FMX Insider No.10: Fishfingered

Welcome to our brand new weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto‘s FMX Insider. Penned each week by South Australian rider, Ben Heidrich, the FMX Insider will present the story-behind-the-stories of the Aussie and international freestyle motocross scenes. 

Last weekend on the south coast of NSW, something pretty damn cool went down. It was a fully home-grown, grassroots freestyle motocross jam, attended by a bunch of world-class Australian riders. The one and only Justin ‘Bushy’ Bush from Fishfingered FMX got everyone together and put on one hell of a show. I caught up with Bushy to talk about his company, Fishfingered FMX, and what the day was all about…

Ben: So tell me, what is Fishfingered FMX?

Bushy: Its bloody offensive (laughs). Nah, not really. It was originally the name of my fishing boat, ‘FISHFINGERED’. I grew up riding bikes, fishing and getting out in the Aussie bush, and we’re just a bunch of mates who ride and fish. We have been lucky enough to have a place to build our compound and over time and endless hours on the machines – put in by Homer – the joint transformed into The Fingered Compound. We’ve had plenty of FMX Pros filter through the joint to ride and we have also started putting on a couple of Fingered jam nights. Get a crew together, hire some lights and ride ya nuts off, y’know? But now it has taken a bit of a different turn. I’m looking at getting a website going that consists of FMX news and reviews, rider profiles, un-professional photography by Clickoris and whacky fishing tip videos. We’re on Facebook and Instagram, just posting what we get up to @fishfingeredfmx. The young punks are loving it – slappin’ stickers all over the joint. I just really want to keep the FMX fire alive for future riders and the current rippers. We ride, we fish and we get Fishfingered!

Awesome man, it sounds like you have a really good thing going on. What was your most recent FMX jam day all about?

Last weekend, we made a bit of FMX history at a mate Pete Yates’ 40th birthday. He loves dirt bikes and approached me to see if I could get some crew together to ride under lights at his party. So I got on the blower and rounded up a couple of the best from the west. We dropped in a mean Yacton Civil down-ramp and two ARD kickers, and perched’ em on Pete’s property that over looks the whole south coast. Cracking spot! After we set up the ramps, word had gotten around with a few shots of the joint. Before not too long, phones started ringing and we had around 15 riders all chomping at the bit to ride. So I thought let’s ride – let’s get a killer crew together and get back to where it all started; riding at backyard jams and laughing our asses off. And that’s exactly what we did. From Joel Brown going ape and Tom Rob turning the joint inside out, too, WA’s Daniel Ford showed all-class in a cracking display of FMX.

Sounds like an awesome day, man. What inspired the event?

The day was a memorial day for one of Pete’s closest friends, Willsy, who passed away. Willsy loved dirt bikes and with the weather that we were granted and the riding that went down, he definitely was keeping an eye on everyone that day. So we had The Craig Wills Memorial Whip Comp –  $500 for the biggest bondage whip out there; and Dan Ford came out swinging. The riders list was intense, which included Truman Carroll, Joel Brown, Brodie Markham, Jake Smith, Tom Robinson, Ryan Brown, Luke McNeil, plus WA rippers, Jake Holloway, Daniel Ford, and of course, the Fingered crew of Fez, Benda, Chicken Man and Freddy. The local lads did us proud… Go to bed, Homer!

You definitely had some of Australia’s best riders present. Was this a comp or just a demonstration?

It was the perfect set-up; big safe downy, epic location and no wind! The crew just wanted to ride it. It was a jam format; ride when ya want, how ya want. And I tell ya bloody what, the boys didn’t let up or hold back. It’s incredible when you see some of the best FMX that Oz has to offer, and it’s all going down in ya mates’ backyard! I’ve seen some demos in my time but that day/night would be one of the best, showcasing some new and old school styles.

Sounds like the perfect backyard Aussie FMX jam. What were some of the event highlights?

To name a couple, it would be hard. The beer bong was on the limiter all night but as for riding… I was impressed to see the likes of Ryan Brown, Jake Smith, and the two WA rippers of Daniel Ford and Jake Holloway. I have heard of them, but to see them ride, I was very bloody impressed; those boys destroyed it. Joel Brown and Truman Carroll, well when ya have those cats in town ya know ya going too see some serious shit and they dropped jaws all night. Browny was cracking out side-saddle take-offs into big twisted double nac numbers. Tommy Rob was on a borrowed bike but adapted to turn the thing inside out in Best Whip, battling with Luke McNeil and Dan Ford. But it was Ford who cracked it backwards for the crowd and was presented with the peacock of pineapples – $500. But it would have to be the constant trains off the side-by-side ramps with neon valve caps glowing, whips, flips and some crazy tricks!

Intense! Will you be running more events like this?

We have already loaded the Fingered gun, but it’s invite only. And of course, this stuff needs a budget. So we will be looking at small sponsors to come on board just to cover the cost of lights etc. We just want to create a place were we can all get together and have a bloody good old FMX jam.

Good stuff, dude. One more question: what are your views on the current FMX scene in Australia?

It’s been a tough couple of years in FMX, like snowboarders were to skiers – they re-hashed the whole snow scene. Well the FMX scene bought dirt bikes back into the mainstream for the same re-hashing of a sport. It brought a lot of people out to buy themselves a bike or one for their kids that looked up to the likes of Jono Porter or Robbie Maddison. It was great for the sport, but now we are at a stand-still. It’s like all the companies have come in, made their money and are gone; leaving the riders on very tight budgets. Magazines have folded and that was really the heart beat that kept it alive. But in a good way, I see it as the sport has been handed back to the riders; kinda gone back to its roots. It’s the shizzle to have backyard jams with some of the best riders in the world. We’re not making money but by the looks on all the riders’ faces over the weekend, no one gave a shit. We’re just riders riding for the love of it again…