Austintown’s BMX star headed to Australia

By John Bassetti

Anthony Napolitan will compete on a dirt bike road trip this month.

AUSTINTOWN — In a sense, Anthony Napolitan has the world by the tailwhip.

After competing on the AST Dew Tour in 2008 and taking part in the X-Games, the 22-year-old action sports athlete from Austintown is headed to Australia later this month for a road trip.

Although 2008 wasn’t a repeat of his championship-caliber 2006 season in BMX Dirt, the 2004 Fitch High graduate felt he made strides.

“I wasn’t in a super-competitive mood at all this past season,” Napolitan said of his 10th-place finish in 2008.

“I was kind of cruising by. But there were a few things I wanted to accomplish and did,” he said of novel maneuvers and his inclusion in BMX Park.

“I did some tricks that no one has ever done before and I competed in BMX Park the whole Dew season. That’s an accomplishment in itself, to get by the open qualifiers. So I was pretty excited about that. I made a BMX Park final as well.”

Napolitan explained a bit further.

“I wasn’t particularly working on my good-contest finishes. My main thrust was to do well in Park so I could get on [qualified] for next year. So I was kind of stressed a little bit, just trying to put a solid run together because it takes a little more out of you, physically, and mentally, trying to figure out what you’re going to do on the floor and how much you have to do to take up all 60 seconds.”

He finished 18th in Park for the season.

For Dirt, it was hit and miss.

“Sometimes the course wouldn’t be great and then, in other stops, it would be an amazing course,” Napolitan said.

“In Salt Lake City, I think that’s where I may have had my best finish of the year because the course was awesome. If you’re not into the way the jumps are built, then you’re just not into it.”

The tricks helped define his season, too.

“I kind of added on to a trick I used to do and still do, by pulling a 360 triple tailwhip in Park and then I pulled — not in a contest but at Woodward Camp — a backflip triple tailwhip. I’m the first person to ever do it. Those were some things I was working on.”

Napolitan’s move to Park wasn’t impulsive.

“Although the first thing I ever rode was dirt, I’ve always been a Park rider. I ride it probably 80 percent of the time.”

He said he’s tried to break into Park on the tour for four years before he finally came through.

“I was able to put some decent runs together and place well. It takes a lot out of you because you to have a full-throttle 60-second run.”

Dirt runs aren’t timed, but the customary five jumps may take only 15 seconds maximum.

Napolitan expounded on the backflip triple tailwhip trick done in Park at Woodward, a riding camp near State College, Pa.

“Someone filmed it and threw it on the Internet, so everyone in BMX has seen it and they know that I can do that now.”

He’ll try it in competition this year, but he’ll have to be selective.

“It’s such a high-risk trick that I can’t just go out and do it on any jump. It’s gotta be perfect. If I find a good jump to do it on, then I’ll do it. If not, then it’s going to have to be put on the back burner.”

He might even try the BTT trick on Dirt.

“You never know, I might find a good dirt jump somewhere in a contest that I might like a lot.”

Anthony broke his jaw in Washington state while filming for sponsors following the August Dew Tour stop in Portland, Ore.

He took a week-and-a-half off, then competed with a wired jaw.

The injury is not uncommon among action-sport bike riders.

Although the Dew Tour season is the most time-consuming part of year, Napolitan also participates in the X-Games in August.

“That’s supposedly the biggest action-sport event of the year,” he said. “That’s the one that sponsors get their panties in a wad about.”

At the Games, Napolitan did Big Air, again, but didn’t get a podium spot.

“The whole time there, I was attempting that blackflip triple tailwhip. Since we had only four runs this year,my game plan was to put in a good run, then spend the rest of the time trying the tailwhip trick.”

Another area rider is Craig Mast of Champion, who moved to Greenville, N.C.

“I grew up riding with him. He’s one of my good friends and he’s a regular on the Dew Tour,” said Napolitan.

Mast finished sixth in Park in 2008.

Napolitan is headed to Australia for a Dirt jam benefit for Stephen Murray, a colleague who was paralized from the neck down in 2007 at the first stop in Baltimore. It will take place at the home of rider Cameron White.

He’s also going on a road trip to Sydney, Canberry and Melbourne with an Australian BMX company.

Napolitan said he attended YSU for a semester before getting the opportunity to move out and live at Woodward Camp.

“My intentions were a degree in nursing, but I just didn’t go that far. I could always go back.

His summation of 2008 is mixed.

“I’d say I was satisfied in some categories and maybe unsatisfied in others. Either way, I had fun and that’s all that matters. You know, I got to travel the world and do my thing and not have to sit behind a desk working a 9-to-5 job.”

bassetti@vindy.com