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The crowd was vast and from where I was it seemed like thousands and thousands of people had gathered either side of the ramp in anticipation of what was about to happen. I was on my bike approximately a thousand feet away from the jump and preparing myself for my first dummy run. As I accelerated my heart was pounding, the crowd grew closer as I zoomed at about one hundred miles per hour along the side of them. I could see the buses flashing past and suddenly realised the extent of what I was just about to do. The crowd were cheering and I knew they were all cheering for me. A thought flashed through my mind as it often did before I made a jump, were they here to see me succeed or to see me die? As I came to the end of the run I spun my bike around and accelerated hard back down the field, again passing the crowd in all their excitement, it was exhilarating! I noticed all the worlds television cameras were on me and this brought a smile to my face. After two further runs I felt ready for the big one! All kinds of thoughts came to me, would this be the last time that I would see my wife, my son, my mother or father, or could this be the last thing that I would ever do. A voice inside of me said, “You are destined to be World Champion, this is your moment and there may only ever be one chance to show the world that you are at the top of your game, the worlds champion, the worlds record breaker, and the world is there to see you in your moment of glory.”
The time had finally arrived and it was do or die, the moment I have always dreamed of was now about to come to reality. My childhood dreams soon to be realised and with this in mind any fears I had began to dissipate.
I aligned my bike in preparation and I focused all my thoughts and energy on the take off ramp ahead, it seemed so small and insignificant in the distance and I could barely make out the blue guide line that ran up the middle of it, yet this line would be my life line. I would have to hit it dead on with both my wheels if I was going to land safely the other end of the eighteen double decked buses. A few inches out left or right on take off would become several feet out on landing and that could mean the difference between life or death. Revving my throttle I could feel the full power of the engine, the vibration was so intense it felt as though it could shake the foundations of my soul.
I clicked the bike into first gear, slowly letting out the clutch and accelerated hard. My back wheel spun kicking dirt and grass high up into the air as the engine screamed like a buzz saw ……….. and I was away. As I could see the ramp getting closer and closer I could feel the adrenaline kicking in and my mind began to sharpen, my focus became tunnel vision. It felt as if I was floating outside of my body and I was on a natural high. The seconds ticked by with each one feeling like a life time. There was a rumble as the wheels hit the plywood sheets and my life began to flash before me, the noise reminded me of the sound that a train would make at high speed travelling over its tracks. I had now reached the point of no return. The steep twenty five foot rise at the end of the take off ramp shielded the rays of the sun from my eyes and created a silhouette that rose majestically before me. As the bike rose to its final point of take off and a pillow of air became my only road across the busses below, time seemed to stand still and in a millionth of a second my entire life unfolded before me.
I was born Christopher John Bromham, on 20th July nineteen fifty seven in the front room of my parents tiny bungalow in a small village called Skewen. From humble beginnings and a cold heart, this is my story.
Biography co-writer; Julian Reed
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