Burlew and freestyle motocross a natural match
Cliffwood Beach native makes name for himself on IFMA tour
BY GEORGE ALBANO
Staff Writer

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FMX.CC.COM Derek Burlew is one of the rising stars on the freestyle motocross circuit because of tricks like the "whip" he is shown performing below.

Derek Burlew can still remember the first time he rode a dirt bike. Just barely, however. Most people don't tend to remember all that much when they're only 4 years-old, an age most little boys are more apt to play with toy trucks or action figures, maybe even a ball and glove.

But not Derek Burlew. No, he was attracted to dirt bikes.

"I rode a bicycle first, of course," he was saying the other day. "But then I wanted to ride a dirt bike. My dad used to race and he exposed me to it and got me started when I was young.

"He bought me a little 50 (cc), a real small one, like a kid's bike, and I just loved it. I rode it all the time."

He still hasn't stopped. Burlew eventually moved up to bigger bikes, but he's still riding all the time.

Now 22, the Old Bridge native is an accomplished motocross racer, known throughout the country and even around the world. Burlew will be a little closer to home this weekend when he appears on the beach at Atlantic City doing freestyle demos at the Trump Plaza on Saturday and Sunday.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Burlew, a 2001 graduate of Old Bridge High School who grew up in Cliffwood Beach, approximately 200 miles from Atlantic City. But he's taken a much longer route to get there this time.

That long road began in his early youth, right around the same time his father bought him that first dirt bike. Young Derek knew even back then that this was what he wanted to do.

Not that he wasn't exposed to other sports as well.

"I played a lot football and baseball with my friends - nothing organized," he said. "I played one year of organized baseball when I was young, I'd say when I was around 6, maybe 7. But that was it. I went right back to riding bikes."

It turned out to be a pretty good career choice. He began racing competitively when he was only 5, and it wasn't long after that he began collecting titles, including the Pennsylvania and New York state championships.

"In Pennsylvania and New York, you only have to be 4 years old to race," he pointed out. "At the time you had to be 10 to race in New Jersey, so I went to other states. It was only two hours away."

As soon as he got old enough, Burlew added the New Jersey state championship to his increasing list of laurels, and by the time he was 12, he had finished sixth at the 1995 Amateur Nationals in Tennessee.

Invented in 1924, "motocross" is derived from the words motorcycle and cross country. In short, it's a form of motorcycle racing or all-terrain vehicle racing held on an enclosed one-to-two mile off-road track with hills and turns and varying amounts of man-made jumps. It is widely considered the world's most popular form of motorcycle racing and continues to rise in popularity, especially in the United States.

Burlew continued to be successful on the motocross circuit for the next couple of years. But as he turned 15, Burlew was introduced to freestyle motocross, or FMX, a relatively new sport where, instead of racing, the concentration is on performing acrobatic stunts while making jumps on your bike. Judges score on style, level of trick difficulty, and even crowd reaction.

It certainly didn't take Burlew very long to get hooked.

"I heard you got paid a couple of hundred dollars to win," he said, "and that was a lot of money when you're young. So I did it."

But the financial reward wasn't the only thing that attracted Burlew to FMX.

"I just enjoy doing tricks on my bike," he said. "I used to look at videos and bike magazines and the tricks people used to do."

Those recollections were obviously with Burlew when, at the age of 15, he began doing more and more freestyle motocross at Raceway Park in Englishtown.

"I kinda caught on right away and did pretty good," he said. "One of the first tricks I did was what's called a 'heel clicker.' That's when you take your legs and do a horseshoe over the handlebars while you're in the air and click your heels. Another trick I did early was the 'can can, where you take your foot and put it over the seat."

Freestyle motocross has been called the fastest growing action sport of the new millennium. But for all its excitement and thrills, there's also a great deal of risk and danger involved.

"It's real dangerous," Burlew agreed. "There's always a little fear, but you get over it. I've been racing since I was 5 years old."

Indeed, the harder the trick, the more it seemed Burlew enjoyed himself, to the point where he was doing regular motocross less and less.

"By about 2000 or 2001, I had given it up completely," he said. "Eventually I was competing in just freestyle motocross at a bunch of tracks in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. I was only 17 and pretty much the youngest one there. The rest were all in their 20s."

Burlew's first FMX competition was at Raceway Park in Englishtown.

"I think I got seventh or eighth," he recalled. "It was OK. I wasn't disappointed."

It didn't matter, though, because in 2002, something far more significant occurred at Raceway Park that would impact Burlew's career forever.

He was spotted by John Figismondi, a well-known International Freestyle Motocross Association (IFMA) representative, who was impressed by Burlew and invited him to perform exhibitions at some shows his touring group was doing around the country.

"He spotted me at a show and saw me doing a trick on one jump," Burlew said. "It was a show I won, too, so I guess he liked what he saw and took me under his wing. I did some exhibitions for them, the first one at a monster truck show called 'Monster Jam' in Syracuse."

From that impressive debut, Burlew was asked to continue touring with Figismondi's IFMA group all over the country.

"It was cool," Burlew described it. "It was exciting, it was fun, I got to travel around, meet a lot of people, and get paid to do something I loved. So it was not a bad decision."

Not at all. Burlew soon became a regular on the IFMA tours, which included names like Travis Pastrana, Nate Adams, Kenny Bartram and Ailo Gaup, some of the biggest names in FMX.

The only hitch was Burlew, not quite 20 yet, had to relocate from New Jersey to Nevada to be closer to the other FMX performers on the tour.

"It was a little scary and intimidating at first, going to all these big airports by myself," he said. "But after a couple of trips I got the hang of it. I guess I matured quickly.

"Living 3,000 miles away from my parents, I had to learn to cook for myself, too. But I got two roommates, a couple of buddies on tour I became good friends with, who taught me."

Burlew now makes his home in Dayton, Nev., about 30 minutes from Reno.

"Four or five people on tour live in Reno," Burlew noted. "Out here I have places to ride and people to ride with. There was not much in New Jersey."

It wasn't long, either, before Burlew advanced to more difficult tricks on his bike, like a backflip, the mother of all FMX tricks.

"That's definitely one of the hardest," Burlew concurred.

Which only made it all the more satisfying when Burlew was able to pull it off for the first time in 2004.

"It was a pretty good adrenaline kick," he said. "It was definitely pretty cool."

Unfortunately, he also found out exactly how hard executing a backflip can be in 2005 when he suffered a compound fracture attempting to do one, shattering his tibia and fibula.

"It was a little bit windy outside that day and it blew me crooked and I landed with one of my legs off the pegs," Burlew explained. "Both of my shin bones popped out."

Burlew is certainly no stranger to injuries. No one in this sport is. In 1999,

Burlew, only 16 then, suffered a broken back, which sidelined him for six months. His medical chart also includes several other broken bones, a number of contusions and no less than seven concussions.

"My first concussion was when I was 9 or 10. I got knocked out," he said. "Seven sounds like a lot, but when they're over many years, they're not as bad."

Bad or not, the thought of walking away from the sport has never become an issue for Burlew.

"No, not really. I grew up riding since I was 4. It's all I know and I love it. It's my passion, it's my sport, it's how I make my living.

"Injuries come with the sport," he added. "Everyone gets them. Everyone knows they're going to get them. You just accept it and keep on truckin'."

Which is exactly what Burlew has been doing lately. Healed and healthy, he came back in 2006 and spent the first four months performing internationally in such countries as Austria, Italy, France, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. At age 22, Burlew has already visited more places around the world than most people do in a lifetime.

"It's awesome," he said. "I go and see different cultures, different countries and cities, different foods, different languages people talk. It's amazing. I only know a couple of words from each country. I can order food off a menu and say hi and bye.

"I loved Rome, seeing the Coliseum and the Vatican and all that. But my favorite country was Austria. I loved it there. It was really peaceful with all the mountains. You could see the Swiss Alps."

Back in the states, Burlew has been busy promoting the Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huck Jam tour he's currently a part of. In January, he was interviewed during halftime of a 76ers' game.

"I was on the Jumbotron trying to promote a show that was coming up in Philadelphia."

Burlew, whose major accomplishments include finishing second in the IFMA points standings and seventh in the Vans Triple Crown of Motocross, has also received his share of air time on television. He's been part of the ongoing Mountain Dew tour, which is being televised by NBC and the USA Network. He's also appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports and FUEL TV for various other events.

He would have loved to be at the X-Games this weekend in Los Angeles, but he was nursing his broken back last year when qualifying was taking place.

"I've been to the Gravity Games a few times, but never the X-Games. That's my goal," Burlew said. "The Winter X-Games are in February and qualifying for that is at the end of August in Las Vegas, so I hope to be there.

"But it's tough to qualify. They hand-pick the people who go to the qualifier and they usually pick the ones who have been around the longest. The older guys draw the crowds. There's just one qualifier, and they take two people, so it's tough."

But if Burlew can't be at the X-Games this weekend, at least he'll be at the next best place: Close to home in Atlantic City.

"That should be real fun, being back on the beach. I can't wait," he said. "I know a lot of family and friends are going so it should be a good time. A.C. is a fun city."

Burlew will also be doing freestyle shows next Thursday and Friday on the beach at Jenkinson's at Point Pleasant. Red Bull will be sponsoring that show as well as the one this weekend in A.C.

Then next Friday night, Burlew will be doing a demo at the BlueClaws game in Lakewood. Quite a busy schedule, but Burlew doesn't seem to mind. In fact, he's looking forward to it being so close to home.

"It's cool," he said. "It's always good to go home and see family and friends and eat mom's dinners."

But even when he's 3,000 miles away in Nevada, or halfway around the world, Derek Burlew is never really that far away from Cliffwood Beach. His mother and father, Derek and Judy Burlew, and his 19-year-old brother John, who also races motocross, are only a phone call away.

"I talk to them every day," he said. "I'm really close to my parents. Both of them have supported me ever since I started."

Ever since his father bought him that first dirt bike when he was 4, and a career was born.