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Is Robbie Maddison the world’s sanest stuntman?
As Australian rider Robbie Maddison releases a new film about his recent trick tour of Mykonos, we look back at how the motocross legend has turned stunt-riding into a zen art form.
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For Robbie Maddison, the road to becoming one of the world's top motorcycle stunt riders has been littered with broken bones, nightmares and plenty of scar tissue. But out of all that pain and suffering have come some of the greatest feats ever to be accomplished on a motorbike.
The Australian rider, who places alongside contemporary motorcycling greats Marc Márquez and Travis Pastrana as an icon of the two-wheeled machine, recently completed a filmed trick tour of Mykonos with US street freestylers Aaron Colton. As well as riding around the Greek island, Maddison got back on his specially fitted motocross bike to repeat the sea-going exploits of his trips to Tahiti in 2015 and 2017.
Shooting the 200 minutes of footage required for the Rippin' Mykonos edit was a herculean task, requiring 30 members of crew from five different countries, three motorbikes and countless extra parts, some of them handmade. Luggage was lost, flights and ferry crossings delayed and cancelled and Maddison’s bespoke suspension gear got stuck in customs. If that isn't enough, Maddison even came down with pneumonia during a location check at the start of the year.
Watch Robbie Maddison and Aaron Colton in Rippin' Mykonos below.
4 min
Rippin' Mykonos
Robbie Maddison and Aaron Colton do some alternative sightseeing on the Greek island of Mykonos.
But despite the danger that Maddison puts himself in for films like Rippin' Mykonos, he is the most sane crazy person on the planet. He might be the 21st century's Evel Knievel, but in Maddison's mind, everything is a calculated risk. Every stunt relies on a blend of data crunching, zen-like mental conditioning and good old-fashioned bike-whisperer mojo.
To celebrate the release of Rippin' Mykonos, let's revisit our chat with the Australian and look back on his path to nailing zen and the art of motorcycle stunt riding.
Water baby: Robbie Maddison takes to the seas again
© Alex Grymanis
Maddison jettisons all fear… even when jumping the Arc de Triomphe
It's New Year's Eve 2008 and Robbie Maddison is peering over the edge of the Paris Las Vegas casino's replica of the Arc de Triomphe. He's already leapt the 96ft (29m) required to delicately land on the top, but, somehow, that was the easy part. The next stage, performed in the name of Red Bull: New Year, No Limits, is an 80ft (24m) return journey that will see him and the not-inconsiderable weight of his bike in a 55mph (89kph) freefall. So what's running through his head?
"I was really just trying to stay with zero thoughts," Maddison explains. "To be able to do a jump like that, you can't be up there thinking of all kinds of what-ifs. I'd focused on doing this jump for over a year and I'd been through all the negative sides of it. I'd had the nightmares and the cold sweats, I'd pictured what would go wrong and I realised that I can't let these thoughts occupy my mind, otherwise I wouldn't be able to focus on what I need to do.
"When I was up there, I was just looking at the edge, getting a feel for it, trying to be confident and comfortable up there. There's that whole desire inside of you to start feeling the fear of it and paying attention to that."
Robbie Maddison jumping 30m on to Las Vegas's Arc de Triomphe
© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool
Maddison is zen when it comes to putting his life on the line
You can't blame the mind, really. Fear is a natural response, designed to prevent you from attempting to start a fight with a sabre-toothed tiger. But when it comes to performing a stunt that requires precise timing and positioning, it's a rogue variable that can easily spell disaster. But like most things in his life, Maddison's on top of it.
"Every time I go to do one of these big stunts that's life threatening, I'm in a very zen moment," he says. "Time slows down and I can hear the most remote sounds that people wouldn't even be paying attention to. I can feel my heart beating and I'm aware of my breath going in, my breath going out. It's a very beautiful moment. It takes a lot of work to get to that point to be able to turn the fear off and just go with the flow."
Robbie jumping the Corinth Gap in 2010
© Pedrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Content Pool
Maddison is still aiming to blow minds with his stunts
Maddison's a self-described dreamer who's constantly coming up with ever bigger stunts. But despite his occasional dalliances with Hollywood – he was Daniel Craig's stunt double during the Istanbul rooftop chase in Skyfall – the movie set isn't necessarily the best place to realise his grandest schemes.
"I was talking to the guys after doing Bond," Maddison recalls. "I'm known for doing the 10-storey drop at the Arc de Triomphe, but I wanted to multiply that. With the correct set-up you could push the limits of that thing to a mind-blowing level. So I spoke to the guys from these production companies about these different stunts I'd like to do for movies. And they were a little reluctant to do it – 'We wouldn't do that and risk your life when we can have cables and green screens and CGI'."
Still, Maddison is as motivated as ever, though not necessarily by the traditional urge to compete or seek the next adrenaline high. He approaches his ambitions with the same measured clarity as he does the run-in ramp for a football field sized jump.
Robbie Maddison and Aaron Colton in Mykonos
© Alex Grymanis
I've had these big dreams as a kid and slowly I'm ticking them all off
"I'm not really going out there competing against anyone," he says. "I will jump my motorcycle further again, just because I know I can go further than what I've done in the past [he currently holds the world record for the 351ft (107m) jump he performed in Melbourne in 2008]. I'm gonna go out there and set the benchmark for how far a motorcycle can fly before I retire. Not to show anyone, but to show myself how far I can really go.
"I've had these big dreams as a kid and slowly I'm ticking them all off. I get inspired and I come up with new concepts. It really consumes me and I get passionate about wanting to pull it off."
12 min
Maddo's magic moments
These five stunning locations are perfect playgrounds for an all-time great FMX rider.
It's been a brutal road to success for Maddison
It's been a long and, yes, often painful journey to get to the strange place where Robbie Maddison now finds himself – serenely peaceful yet wildly successful, or successfully wild. Like most stuntmen who push themselves to the limit (and beyond), Maddison has a medical record as thick as a phonebook. If you've heard of a bone, he's probably broken it. And if you haven't heard of it… he's probably broken it regardless. But he sees every injury as a learning experience.
"It's a brutal road," Maddison surmises. "You have to learn by your mistakes. Fortunately enough, I've been able to overcome some crazy injuries and terrifying crashes, and learn these lessons. I'm at a point now where I'm not too cocky about the confidence of it, but there's a process you have to take and you have to be very cautious. It's like Russian roulette."
Considering the number of painful lessons he's had, is he now held together by more metal than his bike? "I've had all the hardware taken out," he says. "If you have a crash with metal in a bone, and you break the bone again with the metal inside of it, it really becomes almost an impossible job for surgeons to fix it. So I've had all the metal removed so I can break those things safely again."
Hey, we never said he was completely sane…
24 min
Wheels on water
Robbie Maddison is a master of motocross on land. Now, he takes his bike to one of the globe's heaviest waves.
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