I train hard, but I’ve also had the consequences of it too. I’ve broken femurs. I have a paralyzed leg still… I have friends that are dead and I have friends that are paralyzed.”
Justin Homan is a true FMX (freestyle motocross) legend. In an extreme sport where riders launch 200+ pound dirt bikes dozens of feet into the air while pulling off impossible tricks, Homan helped define what is possible. He pioneered moves like the “Holy Man,” where he lets go of the bike mid-air and extend both arms forward, as if ascending. He competed in and won X Games events, became the eighth person in the world to land a backflip, was a key sponsored rider for Metal Mulisha and performed across the globe. But like every legend, Homan had to start somewhere.
You don’t need directions to know you’ve found his house in Redmond. Out front, a massive freestyle motocross playground stretches across the property, packed with dirt hills, tight turns, and homemade ramps that send riders soaring through the air. Inside, his office shows evidence of all his accomplishments. Trophies line the shelves. Magazine covers, posters, and worn photos show his rise through the sport. Hanging from the ceiling are dozens of helmets, each one tied to a different moment of a career defined by passion, pain, and adrenaline.
Growing up as a child in Seattle, Homan’s entire family rode dirt bikes.
“There were seven dirt bikes in the garage. My mom rode, my brother rode, my dad rode, and I hated dirt bikes.” He continues, “They gave me one when I was little and I’d sit on it, but if you started, I’d cry…I wanted nothing to do with it.”
It wasn’t until Homan moved to Nebraska around 11 years old and received a dirt bike for Christmas that he finally gave riding a real shot. Homan had already been riding BMX (Bicycle Motocross) with his friends in the woods.
“My parents bought a house that was next to the woods, and we built a track” Homan says. “I would go to the woods with a shovel and a bucket of water and make BMX jumps. My friends would too, even in college.”
By the time he was 27 years old, Homan was racing professionally in motocross. Tricks on dirt bikes were practically unheard of. Freestyle motocross didn’t really exist yet, at least not the way we know it today. Tricks were mostly confined to BMX, where the bikes were lighter and easier to manipulate in the air. That changed when Jeremy McGrath, who is widely regarded as the King of Supercross, began pulling BMX-inspired moves on his dirt bike.
“Jeremy McGrath, the winningest writer in Supercross, had a BMX background. He started doing knacknacks, and other BMX-type tricks, like a double can, that are common BMX tricks. So that’s where most of us started,” Homan explains.
It was a moment that opened the door to a new kind of riding in the early ’90s… and riders like Justin, who had already been practicing BMX tricks, were ready to embrace this bold new style of motocross.
Freestyle motocross was born. Once riders had mastered the basics, they began pushing the boundaries, experimenting with bolder, more dangerous stunts. Homan’s now infamous, famous trick, the Holy Man, won Best Trick at the Nashville X Games Qualifier in 2002. By that point in his career, he had already begun building his own training grounds in Redmond. After enduring his share of injuries, he eventually added a foam pit, giving him a safer way to practice a new trick that was emerging in the sport: the backflip.
“I had finally built a foam pit, and I learned it in the foam pit. I learned it on a little 50cc bike. I couldn’t learn it on BMX because my leg was paralyzed. I couldn’t feel the peg, I couldn’t feel the pedal. I would rather try it on a BMX bike, but I learned it on a pit bike, then I learned it on my big bike in the foam pit. When I did the first flip in X Games 2003, I was stoked. I was like, I’m quitting. I landed the back flip. I’d been agonizing over it for two years.”
Homan didn’t quit, he remained a respected and steady presence in the freestyle motocross world. While he never made it back to the X Games podium, he continued to compete at a high level, regularly finishing as a finalist in both the X Games and Gravity Games throughout the 2000s and 2010s. His dedication and consistency earned him a strong reputation among fellow riders and fans alike.
In 2010 Homan founded his own freestyle motocross demo company, MX13. During the early stages, the company focused on organizing and performing in freestyle demos at fairs, festivals, and other public events, giving him a way to stay deeply involved in the FMX scene without the intense demands of full-time competition.
In 2018, Homan began hosting free annual jump shows in Redmond and Prineville through MX13. These high energy exhibitions feature professional tricks and showcase the excitement of freestyle motocross. Each year, all proceeds from the shows are donated directly to featured local charities.
Now, MX13 has evolved into a full-scale local motocross training facility. Homan coaches riders across multiple disciplines, including motocross, supercross, arenacross, and freestyle.
He officially retired on Jan. 1, 2024. However, when you love something as much as he does it’s hard to stay away. At 52 years old, he’s returning for this year’s fundraiser MX13 Jump Shows simply because he wants to put on the best show possible for the community that helped launch his career. This year’s proceeds will go to the Jake and Josh Eckstein Memorial Trade Scholarship Fund, which supports Central Oregon students pursuing careers in the trades.
The upcoming Prineville and Redmond events, hosted by Wild Ride Brewing, will take place on July 24 and Aug. 21, respectively. If you want to see some insane tricks, please be sure to show up and support this year’s cause.
For more information about MX13, please visit
www.mx13mx.com
This article appears in Source Weekly July 17, 2025.
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