“If I’m honest, performing stunts is something I’ve always wanted to do”, responded JD when asked how he first got into undertaking these incredible feats. “My dad was really into bikes, and I got my first pocket bike when I was about four, and I just used to ride that all the time.”
While that sounds like a familiar path for many racers, speed was never the target for JD: “Most kids just wanted to go as fast as possible, but all I wanted to do was pop wheelies and perform tricks. I was obsessed with two wheels, and when I was 10, I stepped up to a KX65 – but even then, racing motocross was never on the agenda for me.”
Continuing to mess around on bikes in his teenage years, the riding became more of a necessity for JD, using a road-legal 50cc bike to get to his apprenticeship before moving over to four wheels when he was 17. “Bikes were always still a part of my life, but like most people, the car was more practical for work and riding two wheels had to take a bit of a back seat for a few years.
However, I started to get back into biking properly again when I was around 23. I had become bored of going out and partying every weekend, had a bit more spare cash and really wanted to give stunt riding a proper go.”
Having grown up watching the likes of Gary Rothwell and performing stunts whenever he could on his K65 or mountain bike, it was a natural progression to enter the British Stunt Championships in 2016. Placing tenth that first year, the fire was well and truly lit.
“I had only started performing properly the year before, so it was amazing to place tenth. The next year, I took fifth, and I started to think that I could take this seriously. I began practising every day and eventually took the UK Championship, which was incredible!”
So how did he go from UK Stunt Champion to a Guinness World Record holder? “When I started stunting, I never set out to become a world record holder. The first one was in 2020 when I broke the highchair record for the first time, but that was bettered by Magnus Carlsson a few years later. I then teamed up with stunt driver Paul Swift to set the record for the most doughnuts around a motorcycle while performing a wheelie.
A meeting with Kawasaki UK at Motorcycle Live in 2023 set the ball in motion for his third record, setting the fastest speed while skiing behind a bike. “I knew I needed a quick and stable bike, and the supercharged Ninja H2 SX was the perfect machine, so it was amazing to have Kawasaki come on board and help me prepare the bike.
We achieved that record in 2024, and I wanted to stay with the brand this year, so I opted for a Ninja ZX-10R to reclaim my highchair record, setting 127mph!”
And what’s next for the record breaker? “First up is the UK Championships again later this month. I’m then going to turn the ZX-10R back to a standard setup for a bit so I can do some trackdays before setting my sights on another record next summer – the fastest speed while riding facing backwards!”