Life Wide Open with CboysTV - Levi LaVallee Snowmobile Legend and World Record Jump Holder

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

In today's podcast, 13 Time X Games Medalist Levi LaVallee comes on and talks about breaking World Records, pushing the limits of his sport, and falling into Lake Superior. Thanks to Levi for coming on Levi's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/LaValleeInc/videos Levi's Instagram: @levi_lavallee To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, and get the plan shipped to your door for FREE, Go to https://mintmobile.com/wideopen CboysTV listeners get 10% off of your first month at https://betterhelp.com/wideopen. Thanks to Better-help for sponsoring this episode! Go to https://buyraycon.com/wideopen for 20% off your first order! Brought to you by Raycon. Follow us on Instagram @cboystv and @lifewideopenpodcast To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenYT Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV You can also check out our main YouTube channel CboysTV: https://www.youtube.com/c/CboysTV For merch check out: https://cboystv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. Like this show and want to make your own, let me tell you about Anchor. It's free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer. Now you can even add any song from Spotify directly to your episodes. The possibilities are endless for what you can create.

It's music analysts, your own radio show, or something the world's never heard before. Anchor will distribute your podcast for you so it can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and many more. 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.com to get started. All right, guys, welcome back to the podcast, Lifewide 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 one of our childhood idols might go as far to say one of our friends now so warm welcome to leave Ila valley welcome on the podcast man thank you thank you you messed up though right off the gate you said an important guest and I said dad I looked around like where's the important guy at 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 Degan, 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. When I was preparing to come over here, I was thinking, I'm like, all right, these guys, like, they go hard, right? I'm like, I'm going to have to bring some energy to keep up with them, is what I was. Even though it's in the morning, I'm like, I've really got to be, I got to bring my A game. And you did. You brought a cooler full of Red Bulls.

What more can we ask for, honestly? 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 funny. Unofficial official world record. You and Jake tandem jumped a snowmobile. Two hundred, no. No, no.

140? 200 would be pretty crazy. It was like a hundred 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, to be honest, like the idea, I was like, oh, this is going to be great.

When you guys were like, hey, you know, can we like shoot something? I'm like, yeah, for sure. And then I got like the gears start turning. I'm like, it'd be awesome just to like, I'm not going to tell them. I'm like, just come to the shop because everyone would assume we're going to go in the foam pit and flip or something like that. And I'm like, oh, this is going to be great. So I like, I start scheming this two-ups snowmobile. issue is i didn't take into consideration that jake was like 200 plus pounds and he's a big boy

yeah he was a big dude and i'm like holy cow because 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 210 or something i'm like uh i'm like just lean forward lean forward when we jump and he did awesome you know unfortunately my my apparatus of handlebars and seat wasn't up to 210 pounds of fury that jake had but he about tore it right off didn't he end up blowing out the running board yeah he like ripped the running board off and 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 having well you didn't have a sign any like liability forms or anything like that. So you weren't that worried, I'd imagine. But were you worried about having, like, somebody else being responsible for somebody else when you were jumping? Because usually it's just you. Yeah, usually it's me. I think 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, like, three foot mound in the thing, the front end, just like full wheelie off it. I'm going, oh, 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. He's got his ponytails. 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. Yeah. No matter how nervous you were, you're like, well, are you ready? He'd be like, yeah.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I don't think it was your fault that broke. That was a hell of a contraption. Like, when we showed up, we were genuinely surprised. Like, that was an awesome video. Yeah. 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. That's, 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. Yeah.

Is that you're there to, like, kind of essentially do a job. but to like end with like hey let's all just go rip like that was pretty fun it was fun seeing you guys in the fields and stuff ripping wheelies on everything and it was a ton of fun and you had enough sleds for all of us like we just kept pulling and then we got that guy that got 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 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, oh, bro, no, we're fine. And we show up and you go, where's your guys the snowmobiles? And we go, Jake, what? So luckily, yeah, you had like 12 brand new Polaroos 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 snowmobiles. jump. So in, what was it, 2000, end of 2011 for Red Bull New Year No Limits, Robbie Madison and myself jumped over a 300 foot water gap and we ended up, 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 the same setup and I had a 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 on my ribs

claps while my lungs and fractured my pelvis and fractured a few vertebrae and like it was like lucky to be alive after that one and uh 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 cause everything going because I was I was broken you know I sleep in a chair because I couldn't lay down because we started talking and I just said man I'm just like bum 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 because before that you had landed it correct I landed 361 feet was the longest when I had 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, 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. We had a carbureation 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 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 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 out yeah I'm like endowing every time and I'm like all right like so I'm kind of nervous just because you're you're 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 there I don't know how many more 2075 foot endos I'm going to ride out of Yeah, you know, and then they figured it out and what was happening is sucking so much fuel out of the bowl that when I get in the air and hit the break, it would, the fuel, 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 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 like they muster rewind it the tape and just hit end or something

let's delete this yeah just delete that because i don't remember the last thing i remember from that night was they had a mini bike because of the run-in was 1100 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, four days, three days later. And I was like, whoa, what happened? You were in a coma? And so they, I think they put me in a self-induced coma because I was broken off and whatnot.

And they, because what happened, what I was told was when I crashed, like, my body skipped over 100 feet. Like, so I hit the ground on my side and my body, like, skipped 100 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 100 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, sterilize you, 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 too and because I collapsed both my lungs I couldn't breathe so I was like 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 and then you know after that they had to put um they put the chest tubes in they put chest tubes on both sides because both home were collapsed and um 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 snowcross 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 were lucky that the guys that were there 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, that guy saved my life. Yeah. You know, like it hits you a little bit different. So after all that happens, how are you laying in this hospital bed after pretty much dying? And you go, I think I'm going to do that again.

Well, he 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 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 my my fun my one funny walker story it was like i had my checkups i go to the hospital and i go to the hospital and it's winter time and there i'm 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,

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 is 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.

But 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, 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 you're 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 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. Like, it really, like, sunk in that it bummed me out. And that's when talking with Red Bull, and I just, they said, I was telling them that. I said, I'm like, I'm just so bummed.

We weren't able to show everyone what we're capable of. and they i remember dave the gentleman that was uh from redbell he said he like paused and he's like so would you want to do it again and i got to ask yeah and i didn't even skip a beat i just said absolutely you know 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 maddle 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 we're like okay no i mean how i looked at it is i like 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 like cancel a huge production you know and i'm like well that makes sense at least you got like two of us so you twice the chance of it actually happening right and when he did it and you know and i've been to, I was fortunate enough to go to Maddo's jump in Vegas. I went to, 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, like, big stunts and big jumps. And, you know, to share that stage with him, it was like, it was a real honor, you know, because I think that guy is, you know, he's probably, probably one, oh, gosh, he'd probably be the gnarliest, I've ever met like just fearless like mentality like he just felt like so evil caneval

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 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 because 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 back move 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 count you down get the signal from him of course clear you know they go through this whole process and then it would relay the message to my guy and then he would say go matto 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 like 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 you're weighing all these options he's just like I'm just going for it you know and and then our final jump was like this is what really made

maddo 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 look over and Mattel's ride and 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 Mattel's like shaking and I'm like dude what's going on

And he, like, he nods his head down and, like, pointed 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 his lap, 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 forks were so stiff that it was.

wasn't even using the suspension so that energy had to go somewhere and 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 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 just went to like, I didn't believe it. I just went, man, unbelievable.

So we show up three weeks later then for the big show. In Mado, like, you know, they had the suspension. He got a suspension softened up. And, you know, they said, hopefully it works. Live TV, good luck. Nuts. And then on top of that, there was, I remember we got there and we hadn't dealt with this in any of our practice.

he had uh there was the moisture from all the dew was it was all um plywood sheeting and they had like like sand grit in it well he was spinning 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 and like 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 on tv and i'm like dude you are an iron man you're a freaking gladiator so there's levels to the craziness that it was crazy to hear you go ahead like people would look at

you like man this guy's insane and you would look at mad or like this guy's insane yeah 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 we do all our jump, all our practice jumps. We are 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 runout like i had thousands of feet of run out at fontana speedway we're in this massive parking lot so for the for the jump we're in san diego we're on this like this 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 jump in, they have to, for insurance purpose, they have to like 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, no 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 out it looks about the same so we walk around then we go to the landing side 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 because 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 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 blasts in the wall. So I, anyway, so I like, pause and I was like, I'm like, 180 feet. I'm like, I never stopped under 220.

And he looked at me and he goes, well, just hit the brakes harder. I was like, 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. He smoked them. Yeah. Smoked them. Did Bobby Madison hit him too?

No, no. No, he had a front brake, like dirt bikes. They can stop pretty quick. Yeah, it's 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 seconds, I was like, okay, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to, I'm going to slide, slide, hit the bridge. 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 all that look super rad. Just sled going, 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. It's like, especially in the wet grass, it just doesn't work.

It doesn't work at all. So 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've like assumed the like loosing position, my feet out in front and I'm just sliding on my back. And I'm looking at them like sleds into the wall. And the sled hit the wall and it turned like perpendicular to me. And I'm like, holy come, I'm just going to run right into it.

And I like penciled in literally between the, the ski and the track like there's one open spot and i just my feet went right through there and i hit the the tough block on the other side and i'm like yes like because i mean if i would 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 And they're like, Levala Valley 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, 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 wanted to.

exactly the same as it was so there's like the grass is still on it and everyone's like like yeah things all dirty and i'm like i know i know that's that's the point san diego grass yeah damn man that's insane uh 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 the landing was not pretty at all it was you know you can't expect much though it was they said they figured I was over 60 feet up in the air so 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 um 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 it 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 like 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. Oh, my butt cheek, you're really killing me.

Everything hurts. Yeah. And so we did that, but the double flip, it was an interesting thing. You know, that was, it was a pretty neat time in my life. No, I don't say neat, but it was interesting to reflect on because the year prior is my first year doing freestyle. And I remember, like, we started freestyle. We won freestyle, speed and style, male athlete 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 building a foam pit. And I'm, I had the whole plan. So at that point, you didn't even have a phone pit. No, I didn't have a phone pit. I don't have any of it.

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 and then I had a plan, but it was a terrible plan. But it worked anyway. But it was a plan. I had somewhere to go with it. So we figured it out like, I mean, double flip is pretty easy.

It's like, you know, if you know how to rotate a back flip, just go higher. You need more time. Yeah, it makes, it honestly makes total sense. 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 still not even close. So 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.

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 that was up to like 72.

So which is pretty steep for. Okay. So. But yeah. So anyway, so we started in that process. And I remember like. when we finally got to the point of like you know because my 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 it the second flip without me you know it you'd think it'd be easier with me on it right so so that was my idea and we got it where the sled you know where i would 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's it was so awesome because by the end you know I was probably going 50 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. And the foam, like, I hadn't had a phone pit before, so I didn't know what to expect. But what happens is the foam, it jiggles around, and it slowly, like, works itself together. And it makes this, like, all the cubes are, like, compressed together. And on the bottom, they're, like, really tight. So when I would pencil dive in from 40 feet up, you know,

with my snowboard boots, 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'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 a sound it made when they pulled you out.

And this is all in your backyard. This isn't that like a professional. This isn't your yard, right? Yeah, it was at my shop, yeah. Yeah. It was cool. I mean, it was a 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 house or at my shop.

I tried it to snow, and my biggest fear was overshooting it. Because I'm like, if I overshoot this, I'm going to 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 go and I came in a little bit slow and we we put like we fluff the top maybe two feet of snow it was real soft 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

grown and I just I just put the nose right into it and the sled 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 because there was like maybe six, seven guys there. And, you know, the videos, it's pretty awesome because I do the thing. I crash. And I'm like, you know, again, I'm like, jacked up on adrenaline.

And I jump to my feet. And I'm like, I'm okay. I just got to hit it faster. 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 like lawn dart in the sled on top of him.

And all I had was a bloody nose. I had a little blood out my nose. And they're all like, like they couldn't believe that 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. schemes so we figured out 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 i just remember telling myself i'm like i'm not shorting it out there and i don't definitely didn't know so you only hit it to snow one time before that yeah only once only one because 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 you know so i i had them set it up and i think straight air is scared than flip it i bet just a straight boner air that's what

all that it was crazy like there's there's i have one picture like some grainy old picture and you look at it and you're like it looks like someone photoshop 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 that doesn't it doesn't add up does he go as high as he went far and you and that's literally what it was i was like literally going as high as i went out far like holy cow crazy ramp so if 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, you know, later on, a few years later, actually quite a few years later, it's 2017 is when Frisbian and Colton tried it. And Heath under-rotated it a little bit. He probably had the best shot 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. But it's just that we joke about it because there's been, you know, I did it in 2000. 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 sprained my ankle, which came all pretty good. Yeah.

When you were planning on doing it, were you talking to Travis? Because he had been the only one to do it on a dirt bike at that point, yeah? Yeah, he had been doing it on the, he did it on the bike. This is what's super funny. So that same, 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've you know I've seen other guys do it yeah yeah I need one I need one a snowmill with a twist grip

you think I'm gonna try a double backflip and I'm like have you been riding no no I road run once before you know it I'm like dude what are you talking about right I was I watch you do it yeah I'm like oh my goodness but was that before after you tried I honestly it was either like it was either that fall, like the rate 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 snowmobile and I was going to try a double backflip. He was like that nonchalant. I'm like, okay. He's like, I just need a snowmobile with a twist grip though. I don't know. That thumbthrow thing weirds me out. It's like quad guys

going to a dirt, but you're still keeping the quad throttle. Yeah. So, but he, you know, back to the, the Mato 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 just, I just, you know, Jake, um, banging here a couple 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 filming with the Nitro Circus guys. And 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 of this as a racer. I was like a professional racer, and like it's frowned upon to do silly things like that. Yeah. So I went and I did this, I did the backflip in that time, those two times filming with the nitrous 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 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 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 so 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 the big slip and slide he had and then it was like we were doing a pit bike race and they they dish soaped all the

corners on the asphalt so it was like slipped them all down classic yeah you're like why yeah like i'm like oh you know i was i was riding minibikes a lot back then and i'm like oh this is gonna 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 that's not good and then they they come out and he's got everybody and their brother 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's like there's like this he has like this lean two off the side of his shop where he did back then and it just had like four by four 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, you know, 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 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. Book club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday.

Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have. have a routine. And it's good for your eyes, too, because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexavers.caver's to book your next eye exam, eye exams provided by independent optometrists. 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 realize, 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, just anything. Oh, for sure. All the stuff that

pulled out. Yeah. Did that, like, 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 freestyle? The funny thing is I did freestyle as, like, 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. We're down on the Red Bull, man. Yeah, I'm glad I brought them. So they said, we're going to come out with this new event called Speed and Style, combination of racing and freestyle. And at that time, keep in mind, all I did was race and do heel clickers and cancans. 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, where do I get a ramp? Like, because they're, it's not like he'd 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's back. But I told him, I said, hey, like, I'd like to try this. 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 like the whole time, I'm like, I've already had like a, I already had a trip plan to Justin Hoyer's house to learn how to do the flip. And I did it, I already done a flip the year before in Alaska. And I'm like, oh, yeah, no, no, no backflips. No backflips. Levi's sneaking around. Yeah, totally.

You hear Levi's been backfliping. If I catch you back flipping again, you're done. It's exactly what it was. I literally felt like, you know, 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. You just did it. So I called him back. And I'm like, I feel like, I feel 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, you know, to meddle 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 our 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 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 wed or two 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 speeding style and male athlete the X games all as like my hobby

for freestyle because I was like a professional racer like I won I got like I was the top finishing Polaris you know it's tough to beat Tucker back in the United States so I got second at Duluth and and you know I was like trying you know for Tom the race he's like, you know, this is our guy. He's going fast, you know. It was pretty good. 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 in 2005, or 15, I'm sorry, that I did. that i've never done a freestyle show really just x games just x games why is why x why is x

games like the uh the grand stage like the biggest event well i mean it just 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 yeah be a part of that i mean x games it's 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.

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 it's cool to see there's more dirt biking shows now or, like, you know, there's the X fighters and there's Nightjo 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, X-K schemes is always the big one for all the riders. And, you know, that was the other thing. A lot of the sponsors would, most of the rider's 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, I, 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 it down, they're like, you know, it's pretty cool, pretty cool.

Is that how you, were you, were you pretty proud of? of Daniel Bodine when he landed that double back hole. Oh, heck yeah. Yeah, like there's no hate there. 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 rode for the team and he came and trained at the compound and you know 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 phone pit operation dad would run the crane one guy would video one was kind of the guy that oversize over over saw 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 wincha or the strap up to the sled to get it off of you so he was the kind of hands on deck guy so anyway those guys were all there and they'd been used to working with me and 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 how why this isn't working so we put in a lot of jumps 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 like inside, like just sitting there and I can hear the snow will be a run and I hear the snow will stop. And then, you know, it hadn't been a half hour

since I talked to him. He was in there talking to me and he comes back in and his street close. 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 tweak 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. It was like, and Dana'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, like, okay, I jump more. So he kept jumping, and it was awesome because, like, in that process, like, over the next couple weeks, he just started jumping and jump in.

And, like, by the end, he was, like, figuring out, he was the first one to do double grab, double seat grab back flips on snowmobile. And he learned, like, first he was doing the, you know, heart attack one, then he learned hunt 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 like a warrior you know and it was cool and my dad takes a lot of pride in in Daniel for that because he was like I made him into a man that week where's he from he's from Sweden dude the Swedes yeah crazy yeah that's so sweet man yeah that's cool so you're in a sense your dad and you got

to mentor him a little bit yeah he he's super cool what was awesome about it so so back to the thing he four 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 one freestyle and best trick and 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 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 so um 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 um what comes to mind is like the urban snowmobiling when you when you what it looked like you closed down Minneapolis and just rode your snowmobile jumped it over cop cars and down the streets like tell me a little bit about that first off how did you do that like how did you get the okay to do that red bull's pretty uh pretty incredible company so they uh 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 connas and whatnot 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 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 on 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. If anybody that would want that would let us I would 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 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 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 buying from the city the city is like yep if they're into it it makes it way easier then it gives them good publicity or why yeah it draws a lot of attention to the city yep okay so and it you know it 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, you know, they're like pumped to have something like that happen. Right on.

Yep. So anyway, so we, we go and get the wish list, city signs off, then you got to get all the property owners, like, you know, 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 or courthouse or something in st paul and i remember they had to rent or 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 roll enclosure. So they block all the streets off. And they had to block the crosswalk off as well because they'd come ripping across. And 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.

And this guy comes in like a. suit and he's like he's like man i got to go i got a meeting i got to get to a meeting and he's like sir you can't cross through the intersection right now he's like i got i got to 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 you know this guy's all kind of worked up so then i i jump off the building and then i go blazing across the intersection and the guy like looked at the cop and he goes is he going to do that 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 a cool project. You know, you're essentially every, you know, we talked about it earlier downstairs. We were talking about how, 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 motorsports 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 well yeah they allow

it especially on a snowmobile though like it's one thing too 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 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 through Duluth so many times.

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entire Raycon order. But hurry, this offer is available for a limited time only and you don't want to miss it. That's buy raycon.com slash wide open to unlock 20% off your Raycon's. Buy Raycon.com slash wide open. 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 La Valley 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 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 was an old train bridge. that they had from years ago it's this old wood one and it's 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 a thousand 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 is a bunch of current right there because it's the St. Lawrence River or something,

and there's current there. And the barges are held by what they call them spuds. So it's just like, it's like imagine these oversized pencils that you just stick in the ground 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 tube that's in that tubing so there's a lot of slop and 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

up like, all right, I'm going to do a, it'll be a 45-foot jump off of the bridge. The next jump is going to be, 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 set-up 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 20 feet shorter than what I had originally been shooting for. So it was supposed to be 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, I've got to get the light, you know? And I'm like, all right. So they're like, you think you make 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 slightly knuckled the first one. I just went into auto, and I hit the next one, you know, for the normal 110 foot one that had been practicing. So I overshot the landing because 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 2018-128. I kept a couple of these old race sleds because I liked the 128. because it was shorter. So I had this old carbureated one, and when it landed, the slide in the carbarids and the carbs, they bounce when you land that hard.

So it bounces the slide up, which pushes the throttle cable backwards. So it acts as though it's like pinning the throttle, but 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.

Yeah. Yeah, so hot. And it's done it like in Snowcross. 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 silo. 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 bar. I mean, it was like sketchy as is. So I overshoot it. I'd 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 know, like, that'll be fine. You're fine. So I like going. 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. So in that like split second of like, okay, throttle doesn't work. you need to abort what's your 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 break i'm going to slide it 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's what was the idea by the time you know it went from the thought of the what the plan is to execution i was already at the ramp so i i jump off the sled right into the ramp and 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 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. 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. And this guy comes running over to me. And he throws me the little pool circle, you know, like they do it at the pool.

He throws that out towards me from the barge. It's like the 10-foot-old steel. barge and I'm like what do you want me to wade like 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 him right away we you know rider down in the water snowmobile blah blah blah and I'm like I told them I'm 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 Yeah, dude, going into it, too, all the, like, city council people are, like, you know, like talking behind the scenes, like, I don't know if we want a snowmobile are like jumping on our city streets and your Levi's over here like, dude, it's going to be fine.

Yeah. And then you go and do that. They're like, I told you. Yeah. That's exactly how it is, too. So that snowmobile. Yeah. You get that one back?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Wow. Wow. Yeah, it went 40 feet. 40 feet. Yeah, 40 feet. And they hooked it.

What it was awesome is. And 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 a sudden they're like oh they're like oh we must have snake something else and they pull it up

from the ski tip what so they pull it up like a like a you know you got the big fish you know in the ocean 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 they used reel up a snowmobile oh it was so good it's so good so good so i told uh brooke was the gentleman's name from renworks who did the barges and stuff and i said brook 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, like, 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 anyway they pieced that together and you know 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, I got a hip pointer. So I, like, not like it was a big deal, but it was just tender, but I couldn't my, 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 are you okay like your body okay yeah I mean I like you wake up in pain the only one that I noticed is my my foot I broke my heel um in 2009 and it 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 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 get like 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 I'll limp for the first little bit, and then my foot, like, oh, now I get it. Yeah, we're walking. I'm in. How about your brain or your head?

Yeah, I've bunked it quite a few times. The, 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 I think the last one I had, it was just dirt biking at my track. I got knocked out briefly, and that one was, 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 had a hard time focusing for a while. And 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 mind starts wandering, like 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. But if you were focused, the spaceship would just, when they would like curve through this thing. So I'd just be like, I remember I would Skype with this woman on. 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 put the I would put these sensors on and then I would sit there and Skype with her and she'd like okay we're gonna do the spaceship on I'm like okay and I would just stare at the spaceship and you're like move move right you're like trying

to get this thing to move because it's not like gas and brake like a remote control it's like you focusing on something and you're like just 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 interesting concept yeah it's 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 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 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 I'm 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, 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 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 yeah and not getting detoured so far does that worry you i mean 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 don't think about the negative think about the positive try to try to you know do what you can to remedy anything but don't dwell on any negative because I I believe that if you you know if you keep thinking that of an issue, you're just inviting it to you. Love attraction.

Yeah, exactly. So 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 very well known now, the impact of concussions. And we see it with a lot of pro athletes 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's 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 injury. 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 Super Cross legend, and he'd went to off-road, and he's doing the voiceover on that show.

And they're talking about how, like, like a truck had hit a spectator, you know, and, I've heard a lot of that in Baja, you know, you're going 100-mell and 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 like they're racing and they just keep going, right? Which is like pretty, it's pretty terrible to say. 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 them 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. So, you know, we can. A lot more calculated than, say you used to be just after all the injuries and experience. Because there's no reason not to be. Yeah.

You can still have fun and be safe. Yeah. It's a little more thought out. For sure. That's exactly it. It's like if you're going to have, you know, if you're going to start doing risky stuff, it's like just do it as think about what you're doing. Yeah.

Don't take the fun out of it. But just make sure you're doing it 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, or just hear 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 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 things that could go wrong when you're doing the world record jump like that. Or, like, crazy backflips. But, 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 their chiropractors. So 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 Pistrana who, you know, do such extreme stunts and then their bodies pay the price if it doesn't go correctly.

And, 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, like, being able to achieve the things we did was I was always in, I always worked up. a lot. I always did a lot of a lot of weight lifting. I was always kind of a little bit stockier, we'll say, as far as muscle-wise. And I think one of my favorite quotes was Travis Pistrana,

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 I kind of laughed at that. But, you know, that's probably been one of the best things is, as I, you know, one of the, I started lifting weights and stuff, I just felt a little bit more tough, which 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 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, you know, thought that has helped me throughout my career. Even longevity-wise, as we get into, you know, after I'm done competing and all that, I think that's going to be the thing that's going to help maybe limit the aches and pains and 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 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. So would you ever take on a different style of racing? I messed around a little bit with four wheel. Like I did some razor stuff. And it was fun.

You know, the funny thing was 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 you mean you just want to hit that rut you know like I hit that I did a whole lap and I hit all the rut's 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 oh and then you you mess up the next one but you have like a good put and you're like Like you're back in the game again. And like when I was doing the, the razor stuff on the track, it was like hard for me to like, like, it wasn't like, I'm like, oh, I railed that rut or I did that jump and I whipped it. You know, there wasn't as much stimulation.

There's not as much body input. Yeah, you can't control a razor in the air. Yeah. Every time. I think maybe that's what it was. And 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 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've 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 red yeah so what gives you something to work for instead of just driving around because sometimes driving side by sides can feel that way

feels like even if you're jumping and stuff 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. So, I mean, speaking of, like, I guess racing, 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, 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 own a race team. And that'll be something that can keep me involved in the sport after I'm done racing. 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, it was in 2000, what was I 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 we figured it out. I was super grateful because Glenn he's a he's a business man he has a great um rock crushing business and whatnot so he kind of knew like the business like 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 you know i was defending uh pro champion and i went to the first race at deluth you know cool guy with his own reese 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'm I wheel up and they're like all right let's get you signed in they're looking

they're like we don't have your name on the list 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 company yeah like somebody's got to defend the title so so you know that obviously when you when you run the team you go to sign up the riders for the race. Well, somebody did that for me in the past. So 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, you know, is essentially, well, there was two parts. So I wasn't signed up for the first race. And I made it like until the first 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 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 practice. I got to, you know, I got to train. So anyway, that's how my wife ended up started working for us. How many years did you race while owning the team? 2010 through 14. Okay. But I was hurt like.

I was hurting 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 take, 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 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 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 was fine. Like, just get your foot fixed. 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, they're, 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 ended up, I was like in second and points then. So I'm like, well, I guess we'll try the next one, right? So I go to the next one. And 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, 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 tell stories. and you've done a really good job at incorporating your personality into being Levi LeValley, 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. I, 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 um I don't know 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 is how 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 road dirt bikes and he's like here I got to I got to introduce you to my buddy who's a trainer and so introduced me to this cage fighter and had a had a gym and this guy is like you'd 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 i'll winter or this this fall i'm like yeah if that'll get me where i can compete with blare morgan and tucker hibbert i'll do it you know like so i move it to california and i uh his name was wild man 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 you know without i unofficially was taught hot 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 talk 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 um 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 to 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 like 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 or help people from the experiences I've had and I think that's that's something 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 of racing doesn't work out? All the time. Like,

Everyone, everyone ask you that. Because, you know, at the time, 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, like, making money, you know, and I'm racing and making money and you're making pretty good money or whatever. You've got to have, you know, you just, 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 will always say like,

oh, you can't make that a living, you can't, they always are telling you can't do it. And it's like, that's the beauty is like when you get the mentality, like, watch me. Like, 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'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. and 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 always think, like, people that haven't gone down that road, they don't, 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, and 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 in 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 yeah 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 the town that john built so we found a picture of actually the 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 LaValle. So I always say my dad's dog, he's got a statue in town. So I don't have any statue, so I'm claiming Bruno the dog. He might have me beat there. We got to get you a statue. Yeah. 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 Cormoran 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. Yeah, because it was like the first dog to ever be a mayor.

Oh, wow. It beat out Jake's grandpa. Yeah. Yeah. So we were like, dude, we should get, because he passed away now. So I don't think there is. mayor of corn run 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 that's awesome

did you always want to stay in that small town after moving to california 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 and being able to ride my dirt bike or snowmobile wherever, you know, riding through the ditches. 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, 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 is what I always say, you know? my dad was the garbage man and I just like you can't you can't be too too cool you know in town

because someone will put you in your place like oh who do you think you are you know and you're like you're right so I think it was 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 that was helpful for me and now I just love the freedom of being able to ride my snowmobile go on the boat dirt bike i mean having a dirt bike track you hear some folks like the like maddo for instance out in california telling me how like the neighbors and stuff they're constantly on them about noise 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 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 that local bar yeah and got lunch and uh 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 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 It's fun for that reason, is you, you know, you're all kind of a, the community, you feel that community. 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, you know, there's always some people that think otherwise. But in general, I think everybody is very supportive of what we're doing and understands, like, you know, that it's that 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 try to do what we can to help out our town as well, 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, you know, the town on other aspects, which is, it's cool to be able to give back and help where we can. Isn't it cool that this day and age, 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, you're not, you're not stuck there. And like, I don't know, we've done it in a different way with the internet, but you've done it in, you know, almost like not necessarily like the internet way, but the racing and X games. getting your name out there in such a different way and 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 the people around your area keeping you grounded because they knew you before right before and and that's 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 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 stopped 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 know 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 like it truly like pivoted like my life and that i was like that was the coolest thing was meeting levi and man i was probably i don't 12 plus years ago so it's cool that even though we or you are from a small town, you can affect people all over the country and world that you get to meet, that these kids can look up to you and be like, dang, 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 C-boy 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 people, you know, a lot of people. And I think once you embrace that and you go, holy cow, like people, you know, are really paying attention of what I'm doing and you have the power to influence them in a positive way or negative or whatever, you know, I always look at it and go, like, it's definitely kind of, I don't I want to say toned me down, but 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 and help people get to 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 know you're from a small town and a lot of times people think like what can you 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 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

I'm going to go for it. And that's what you guys did. You guys kept going 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 anything. Yeah, 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. 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 get them out there and, you know, go on a whole other 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 out looking for you. 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 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 uh we had with haley degan we were asking her about brian degan 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 right did you always want to be more a clean image have people like you know more respectable i it's funny you say that because

there there was a time i mean i used to i used to watch all the metal militia guys and do all that And I used to think, Seth Enzo, 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 because 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. Like you're like, it's not like just a front. Like 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, he, uh, Colin McCray, who was like the ultimate guy, right? He was the guy that always won. He crashed, rolled his car over, and it landed back on its wheels. and he finished 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 McCray. 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's just such a good dude. And then when I met him and he was still that guy, I went, holy cow. Like, that's what I want to, that's what I want to be. The image I want to portray it.

Well, I mean, you've done an incredible job at it. I think anybody that's met, you can say that. You give respect in time to all of your fans, which means a lot because we've met, you know, plenty of people that do have an ego and think that, you know, kills it. And in my eyes, because, like, there's something to be said about, you know, 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. 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 like this inner beast once you get on the sled, which is uh it's just always cool to see and break down like the athletes and show their real personalities i don't know it's it's funny because i i still have a hard time like comprehending

that it i would be that 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 in my whole life and you just continue to progress so that's how it got to that yeah it 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 risk analysis or or something like that he's like i 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 um you know in regards to you know what what we've been able to do on the snowmobile it's it's literally just come back to like my love for fun and my love for have you know riding my snowmobile and having a good time and being from a small town like I said you can't you got to be 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 i got one random last question because i read this in an interview that you did i have no idea when but it says all right i want to know did you actually throw paper airplane at christin

with your number on it at the alaris center at a snow cross at an indoor snow cross race yeah but it didn't get to her no it did oh it did got to her it got to so christin is my my wife so she um now my wife she was not at that time but i remember you know we're sitting there it's kind of like we we're 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 um and so i'm sitting there at you know i'm signing posters with my roommate Aaron Christensen he's right next to me and I'm like oh god 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 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 maybe that's not her boyfriend you know and she's standing in the distance and I'm like you know I'm trying to flag her in right and she's like talking to someone so I'm like well this isn't working I'm like I got to figure something out. Hey, hey, you want a poster? I just signed. So I, I signed a, I put my number on a poster, made a paper airplane on 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 with, like,

oh. Love at first sight out of one eye. Yeah. Like, can you, my number is on there if you want to look at it with your good eye right but anyway so i zinging and it lands and it goes skating like kind of 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 he he looks like he knows her right so i 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 erin christians to my teammate he's next to me and he's he's doing the like cut it you know like don't pick it up so she looks at she looks at him and then she just walks away no I'm like oh man so why was your buddy

doing that kind of cock blocking you well I don't know it's just he's probably it's not gonna happen it's not gonna happen yeah most like well and two she's like she's a bit taller than me too so he's probably like dude you're setting yourself up for failure she ain't gonna dig you But anyway, so I go, you know, I was pretty determined. So I go and I talk 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 is fun? 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, oh, I'm like, you think you could give me your number? He's like, not a chance. So anyway, 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? Because 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 here for a race. And I, like, like, telemarketer, call her out of nowhere. Like, she doesn't know. Just cold called her. A hundred percent.

Like, hey, this is Levi, you know, like long walks on the beach, you know. What did she? Wait, actually, what did you say? Like, how does that interaction go? It's, that's what's funny about it now is like, because I, my, my brother-in-law, Kristen's sister, and my brother-in-law, they, 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 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 him in person and I mean not even in person like I talked to Kristen for over a month and before we finally you know end of season came 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 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 and you're like you're not the one I thought it was

that was your first time meeting her yeah so I met her there and then you know it was probably a month month or so later and then we went I met her again and you know we kind of hit it off and and then we started we dated first

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

Yeah, she was like, really, like, kind of dragging this up. Oh, really? Like, any girl was like, hold up. Was all of her friends getting married to? Yeah, everyone starts getting married. And you were like, I'm going back 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 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 20. 28 or something I suppose it was quite a while but in that it was right in the meat and potatoes of like my career yeah seeing and everything so you know and she um she was a champ you know but i 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 are like you guys like

it's hard we're in the thick of of living out our dream right and so so it's Sometimes you just get really so caught up and 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 i 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 because you guys have endless stories as well you can

start a podcast and we'll come on or next time we'll do it in a year and just flip-pop it just bit yeah yeah thank you guys for having me thanks been awesome we know we really appreciate it like i said uh you've truly been one of all of our idols so to have the chance to sit down and talk to you is 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're 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 stuff for everyone to like hear you tell all those stories and everything i know you've told them elsewhere but uh yeah our 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 this winter we're going to do something oh yeah something fun something fun we got to one up the uh tandem jump oh yeah i don't know oh can we come do something into your phone pit we could make that 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

Thank you.