Taka Higashino, a 33-year-old Japanese freestyle motocross and stunt rider, performed his latest stunt at a height of 192 metres. This act was performed at the top of Auckland, New Zealand’s Sky Tower, which is a major landmark of the city.
Sky Tower’s SkyWalk is an approx a metre wide open platform encircling the tower. Taka Higashino did four laps around the tower on this platform on his Yamaha race bike. For safety purposes, he and his bike were strapped to safety ropes. It might not look that dangerous in the video, but actually performing the stunt must have been a nightmare and a thrilling experience.
Speaking about his latest act, Taka Higashino says, “The first time around, halfway I wanted to cry, stop and jump off. The view was trippy, I was going, ‘Oh my god, I can’t watch’. Sometimes, watching the floor felt like a dream, not real. This was different. More scary than anything else for sure. More mental. Doing tricks is dangerous but I know how to do it, from everyday practising, this is totally different.”
He further added, “As soon as I got speed the rope got tension. I had to go really slow. The second time this crazy wind came up, the bike was losing balance, the rope had tension too. It looks easy out there but it’s actually pretty hard. It was pretty scary.”
Taka Higashino has been riding motorcycles since he was 7. He entered professional freestyle racing when he turned 18. He is the first Japanese Moto-X rider to medal at the X Games.
As per the reports, Taka’s original plan was to complete the stunt by performing a wheelie, however, strong winds made it extremely difficult and dangerous. He then settled for keeping both the wheels in contact with the platform. This stunt was accomplished just before the upcoming Monster Energy SX-Open which is scheduled for this weekend.
