VIDEO: Robbie Maddison Makes Dirtbike Surfing a Thing

One of the neat things about extreme sports (as opposed to the non-extreme/mainstream ones) is that they’re always progressing, with participants repeatedly raising the danger/difficulty/overall insanity bar. For example, you won’t see the NBA adding trampolines to courts anytime soon, but you will see freestyle motocross riders trying to cram even more improbable flips, spins and gyrations into their jumps. But one FMX rider – Australia’s Robbie Maddison – decided to up the ante in a very different way.

After drowning about 30(!) KTM dirtbikes during testing, Maddison and team arrived at a setup for the 2-stroke KTM 250SX that would get the job done: A paddle-type rear tire intended for racing on sand and volcanic ash and a set of big, wakeboard-like skirts with cutouts for the two wheels to let the motorcycle glide across the water. But Robbie didn’t just ride this motorcycle across any water; no, he took it to Tahiti and “surfed” it in waves in the freaking ocean. Yeah, that’s what we said, too, but the proof is right there on video.