Cam Zink: No, I don’t think it’ll slow me down at all. If anything, it motivates me more. Work smarter not harder I guess. To me it’s always been my passion and a hobby, but it’s also my job, so in that regard, I’m more driven knowing the need to feed my family will increase as it grows.

Cam Zink: No, it really doesn’t. Unfortunately it will chew you up and spit you out. Period. You can’t do this for any other reason than what made you start in the first place, and that comes from within. When you’re on top, you better be smart with your money. It could end tomorrow. Even when I was a bachelor and could’ve raged and gone crazy, I didn’t. I was smart with the money I had coming in.

Cam Zink: Yeah, I’m lucky enough to have learned form other people’s mistakes. Like you mentioned, Palmer and I are good buddies, and I love the lifestyle he lived. I wish I made more money so I could blow more cash and save more. Money is made to be spent, but you also have to plan for tomorrow. On the flip side it’s important to learn from other people’s awesomeness though. That guy has the sickest stories ever. I listen to them and just think, ‘Damn, I want to do that’. Also, thankfully for me I’m pumped on multiple aspects of mountain biking. Slopestyle is on the up and up. However, the NORBA’s (old US national DH series) rode a high, but came and went, so slopestyle could do the same thing. Fortunately for me I am pumped on it all. I love downhill racing, slopestyle stuff, speed and style, big mountain/Rampage stuff, and even shredding hardtails. I wouldn’t do anything I’m not passionate about, so I’m glad I love all types of riding because that diversifies things for me.

Cam Zink: Bender’s a wild son of a bitch man. With all due respect to him, he’s the far side of the spectrum where there wasn’t a ton of skill, but he was crazy and showed what’s doable. You have Bender on one side, and Kyle Strait on the other. I’d like to think I lie somewhere in the middle.

Cam Zink: Absolutely. I really do. No one is quite as naturally gifted on a bike as he is. Period. He doesn’t even try. He won Rampage, got third in Junior Worlds for downhill (12^th in elite), and got third at Crankworx all in one year without putting an ounce of effort in. That was at age 17 when he was just drinking with all of us. I’d like to lean somewhere more on the Strait side of things than Bender. I have done things that I didn’t think were possible, but I had a good feeling about them and thought I should just go for it.

Cam Zink: For me it’s really hard for me to walk away and that rarely happens, but I wouldn’t even consider riding something unless I saw potential in it in the first place. There has to be a part that ignites and brings the whole thought process and possibility to light. Anything that puts your body in harms way or your life at risk will make your mind tell you ‘no, no, no’. As soon as you accept the possibility that you could crash you’re better off. It’s a fine line between realising, ‘am I stupid, or is this something that’s really possible?’ You can’t dwell on it though. You have to discern between your body telling you to keep yourself out of danger because you could die doing something, or is it just that natural instinct that it isn’t safe but it is doable. For instance no one thought that 360 at Rampage was possible and at some point neither did I. On the first attempt I crashed and thought, ‘that was absolutely perfect’… it’s just not realistic I guess. Then I thought, ‘let’s slow down the rebound on my shock and see if that helps’, and did it again. I rode it worse that time, but I still stomped it. The bottom line is that there are so many crucial variables: mental, physical and also within bike set–up as well.

Cam Zink: Definitely Rampage 2010. On that day had I not landed the second 360, I wouldn’t have been World Champion, Rampage Champion or have landed the biggest 3 drop ever. There have been so many what ifs and almosts in my life that they all built up to that one to pay off. I was like the ‘almost kid’ for so long. People would have still given me credit for trying and whatnot, but landing that trick and more importantly the whole run, made life that much sweeter.

Cam Zink: Oh, I’ll go nuts. I know it. Having a daughter and probably more kids by then will definitely keep me occupied and fill the void, but I’m sure that I’ll still be riding bikes, moto, snowboarding, surfing and doing everything I can for as long as my body let’s me.

Cam Zink: I just plan to have fun, ride a sweet, flowy line that will put a smile on my face, but the big momma in my run will definitely be the Oakley Drop again. It’s bigger, better and I’m gonna put a lip on it and take the cake for the biggest step–down flip of all time. It is gonna be sweet…

After blasting home from Reno, a couple of weeks passed by and before I knew it I’m fumbling around at Red Bull Rampage 2013 trying not to get hurt just walking around with a camera. I shoot Cam a text to catch up and see how things are looking. In his typical nonchalant style, he responds, ‘headed to the hospital to get my groin drained’. After an ugly wreck just cruising some DH runs just before the event he hit a tree and got a massive hematoma that caused freakish amounts of swelling. It was so bad that he didn’t really even ride until the day of finals. Unsure if he was even going to ride, he spent the first couple of days laying on bags of ice and having blood and fluid drained from his body for eight hours a day. Then the doctor said they needed to perform surgery and told him he couldn’t ride. He ignored them, came to the site on qualifying day, limped around and dug out his line. Pure grit. Right as the sun made its descent past the horizon he crept down his upper line. Shortly after that, Kyle Strait aired the sender and although he cased, bounced and didn’t land for another 30 feet down the landing, he rode it out. Then, right when it was nearly dark out, fresh out of the hospital Zink followed suit and sent the 60 foot monster and stomped it with total conviction.

On the windblown morning that finals rolled around I found myself perched on the edge of a cliff, wheezing from a long sprint down from the ‘heart’ of the Rampage site to get to the Icon sender. I was already a ball of nerves after watching Kyle’s no–hander off the same jump. Wind hold… Cam drops in, everyone was silent, on pins and needles. Right before he rolled up to the lip I felt a huge gust of wind blow through the canyon. It dropped off literally a second or two before he rolled onto the planks. In true Evel Knievel style, he called out and followed through with the single biggest move ever done on a mountain bike. He absolutely stomped his flip.

So what happened? At this point we only know bits and pieces. In typical Rampage fashion the judging was shrouded in criticism. Say what you will, but I don’t particularly envy any of the judges. The bottom line is that Zink just rolled through the bottom bit of his run so he was scored a bit lower. I’d imagine it was due to being in a state of shock after landing the largest backflip in mountain biking. Can you blame him? I couldn’t comprehend how anyone could re–compose and throw down more to follow up the single most massive move ever pulled on a mountain bike. I would imagine the adrenaline alone would give most mortals a heart attack. Anyhow, after the first round the wind picked up and at the beginning of the second round it started blowing hard enough that the event was called off and judged based off of each rider’s first run.

Would Cam have stomped the flip again, tricked a couple of other features and taken the cake? Most likely, but there’s no point in hashing out what could’ve been. Although he wears his heart on his sleeve and was clearly a bit disappointed, Zink was a consummate professional, complimentary of Strait (the eventual winner) and everyone else who threw down. He was upbeat and stoked that he got to send it and walk away with best trick. Above all, he made it down safely and was met at the bottom by his very much relieved, pregnant and glowing wife with much bigger things on the horizon. As we look towards Cam’s future none of us can really fathom just what will come next, but one thing is for certain: he will have us biting our nails and feeling small all the while doing so in a cool calm and collected manner. Cam Zink is the epitome of the people’s champ.