Name: Travis Healey
Age: 21
Resides in: Utah
Years Racing: 15
Profession: Full-Time Student at SLCC (Chemical Engineering), Part-Time BMX Pro Racer

PS3 PSN: FrozenPaw

Current Favorite Band: Agalloch
Other Bands: Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility, Rapture, Serj Tankian, The Absence, The Morningside
Current Favorite Movies: The Bourne Series, The Matrix Series.
Other Good Movies: Crash, Pay It Forward, Shawshank Redemption.
TV Shows: King of Queens, The Simpsons.
Favorite Video Games: Metal Gear Solid Series, Halo Series, Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty: World At War, Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 10. I don’t play Guitar Hero, if you were wondering. I suck at that game… I’ll go ride my bike now.
Novels: The Wheel of Time Series (if I ever finish it)

My accomplishments:
LIFE:
Learning to appreciate my talents and to have fun doing them.
Being a good person.
Doing well in school.
BMX:
Winning big races. * See next section ‘experiences’ below for more.

I don’t really consider all of the plates I have received as a indication of success in BMX. Does anybody even remember what plate I got after the 2000 or 2004 season? I doubt it. So why bring yourself under self-induced stress. Just because you have a NAG plate or ride for a ‘factory’ team, does not indicate anything about you. What I have learned in BMX, or, I guess, what I consider success in BMX is to always be striving for execution of a perfect lap and getting yourself into the ideal mental state during pressure situations. Winning is a result of preparation, confidence, strategy and luck. I have witnessed many riders in my career, who would absolutely dominate, even today in the class they race now, if they would just prepare for races properly because they are very lucky during races–always seeming to put themselves in the right place at the right time–and have so much self-esteem the should have to share it. There are also those who work very hard, even too hard, but they just can’t put it together on the track. The past few years for me, I have sought to become a well rounded racer.

Early in my racing career, I can remember going from day-to-day hoping that I would have good gates at the track that night. It used to frustrate my dad so much when I would have a great gate one day and not know when it falls the next. Within the last three years, my confidence, form, and execution on the art that is getting a gate, has dramatically improved. It has been a long road to get where I am now, but after making minute adjustment, after minute adjustment, after minute adjustment I feel that I have one of the best, and most consistent gates. I absolutely love it when I can practice ABA gates for an hour in Mike Kelley’s backyard, and then on my first gate on a random is just as good. It does not matter what the cadence says, as long as I know when the gate will drop, I’M GONE! Looking forward, the next minute adjustment I need to make to get out even faster has actually to do with my physical preparation for races.

Now that I have been Pro for a few months, the racing season is winding down, I’m settled into this semester at SLCC, I plan on making a few adjustments necessary to take my riding to the next level which will lead to me taking my racing to the next level. It is a whole different mindset when you can help pay for the weekend (as an A Pro) when you do well. But even then, you can not stress about having to do well, there are many things you must accomplish before that will even have a chance of happening…

Coolest things I’ve experienced:
I have gone to three Utah Jazz playoff games and sat in the lower bowl of the ESA. Any basketball aficionado knows that the ESA is one of the toughest arenas for NBA teams to play, and win in. The biggest factor is how loud the fans are. I remember in the 2007 Playoffs, I went to Game 3 against the Houston Rockets. The Jazz blew them apart. Rockets bench did not score a single point. It was so loud in there the players could not hear the refs whistles. And when the buzzer rang to signal the end of the game, YOU COULD NOT EVEN HEAR IT that is how loud it was. When you hear how people say that Golden State’s Oracle Arena was loud, or the Kings’ Arco, I call BS because there is nothing even close to the loudness of the fans at a Jazz game. Then in 2008, I went to Game 4 against the Rockets and the LA Lakers. The Lakers game was simply amazing, considering the game went into overtime and pure hatred Jazz fans have against the Lakers fans that attended the game.

* Winning big races as an amateur. The second time that I went to the ABA Grands in 2000, I came away with a second place.(more later)

Racing in the 2008 Salt Lake Dew Tour. For most racers, they will never, in their lives, get to experience what I did on September 11-13th. Charging down a three story ramp, going 40mph over 30-40 foot jump is absolutely insane! Then, you have to do it next to seven other riders who are also traveling 40mph! During the race, I qualified 30th in the time trails to make it to the quarter finals which were run in a 3-Moto, low points, qualifier. In my first round, I was a little shell shocked going into the first corner and ended up seventh, last place because one rider decided not to race. Going into the second round, I knew I had to charge the first jump and get backside to even give myself a chance going into that first corner because, just like in the first, I was on the outside. The gate dropped, another great gate, I am charging down the ramp, committed, but I am so focused on that that I forgot about the transition from ramp to dirt.

Now, when I had first gone down the hill, this caught me by surprise. I am still surprised that no one had really mentioned this before I lost my SX ramp virginity. Because the g-force of changing directions from going down at a 50* angle to flat at 40mph is so great, you MUST pump the transition. As I hit the transition in the second round, I did not pump causing me to collapse somewhat into my bike. Before I knew what was happening, I’m in the air, my bike is rotating forward, and I am heading for an gnarly endo when I land. I knew that if I put any limbs out I would take the risk of breaking, tearing, or crushing something. As I hit the ground with my front tire, watching the video, the only thing I can think of that kept me from going head first into the face of the next jump was that I must have somehow leaned back to prevent that. My bike and body tipped to the left side and I remember squeezing the handlebars as tight as I could as I slid to a stop after going 40mph. Amazingly I walked away with a bruised left buttocks and was riding four days later.