Freestyle Motocross athletes go big at the SOEC Saturday night

Kassie Boone says it all began so organically.

"My dad was a dirt bike racer. I had a brother two years older than me, and when my dad got him a bike, I was, 'Dad, what about me?' So he got me my first bike at the age of five. And ever since then my favorite thing to do is jump."

Today, at the age of 28, Boone is a rarity. She's one of few women in the world who participate competitively in the "Big Air" variant of FMX (Freestyle Motocross). And her considerable skills, along with those of seven of her male peers, were on full display last night at Penticton's South Okanagan Events Centre.

And it was...wild. One by one, the riders gunned their engines, sprinted toward a launch ramp, and sailed 75 feet though the air toward a landing ramp. And that's just the horizontal distance. When you consider they also shot to a height of 35 feet - right over top of most houses - the whole thing becomes that much more crazy/impressive.

But that's not all. While they were up there floating around near the SOEC rafters, right about where the scoreboard is before they raised it, they also performed tricks. Serious tricks. Tricks where they got out of their seats and posed for the audience, or left their bikes entirely, holding on by their fingertips. Some of them would even do 360-degree backflips - bike and all.

And those tricks weren't merely window dressing. It's how they were judged. That massive jump, it seems, was just to get them up there high enough to execute their stunts and score their points.

And they do take a beating. "I've had a broken collarbone, broken feet, a lacerated intestine, and a dislocated hip," said Boone. Asked if she's in pain or at least feeling stiff every day, the native of Ontario added, "I usually feel okay as long as I stay active."

But she says it's worth it. "I just got back from performing in South America and I'm going to South Africa in April. So I'm really starting to make my career and explore the world. This is my focus. I love it."

Also competing last night was Okanagan rider Morgan Kaliszuk. Born and raised in Vernon and now living in Revelstoke, Kaliszuk is an FMX star.

Like Boone, he says he was riding from the age of five. Now 31, he's been doing it competitively for 17 years. He was there last night with his Yamaha 2-stroke YZ250, a bike he says is worth $7000 after its many modifications.

But Kaliszuk is an even bigger sensation in the world of backcountry snow biking. Videos of him doing his thing litter the Internet, including one where he rides across a lake that isn't even frozen.

And one of his biggest scores happened In January at the just-wrapped X Games Aspen 2019, were the fully-sponsored rider grabbed a fourth-place finish in "Snow Bike Best Trick." That's fourth best in the world - not too shabby.

About going big on the FMX circuit, Kaliszuk claims it's all a matter of "time and practice. You need to work your way up. Start slowly by hitting small jumps and work your way up."

Ultimately, Saturday night was a competition where the participants were measured against one another. But the cool thing is that you didn't need to keep score to fully appreciate all that you were seeing. And that, in X Games parlance, was, like totally awesome.