Clint Ewing is a Santa Barbara native who is now a professional motorcycle stunt rider. He holds the world record for riding his motorcycle through a 170-foot tunnel of fire, which he did on national TV in January of 2008.
With over 80 motorcycle stunt-riding events under my belt, one would think I have seen it all.
Not until last week.
I was invited to perform for troops who recently came home from Iraq at Camp Pendleton on September 26th. I was there performing with Jared Smith and my sponsor, Speed & Strength, set up a large 12×20 booth with free posters, stickers, and autographs for the troops. It didn’t hurt that we also had three lovely ladies representing as well.
Jared and I started our first of three performances and what a start we had — the troops were yelling in excitement and the Tease Um bikini team was cheering us on. We had a 50×150 performance area and we used every bit of it with burn-outs, wheelies and stoppies. The spectators were eating it up while Jared and I rode for just over 20 minutes.
After the end of our first performance, troops were given free haircuts, pictures with the Speed & Strength girls as well as a free BBQ. (insert picture)
For the second performance I was trying to figure out how to step up the excitement so I asked for the S&S girls to join us in the performance area for a burnout session. (insert picture)
Jared also stepped up his intensity with drifting and acrobatics. With hundreds of troops having fun, it really made us want to perform to the best of our ability for them. After all, these were the same troops who were fighting for out country in Iraq just a few ays before.
During the last break of the day you could see the excitement in everyone. With so much going on at once, who wouldn’t be hopping in the mix of everything? Free food, good music and several types of entertainment — tt was another beautiful day in San Diego, and this was one day not soon to forget.
For our third performance it really had to be special. Not only were we tired but the sun was beating on us pretty good. I combined some of my best tricks with Jared and we really put on a great performance. Jared and I did burnouts until our tires were raw and the rubber lay pasted everywhere. You could see the smoke and you could feel the excitement.
For the last few minutes I was knocking over K-rails, losing my shoe, and scaring the spectators from riding wheelies a foot away from them. I ended my performance with burnouts and the bike blowing coolant all over the ground from the temperature of the bike being well over 230F.
The louder the crowd got the more excited I was to ride and ride as hard as I could. I can’t wait until next year!
