Australian motocross legend Robbie Maddison is back to his biking-on-water ways in 2023. It’s not the Strait of Istanbul this time, though, and he’s not out to set a new world record by riding across the water from Europe to Asia and back again. (Been there, done that back in 2021, right?)
No, this time, Maddison and his whole family are testing the water bike’s capabilities in sunny San Diego, California. Action camera specialist Insta360 wanted to make a video showcasing the stunt legend’s story and abilities, so Maddison, his family, and his crew all packed up the water bike and headed to the beach to capture some footage.
This behind-the-scenes video gives a little bit of insight into the process. While Maddison says that he didn’t think that he’d be riding this bike on water again after the Europe/Asia trip, the perfect opportunity presented itself, so how could he say no? For safety, he had an airbag mounted on the tank, that he could deploy simply by pulling a string if he needed it. In the event that the bike started to sink in the water, the airbag should be able to keep it from submerging so he could get to safety (and hopefully retrieve the bike).
The waters were beautiful, and the bike was behaving extremely well. So well, in fact, that during the practice run, Maddison observed that the bike felt the best it ever had out on water. Subsequent runs to actually capture video footage worked well, although seemingly didn’t feel quite as good as that first run. Still, at no point did he end up needing to deploy the emergency bike floatation device, so it’s probably safe to call that a win overall.
Later in the video, the whole crew relocated to a nearby awesome hill for a little stealthy bit of shooting on a fully registered, street-legal dirtbike. Most of the neighbors were cool about having this absolute legend and his film crew shoot the stunt, but of course there was one Karen who had zero chill about the whole thing, and reportedly refused to be satisfied even when they told her they were leaving. The group got what they needed and got out of there, which is all documented in the BTS video.
In any case, you can also check out the finished Insta360 video, in which Maddison talks a bit about how Evel and Robbie Knievel inspired him to do what he does, and to make the bold decisions that he’s made with his life. Seeing the pair of videos together is pretty interesting, and the BTS video in particular is cool because you get to see both Maddison and his kids ride. What an awesome family activity.
