Motorsport: Sherwood lands double back flip

Levi Sherwood joined only a handful of men in completing a double back flip on dirt. Photo / Red Bull Media

Levi Sherwood joins an elite and select crew of infamous FMX riders, when he landed his double back flip to dirt.

He is the only New Zealander to do so.

Since 2006, international riders, Travis Pastrana, Cam Sinclair, Scott Murray, Josh Sheehan, Jacko Strong, Tom Pages and Harry Bink, are the only ones to land the trick successfully.

After having one of only three specialised airbags in the world installed at his home, Levi has been able to hit the bag and throw down tricks he swore he would never attempt due to high risk factor. Sherwood landed his very first double back flip to the airbag on the day it was installed.

"I was a little bit nervous, not so much for hitting the bag, more so for what I'm probably going to be doing in a year from now," Sherwood said. "There is so much more that I will be able to achieve, it's definitely given me some new energy and focus."

The unique factor of this new airbag is that the athlete can actually ride off the bag after completing a trick, rather than conventional foam pit training where the bike simply stops in a pile of foam. This makes the progression from airbag to dirt a more natural transition but the mental barrier to take the tricks out of the comfort zone of the bag to unforgiving dirt is still present.

"The transition going from airbag to dirt, is still a major gap, but you can definitely get more of a flow going when you have an airbag and dirt jump set up next to each other," he said.

"The mental side is still there though, because the risk to dirt is always going to be more."