“I’ve never been that scared in my entire life – and I’ve never been that happy in my entire life.” – Heath Frisby on his historic X Games gold medal-winning snowmobile front flip.

By Pat Schutte

CORONA, Calif., (Jan. 29, 2012) – Heath Frisby’s front flip on a snowmobile is gonna be one of those frozen X Games moments in time where you go “Whoa” whenever you see it again.

Frisby’s front flip hype started on Thursday at Winter X when he basically told everyone his head wasn’t into the Snowmobile Freestyle portion of the four-day competition, but rather what he was set to attempt in Sunday’s Best Trick comp.

Here’s what we reported on MonsterEnergy.com on Thursday:

• Frisby was as surprised as anyone to make the Final Four in Snowmobile Freestyle, so much so he admitted to ESPN announcer Jamie Little that his mind’s more on Sunday’s Snowmobile Best Trick event – where his plan is to throw down with the first-ever front flip on a sled!

Friday & Saturday came and went. The anticipation built. Then the sun rose on Sunday – and that’s where we’ll pick it up with Heath …

Monster Energy: Take us back to Sunday … talk about how your day went.

Heath Frisby: You know, I just tried to stay focused – but I was definitely really nervous. Any time you try something like that, going from the foam pit to a real scenario, you never know what’s going to happen. What’s the landing going to be like? You’re spinning really fast and you have no idea how hard the front end’s going to slap down. So I just needed to stay focused and kept telling myself ‘I’m gonna hold on to that son-of-a-gun!’

Monster Energy: You were literally on top of the world Sunday night. Now you’re driving from Colorado to Idaho. Kind of puts things in perspective for life as a freestyle snowmobiler, huh?

Heath Frisby: Yeah, I mean we’re definitely pretty laid back guys. This is what we do. We travel with all our stuff. Not like being able to throw a skateboard or a snowboard on a plane and jet off to wherever. We travel with our sled, a backup sled, all our tools and even our ramps and stuff. So yeah, it’s a bit of a production.

Monster Energy: Back to Sunday night, how did Justin Hoyer’s wreck on the double back play into what you were thinking right before your run?

Heath Frisby: I really just tried to block it out. I was really hoping he was OK, you know? I mean we’re all friends out there and everything. So I just tried to focus. Knew what I had to do was completely different – nothing that applied to him applied to me. Focused on what I trained to do and what I came to do.

Monster Energy: Be honest - was this the first time you landed the front flip outside the foam pit?

Heath Frisby: Yeah, that was the first try. Pretty lucky. Just too dangerous given the time I had to prepare. If I’d have been working on it over the summer, had a resi-landing to work on first I would have definitely already done it. But we had no time. Learned it super late in the year. Note: A resi-landing is a rubber mat over either an air bag or foam block landing that allows you to more or less ride away vs. just dive bombing into a giant box of foam blocks.

Monster Energy: The ESPN announcers didn’t pick up on that rubber kicker pad you had on the top of your ramp. Was that specially-designed to kick your track up when you hit it?

Heath Frisby: Yeah, I kinda had to have a ‘Bump’ – just a pile of tracks screwed into the top of the ramp. Me and (Joe) Parsons came up with the idea when I was learning the front flip in the foam pit. Speeds up your rotation and without it you can’t do it. Had tried to front flip a ton and I was just getting hurt. Had to make some changes to the ramp. Ended up making all the difference in the world. I made it to a wheelie on the first try. Just added a bit more and a bit more, didn’t know how much we needed. But it definitely worked.

Monster Energy: At one point in the jump did you think “I’ve got this!”

Heath Frisby: You can’t see anything when you pull this trick. You’re completely blind because you have your head against the hood of the snowmobile. You see a flash of light right before you land. So I had no idea where I was in my rotation. I knew that I got a descent push off the ramp, but I didn’t know how good it was. Felt I had perfect form and everything, really tried to stay forward. And then right before you land you see a flash of light, then the snow, and I pushed away at that point to get away from the handlebars and gave it gas – somehow rode out of it.

Monster Energy: Did you sting anything on the landing?

Heath Frisby: Ah, I hit my head on the handlebars really hard. Got a slight concussion – broke my helmet.

Monster Energy: What was the first thing that crossed your mind when you were rolling away from the landing, having made history with the first-ever front flip on a snowmobile?

Heath Frisby: Holy shit! (laughter) I couldn’t believe that I landed it, man. I was just so excited – and relieved. It’s over, finally. Even doing that into the foam pit we were extremely nervous every time because the trick’s so dangerous. I’ve never been that scared in my entire life – and I’ve never been that happy in my entire life.

Monster Energy: Dude, talk about Parsons. Did you see him out of the corner of your eye on top of the landing hill when you were coming in for a landing?

Heath Frisby: No, but I could hear him screaming at me.

Monster Energy: What did you think of the video when you saw it afterwards?

Heath Frisby: I was just blown away. The sequence photo as well (the one we’ve got posted here). It’s amazing how the snowmobile immediately dropped after I came over the top. You look at the arc I’m following and it seems like the thing just falls out of the sky. And that shot of Joe claiming it is definitely going on my wall in my house. He helped me with this so much, it’s been a heck of an experience and I couldn’t have done it without him.

Monster Energy: That’s unreal. What do you have going on now?

Heath Frisby: Parsons and I are just going to start filming. Got a ton of ideas we’re gonna try and do, just go riding as much as we can. Film.

Monster Energy: Well again, Heath, a HUGE congrats from everyone at Monster Energy. We’re stoked on your gold, but even more pumped you made ‘er through in one piece.

Heath Frisby: Yeah, no doubt. Thanks to everyone at Monster for believing in me.