Levi LaVallee Snowmobile Legend and World Record Jump Holder
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I have fully done things around the home that I think look good and then a bang in the night and I wake up to a shelf collapsing, a painting falling off the wall. Like it, I've seen it all go south. I own a home and I can tell you, I know how much work it can take. Whether it's everyday maintenance and repairs or making dream projects a reality, it can be hard just to know where to start. But now all you need to do is Angie that and find a skilled local pro who will deliver the quality and expertise you need.

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You can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything you need to make a podcast in one place. Download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. All right, guys, welcome back to the podcast, Life Wide Open podcast. We're going to just jump right into it. We got a very important guest today, a 13-time Snowmobiles X Games medalist, world record holder, Minnesota native, and

And one of our childhood idols. Might go as far to say one of our friends now. So, warm welcome to Levi LaValle. Welcome on the podcast, man. Thank you, thank you. You messed up, though, right off the get. You said an important guest. And I said, Dad, I looked around like, where's the important guy at?

No, you're selling yourself short, man. You might go as far to say one of the most important guests we've had. Right up there with Haley Deegan, obviously. So it's kind of a battle between the energy drinks. We had a monster athlete on last week and then a Red Bull athlete on this week. So you guys can decide down in the comments. I mean, after the podcast.

who took the title. But when I was preparing to come over here, I was like thinking, I'm like, all right, these guys, like they, they go hard. Right. I'm like, I'm going to have to bring some energy to keep up with them. Even though it's in the morning, I'm like, I really gotta be, I gotta bring my a game. And you did, you brought a cooler full of Red Bulls. What more could we ask for? Honestly. Yeah.

Last time when we came up to see you, do we know, is it official or is it an unofficial world record? I like calling it unofficial. It's funnier. Unofficial official world record. We jumped, you and Jake tandem jumped a snowmobile. Yeah.

200 no no no 140 200 would be pretty crazy it was it was like 100 and we went over 100 feet i remember yes it was like maybe 106 yeah that's right it was just over 100 yeah which i to be honest like the idea was like oh this is gonna be great when you guys were like hey

you know can we like shoot something i'm like yeah for sure and then i i got like the gears start turning i'm like it'd be awesome just to like i'm not gonna tell them i'm like just come to the shop because everyone would assume we're gonna go in the foam pit and flip or something like that and i'm like oh this is gonna be great so so i like i start scheming this this two-up snowmobile issue is i didn't take into consideration that jake was like 200 plus pounds i

And he's a big boy. Yeah. He was a big dude. And I'm like, Holy cow. Cause I, I tested it with a guy that was like maybe 150 pounds. And even with him, he was like huge air wheelie. And I'm going, Oh my goodness. Like, what am I going to do with a big guy on there? Well, then Jake gets on. I'm like, how much you weigh? He's like, Oh, my two 10 or something.

I'm like, just lean forward. Lean forward when we jump. And he did awesome. Unfortunately, my apparatus of handlebars and seat wasn't up to 210 pounds of fury that Jake had. And he about tore it right off. Didn't he end up blowing out the running boards? Yeah. Isn't that weird?

He ripped the running board off and almost tore the handlebar off. And I'm like, to me, I'm like, that's the price you pay for fun, right? Dude, that was the best. Were you worried? Well, you didn't have a sign in any liability forms or anything like that. So you weren't that worried, I'd imagine. But were you worried about having somebody else

risk being responsible for somebody else when you were jumping because usually it's just you yeah usually it's me i think when when we did the jump i mean i was pretty nervous because when he got on the sled like squatted way down and i'm like oh man and then we hit that little the little like three foot mound in the thing the front end just like full wheelie off it i'm going oh this

this could be bad. Right. So I'm like, kind of like, you know, anxiety building and Jake's back there with a wig on and he's yelling, screaming and stuff. And I'm like, I rounded the corner before we went to hit it. And I said like, how are you feeling back there? And he's like, Oh, I'm ready. Let's do this. And I'm like, that's one of us. And I feel like even if he wasn't ready, he was going to tell you he was no matter how nervous you were. You're like, well, you ready? He'd be like, yeah.

Yeah, I think so. I don't think it was your fault that broke. That was a hell of a contraption. When we showed up, we were genuinely surprised. That was an awesome video. Kind of a one-off thing. It was fun. I think the cool part, too, is we all got to, like, we did the little jump, and then we got to go ride. Yeah. At least we could...

A lot of the things that you do, you go to shoot, you go to film or whatever, and it's like you're on a schedule. And I think that's what a lot of people don't understand is that you're there to kind of essentially do a job, but to end with like, hey, let's all just go rip. That was pretty fun. It was fun seeing you guys in the fields and stuff ripping wheelies on everything. That was a ton of fun. And you had enough sleds for all of us. We just kept pulling. And then we got that guy that got stuck.

stuck oh my gosh dude there's so much that was such a good video it was funny because uh when you were telling us the first mistake was you were communicating with jake what our plan was yeah so yeah we were like jake all right what are we doing he's like dude i don't know levi won't tell me he's just like show up and let's have fun and we were like do we need to bring our snowmobiles or anything and jake's like bro

No, we're fine. And we show up and you go, where's your guys' snowmobiles? And we go, Jake! So luckily, yeah, you had like 12 brand new Polaris snowmobiles that we could go and

Ride afterwards. It was fun. It was a good trip for sure. Okay, so that was an unofficial world record, but you hold an actual world record. Yeah, longest snowmobile jump. So in, what was it, end of 2011 for Red Bull New Year No Limits, Robbie Madison and myself jumped over a 300-foot water gap, and I ended up jumping 412 feet on my snowmobile. So it was kind of a cool thing because...

We tried to do it the year prior, and it was supposed to be just myself there, and I was going to do, like, snowmobile distance jump, same setup. And I had my sled cut out in the air, and I did a 360-foot endo, and I had to jump over the handlebars, and I landed on my side and broke all my ribs, collapsed all my lungs, and fractured my pelvis and fractured a few vertebrae. And, like, it was, like, lucky to be alive after that one. Yeah.

And the next year, I remember like Red Bull, they were super cool about it. They said, hey, you know, do you, they would check on me like every couple weeks. Like, how's everything going? Because I was, I was broken. You know, I was sleeping in a chair because I couldn't lay down because I was,

we started talking and i just said man i'm just like bummed that we weren't able to show the world what we were capable of because we had a great group of great group of people and great setup and uh because before that you had landed it correct i i landed uh 361 feet was the longest when i jumped in practice and then we had one last jump and it was supposed to be under the lights at night to simulate what it was going to be like on new year's and when i hit that um you

You know, you hit the gas and brake to adjust the attitude of the machine, and I hit the brake to bring the front end down, and when I hit the gas to counter it, it just bogged. And so it just continued on. Do you know why? We had a carburation issue that it started at, like, 275-foot jumps, and it was cutting out, and I was doing these, like, 275-foot endos and landing on my front end, and I would slam into the dash, and...

And, you know, I'd come back and I'm like, it's cutting out. And they're like, okay. And they try stuff. And the only way to figure out if they fixed it was I'd have to go jump again. So I did that. I did that three times. And the third time I endo and I like land on the skis and I slam into the dash and I ride out of it. And now keep in mind, 275 feet at that time, the world record was 301. So I'm like,

little over 20, I'm 26 feet from world record longest jump in history on a snowmobile. And you're like almost crashing on it. Yeah. I'm like endoing every time. And I'm like, all right. Like, so I'm kind of nervous just because you're, you aware of how big the jumps you're doing are. And you're like, I finally went in the third one. I said,

We got to get this figured out because I don't know how many more 275-foot endos I'm going to ride out of. And then they figured it out. What was happening is sucking so much fuel out of the bowl that when I get in the air and hit the brake, we think the fuel would kind of rise up and it would just suck air and then it would cut out. So then I couldn't, you know, I'd get up there, hit the brake. When I hit the gas, it would just suck air and go, blah, blah.

Only gravity problems you have when you're literally flying. Yeah. Dude, so on the crash, what was going through your brain or was it just blackout when it bogged and you were like, oh, I'm crashing? The nice thing is I don't remember anything of the crash. So they must have rewinded the tape and just...

Hit end or something. Let's delete this clip. Yeah, just delete that because I don't remember. The last thing I remember from that night was they had a mini bike because the run-in was 1,100 feet long, and I would drive that thing around to get back and forth. And I remember I put my gear on, I drove down there, and that was the last thing I remember. And then the next thing, I woke up in the hospital like,

Three days later, and I was like, whoa, what happened? You were in a coma? I think they put me in a self-induced coma because I was...

broken off and whatnot. And they, cause what happened, what I was told was when I crashed, like my body skipped over a hundred feet. Like, so I hit the ground on my side and my body like skipped a hundred feet through the air and then landed upside down on my head. And I started rolling. And then my wife, she was like, I rolled right by her, you know, at, at a hundred mile an hour, I'm like rolling by. And she's like, wow, I just watched him die, you know? And

She comes running out, and they had all these safety protocols that, you know, if something bad happened, make sure nobody gets to them, no one touches them. And so somebody intersected my wife and, like, grabbed her so she didn't, like –

Try to move me around or anything. And then the ambulance came and I was knocked out. And story goes, like, I came to after they like, hey, Levi, Levi. And I came to in because I collapsed both my lungs. I couldn't breathe. So I was like, freaking out.

freaking out. I'm like, you know, like when you knock the wind out of yourself and you're like, like that, I was like doing that and I couldn't breathe. So they're like, don't move because you might have, you know, back injury or neck injury and we don't want you to move. And I was like, like incredible hulking them, like wrestling them off of me and stuff. And they're like,

stop moving, right? So they just pinned me down. And then, you know, after that, they had to put, they put the chest tubes in, they put chest tubes on both sides because both of them were collapsed. And for my collapsed lungs, and then they hauled me to the hospital. And, you know, I didn't know it at the time, you know, but I was,

It was a couple years later, I collapsed another lung in a snow cross race, and this guy was giving me the whole spiel about how collapsed lungs, you know, you got fluid in it, and you got to drain it, and blah, blah, blah. And I stopped him, like, after about three, four minutes of him telling me about collapsed lungs. I'm like, yeah, I know. I did them both a couple years ago. And he's like, really? And he's like, would you tell me what happened? I'm like, yeah, yeah. So I tell him the whole story, and afterwards he goes...

He's like, you know, like, you're lucky those paramedics knew how to put chest tubes in. So how fast did they do that? Like within minutes? Yeah, like apparently they did it like right away. They established that I had collapsed with my lungs and they put them in. And he said if they wouldn't have done that, that I would have for surely died before I got to the hospital. And he said that most paramedics don't know how to put chest tubes in. So he's like, you're lucky that the guys that were there knew.

knew how to do it. Otherwise you went to made it. That's off to them. Yeah, absolutely. That's insane. Yeah. So it was pretty cool. And what's funny is like, you know, I say it nonchalantly and I've said it nonchalantly for my whole life, but you know, when you stop and you go like, Hey, I, that guy saved my life. Yeah. No, like he hits you a little bit different. So after all that happens, how are you laying in this hospital bed?

pretty much dying and you go, I think I'm going to do that again. Well, you probably didn't make the decision that fast or maybe you did. No, I mean, it wasn't like, it wasn't there. Like the first thing was I got out of the hospital and then I had, you know, the fortunate thing was I cracked my pelvis, but nothing was moved or anything. So I didn't have to have crutches, which was awesome, but I did have to have a walker. So I had a walker and

And my one funny walker story was like I had my checkups and I go to the hospital and I go to the hospital and it's wintertime. And there I am with my walker and I'm walking along and, you know, I come from the snow into the nice clean floor and my little rubber pucks on the back are going, erk.

every time I would go and I like looked over and there's another older gentleman with a walker and he's got the tennis balls on the back. And I was like, it all of a sudden hit me. I'm like, I am like a rookie walker. That's what I am. Like that guy's like, come on, what are you doing, man? You put the tennis balls on so they slide. So I started laughing.

Today's episode is brought to you by Angie. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your jobs and projects done well. Let me tell you, there's the version of it where you try to do something at home and then there's a version of it where you have someone help you, you watch them do it the right way and you go, thank God I didn't try to do that myself.

I have fully done things around the home that I think look good and then a bang in the night and I wake up to a shelf collapsing, a painting falling off the wall. Like it, I've seen it all go south. I own a home and I can tell you, I know how much work it can take. Whether it's everyday maintenance and repairs or making dream projects a reality, it can be hard just to know where to start. But now all you need to do is Angie that and find a skilled local pro who will deliver the quality and expertise you need.

Whatever your home project, big or small, indoor or outdoor, you can Angie that and connect with skilled professionals to get the project done well. Right now, one of my wish lists is I want a bike for my condo in Milwaukee and I would love to rig it up on a pulley in the ceiling because I have one of those like lofted ceilings.

but I'm so scared to try that on my own. Angie has 20 years of home experience and they've combined it with new tools to simplify the whole process. Bring them your project online or with the Angie app. Answer a few questions and Angie can handle the rest from start to finish or help you compare quotes from multiple pros and connect instantly, which means you can take care of any home project in just a few taps.

Because when it comes to getting the most out of your home, you can do this when you Angie that. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's A-N-G-I dot com. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. And one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update, and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter. From

Anyway, so...

After I got out of that, I was in my walker for a while. But, I mean, the thing is, is like I always say with injuries is the thing that I learned about injuries is it gives you all of a sudden, it forces you into a lot of time to reflect on things because you can't do anything else. Like I sat in a chair.

for a month, like going, watching TV and playing video games and you go, all right, like, how do I not do this anymore? Because this is like not what I like to do. So you start reflecting on things and that's, that's when like the whole idea of like, hey, like,

We broke the record. We could have showed the world what is possible on a snowmobile, and we weren't able to. It really sunk in that it bummed me out, and that's when talking with Red Bull, and they said, I was telling them that. I said, I'm just so bummed we weren't able to show everyone what we're capable of. I remember Dave, the gentleman that was from Red Bull, he paused, and he's like,

So would you want to do it again? You got to ask. Yeah, and I didn't even skip a beat. I just said, absolutely.

You know, and, and, and he's like, okay. So then like, I don't know if it was a week or two went by and he's like, so if you want to do it, like Maddow will jump with you. Like we could do it and you know, it's totally up to you. And I'm like, I'm in, you know, and Robbie Madison. Yeah. So did that make, was that more of an incentive? Like when he said Robbie Madison will jump it with you were like, okay.

No, I mean, how I looked at it is I looked at it as like, okay, that's the insurance plan because when it was me alone and then I crashed, they had to cancel a huge production. And I'm like, well, that makes sense. At least you got two of us, so it's twice the chance of it actually happening, right? And when he did it, and I've been to...

I was fortunate enough to go to Matto's jump in Vegas. I didn't get to go to the step-up one, but he did a world record jump there, and I got to see that. And Matto is just like – the guy's legendary when it comes to big stunts and big jumps. And to share that stage with him, it was a real honor because I think that guy is – he's probably –

One, gosh, he'd probably be the gnarliest one I've ever met. Like just fearless, like mentality. Like he just felt like so evil Knievel, you know, like we'd be doing our jumps, like our practice jumps. I remember like after crashing the first year, I was scared to death the whole time. So Matt, I was like, yeah,

he gets there, you know, he couldn't get his bike together. So he missed like the first day or two of practice. And, you know, I had moved up to, you know, doing 300 foot jumps and, you know, cause they start you off real close and then they stretch it. And he, you know, so I'm already up to like 300 footers and, and he's like at 150 foot gap. And he's like, just in that day, it was like, yep, move it back, move it back. And he just

got up to like where I was like right now. And I'm like, Oh wow, this guy's like, he's pretty gnarly. Then like for me, it was always like, okay, you know, go, you know, like we'll, we'll count you down, get the signal from him. Of course, clear, you know, they'd go through this whole process and then they would relay the message to my guy. And then he would say, go, Maddox,

you know, he, he did the one jump turned right around, drove back to the starting line, just hit it again. And there was like, no one said go. So there's like, people are all, all over the place. And I'm like,

Holy crap, man. He's just like, yeah, I just felt like hitting it again. It felt cool, you know? And I'm like, oh, man. Like every time I jumped, I was like, you know, in your mind, you're like, dude, this could be the last jump ever. You know, you're weighing all these options. He's just like, I'm just going for it, you know? And then our final jump,

was like, this is what really made Matto gnarly, super gnarly in my book, was our last jump of testing, you know, the night jump. We're both going to do this, our only tandem jump before we go to San Diego. We hit it, and I remember like the year prior, that was the jump that I crashed on. So I was like, it was dark, and I was like, you know, it reminded me so much of the videos that I saw of it and whatnot, and I just went, okay.

Just do the jump, do the jump. I landed the jump and I'm like, Oh, I did it. You know? And I'd look over and Matt was riding. I'm like, we made it. We're going to San Diego.

And I ride up, and I jump off my sled, and I go over, and I, like, hug Maddo, and I'm like, you did it, man, yeah! You know, and Maddo's, like, shaking. And I'm like, dude, what's going on? And he, like, he nods his head down, and he, like, points at his front wheel, and there's spokes sticking out, like, everywhere on it. And I'm like, oh, my goodness. Like, almost exploded his wheel on the last jump. And I, like...

I was like blown away, you know? And they, so they went back and they watched the slow-mo video of it. And it literally, like he only used like three quarters of his suspension. His suspension, his forks were so stiff that it wasn't even using the suspension. So that energy had to go somewhere and it, it just went to the wheel and almost exploded it. And that was our last jump. And there was no, it wasn't like, okay, it's,

figure out the problem. We'll retest it. And then you can try it again. And then we'll go. It was like, we don't have time. We got to tear the scaffolding down. We got to move this setup to San Diego tonight. So it was like, he almost yard sailed and they said, well, figure it out when you get there. And on that note. Yeah. And I, I just went to bed tonight. Wow.

Wow. I couldn't believe it. I just went, man, unbelievable. So we show up three weeks later then for the big show in Matto. Like, you know, they had the suspension. He got his suspension softened up.

And, you know, they said, hopefully it works. Live TV, good luck. Nuts. And then on top of that, I remember we got there and we hadn't dealt with this in any of our practice. He had, there was the moisture from all the dew. It was all plywood sheeting and they had like sand grit in it. Well, he was spinning sand.

on the run in and up the ramp so they did like an emergency like okay we need 1500 feet of expanded metal so he can get traction so they bought all this like expanded metal so that he had traction on the run in and all the way up the run in and like on

on top of him, not knowing if his front wheel is going to explode. He doesn't know if he's going to have enough speed to clear the jump to do any of this stuff. And he just goes for it live on TV. And I'm like, dude, you are an iron man. You are a freaking gladiator. So there's levels to the craziness. That is crazy to hear you. Go ahead.

Like people would look at you like, man, this guy is insane. And you would look at Matt or like, this guy is insane. Like that blew my mind hearing you go, yeah, he's fearless. And I go, well, no, you're fearless. There's just levels to it. That's cool. I've always, you know, growing up watching you and Robbie Madison, I've always kind of put you in the same group. I'm like, well, Levi does all the same stuff Robbie does just on a snowmobile. Obviously, if you break it down, it's a little different. But yeah, especially with those long jumps, especially with

You know, what's the next biggest stunt? How can I blow people's minds and do what I love to do? Yeah, that's crazy. In a good way. Crazy in a good way. We were watching the video, too. And did you, like, have to pile drive the wall at the end of the jump? That's what I was like. There's no smooth ride out. Like, you literally just crash into this wall at the end of the jump. The best part about that, that's a great story. So...

So we do all our jump, all of our practice jumps. We were at Fontana Speedway, and they have this. It's all on scaffolding, so they can, like, literally take that setup and make it exactly the same for the jump. Well, they did. The only problem is they didn't have the endless run out. Like, I had thousands of feet of run out at Fontana Speedway. We're in this massive parking lot. So for the jump, we're in San Diego. We're on this, like, this thing.

little chunk of land and there's ocean off the back. So they're like, well, you know, we need to have the energy station, this big like Red Bull structure for the VIP. That's going to be right at the back.

And I'm like, okay, so prior to us jumping, they have to, for insurance purpose, they have to walk you. You have to walk the run in, check the jump, check the landing, check the run out, and you have to essentially sign off on it. Say, yes, this is exactly the same, and yes, I'm comfortable with this. So I'm walking through the whole setup. I walk the run in. I walk the jump. They all look the same.

You know, the difference is there's 300 feet of water between ramp and landing, which we didn't have that the first go around. But, you know, I'm like, yeah, it looks about the same. So we walk around then. We go to the landing site. And we walk up the landing. And they're like, yep, so we got, you know, landing is...

200 foot long or whatever it was. And then we've got 180 feet of run out is what he said. And I'm like, 180 feet. I'm like, I'm like, I didn't stop under 220 once in all of our practice, you know? And like, I did like purposely like try to slow down just cause I, they're like, see if you, you know, if you land, if you think of it, try to see how long it takes you to shut down. So I did the last few and,

And I never stopped under 220 feet. I'm like, and he goes, yep, so we got 180 feet of run out. And I like, and then there's like, and then we got the barricade, you know, because the VIPs will sit right behind that. The VIPs need to be close. They need to be close and they need to feel you hitting them, Levi. Yeah. They want to feel the eruption when I blast in the wall. So I, anyway, so I like paused and I was like, I'm like, I'm like 180 feet. I'm like, I never stopped under 220 feet.

And he looked at me and he goes, well, just hit the brakes harder. Yeah.

I was like, that's not how it works. I just said, I'm like, just make sure there's tough blocks on that wall because I'm for surely going to hit him. And he smoked him. Yeah. Smoked him. Did Bobby Madison hit him too? No, no, no. He had a front brake. Like dirt bikes, they can stop pretty quick. I suppose, yeah. It was all wet grass too. So I come in wet grass on a snowmobile and I'm like sliding. But I had this like idea. Like I never try to get ahead of myself when I'm doing like,

jumps and stuff like that. I'm like, just task at hand. Don't get ahead of yourself. You know? So I always like that. So I didn't put a lot of thought into the stopping, but when I landed, I'm like, okay, okay, stop. And like in that, you know, second or whatever you have a couple of seconds, I was like, okay, so here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to, I'm going to slide, slide, hit the brakes. As I'm coming to the wall, I'm just going to let the sled go out in front of me and I'm going to run out of it. And it's going to be like, I'm going to look like, you know,

tarzan or something you'll have to look super rad just slag gun and it runs into the wall and i'm yeah i did it like that so my whole plan i go to try that and i don't know if you guys ever tried jumping off like a moving vehicle before yeah it's like especially in the wet grass it just doesn't work it doesn't work at all so i i step off probably at 15 to 20 mile an hour

and I just, my feet go out right out from under me. And then, so I'm like assumed the like losing position, my feet out in front and I'm just sliding on my back and I'm looking at him like sleds into the wall and the sled hit the wall and it turned like perpendicular to me. And I'm like, Holy cow, I'm just going to run right into it. I,

I like penciled in literally between the ski and the track. Like there's one open spot and I just, my feet went right through there and I hit the tough block on the other side. And I'm like, yes. Like, cause I mean, if I would have hit the spindle or the track, I mean, I could have broken ankle or I could have got wounded. Right. But I like totally missed it. But I was like literally like right underneath my snowmobile. Like I used like my snowmobile to push out from under it.

I'm like, yes. They take you out on a stretcher. They're like, Levi LaValle crashes into the tough blocks. He did the jump just fine, but he absolutely bodied himself into the wall. Yeah, I love how you not only fell off, but you continued to keep sliding. Oh, yeah. Like cruising. Yeah, I like slid pretty good. It was awesome. But the cool thing is I kept that sled and, you know, I –

It still has the grass on it. Like I made sure there's like some chunks of grass on the running board from after when I stepped on it and whatnot. I just said, I'm like, I want it exactly the same as it was. So there's like the grass is still on it and everyone's like, dude, that thing's all dirty. And I'm like, I know, I know. That's the point. San Diego grass. Damn, man. That's insane.

not to move on from how crazy that was but the double backflip yeah the the second that would technically be the first world record attempt right first one to ever do the yeah it was the first double backflip rotated i can claim first rotated double backflip on a snowmobile and uh the landing was not pretty at all it was you know you can't expect much though it was they

They said they figured I was over 60 feet up in the air. From the ground. From the ground is what they figured. And then I like, I almost flat landed, like caught the last little bit of tranny. And I was fortunate because I landed, I landed like probably eight, 10 inches to the left. And when I landed like that, it, I kind of like, it was like a glancing blow on my seat.

So I just remember, I remember my right butt cheek. It felt like, it felt like someone grabbed onto it and tried to like rip it off of me. And like, you know, but I was like so jacked up on adrenaline. I just like took off running. I had a sprained ankle and I'm like running up the hill. Yeah, yeah, we did it, you know? And then, and then they come up and interview me up there. And then on the walk down, I was like, gosh, ankle's feeling a little weak. Yeah.

oh my butt cheek you're really killing me everything hurts yeah and uh so we we did that but the the double flip it was an interesting thing you know that was it was a it was a pretty neat time in my life no i don't say neat but it was it was interesting to reflect on because the year prior is my first year doing freestyle and i remember like we started freestyle and

We won freestyle speed and style male athlete, the X games. And I remember leaving X games that year. And I mean, I bet it wasn't a week and I was like, dude, I'm doing a double backflip next year. And I'm like, I'm, I'm building a foam pit and I'm,

I had the whole plan. So at that point, you didn't even have a foam pit. No, I didn't have a foam pit. I didn't have any of that. And I was just like, I'm building it all. I'm doing it, you know? And so I got into it. And, you know, once I got started in it, I had a plan, but it was a terrible plan. But it worked anyway. It was a plan. I had somewhere to go with it. So we figured it out. Like, I mean, double flip's pretty easy. It's like, you know.

You know, if you know how to rotate a backflip, just go higher. You need more time. Yeah, it makes, it honestly makes total sense. So, so I just said, I'm like, you know, I need to figure out how to go higher and higher. So I just start propping a ramp up and then I'm like, Holy cow. It's like, I'm, I'm still not even close. So we, we literally put a hinge in the middle of the ramp and we put this like kink in it. So the top half of it was really steep and,

So I would like come in like a wall. No, I mean, it wasn't like full wall. It was 60. It was 64 degrees is what it was. It was 64. And the second time we did it, the skis were, I had an adjustable ramp where the outer skis could adjust and,

And that was up to like 72, which is pretty steep for a race. Okay. But yeah, so anyway, so we started in that process. And I remember when we finally got to the point of, because my strategy was I'm going to do a rotation and then,

on the second rotation, I'll throw it out in front of me and I'll see how far the snowmobile rotates on its own. And once it rotates around to where, you know, it's rotating at the second flip without me, um,

You know, you'd think it'd be easier with me on it, right? So that was my idea. And we got it where the sled, you know, where I would do one flip, and then on the second one I would do like a quarter so the sled was straight up and down, and then I would just shove the sled out in front of me, and then the sled would land on the foam pit, and I would land on the foam pit behind it. And I did that, like I would pencil dive in, and it was so awesome because by the end, you know, I was probably going 50 feet,

50, 55 feet up in the air and I'm throwing the sled and I'm landing in like 10 feet of foam. So I'm falling like 40 feet through the air, like rolling up the windows, you know, and then I would pencil dive into the foam in the foam. Like I hadn't had a foam pit before, so I didn't know what to expect. But what happens is the foam, it, it jiggles around and it's slowly like works itself together. And it makes this like all the cubes are like compressed together and

and on the bottom, they're like, like really tight. So when I would pencil dive in from 40 feet up, you know, with my snowboard boots, my, my feet don't move, you know, my ankles don't bend. So I would land in there and I couldn't move my feet. They

They'd be like cemented down into the foam. So they'd have to winch me out of the foam pit as well. So I had to make a, we made a rope with like knots on the end, like for like, you know, reminded me of like the tricep one you see at the gym. Yeah. So I had one of those on the, on the,

log truck we had this like log truck with a big boom on it and they would come over they would pull the sled out and then they would come get me and it was all i could do to hang on with my grip i was stuck in there so hard that it was everything i could do to hang on to pull me out of a phone that's the sound it made when they pulled you yeah and this is all in your backyard this isn't that like a professional isn't your yard yeah is that at my shop yeah yeah

No, it was cool. I mean, it was, it was a neat, neat thing. So eventually we got to that point where I was able to rotate it into the pit. And I remember I was supposed to fly out. I was supposed to fly out on Saturday before X games. I remember I'm like, no, I need like, I need another day. So I stayed, I missed my flight. I stayed an extra day to practice. And then I tried it at my, at my house or at my shop.

tried it to snow and my biggest fear was overshooting it because i'm like if i overshoot this i'm gonna explode like because i'm going so high and i remember i went and we had the landing we moved the ramp over there and i'm like okay it's time to go for it and i i go and i came in a little bit slow and we we put like we fluffed the top maybe two feet of snow it was real soft and

And I tried the first one and I remember I was coming around on the second rotation and it seemed like I was like, I wasn't going as high as I should be. And I came around on the second one and I literally saw snow and hit the ground. And I just, I just put the nose right into it in the sled position.

it toppled over on top of me and the sled, like it ended up rolling down the side of the landing. But I mean, needless to say, it went, you know, probably 45, it probably fell 30, 30, 35 feet onto its nose. So it was, you know, flattened the first little bit of it. And then I got up, it was super funny. Cause there's like maybe six, seven guys there. And you

you know, the videos, it's pretty awesome. Cause I, I do the thing, I crash and I'm like, you know, again, I'm like jacked up on adrenaline. I jumped to my feet and, and I'm like, okay, I just got to hit it faster. Yeah.

And it's just silent. Nobody replies to me. Nobody says anything because I think they were all looking like, I can't believe this guy is alive. Like I just saw him like lawn dirt in the sled on top of him. And all I had was a bloody nose, a little blood on my nose. And they're all like, like they couldn't believe that I was, I was functional.

And I'm like, I just got to hit it faster. But I know if that sled wouldn't have been like completely demolished, I would have turned right around and went and hit it. And, you know, which it would have been cool because I might have been able to land it then if I would hit a little faster. But anyway, sled was wiped out. So I'm like, well, we can't do any more. We'll have to just figure it out at X Games.

So we figured it, we threw the ramp on, on a trailer and the sled all piled up. We brought it out there and I called the guys and said, you know, pipes are junk. The front ends, you know, we need to replace the whole front end is what I told them. And so we brought the sled out there and they, they fixed all of it. And, um, you know, and then six days later we tried it on, on TV and, um,

I just remember telling myself, I'm like, I'm not shorting it out there. And I definitely didn't know. So you only hit it to snow one time before that. Yeah. Only once. Only once. Cause I mean, I remember they mentioned that when I, you know, watched it back of the day. And like, I remember they mentioned that, that you didn't get a, this was your practice run in a sense at X games. You were, I had two. So I did have, um, I did straight air the ramp, um,

You know, so I had him set it up, and I think straight air is scarier than flipping. I bet. Just a straight boner air. That's what we call that. Yeah.

It was crazy. I have one picture, some grainy old picture, and you look at it, and it looks like someone Photoshopped me up in the sky because it didn't make sense. The ramp and the landing were like 60 feet apart or something, and I'm like 60 feet up in the air. You're like, it doesn't add up. Does he go as high as he went far? And that's literally what it was. I was literally going as high as I went up far.

Holy cow. Crazy ramp. So if the ramp would have been back farther, say 80 feet on the X Games attempt, you think you would have landed it? I don't know. It's still such a hard impact. I mean, even later on, a few years later, actually quite a few years later, it was 2017 is when Frisbee and Colton tried it, and Heath under-rotated it a little bit. He probably had the best attempt.

shot of of landing it like colton had really good rotation he just went a little bit deep and like he was well aware of where he was in the rotation you can see him like spot it and everything it was just like if he would have been moved back 10 feet he would have rode out of it there too um but it's just that we we joke about it because there's been you know i did it in 2000 i

I rotated in 2009. Justin Hoyer tried it in 2012. And then the 2017 run was Daniel. He did land it in 2017. And then Heath and Colton both tried it at X Games. So there's literally been, you know, five guys that have tried the double backflip on a snowmobile. One guy that rode away from it. And everyone else is...

you know left broken or you know justin hoyer broke his arm and his leg i think at x games and heath like you know he like banged up his chest and colton got really banged up from it and i i sprained my ankle which came out pretty good yeah when you were planning on doing it were you talking to travis because he he had been the only one to do it on a dirt bike at that point yeah yeah he he had been doing it on the he did on the bike this is what's super funny so that same um

gosh, was it that same year? Oh, at one point he called me and he's like, Hey, Hey, can you rig up a twist throttle on them snowmobiles? And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, you can do that. I'm like, I I've, you know, I've seen other guys do it. Yeah. I need one. I need one, a snowmobile with a twist grip. He's like, I think I'm going to try a double backflip. And I'm like, have you been riding? No, no. I rode one once before, you know, and I'm like,

Dude, what are you talking about? I watched you do it. Yeah. I'm like, oh my goodness. But was that before or after you tried? I honestly, it was either like, it was either that or.

It was either that fall, like the right before I tried it, or else it was a couple years later because I tried it again in 2012. I was trying, and it might have been that time too, but he just called me and was like, yeah, we're going to Utah. We're going snowmobiling. I was going to try a double backflip. He was like that nonchalant, and I'm like,

um okay he's like i just need a snowmobile with a twist grip though i don't know that thumb throttle thing it weirds me out it's like quad guys going to a dirt bike and still keeping the quad throttle yeah so but he you know back to the the matto thing like travis is like he's another one of those guys where you're you're just absolutely blown away because you just you can't even comprehend the thought process

And I, I just, I just, uh, you know, Jake, um, banging here a couple of weeks ago and I was telling him how I went out to Travis's and like, that's where I did my first backflip. I did a backflip on a dirt bike in Utah, um, filming with the nitro circus guys. And, uh,

after that then i went back out to travis's that next spring and i flipped a four-wheeler and then two weeks later i flipped my snowmobile and i'm doing all this as a racer i was like a professional racer and like it's frowned upon to do silly things like that yeah yeah reckless

So I went and I did this. I did the backflip in that time, those two times filming with the nitro service guys. I remember thinking, I'm like, gosh, I got to figure it out. These guys like literally, they just, they think about it where it's like, okay, I'm

Am I going to get hurt or am I going to get injured? And if I hurt is like, you know, a flesh wound stitches, you're good to go in a couple of weeks, injured, broken bones, it's months that you're out. Right. So it's like, but if you're only going to get hurt, anything hurt is game on injured. If you think you're going to get injured, then you like, then you really got to start focusing, but up till that,

You can do whatever, right? It goes through the filtration system. Yeah, because I'm like, I honestly think that's what it was. Because, I mean, we were doing the slip and bleed, the big slip and slide he had. And then it was like we were doing a pit bike race, and they dish-soaped all the corners on the asphalt. So it was like slipped them all down. Classic. Yeah. You're like, what?

Why? Yeah, I'm like, oh, you know, because I was riding mini bikes a lot back then, and I'm like, oh, this is going to be awesome. And then they come out, and they just got all this dish soap. And I'm like, oh, that's just – that's not good. And then they come out, and he's got – everybody and their brother has Roman candles, and they had mortars and the cannons. So everyone that wasn't racing was shooting fireworks at you while you're racing through this. And then there was like –

He has like this lean-to off the side of his shop, or he did back then, and it just had like 4x4 posts. And it was like, I don't know, no more than 10 feet wide, I would say. And that was like you come rounding a turn into that. So it's like if you lose the back end, you're going right into a 4x4 post at like probably third gear on your 110. I'm like, oh, my goodness.

There's like, nothing was like real safe, but I, like after being there, I just went, I left there going, Oh,

hurt, not injured. Yeah. You're good. And you can do crazy stuff and you'll be fine within a couple of weeks. That's kind of how we look at things that we do. It's like risk to reward on a much different scale though, because we're not athletes. We're not talented like you guys are, you know, so it's a little different, but kind of the same mindset. So obviously like you were an adrenaline junkie before going over to Travis's, but that's pretty cool to hear you went over there and then you realized that

And this is pretty fun. Obviously, snowmobile racing is a lot of fun too, but you're like, this is pretty fun being able to do random anything. Oh, for sure. All the stuff that he pulled out. Yeah. Did that get you hooked on more of the freestyle? Because did you transition out of racing at that point? Or when did you go from a racer to a freestyler? The funny thing is I...

I did freestyle as like a hobby is what it was. I was a professional racer. So in 2007, the fall of 2007, X Games approached me and they said, hey, we're coming up with this new event.

Hammered down on the Red Bull, man. See, I'm glad I brought him. So they said, we're going to come out with this new event called Speed and Style, a combination of racing and freestyle. And at that time, keep in mind, all I did was race and do heel clickers and can-cans. So I was no freestyle expert at all. And I went and they said, hey, if you can show you can do freestyle tricks, you can be in this new event. And I said, awesome. So first call was Red Bull Speed and Style.

Where do I get a ramp? Like, because it's not like you go on Amazon and go, I need a 10-foot tall snowmobile kicker ramp. And I had no idea. So they're like, oh, no, we'll get one. We'll have one sent out. So they had a new one built for me. And in the meantime, I built a landing with my skid steer. And I started practicing in, it was like October. And, you know, I just started doing this kind of like,

It wasn't behind the race director at Polaris' back, but I told him, I said, hey, I'd like to try this freestyle thing, or speed and style. I need to learn some tricks. And he goes, okay. He's like, you can do it. He gave me his blessing as long as I didn't do a backflip. And the whole time, I'm like, I already had a trip planned to Justin Hoyer's house to learn how to do the flip.

And I had already done a flip the year before in Alaska, and I'm like, oh, yeah, no backflips. No backflips. Levi's sneaking around. Yeah, totally. You hear Levi's been backflipping? If I catch you backflipping again, you're done. It's exactly what it was. I literally felt like after I finally went for it, I remember it was a Sunday. It was my first backflip off the ramp. And on Friday, the Friday before that, the race director called me, left me a voicemail, and he says...

Levi, this is Tom. I heard a dirty rumor. You better call me.

And then you sent him a video on Sunday. Just did it. So I call him back and I'm like, I feel like, I feel like a, like a kid that got busted with dad's playboys or something. And he's like, so what are you doing? And I'm like, well, I think to, you know, to, to metal in this, I think I'm going to need to be able to do a backflip. And he goes, absolutely not. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. Like, I think I can do it.

And he goes, he paused and he goes, do you know how much trouble you, me and Tim Bender are going to get in that my crew chief at the time? I'm like, I know, I know, I know, but I really think I can. And he paused again. And he's like, if you have any doubt, any doubt whatsoever, don't do it.

And, you know, I mean, you can imagine what it's like doing your first backflip on a snowmobile. You're filled with doubt. You're like, you think about everything that could go wrong. And I'm like, no, no, no, I got it. I got it. I think it's going to go good. So then Sunday we did our first one. And then it was Sunday I did one. Monday I did three. And then Tuesday I did five.

And then I went to the freestyle qualifier and won the freestyle qualifier and then went to X Games and we won freestyle and speed and style.

and male athlete, the X schemes all as like my hobby for freestyle. Cause I was like a professional racer. Like I won, I got like, I was the top finish in Polaris, you know, it was tough to beat Tucker back in the United States. So I, I got second at Duluth and, and, you know, I was like trying, you know, for Tom, the race director, he's like, you know,

you know, this is, is our guy. He's going fast. It was good. Yeah. And then I go off back flipping and whatnot. And so anyway, I ended up winning that. But in all the years I did freestyle, I would always go, I would practice up until X games, do X games. And then I went to it again. And in all of them, the only time I went beyond that was I did one, I've done one freestyle show in Canada, uh,

In 2005, or 15, I'm sorry, that I did. But outside of that, I've never done a freestyle show. Really? Just X Games? Just X Games. Why is X Games like the grand stage, like the biggest event? Well, I mean, it just reaches so many people. You know, it's like being asked to go to the Olympics in snowmobiling, and it's an honor to...

To be able to go there and showcase your skills and be a part of that. I mean, X Games, it's so gnarly because you go there and, like, I've watched Heath Frisbee doing the front flip and Justin Hoyer doing the double backflip and crashing. I mean, like, you go out there with the mentality, like, I'm going for it or, you know, I may not go home, but I'm going big until that moment.

man that is cool that's definitely how x games has always looked like to us it's like that's the one place where people go to throw down yeah and like it's cool to see there's more dirt biking shows now or like you know there's the x fighters and and there's night show world games and all that but there's not a ton for sled so i could see why entering or going into a kind of a random freestyle show might not be worth it yeah the x scenes was always the big one for for

For all the riders. And, you know, that was the other thing. A lot of the sponsors would, most of the rider sponsors would key in on that one event. They're like, you know, you have to do X schemes. Outside of that, it is what it is. But, you know, for me, I always fed off of the energy, you know. I mean, every time that I would get out there, you drive up to Buttermilk Mountain and you see it. And the whole venue is just...

everything is so perfect. It's like, it's like a dream looking at all the features and stuff. And I, I would, as I would drive up, I would get goosebumps every year. And I'm like, dude, this is so awesome. And then just go out there and you know, the people are, they're all jacked. You throw down, they're like, you know, it's pretty cool. Pretty cool.

Is that how you, were you, were you pretty proud of Daniel Bodine when he landed that double backflip? Oh, heck yeah. Yeah, like, there's no hate there. Daniel's so rad. He's so rad. So, the history of Daniel was in 2011, the year I crashed distance jumping, you know, for the, we had the race team that we had started,

to the year before, I believe it was. And we needed a freestyle rider. So I asked Daniel, I said, do you want to ride my sled? And he said, yeah. So it was really cool because up to that point, Daniel had finished fourth place at X Games four years in a row. The first four years, he got fourth. And then he came and he rode for the team. And he came and trained at the compound. And we had him in the foam pit and stuff. And it was pretty cool because...

my, my dad, my dad's pretty funny, but I got, I had a group of guys. I had, um, three buddies. And then my dad that kind of did the foam pit operation. Dad would run the crane. One guy would video. One was kind of the guy that oversaw it all. And then one guy was the pit guy who was like, if a sled landed on you or something, he would hook the, the winch or the strap up to the sled to get it off of you. So he was the kind of hands on deck guy. So,

So anyway, those guys were all there and they'd been used to working with me. And I, you know, I just go out there and go until I figure it out or until it's like, gosh, I just, I need to take a breather to figure out why this isn't working. So we, we put in a lot of effort.

just repetition. Daniel got there, and he jumped in the pit, and he jumped like six times, and that was when I was wounded. So I'm sitting in a chair inside, just sitting there, and I can hear the snowmobile run, and then I hear the snowmobile stop. And then it hadn't been a half hour since I talked to him. He was in there talking to me, and he comes back in in his street clothes. I am all done for the day. And I went...

Well, for the day, did you even jump? Yeah, I jumped a few times. I kind of tweaked my back. I'm like, oh, okay. So he did that. Then the next day, he did something similar, and my dad just laid into him. He said, what do you mean you're done? It took us 40 minutes to get set up, and now you're going to jump three times and be done? You get out there and keep jumping. That's awesome. Daniel's like, what?

And Daniel's a big guy, too. You know, my dad's like five and a half foot tall, looks like Santa Claus. He's like yelling at Daniel. Daniel's like could crush him, right? And Daniel's like, okay, I jump more. So he kept jumping, and it was awesome because, like,

Like, in that process, like, over the next couple weeks, he just started jumping and jumping. And, like, by the end, he was, like, figuring out... He was the first one to do double grab, double seat grab backflips on snowmobile. And...

He learned, like, first he was doing the, you know, heart attack one. Then he learned how to do a double grab. And in that process of learning that, like, he was, like, slamming into the dash. And he's got, like, a bloody nose. And, you know, he just looks like a warrior, you know. And it was cool. And my dad takes a lot of pride in Daniel for that because he was like, I made him into a man that week. Where is he from? He's from Sweden. Dude, the Swedes. Yeah. They're crazy. Yeah.

That's so sweet, man. Yeah, that's cool. So in a sense, your dad and you got to mentor him a little bit. Yeah, he's super cool. What was awesome about it, so back to the thing, he got fourth place four years in a row at X Games, and then he came in and rode for a team, and he won two gold medals that year, won freestyle and best trick. And, you know, so we all like, we're like, that was pretty awesome. And then from that point forward, he was like a machine. He just...

He won multiple freestyle and best tricks. And, you know, he really... It was like the light switch was flipped. All because your dad yelled at him. Yeah, because Santa Claus yelled at him. Because Santa Claus yelled at him. So...

not only have you done all the racing and the freestyle and all the things like that, but the Red Bull projects, like the filming projects that you've done, I think are some of the things that have gone the most viral with you, right? What comes to mind is like the urban snowmobiling. It looked like you closed down Minneapolis and just rode your snowmobile, jumped it over cop cars and down the streets. Tell me a little bit about that. First off, how did you do that? How did you get the okay to do that?

Red Bull's pretty, pretty incredible company. So they, you know, I, I pitched them on that idea. I said, Hey, you know, like Ken Block, he'd been doing all kinds of cool things to Jim Connors and whatnot. And I'm like, we could do something like that, but I can be like jumping on and off buildings and,

You know, I can do a lot of things, and we could do it in the winter and whatnot. So they're like, yeah, it's a great idea. And then they came to me, and they said, hey, you know, because I originally, I pitched them on doing it in Duluth simply because it's all set on that hillside. And I'm like, you could be jumping down the road, and you could be doing –

All kinds of stuff. And they came back and they said, hey, what do you think about St. Paul? I'm like, yeah, that'd be awesome. Anybody that would let us, I'd be into. So we went down and we started scouting St. Paul.

And how those projects work is you go there and you scout, like, the area and you go, you know, what's the wish list? Like, what would be the coolest things you could do? And you drive around and you're like, oh, hey, I think I could jump that or I could do this or whatever. And you write that down. And then what they would do is they would go and find all of, like, first you have to get buy-in from the city. The city is like, yep, buy-in.

If they're into it, it makes it way easier. Because it gives them good publicity? Yeah, and it draws a lot of attention to the city. Yep, okay. So, and it, you know, makes it kind of cool too. You're like, hey, like, you know, wherever you do it, you know, they think it's,

They think it's cool most times. Yeah. You know, they're like pumped to have something like that happen. Right on. Yep. So anyway, so we go and get the wish list. City signs off. Then you got to get all the property owners like, you know, congratulations.

this is what we're doing. Can we do this? What will it take to do this? And then you kind of whittle down the wish list to like, all right, these people will let us, these ones will not, you know, and then you continue on. I think one of the fun ones was, or funny ones was the,

They forklifted me up onto that building. It was like the city hall or courthouse or something in St. Paul. And I remember they had to rent the meters, all the parking meters on the whole block all day long. So it was like from morning until night, that was like the trade-off to allow us to do it was we had to have all of the parking meters. And the funny one was, so when they lifted me up on there,

They had to block off the intersection. So it was like a rolling closure. So they block all the streets off and they had to block the crosswalk off as well. Cause they come ripping across and the, the, uh, I, I didn't, I didn't see it firsthand, but the guy told me that there was a police officer that was like blocking the pedestrians. He was blocking him in this guy, like comes into like a suit. And he's like, he's like, man, I gotta go. I got a meeting. I gotta get to a meeting. And he's like, sir, I,

You can't cross through the intersection right now. And he's like, I got to go, man. I'm going to miss this meeting. And he's like, sir, there's a snowmobile that's going to be ripping through here momentarily. You cannot go by. And he's like, oh. This guy's all kind of worked up. So then I jump off the building, and then I go blazing across the intersection. And the guy looks at the cop, and he goes...

is he going to do that again? And he's like, like he was going to stick around to watch again. I'm like, what happened to the meeting? Yeah, it was pretty funny. But it was fun. It was a cool event or cool project. You know, you're essentially...

you know, we talked about it earlier downstairs. We were, we were talking about how, um, you know, you're constantly looking in the ditch, like, Oh, I can jump from there. And this Hill, you could jump to this. And that's what it was like growing up. You're like looking at the city. And I always thought about a BMX and skateboarders, how they look at a city like,

this huge playground. Yeah. And, but it, for anyone motor sports, it's kind of off limits. And I was like, gosh, wouldn't that be something to be able to rip a city up and use it as your playground. You got to get to a certain level and then they allow it, especially on a snowmobile though. Like it's one thing to, to dirt bike in the city, but that, I think that made it so appealing. And then, so you got to, in a sense, fulfill your goal of doing it in Duluth.

Yeah. Just recently. Yeah. That was, that was a, such a cool video. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. It was cool. I mean, Duluth is a special place simply because that's where we raced for so many years and, you know, to be able to, I mean, I've been to Duluth,

through Duluth so many times. It's like, it was neat to be able to do that. It didn't all go to plan. I ended up taking. Yeah. Here's what's up guys. This podcast is sponsored by better help. Is there something interfering with your happiness or is preventing you from achieving your goals such as loss of a loved one or a bad breakup?

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Well, here's my, as doing a little bit of research on you, you know, doing my due diligence before you came in here. Here's my favorite news article that I came across.

Duluth Fire Department rescues stunt snowmobiler. Levi LaValle was retrieved from the water in under a minute. And then you had to pay to read the rest. And I was like, I'll just ask Levi about it and he'll tell me. So I'd imagine it's when you jumped over the canal, right? Yeah, when we were jumping from barge to barge. So the idea was, okay, I'll jump off. There's an old train bridge that they had from years ago. It's this old wood one. And there's like,

maybe a quarter of it's still there and it's, you know, they use it as, you know, I think people can walk on it and stuff and whatever. So anyway, it's like partially there. Then it's,

what was it, 800 feet or 1,000 feet of water to the other shore. And the idea was, it's like, okay, I'll jump off the bridge from barge to barge and like skip my way across over to land. And when I, you know, the idea is like, oh, that's super easy. You just jump, jump, jump, you're over to the other side.

the thing we didn't take into consideration, there's a bunch of current right there. Cause it's the St. Lawrence river or something. And, and there's current there and the barges are held by the, what they call them spuds. So it's just like, it's like, imagine these oversized pencils that you just, you just stick in the ground, uh,

They're like 40 foot long, you know, and I think the water was like 40 feet deep there. So they like stick those in there. So 40 feet and it's real crude. It's like a piece of square tubing with a, you know, maybe like 10 inch,

that's in that tubing, so there's a lot of slop, and it's... It's not exactly exact. Yeah, and it's not like you're strapped or anything. So first thing was, like, to try to get these barges all lined up. So I had it all lined up, like...

All right, I'm going to do a, it'll be a 45 foot jump off of the, off of the bridge. The next jump is going to be, um, then the second jump was the bigger one. So the second jump was going to be 110 foot jump. And then I was going to have a setup jump in case that one I got squirrely on. I was going to have this like set up 55, which turned into 65 footer.

And then it was going to be like another 100 plus one to get to the other side. So I do my 45 footer and I knuckled it just slightly. And the issue was, is when they were setting those barges, they set the second barge 10 foot or 20. What was it? It was...

It was 20 feet shorter than what I had originally been shooting for. So it was supposed to be a 110-foot jump, and it was a 90-foot jump instead. So I'd been practicing for a month at 110. And I'm like, yeah, you know, we're running out of light. You guys know with video and photo, it's like, oh, I've got to get the light, you know? And I'm like, all right. So they're like, you think you're making it? I'm like, yeah, I'll figure it out. So I jump off, and my buddy that's been with me through all this, he's like –

I should have stepped in because we know that we should have just did it right. And I'm like, well, I thought I could make it up. So anyway, I go for the jump and I, because I, I slightly knuckled the first one.

I just went into auto and I hit the next one, um, you know, for the normal 110 foot one that had been practicing. So I overshot the landing cause it was 20 foot further or closer to me than normal. So I completely flat landed onto this middle barge and I was riding, it was a 2018, um,

I kept all the, a couple of these old race sleds because I liked the, the one 28 cause it was shorter. So I, I had this old carbureted one and when it landed the, uh, the, the slide in the carburetors and the carbs, they bounce when you land that hard. So it bounces the slides up, which pushes the throttle cable backwards. So it acts as though it's like pinning the throttle, but you,

you're not. The throttle is just sitting in a normal spot. So what it does is it pushes the throttle cable out away from it and then when it comes back in it unhooks the throttle cable from the thumb throttle. And it's done it like in snow cross. We know this. And what you do is you silicone there so the throttle cable doesn't fall off. So I had two sleds. That one didn't have the silicone. So I land...

unhooks the throttle and, you know, and I land, I mean, I landed hard and I like was drifting left. I mean, I landed like four feet from the wall of the barge. I mean, it was like sketchy as is. So I overshoot it. I land, I like bounce my face and I pop up and I look and I'm like, okay, I just got this little skipper jump. You're like, that'll be fine. You're fine. So I like go and I grab a handful and it just goes right to the bar. And I'm like, Oh,

And there's nothing. I'm like, oh, man. So I go from like, all right, you got this wide open go to, oh, no, no, no, you got no throttle. Break, break, break, break. So in that like split second of like, okay, throttle doesn't work. You need to abort. What's your abort plan? It's like, okay, I remember like, I'm like, okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to hit the brake. I'm going to slide sideways, pitch the sled, and then I'm going to slide, and the ramp is going to catch me, and I'll stay on the barge. That was the idea. By the time...

You know, it went from the thought of what the plan is to execution. I was already at the ramp. So I jump off the sled right into the ramp. I hit the ramp, and it flips me. It flips me off the end of the barge. And the barge, it was 10 feet down to the water below, and that was all full of ice chunks.

So I landed on an ice chunk, which broke some ribs and, and I got a hip pointer and sprained my wrist and knocked the wind out of myself. So I'd land in the chunk of ice I landed on tilted. So then I landed on that. So the ice broke my fall and my ribs, uh,

I slid into the water so I was able to get wet. So I slid in, got my helmet. You know, I was fully under, so I got water in my helmet, in my gear. I climb onto an iceberg, this little ice chunk, and I'm sitting on there. It would, you know, knock the wind out of me, so I'm mooing and stuff. Oh, God.

This guy comes running over to me and he throws me the little pool circle, you know, like they do at the pool. He throws that out towards me from the barge. It's like the 10-foot tall steel barge. And I'm like, what do you want me to wade like forward?

float back to land or what you know and then the coast guard came ripping around and they they had this boat and i just climbed in that and i they i remember them right away we you know rider down in the water snowmobile blah blah blah and i'm like i told them like i'm fine i'm fine you know because they're they're telling like the whole thing anyone with a scanner yeah here's this

And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm fine. Don't tell anybody. Dude, going into it too, all the city council people are talking behind the scenes. Like, I don't know if we want a snowmobile jumping on our city streets. And Levi's over here like, dude, it's going to be fine. And then you go and do that. They're like, I told you. That's exactly how it is too. So that snowmobile.

Yeah. You get that one back? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Did it go to the bottom? Yeah, it went 40 feet. 40 feet. Yeah, 40 feet. And they hooked it. What was awesome is... So it's kind of like... It hasn't been brought up in the video, I don't think, is going to be shown or anything. But this is like...

This is the thing that was really cool about it was the snowmobile goes to the bottom and it landed like it landed down there. It must have landed on the skis and everything. So it's on the bottom of the lake and they literally had a, they had a,

like a makeshift hook they made that it was like literally like this weighted end with with um rebar that they like put in like a curve on it you know it's kind of like a fish hook yeah pretty much so they they have this fish hook and they just started dropping her down there and all of a sudden they're like oh they they're like oh we must have snagged something else and they pull it up from the ski tip what so they pull it up like i like a you know you got the big fish you know in the ocean it's

It's like a snowmobile hooked like this. Dude, that's how you guys should have started the video of you fishing like, oh, I got one. I got one. Then you just reel up a snowmobile. It was...

Oh, it was so good. It's so good. So I told, uh, Brooke was the gentleman's name from Renworks who did the barges and stuff. And I said, Brooke, if you get it, I want pictures of it coming out of the water and like up in the air because I like, you know, I want to have that at my house, you know? So he got him, he's got it like coming out of the water. Like it's a big fish. And, and then I asked him, I said, can I have that hook?

So he gave me the hook. I've got the hook and the rope and then that snowmobile, and I want to hang it on display like a big fish. Yes. This is what I want to do. That's so great. Obviously, it's sinking to the bottom and stuff. I get why you wouldn't include it, but also for continuity reasons, the whole video looks a lot more flawless without the mishap. So it's funny you say that because –

You can see we shot it on Tuesday was when the barges were supposed to happen. So the big jump is in there. So you can see me overshoot it and land. And then that's where it like cuts. And then we went back the last day of shooting and we pushed the barges together on the last one. So I had this like where the little setup jump was. We made that like.

a chip shot, like literally it almost looked like I could have run and jumped across it on foot, but we made this little setup one. And then it was like, you know, a smaller jump to get me to land just to like put the video together. But it was supposed to be like the original way it was going to be like a big jump to land, but it ended up only being like 90 feet or something. But, but anyway, they pieced that together and,

I rode from – I took Wednesday off.

Um, you know, crashes on Tuesday, Wednesday, I took off doctor, like worked on me all day to get me so I could function again. And then the following day was, I went back to shooting and I shot, um, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And it would, you know, it was tough because the ribs ribs are like, they are what they are, but I had like a sprained wrist too. So I couldn't like bend it and hang on that well. And then my hip was, uh,

I got a hip pointer, so I, like, not like it was a big deal, but it was just tender, but I couldn't lift my leg, you know? I could stand and do squats, but I couldn't lift it out in front of me. So I would, like, to get on my snowmobile, I would grab my leg with my hand under my thigh, and I would, like, I would swing it, like, up onto the running board because I could do a squat, but I just couldn't lift it straight out. So I would just, like, swing my leg up there and get on and then ride from there.

Dude, are you okay? Like, your body okay? Yeah, I mean, I... Or do you wake up in pain? The only one that I notice is my foot. I broke my heel in 2009, and my foot's all, like, crooked and whatnot, so it, like...

rests on the side a lot. Yeah. And it's like funny because we all got like little step counters on our watches and stuff. And I'm like, it's, I've got it down to like from 10,000 to 12,000 steps, my foot will start to hurt. And then anything beyond that, if I stop moving, then I have to warm my foot up to get moving.

You know, if I drive for a while, I'll have to get out and, like, walk for a little bit and, like, limp. I'll limp for the first little bit and then my foot, like, it's warm. Now I get it. Yeah, we're walking. I'm in. How about your brain or your head? Yeah, I bunked it quite a few times. I mean, concussions, it's funny because, like, I mean, concussions are bad. They're not good at all, but, I mean, I've –

I've had many, like, I don't know, probably more than 10, you know, which isn't a lot compared to like some guys, but yeah.

I think the last one I had, I was just dirt biking at my track. I, I got knocked out briefly. And that one was, um, you know, I was kind of wet noodle there for a little bit. And when I did the distance jump crash, that was one of the biggest things is I was, I had a hard time focusing for a while. And, and, um,

Red Bull set me up with this company that did brain training. And essentially what it was, it was kind of like meditating is what it was. So you just sit and focus on

one thing, you know, is kind of what the idea was is you just stay focused on it. And if your, if your mind starts wandering, like how, what they had was, it was like a spaceship going through a tunnel. And if you started wandering, your mind did, the spaceship would stop moving. It's, but if you were, if you were focused, the spaceship would just roll

when they would like curve through this thing. So I'd just be like, I remember I, I would Skype with this woman online and she was like the trainer and she's like, okay. And I had these, like all these sensors on my head that I'd have to put like wax on my head. And then they'd put the, I would put these sensors on and then I would sit there and Skype with her and she's like, okay, we're going to do the spaceship on. I'm like, okay. And I would just stare at the spaceship and I, and you're like, move, move.

Right. You're like trying to get this thing to move. Cause it's not like gas and brake, like a remote control. It's like you focusing on something and you're like, just freaking move. Right. And it wouldn't move. And then you just got to like, just stare at it and like have no thought. And then it would take off. Yeah.

Interesting concept. It was weird. But anyway, it helped. Yeah, I did it for six months. And I went from, like, to give you, you know, knowing you guys ride bikes and stuff. So I went out riding dirt bikes that spring after the crash.

months later, like five months later. And I remember I was going around the track and I hit a, um, there was like a hole right on the inside of this turn. Well, I hit that hole and I'd like kind of bounce my face. And I'm like, usually, you know, it's like, all right, don't hit the hole again. Next lap, go out wider. Well, I come around the next lap and it was like, I, like, I forgot that it was there and I hit the hole again.

And I did that enough where I'm like, oh, my goodness, I'm like not thinking, not focusing like I normally do. And it kind of like triggered me. It kind of made me nervous. So then I started doing that brain training. And over the course of, you know, a few months of it, I started to feel back to normal. And how they explained it to me is like your mind is like,

You know, when you have a thought and you're trying to do something, when you have a concussion, it's like that thought, it takes the detour to get there. So it takes like a long...

long way out and around to get to, you know, point B, we'll say from point A. And oftentimes, you'll get lost on the detour, and you'll never get to point B with your thought. And, you know, so but when you're focused, you're just A to B right now. So as, you know, as you get your focus, like as I trained more, I started getting to like,

not forgetting where B was and not getting detoured so far. Does that worry you? I mean, I, I, my kind of philosophy on things is like, yeah, there's definitely concerns with all that, but I always just, I always try to tell myself that, you know, you're,

Don't think about the negative. Think about the positive. Try to do what you can to remedy anything, but don't dwell on any negative. Because I believe that if you keep thinking that way,

of an issue, you're just inviting it to you. Love attraction. Yeah, exactly. So I just, I just try not to, I try not to think about that. And, you know, I'm aware of it for sure. And like, it's, it's very, it's,

well known now, the impact of concussions. And we see it with a lot of pro athletes and, and hear about some of the horrendous things that have happened to them. And, you know, I just am aware of that. And I just am always trying to like, you know, obviously not get concussions, not trying to do that, but also like,

How can you, how can you kind of fix that? And like, I went through it once with the brain training and it worked wonders for me. And there's other training out there now that you can remedy the, the issues that you may have long-term unknown, but I, um, it, it something to think about, but I'm just going to keep, uh,

Keep trying to just stay focused on not hitting my head again. What would you say you're most worried about injuring? I don't know. Like, I don't like to think about that too much, you know, because one of the things that struck me was it was the movie Dust to Glory, and they have Ricky Johnson, who is a Supercross legend, and he went to off-road, and he's doing the voiceover on that show, and they're talking about how, like,

um like a truck had hit a spectator you know and and i've heard a lot of that in baja you know you're going 100 mile an hour across the desert you hit a jump and there's a crowd of people on the other side and what do you do so they run into them and you know it's it's like they're racing and

they just keep going, right? Which is like pretty, it's pretty terrible to say. And, and, you know, it gets you start, it gets you thinking about that situation. You're like, holy cow, like that's pretty heavy. You know, you, I ran into somebody and killed him or whatever. And,

What Ricky said was he said, you know, I'm not going to live my life because of a situation. You know, it's like, yes, you obviously don't want it to happen. You don't want to be injured. You don't want to do, you know, hurt anyone or do anything like that. But if you like limit yourself from doing it, from racing, from jumping, from having fun, whatever it may be,

Like what kind of life is that, you know, without fun, you know? And so as I get, as I've aged, I just always think I'm a lot more, I almost feel like a safety coordinator now because I've like gone through so many injuries, so many different things. And you're like, did you check this? Is the ramp, you know, you're always like that, but it's like, I'm doing it just to make sure like we're having fun, but we're doing it in the safest kind of manner. Yeah.

A lot more calculated than you used to be just after all the injuries and experience. Because there's no reason not to be. You can still have fun and be safe. Just a little more thought out. For sure. That's exactly it. If you're going to start doing risky stuff, just do it as...

think about what you're doing. Yeah. Don't, don't take the fun out of it, but just make sure you're doing it in a safe manner. Yeah. We try and do that, especially with our videos. A lot of people come up to us and they're like, you mostly like people that don't watch the channel, but we're just here about us. And they're like, you guys are just so reckless. How are you not hurt? Or like,

what's the worst injury that you've had? And we're always like, you know, it comes off like we are reckless on the videos, which is, you know, the entertaining aspect of it. But what you don't see is, is behind the scenes of like, all right, okay. When we're doing this, just do that. So this doesn't happen. And then, you know, just trying to take like safety precautions, but obviously it's not to the extent or like level of, of things that could go wrong. Um, when you're doing the world record jump like that or, or like crazy backflips, but yeah,

Yeah, I mean, it's really interesting to hear because, you know, we get asked that so often. I mean, my parents are extremely, like, health-oriented and they're chiropractors, so they –

They're like, you know, Ben, you have to live in this body for the rest of your life. Take care of it now, you know? And I'm trying to stay conscious of that and take care of myself for that. But I'm always very intrigued and interested to hear kind of the philosophy of what, you know, people like yourself or Travis Pastrana who, you know, do such extreme stunts and then their bodies pay the price if it doesn't go correctly. And, um,

Yeah, just like the shape that you're in. But you seem, do you work out? Yeah, I mean, not near as much as the old days. You know, I think that's probably one of the,

biggest elements to, um, like being able to achieve the things we did was I was, I was always in, I always worked out a lot. I always did a lot of, a lot of weightlifting. I was always kind of a little bit stockier we'll say as far as muscle wise. Um, and I think one of my favorite quotes was Travis Pastrana after filming with him a little bit, he's like,

He's like, dude, you're like perfect. You're like a little bowling ball. You just, you crash and you just roll and get up. He's like, when I crash, it's like arms and legs are flailing and stuff's breaking. And, and I kind of laughed at that, but, um, you know, that's probably been one of the best things is as I, you know, when I started lifting weights and stuff, I was, I just felt great.

a little bit more tough, which maybe, maybe as a result of why I ended up doing the things I did, because I was like, Oh, I'm like, I'm tough. I can handle whatever. But at the same time, I think it, it prevented a lot of injuries because I was able to like, you know, essentially hold my body together with that. And so fitness has always been a, has always been an element that I've

I've, you know, thought that has helped me throughout my career and even, even longevity wise, as we get into, uh, you know, after I'm done competing and all that, I think that's going to be the thing that's going to help, um, help maybe limit the aches and pains and the, the issues that,

most would assume you would have there's something to be said about knowing how to crash too or like knowing how to take a take a fall you know some people are just so uncoordinated and when they hit they hit hard yeah or when you hit the ground you can roll out of it or so so would you ever take on a different style of racing i i messed around a little bit with four wheel like i did some razor stuff and it was fun you know the

The funny thing was is when I was doing the Razor stuff, like I really enjoyed it, but I had a practice track at my shop, and I like ripped around on it. I'm like, this is pretty cool. But it was like, you know, four laps cool, you know? And then you're like, it's not like, it like wasn't,

I, it wasn't like, like riding my dirt bike. I can just go out there and you're like, I mean, you just want to hit that rut, you know, like, Oh, I hit that. I did a whole lap and I hit all the ruts. Perfect. You know? And it's like, it motivates you. It's kind of like golf, you know, like you have that one good round or one good hole. And you're like, Oh, I'm going to crush this next one. And then you just completely fall on your face. And you're like,

And then you mess up the next one, but you have a good putt, and you're back in the game again. And when I was doing the Razor stuff on the track, it was hard for me to...

It wasn't like I'm like, oh, I railed that rut or I did that jump and I whipped it. There wasn't as much stimulation. There's not as much body input. Yeah. You can't control a razor in the air. It's the same every time. I think maybe that's what it was. So the thing that I ended up having to do with just that alone as far as running laps on a track is I had to have a timer. Yeah.

Once I had the timer in there and I knew, like, I had a timer that would blink at me if I was within a second or half second or something. It would blink green saying, hey, you got a consistent lap. So that was, like, my driving force was, like, if I didn't have that, I could go about four or five laps, and I was like...

Was it 20 minutes yet? You know, or whatever I was trying to achieve. And when I had the timer, I could go lap after lap after lap just to see if I could like, oh, can I string together 10 laps that are consistent or whatever it is? And then it would flash red if you had like the fast lap. So you're always like,

Looking for the rad. Yeah. What gives you something to work for instead of just driving around? Because sometimes driving side-by-sides can feel that way. Even if you're jumping and stuff, it feels like you're just driving around. But when you're on a sled or a dirt bike and you're moving it in the air, you feel like you're not sitting, just hanging out. Right. Which I feel like is the reason a lot of people do ride side-by-sides and stuff is because it's safe. It's something that maybe someone that was previously injured can get into, get back into racing, which is cool. For sure.

So, I mean, speaking of like, I guess racing, I'm, I'm super curious as what your like involvement is with the race team. Are you, you know, obviously you move from being a racer to now being kind of the face of the team in a sense. Yeah. The race team, it, you know, it was funny because the race team, when I was a racer, I remember the dream was like, I'm like, I want to, I want to own a race team and that'll be something that can keep me involved in the sport after I'm done racing. Um,

And, you know, so I, so my partner, Glenn, our crew chief, I said, Glenn, we should start a race team. I actually, I actually approached him about doing that when I was, um, I w it was in 2000. What was, I was pro for three years. I said, Glenn, we should start a race team. And he's like,

no, no, I don't think we should, you know? And I'm like, no, it'll be cool. And thank God we didn't because I was like way too young and way not ready for it. So then three years later, we like did really well. It was the year after we won the snow cross championship and we rotated the double back flip. And I said, we should start the team. And Glenn's like, okay, let's do it. So, so we figured it out. I was super grateful because Glenn, he's a,

He's a businessman. He has a great rock-crushing business and whatnot. So he kind of knew the business, knew a little bit more to help guide me. So I got a lot of mentorship from him, which is great because our first year, I was defending pro champion basketball.

And I went to the first race at Duluth, you know, cool guy with his own race team. And I go to sign in and they're like, they look at the sheet and I'm like, Oh, Hey, how you guys doing? You know, I wheel up and they're like, all right, let's get you signed in. They're looking like, well, we don't have your name on the list. And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, they're like, well, did you sign up? I'm like,

No. You didn't know I was coming? Somebody's got to defend the title. So, you know, that obviously when you run the team, you're going to sign up the riders for the race.

Well, I did. Somebody did that for me in the past. So I, I didn't, I wasn't signed up for the first race to defend my championship. And, you know, fortunately they're like, well, we can write you in. Right. So they write me in, but that was like, that was a big thing. So in those first few years, um, you know, it was essentially, well, there was two parts. So I, I'm,

I wasn't signed up for the first race, and I made it, like, until the first of the year. And I told my wife, who she was a graphic designer, and I told her, I'm like, you have to come work for me because I –

I didn't even sign up for a race. Like, you know, I'm booking hotel rooms for the team, and everybody's, like, coming to me, like, you got to do this. And I'm like, I got to go ride. I got to go practice. You know, I got to train. So, anyway, that's how my wife ended up starting working for us. How many years did you race while owning the team? 2010 through 14. Okay.

But I was hurt, like, I was hurt in 11 and 12 and 13. So I made it through two seasons as a team owner slash racer. The first year I made it, but I had a broken... Well, that was the year I broke my heel and my foot was all wonky. So...

The race director told me with two races to go, he's like, just go get your foot fixed and we'll shoot for next year.

And once he told me that, this is what's like, I learned a big lesson there. So he told me that because I was like, you know, throwing a pity party for myself. Like, oh, my bad foot and I can't walk. And, you know, which it was bad. Don't get me wrong. Like I would tape the thing solid every time because I couldn't move. Like I couldn't do a calf raise with it. I couldn't lift my heel off the ground. So I would just tape the thing solid and put it in my boot and race with that. And it wasn't ideal by any means.

But, you know, I was, you know, three quarters of the way into the season. I'm like whining about it. And the race director is fine. Like, just get your foot fixed and take the last two races. Just get it done. We'll shoot for next year. So he says that to me on the morning of the second day of racing at a race weekend. So then I looked at it like, all right, what do I have to lose? Like if I completely destroy it,

Like, I'm going in to have it fixed anyway. So just go all out, right? So I went out there, ripped a hole shut. I'm out in the lead. And I ended up finishing second in that race. Nice. And then I was, like, in second in points then. So I'm like, well, I guess we'll try the next one, right? So I go to the next one. I get third at the next one. And so I ended up finishing out the season. But the lesson learned there was, like, you know, stop.

stop with the pity party and just go out and do it and just do it, you know, as though, uh,

not as though you have nothing to lose but go 100 at it where i was probably giving it 85 with my pity party so once i went all in wide open yeah exactly yeah did you want to turn from racer to more personality after you were done because you've done such a great job of not all athletes can talk to the camera or sit down in a podcast and and uh tell stories and

And you've done a really good job at incorporating your personality into being Levi LaValle, not just an athlete. But, you know, go to Levi afterwards and he'll always be able to give a good race recap or something like that. So did you want to do that when you were done? You were like, hey, I'm pretty good at this. You know, I don't think I ever thought of it in that manner. You know, the big one for me was just like I had a really good –

maybe mentor will say was Jerry Bernardo. I went and lived with Jerry Bernardo. So back in the day, he was a ESPN X games announcer. And he used to, he used to be the on air guy for the snow cross races. And so I was originally met him and, you know, became friends with him. And he said, Hey, come out, ride dirt bikes with me.

out in California and, you know, for a week. So I went out there during the summer, rode dirt bikes. And he's like, here, I got to, I got to introduce you to my buddy who's a trainer. And so he introduced me to this cage fighter and had a, had a gym. And this guy is like, you should come out. And I'm like, all right, I'll come tomorrow. And I go there and, you know,

at that point I was my first year pro and I was willing to do anything to, to get better. And he's like, Oh, I'm going to put this guy in his place. So he had me thrown up by midway through the workout, like hammered me. So then I, Jerry's like, you should move out and train with this guy all winter or this, this fall. I'm like, yeah,

If that'll get me where I can compete with Blair Morgan and Tucker Hibbert, I'll do it. So I move into California, and his name was Wildman, the trainer, and he just beat me into submission for two months, three months, or whatever it was that fall. And in that time living with Jerry, he is like a character and a half. This guy is so funny. So I learned a lot without –

I unofficially was taught, not taught, but like learned from seeing him. And, you know, that helped me a lot with,

on camera and talking and things like that. And then after, you know, to your point, like, did I want to do that after the fact? It's like, I don't know. I mean, like I've always been okay with being on camera and talking and whatnot. So I've never, I've never shied away from it, but I've never like took it seriously where I'm like, want to do it. I mean, more so for me, I just think

You know, I've been able to experience a lot of things. Like you guys are in that same boat where you're able to experience all these different things. And what's interesting at this point is like people are like,

tell me about how do I do this? How do, you know, especially now with the snowmobiles, it's like, what do you tell me about this sled versus that sled? You know, where I'm fortunate to be able to have, you know, multiple different ones and I can tell them, well, this one is right for you. This one steer clear of it. You know, if you ride this way in that condition. So it's been really fun being able to help people kind of see, you know,

or help people from the experiences I've had. And I think that's, that's something in, in your guys' future, you guys have been able to experience so many things in such a short time. Like, I think you'd be groomed for that in the future. Like if nothing else,

show people how to have fun. Yeah, there you go. I was actually going to ask you that. So we get asked all the time, what are you going to do after YouTube? Or what are you going to do if YouTube doesn't work out? Were you growing up in a small town often asked that by people like, Hey, what are you going to do if racing doesn't work out all the time? Like everyone, everyone asks you that because you know, at the time you, you don't, you don't realize it as it's happening. You know, you start like, especially the racers and stuff that are coming up. It's like you,

all of a sudden you're like, holy cow, I'm making money. I'm racing and making money, and you're making pretty good money or whatever. You've got to have... It's almost good that they tell you that, but at the same time, you can't allow it to...

I don't want to say disrupt your focus, but you can't let it eat at you because people will always say, like, oh, you can't make that a living. They always are telling you you can't do it. And it's like that's the beauty is, like, when you get the mentality, like, watch me. Like, I'm going to figure out how to do it. Then you just make it happen. And I think, like, with you guys, I...

I'm going to guess that you guys are going to continue to evolve as time goes on and it'll just, it'll keep going. You guys will be able to branch into so many different things and do so many, so many things based off of just this. And this could continue on for, you know, as long as you want it to, you know, but I, I, I always think I,

that haven't gone down that road, they can't comprehend it. They think it's just like a dead end. Yeah, they think it's a dead end. And rightfully so with like racing. I don't want to say it's a dead end, but you definitely, you can't race. Right. There's a shelf life for it. Yeah, very much. So, you know, you have to have like kind of that transition plan. And my original one was the race team. And then that's, you know, that's just,

been one layer of what we do now but it's i think that's what's it's fun is that's part of the part of the whole element is the creativity of trying to figure out what is next and that uncertainty is like you know some you got to have a little bit of that just to like

keep pushing you. I think, I think the ones that are crazy enough to get any sort of success early on are probably crazy and creative enough to keep going, continue on for sure. So something we often say is, uh, when we're talking about a buddy that's from like a small town or we're driving through a small town, we'll be like, Oh yeah, John. Yeah. John built that town. Oh yeah. The town that John. Yeah. Yeah. The town that John built. So, uh,

We found a picture of actually your home billboard. Yeah. And you're plastered all over it. So you quite literally, I would say, built or put on Longville. Put Longville on the map.

Well, I don't know about that. It's a town of 170 people, and I think a lot of people listening probably know where Longville is just because of Levi Lavallee. So I always say my dad's dog, he's got a statue in town. So I don't have any statues, so I'm claiming Bruno the dog. He might have me beat there. We've got to get you a statue. Our mayor used to be a dog. Cormorant mayor used to be a dog. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so when people are like, man, you guys put Cormorant on the map, we're like, we actually didn't. Our dog did because our dog was on like Ellen and like all the big... Really? Yeah, because it was like the first dog to ever be a mayor. Oh, wow. It beat out Jake's grandpa. Yeah. Yeah, as the town mayor. So we were like, dude, we should get... Because he passed away now. So I don't think there is a mayor of Cormorant anymore. We're like, we should get an animal and then that could be the new dog. So it's like...

Or the new mayor. Right. So it's like, well, we're not the mayor, but our dog is. Yeah.

that's awesome did you always want to stay in that small town after moving to california and living out there for a little bit and then i lived in wasa wisconsin like during the winters for the race team um i just like realized i'm like gosh i just really love the i love the freedom of the small town being able to ride my dirt bike or snowmobile wherever you know riding through the ditches and and yeah i mean

The small town, the nice part about it is you kind of know everyone and it kind of keeps you in check. You don't get...

too far crazy or you know you in your head you know a lot of people always say like gosh you're like you're pretty down to earth you know and i'm like i'm the garbage man's son that's what i always say you know my dad was the garbage man and and i just like you can't you can't be too too cool right you know in town because someone will put you in your place like oh you who do you think you are

You know, and you're like, you're right. So I think it was a blessing being from a small town because there was maybe less distraction and there was always someone to, like, be there to, like, put you in your place saying, who are you, you know? And I think that was helpful for me. And now I just love...

the freedom of being able to ride my snowmobile, go on the boat, dirt, dirt bike. I mean, having a dirt bike track, you know, you hear some folks like the, like Maddo, for instance, on California telling me how like the neighbors and stuff, they're constantly on them about noise and, and,

I go ride my dirt bike whenever I want. I mean, I try not to do it at night too much, but, you know, I love that part of it and I just love the community of it all. Yeah, that's the best part about living, you know, in Minnesota. One, with all the seasons, we can do so many different things, but living in a small town is, you know, when you go out to the bars, like when we went snowmobiling with you and we went to that local bar and got lunch and

And we pull up on all these new sleds and everyone's like, oh, Levi. Oh, you got a new fleet, Levi. And we just walk in and just like a normal dude. And we were like fanboying and everyone else was just like giving you shit, which is always cool to see. Yeah, it's cool.

It's small town is it's fun for that reason is you, you know, you're all kind of a, the community, you feel that community. And, and I don't know how it is for you guys around here, but it's great in Longville. Everyone's really supportive of what we've done and what we're doing. And, um, you know, there's always some people that think otherwise, but for the, in general, I think everybody is very supportive of what we're doing and understand, um,

understands like, you know, that it's, that we put our, we put a lot of effort into it. Yeah. And it's cool to, you know, it's cool to be able to help out the community after the fact, you know, like we're, we, we try to do what we can to, to help out our, our town as well.

um, you know, which our snowmobile club is a really easy one. We just did some stuff with them and we do a little bit with, um, you know, the, the town on other aspects, which is, it's cool to be able to, to give back and help when we, where we can. Isn't it cool that this day and age, um, you can live in a small town of 170 people or corn run of like 25 people and be known on like a world stage just because like,

you can just do so many different things. And just because you live somewhere that you're not, you're not stuck there. Right. And like, I don't know, we've done it in a different way with the internet, but you've done it in, in, you know, almost like not necessarily like the, like the internet, uh, way, but the racing and X games and getting your name out there in such a different way. And, uh, it's just like proof that you're not really, you're not stuck where you grew up. Yeah. Or, I mean, you can be, but,

That doesn't really determine your success. It's like having the choice not to be. I love what you said, though, with the people around your area keeping you grounded because they knew you before. Right. And I feel like that for us. There's a lot of people around here that know us way before we did this, and those are the ones that don't act any different, and they'll keep us in check. Most people around here really like us, and all the things you said about living in a small town, especially in Minnesota, is so accurate to hear, honestly. Yeah.

But it's cool that you can affect people outside of your town. So I was reflecting back on, you know, what I knew about you. And I remembered this time it was at the Dilworth racetrack. And I remember being like a kid, you know, the wide eyed fan that walks up to you. And I walked up to you and you stop and you took five, 10 minutes, however it was. And you we had this interaction. I still remember it to this day. You still I was like, man.

You asked me all the right questions. You asked me, oh, what snowmobile do you ride? All this stuff. When I left that conversation, it was like you knew me, and if we saw each other in Walmart, you would ask me about it. It truly pivoted my life, and I was like, that was the coolest thing was meeting Levi. That's cool.

I don't know, 12 plus years ago. So it's cool that even though we, or you are from a small town, you can affect people in all over the country and world that you get to meet, that these kids can like, look up to you and be like, dang, well,

What he's doing is cool. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I mean, it's fun to see, you know, going to Hades and seeing the kids are like crazy with you. I mean, I don't know if there's a kid out there that doesn't have a Seaboy shirt on at Hades. It's so cool. But I mean, that's something that you guys, it's actually a big responsibility, you know, for you guys. I mean, you do, you affect the people a lot.

you know, a lot of people. And I think once you embrace that and you go, holy cow, like, like people, you know, are really paying attention to what I'm doing and you have the power to influence them in a positive way or a negative or whatever, you know, I, I always look at it and go like, it, it's, it's definitely kind of,

I don't want to say toned me down, but it's, it's directed me. We'll say, because I know that people are paying attention and I don't want to, I don't want to give a bad example or I don't want to do that within, within reason. Like I still enjoy having fun, but I do definitely want to, you know, encourage, I want to try to encourage in, in,

and help people get to where they, where they want to go. And I think with you guys, it's a, it's a perfect example because you look at the success you guys have had at such a young age and you look at the,

the kids coming up and you know a lot of times you're from a small town and a lot of times people think like what can you be what can you accomplish and there's so many people that so many kids that just go on to do what's normal the comfort status quo yeah it's like you know this is what my parents did this is what they did that's what I'm going to do instead of going hey I'm going to

I'm going to go for it. And then that's what you guys did. You guys kept going and, and you were able to make this incredible thing. And I think that's inspiration for these kids. Hopefully they look at it and go, yeah, I can do, I can do anything. Yeah. And that's what I've always thought. Thank you.

And like at the very least, I want to inspire them to believe that, that they can truly go out and do anything. But at the very least, I want to inspire them to ride. You know, I'm sure you've gotten that. So many kids or dudes or old guys are like, hey, went out and bought a dirt bike, haven't ridden in four years, decided to get back into it because of you guys. Like that's fun to hear, especially for how tight-knit the snowmobile community is.

When you get people riding, like it's the best. Absolutely. I try to say that to everyone is like snowmobiling, you know, not only is it, it's obviously done a tremendous amount for me with jumps and racing and everything like that. But the thing that I love is like going out riding now just with my buddies, going out riding with my family, whatever it may be, the experiences, the memories that you make on these different trips riding, it's brought so much joy to my life because

And I just think like, gosh, like if you encourage people to go out and ride, you know, think of the rush you get from jumping your dirt bike or whatever. If somebody else can experience that,

heck yeah like try to try to get them out there and and you know go on a whole nother level of that i think about what racing did for me when i was a kid you know in those teenage years when you know troubles troubles out looking for you hey you know i was fortunately focused on racing even though i was still able to find plenty of trouble but it kept me like you know the the main focus was

you know, go race, do well, you know, kept me focused on something instead of,

Idle hands, just looking for trouble. I was actually going to ask you that. So where do you think when you were going down like that freestyle lane, it seems like you can either go like the bad boy route, like we had with Haley Deegan, we were asking her about Brian Deegan. You know, he went like the bad boy route. Or you can go like the Travis Pastrana, you know, a little more like clean image. Did you always want to be more clean image, have people like, you know, more respectable? It's funny you say that because...

There was a time... I mean, I used to watch all the Metal Militia guys and do all that, and I used to think Seth Enzle, he was like a guy that was always going big and getting broken off and stuff like that, but he was all kind of more Metal Militia type. And I kind of fell into a little bit of that, like maybe in...

just, I don't know, like maybe just out of high school or right at the end of high school, I was like really into those guys. And then something stood out to me about Travis. Cause I just remember like, he just kept doing crazy stuff.

And he was just super nice, you know, on TV and whatnot. And then what really sold me on Travis is when I actually met him for the first time, and I'm like, holy cow, you are that guy. You're that guy, pal. It's not like just a front. You're like literally just wide open, you know. Yeah, he's going to bust your balls on something for sure, but he's always like...

super nice and positive. And I'm like, that's pretty cool. And it was a... He inspired me a lot. And I think one of the things that stands out to me was in 2006, he won three gold medals at X Games. It was... He did the double backflip. He won freestyle and he won rally car. And in rally car...

Colin McRae, who is like the ultimate guy, right? He's the guy that always won. He crashed, rolled his car over, and it landed back on its wheels, and he finished like...

like a second or something slower than Travis. So he would have won had he not rolled over and had to get going again. And Travis was just like, like, I remember his interview. He's like, I'm just honored to be out here racing against Colin McRae. You know, he just won his third gold medal. Keep in mind.

I'm just honored to be out there racing against this guy. And I just like, this guy is so much class, you know, he just got, he, he's, he's just such a good dude. And it, then when I met him and he was still that guy, I went, Holy cow. Like that's,

That's what I want to be. The image I want to portray. Well, I mean, you've done an incredible job at it. I think anybody that's met you can say that. You give respect and time to all of your fans, which means a lot because we've met plenty of people that do have an ego and I think that kills it in my eyes because...

There's something to be said about insanely talented people, but if they have no personality and they're not fun or nice to be around, then when the cameras are off or you're not doing something crazy, then what's the point? Which is crazy that...

You have the helmet on and you're doing these insane tricks. You would think that when the helmet's off, you'd still be a crazy guy, but you're sitting here like a normal, respectable man. You wouldn't think that you would have this inner beast once you get on the sled, which is just always cool to see and break down the athletes and show their real personalities. I don't know. It's funny because I still have a hard time

like, comprehending that it... I would be... that you could be anything different than that, I guess. Like, I just always think, I'm like, oh, yeah, I ride my snowmobile and I jump stuff, but it's... I keep...

I keep hearing like, you're crazy. It's like, well, I always, I try to relate it back to like my buddy is a carpenter and he could build great. He can build crazy houses and all that stuff, but that's what he's done his whole life. Like I've been riding snowmobiles and jumping and stuff like that my whole life. And you just continue to progress. So that's how it got to that. Yeah. I got a little bit, a little bit different. I think maybe, maybe, you know, Travis has a good line. He says, I'm a,

what do you call it, risk analysis or something like that. He's like, I'm constantly analyzing risk versus reward is what he's doing. And he's like, I'm a professional at that. And, you know, I'm like, oh, that kind of makes sense to me. But, you know, in regards to

what we've been able to do on the snowmobile, it's literally just come back to my love for fun and my love for riding my snowmobile and having a good time. And being from a small town, like I said, you can't... You got to be a pretty straight shooter, otherwise someone's going to let you know. Yeah, yeah. Well, got any other questions, boys? I got one random last question because I read this in an interview that you did. I have no idea when, but it says...

I want to know, did you actually throw a paper airplane at Kristen with your number on it at the Alaris Center at an indoor snow cross race? Yeah. But it didn't get to her. No, it did. Oh, it did. It got to her. It got to her. So Kristen is my wife. So she, now my wife, she was not at that time. But I remember, you know, we're sitting there. It's kind of like we were at, it was one of...

Well, it was kind of mid-season. But anyway, like I saw my wife and I'm like, hey, pretty girl, right? You know, and I'm 20 years old. I'm like, I'd like to talk to the pretty girl. So I'm sitting there and, you know, I'm signing posters with my roommate, Aaron Christensen. He's right next to me.

And I'm like, oh, God, did you see that girl? You know, and she went through with her brother. And I was like, oh, they must be like boyfriend and girlfriend, right? So you're just kind of like on to the next. Well, then I saw her over talking to some other people. And I'm like, wait a minute, maybe that's not her boyfriend. You know, and she's standing in the distance. And I'm like, you know, I'm like, what?

I'm trying to flag her in, and she's talking to someone, so I'm like, well, this isn't working. I'm like, I've got to figure something out. Hey, hey, you want a poster I just signed? So I put my number on a poster, made a paper airplane out of my poster, and I zing this thing, like zing it.

Like that. And like thinking about it, like can you imagine, like she was talking kind of perpendicular to me. So she didn't see it coming. Can you imagine if I would have like stuck her in the eye? Like, oh, no.

love at first sight out of one eye yeah like can you my numbers on there if you want to look at it with your good eye right but anyway so i zing in and it lands and it goes skating like kind of right in right in front of her and she they like look down and she was talking to one of my race buddies so that's what like i was like oh hey i

He looks like he knows her, right? So I threw it, and they both look over at me, and I'm like, pick it up. I'm mouthing, pick it up. Yeah, pick it. You know, thumbs up and stuff. And while I'm doing that, Aaron Christian's my teammate. He's next to me, and he's doing the, like, cut it, you know, like, don't pick it up. So she looks at him, and then she just walks away. And I'm like, oh, man. Why was your buddy doing that? Kind of cock-blocking you. Well, I don't know.

It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Yeah. Well, and two, she's a bit taller than me, too. So you're probably like, dude, you're setting yourself up for failure. She ain't going to dig you. But anyway, so...

So I go, you know, I was pretty determined. So I go and I talked to the buddy she was talking to afterwards. And I said, hey, what's the deal with that girl? You know, and he's like, which one? I'm like, the blonde girl you were talking to. Oh, yeah, that's Kristen. He's like, I'm trying to hook up with her. And I'm like,

I'm like, you think you could give me her number? He's like, not a chance. So anyway, in the, in the meantime, like probably two weeks go by and you know, he was trying to hook up with her and she dodged him completely. So he finally, he's like, he's like, Hey man, do you want that girl's number? Cause he lived, he lived like 10 minutes from where she was from. So he's like, here, you can have her number.

So he did, and I called her from New York. We were out there for a race, and I telemarketed or called her out of nowhere. She doesn't know. Just cold called her. Cold called her, 100%. Like, hey, this is Levi. Long walks on the beach. What did she... Actually, what did you say? How does that interaction go? That's what's funny about it now is like,

Because my brother-in-law, Kristen's sister, and my brother-in-law, they text message each other for a month, never talked on the phone. And then they met for the first time at our house. And I'm like, oh, this is awkward. You know, what if they don't like each other, right? But, you know, I...

I think about that and that's like so much, that's what happens now is like you can talk to someone on the internet, text messaging and messaging back and forth, never even actually talk to them in person. And I mean, not even in person. I talked to Kristen for over a month and before we finally, you know, end of season came and

And I was like, hey, like, you want to meet? And it was like, that was kind of awkward, too. It's like, you just show up. I've been talking to you for a month. And, you know. Yeah. Hopefully, you're like as cool as I think you are. Turns out that your buddy gave you a totally different chick's number. And you show up. Yeah. And you're like, oh, hey, oh.

You're not the one I thought it was. That was your first time meeting her. Yeah, so I met her there, and then it was probably a month or so later, and then we went. I met her again, and we kind of hit it off. And then...

We dated for a little bit, broke up, and then started dating again, and then dated for eight years. None of you guys are married or anything, no? So I pushed it out for eight years, and then finally made it happen. Nice. Yeah. Congratulations. I'm glad I did. She was like... It worked out well. Yeah, she was like...

Really? Like, kind of dragging this out. Oh, really? Like, any girl was going to say, hold up, was all of her friends getting married too? Yeah, everyone starts getting married. And you were like, I'm going back to race snowmobiles. Let's chill. Well, and, you know, that was part of it. It was like, for me, like, that snowmobiling thing was like, that was my dream to be able to do what we were able to. And I was so focused on it. It was like, you

You know, that was kind of where I was at at that point in my life. And, you know, we dated from the time I was 20, you know, until 28 or something, I suppose it was. It was quite a while. But in that, it was right in the meat and potatoes of, like, my career, of racing and everything. So, you know, and she...

She was a champ, you know, but I'm glad that I finally did, you know. Put a ring on her? Yeah. Before she went and hit up your buddy? Yeah. We said that about our significant others, or like you guys. Like, it's hard. We're in the thick of living out our dream. Right. And so...

Sometimes you just get really so caught up in just trying to get videos out that you forget to spend time. And also commitment and stuff like that. But that's a crazy story. I was expecting her to just, I don't know, get your number and then you guys started talking. But the way that...

Paper airplane never made it, but the marriage happened eight years later. There you go, man. It's a love story to be told. That's a great story. Yeah, it was pretty fun. Pretty fun. All right. Well, that might be everything. Thank you so much. Phenomenal stories. Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. It's always fun to... It's always fun... You know, I feel bad because you get me rolling and I can just...

ramble. There's so many stories, so much stuff. So I could sit here and I should be, I should be interviewing you guys is what I should be doing. Cause you guys have endless stories as well, but you can start a podcast and we'll come out or next time we'll do it in a year and just flip flop it. Just flip it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. This has been awesome. We know we really appreciate it. Like I said,

you've truly been one of all of our idols. So to have the chance to sit down and talk to you is really cool, especially being in the loft of our garage and the internet can listen like wild because I don't know if we'd be here if it wasn't for idols like you, you know, just like shaping our lives as we were kids, you know, getting us into things like snowmobiles that have, we've managed to make a career out of it. And I don't know, man, it's gone full circle. So it's really cool to have the opportunity to just sit here and,

chat with you and just know that that's the impact that you make on on kids that you meet you know they might turn up to interview you one day and uh same thing with a lot of people listening right now um yeah i'm just stoked for everyone to like hear you tell all those stories and everything i know you've told them elsewhere but uh yeah our a lot of our viewers are also obviously huge fans of you so it's just super cool so thanks for coming on

Yeah. Thanks for making the drive out. This winter, we're going to do something. Oh, yeah. Something fun. Something fun. We got to one-up the tandem jump. Oh, yeah. I don't know. Oh, can we come and do something into your foam pit? We could make that happen. Okay. Oh, gosh. All right. Sounds good. Thanks for watching, guys. Subscribe, like, and comment, please. And we'll see you guys next time. All right. Peace.

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