Invitational held an FMX Best Whip and Step Up competition over the weekend. The event drew some big names with Matt Buyten, Ronnie Renner, Jeff Kargola, Myles Richmond, Dustin Miller and Chuck Carothers.

Richmond was pulling the most stylish, off-axis whips, and he always managed to whip is back around right when it looked like he was going to land backwards. He was throwing his bike around like a toy and adding in look backs to amp up the crowd, and it earned him the win.

Tampa, Florida-native Renner tied for the win in Step Up with X Games gold medalist Buyten. Alli sat down with Renner before the event to get his thoughts on the current state of FMX, and to see what he’s up to next.

Matt Buyten, Step Up                                Ronnie Renner, Step Up

You just won silver at X Games Step Up, how did that go for you?
Step Up is the one thing I get serious about with freestyle as far as competitions go. I really like it because there’s no judges. It takes you back to the old school racing days where there’s a clear cut winner. There’s no judges, there’s no naysayers. Whoever didn’t knock the bar off wins. We’ve still found ways to find controversy with that over the last couple years, but for the most part, it’s pretty legit and there’s a clear cut winner.

I think it showcases riders bike skills and it’s also gnarly. Nobody wants to go that high and land with no momentum. It seems to be a crowd favorite, and unique as far as the crowd likes it, supports it and it gets a lot of ratings. I like to put my efforts into that.

Ronnie Renner entertaining the crowd

Do you also focus on the new tricks, like the Shaolin Flip and the ones that really push the envelope?
It’s pretty crazy, but I never liked doing tricks. I always felt like I kinda had to, to make that my job. I can go out and I can bang through all the tricks that I’ve learned through the years. I’ve only been accredited to naming one trick, and that was the Stripper. That was in like 2002 man, a long time ago.

Innovation’s cool, and I respect the guys for doing it, it’s just not really my cup of tea. I’ve always been the guy that was like, ‘Oh, if he can do it, I can do it.’ It’s got to the level where he can do that, but I don’t want to do it. It’s too dangerous.

Jeff Kargola waving to stands at Portland's Memorial Coliseum

FMX really took off when it first started developing as its own sport, how do you see it today?
FMX is in a weird place. I don’t think it’s a terrible place, it’s just at the mercy of America, who always wants the next big thing. Once double backflips came, then they wanted more, and then they want some combinations with it. And really, a normal flip isn’t nothing. And as a rider, I know that even normal flips are still pretty difficult and they can take you out.

So freestyle is at a place right now, in America, where people want to see the show. There’s events like Nuclear Cowboys, and then the Crusty Tour in Australia. A lot of stuff going on to where it’s entertaining people, but what’s next? Usually we figure something out, but right now it’s at a direction where I don’t care to do it. Because I don’t want to be one of the 10 guys doing a train in the night, with the lights off, all for a show. Because it’s so dangerous, and you don’t really get any recognition. I come from a generation where everybody had a persona, and a character kind of. You seem to get your own face time on the TV and it made more sense. Now it’s bam-bam-bam, nobody knows who anybody is.
 

The crowd was stoked on FMX

What are your thoughts of Travis Pastrana sort of stepping away from competition not long after his first double backflip at X Games?
It’s pretty nutty with Travis and the double because that was 1996, and look who just came back this year and just pulled one out from nowhere. So you get the demand. You get fans that want to see stuff. You get fans that want to see you in the mix. And really, the adrenaline is hard to top, so you always come back for more. It’s just guys like Travis are superhuman who can pull it off safely, but not everybody can. There’s veterans starting to get hurt and take bigger crashes trying to keep up with the youngsters, and it’s pretty wild. It’s kind of uncharted territories being such a young sport.

Matt Buyten

Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship is now such a big part of Alli, do you ever follow that series?
Motocross and Supercross, that’s where my heart’s at. That’s what I started off doing, racing my whole life. I raced professional from 1997 until 2000 and basically couldn’t pay the bills.

I’ve got a little brother who’s 21 [Ricky Renner] and he’s racing the outdoor nationals. He makes all the 450 main events and is usually top- 20 contender. So I’m always following him, and just for the love of the sport, always seeing who won. I’m hoping one day maybe I can work in that field and be a part of the races, because I love being there.
 

Ronnie Renner

So what’s next for you?
I’m actually doing a lot of freeriding stuff. Like in the desert. To me it’s something that a lot of people can relate to. It’s a lot of families and just hard-core diehards that go out to the desert and ride. It seems to get a good response on TV and stuff like that. So I’ve got the Red Bull Ronnie Renner Freeride Tour that’s happening. We had a really successful run at the beginning of 2010, and they’re wanting to do more. So we’re going to tour the Southwest and see what happens.