It seems almost impossible that a Freestyle Motocross rider has enough patience and also ability to put a sentence together before you even think about a rider even writing a full on book as a guide to get into the sport.  Well, someone had to do it, right?

When I put the idea forward to FreeriderMX to have an entire book on trick guides and also the basics on getting into the sport I was knocked back a few times until current editor, Simon Makker actually thought about it for more than 2 seconds and said it was a great idea.

What originally started as something to keep my mind on the ball and not bored out of my brain when I dislocated my shoulder way back in 2004 and had a major reconstruction, I found there were many kids who would always ask how to perform tricks on FmxAustralia.com and that it got me thinking... why aren't there trick guides already up there?

So I went about my way and wrote down exactly how I saw different tricks were performed by how I did it personally and also taking tips from other riders and started from there.  By the time I put the idea to FreeriderMX and Morrison Media I had already had most of the content (not very well formatted) but it was there ready to go.

Makker put the idea to the head bosses of Morrison Media and initially it was to be an A5 sized 30-page booklet to accompany one of the FreeriderMX Magazine issues, but Peter Morrison decided that the idea deserved its own full sized edition instead with 120 pages.

Well, to say I just about fell over is an understatement and especially when Makker said, it's all yours, get to work.  "Holy Crap! I'm going to be an author?" "how the hell am I going to write that much?" "I've never even read a book front to back" are the first few things that went through my mind as I was nervously chewing my nails while listening to the overall content Makker was describing to me.  From memory of the time I actually forgot everything else he said in that conversation and had to get it all in writing just to be sure.

The actual writing of the book was always going to be difficult, and with other commitments for the magazine, writing the monthly AM/FM column and I had a couple of other stories on competitions to write, and not to mention riding my dirt bike, I was finding it hard to get time and motivation to do the Ultimate Guide book.  Until 6 weeks from the deadline Simon rang me and asked "How's the book coming along?"

Well I had roughly 20-30 pages written, but those were the easy pages and I thought I had plenty of time left.  "You have 2 weeks before the deadline, I hope you're almost done" Simon said.  "What!?  Isn't it 6 weeks" I asked.  "Na mate, my deadline as editor is 6 weeks to proof read what you've written, your deadline is 2 weeks so you can send it over to me" Simon added.

Far out, I had 100 pages to write in 2 weeks and it was just as Rachael and I were going on holidays to the Bunya mountains.  I'm so glad Rachael had a laptop because the entire holidays in a little hut on a freezing cold and romantic mountain I was busy typing up the guides for the Ultimate Guide to Freestyle roughly 10 hours of the day while Rach had to go and entertain herself with the wildlife and bushwalks.  Haha, sorry Rach.

By the time we finished our 4 days of holidays I had roughly 50-60 pages finished and I had a couple more days left up my sleeve and nutted out the final parts.  The one thing I didn't plan on was when I had asked pro riders to give me a hand on how to do their tricks such as Nate Adams and Robbie Maddison that they would be really really coming close to the deadline and haven't emailed me back.  Makker always said it was hard with the magazine because riders don't find time to do their columns and now I was in the same position as Makker is each month and found myself getting pretty stressed about it.

But as the professionals as they were they got them in on time just as they said, and Robbie Maddison even surprised me by giving me more information than I even asked for which made his sections that much easier to write and also better for readers to guage what Robbie does.

With the rough drafts finished, I had them sent in to Simon and he got to work editing all of my work which is essentially another magazine issue in between the 2 other issues he was doing at the time.  The cool part was I got to see how the back-end of a magazine operates when I was working with the production team including Dave Montoya from Morrison Media and I actually had some input into how it was designed on paper and it was interesting to see how it was done.  I've definitely got a new found appreciation for what magazine editors have to deal with.

So one year on from the book being released and seeing how successful it has been it's been a mind-blow.  I have many riders, fans, mums and dad's asking how to get the book, how did the book come about and when am I writing the next edition.

Well I'm quite happy to see the success of this book and it continuing to sell with one year left on its lifecycle in bookstores, newsagents and even in Libraries.  I've seen it for sale on many international online book stores and moto stores which blows my mind too.  It just makes me wonder how many are actually floating around out there.

So when am I writing the next volume of the Ultimate Guide to Freestyle?  Well I am starting to get that itch to do it all over again, albeit with more time up my sleeve and not being stressed 2 weeks before the deadline.  We had a great product and a huge following, and I think it needs another year at least, just to see what other new and crazy tricks come out in that time as we're in a bit of a revolution of FMX at the moment as we all wonder 'What is possible' on a dirt bike.  The same question we were asking when Carey Hart landed the Back Flip back in the year 2000.  So short answer, I'm thinking about it and I may even be compiling more information for the next book.  You'll just have to check back in and find out right here on www.stevesommerfeld.com