Pat Bowden and the Freestyle Kings Live team are pushing the boundaries of freestyle motocross

Yes, he regularly launches his motorbike many metres into the air and hangs upside-down from the handlebars, but it's all part of a day's work.

Bowden, you see, knows what he's doing. The 27-year-old has been riding since he could walk and has practised the stunts so many times that it's become second nature to him.

The two-time World Games Champion is joining some of the biggest names in freestyle motocross at Newcastle Entertainment Centre on April 24 for Freestyle Kings Live: Global FMX Champion and 11-time X Games medallist Rob Adelberg, Newcastle legend Michael 'Chucky' Norris, Jake Smith, Brayden Davies, Winter Games silver medalist Dayne Kinnard, Ryan Brown, Brodie Markham, Lance Russell, Callum Shaw, Trav Gelfius and Ry Davis who, at just 14 years of age, will attempt his first-ever backflip on the night.

It will be Bowden's first show since he seriously injured his wrist 18 months ago.

"I can't wait to get back on the bike with an elite team of Aussie riders and crew. These guys are the best in the business, and we are so excited to put on an explosive show for the fans," Bowden says.

"We have some pretty special stunts planned and some world firsts."

The injury is his worst to date, in terms of time out from riding.

"My bike cut out on the ramp while I was overseas - I had some bad fuel - and I didn't make the down-ramp completely," he explains.

"My wrist dislocated from the impact and was destroyed. I had to have a full reconstruction and it was healing well but then the bone started to die."

Bowden had further surgery late last year to replace the bone with a prosthetic.

"I didn't realise the severity of it and was like 'Let's just get the surgery done and I'll be good to go' and the surgeon was like 'Um, no, this is potentially career-ending'. I'd never considered that before, ever. I was always in control. It wasn't from a mistake I made, it was just one of those things that can happen with what we do."

Bowden is not one to take glory in the number of injuries he's sustained through freestyle motocross and hasn't kept count of how many bones he's broken over the years.

He'd prefer not to get injured in the first place, and his work ethic reflects this.

"To me an injury is a setback, and I'd rather not have any setbacks," he says.

"Sometimes people have the wrong perception of us, that we're silly and reckless, but I am well aware of the risks that I take and realise that to be able to pull off the stuff that I do, safely, I really need to have a heightened sense of awareness and consciousness.

"There's more to it than meets the eye, the preparation that goes into it. I've dedicated pretty much my whole life to it."

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Bowden grew up on the Gold Coast, riding and "learning to jump ramps" with Freestyle Kings founder Josh Hannah.

"I've been racing pretty much my whole life but the goal was always to do freestyle. I realised early on that to do freestyle I needed the foundations of skills that only come through racing and riding a bike properly," he says.

"I've seen a lot of guys coming into freestyle as fans, not having done the racing, and I've seen a lot of people have life-changing injuries as a result. I started freestyle when I was 16 or 17, but I'd done 10 years of riding before that, maybe more."

As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect and it is repetition that enables Bowden to pull off the tricks he does while (hopefully) avoiding injury. It's like the bike is a part of him. An extension of his body. He knows instinctively how the bike will react.

"The way I think about it is, you know when you learn how to drive a car - changing the gears and using the blinker and going around a roundabout - after a while you can do it without thinking about it. We've all done the jumps so many times. I'd say I've done millions, and after a while it just gets burnt into your muscle memory. That's not to say it's easy, but it gets to a point where the jump itself is easy and it's just a question of doing the tricks."

The aim of the freestyle motocross game, he says, is "to progress the tricks as safely as you can". And while many tricks once thought impossible are now commonplace, there are still frontiers left to explore.

"In the early days there were tricks you could just do in the air, like taking your hands off and grabbing the seat, or rotating in the air. Then the backflip came out and people started doing all the tricks you could do upright, upside-down," Bowden says.

"That was a 10-year progression. Now there's full gymnastic body aerials where you jump off the bike and do a trick and then jump back on.

"It's gotten to a point over the last couple of years where people are questioning if we have reached the pinnacle of freestyling, is there anywhere left to go? Personally, I think there is still a lot more that can be done."

New safety technology has enabled riders to attempt that extra-scary stunt, to go that extra mile. Air bags shaped like a huge pillow have replaced dangerously flammable foam pits in practice runs, for example.

"We're able to make the jumps bigger and do more tricks, so in that respect we've made the sport safer and created more potential to be able to do big tricks," Bowden says.

"For me, it comes down to the mentality of the rider. My mentality is that I'm always thinking outside the box and I've got a few pretty crazy ideas that I think will take the sport to the next level.

"The Freestyle Kings crew, they have that same mentality. Given the technology, there's no better time than now to progress our sport."