Mildon rang him and asked him to help out on this project. Prebble is an amateur who works to earn enough money so he can ride as much as possible. As well as helping Mildon build the jumps, he helps test them, a job that would challenge many professional riders. The pair play rock paper scissors to decide who goes first. Mildon wins and after a last-minute check of his bike and a couple of warm-up tricks landed in the foam pit, he’s poised for take-off at the top of the roll-in. “Dropping in!” he shouts, before he rolls his front wheel over the edge of what is an almostvertical ramp face, hoons down (he can reach 70kph), launches off the 2m-high take-off and lands on a straight ramp. “That was massive!” shouts Langlands, from his vantage point on top of a pile of dirt. One of the best freestyle BMXers in the country, Langlands is sitting this session out as he recovers from an injury. “It felt like my front end was going to implode,” says Mildon. For his next trick, Mildon sets a new world record for the longest dirt-to-dirt 360. A few minutes later, Mildon lands a Superman backflip, for another world record. “Fun times on the farm,” says Mildon, with a big grin on his face. Prebble bags a couple of records of his own, landing the longest dirt-to-dirt tabletop and turndown before Mildon nails another record, this time a massive front flip. “Yeaaaahhhhhh booooooy!” shouts Langlands. “Old Milly setting records!” Mildon heads back to the roll-in to try one of his signature moves, the Warrior flip, a double backflip with tail whip. He gets the rotation right, but gets bumped off his bike on landing and takes a heavy hit to the ribs before bouncing to a halt. “Maybe we should do some more work on this jump,” he says, after he’s had a chance to catch his breath. “I’m done for the day.” As he winds down, Mildon reflects on the day’s session. “I’m stoked that the jumps are working and, more importantly, that we can crash at these speeds. That’s what has put most people off jumping jumps this big, but it feels normal to me. It’s a weird feeling to be achieving all these records. I need to learn to be satisfied, but all I can think about is how much bigger we can go. I’m looking forward to trying some tricks on the second jump tomorrow.” The following morning, Mildon, Prebble and Langlands are back at the jumps, back on the shovels. Mildon is looking fresh and feeling fit, some achievement considering the pounding his body took the day before. “I’m lucky that I’m a well-conditioned 52
Not taking it lying down: the soft dirt caused Mildon to crash, but he copes with the impact. “I’m lucky I have good genes,” he says the red bulletin