Travis during the early years of his racing career

Travis had a no doubt special and unique upbringing. Born to parents Robert and Debbie Pastrana on the 8th of October 1983, he was an only child. Robert, his father, was originally opposed to having children but that thought is long gone. At age 4 he received his first motorcycle – a Honda Z-50. Before that Travis was still into riding BMX bikes where he often jumped sets of stairs for prizes. It was not long after Christmas that year Travis entered his first race. His father says Travis had a terrible race however weeks later Travis returned and won. With multiple amateur championships under his belt at a young age many could see the huge potential Travis has shown from an early age and much was expected from him. Everything was sacrificed for racing each week, the boat trips were scrapped and the Pastrana family invested in a motor-home to make the long trips to the tracks less stressful and more comfortable.

Contrary to many of today’s young racers, Travis’ parents never forced him into anything and after every crash or mishap they asked him he still wanted to ride and he sure did. During his off time from training and racing he would practice the early FMX tricks which would now be regarded as easy but back then Travis was amazing people at tracks pulling No Footers, HeelClickers and NacNacs to name a few. This evolved into a Freestyle career where unknown to Travis, he would dominate for almost 10 years. Travis had consistent high grades at school which would eventually lead to him being accepted into the University of Maryland. His GPA of 3.9 in High School and 4.0 in College, countless awards, trophies and medals was proof of Travis’ determination off and on the bike.

According to childhood mate and best friend, Jim Dechamp who has known Travis since they were around 10 years old, he and Travis pushed each other each day according to the transcript of Jim when interviewed by Nitro Circus/Jackass producer, Jeff Tremaine:

“He’s right around the corner from me and I was a little kid, had a bicycle riding down the street, he had some little dirt jumps in his backyard for his little motorcycle and started riding them he came out and we started riding bikes together and that’s how it all started” – Jim DeChamp

“We were always pushing each other, he was home schooled and his dad owned a construction company so he had a bobcat all the time so I would go to school, actually I would go ride before school, I’d get back after school, he would have new jumps built he would have them bigger – ‘ok, let’s do this one (Travis)’, ‘alright cool (Jim)’ we’d start getting that one by night time then the next morning we would jump it a couple more times and by the time I got off school the next day it would be 3 feet longer.”- Jim DeChamp