FMX - The Beginning
The sport of motocross has been around for many years. The sport involved racing off the road motorcycles (or dirt bikes) around man made dirt tracks. The sport has made many advances and developments in superiority of both machine and track design over the years.
In 1994 filmmakers Jon Freeman and Dana Nicholson had been accumulating footage to showcase a behind the scenes expose of the lifestyle of an American pro motocross rider in action, 145ft plus jumps, 45ft high in the air soaring over sand dunes, mountains, houses, buses and anything else secure and steep enough to hold the weight of bike and rider.
The end result was Fleshwound Films and the first video Crusty Demons of Dirt . The launch of this video was to change the face of motocross and create a sport that has become the most popular of all extreme sports today, Freestyle Motocross (FMX) .
FLESHWOUND FILMS
Back in the eighties the world was in awe of the new sport of snowboarding and like all extreme sports the West Coast of USA and in particular California was the breeding ground and mecca for the growth of the sport. Dana Nicholson (Co-Director of Fleshwound Films) was a top pro snowboarder living in California and traveling the world showcasing the lifestyle and sport he loved. Jon Freeman (Co-Director of Fleshwound Films) had graduated and been working in the surfing industry making films most notably the 6 times world champion, Kelly Slater's "Black and White".
Jon Freeman was a keen social snowboarder outside of his surfing commitments and decided it was time for a change of industry after a chance meeting with Dana Nicholson in the Snowy Mountains of California. Jon expressed his interests of making a snowboard video to Dana and their partnership virtually began then and there.
The unique flavor of Crusty Demons of Dirt has been a collective undertaking by the team of Jon Freeman, Dana Nicholson and Cami Freeman who joined forces more than eight years ago to produce the popular "Creatures of Habit" snowboard series.
Dana starred as one of the main athletes in Jon's legendary video 'Creatures of Habit', which went on to become one of the best snowboard videos of its time. Jon went on to make another 5 parts to the 'Creatures of Habit' series. Dana continued to introduce Jon to riders and other industry contacts whilst providing funny skits for Jon to add into the films. A standard in most extreme sports videos is that a diversity of sports are added to spice up the flavour of the film. In 'Creatures' part 5 they introduced dirt bikes.
Having seen the impact of these dirt bikes segments and after working successfully for over 4 years on these videos, Jon and Dana then went into partnership to create a motocross video under the banner of Fleshwound Films.
CRUSTY THE CULT
Fleshwound Films spent two years gathering footage for the first motocross film and 1994 saw the release of Crusty Demons of Dirt . The excitement and hysteria the film created was phenomenal and its success brought about a lot of poachers. Although others were out there trying to create motocross videos, none managed to achieve quite the same impact that Crusty had. Following the success of the first film, Crusty 2 was premiered 18 months later. Sales exceeded expectations and tripled from the first video as the Crusty phenomenon began spreading worldwide. What was somewhat a stagnant sport had received a positive injection of interest and proved its worthiness of being showcased Internationally. People began buying the clothing worn by their heroes (Fleshgear) and thousands around the world were getting bikes and heading for the racetrack, mountains, sand dunes and the sky.
It was only to grow bigger. With the release of Crusty 3 in 1997 and the videos and sport still booming with popularity, freestyle motocross pioneers Lofty and Brian Jordan went to Fleshwound Films with the idea of staging a freestyle motocross competition. Four months later the first competition was held in Las Vegas. This new side of the sport was looked down upon by the industry and many people said it would go nowhere - the excitement amongst the fans indicated that they strongly disagreed.
Before long FMX was introduced as a new sport in the 99 X games in San Francisco and was given worldwide exposure through ESPN television. FMX was then stamped as the king of Extreme, becoming the number one sport at the X Games.
Competition requires riders to travel a course for 90 seconds performing as many tricks as possible, which are judged by a panel. Usually about 10 jumps are completed in this time bracket and riders compete for prize money.
Fleshwound Films undoubtedly played a crucial part in the evolution of the sport, they are still shooting Crusty Films today and recently released the 10th instalment titled – Crusty X – A Decade of Dirt. They have successfully implemented their vision into the industry, introducing the world to their friends and lifestyles whilst creating gods in the stars of their video series. A highlight for them has been coming up with such a unique idea; planning to make it happen and seeing it grow beyond their vision internationally. Travelling to film in Australia, Japan, Brazil, Africa and Peru to name a few, has meant Fleshwound Films created 'The National Geographic of motocross'.
Apart from videos, Fleshwound also made a great success out of Fleshwound Film merchandise, which inspired their creation of the official Crusty clothing brand, Flesh gear (a freestyle ride gear and lifestyle clothing). As for the stars of Crusty, their riding talent has spawned a cult following around the world. Inspiring lines for merchandising such as toys and clothing labels, the riders are regarded as heroes by their fans. Their popularity has seen the global growth of freestyle motorcross and the associated lifestyle products.
