INTERVIEW: Blake "Bilko" Williams

Blake "Bilko" Williams has had a hell of a year, picking up a gold medal at X Games 15, nabbing the cover of the 10th Anniversary issue of Freerider MX, and winning FMX Rider of the Year at the TransWorld Motocross TWMX Awards last month. He's also been through hell, with a lifetime's worth of work at the orthopedic surgeon packed into the last few weeks (sing along, everybody: "head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes...").

This weekend he's focused on the future: As one of the founding members of the new American Freestyle Motocross Association, Bilko's helping to oversee the first AFMXA amateur contest and 1st Annual AFMXA Awards on Saturday 11/4. He's also a nominee, along with Jeremy Stenberg and Nate Adams, for the new Lusk Legacy Rider of the Year Award. We caught up with him this week on his way out to survey the scene at Pala Raceway.

[UPDATE 11/7/2009: Bilko wins Lusk Legacy Rider of the Year Award (click through for full list of AFMXA Awards winners]

How's everything shaping up for the AFMXA events this weekend?

It's looking really good. We've got a lot of good entries for the amateurs, so we're going to split them into two groups – Pro-Am and Am – because we had a ton of talent show up. The awards night is shaping up to to be really good, too: There's been a lot of positive feedback from the industry and I think everyone's really looking forward to having a freestyle-specific awards night. It was the only action sport left that didn't have one.

Why was it important for you to sign on with the AFMXA from the start?

I really support the cause, and this is my life, you know? Like Ronnie said, It's all kind of motivated from what happened to Jeremy Lusk, trying to make an awareness of rider safety and make safer conditions for all of us. Now we've got a 24-hour hotline so if we're overseas doing demos and do get into a medical situation in in a foreign country, we've got translators and doctors on standby, we've got Medivac flights to get you out of there if it comes to that. We've also been doing a lot of First Aid and CPR training with the riders so if you're out riding with your biddies in the hills and one of our friends crashes, you'll know how to stabilize him and stuff until help gets there. An ambulance or a helicopter could be an hour away, and just being able to take responsibility for each other is going to make it a whole lot safer.

Tell me about the amateur contest itself. Why was it important to you to start things off with this event?

Bringing up the amateur talent is going to be really good for FMX. It's always been hard to break into the freestyle scene and as an amateur you don't really have much of an opening. I know that firsthand, as someone who came over from Australia and really had to fight my way in. It's hard for people haven't made a name for themselves yet to get to those bigger contests, so this will be chance for some new riders to get in the spotlight, show their talent, potentially pick up some sponsors, and just help grow the sport. It's shaping up this weekend to be a pretty good contest: We've got a nice, simple course design and just a ton of great riders. We've got more talent this weekend than I think a lot of people even realized was out there, so it should be good.

For the AFMXA Awards show part of the night, you're nominated for the big one, the new Lusk Legacy Rider of the Year. Having just won the TWMX FMX Rider of the Year, what do those kinds of honors mean to you personally?

It's a good chance to party and it's nice to get a pat on the back from your fellow riders to show respect for what you've done for the sport. It shows they know you're pushing it and throwing it all on the line and it just feels really good to know that your peers are really in support of what you've done and they respect you for your riding. The Lusk Legacy Award is something that I'd really like to win, but I'm up against Twitch and Nate Adams and they're both great competitors, great riders, and really dedicated to what they do as well, so it could go any way. It's great just to be up for the nomination regardless.

Speaking of throwing it all on the line... You've had some injuries of your own this year.

I've had a couple of injuries, but, since we're talking about the AFMXA stuff, I should say that mine have been at major events like Dew Tour and X Games where there's a fully qualified medical staff and everything like that, and I got the best care I could have gotten. I think the main goal is to make things safer at these other events we do. Jeremy Lusk crashed in Costa Rica and didn't get the best medical attention from the very get go, from when he hit the ground. You know, you never know if it's going to make the difference or not, but you want to be in the best possible hands. Also Cam Sinclair, best friend, he crashed at Madrid X-Fighters and we had to find translators on the phone so the doctors could speak Spanish to English to his fiancee, trying to find a surgeon to perform life threatening surgery when there's internal bleeding and stuff like that. You want to know that they're in good hands or be able to get get them transported out of there to a better country. Until the last couple years when we've now had some serious injuries overseas I think people weren't really thinking of how huge it is, how far from home we really are a lot of the time, but when one of your friends falls off, it's time to take it really seriously.

How's your own recovery process going? I know you've been spending some quality time with the surgeon lately. 

The recovery process is going awesome, actually. I had my ACL fixed in my right knee, and I also had a shoulder that had been bugging me for a few years, so I figured if I was going to be out for 5 months for the knee, I'd go ahead and get that fixed, too. I had a couple of tears repaired in my shoulder and they found out my bicep was halfway falling off my shoulder so they reattached that too, about three weeks ago. I had a plate and four screws taken out of my foot from an injury in Mexico last year, and next week I go in to get some tendons in my toes in my left foot worked on. I'm getting everything I can fixed while I'm out so I can try and come back stronger next year. It really sucks with the time off:  You fall behind, you lose your confidence, you lose some of your tricks, and meanwhile everyone else is progressing right along, so I'll have to play catch up. It's really frustrating but I'm trying to make the best of it.

You've got a reputation as an all-or-nothing kind of guy. What motivates you to keep at it, knowing the level of risk and after having some of those kinds of injuries?

I think I had a mentality like, "I've got to prove myself." Well, now I've proven myself and I can back it off a little bit. The last three years I've other gotten first or crashed out at every event, pretty much. It's kind of like I've got to calm myself down a bit and take that step back to say "If I do this run I can probably podium and then I'll be at the next event" rather than trying to throw everything I can into it and then either win or get carted off. My goal is to finish a season off for once!

What do you think it will take?

I know it's getting dangerous, but there's a fine line between trying something that you think you can do and trying something absolutely stupid. I think losing Lusk brought that home for a lot of us, to be able to say: "I don't want to flop down any time soon. I've got too much I want to do." I know I've got to get more consistent now that I don't have as much to prove. I really had a feeling, coming from Australia, like, "I'm only here for a few months and if I do bad in this contest I'm going to go home and everyone's going to forget about me." That mentality kind of bit me in the ass and I ended up going home in an ambulance and flying back to Australia all busted up. Luckily my sponsors had faith in me and I was able to come back and prove myself. Now I think I'm at a level where I don't have to put as much on the table all year long. You know, X Games for sure I'm going to go for it, anything where it really matters, but I'm also going to work to make sure I'm at every contest all year long, keep pushing the tricks, and stay around a bit longer.