Yakima’s Joe Parsons has a higher yearning

YAKIMA, Wash. — Joe Parsons knows what he does isn’t for the faint of heart.

That may seem obvious to anyone who watched the snowmobile rider perform moves while doing a backflip with his powerful machine during last year’s Winter X Games.

Joe Parsons, of Yakima, Wash., releases his hand as he flies through the air with his snowmobile during the Freestyle competition on Sunday, Jan., 27, 2008, at the Winter X Games at Buttermilk Ski Area near Aspen, Colo. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)

While Parsons’ efforts were good enough for a silver medal (and a bronze in another event), he also knows one other thing — that performance won’t be good enough this time around.

If the Yakima rider hopes to improve on his two-medal performance, he’ll need to ramp up his act with something even more daring at this year’s games today through Sunday.

“You just try and take it to the next level,” Parsons said via telephone on Tuesday as he was nearing Aspen, Colo., site of the games. “You just have to move on and do more tricks while doing the backflip,”

The one thing Parsons can’t — and won’t — do is worry about his safety. That can’t even enter his mind, he said.

“As a rider, if you’re amazed at what you’re doing, you’re probably on the edge of what you’re comfortable doing,” he said. “You have to do things so much that you almost get tired of doing them. You have to get them down so well that you can do the tricks without really thinking about them.”

That’s probably a good strategy given the high-wire act these riders perform, with more degrees of difficulty on the horizon.

Snowmobilers made a dramatic debut at last year’s games, with Parsons just one of several competitors performing backflips, among other dazzling maneuvers, during the freestyle competition.

And that’s just the beginning of where the competitors will go, Parsons said.

“If there’s only one guy out there, then he’ll reach a limit,” he said. “With all the others out there, someone will figure something new out and the others will follow. It’s a lot like motorcross. People thought those guys had done everything they could, yet they still keep coming up with something new.”

Case in point: Tim Mutrie writes in his ESPN blog for the games that Levi LeVallee may be prepared to attempt a double backflip, possibly during the Next Trick competition Friday.

While the competition will be intense, Parsons said he’s definitely prepared for the challenge, particularly after spending the past two weeks in Idaho on a specially prepared freestyle course that allowed him to get in about 200 jumps a day.

“I’m pretty confident,” he said. “I’ve practiced as much or more than anyone for this and in the last two weeks, I’ve made a lot of progress.

“I’m more ready than I thought. I’m going in with a little more confidence than last year.”

So Parsons arrived in Aspen prepared to better last year’s effort that featured a bronze in speed and style, which combines a time for covering the course and points for performing tricks during the ride, and the freestyle silver.

He’ll be in both of those events again — with speed and style today and the freestyle Sunday — and also be one of four competitors in the Next Trick. In that event, the winner will be determined by text voting.

Although Parsons is confident — and a top contender — in all three events, he definitely has a favorite event.

“I’ve trained for everything, but if I could pick one event I’d like to get a gold in, it’d be freestyle,” said Parsons, who’s had to put his 21st birthday celebration on hold for a few days. That day — “my 21st on the 21st” — was Wednesday, but Parsons said the party hopefully won’t start until late Sunday evening — and be a dual celebration.

“Hopefully,” he began, “I’ll have something good to celebrate. That’s the plan.”