Brisbane schoolboy Byron Best chases his extreme sport dream

He has the name of a Hollywood star and aspires to be seen on a Warner Bros production, but instead of movies this Brisbane teenager hopes it will be as an extreme sport ace.

This is what the sport is all about - downhill and action packed.

Byron Best has the name of a Hollywood star and aspires to be seen on a Warner Bros production, but instead of movies he hopes it will be as an extreme sport ace when the famous USA entertainment company televise Mountain Bike Downhill racing World Cups.

Best, 15, from St Peters Lutheran College, has taken the downhill two wheel sport by storm.

Last weekend at the Auscycling National Mountain Bike Downhill Series, Best won the U17 series one competition on a wet and muddy circuit outside of Toowoomba.

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Overall his time in that event was third fastest on the day across all age groups, including the elite and pro classes.

This is a death defying sport Best has undertaken.

Have you ever been to the top of the Mt Coot-tha lookout or, further afield, enjoyed the vistas from a towering alpine peak in Switzerland?

Now can you imagine grabbing a mountain bike and setting off down the steepest of inclines, hurtling through the bush at such speed that you can be thrown 15m into the air before returning to earth and continuing your journey at breakneck speed.

Byron Best contemplates his next move on competition day.

Best will bounce over tree roots, rocky surfaces, bumps and humps during a remarkable race lasting anywhere between 1.5km and 3km.

That is how Best spends his free time, and he is very good as well.

Indeed he is a pacesetter in his age group in one of the world’s most dangerous yet exhilarating extreme sports.

Byron Best atop a European mountain.

Does this 15-year-old know no fear?

He tries not too, but in truth, yes he does.

“The toughest course was last year in Switzerland when it was muddy and very, very steep,’’ Best said.

“I crashed in the same place twice in a row and I was not keen to go down that same shute again.

“But you just can’t get that fear into your head.

“You just try and think of it as just riding a bike downhill.’’

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Just as it takes courage for a diver to plunge off the 10m platform for the first time, for a boxer to take the ring or for a downhill skier to launch themselves skyward during the Winter Olympics, Best’s sport takes courage - and plenty of it.

“You have to get so much courage to take those next steps. It takes a lot of practice,’’ Best said.

“It is risk versus reward because you get so many injuries from riding.’’

Byron Best aged just seven on the BMX track. Adam Yip/ Manly Daily

Like the time he dislocated his hip, had pins inserted and was confined to a wheelchair for three months.

“But as soon as I was able to get back on the bike I was straight back into it because I love it so much,’’ Best said.

St Peters Lutheran College student Byron Best.

So why does he love such an extreme sport?

“I love the adrenaline,’’ Best said.

“And I am competitive and once you are in the competition zone you have to win. I take whatever it takes to win,’’ he said, adding the friendships and spirit among fellow competitors were also high points of the sport.

Byron Best with one of his bikes ahead of competition.

Like a lot of children, Best played football (rugby), did some swimming and dabbled in basketball, but it was initially BMX which was his first sporting love.

And from there Best progressed to this madcap downhill element of two wheel sport.

“My aim is to be on a factory race team taking me to all the World Cups, and to represent my country at the World Cups,’’ Best said.

“And I’d love to get lots of wins and world titles and be a world champion.’’

With a name like Byron Best, you sense the kid just has to be a success story.

“It is a name to live up to I suppose,’’ joked his father, Phil.