Derek Guetter, The Lone Quad Guy in the Nuclear Cowboys Tour
- Updated: December 18, 2009
By Derel Guetter
I’ve been put through some pretty stressful situations throughout my career, but nothing quite like this. This experience lands in my top 3 scariest things in my life (jumping out of a plane, flipping for the first time, and now this). I’ve been recruited to ride for the Nuclear Cowboyz Tour and my job is to shred and bust back flips. It’s the most insanely choreographed chaos show ever created, with the absolute best riders in the world. As if that wasn’t already enough pressure, hear my story of what I put myself threw the last 2 weeks.
My journey started December 4 leaving Minnesota feeling confident and hopeful with 28 backflips to dirt under my belt. I had some major issues with my truck that I had gotten fixed only hours before we left for our road trip to Los Angeles, so unfortunately my anxiety was already started to kick in. The drive was pretty ordinary, sucked like usual, but I was anxious for the 8 days of rehearsals that were in front of me. This was a great opportunity for me to finally get my shot into the big leagues.
The first couple days were pretty much what I expected. Bit of nerves and butterflies going on. Getting to ride alongside Nate Adams, Mike Mason, Adam Jones and the rest of the guys is pretty freaking sweet not going to lie. But the thing that was freaking me out the most was the ramps. Obviously this show is all on metal landings, but the take off ramp was completely different than my ramp that I had been flipping on. This setup jumped me higher, farther, and stayed in the air for at least another ½ second than what I was used to. All those things together make up a bid deal, and really REALLY messed with head.
After our first practice on the ramps I knew I needed more time to get comfortable. I had asked to get my own practice time so I could get this dialed in. It’s chaotic with 14 dirt bike riders all at once, add a quad into that and its pure madness. I came in an hour early every day for the next 5 days and not ONCE got a good day of riding in. 10 jumps is not enough for me to feel good and just flip, because there are some serious consequences if I screw up on this setup.
It wasn’t until Sunday that I got a good ride in, and I took full advantage of it. I got all my tricks dialed in, and even learned a few new variations. I felt good but was still really nervous to tug this flip because my last back flip was 13 days prior. Talk about stressing it, I didn’t sleep a wink all week and the first show with an audience was only 2 days away.
Monday morning was my D-day. I had wanted to get into a foam pit just to make sure I still had it. I’m not sure why I had this idea, but flipping had got my train of thought all wacked out. Well the foam pit just wasn’t going to happen, it had rained all week and I had run out of time. I had talked with the tour managers and it was either flip at the show Tuesday night, or I’m getting cut from tour. I was pissed. I had come in early everyday to feel comfortable and every day something stopped me from what I was trying to do. I had so much frustration at this point I just turned all this anger and rage into motivation. I was sick of feeling this scared and weak. I told all the riders getting dressed to give me 10 minutes; I’m going for the flip right now. Everyone cleared the floor, and there I went. Honestly I didn’t really care at that point, I came to LA to flip and after a week like I just had of being mentally drained I wanted to get this over with. I knew I could flip, but going for it on a completely different setup was gnarly.
Thank God my first flip went perfect! I couldn’t have landed it any better! It was so weird, I pulled the exact same way I did on my ramp, but since I was in the air that much longer this flip was just felt really floaty and a bit slower rotation. It was awesome; it was one of those things that I was so proud of myself for overcoming that much fear. Everyone in the building exploded with excitement, and that got me pumped. I was back on track. It was great having all the riders keeping me positive all week, and after I finally pulled it they were just as stoked as I was. It really is a great group of guys on this tour, they have lots of love for the Quad guy and I have the same respect for all of them.
So leave it to me to flip the day BEFORE the show. I’m so happy to say the show went awesome. I did 2 flips in the show and did a total of 7 flips on this ramp to ramp setup. This has done so much for my confidence, I feel like I can take over the world now. I’m just glad I didn’t panic because I had everyone around me nervous as hell, but still managed to keep my composure with the help of a few special people around me. Now everything’s good and I feel great about flipping at the next show. If you guys get a chance to see the Nuclear Cowboyz Tour, GO SEE IT! It is absolutely insane!!
See you in Pittsburgh January 2!
Derek Guetter
Check out quadfreestyle.com for everything quad freestyle including more phenomenal photography from Dan Guetter.