Way back in 2000, the event organizers of the Summer X Games asked this here writer to be a judge of the Freestyle Motocross disciplines slated to run on Pier 30 & 32 in San Francisco, California. Over the next fourteen years I was a member of the judging panel for all things X Games FMX.
Between the judging and the countless stories I strung together on the radical sport and its athletes, I ended up being something of a documentarian of the whole scene. Along the way, in the twilight phase of the decade, I started to take notice of a perennially smiling Japanese rider named Takayuki Higashino.
Better known as Taka, the native of Osaka, Japan had first come to the U.S. to fulfill his dream of becoming a world class FMX rider. And he did just that. After becoming fast friends with Brian Deegan, Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg and the rest of the Metal Mulisha flight squadron, by 2010 Taka was winning X Games medals, and in 2013 stamped his authority on the sport by initiating a streak of three-straight gold medal performances in the Summer X Games. And the streak still stands. Moto X Freestyle has not been run at the X Games the past two years—poor weather in 2014 and the event was not run in 2015—but the discipline will return to Austin, Texas this Friday night and it will be there that the 31-year-old Higashino hopes to pick up where his gold rush left off, competing in Moto X Freestyle as well as the recently reinstated Moto X Best Trick and Moto X QuarterPipe.
Racer X: Taka, Moto X Freestyle was not run at the 2015 Summer X Games, and in 2014 it had to be canceled due to incessant wind. That was a tough call for everyone—the riders, the event organizers and ESPN—to make, wasn’t it?
Taka: Yeah, we tried waiting all day and we even waited into the nighttime. We ended up getting cancelled. It was hard because if we kept pushing to ride, for sure some people would have gotten injured because of how much wind there was. It was all kind of dangerous. It was super-hard because we wanted to do it for the crowd and for TV. It was hard for me and for everyone there. We could have said, “Yeah, let’s do it! Go for it,” but if some people were to get injured, it would have been bad. It was iffy all day and into the nighttime. It was so hard. I wish there would have been no wind and we could have ridden. It was tough to pick whether we should ride or not and it kind of sucked for TV and the crowd.
A few of the lesser-known motocross disciplines took place last year, however there was no Moto X Freestyle competition on the bill. It felt weird to be the X Games with no FMX, didn’t it?
Yeah. It was a weird feeling. Freestyle Motocross involves everything with the X Games and with motocross. Everything counts. With a discipline like Best Trick, there is one big jump and sometimes a rider will get lucky—like a rider will almost crash, but still make it, so the score counts. But in Freestyle, you can’t do that, you have to do everything perfectly, and you have to be controlled, and you have to be smooth. I like doing Freestyle a lot more. You have to have more of a true technique. My dream was to get a gold medal in Freestyle. That was always my dream. Best Trick, I know that is crazy and I know it is scary, but I also know it is lucky too. I used to really look up to Nate Adams and the way he rode Freestyle. He used to be perfect in Freestyle every time. Adam Jones too. I wanted to ride like those two people and know all kinds of tricks.
Taka, when did you first come to California to begin riding FMX?
In 2006 I came to visit and 2007 I moved here.
I remember when you first started to come around and hang out with all the Metal Mulisha guys. At that point, you were a very good Freestyle rider and good competitor, but never really a threat to win any of the bigger, higher profile FMX contests.
I was too excited at the beginning. I couldn’t believe I was around those guys. I had been watching movies and videos of all of them back in Japan and they were like movie stars to me. Everyone was around [Mike] Mason, [Adam] Jones, Twitch, Nate [Adams]. It was just too exciting then! And with my riding I was always doing 100-percent or 120-percent with my technique and that would always make me crash. I tried too much. I started calming down a little bit over the next two or three years. Around 2010 I really started to calm down and was always practicing my technique. At the competitions at that time I would ride more at 80 percent. I would calm down and breathe and see more details while I was riding. I was starting to get better and was crashing less and thinking more.
Around 2010 your career started to literally take off as you won the Dew Tour Salt Lake City contest as well as Red Bull XRAY. You also won your first X Games medal that same year. Was it at this point that you felt you were among the world’s best FMX riders?
I never feel like I am on top. Never! At X Games in 2012, I was just happy to learn a new trick like a Rock Solid Flip. Before X Games I kept practicing it and Twitch said, “You can do it. You can win X Games.” I never thought that. It was my dream and hope to even get in the top three. I kept thinking about everything and Twitch said, “Don’t think, just do it.” Twitch pushed me a lot. I did it and won the gold medal, but I never felt like I’m number one in the world. At that moment I just felt lucky. It’s hard to keep a top position in the sport now. It’s crazy now!
As you know, there has been a lot of talk in recent years that the sport of Freestyle Motocross has lost some of its popularity around the world. The X Fighters don’t go all over the world now as they once did and there aren’t really that many big contests left anymore. There has also has been a lack of new star rides entering the sport. What do you think about all this? What can the sport do to rekindle some of that interest and popularity?
I’m sure it needs a little more competition. We also have to grow the next generation of riders because it’s harder to see new riders. I don’t see many new young kids riding in California and I don’t see riders focusing on practicing to achieve goals or to try and get ready for competitions. I was riding every day because I had a goal. Some people now are just doing demonstrations. It used to be that we had a goal and we would work to achieve it. I’d like to be able to inspire some young kids to be like, “I want to be like that! I want to ride like that!”
Do you think it can also be that you and a number of your competitors have become so good at what you do and have advanced the sport so much, that young riders are really intimidated by both the skill you guys possess as well as the very big risks that are required?
(Laughs) I know. That’s what I am thinking to because I started Freestyle Motocross right about the time that Carey Hart tried the backflip (in 2000) and I was thinking, “I see the backflip and maybe I’ll try to learn to be a good Freestyle rider little by little.” So I’d try a seat grab or a can-can and think, “No backflip for me ever. For sure, I can’t do the backflip, but maybe I can still learn new tricks.” It was easier to start then. Now, if I see a double flip or a big upside down, I think, “How would I start in this sport now?” I don’t know… something is needed. But a good way is Best Whip. Best Whip is easy to join because you don’t need to do too much crazy stuff. It is a good first step.
Is it very important for Freestyle Motocross that it is back in the Summer X Games this year?
Yeah, I think it is. I am so happy that Best Trick and Freestyle MX is back in. This is definitely good because everybody dreams about being in the X Games. I really appreciate it that we are back at the X Games.
The 2016 X Games Moto X Freestyle course appears to be relatively basic, in other words, not too outlandish. According to circuit maps it will feature three 75-foot gaps as well as a QuarterPipe. Have you been able to see a diagram of the course?
Yeah, it’s simple. Very simple. It’s also a very tight space. It looks like it has two kind of categories mixed together—like QuarterPipe stuff and 75-foot stuff. They were supposed to put in 120-foot ramps, but they said they didn’t have the space. The U.S. riders are just jumping the 75-foot single ramps and not so much QuarterPipe. For me, I have to practice more QuarterPipe. One of my competitors, Thomas Pages, he is a super-good QuarterPipe rider, but he doesn’t do the backflip. It’s kind of like I don’t have what he has, and he doesn’t have what I have, you know?
Who do you see fighting for the three medals in Austin?
Pages is good, for sure. And Levi Sherwood, he’s always in control and I like that style. Adam Jones, too. Clinton Moore, too. He’s crazy. He’s the X Fighters champion. And Josh Sheehan is very good. Sheehan, Clinton and Tom Pages will be very good. Everybody will be very good.
What’s your goal for Summer X? What’s going to make you happy after all is said and done come Sunday night?
I just want to get a medal. A medal, for sure. I’m just going to try and do my best and if I can get top three, then I will be smiling.
