Here is his report:
The Jah drop had been in my head for a while. Josh Bender dared to do it 23 years ago! It's crazy what Bender dared to do in the pioneering days of freeriding. I'm a Bender fan and I like the vision he had of mountain biking. Bender inspired me, so of course I was tempted to enter his realm and ride where bike legend Bender rode.
I was six years old when I was in "New World Disorder". saw Bender jump the Jah drop. What a spectacle! What a crash - more explosion than fall! The landing looked brutally flat. Over the years I watched the stunt again and again, I couldn't get it out of my head.
Sometimes I thought: the drop is doable. Then again: no way! But it's this uncertainty that I love in our sport. I'm fascinated by stunts that you don't know if they'll work. That's exciting, because there's only one way to find out: You have to do the stunt. Marvellous! But I'm not naive, of course I think about the consequences. In the case of the Jah drop, I was most worried about my shoulder. I had an operation six months ago and despite a lot of strength training, it still didn't feel 100 per cent fit. I was worried that my shoulder would blow up in my face when I landed - literally. That scared me, really scared me!
The Jah drop is damn old school. It goes down vertically. It's like jumping into a well with an anchor around your neck. And then the landing: it's flat and lies directly beneath you. That, combined with the considerable height, is what makes the Jah drop so treacherous. My X-Games drop was higher, but here I had speed and a steep landing. This helps enormously to dissipate the unleashed energy. And then the run-up to the Jah drop. There's none! The erosion has gnawed away the turf. I would have to balance on the bike at a 90-degree angle, then hop into the fall line and release the brakes. So much for the theory.
Josh Bender was delighted when he heard that I wanted to repeat the Jah drop. That was important for me. Without his "go", I wouldn't have done the drop. When I stood on top of the cliff for the first time, the height surprised me. The thing looked huge. What worried me even more was the base of the cliff. Derek had told me that the earth was hard as concrete. But now, in May, the rain had softened everything. I trudged around down there, sinking in up to my ankles and thinking to myself: This will never work! We had to tap the sand down. Looking at the photo now, I wish the landing looked natural. But then the drop wouldn't have been possible. We would have had to wait until summer, but Derek had to finish his film "Nothing's for Free".
The days before the stunt I was under stress. I could hardly sleep with excitement. It was raining, biking was impossible, Marzocchi hadn't sent the special shock yet, and I was waiting for hardcore pedals that never came.
The postman brought it the day after the drop. I only breathed a sigh of relief when the film crew arrived and I knew it was going to start. Because I slipped into the zone, as I call it. In the zone, there is only now. And the now feels pretty damn alive. I waited with Derek at the top of the drop, listening to music, savouring this moment in the evening sun. And then the time had come: I rolled over the cliff - and dropped.
Bam! The impact was harder than expected. Much harder! It pressed me into the bike. I smashed the seatpost through the seat tube - with my balls. They turned blue-black afterwards. The saddle broke. At the same time, I hit the handlebars with my helmet. The cranks and pedals dug into the ground and one foot bent round the pedal, tearing the ligaments. Then I was thrown back up again. I managed to hold on to the handlebars and finish the rodeo ride without falling, but God knows I wasn't happy with the landing. I would have liked to have done the Jah drop a second time to land more cleanly, but my swollen ankle put paid to that. But I was still happy - I managed it without falling! I still haven't really realised that I did this symbolic stunt. Yes, damn it, I jumped the Jah-Drop!
