BMX freestyler Morgan Wade: ‘How many opportunities do you get in your life to be a part of something like this?’

The BMX Big Air final at X Games Minneapolis Friday night was one for the books, with big tricks and even bigger wipeouts. Morgan Wade, who won silver, talked to FanSided about his willingness to go big — and the payoff.

The consequences of a failed attempt to go big were on display for all to see at The Real Cost BMX Big Air final on Friday night, with plenty of nasty spills.

It’s the name of the game in BMX big air, a discipline that sees riders take off down a 50- or 65-foot roll-in — their choice — before launching off kicker ramp over a gap of the same distance before continuing into a 27-foot quarterpipe.

If it sounds insane, it is.

So are these guys deranged daredevils, or not? Well, he can only speak for himself, but veteran of the sport Morgan Wade — who earned silver thanks largely to a huge one-handed triple tailwhip in his first run — says it’s all actually very rational.

“You might find this hard to believe, but I’m actually pretty calculated,” Wade told FanSided in an interview after the competition, which saw returning champion James Foster claim gold and Vince Byron take bronze.

“I don’t try something unless I’m pretty sure I can do it. I’m pretty comfortable with my body and what my capabilities are, so I don’t really do stuff that I’m not fairly certain that I can pull out of the bag.”

As we speak, Wade holds his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Connor, in his arms. Connor fingers his dad’s silver medal, in awe of the bright lights glinting off it. I have to ask Wade if having children has changed his approach at all to how he rides — or if he wants to set an example of living life to the fullest.

“I do want to be able to run around and do stuff with Connor,” Wade says. “At the same time, how many opportunities do you get in your life to be a part of something like this? The only way you stay in it is by evolving with it and progressing.”

Part of the reason Wade was able to reach such new heights — literally, he broke his own record, set in 2013 — is that the big air event was held indoors, unlike in previous years in Austin, Texas, where wind and weather played a factor in what the riders could do.

“This ramp has felt really smooth this whole week,” Wade says. “I’ve just been feeling really on it.”

That was part of what made him decide to just go for height on his second run — thanks to a five-point lead, he didn’t have to worry as much about throwing down a crazy trick.

On this run, he was going up — and he indicated as much to the television crew on the broadcast.

His thought process as he called his shot on live TV? “I just wanna go high. It’s called big air.”

After all, as Wade points out, he rides for Hoffman Bikes — headed, of course, by the venerable Mat Hoffman — who is “the king of big air.” Wade says that being on the team doesn’t so much give him “something to live up to,” but he knows he has to “do his part.”

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The crazy thing about Wade’s second run, where he was as of publication still unofficially measured at 23 feet, 11 inches (his previous record was 23 feet, 3 inches), is that he could have gone higher.

When Wade landed off the kicker ramp, he felt his back wheel squish sideways — which is “like hitting the brakes” right before the ramp.

Incidentally, Wade, despite his reputation for being a daredevil, does have a back brake on his setup. In fact, the only ever rider he’s ever seen ride the big air ramp brakeless is — surprise, surprise — Mat Hoffman. “And he’s crazy,” Wade says, laughing.

An examination of the tire after the run revealed that its PSI was only 70. Had he had 110, 120, in there, Wade says he could have gone even higher.

But there’s always next year.