Travis Pastrana Backflipped Over The River Thames In London

IOL- Extreme sports rider Travis Pastrana performed a backflip motorcycle jump over a 23-metre gap between two barges floating on London’s river Thames on Thursday, 11 years after the last rider who tried the stunt suffered serious injury.

Set against the backdrop of London’s O2 arena, Pastrana had only 45.7 metres to accelerate to takeoff speed before jumping, with only 11 metres to come to a stop before he would have fallen into the river.

Pastrana is known for competing in the X-Games extreme motocross competition and in the US NASCAR motor racing series. During his career he has broken more than 90 bones and suffered 25 concussions.

Big Travis Pastrana fan here. Even if you’re not a fan of action sports, you can’t help but love the guy. He’s so pleasant, so charismatic, so fearless. Having said that, I watched this stunt and wasn’t that impressed. Not because it’s not impressive, but because Travis has set the bar so high and performed so many insane stunts that it takes something truly death-defying to drop my jaw now. He’s been reinventing the boundaries of what’s possible on a motorbike for a decade, and I don’t know what territory remains uncharted for him. That has to be frustrating, knowing that he basically has to kill himself in order to surprise people.

I still remember where I was when he did that first double backflip at the X Games. I was down in my basement with some chicky, trying to catch a mitt full of boobie. I put my efforts on hold to witness Pastrana’s double, and I was a junior in high school. That’s saying a lot because at that age, I would have missed the birth of my first child for a chance to lay down a beach towel and turn on the lady faucets. Strictly basement business! Of course, he landed it, and we resumed our game of pin the tail on the donkette. But it was still a life-defining moment.

PS- 25 concussions? Seriously?

PPS- this was the first time the world met Nate, I believe. We (Barstoolsports.com) have come a long way since then!