• Navas Petit

    My love of dirt bikes came from my dad. He was a petrol head. Ever since he was a kid, he loved bikes, but he couldn’t afford to race until he was an adult. He raced for a couple of years before deciding to stop. He waited until my brother was a bit older, then they started to race motocross together.

    Four years later, when my brother was 14, I was born. From that day onwards, my childhood was surrounded by motorcycles. I basically grew up at the local motocross tracks! Then my brother started to get interested in freestyle motocross and a couple of years later he became a professional.

    Together we watched all of the X Games competitions on television, we had all the Crusty Demons Of Dirt movies, which we’d watch on repeat! When all the kids in my class were dreaming of becoming a superhero, policeman or a football player, I was dreaming about dirt bikes. I did that all day every day! Dreaming of jumping in the desert, doing tricks and earning gold medals. I don’t think that’s common for a four-year-old!

    "My childhood was surrounded by motorcycles. I basically grew up at the local motocross tracks!"

    Fun, fun, fun!

    When I was younger motocross was all about just having fun, like it should be, and only competing if the races that were close to my home. I was never really fast as a kid. But I was always thinking about becoming an FMX rider!

    When I was racing from 50cc up to 125cc, I was always looking up to my brother. He was a pro, yet I couldn’t even win an amateur race. During my last year on the 125 I decided to quit racing. I stopped riding bikes for almost a year.

    Then in 2014 a close friend, Alfredo Camps, built a motocross track in my village and put in a nice supercross track as well. It was actually really safe and fun, and it was just two minutes from my house.

    We then bought an old 250f with 1,000 hours on it and I started riding again. I was just playing around, trying to do whips and other cool stuff. I practiced and practiced and learned some new skills, like how to whip a bike and how to be faster around the supercross track. My dad came out and saw me riding and he must have liked what he saw. He soon bought me a brand-new 250f. Not long after I finished fourth overall in the Spanish Amateur Championship. 

    "When all the kids in my class were dreaming of becoming a superhero, policeman or a football player, I was dreaming about dirt bikes. I did that all day every day! Dreaming of jumping in the desert, doing tricks and earning gold medals. I don’t think that’s common for a four-year-old!"

    Headin’ to China

    In 2016 I started racing in the Spanish supercross and motocross championships. My best result was a seventh in the Spanish under 18 motocross class with some top five results in the SX2 class.

    2017 was a good year. My best finish was seventh, but this time in the adult MX2 class. I had a really good season in Supercross and finished sixth or seventh overall. I then went and spent two months of the summer racing in China! While I was there, I started hitting ramps and doing whips again.

    At the first race of the MX2 championship in 2018, I was racing behind Josep Garcia in sixth and I had a really big crash on the last lap, tearing my ACL. I didn’t want to get surgery because I was in really good shape. I kept riding and training and I tried the small quarter pipe for the first time. I fell in love with it!

    However, at that time the set up was impossible to build at home, to ride more frequently. My knee became a problem for motocross, so I started riding more on the ramps. Of course, my knee didn’t magically improve so I flew to China, raced for one month to make some money, then came home and got the surgery to fix my ACL.

    Back in the game

    Six months after my surgery I started riding again. On my first ride back, something changed. It was 2016 and I was now a full freestyle motocross rider. My main focus was learning tricks and competing in events. Spanish legend Edgar Torronteras called me for a show. I was doing big whips and he had a Best Whip comp with prize money. He said that if I could learn five tricks then I would earn a spot at the show. I had very little money after all of the months without working due the surgery so I decided that it would be a good idea.

    I learned the tricks and finished second in the Best Whip competition and beat a lot of guys that I admired, including my brother. I’d finally achieved my childhood dream of becoming a FMX rider! The rest of the year was great with many FMX shows, many good times, learning more tricks and really enjoying the whole freestyle scene.

    Road trippin’

    I believe that you can’t plan too far ahead in life, but you have to keep having fun! And to complete all the projects and things you want to achieve. I would like to earn an X Games medal. After that, staying healthy, happy and keep on loving dirt bikes is super important to me.

    In January of 2020, I planned a trip to the USA, together with my dad and my brother. I wanted to test a full-size quarter pipe, but things didn’t exactly go as planned. It’s a long story but I got to go freeriding and I fell in love that day. It was exactly like what I saw in the Crusty Demons movies, and I saw that I could ride pretty well. I knew right there and then that I wanted to do more when I was back home in Spain.

    The rest of 2020 was tough. I had many FMX shows and Best Whip competitions around the globe scheduled – a full year of events cancelled. Everything was about to start so I left my van in Switzerland because I had many shows to do there. I then flew back home to Spain for a couple of days before heading out to South Africa for a Best Whip competition. That’s when coronavirus came and I found myself at home, but with my van in Switzerland with my FMX bike!

    In the downtime I began building jumps at home. I bought another bike and built a ramp so that I could jump over a canal. That jump went viral on the internet, so I decided I wanted to do more. A couple of months later I got my van and bike back, then spent more time building more jumps.

    Finally, my brother and I built our own quarter pipe after two years of research.

    "I bought another bike and built a ramp so that I could jump over a canal. That jump went viral on the internet, so I decided I wanted to do more. A couple of months later I got my van and bike back, then spent more time building more jumps."

    It’s a freestyle thing

    Almost no one understands my riding philosophy initially, but when they get to know me, I share my ideas and we go riding together, then they fully understand me. Basically, I’m open to anything on a dirt bike. I don’t have any set direction or focus, but I have a really deep love for supercross, motocross, and freestyle.

    I love learning new FMX tricks, I love going to the motocross track and riding fast, and I love dreaming about winning an X Games Quarter Pipe Gold Medal. I love digging jumps in the hills and I love doing big whips and turndowns. I just love riding dirt bikes. I love everything you can do with them, and that’s one of the reasons I ride a GASGAS. My riding philosophy just fits with what GASGAS is all about.

    My tool for having fun is the MC 450F. I love riding that bike, it feels fast on the track, light on the whips and looks cool in the pits. I have no doubt that I’m now riding the best bike of my career and I feel really comfortable on it. Check it out for yourself by taking a look at my Instagram page - @navaspetit823.

    Next stop, X Games?

    Now, after two years of hard work with my brother I finally got to jump and test the real quarter pipe set up we have here, and I’m feeling ready to go to the X Games. I want a gold medal and if I have the chance to be there, I will fight for it because It’s been my dream since I was a little kid.