Harry Bink, 18, was just four when he watched from the sidelines as Showtime FMX, a locally founded freestyle motocross team made its debut at the Royal Canberra Show.
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This year he was in the team, riding his Kawasaki KX450F motorcycle in front of assembled family and friends on Friday and Saturday.
But Bink almost did not make it to perform at the show, after he seriously injured his leg and foot in a riding accident towards the end of last year.
The former Gungahlin College and Gold Creek High School student was practising stunts when he ran out of fuel on an upramp.
He landed on the downramp and broke his leg and crushed his heel, putting him out of action for four months.
Bink needed 20 screws in his heel and a plate and four screws in his ankle. He had his last round of surgery just five weeks ago.
''For the first month [after the accident] I did regret a bit of it, but after that I just wanted to get back into it,'' he said.
Bink started motorcycle racing when he was 12, and at 17 decided to turn his attention to freestyle stunts and tricks.
He needed a ramp to practise on, so he and a few friends built one on a property near Hall.
''I just got the designs off the internet and went and bought a whole heap of metal, and me and three other mates just built it and learned how to weld … [we] just guessed and tried to burn bits of metal to each other,'' he said.
The ramp did break a couple of times, but Bink did not seriously hurt himself on those occasions, and he recently achieved his best ever trick, a back flip at nearly 23 metres over a truck.
He completed the first year of a carpentry apprenticeship last year, but is now hoping to make motocross riding his full-time job.
Showtime FMX founder, director and former professional water-skiier Gary Reid grew up in the capital, and said although he moved his business to the Gold Coast for commercial reasons, the team would always return for the Royal Canberra Show.
''We get to Canberra as much as we can, and we'll never not do this show because it's where it all began for us,'' he said.