Mike Escamilla: Rooftops, Stunts, and Stem Cells

Most people look at a rooftop and think, don't. Mike Escamilla looked at one in 1995 and thought, gap.

He's one of the riders who invented what street BMX looks like. At 14 and 15 he filmed the closing part in Dirty Deeds and invented about ten tricks in it without realizing nobody else was doing them. Hoffman Bikes built prototype frames around how he rode. Nine X Games. In 2005 he hit the X Games mega ramp for the first time the morning of the event and set Guinness World Records for the longest BMX backflip and the longest 360. He'd practiced into Travis Pastrana's foam pit while Travis wasn't home.

Then he did what he told a magazine he'd do at 15. He became a stuntman. Pacific Blue, Stick It, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Ant-Man, The Suicide Squad, and the Taylor Sheridan universe, where he dies in almost every episode of Lioness season two. Along the way: 80 episodes as a TV host, a drug bust with the Colombian military, a scuba dive into Mexico City sewage, and a balloon shot out of his mouth by Lebanese special forces.

The real story behind "Rooftop," and it isn't either one you've heard. Six knee surgeries, 12 separated shoulders, eight to twelve concussions, and the fire truck in Kuwait that changed how his brain works. The stem cell treatment in Mexico he credits with giving him his life back, and why he now works for the company. Why he'd never make a living if he turned pro today. And the part that hits closest to this table: an industry with no gatekeepers, a kid in Ohio who can copy your year-long video part overnight, and why Bun hears the exact same story in rap.

Plus Sledge finally asks why BMX riders always wear jeans.

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