Monday, July 30, 2007

Madrid


Just came back from a nice job in Madrid filming the last of a world competition in freestyle motorcross. It's sponsored by Red Bull, so there was plenty of money around to treat us well! Their representative took us to Real Madrid football stadium for dinner which, even though I'm not a football fan in any way was absolutely awesome!



Filming in the Plaza de Toros was a great experience, and the buzz before the big event makes everyone excited. These riders, or 'pilotos' as they romantically say in Spanish, perform the most amazing of tricks as they fly 20ft above the air at 40 miles per hour. All the Spanish wanted Dani Torres, the 20yr old from Seville, to win, but Travis Pastrana got the crown. At 24 years old, a multimillionaire because of being the only rider ever to perform a double back flip, rode for the last time in Madrid. He is retiring from the sport. At 24. He walks like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. All of these guys sustain so many injuries none of them can walk straight. In one interview we asked a rider to list his injuries, his broken bones and twisted ligaments, and as he ran through more than fifteen seperate incidents he said at the end, "Fingers and ribs don't count do they."




But Travis was above the rest in most respects. He was very media friendly, and appreciated the other side of the sport which was more demanding than what even footballers are used to. There were so many TV crews trying to film the riders, many immediately before the event where they risk their lives above a mound of sand. I'm making it sound romantic but if the rider miscalculates his jump he could land on his back from ten foot in the air. Then his bike could follow down on top of him. Nate Adams landed one jump at speed and appeared to slightly bump into the panel on the other side of the ring. When we wondered why he had to stop his run prematurely it turned out he'd broken his hand. A producer asked Travis what the best question he'd ever been asked was. He thought about it and said "Can you sign this please?"

9 comments:

tolenti said...

Waaau !! cuanta accion!! buenisima la respuesta de Travis!!

perica said...

icaio, how exciting your job!!!!!!!!
good cronica of you trip!

perica said...

hello ricardo, i m perica and i really like your family. and my english is so....disaster

I c a i o said...

thank you Perica!

Anonymous said...

¡Qué viaje que te echaste, Icaio! Te envidio. De paso te cuento que en España yo soy hincha del Atlético de Madrid [o el Aleti, como le dicen allí]. El Real es para mí como el River español... muy gallina.

I c a i o said...

Se mejoraba con David Beckham o daba lo mismo? Igual tiene mucha fama, no? Osea, dices que es muy gallina, pero es unos de los mejores o no? (viste que no se nada de football!)

Uchi said...

Sebas tiene 15 fracturas en total, nada que envidiarle a los bikers no? Pero tambien camina como un scarecrow, le faltan 5 cms de la clavicula derecha y eso hace que tenga un hombro mas caido que el otro... tiene 10 tornillos y una placa de acero en su tobillo derecho y 6 tornillos en el codo tambien derecho, obviamente camina inclinado a la derecha!!!
Excelente el relato, que buena experiencia!!!

I c a i o said...

Gracias Uchi!
Did Sebas get his broken bone trophies from Snowboarding?

Rosario said...

Che, la proxima vez llevanos!!!!