movie. So now I think like Australia is the most like is the place that you love most to go put on a show, is that correct? Or is there any other place that you would love? Like the best place?
Yeah , I would call Australia probably our second home. Okay. Um and the reason being is because we went over there and we did a kind of an adventure because I had Australian friends uh they were pretty much surfers and they took us to you know cool beaches and and different things and so we showcased Australia I think in maybe Crusty three, something like that.
What was it 1999? I got a call from a guy that said, what if you know all the craziness that you have in the film there, is it possible that you can bring that to Australia and do it live? You know? And I said, well, I don’t know, you’re gonna, you know, pay the guys and what are we gonna do?
So they took one of our guys, his name is Mickey Diamond and went out there before we got there and he built a big course and uh, so we didn’t know where Perth Australia is. We had no idea. We thought, oh this is great.
So I gathered up, you know, my misfits and uh said we’re gonna go and we’re just gonna put on an exhibition for a crowd over in Australia and we’re just gonna make it look like the movie, you know, just kind of mayhem do your tricks, do you know, sign autographs or whatever it is, you know?
And uh, so they put us on a plane, of course, everybody got drunk, we landed, we thought we were in Perth Australia. We got off the plane, we were in Japan, why are we in Japan? Then we got on the plane again and we landed in uh koala Lumpur and has this thing where you sign like, I did not bring any drugs, right ? And I’m looking at all the guys just going, nobody brought anything, right you know, and they’re like, we didn’t, you know, because it’s like death if they find like a pot seed or something, it says death buddy.
And u , so then we were there, everybody’s about ready to kill this promoter guy that’s flying us there because it took two days and it shouldn’t, you can go straight to Sydney and then Perth. So we landed there and three limos pull up and we’re like, you know, I wonder what kind of rock stars are here. They’re like, hey, you guys, the Crusty Demons. Yeah, alright, here’s your Limos.
All right. I guess we’re not gonna kill this guy then, you know? And then we were like, you know what, what are we gonna be doing over here? Because we had no idea. And uh, so we go out to this, it’s like a water park and they, and they let all the water go out like where jet skis go through.
And so the guy, our, our Mickey, he built 100 ft jumps and the guys were looking at it, just goin , who’s gonna hit those? Mickey goes, just watch guys and he just hit every jump for the guys. And he goes, that’s it. And Metzger goes, I’m on it. So it was the Mexico go, he just started hitting 100 ft jumps, doing tricks. All kinds of different things.
Um, so then we started doing like, hey, one at a time, you know, and Deegan and Hogle were doing their thing. Metz is doing his thing. Seth, he’s just trying to do long distance stuff. Uh who else did we have Clifford, went with us, uh, the flying Hawaiian.
So when it came down to the show, we went out there and we, we came in limos again and we were like, you know why all these cars here is somebody having uh an event or something, you know? And people were walking all down the street, you couldn’t even see the venue yet. It was like man, 20,000 people came out and were like, this is for us, we don’t even know what we’re doing, we have no show plan.
So, they had gotten sponsored by Jack Daniels. So we had the Jack Daniel’s dancers girls. So we’re like, okay, we got girls this and that and I was like, what else can we do? And there’s two guys going, “hey, you know, we can blow fire.” I’m like, “alright you and you get your little gasoline cans and your and your flame torch or whatever you got and get underneath this ramp.” So I had Deegan and Hogle come off and those guys were blowing fireballs. That’s our first pyro, we invented pyro. We had dancing girls, 20,000 people going nuts.
Seth did a big crash. So he was a hero. Metzger during his show. Yeah, it was grea . He was doing all his flips and so that was the early crew and then from then on, we were like, man, we like Australia.
We got called back to do more professional shows in, you know, stadium with lighting and pyro and dancing girls announcing. So that’s how that started with that in Australia. And I must say that that first show, it ended with cop cars turned over on fire. People running. Yeah. One guy I learned yesterday that, I don’t know, he got drunk or something and he was getting chased by the cops and ran into like a farm wire because he went across a paddock trying to get away. I guess he got clotheslined too, and he was done.
So I didn’t even know that. I didn’t know that we had one death of how that so due to that, of course authorities are going to start looking at, “who are these guys?” You know, there’s cop cars on fire, there’s riots, you know, all this stuff.
We better get the hell out of here, man. Yeah. From there we had to beef up security. Yes. I don’t think we even thought of security. Well it wasn’t, but I don’t think, I think that there’s gonna be 20,000 people. That’s kind of hard to contain.
Yes, indeed. And there’s alcohol.
Exactly. There’s Australians. They like to go nuts.
So yeah, that is his particular scene in the movie where he goes like, he takes the mic and he, yeah, I thought that was absolutely crazy. I think people were attacking him like immediately after that.
Yeah, he was stoked. All they wanted to do was just kind of grab him and touch him. You know, like we’re touching the American icon, you know, I just wanted to grab him. So it wasn’t really like aggressive in that way – people fighting or something like that.
They just love the fact that Larry just said, Hey, just go nuts come out of the stadium. So they all did him on the floor on our set was like broken cars and all this. And so they were just bashing, you know, broken shit. Anyways that we already had break the windows, you know, and he, and he’s just inciting something. Our promoter was probably like, oh my God.
Yeah. You can imagine the hotel rooms. They look like, you know, the, uh, pretty much Motley Crue came through. We had a lot of hotels that said, those guys are never coming back. No way.
I think we have to go under another name as we kept going. It’s fun. Yeah, pretty much like some of the hotels, like all the furniture was out the window into the pool. You know, it’s like, you know, the rock and roll kind of lifestyle; girls coming in windows, you know, all kinds of stuff. And of course it attracted, uh, some of the kind of like the hells angels type, but we had back then, uh, in Perth, it was called Coffin Cheaters.
So we had the Coffin Cheaters and once we made friends with these guys, they would be at the airport every time we come in, those guys were there. Yeah, just big, big beards gnarly and nobody could mess with us. Forget about security guards. We have those guys, yeah, anybody who comes close, they’re like, nope, wow. Great, great times indeed with all these amazing over the top.
Unbelievable. You know, just incredible stunts, near death experiences. Is there one that really stands out in your mind? More than another as like, oh my God, that was just over the top? Like nuts. I can’t believe, you know whether it was successful or not. Was there one that really stands out because there’s many, many, many, many stunts. I know. But was there one that really almost gave you a heart attack there?
There’s a few, but I’ll narrow one down. Uh we had a, and I think you guys have this for the WFO.TV channel, uh, night of world Records two.
Yes, yes.
And we had a jump off between Seth Enslow, Ryan Capes and Robbie Madison. Robbie Madison moved his ramp back where it was like a 300 ft gap and we didn’t even know what the barriers back then were like, oh my God, this is getting gnarly and luckily there was like, you know, a bit of a safety deck before the big landing and he came up like only about a foot onto the safety deck.
If he had hit into the back of that big mountain of dirt, you know what I mean? He’d be done … dead. So that one freaked me out. Yeah, and then he came back around, he was like no, no, no, I got it and then he broke the Guinness Book World Record at 357 ft or something like that, that night.
The story is in an ideal world records too, it’s pretty amazing. But yeah, that one uh that was kind of scary just to think that, you know, we could put something on like that in front of there was 35,000 people that night you know, and what if somebody died?
So that one uh that definitely, you know scared me, that one.
Yeah, I would say so.
Oh my gosh, what I love was the fact that he just went back out and he did it again, I was like no , feel like he was that close that close to death and he’s like “no, you know, I got this. I will do it.” And he hit the world record. I mean this guy was given like three jumps or something was the competition and he’s like no, I got it, you know, and then boom, he broke the world record.
You know that, that just brings up a question I was gonna save it for like maybe our second talk show, but you know, this is a good time to bring this up, I think now because the timing and that is, you have encountered so many personality types and the character traits you say like, you know, some fall off and can’t continue riding after, you know, an incident, you know, like 50% I think that was the number that you used, you know, but for those writers that jump back in the saddle and hit it again, what would you say the top three traits are or two traits, whatever you can think of that separate those athletes, that one’s that can just put that behind them. You know, what have they shared with you or what have you experienced? What have you seen that because this is exceptional, this is exceptional character traits. Fear was to stop so many people with their business personal or athletes, you know, fear is an overcoming that fear is a huge obstacle for so many different people with both on the field and off the field. And so what would you say for the, all the different riders, that you have experienced your precious time with and in an incredible life becoming the icons that you and Dana are in your specific field? What have you seen to be so exceptional that you can put down to like two or three things, pretty much, you know, as humans, you touch a flame and you burn your hand and you go, I’m not gonna do that again, right ?
These guys go, I want to do that again. You know, there’s an adrenaline rush. I think in certain individuals that um, hung out with us that we could kind of see it, you know, that the guys that wanted to challenge themselves to go further go bigger, better tricks. So it was a unique set of individuals that wanted to take on that challenge in the beginning. It didn’t really add too much money. So, uh that developed in time that sponsors started getting attracted to them like a red bull, like a monster, like a rock star.
So a lot of the energy drinks, uh, we’re able to blossom in that way and start sponsoring the guys. So they start seeing money and competition, definitely. They loved because they were racers, pretty much all of them racers in the beginning. So they already knew the adrenaline of race and they would get hurt, you know, racing. But they were tough guys, you could back up or you go to the hospital and you mend up your wound and then you get back on the bike.
So, uh, like you’re saying, you know what, what’s inside these guys? I think it just, it takes, you know, a tough individual, uh, not only physically, but mentally you get back up, you know, because everybody goes down. There’s not one guy that didn’t crash really hard, break something bad and get back up and get back on the bike. Yeah Uh there’s a moment in one of the films that will be, medicine says this.
In the end, it all comes down to this. So it’s, hey doc, when can I ride again? It’s not whether I can ride again, it’s when can I ride again? When can I get on, get back on my bike and do a jump. So that kind of mentality, you know, it’s there all the time.
That’s, that’s amazing.
Uh uh uh he collapsed his whole, like this part of your face, you know, the skull. So what they had to do was like cut his face and peeled the face off and put titanium in his face there . He has titanium there and then they stapled his head back together. So he’s like, you know what, that shot with the staples? I don’t know if you have that one? Uh that one’s crazy.
Uh and he said, doc, when can I get back on the bike? And he’s like, you’re not getting back on the bike for, you know, you know, six months. In, in 3.5 or 4 weeks he did a world record jump.
Wow
I told you, yeah, I think he was in the colosseum and he jumped over a bunch of trucks or something like that. They were out there may be a monster truck gig and uh he was back on the mic, like in four weeks. Yeah. So the mentality of that kind of thing comes with a certain, you know individual that is very unique and we seem to have found a bunch of those guys sure have absolutely love it.
Oh my gosh.
Once he turns out to respond to his wife.
Yeah. So uh, John you mentioned the most, uh, I mean the one, the one crash that almost gave me a heart attack, but uh, in all the years like is there a moment that is so precious to you personally like that? You will always cherish like along the journey. Like the whole no , films , like the tours that you did worldwide. Is there one specific moment in time? That is so precious, precious to you personally. Like it might be different for different people. But is there a pretty precious moment like that for you? That you’ll always remember and you will always be close to your heart. So is there a moment like that that you can share with us?
There’s quite a few, but uh, I’ll just take a stab at one of them. In Crusty Demons, Number Eight, it was when I got to rent a volcano in New Zealand and this guy had a couple of new Zealanders that were my riders. They were really good. They were in my shows. But uh, they showed me this volcano and said, hey, “it’d be cool if we were right around the rim, it’s like a volcano, like a super volcano that blew up like 100 years and ruin all the villages down below.
So greater now with all kinds of cool colors, you know? Uh and there’s a burial ground up on the top and so it’s you know for the Maori people it’s very sacred and so the guy flew me up there in the helicopter and I thought, hey, what a cool thing have the guys doing wheelies on the rim or whatever. What if we go down in and he goes, you want to drop in there?
He’s like about that because it’s like us dirt, you know like what mammoth mountain has, you know that kind of dirt. So it’s almost like snowboarding, you know your, you can glide down that and make you know some turns and yeah and when you get to the bottom there was a way out like a trail because people walk in there, geologists and all that kind of stuff.
So I said you know how much to you know rent the volcano for a day and he’s like well you know, we had Honda here and they did like one of their vehicles around the rim and so they just showed like the inside of the volcano and the thing going around the rim and they paid us $200,000 I’m like $200,000 bro.
I said in my budget, I’ve got two, how about $2000? And the guy was just like, yeah right. Like I’m gonna go to the council and say you got $2,000 and you want to use our whole volcano. And so he kind of laughed me off and I was like, you know, maybe that guy’s gonna get back to me, you know, with another offer.
So he went home and he told his kids about the Crusty Demons wanting to do this and they’re like, dad, you don’t understand. You gotta let these because they had all my films. You gotta let these guys do this, let him drop in that, you know, volcano. He came back to me the next day and he’s like all right, my kids are all over me. You know how about $30,000? I was like $2000 bro. That’s all I got.
So then his kids heckled him the next night and he called me back the next day and he goes tell you what, 2000 bucks and I’ll give you a half day and the helicopter – OK done deal So we went there andit was foggy in the morning so we had to wait for the fog to go away. So we ended up filming like the whole day and got exactly all the shots that I wanted.
There was volcanologists in white suits and I was like, hey guys and they’re like, you know, we should we go hiding behind the rocks? You know, filming, you kno , and they’re looking for specific like gems out of there and to give the volcano and the scientists all had to hide behind the rocks.
And uh, so we had quite a day there, there was a couple of crashes all the way down the, tumbling into the, you know, and uh super shots, you know, all around the rim and then the guys drop in uh came out very cool. Yeah. So that one stands out because just the process of getting to buy a volcano, you know, and if his sons were not into C.D. – you know what I mean? If they weren’t like Crusty lovers, it would’ve never happened. It would’ve never happened.
You see, you’re saying like C.D. You mean DVD?
But back then we weren’t even that we were in VHS I’m saying. Yeah, that’s my short term for you.
Sorry, sorry. So C.D. Crusty demons, Crusty Demons if his son, their, their kids, we’re not into your films on it would have never happened. It would’ve never happened. It would’ve never happened. And I don’t think that’s gonna happen. No no no no no. The first thing the guy that the Heli guy told me and he was in charge of the whole process for the Maori people. And he runs the tourism board there. He said there’s a sacred part on this one side of the volcano. Tell your guys do not go there. Where did they go first? I lived up in the helicopter, you know, hanging out the window about ready to, you know, film with 16 millimeter.
And he’s like the guys are all over the cemetery. What are they? You know? Oh my God. He was like, I’m in so much trouble, you know, with the council because there’s gonna be dirt bike ruts all over their cemetery. Yeah. Yeah. So there, of course the first thing they do. Yeah. Like, you know when we tell our kids not to do some, don’t touch a hot stove, you know what? Yeah, a little slap on the wrist.We landed guys, you know, yeah, we need to, you know, honor these people and you know, going in their cemeteries.
Yeah. You know in life when, when, when people have a passion and I just respect you and Dana so much and you stayed true to your say, your budget, you’re like, hey, two grand. You know, maybe there’s a way you could have put together that $30,000? But no, you stuck to your grounds of the two grand and in and somehow you’re able to convey, you know, this, this love for what you do and his son saw that and then, you know, it’s like serendipity, you know, it’s, it’s, you have been in a position for so many years to be doing what you love and get happen to get paid to do it, you know that’s just that’s phenomenal, I love it.
Yeah that’s a great great great position, you’re lovin it. And then as we progressed uh more sponsors came onboard, so distribution was a lot bigger for us on Crusty 2. Crusty 1, I didn’t have distribution because it didn’t exist in motocross. It was pretty much like highlights, a supercross and maybe a crash tape or something like that.
So with one, all I did, I just took all my snowboard distributors and got it in surf and skate and snowboard shops and that’s kind of how it started. Then motocross shops started calling and going, hey, you know, I think when we first started we sold maybe 5 VHS to motocross shops of, yeah they’re like, I don’t even know what it is, what is it bro?
You know, the popularity came out of the rest of the action sports areas and distribution. Then we got a call from fox racing which is one of the biggest apparel companies if not the biggest in motocross and they said, “what’s it gonna take because we want to sponsor your second film?” and uh I don’t know? And so they gave me some offer, I don’t know, $25,000 and to me that was like a million dollars, that’s like 25 grand man, I could make that go a long way we’re going to Africa Boys, that’s kind of how that happened?
And then when they made their initial order because they had worldwide distribution In motocross shops. Uh their initial order was 80,000 tapes. I didn’t know how to make 80,000 tapes, I’m like you know 10,000 sounds pretty good, but 80,000 in one run, you know and I went to my duplicator, I was like bro I need 80,000 of these things, he’s like oh my god because he had like 300 machines you know and you had to run them all in real time off our master. Yeah but he was just working overtime just like oh my god thee biggest order I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
Yeah buy another house bro you know so interesting problem there once we found out in a worldwide distribution so and and that just feeds organically with the fact that you were finding riders from all over the world to ride. I mean Australia you know and so you know that just continued when you have distribution worldwide, you have fans in different continents and they have you know riders that are from that their their hometown so to speak, you know it just really helped expedite the whole process of how you grow.
I mean that’s just awesome. That’s wonderful. Yeah amazing wo . Oh wow so you know in terms of original freestyle you know, so the question is what do you think the current state of freestyle motocross is? What do you think about the current state of free freestyle motocross? And then how is it different you know now versus back when you started?
Can you rephrase that?
Okay. So what do you think about the current state of freestyle motocross? And how is it different from back when you started?
If you look at the tricks today, like almost every competition, it’s about what insane trick can you do upside down? You know? And when we first started it was about what insane trick that you could do upright right? Because I didn’t know that the bike could do that. Now we have uh you know insanity going on with you know in a run. The guy will do like a double backflip. Uh And then I saw uh Robbie the other day do a front flip land and then hit a bigger jump and do another front flip.
So to front flip, back to back, I had never seen that before. Metzger did that with back flips back in the day where he hit smaller jump and then he went on a huge one and everybody freaked gravity two fronts. Yeah and then he spun around in a double backflip. So it’s like man, these like any one of those tricks can take you out big time. Yeah you can break some limbs on that stuff or hit your noggin pretty hard because our friend Jacko, he tried to do a variation in a front flip and landed kind of sideways and it just knocked the shit out of him.
So he had to go to the hospital on that one. But so that’s that’s the difference that the tricks today are so gnarly. You know, to do front flips and double back flips and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, like in a double back flip, where are you? You know that? And you’re and you’re trying to spot your landing. You know what, if you’re in the wrong spot that’s not gonna go well. So we’ve got bad accidents on guys trying to do double backflips.
Yeah, yeah, the sport is evolving.
Yes, it is. So now we’re doing some other things in X games, uh all they were all lending to dirt, but in our shows, you know, we’ve taken too many people to the hospital because they missed, you know, our ramp landings. So there’s a progression now that we have these big airbag landers, so it’s a little bit softer if you’re coming in and you’re a little bit off and you crash.
You can kind of slide down the thing uh kind of like a giant bounce house, you know, you know, but it’s a huge landing. So we’ve been incorporating those and so has Travis Pastrana and Nitro Circus and it keeps the guys a lot safer. Everybody gets to go back to the hotel right. Ride another day because you know, you’re gonna pack it up and you’re gonna go to another city and you take everybody with you and you’re not leaving a soldier behind in a hospital because that, as the progression was going, that happened a lot, nobody died, not on our side, but a lot of hospitals.
Yeah, yeah. We had a snowmobile guy named Jimmy Blaze that we knew he was gonna do a backflip off our setup and uh, so he had certain track wheels, you know, o , on the front skis so that he could uh, but still the big track in the back and uh, he would do a back flip every weekend for us. And it was like, he’s got about a 50/50 chance he crashed at least 50% of the time and he always, we would go to the hospital to check him out.
He’d go, I’m out of here and he jumped the next weekend. So yeah, wipe out. So when you see a snowmobile guy crashing in some of our movies, that’s Jimmy, Jimmy Blake, you know, big time.
Say, what would you say to the young, you know, motocross riders are there to inspire them? What would some words of inspiration might be?
Uh, gosh, first of all, you know, if you have a passion for, you know, like getting a little mini bike, start there, you know, get a little 50 ride it around in your yard or whatever is available to you. Uh and there’s a lot of, a lot of my guys are starting to be coaches and they will teach you either motocross or freestyle so seek out some of these camps. A lot of Crusty guys have become coaches and that’s probably a good way to start out as, as a young kid.
You could be a boy, you could be a girl, doesn’t matter, you know. Girls are getting all into it now. They have their own circuit of racing and yeah , some are getting into um yeah, I’d say that’s probably a good way to start, you know, ask your dad, yeah, is there, you know, like uh some of these guys training near where we live or something like that. If there’s not, then start off on a little mini bike and get used to it and race around. Do little jumps and progress from there don’t be a 25 year old guy and and just go, oh, I’m just gonna take this up, you know, just gonna start talking it big, you know, I think pretty much all these guys came from, you know at least under the age of 10.
All had mini bikes, So they got a bike skills, you know, you ride BMX and you’re learning some tricks to take it to the, to the motorcycle. But seek out some of our guys because, you know, there’s a lot of good training, probably in Florida, California, or Arizona. They’re some of the hot spots. Because the weather is good all year for Florida or California.So find, you know, cool places to find a little motocross camp.
Thank you Jon! Thank you very much. Say Joe, you know, in respect to Jon’s time; what do you think we save some of the other questions for fireside number two? How does that sound?
Yeah , I think this has been really, yeah, absolutely. This has been entertaining and thoroughly, thoroughly exciting just to learn more about you and the history here. I sincerely appreciate this opportunity Jon. Thank you very much for your time .
Absolutely.
Until we meet again.
Awesome! Sounds good.
Absolutely beautiful guys!
Yes, Have a blessed day.
We’ll see you.
Thanks.
Bye.
CRUSTY DEMONS
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