Ride365: Brett Cue Crashes at PastranaLand

If you told Brett Cue he'd be visiting PastranaLand and hitting some of the crazy ramps that guys like Travis Pastrana and Josh Sheehan made famous this last year- chances are he would give you a funny look. Although, funny looks are pretty typical when you hang out with a guy like Brett! Check out the shenanigans from a week at PastranaLand with TP199, Gregg Duffy, and the Godfrey boys just to name a few.

From Brett Cue:

The Experience Of A Lifetime

I first met a young Travis Pastrana in 1999, the year before he raced his first ever Supercross. Although we are only 3 years apart in age, he was already miles ahead in experience. He had been riding since he was 3 years old and I had only been riding 3 years total. Travis came out to our private riding area to film for the No Fear movie, Chapter One. From that day on, Travis Pastrana was my all time favorite rider. His positive personality and overall outlook on life was something that I have worked hard to emulate over the years, even still today.

Fast forward 17 years: Although Travis and I's paths have crossed many times since 1999, I have always had the dream of going to Maryland and riding at Pastranaland. I was out having dinner one night when I got a text from Trevor Piranha. He sent a video of TP front flipping a ramp that would make any of us regular humans want to cry, and asked, "Would you jump this"? My text back said, "Are you nuts"?? Long story short, Travis called me the next day and asked the same thing, but who can say no to Travis Pastrana?

A week later, I was on the road to Maryland. I left Oklahoma early Saturday morning to start the 1358 mile drive. With stops on the way to pick up my buddies Dayton Daft and Robert Imondi in Saint Louis, then again to take a nap in Ohio, the drive seemed to take forever. Between the 3 of us, we were so excited/nervous/terrified, that Davidsonville, Maryland couldn't come soon enough!

We got to Travis' place around 5:00 on Sunday evening. Coming down the driveway and seeing the foam pit, shop, house, and skate park that we have all seen in so many videos was quite a surreal experience. Dayton, Rob and I thought we would show up, get acquainted with our surroundings and start the shenanigans early on Monday morning. In typical TP fashion, we talked for about 5 minutes in his shop before he had me digging in my gear bag for a fresh set of 365MX gear. As I sat in the bed of my truck getting dressed, he gave me the quick TP run down on back flipping into the foam pit. Once that was done, he did the same on front flipping into the airbag. I honestly had zero expectations coming in about the things I would learn, but the last thing I ever thought I would do on a dirtbike was a front flip. Luckily, when you hear the confidence in Travis' voice that you're going to be okay, you suddenly trust yourself just a little bit more; I was still scared out of my mind! By the end of night one, I was on cloud 9! Backflips into the foam were no problem and after a couple adjustments, front flips were pretty solid, as well. At that point, I could have left happy!

We woke up on Tuesday morning, grabbed some Chick Fil A, then headed back to Pastranaland for the start of our first full day. Travis wanted to head to the back part of his property to hit the big ramp that he had sent me the videos of the week before; The thought alone was enough to make a grown man cry. Just looking at this ramp was scary enough, but imagining that we were about to hit it 3rd gear, wide open, was terrifying! After following Travis up to the ramp a couple of times and watching him soar into the stratosphere, I thought to myself, "I didn't drive this far to be a sissy. Time to send it"! And "send it" is exactly what I did. I came off the ramp aiming towards the right, just as Travis had said, but something went wrong as I neared the top and I drifted a bit left. As I quickly learned, going left is a no-no. As soon as I took off, I knew I was in trouble, so I ditched my beautiful, RIDE365.com Honda 450. Luckily, I caught the side of the airbag. Unluckily, my bike did not. With a bent front fork, broken handlebars and a subframe that made my bike resemble a chopper, I rode back to the shop. After a couple hours of work and some Chick Fil A lunch catered to the shop by Lyn-z, we were back in action. I wasn't about to leave Maryland with that oversized ramp getting the best of me, so once again, we headed to the back. After a couple more speed checks with Travis, I turned around and clicked 3rd yet again. I hit the 30' tall front flip kicker ramp and the whole world seemed to stand still. When you're up that high, things are silent, and you are so disoriented that you can't even think straight; It's the craziest feeling I've ever had. I didn't know if I was going to land on my head or perfectly on my wheels, on the bag or off the bag. Luckily, the bike came around and I landed decently close to the middle of the bag... Success! After a few more front flips, I decided to call it a day while I was still in one piece!

Pastranaland is unlike any other place I've been, and to be honest, I didn't really want to leave. I could go on forever about the days we spent in Maryland. From Duffy and TP doing side by side nac front flips to cramming in the American flag painted bus with the guys to go have supper every night, the memories made are endless. I'm forever thankful to Travis, Lyn-z, and the crew for treating us like family for the time we were there. I would also like to thank Chris Crossland and Jarrod Rogers for having our backs day in and day out, RIDE365.com for helping make this dream come true, and a special thank you to each of you who support myself and everything we do!

Until next time,

BQ

Check out our Instagram pages for more behind the scenes action from our week at Pastranaland!

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