Brian Deegan

You hear the unmistakable crack of a dirt bike firing-up off in the distance, followed by a really loud, whining rumble that hurls an intimidating looking figure outfitted in spikes and black clothes rapidly toward you. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Here he comes, there's no stopping him now--one of the burliest freestyle moto-x riders and rowdiest troublemakers on the face of the Earth: Brian Deegan. Brian is infamous in the world of "extreme" sports on many fronts: as one of the original freestyle moto-x pioneers, a snatcher of seven X Games medals, a leader of the Metal Mulisha gang of misfits and as an all-around stirrer of quite a raging pot.

Born May 9, 1975 in Omaha, Nebraska, this good ol' boy now calls Temecula, California home. Originally starting out as a racer in 1986, Brian switched to freestyle during its infancy several years ago to avoid all of factory racing's rules, politics and glamour. For example, there was the time he won the 1997 LA Coliseum 125 Supercross with a ghost ride across the finish line, of course, pissing off all of the officials in the process. Atop his Honda 250, Brian is a gifted rider who is just as adept on natural terrain as he is on any artificial contest / demo set-up. He is well-known for inventing many of his own tricks, like the Mandatory Suicide (a super can to sidesaddle lander) and the world famous Mulisha Twist (off-axis backflip), as well as altering many existing tricks with typical Deegan flair.

One of Brian's favorite aspects of moto-x is old school dirt jumping, like before it turned into acrobatic bullshit. We're talking 200-foot jumps here, folks. These days, you can usually find Brian cutting up the air above the secret Metal Mulisha compounds and jump parks scattered around Southern California, where bare knuckle fights, guns, chicks and wild parties pumped-up by death metal bands like Slayer and Deicide are all just part of the equation.

How ironic that, despite all of the edgy behavior, Brian openly welcomes the largest corporate sponsorships he can get, just to avoid working a day job for some lame boss and continue riding and living the way he wants: raging as hard as possible, messing stuff up and pissing people off. (He claims it's a sell-out only if you let your sponsor tell you what to do). Despite the heavy price tag of his lifestyle--a body full of rods and pins, concussions, broken arms and backs--not to mention a lot of memory loss--make no mistake about it: you're sure to see Brian Deegan raging (on bike and off) well into the future.