We posted the above clip on our Facebook page last week and asked…

Who in their right mind tries to front flip off a roof??

Well, his name is David Mahoney and in 2008 he did just that and it went spectacularly wrong so we asked him all about it…

David, please tell us about trying this insane front flip?

BMX has not been the safest sport throughout my career, I’ve continually progressed and learned new tricks but occasionally things go terribly wrong. This particular crash resulted in me falling 8 ft to my head off of a roof, resulting in 6 hours of permanent memory loss and me awaking in a wheel chair.

occasionally things go terribly wrong

I’d been practicing at Woodward a lot. One summer they made an 8ft drop off platform in Lot 8 in to foam. I learned hop front flips off the platform in to the foam and it worked every time. An idea goes off in my head ‘let’s find a platform and do it for real‘. The only platform me and my good friend Brett Rolfing could find was a roof to bank. I drive 2 hours west to go check out this roof but stop off to go ride street and two skateparks en route.

Believe it or not David joined the circus! Photo by Capron Funk.

It looks like you’re riding on a thin beam in the clip?

So yeah in the video you’ll notice there’s a balance beam 1ft wide that I had to roll across before jumping off the roof. I try three jumps and even though I’m tired from riding all day I decide ‘I’ll still send the front flip off the roof‘. I’m rolling across and I miss my snap or panic and the next thing I remember is waking up in a wheel chair. Still to this day I have no idea what happened during the 6 hrs from crash to wheel chair. According to Brett I got up said I was ok rode back to the car went to the hospital had an MRI and X-Ray and was never assigned to a room because the hospital had no rooms available the doctor just would talk to me in the hallway about the result of my injury.

I miss my snap or panic and the next thing I remember is waking up in a wheel chair

We’re lucky in the UK that we have the NHS, I’m guessing you had a hefty medical bill?

$8,000 in medical bills and a concussion is all I received from this crash and I was back on my bike doing front flips two days later at my local park.

So another go is out of the question? (jokes)

Still no urge to go back to the roof for a second attempt I’ll quit while I’m still able to walk and ride my bike. On a side note I completely hate watching the crash video it’s a terrible reminder of that day. The video was only posted and released because I found a way to make some cash by posting it. The money doesn’t even scratch the surface of the medical bill but at least I could put it toward paying monthly bills. Sometimes we try crazy things it works and it’s awesome, on the other side of the coin we crash and end up in a hospital. Every BMX rider knows the risks of what we do, but there’s so much fun and satisfaction along the way it out weighs the risk.

This was back in 2008, what do you do now?

I just joined the circus. And I’m doing shows every weekend for the next two years.