WATCH ABOVE: In an incredible video, Maddison was able to skim the Tahitian waters.
TORONTO – X-games participant Robbie Maddison is the star of an incredible promotion that features him surfing on his dirt bike in Tahiti. That’s right…surfing.
Made as part of a co-promotion with DC Shoes, the new video titled “Robbie Maddison’s Pipe Dream” has quickly become a viral hit since being posted online this past Sunday, amassing nearly 10 million views as of this writing.
In the four-minute video you can watch above, the motocross stunt rider known as “Maddo” does what appears to be the impossible: ride his motocross bike across the world famous breaks at Teahupo’o.
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And for a man known for taking extreme risks – including setting the world record for longest jump on a motorcycle – even this one had the 34-year-old stunt rider wondering what he’d gotten himself into.
“I’ve never felt like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time more than I did right there,” Maddison told Surfer magazine.
“It was a near-death experience.”
So how did he pull off this unique stunt? The tires on Maddison’s bike were modified to act as paddlewheels, devices common to steam ships and river-going boats in the 19th century.
Then a special pair of skis were added to the bottom of his bike, giving him both enhanced flotation and balance as he skimmed across the water. The result is a bike that, to the outside observer, appears to actually be skimming across the top of the water like a jet ski.
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But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Australian daredevil. At one point, he thought a particularly large wave would be the end of him.
“It picked me up and it slammed me. And the motorcycle drove into my back and I lost all the air out of my lungs.”
‘Behind the Dream’ trailer shows how Robbie Maddison rode dirt bike on water
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Sadly, the modified surf-bike didn’t survive it’s ocean-going adventure. But Maddison said that now that he’s lived his dream once, he has aspirations to do it again.
“We lost the motorcycle, it was a broken bike,” he said. “The dream was over. It needs to be able to perfom better. If it can tick a few more boxes, handle a bit better. I’m not going to stop, but I’m only doing it for the right reasons.”
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