In the modern era of freestyle motocross, where tricks progress almost exponentially from year to year, knowing how to do a backflip is the key to a successful career. Put simply, a rider cannot reach the top of the freestyle game without spending a considerable amount of time upside-down.

This is the harsh reality of FMX, and the sport is full of highly skilled athletes -- Drake McElroy, Doug Parsons and Dustin Miller to name a few -- who missed the boat, got spooked, or never quite got the flip 100 percent dialed. Today, everyone in the industry knows that nothing drags a rider to the bottom of the competition ranks faster than being upright and uptight about the flip.

Enter Destin Cantrell, a 20-year-old FMX prodigy from Huntington Beach, Calif. It has been said that no other young rider has as much natural skill on a dirt bike, and his giant extensions are revered by many of biggest names in the sport. So what's the problem? Nothing ... except that Cantrell's tricks are all right-side up.

"I ride my bike every day and I know I am capable of doing [the flip]," he says. "It's just a matter of blocking it out and going for it."

That may be true, but it doesn't make the trick any easier -- or less scary. Doing a backflip on a dirt bike is probably one of the most dangerous things a human being can do. It wasn't even a part of the FMX lexicon until 2001 when Carey Hart attempted it for the first time, and even though today's top riders can all pull it off, none of them take it lightly. In fact, the freestyle community is still reeling from the death of X Games gold medalist Jeremy Lusk and the near-fatal injuries to Australia's Cameron Sinclair, both of which can be attributed to backflips gone wrong.

But Cantrell can't let those kinds of thoughts get into his head. Instead, he needs to focus on one plain and simple fact: learning the backflip will almost instantly vault him into FMX stardom.

More information, go to http://espn.go.com/action/fmx/news/story?page=destin-cantrell