When the lights went out in the Staples Center this summer, Adam Jones walked to his truck without an X Games medal and a pretty sour taste in his mouth. It's hard to accept defeat, but accepting defeat when you weren't necessarily defeated is even harder. No one in Los Angeles has ever disputed that Taka Higashino had everyone beat in Freestyle that night in June, but the rest of the results certainly could be questioned.
Although upset knowing he should have had a better result, Jones did what any professional would do; he put on a smile, did some media, and then signed some autographs. From there Jones went home, relaxed for a while and than got back to work.
Saying Jones had something to prove in San Francisco at this year's Dew Tour Triple Threat event would be inaccurate. Jones did make a statement last month in front of San Francisco's City Hall -- that he has big up-right tricks, big flip tricks, and oh, yeah … he can whip like no one's business. Maybe FMX's best kept secret, until now.
ESPN.com caught up with Jones soon after his fun-filled weekend in the Bay Area to talk about the Dew Tour event and what he has in store for the rest of the year, including his highly anticipated full-length film he is working on with Kyle Cowling.
ESPN.com: Congratulations, man, you had quite the weekend. We are going to get to all the other fun stuff, but first, I have to ask what you thought of the Triple Threat format at the Dew Tour?
Jones: I actually thought it was great, definitely the best possible way to run a "Best Trick" contest. The way the format was gave pretty much everyone a chance to do well. It promoted guys being well-rounded freestyle riders rather than just having one banger trick. It was a fun contest to watch for us riders and I think it was probably pretty fun for the fans to watch as well.
The talk of the night was that you had a whip all this time and no one knew. Where did that whip come from?
[Laughs] I always play around with whips at home during the week, I would just never throw one in a freestyle run so I guess no one would ever see them. My whips are usually not as good as that one was though, I was working on them prior to this event and just a day or two before the event I kind of figured out how to get them a little bigger and better. I was having trouble getting them in practice, though, 'cause the ramp was kicking my front end down a little bit, but luckily within a minute of the end of our last practice session I got one that felt great, so I just left it at that.
Going back to the beginning of summer, you didn't really get the result a lot of people thought you should've had at X Games. Does this make up for that?
Well, I mean, it doesn't make up for it because the way X Games went really sucked for me, and it's definitely always going to be a bummer to look back and remember the time that I really got the short end of the stick … But, it did feel great to take a win. I got some good TV time and rode an event that didn't seem to have any mysterious judging. It was an all FMX rider-judging panel, weird how that works … isn't it?
You didn't really have any time to celebrate because you had to get to Vegas for a few demos at the Monster Energy Cup. I wasn't there, but from what I heard … the day's festivities were quite the party.
The Monster Energy Cup was such a blast! We pretty much rode shows for a bunch of people all day, I got to take a ride with Ken Block, and got to do a live television interview for Speed, which was the most nervous thing I've done in a while! The event was great, though. Our shows were super fun, watching Ken and the other drivers was rad, and of course I loved watching a Supercross live for the first time in years.
Riding with Ken Block had to be crazy, he is a pretty good driver, but do think you could take him out on an RC [radio control] track?
With as much time as I've been putting in at the RC track, I'd better be able to! Plus, I've got some pretty rad cars from Team Associated that are going to be hard to beat.
Besides the rally ride and demos, you had some media responsibilities for the Nuclear Cowboyz. Going into its fourth year, you have to be excited for this year's tour.
Yeah, I'm definitely excited for [next] year's Nuclear Cowboyz tour. It's so awesome to watch how much the tour has grown over the years, and we have such a great group of guys that it is always a super fun time of year for me.
What's the plan from now until rehearsals?
Well, I'll actually be doing the Nitro Circus European Tour in mid-November, I believe it's 12 or 13 stops in the span of two or three weeks. It is going to be super crazy but I'm excited for it! After that, I will probably lay low for the rest of the month at home with the family and celebrate the holidays, then hit the road again!
I had heard whispers that you and Kyle Cowling were working together on another project; can you go into detail about that?
Yeah, we're actually working on a full-length film. We haven't really got started yet, I've really been enjoying having some time at home with the family, just been trying to approach sponsors to get some help with it. All I can say is that when we get done with it, it is going to be awesome. I am 100 percent confident in Kyle's filming and video editing abilities. The idea he has for this film is going to be unlike anything anybody has ever seen in a moto film. We are hoping to actually get started on it in early November, whether we have full funding or not, so we are pretty excited!
Last one, are we going to see you compete in FMX on your four-strokes anytime in the near future?
Yeah, I definitely love my four-strokes and don't know why I haven't made the switch yet, but with it being winter and with the tours I have coming up I don't have the time to switch right now. So I'm thinking probably next year after X Games, I will make the switch.
