Once upon a time, I conquered the back flip on a trampoline.  Some years later I witnessed my first motorcycle back flip and was truly amazed.  Last fall while in Vegas, I watched Caleb Moore pull back flip after back flip on his quad and only one word came to mind; burly.  What’s more is after a few attempts he started throwing flip variations.  What was equally as exciting was witnessing the group of dirt bike riders nodding their heads in approval and exclaiming their awe for what they to had just witnessed.  No one can deny the legitimacy of quad freestyle.

As I’m slowly gaining ground in the sport myself I’m learning of the frustration he and Colten have been facing for most of their careers.  They have a particular skill that few people in the world possess and yet outside of the ATV community, remain relatively unknown.  People don’t give quad guys a second thought though they acknowledge the danger and sketch factor.  Even I get that from dirt bike FMXers that see grab holes cut in my plastic.  Their comment is always that’s nuts “quads are sketchy.”  Indeed they can be, so why can’t we get some love?

Fortunately Winter X came along and the guys were able to gain some much deserved exposure there, but Winter X games doesn’t come around again for another year and I can’t help but feel like quad FMX doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

Take for example the days and weeks leading up to Winter X.  America watched as Levi Lavallee tweeted his every move leading up to the games and even appeared on Good Morning America to provide an introduction to the games.

Don’t get me wrong, he seems like an outstanding guy, is a talented athlete and proved he’s more than willing to hang it out there by attempting that insane double backflip on his sled two years ago.  I just can’t help but feel that there’s an injustice when he rolls up in his National Guard backed semi and the Moore brothers are pitting out of a standard twenty foot box trailer.  These guys have been performing all over the globe for a number of years, not to mention they only started riding sleds a mere 32 days before the biggest event of their lives.  Even coming into X there was no hype, no excitement about the two crossover athletes from Texas.

I’m sure industry politics and other factors play into the lack of exposure they received prior to X, but what about now?  Countless people unfamiliar to the world of ATVing were giving mad props to the brothers.  One columnist reported Colten’s run as being “underscored by all” proving these boys have the talent to compete.  If they made that much of a splash, why does the excitement go away as fast as the Aspen snow melts?

It will be interesting to see the level of exposure the Moore’s receive come winter X 2011.  Maybe they’ll be the one’s Tweeting away and making appearances on daytime TV.  No matter, the brothers shocked the world and are sure to do it again.

So to all the critics out there, you skeptics that think quads don’t do anything but wreck the ruts on a motocross track, have some respect.  If you’re not willing to throw your leg over a quad and give it a shot, give props to the guys that do.

Here are some good sites to get your Quad FMX fix-

Bomb Squad Batalion
Quadfreestyle.com
MooreFMX.com

[Show as slideshow]

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Derek Guetter, Steve Weissinger, Bart Engelst

JR Hinds, video by Bryan Shipman

Derek Guetter’s first backlip to dirt